Slate.com appears to be on Microsoft's chopping block, following the trend of other spin-offs like Expedia. Though the online magazine continues to break even, its core, culture-vulture following and respected journalists, among other reasons, raise questions as to why Slate.com isn't making the cut.

Some 30 members of The One Hundred Club gathered at the legendary Italian joint to chow down on pasta and prosciutto, chug red wine, and catch up on interactive industry developments. They renewed existing friendships and met some new folks.

Ugh. The African spam has returned. Even with MediaPost's robust spam filters in place, the foreign missives are slowly finding their way back to my in-box. I received one yesterday, but deemed it a fluke. Today I received another, and now wonder if it's the beginning of a tidal wave.

Some news on the spam front. New York's anti-spam attorney general Eliot Spitzer announced a settlement with Scott Richter and his company, OptInRealBig.com. Richter, known as the "spam king," will pay $50,000 in fines and abstain from using fraudulent headers and deceptive routing and domain practices. The settlement calls for Richter to provide the attorney general's office with customer data and purchase records and copies of his company's e-mail ads.

Google's IPO

Some good news for job seekers? Nielsen//NetRatings today reports that the U.S. job recovery helped fuel 30 percent year-over-year growth for career sites with nearly 27.2 million surfers, or more than 18 percent of the total online population visiting job search sites in June. Naturally, the big guys, Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Yahoo! HotJobs, grabbed the top slots.

Three enormous developments today.

The New York Times Co. announced June advertising revenues today.

Chicago-Ad:Tech. Here in the city by the lake, more than 1,500 people gathered at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers to hear from marketing experts, learn about new interactive ad and media tools from some 60 exhibitors, and trend forecasts that impact the interactive sector.

The Democrats have finally issued press passes to bloggers who've been approved to cover the Democratic National Convention taking place later this month in Boston.