Longtime activist and Brown Beret co-founder Carlos Montes, whose home was raided by an L.A. County Sheriffs' SWAT team last May, and whose case I wrote about at some length in the March issue of Los Angeles magazine, just agreed to a plea deal. Two of the six felony charges he had been facing had already been dropped and, according to an email I received from Montes, the District Attorney agreed today to drop the remaining charges in exchange for a plea of no contest to one count of perjury, for which he will be sentenced to three years of probation and community service. No jail time. Kinda makes you wonder just what they thought were doing with all their laws and lethal toys, dudn't it? Also: as I understand it, Venus is currently inside the sun. Be careful out there.