News From All Over

Kindergarten Sexual Harassment Argued in Supreme Court

A Massachusetts girl's awful experience on a school bus is at the heart of a case argued in the Supreme Court Tuesday over limits on lawsuits about sex discrimination in education. The 5-year-old kindergarten student in Hyannis, Mass., told her parents that in 2000 a third-grade boy repeatedly made her lift her dress, pull down her underwear and spread her legs.

Local police and the school system investigated, but found insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges or definitively sort out the story, according to court records. The district refused to assign the boy to another bus or put a monitor on the bus, records show.

Upset with the school district's response, parents Lisa and Robert Fitzgerald sued the district in federal court under both Title IX, which bars sex discrimination at schools that receive federal money, and a provision of a Civil War era, anti-discrimination law that was designed to enforce the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.

The issue for the court is whether Title IX, enacted in 1972, rules out suits under the older provision. A federal judge ruled that the Fitzgeralds could not sue under the older law because Congress had subsequently passed Title IX. The Fitzgeralds also lost on their Title IX claims. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

The justices appeared skeptical of the idea that Congress, in legislation expanding protection from discrimination, would cut back on the ability to sue for violations of constitutional rights. But they also wondered whether the Fitzgeralds ultimately would win their lawsuit.

"But in this case, as we get down to what this case is about, we have a determination by a court that the school district acted reasonably in relation to these complaints," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.

Justice John Paul Stevens said, "You may still lose the lawsuit even if you win here."

Charles Rothfeld, representing the parents, agreed that the Fitzgeralds might lose, but said their constitutional claims should at least be heard in court. Among the advantages of pursuing a lawsuit under both provisions is that the older one allows claims to be made against individuals, while Title IX is restricted to institutions. Plaintiffs also can be awarded punitive damages under the older law, but not under Title IX.

A decision is expected by late spring.

Woman Charged With Stealing Neighbors' Decorations

As if there aren't enough weirdos in North Fulton County, a Roswell, Georgia woman is facing misdemeanor theft charges for allegedly swiping Christmas decorations from her neighbors' lawns. Officials say 51-year-old Gabriele Markert was found Monday in her home with decorations from at least three area homes.

Authorities say the investigation began about 4:30 a.m., after a woman reported a loud noise and discovered her 4-foot-tall Santa and snowman had been taken from her yard. After the law went to her home, another neighbor who was walking her dog reported that she, too, had been targeted.

Markert was awaiting a bail review hearing this week.

Cops: Florida Man Attacked Father With Christmas Tree

Authorities say a west Florida man who lives with his parents has been arrested on a felony assault charge after he used a Christmas tree as a weapon to attack his father.

According to the Manatee County sheriff's report, 37-year-old Thomas Edward Lackie was arrested last week after he threw a 3-foot Christmas tree at his father. The tree missed, but Lackie then tried to use the steel base from the tree to strike his father. His father and mother were able to grab Lackie's arms to prevent the attack. Deputies say the tree could have caused serious injuries because the metal base weighs about five pounds.

Lackie was charged with felony assault. He denied trying to strike his father.

St. Louis City Leader Calls on Residents to Get Armed

A St. Louis city leader frustrated with the police response to rising crime called Tuesday on residents to arm themselves to protect their lives and property. Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe said police are ineffective, outnumbered or don't care about the increase in crime in his north St. Louis ward. St. Louis has had 157 homicides in 2008, 33 more than last year at this time.

"The community has to be ready to defend itself, because it's clear the economy is going to get worse, and criminals are getting more bold," Troupe, 72, said Tuesday.

Troupe said that when he and residents approached a district police commander last year, they were told "there was nothing he could do to protect us and the community ... that he didn't have the manpower." Chief Dan Isom told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he understands Troupe's frustration but doesn't support citizens arming themselves.

Carrying guns, he said, is not a "recipe for a less violent community."

