Rita J. Rich has posted a new photo album of Harlee the dog. They’re very cute. Very.

When exactly do we get to have a dog?

Yahoo News is running a Wall Street Journal story stating that refund checks will be coming soon on the music industry price-fixing suit.

More than three million music consumers in 40 states will begin receiving refund checks starting Friday from the settlement of a lawsuit against the five major music companies and three music retailers, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Thursday.

The $13.86 checks represent individual shares of a $67.4 million settlement in a class-action antitrust lawsuit that alleged the music companies and retail chains including Trans World Entertainment Corp., MTS Inc.’s Tower Records, and Musicland Stores Corp. illegally conspired to inflate CD, cassette and record prices.

$27.72 (one check for Jen, one for me) is nothing to sneeze at. With the Do-Not-Call story below, that’s two bits of anti-evil corporation news in one day… cool.

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the National Do-Not-Call list seems to be working very well. In fact, 25% of survey respondents reported no unsolicited sales calls at all since the list took effect last October. I would be in that 25% and am rather amazed–it seemed so unlikely that this would pass judicial scrutiny, and now it’s actually working.

Three noteworthy articles today:

• Glenn Dickey argues persuasively for an MLB salary cap.
• Henry Schulman reports from the Giants’ spring training home in Scottsdale, AZ, where pitchers and catchers have now reported.
• Finally, SF Chronicle staff writers provide updates on the BALCO story, including a possible further connection to Giants star Barry Bonds.

Bonds has repeatedly insisted he’s clean. I really hope he’s telling the truth.

MacMerc has posted surefire instructions for picking a winning Pepsi bottle every time.