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Construction for a new gas processing plant near Houston has gained federal approval. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed off on Dallas-based Lone Star NGL LLC's new natural gas processing plant in Mont Belvieu outside of Houston. Lone Star is a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners LP (NYSE: ETP) that was founded to provide natural gas liquids storage, refining, processing and pipeline transportation services. The new plant would join two other existing ones with the goal of separating natural gas liquids into products like ethane, propane, butanes and natural gas. The plant would process 100,000 barrels a day, according to...

Compressed natural gas vehicles consumed a record 2.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas in Texas in 2013, according to the Energy Information Administration. That makes sense with all the new CNG fueling stations popping up and more and more fleets converting to natural gas. Also, industrial consumption reached a 10-year high in Texas, a sign that the petrochemical industry is booming again, according to the EIA. More than 1.5 trillion cubic feet were consumed for industrial purposes in Texas, the most since 2004. The amount of natural gas consumed for electric power generation dropped 6.6 percent from 2012 to...

“We have a joint fate in this land, because whatever happens to the Jews here will happen to us," says Christian priest. The IDF will begin to send enlistment notices to Christian Arab youths of military age, informing them of the possibility of joining the military, Army Radio reported on Tuesday. Their service, however, will remain strictly voluntary. In the coming days Christian Arab youths, both male and female, who are nearing the age of 17 will begin to receive enlistment notices, as do Jewish youths of the same age. The notices will inform them of the possibility of a...

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One sees them whenever Hillary Clinton arrives in town. Without the means to afford the often hefty ticket price to see her speak, they stand outside with homemade signs, chanting, “Hil-Lar-Ree!” They have replaced the background photograph on their Twitter profile to a simple picture of the former first lady; their bio lists Hillary Clinton alongside their favorite sports teams. For seven years, they have tracked her every move on social media. And the moment Hillary Clinton shoots the starter pistol on the 2016 campaign, they will leave behind jobs, families, and responsibilities, and go where she needs them.

MARIONVILLE, Mo. — The mayor of Marionville has resigned over anti-Semitic remarks he made in support of a white supremacist accused of killing three people at Jewish community sites in Overland Park. The Springfield News-Leader reports that Dan Clevenger resigned Monday night after aldermen voted 4-1 to start an impeachment process. Clevenger said he was hurt to hear residents say he was an embarrassment.

In July 2010, at the height of the Tea Party’s power — when Don’t Tread on Me flags bloomed across South Carolina and fresh-faced insurgents vanquished establishment GOP stalwarts — Lindsey Graham wasn’t worried. His next election was four years away, and as he rode in a sedan through his native Upstate with a New York Times magazine reporter profiling him, the state’s senior U.S. senator explained that he didn’t think the Tea Party was sustainable. “It will die out,” he said. That was a bold statement in 2010 — especially from an establishment Republican figure like Graham in a...

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. — Sen. Lindsey Graham recognized the threat years before it had a chance to form — and knew immediately what he had to do. After the tea party wave in the 2010 election, right-wing groups were itching to get one of South Carolina’s newly elected conservative congressmen to challenge Graham, the blunt-spoken, deal-making congressional veteran of two decades. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a favorite of the grass roots, was high on their list. So when Graham got wind in 2012 that Mulvaney wanted a seat on the House Financial Services Committee, he quietly lobbied his longtime friend, Speaker John...

The Northern Bedouin Tracking Unit commanded by Lt. Col. Majdi Mazarib protects Israel from kidnapings, infiltrators and 100,000 rockets. A special unit in the Israeli army comprised solely of Bedouin trackers is keeping Israel’s northern border safe. The Northern Bedouin Tracking Unit commanded by Lt. Col. Majdi Mazarib protects Israel from kidnapings, infiltrators and 100,000 rockets, among myriad other threats emanating from Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist organization. Speaking in Arabic, Lt. Col. Mazarib tells an interviewer in a video piece on his unit, “From Israel’s founding, the Bedouin community has chosen to volunteer and serve in the IDF, and actively participate...

On Good Friday, President Obama made a bad call. The State Department announced that it would delay its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the Nebraska Supreme Court rules in a case involving the route. The administration insists the decision to punt has nothing to do with politics. Pretty much everyone else thinks otherwise. Obama, who is rarely reluctant to act unilaterally when it benefits him politically, and who regularly brags about his red-tape cutting, is paralyzed by perhaps the only big shovel-ready jobs project he's been presented with. He welcomes the Keystone red tape because he's trapped...