Fisherman Finds Long-Lost Class Ring in 8-Lb. Bass

A class ring lost for decades in an East Texas lake is back with its owner after turning up in a fish caught the day after Thanksgiving. Joe Richardson of Buna told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he wishes he knew "how many fish it's been in."

Richardson was fishing at Lake Sam Rayburn about two weeks after his 1987 graduation from Universal Technical Institute in Houston when he lost the ring. The 41-year-old mechanic says on Nov. 28 received a call from a fisherman who had reeled in a more than 8-pound bass. The ring that had been in the fish had "Joe Richardson" etched in the band.

Richardson says the fisherman did an Internet search and made several calls before reaching him and returning the ring.

Buna is about 110 miles northeast of Houston.

City to Ring in New Year With World's Largest Moon Pie

Mobile will ring in 2009 with chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow. Partygoers at the city's New Year's Eve celebration will dine on the world's largest Moon Pie, courtesy of the Chattanooga, Tenn., bakery that's been making the treats since 1917. The dimensions were not immediately available, though company officials have talked in the past about making a 60-pound, 4-foot-diameter pie for the city.

And at the stroke of midnight, a giant electric Moon Pie model will drop instead of a ball. The city spent $9,000 from his discretionary fund to build the gigantic model. Moon pies are near and dear to the hearts of Mobile residents. For year, revelers in the city's Mardi Gras parades have been throwing them from floats.

The Liberal Invasion:

'Gingerbread Nazi' Artist Makes Legless Santa Display

A northern Ohio artist known for envelope-pushing holiday displays is back -- with Santa Claus in a wheelchair being pushed down stairs by a crazed tree.

The Santa in Keith McGuckin's installation at the Oberlin Public Library has no legs because of an accident involving alcohol and some power lines. An accompanying narrative explains that the tree later goes off to a strip club with money from Santa's Salvation Army kettle. McGuckin's holiday creations have been raising eyebrows for years. His 2006 gingerbread Nazis drew so many complaints he was forced to remove them from a hardware store window.

Library director Darren McDonough says the latest display is staying. He jokes that if a library doesn't have something that offends, it's not doing its job.

Atheists Want God Out of Kentucky Homeland Security

A group of atheists filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to remove part of a state anti-terrorism law that requires Kentucky's Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge it can't keep the state safe without God's help. American Atheists Inc. sued in state court over a 2002 law that stresses God's role in Kentucky's homeland security alongside the military, police agencies and health departments.

Of particular concern is a 2006 clause requiring the Office of Homeland Security to post a plaque that says the safety and security of the state "cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon almighty God" and to stress that fact through training and educational materials. The plaque, posted at the Kentucky Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort, includes the Bible verse: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

"It is one of the most egregiously and breathtakingly unconstitutional actions by a state legislature that I've ever seen," said Edwin F. Kagin, national legal director of Parsippany, N.J.-based American Atheists Inc. The group claims the law violates both the state and U.S. constitutions. But Democratic state Rep. Tom Riner, a Baptist minister from Louisville, said he considers it vitally important to acknowledge God's role in protecting Kentucky and the nation.

"No government by itself can guarantee perfect security," Riner said. "There will always be this opposition to the acknowledgment of divine providence, but this is a foundational understanding of what America is."

Kentucky has been at the center of a series of legal battles involving religious issues in recent years, most involving displays of the Ten Commandments in public buildings. One case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2005 that such displays inside courthouses in two counties were unconstitutional.

Kentucky isn't the only state dealing with religious issues, but Ed Buckner, president of American Atheists, said it's alone in officially enlisting God in homeland security.

"I'm not aware of any other state or commonwealth that is attempting to dump their clear responsibility for protecting their citizens onto God or any other mythological creature," Buckner said.

State Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, said the preamble to the Kentucky constitution references a people "grateful to almighty God," so he said he sees no constitutional violation in enlisting God in the state's homeland security efforts.

"God help us if we don't," he said.

