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Since the 2003 U.S. invasion, one of the brightest achievements from the overthrow of the Saddam regime has been the flowering of the Iraqi press.

An American journalist would feel--and I do--at home at any press gathering here of Iraqi reporters, producers and on-air talent.

Thought I'd give you a glimpse of what our Baghdad staff correspondents read through each day for tips and clues and signs of the news we should be tracking.

Sometimes it's obvious when folks are up to no good. There's no other spin you could give it. Case in point: Officers Eduardo Chavez and Jeffrey Gonzales of the Merced Police Department were on burglary patrol in South Merced the other day at 1:25 a.m. They came upon two 15-year-olds on South G Street. Even though temperatures were still fairly toasty, both boys were wearing black sweatshirts and one had black gloves. Not your normal summertime attire. One of the boys had two screwdrivers hiding in his waistband. Sgt. Rod Dash said Chavez and Gonzales received permission from one of the boy's fathers to search the kid's bedroom. They found about two grams of cocaine, a loaded Glock .45-caliber pistol and a loaded .25-caliber pistol. By the way, the Glock was stolen from Oroville. As the boys were being booked into Merced County Juvenile Hall, a latex glove fell out of one the suspect's pants legs. The boy told officers they were on their way to burglarize a home in the neighborhood.

'Many dead in car bombing!' Mohammed said as he tossed his cell phone on the desk and headed out to tell Leila, the bureau chief, working on a story in another room.

For the next hour or more, I watched, almost hypnotized, as the McClatchy Baghdad bureau kicked into a smooth and efficient rhythm honed over years of tragic practice:

Covering mass violence in Iraq.

First reports just after 6 p.m. put the death toll at 12--too many, to be sure, but hardly breath-taking compared to dozens of deadlier incidents over the last five years.