No entries for yesterday. Yesterday never happened. (Accordingly, I'm still 27 years old. Woo-hoo!)

'Rolled outta bed remarkably not-hungover (because yesterday never happened, of course). I think sleeping in an extra hour might have had something to do with it as well. This afternoon, it's off to C-SPAN to hang out with Wonkette. (No relation to Cronkette.)

'Spent the morning getting my resume in order, for my meeting with a recruiter from Gannett. Nice lady - 'went well. I put on the Dickie Cronkite charm-face.

'Also spent the morning going back and forth with the guest editor at Gawker, who a couple of days ago had a few laughs at J-schoolers expense, talking about the kids at Columbia hurling themselves into the Hudson. But it was pretty funny, and I can take a joke, so the conversation devolved into a description of me floating face-down in the Tidal Basin, my bloated J-schooler corpse terrifying small children out in the paddle boats.

Good times.

And if yesterday never happened, that means the correction that did NOT absolve me of blame never ran in the News-Press, either. Grrr.... I mean, not that newspaper corrections ever do absolve the innocent, but still...

"Happy birthday, Dickie - from your friends at the News-Press, on your special day!"

"It's a correction that makes me look like an idiot - just what I always wanted!"

So you'd think that would be the end of that, right? Well here's the coup de grace:

1. Read the headline for today's friggin' story (below).

2. Read through the body of the story a bit.

3. Re-read headline.

4. Fly to Washington.

5. Go to Wal-Mart. Buy gun and bullets.

6. Put Dickie out of his misery.

What an effin' train wreck of a week - It's really unbelievable. *PLUS* if you go to the Web site, you'll see they accidentally put my byline in the headline, so it reads "House Panel debates immigrant driver's license bill by DICKIE CRONKITE NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT." (And no, I can't wait to see if that happened in print too, and if so what that looks like.) What the hell is going on?

Here it is:

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House panel debates immigrant driver's license bill By DICKIE CRONKITE NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

5/5/05
By DICKIE CRONKITE
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON -- A policy expert told a congressional committee on Thursday that the growing immigration population in the United States, including both legal and undocumented workers, is to blame for the struggling U.S. job market.

The debate took place at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, one day before the House is expected to pass the so-called Real ID Act, a controversial measure that would ban illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses.

The bill is expected to pass the House and Senate and be signed into law by President Bush.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies, testified that between March 2000 and March 2004, the number of employed native-born Americans declined by 2.3 million.

At the same time, Mr. Camarota said, the number of employed immigrants in the United States -- both legal and illegal -- increased by 2.3 million.

"It would be a mistake to assume that every job taken by an immigrant is a job lost by a native, but the statistics are striking," said Mr. Camarota.

He said his report showed "little evidence that immigrants only take jobs Americans don't want."

But Harry Holzer, professor and associate dean of public policy at Georgetown University, called Mr. Camarota's report misleading. He argued that the rate of immigration growth has remained unchanged since the "roaring nineties" and that a weak labor market was to blame for the lack of jobs, not displacement by rising immigration.

Mr. Holzer further criticized the report for pooling all types of immigrants to arrive at Mr. Camarota's numbers -- everyone from undocumented workers to naturalized citizens. "To lump all of them together is a tremendous mistake," Mr. Holzer said.

Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, asked the panelists' views about enforcing immigration law: At what point should undocumented laborers be sent home?

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, quickly added that Mr. Lungren's question raised the dilemma of what to do with the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Such children are automatically U.S. citizens.

"We incarcerate parents all the time," Mr. Camarota responded, drawing similarities between the difficulties faced by children with imprisoned parents and those whose parents are deported.

Committee members also disagreed among themselves.

"Our nation's immigration policy has not operated in the best interests of American workers, at least over the last few years," said Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., chairman of the subcommittee on immigration.

"The question of the economy and jobs . . . must be fairly and distinctly separated away from the idea of immigration," countered Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, the ranking member on the subcommittee.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, a member on the subcommittee, briefly attended the hearing but did not speak. He was unavailable for comment later in the day.

Panelists and lawmakers debated whether native-born Americans would be willing to accept the traditionally lower-wage jobs typically filled by immigrants.

"There's no job that an American won't take," said Matthew Reindl, a New York-based factory owner who testified about the strain illegal immigrants hired by his competitors have created for his family business. "It's just that the pay levels have been depressed."

Ms. Waters and Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood, disagreed with Mr. Reindl. They maintained that native-born Americans routinely turn down such jobs when advertised.

Dickie Cronkite writes for Medill News Service from Washington, D.C. E-mail: ******@newspress.com