Amen.

Lisa

AP Wire Service, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oberlin Tribune.

News From All Over

Citi Expands Effort To Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

NEW YORK - Citigroup extended its effort to avoid foreclosing on homes. The bank on Tuesday announced the Citi Homeowner Assistance program, under which it would preemptively contact some 500,000 mortgage holders - involving $20 billion of mortgage balances - to try to ensure that they can pay their loans and stay in their homes.

"These homeowners are not currently behind on their mortgage payments, but some may require help to remain current on their mortgages. ... Citi is focusing particularly on borrowers in areas that are likely to face extreme economic distress."

Citi also extended its moratorium on foreclosures. It said it won't begin a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on a home on which it owns the mortgage so long as the borrower wants to stay in the home, which is his or her principal residence; "is working in good faith with Citi, and has sufficient income for affordable mortgage payments." And Citi is working with investors to "secure their approval to expand the program to include mortgages Citi services but does not own."

In early October, Bank of America reached a settlement with state attorneys general and agreed to work out 400,000 loans written by its Countrywide unit. And at the end of October, J.P. Morgan Chase said it would expand its mortgage-workout program to help 400,000 families keep their homes.

World's Ugliest Dog Dies After Bout With Cancer

FLORIDA - A one-eyed, three-legged dog that won the title of world's ugliest pooch this summer has died. The St. Petersburg Times in Florida reports that Gus, a Chinese crested dog, had cancer. He was 9. Gus was rescued from a bad home and went on to win the annual World's Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in northern California.

Gus came from humble origins. According to the fair, his adopted family in Gulfport, Fla., rescued him after learning he was being kept in a crate inside someone's garage. He had one leg amputated because of a skin tumor and lost an eye in a cat fight.

Gus' owner had said the prize money from the contest would be put toward the dog's radiation treatment.

Golden Earring Dates to Time of Christ

JERUSALEM - Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old gold earring beneath a parking lot next to the walls of Jerusalem's old city, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday. The discovery dates back to the time of Christ, during the Roman period, said Doron Ben-Ami, director of excavation at the site.

The piece was found in a Byzantine structure built several centuries after the jeweled earring was made, showing it was likely passed down through generations, he said. The find is luxurious: A large pearl inlaid in gold with two drop pieces, each with an emerald and pearl set in gold.

"It must have belonged to someone of the elite in Jerusalem," Ben-Ami said. "Such a precious item, it couldn't be one of just ordinary people."

In a statement released Monday, the authority said the piece of jewelry was "astonishingly well-preserved." Finds from the Roman period are rare in Jerusalem, Ben-Ami said, because the city was destroyed by the Roman Empire in the first century A.D. Shimon Gibson, an American archaeologist who was not involved in the dig, said the find was truly amazing, less because of its Roman origins than for its precious nature.

"Jewelry is hardly preserved in archaeological context in Jerusalem," he said, because precious metals were often sold or melted down during the many historic takeovers of the city.

"It adds to the visual history of Jerusalem," Gibson added, saying it brings attention to the life of women in antiquity.

Though Gibson dates the piece slightly later than the antiquities authority, to sometime between the second and fourth centuries A.D., he said its quality and beauty were impressive. Ben-Ami added that he expects more small, luxury items to turn up in future excavations.

Earrings similar to this one have been found at archaeological sites throughout Europe, Ben-Ami said, where the Roman Empire also flourished. The authority said the earring appeared to be crafted using a technique similar to that depicted in portraits from Roman-era Egypt.

Councilman Arrested for Allegedly Urinating on Crowd

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Jersey City councilman has reportedly been arrested for urinating on a crowd of concertgoers from the balcony of a Washington D.C. nightclub. The New York Daily News reports in Sunday's editions that two-term Jersey City councilman Steve Lipski has been charged with simple assault.

The newspaper says 44-year-old Lipski was removed from a place called the Nightclub 9:30 on Friday night. That's after club staffers saw him relieve himself onto the crowd from a second floor balcony during a concert by a Grateful Dead tribute ban.

