Deadlines from Brainerd to Bali

Deadlines. Always with the deadlines.

Last week, some politicians gathered in Brainerd to see what it's like to be poor (reg required). They're part of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty in Minnesota by 2020.

According to the Brainerd Dispatch, Sen. Paul Koering acknowledged that, "he's not really sure if poverty can be ended by 2020," which perhaps takes some of the pressure off.

On Monday, the UN's climate change conference begins in Bali. Environment and energy ministers meet -- as they have every year since 1992 -- to figure out a way to cap carbon emissions. The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we have only until 2015 to save the world.

In 1969, scientists suggested cancer could be cured by America's 200th birthday.

At last week's Mideast summit, a deadline of December 2008 was set for a peace agreement. That notion didn't even last a week.

Tuesday is the deadline for mailing holiday packages to the war zones. Here's to making that one.