FROM THE EDITOR | BY JAMES SHANNON

Now that our clocks have fallen back and the air is getting a little crisp, seasonal changes are upon us whether we’re ready or not. In this issue, you’ll find our annual ballot for The Best of the Beat – a chance to make your preferences known in over a hundred categories that define life in the Upstate. Check it out on page 21. We will print the ballot again in our Nov. 21 issue or you can vote online at www.UpstateBeat.com . Be sure to fill out at least 20 entries and have your ballot postmarked by Nov. 30. The results will be announced in our biggest issue of the year. The Best of The Beat hits the streets Dec. 5. This year we promise – no mimes.

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The wall of circumspection that had been holding steady since August 12 came tumbling down yesterday when Sheriff Steve Loftis announced the arrest of Amanda Raegan Smith, now charged with the murder of her son Devon Epps, age 7.

As we’ve reported in this space over the past two months, perception of the case has been colored by the obvious fact that police and most media types did not believe Smith’s story of the bearded carjacker who jumped in the backseat and smothered her son with a pillow. The result was a lot of tiptoeing around that fact by cops and reporters alike who felt constrained to suppress their true feelings, instead presenting Smith’s story with a straight face as if it made all the sense in the world.

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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s response made perfectly good sense. If his allies in parliament were willing to bring the government down to block the nuclear deal with the United States that he had spent two years negotiating, he would drop the deal. “One has to live with certain disappointments,” he said last week. “We are not a one-issue government. The deal not coming through is not the end of life.”

Much odder was the response in Washington. State Department spokesperson Tom Casey was the very soul of discretion, saying that while the United States would like the agreement to be ratified as soon as possible, he would not tell Indians how to manage their own internal affairs. But others with strong links to the strategic and foreign policy community in Washington were more outspoken.

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