Messages by the media left at Lipski's council office, and a Jersey City listing under his name were not immediately returned.

Secret Service Officer Arrested During Prostitution Sting

WASHINGTON, D.C. - District of Columbia police say they have arrested a Secret Service officer during a prostitution sting. WUSA-TV reports D.C. police Inspector Brian Bray says his squad was conducting a prostitution sting around 11th and K streets in northwest Washington early Saturday. He says a marked Secret Service Uniformed Division patrol car pulled up to speak with an undercover female officer posing as a prostitute.

The Secret Service sergeant, who was in uniform, allegedly inquired what sex acts the undercover officer would perform. They agreed on a price of $20, and he drove to meet her. But then D.C. police arrested and charged him with solicitation for the propose of prostitution.

Darrin Blackford, a Secret Service spokesman, says the agency's internal affairs division is investigating the matter. He says the officer, whose name was not released, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

LISA

CITI, St. Petersburg Times, Israel Antiquities Authority, WUSA-TV

News From All Over

Houston's Franklin Bank Closed, 18th Failure This Year

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Houston, Texas-based Franklin Bank S.S.B. was closed by regulators Friday, the 18th bank failure this year amid the ongoing credit crisis. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said in a statement that Franklin Bank had total assets of $5.1 billion as of Sep. 30, and $3.7 billion in total deposits. El Campo, Texas-based Prosperity Bank will assume Franklin Bank's deposits, and Franklin's 46 offices will reopen as Prosperity branches, the FDIC said.

Florida High School Keeps KKK Founder's Name

JACKSONVILLE, FL - A Florida high school named for a Confederate general who was also a leader of the Ku Klux Klan will be keeping its name - thanks to a vote of the county school board. More than half the students at Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Fla., are black, and some members of the community object that they are forced to attend a school that was named in honor of a racist.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a slave trader before the Civil War, a top-notch Confederate cavalry leader during the war, and the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee when it was over, according to University of North Carolina-Greensboro emeritus professor Allen Trelease, a Civil War scholar.

Forrest High got its name in 1959, when the Daughters of the Confederacy, angry about the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision forcing school integration, pushed for the name. All 2,300 of the school's students were white at the time. Now, 54 percent are black, and some feel it's time to change the school's name.

On Nov. 3, the Duval County School Board voted 5 to 2 against changing the name. The five members who voted to keep the name were white. The two who voted against it were the board's only black members. Changing the school's name was brought before the board in 2006, and the board put off a vote for almost two years, said Brenda Priestly Jackson, who voted "no" with board chairwoman Brenda Burney.

Coweta County, Georgia Man Uses Blowtorch To Clean Cobwebs; Sets Home On Fire

SARGENT, GA - Men take note: a blowtorch is not the same as a broom. Coweta County authorities say Galen Winchell set fire to his west Georgia home this week as he cleaned cobwebs from exterior eaves with a blowtorch. Winchell noticed the blaze when he saw smoke pouring from the attic. Coweta Fire Investigator James Gantt says the fire was contained to one part of the house, but the entire home sustained smoke and water damage."This was an unfortunate accident," Gantt told the Times-Herald newspaper. No one was hurt in the blaze.

Hackers Buy 'Obama' Google Search Results Ad

LONDON - Hackers seeking to exploit the global interest in Barack Obama's sweeping election victory have bought their way to the top of the Google results page. For most of this week, searches involving the keyword "Obama" generated a sponsored link reading "Download Now" at the top of the results page. People who clicked on the link would reach a Web page infected with malicious software.

Security experts confirmed that the site could compromise PC users' security.

"The Web site is infected with a malicious i-frame," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at the online security company Sophos. "This code then downloads further malware onto your PC, including something called Mal/Pdfex-B. Ultimately this code is designed to compromise your computer and allow hackers to have remote control over your PC."

