The week between Christmas and New Year’s has typically been a dead one in TV land. Save for football games, there generally isn’t a lot of original programming in prime time. But that drought seems to be ending.

The right elbow tendinitis that has plagued Tom Lehman for the past two months has subsided, at least enough to allow the longtime pro from Scottsdale to return to the PGA Tour and play in this week’s Fry’s Electronics Open at Grayhawk Golf Club.

Business for Valley defense attorneys is booming. Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has been cracking down on criminals since 2004, and public defenders have scrambled to keep up as prison populations have swelled.

A Tennessee businessman with a penchant for collecting cars is helping Jan Brewer elect Republicans to Congress, here and elsewhere.

There’s room at the top, but not much.

David Zucker opens a manila envelope and pulls out a sheaf of glossies documenting his long, strange association with one Robert Weiss.

In a program called Coffee for Soldiers, the owner of a Queen Creek coffee shop is donating a taste and smell of home with hot cups of joe.

Although I happen to agree with David Rich’s lament (Aurora Tragedy, Aug. 9, 2012) about media over emphasis of firearm events, his statistics need clarifying. Wikipedia.org relates these 2007 data: 31,224 firearm deaths of which 17,352 were suicides and 12,632 were homicides. In 2005, of the 10,100 homicides, 75 percent were by handguns, 4 percent rifles and 5 percent shotguns. (This doesn’t add up to 100 percent, so what other types of firearms remains a mystery.) Of note though is data from Philadelphia showing that 93 percent of shooting victims had a criminal record.

Reader David Rich seems to be in full-flight hysteria as he preaches against eating meat (We can mitigate effects on our planet, May 26). He claims 97 percent of scientists think global warming is “human caused.”

A review of 12,000 papers on climate change, in the May 15th issue of “Environmental Research Letters”, found that 97 percent of scientists attribute climate change to human activities. Although we’re unlikely to reverse climate change, we can mitigate its effects by reducing our driving, energy use, and meat consumption.

“It’s good to know that the Queen of the Tea Party, Michele Bachmann, will soon be getting a government pension at taxpayer expense for all the hard work she’s done. Yeah, right.”

Could the media please give us a break with endless grisly accounts of the Aurora killings? I understand it was a tragedy, and our sympathies lie with the 55 innocent victims. But, we also need to appreciate that 86 Americans are killed by firearms every day, and nearly 4,000 are killed prematurely by chronic diseases linked with consumption of animal products and lack of exercise.

What can an Internet predator learn about your child while chatting online?

The new link between meat consumption and heart disease, discovered by Dr. Stanley Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic, is just the latest evidence linking meat consumption to killer diseases that cripple, then kill, 1.3 million Americans annually. Hazen’s study showed that carnitine, an amino acid contained in all meat products, is a major factor in heart failure.

Last week, food safety officials in United Kingdom, France, and Sweden found traces of horse meat in ground beef sold across Europe. Massive recalls and lawsuits are ensuing.

Why is it that some people want to end the consumption of meat and dairy? Who would eat and drink these products if we don’t? Someone has to. As for those cows, well, they HAVE to be milked. There is no one else who can do it (you think they are smart enough to milk themselves, yes? No?).

A federal regulatory commission plans to reconsider its approval of a controversial natural gas pipeline route that could negatively impact some planned developments in Pinal County.

“When is the City of Mesa going to do something about the homeless downtown? They defecate and urinate in doorways of business and walking downtown is not a pleasant experience. It used to be a nice place, but that has changed.”

NEW YORK - Oprah Winfrey keeps topping Forbes' rankings of the rich and famous. This is Forbes' third go-round this year at putting Winfrey at the top of some list or other.

Just in time for Earth Day observance, a study published in last week’s Environmental Research Letters warns that animal manure and fertilizers used in growing animal feed emit large amounts of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. An op-ed piece in this week’s New York Times warns that the devastating environmental impacts of a meat-based diet are actually magnified when raising animals on the range, because this involves much more land and more greenhouse gas emissions.

Who would have thunk? Meat and potatoes — basic staple of the American diet, now held responsible for our growing obesity epidemic.

“If David Rich thinks I’m going to spend the rest of my life eating nothing but vegetables, fruits and grains, he is completely yoicks!”