SNOW JOB

We wish the weather would stop playing games

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Not in the U.S. northeast and mid-Atlantic states — which have been hammered with once-in-a-century snowstorms and the like — but in West Vancouver, B.C., which is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Yes, it's time for the Olympics again, and while the winter series doesn't get the ratings that the summer one does, the event has its many loyal fans.

The opening ceremonies are tomorrow; the closing is Feb. 27.

Rainfall and the warmest January on record have caused anxiety at some West Vancouver venues, causing crews to work around the clock to ferry in and prep snow on courses.

Let the Games begin!

D.C. BLUES

Hawaii — doing what it can for diversity in Congress

It is, still, an old boys' network. Don't let anyone tell you any different, at least when it comes to the U.S. Congress.

A new statistical profile by the Congressional Research Service finds that even though there are more women and Asians than ever before, politicians in Congress are still considerably older, less diverse and better educated than Americans in general.

Record numbers were achieved by women and Asians: There were 93 women (though they were just 17 percent of the total in Congress); and 12 Asian, Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders (2 percent of the membership), which included two senators, eight representatives and two delegates.

Hawaii, that land of diversity, certainly helped boost those statistics, given that three of our four-person delegation is an Asian Pacific Islander, and that one of them is a woman.