Unlike early virus writers, who were motivated mainly by the desire for notoriety, today's hackers work for profit.

"We are also seeing a major malicious spam campaign featuring Obama at the moment, which points to a malware download," Mr Cluley said. "We're gathering information about that right now."

Man Charged with Terrorism Plot, Found With Nazi Book

LONDON - British police charged a 43-year-old man Thursday with plotting an act of terrorism and having two improvised explosive devices, chemicals, timers, and a Nazi-themed handbook. Neil Christopher Lewington was first arrested last week after police discovered a suspected explosive device when they searched him at a railway station in Lowestoft, a coastal city in eastern England.

He was originally charged with possessing an item to cause criminal damage and was released on bail Saturday. But he was immediately re-arrested by Scotland Yard.

Scotland Yard said in a statement that Lewington carried two improvised explosive devices to Lowestoft from Reading, a city near London where he lives, on Oct. 30. It said Lewington was being charged with making or having an explosive substance intended to "to endanger life, or cause serious injury to property in the U.K."

The police statement said Lewington had four containers of weed killer, seven timers, three tennis balls, fire lighters, and a book entitled: "Waffen SS U.K. Members Handbook." The statement said he also had drawings and notes "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism."

A spokesman for Scotland Yard did not go into further detail, saying only that the incident was not Al-Qaeda-related. He spoke anonymously in line with force policy. The Waffen SS was the name of a feared Nazi military organization.

Army Working on 'Ghost' Soldiers, Mind-Controlled Guns

WASHINGTON - Self-regenerating body parts. Intelligent "virtual soldiers." Mind-controlled weapons. Brain "wipes" to purge traumatic memories. "Quantum ghost imaging." The U.S. Army's working on all of these concepts, according to a report on Military.com, a private military-oriented Web site.

"Making science fiction into reality" is the goal, says Dr. John Parmentola, the Army's director for research and laboratory management.

"You can imagine people who have horrifying memories, it would be great if we could eliminate them so this way they're not plagued by these memories uncontrollably," he says, explaining research into cleaning soldiers' minds of recollections that cause post-traumatic stress disorder. Salamanders have long been known to grow back fingers and even limbs, and the Army's trying to figure out how.

"We're beginning to understand how this occurs and if we can, it holds the hope of, being able to regrow limbs on people," says Parmentola.

As for "quantum ghost imaging," it involves the strange but well-documented phenomenon of "twinned" particles that communicate instantaneously -- if something happens to one, the other reacts accordingly, no matter how far away.

"It's like having a tracing tool ... that goes over the image and that's connected to another one on a piece of paper that exactly imitates what it is that you are tracing with the other pen," says Parmentola.

In this way, soldiers, tanks and other military assets could be projected on a battlefield to intimidate the enemy, even though the real objects are far away. Neural implants fine-tuned to individual soldiers' brain waves could allow G.I.s to operate equipment with only their thoughts.

"So if you think of a thought 'turn on,' it will automatically turn on a computer or that device," says Parmentola.

Last but not least, the Army's trying to create "virtual soldiers" who look, act and sound like the real thing, independently.

"I actually interact with virtual humans in terms of asking them questions and they're responding," Parmentola told Military.com.

The best place to test these virtual soldiers? Online role-playing games such as "World of Warcraft," of course.

"We want to use the massively multi-player online game as an experimental laboratory to see if they're good enough to convince humans that they're actually human," Parmentola explained.

MICHELLE

FDIC, Times-Herald, London Times, Scotland Yard, Military.com

Thoughts on the News

What a week. If you’ve got the money, I'm told we should all be buying for the economy will come roaring back . . . someday. Well, maybe not roaring but meowing, anyway. Someday. So, while you can - BUY! Buy silver, gold, Blue Chip stocks, real estate, my friend William's house, General Motors, the banking institution of your choice, all of the above, or whatever.