Former UNC Dean Dan Plyler is like a lot of academics today. He forms strong opinions without taking the time to study an issue to determine whether his opinion is supported by evidence. Evidence is irrelevant for such academics who are more interested in preserving visions of how things should be - as opposed to evaluating how things are with some practical game plan for improving upon them. Plyler's disdain for evidence was on full display when he wrote a Letter to the Editor in response to my recent promotion to full professor. It is reprinted below with my usual...

BP is selling off stakes in four Alaskan oil fields near the gigantic Prudhoe Bay, a move that would cut about 15 percent of its crude production in the state, the company said late Tuesday. The British oil company did not disclose the price it would get from Hilcorp, a private Houston-based oil producer that has been jockeying for Alaska’s natural gas basins. In the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, Hilcorp would receive all of BP’s interest in the offshore Endicott and Northstar fields and half of its stakes in the Milne Point...

Chelsea Clinton announced she's going to be a mother this year. That should elicit the same reaction reserved for the daughter of any former president: a polite "how nice." But this is a Clinton. Everything with the Clintons gets filtered through politics. It is fitting (and equally crass) that this news is met with this reaction: "Hillary (Clinton) in 2016. Does it help or hurt?" Indeed, that is precisely how pro-Hillary pundits reacted, leaping to profess this will succeed in adding warmth and humanity to Hillary's image in the years to come. But put the celebration on hold. This was...

Full Title: El Al pilots forget to lower wheels on Heathrow landing Passenger jet averts disaster just 250 meters above runway when alarm alerts cockpit that landing gear not deployed ___________________________________ An El Al passenger jet came close to dangerously belly-flopping onto a runway recently after its pilots forgot to lower the plane’s landing gear. The incident took place as the 737 jet was preparing to land at London’s Heathrow Airport last month, according to reports released Thursday. As the plane descended to a height of about 250 meters above the runway a safety alarm went off in the cockpit...

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — In the crowded Georgia GOP Senate primary, Karen Handel could be hitting her stride at just the right time. The former Georgia secretary of State’s underfunded campaign has struggled to break out of the seven-way race, but a recent slight against her lack of a college degree from her top opponent has given her a new and salient opening. Boosted by an endorsement from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and missteps from her male opponents, Handel may have hit a sweet spot with less than a month to go before the May 20 primary to succeed retiring...

"President Obama Vows Zero Tolerance on Gender Wage Gap," read one headline. Another read, "Women Still Earned 77 Cents On Men's Dollar In 2012." It's presumed that big, greedy corporations are responsible for what is seen as wage injustice. Before discussing the "unjust" wage differences between men and women, let's acknowledge an even greater injustice -- which no one seems to care about -- age injustice. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers ages 16 to 24 earn only 54 cents on every dollar earned by workers 25 or older (http://tinyurl.com/n6puf6j). This wage gap is 43 percent greater than...

Russia issued a blunt warning Wednesday it would respond if its interests are attacked in Ukraine, as pro-Kremlin rebels in the restive east of the country braced for a new military offensive by Kiev. The threat by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, recalling the 2008 war with Georgia over breakaway South Ossetia, came as US troops were headed to region in a show of force after Washington again warned Moscow of new sanctions over the escalating crisis. "If we are attacked, we would certainly respond," Lavrov told state-controlled RT television. "If our interests, our legitimate interests, the interests of Russians...

Word For The Day, Wednesday, April 23, 2014-- ceteris paribus ; In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". ceteris paribus [say-te-rees pah-ri-booss, key-te-rees pah-ri-boos]hear it pronounced Latin. adverb all other things being equal. Origin: cēterus (“the other”) + paribus ( equal) Literally meaning “with other [things] being equal” or “other things being equal”. Ceteris Paribus was characterized by Sir Alfred Marshall who was one of the most influential economists of his time and is known as one of the founders of...

Pentagon Seeks to Reassure NATO Allies as Kiev Accuses Pro-Russian Forces of Killings Hundreds of U.S. troops are headed for maneuvers in Eastern Europe through year's end, the Pentagon announced, new deployments intended to reassure allies on Russia's borders as violence took a sinister turn Tuesday in embattled Ukraine. Vice President Joe Biden, in a visit to Kiev, warned Russia to pull back its troops and abide by last week's international agreement or face the certainty of swift new sanctions. Mr. Biden also urged Ukraine's leaders to adhere to democratic principles and respect cultural differences, reassuring them, "You will not...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Trees of The Bible Matthew 21 The Fig Tree New International Version (NIV) 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith...