I've haven't posted any new entries lately, as I'm currently reading a book on which I plan to write a review. In the meantime, however, today's New York Times had an article entitled "Physics in America at Crossroads and in Crisis, Panel Says" (NY Times registration required to access article).
The basic idea is that, barring construction of any major new particle accelerators in the United States, the study of particle physics will "wither" here, as the action shifts to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland and elsewhere outside the U.S. The thing is, though, as the Times article states, construction of such a facility in the U.S. would cost around $500 million.
A personal side note: The commission that issued the report that is referenced in the Times article was chaired by Harold T. Shapiro, who was the President of the University of Michigan when I attended graduate school there in the 1980s.