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street capped one of its worst weeks ever with a wild session Friday that saw the Dow Jones industrials gyrate within a 1,000 point range before closing with a relatively mild loss and the Nasdaq composite index actually ending with a modest advance. Investors were still agonizing over frozen credit markets, but seven days of massive losses and the possibility of further government support for the markets tempted some investors late in the session.

That’ll be the key, of course, to getting the markets back: Luring investors. What will lure investors? Hank Paulsen in a short dress and fishnets? No, I hope. Confidence in the economy; confidence that their investment will pay off. But if that doesn’t work, let’s keep the fishnets around as Plan B.

Right now I’m pleasure reading Amity Schlaes book “The Forgotten Man,” a reexamination of the Great Depression, its root causes and how it was perpetuated longer than it needed to be by the wrong kind of government intervention. Schlaes is a CFR fellow and she is frequently quoted by Newt Gingrich.

So, are we in a Depression? How can we tell? This week, the market lost 18% of it’s value just since Monday, Oct. 5th. How does that compare to the Great Depression? According to Wikipedia:

In September of 1929, the market fell sharply for a month, losing 17% of its value on the initial leg down. Prices then recovered more than half of the losses over the next week, only to turn back down immediately afterwards. The decline then accelerated into the so-called "Black Thursday", October 24, 1929.

What took a month for the stock market to do in 1929, Wall Street did in five days. But is the past always prologue?

Researchers and economists have been studying the history of economic collapses in this country and Europe to see what we can learn from them. Who has been behind the collapses? What kept them going on longer? Have bailouts helped historically?

You heard that AIG is getting another “mini-bailout,” right? Ugh!

* * * * *

From London's Daily Mail . . .

Newly evolved "superworms" that feast on toxic waste could help cleanse polluted industrial land, a new study says. These hardcore heavy metal fans, unearthed at disused mining sites in England and Wales, devour lead, zinc, arsenic, and copper. The earthworms excrete a slightly different version of the metals, making them easier for plants to suck up. Harvesting the plants would leave cleaner soil behind.

"These worms seem to be able to tolerate incredibly high concentrations of heavy metals, and the metals seem to be driving their evolution," said lead researcher Mark Hodson of the University of Reading in England.

"If you took an earthworm from the back of your garden and put it in these soils, it would die," Hodson said.

DNA analysis of lead-tolerant worms show they belong to a newly evolved species that has yet to be named, he said.

So they need a name for this new superworm, huh? I forgot. What was the name of the President of AIG who spent $440,000 on a spa weekend for his cronies?

Speaking of names, I assume you heard about the so-called “Jesus Shark”?

From National Geographic News

October 10, 2008

A female blacktip shark in Virginia fertilized her own egg without mating with a male shark, new DNA evidence shows. This is the second time scientists have used DNA testing to verify shark parthenogenesis—the process that allows females of some species to produce offspring without sperm.

Question: If it can happen with sharks, is it out of the question that it could happen with people? I don’t think so. For example, my parents had my older sister when they were practically newlyweds but I’m pretty sure by the time I came along, I was parthenogenitically conceived.

Self-reproducing sharks can’t be any scarier than killer catfish of India.

From The Sun: A FEARSOME mutant fish has started killing people after feeding on human corpses, scientists fear.

They figure that a huge type of catfish, called a goonch, may have developed a taste for flesh in an Indian river where bodies are dumped after funerals. Locals have believed for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water. But they think it has moved on from scavenging to snatching unwary bathers who venture into the Great Kali, which flows along the India-Nepal border. The extraordinary creature has been investigated by biologist Jeremy Wade for a TV documentary to be shown soon.

Nature loves her monsters. Mutant, recently micro-evolved metal-eating superworms, mutant man-eating catfish - and vampires. Or at least - the undead, such as the story of the Zombie Johnson.

