DOES YOUR CHILD BELONG TO STATE?What parent hasn't wondered at some point, "Are those really my kids?"
Now comes a combination of state, federal and international organizations to tell fathers and mothers that, no, they aren't. At least not entirely.
read story--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------LAPTOP WI-FI SAID TO NUKE SPERMThe digital age has left men's nether parts in a squeeze, if you believe the latest science on semen, laptops and wireless connections.
In a report in the venerable medical journal Fertility and Sterility, Argentinian scientists describe how they got semen samples from 29 healthy men, placed a few drops under a laptop connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi and then hit download.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SAFARI ANIMALS ROAM DC SUBURBSIt's one thing to see dogs, cats and squirrels around neighborhoods.
But imagine the surprise when Loudoun County homeowners spotted zebras roaming their streets.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MAN ACCIDENTALLY GIVES AWAY LIFE SAVINGS HIDDEN AWAY IN DONATED SUITThere's a cynical old saying that "no good deed goes unpunished." That adage has proved true for an elderly Illinois man who accidentally gave away his entire life savings when making a clothing donation to his local Goodwill.
The 80-year-old man, who didn't trust banks, had kept his life savings of $13,000 sewn inside the lining of one of his suits. He is currently appealing for the money's return so that he can care for his wife, who has Stage 4 cancer.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EURO ON THE BRINKWith Italy sinking rapidly into financial chaos, the eurozone's 17 finance ministers scrambled Tuesday to find enough money to give their rescue fund a veneer of credibility and world markets some reason to believe their embattled currency won't break up.
Italy's borrowing rates shot up above 7 percent Tuesday, an unsustainable level that already has forced three smaller EU nations to seek bailouts. Markets rose for the second day on hopes that the enormous pressures on the ministers would produce some results.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SENATE DEFIES OBAMA VETO THREAT IN TERRORIST CUSTODY VOTEDefying a veto threat from President Obama, the Senate voted Tuesday to preserve language that would give the U.S. military a crack at al Qaeda operatives captured in the U.S., even if they are American citizens.
Led by Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, senators voted 61-37 to preserve the language that gives the military custody of al Qaeda suspects, rather than turning them over to law enforcement officials.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AMERICAN AIRLINES FILES FOR CH. 11 PROTECTIONAmerican Airlines' parent company is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it seeks to unload massive debt built up by years of accelerating jet fuel prices and labor struggles.
The nation's third largest airline also said its CEO Gerard Arpey will step down. He's being replaced by Thomas Horton, currently the company's president.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------HOW PAULSON GAVE HEDGE FUNDS ADVANCE WORDTreasury Secretary Henry Paulson stepped off the elevator into the Third Avenue offices of hedge fund Eton Park Capital Management LP in Manhattan. It was July 21, 2008, and market fears were mounting.
Four months earlier, Bear Stearns Cos. had sold itself for just $10 a share to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
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IRANIAN PROTESTERS STORM UK EMBASSYDozens of young Iranian men have entered buildings inside the British embassy as well as a diplomatic compound in Tehran, throwing rocks, petrol bombs and burning documents looted from the offices.
The semi-official Fars news agency said that earlier in the day, security forces were trying to eject the protesters, who were a minority from a larger group staging an anti-UK demonstration outside the embassy.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AS HOME PRICES SINK, HOME OWNERSHIP HEADS TO NEW LOWSHome prices across the nation are now right back where they were at the beginning of 2003. All that was gained is largely now lost, and the effect on home ownership could continue for decades.
"Consumer attitudes have gotten a lot more negative about long-term commitment," said Standard and Poors' David Blitzer, after reporting home prices through September had fallen a deeper-than-expected 3.9 percent compared to the third quarter of 2010. "They dropped to new lows. This takes them below the point we saw in 2009, where briefly we all thought this thing was about to turn around."
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------THREE BROTHERS SUFFER HEART ATTACKS ON SAME DAYThree Italian brothers suffered heart attacks on the same day, killing two of them.
The third was already in the hospital at the time, visiting his elderly mother, and was immediately treated by medics, the Corriere della Sera reported Tuesday.
read story--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 CLOSE ASSOCIATES OF DNC'S 2012 CO-CHAIR INDICTEDA Wake County grand jury today handed down indictments alleging that a top aide to Gov. Bev Perdue's 2008 campaign schemed to pay a staffer $32,000 for work that was kept off the books in violation of state election laws.
The new charges, all felonies, are part of a long-running investigation into Perdue campaign activities that have focused on expenditures that would have triggered election law violations for exceeding the limit on personal donations if they had been reported. Earlier this year a retired state magistrate was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to hide an illegal campaign flight.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ROVE: THERE WON'T BE A THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATEPolitical pundit Karl Rove tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview that he doubts a third-party candidate will emerge in the 2012 presidential race.
"I think there will be talk about it. But at the end of the day you have to have people who are willing to get behind that particular candidate, and I think there are too many people who feel so passionately about the necessity of removing President Obama from office that while in normal times they might be infatuated with a third party candidacy, this time around they'll be very reluctant to do it."
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ATHEIST'S 'BIBLE' YANKED FROM SAM'S CLUB SHELVESAfter fielding complaints from parents about its "mature" content, the Wal-Mart-owned retailer Sam's Club has pulled a reported 10,000 copies of a "Bible" off its shelves that uses plastic LEGO blocks to depict Old Testament scenes.
Brendan Smith, creator of the LEGO scenes and author of "The Brick Bible," reported earlier this week the Sam's Club decision.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SONOMA CO. POLICE SAY BURGLARY SUSPECT MADE HIMSELF AT HOMEA Sacramento man apparently made himself at home for the holidays Sunday in a Sonoma County residence, a county sheriff's sergeant said.
Jonathon Humphrey, 20, is suspected of burglarizing the Fremont Diner in Sonoma Valley and a residence less than two blocks away on South Central Avenue, Sgt. Dave Thompson said.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------US AIRWAYS REFUSES TO GIVE REFUND TO TERMINALLY ILL CANCER PATIENTA woman claims a dream family trip is being cancelled because of her terminal cancer, and the airline is refusing to refund the money for her ticket.
The McKain family would have been taking off from BWI Airport leaving to Belize in January. But now they aren't going anywhere and they're out of $4200.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FORMER PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS CHIEF ARLENE ACKERMAN FILES UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMFormer Philadelphia schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman, who was given a nearly $1-million buyout earlier this year, has applied for unemployment.
School District spokesman Fernando Gallard today confirmed that Ackerman wants to collect state unemployment benefits.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------CITY CRACKS DOWN ON TEA PARTYTwo weeks after the Richmond Tea Party delivered an invoice to Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones for costs incurred for previous rallies, we received a letter from the City of Richmond formally stating that the city is auditing our Tea Party. Coincidence? This audit is an obvious attempt to intimidate and harass us for standing up against the unfair treatment and discrimination against our Tea Party.
read story-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NORWAY MASSACRE: BREIVIK DECLARED INSANEPsychiatrists assessing self-confessed Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik have concluded that he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
They believe he was in a psychotic state both during and after the twin attacks on 22 July that led to the deaths of 77 people and injured 151.
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