From The News Journal

When Louis Johnson brought his wife to the emergency room on May 6, 2007, he didn't think they would be there long -- she just had a bad case of indigestion. About an hour later, Johnson said, he was "blown away" when staffers at Beebe Medical Center in Lewes took him into a room to tell him his wife was dead.

But she wasn't.

As they later learned, when the body of Judith Johnson, 61, was set to be taken to the morgue, someone noticed the "corpse" was breathing - even with a tube still down her throat.

I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that this type of medical misdiagnosis and the against-all-odds recovery is the kind of phenomenon that created an interest in vampires but it does not define it. Oh by way, welcome to October: The Creepy Month. This month look for my series of articles on Southern Ghost Stories and Legends. As the wind howls around your castle in the wee hours, just make sure you have everything locked up for the night.

To update my reading list: The annotated Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is definitive, however. I re-read “Dracula” a couple years ago and I was amazed at how well it stood up. I am re-re-reading it in this new complete, annotated version and it’s like I’ve never read it before.

And there’s something about curling up with a Gothic horror story on a windy, October night with the leaves blowing around that lets you know it is the season of the creepy.

I don’t just mean the annual time when thousands of men and women rise from the grave in cities like Chicago and Boston and linger around just long enough to vote before re-entering the underworld.

And when I say vampires I don’t mean the kind bleeding us dry in Washington.

Congress isn’t cool enough to be the un-dead, So far, they’re just the un-smart and ocassionally creepy.

Walter

Friday News Notes

9-11 Memorial Artifacts - A temporary Tribute Center across from Ground Zero features photos and relics from the WTC attacks. In a huge hangar at JFK Airport are larger objects, such as burned out fire trucks and steel columns. These artifacts will be placed in the World Trade Center Museum when it opens in 2011. For a look inside the hangar, check out this video and report from CBS News....While yesterday was the day set aside to observe the events of 9/11, it was also Patriot Day in the US. I saw few people with flag lapel pins, few flags outside of homes. I think all government buildings should have their flags half mast on this day, but that's just my opinion....Scientists are interested in a large footprint discovered on Harold Jackson's property near Cookeville, TN. The fossil imprint is 11 inches wide, 15 inches long. I didn't know Shaq was ever in Tennessee....First photos of African 'unicorn' captured - An African animal so rarely seen it was once believed to be a mythical unicorn has been caught on camera in the wild for the first time. The okapi, a deer-like creature with the long blue tongue of a giraffe and the rear of a zebra, was only discovered at the beginning of the 20th century when a British explorer sent a skin home to London....A group of community farmers, some of them Amish, have filed a lawsuit challenging rules requiring the tagging of livestock with RFID chips, saying the devices are a "mark of the beast." Michigan and federal authorities say the radio frequency identification devices (RFID) will help monitor the travels of bovine and other livestock diseases. As radio frequency identification devices become a daily part of the electronic age, RFID technology is increasingly coming under fire for allegedly being the mark of Satan. The technology is fast becoming a part of passports and payment cards and is widely expected to replace bar-code labels on consumer goods. Some of the group's members so staunchly oppose the program that "they may have to quit farming," according to the lawsuit....Dogs And Cats Can Live In Perfect Harmony In The Home, If Introduced The Right Way - New research at Tel Aviv University, the first of its kind in the world, has found a new recipe for success. According to the study, if the cat is adopted before the dog and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for kittens, a year for dogs), there is a high probability that your two pets will get along swimmingly. Results from the research were recently reported in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science....Blossom Goodchild, an Aussie actress and author, has the international Ufology community on its ear with channeled information concerning the eminent appearance of a massive extraterrestrial spacecraft for October 14th, 2008. Calling themselves ‘The Federation of Light’, these Beings from another world have stated to Goodchild that they intend not only to make themselves known, but also to remain more or less in place for a full 72 hour period, thereby providing the media with ample opportunity to once and for all capture on film evidence that will silence the skeptics and debunkers forever. The predicted rendezvous point? Alabama. (No comment).

Walter