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BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Central Criminal Court of Iraq convicted 12 security detainees May 10 through May 16 for various crimes including organizing, heading, leading, joining armed groups, murder and possessing illegal weapons. The trial court found Mahdi Ahmed Musa Ali al Jabouri guilty of violating Article 194 and Article 406 of the Iraqi Penal Code for organizing, heading, leading, joining armed groups and murder, and sentenced him to death. Coalition Forces apprehended him for leading a terror cell in Mosul. The defendant said he believes in killing Coalition Forces, Iraqi Police and Iraqi National Guard members because he says...

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job...

Shuttle from Selma taking marchers to New Orleans By Cassandra Mickens Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:58 PM CST The Selma Times-Journal The Dallas County New South Coalition, the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement and the Dallas County Democratic Conference have joined together to shuttle area residents to the Return, Vote and Rebuild March in New Orleans Saturday, April 1. Those interested in marching will board charter buses at Memorial Stadium at 3 a.m. Saturday. The cost of the trip is $30 per person. Call (334) 418-0800 or (334) 875-3947 for more information. The...

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2006 – Millions of Shiite Muslims from around the Middle East recently were able to make a pilgrimage to the Iraqi holy cities of Karbala and Najaf with few security problems. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that this shows a lot about the capabilities of Iraqi security forces. At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace also spoke about an operation in Baghdad that freed a hostage, confiscated arms and shut down an improvised-explosive-device factory. Arbaeen, which marks the death of Imam Hussein -- a...

Fourteen indicted in Appalachia election fraud probeFriday, March 03, 2006 By STEPHEN IGO Times-News WISE - Fourteen individuals, including the mayor/town manager of Appalachia, a town councilman, and two law enforcement officials, were indicted by a Wise County grand jury on multiple counts stemming from an alleged conspiracy to conduct election fraud during the 2004 town elections. The indictments show the investigation hasn't been just about pork rinds, Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee said during a press conference at the Wise County Courthouse. The investigation into allegations of voter fraud evolved from early reports of attempted vote buying before town elections...

Editor's note: The Supreme Court announced Feb. 17 that it would again hear arguments in the free-speech case of a whistleblower, apparently so that Justice Samuel Alito can break a tie. That case is Garcetti v. Ceballos. WASHINGTON — New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. was sworn in Jan. 31, giving him five months to serve during the Court’s current term. But during that period, Alito will likely have only one chance to show his First Amendment stripes. That chance will be in an important one, and it begins Feb. 28, when the Court hears a trio of First...

Remember Cooter the New Orleans Looter? He became an Internet phenom after everyone photoshopped his image. See here: [url=http://www.cooterthelooter.com]Cooter the New Orleans Looter [/url] Imagine a website for a photoshop contest of Mohamed? I'd bet word of it would spread like wildfire and soon Drudge, James Toronto, Little Green Football would spread the word all over the Internet. Nothing would piss Muslims off more if the creativity is anywhere near what Cooter the Looter has attained. What do you think about it?

A pair of 26-year-old roommates from Texas are looking to cash in on the American dream by simply asking every person in the nation to send them a dollar, and have created a website called GiveUsABuck.com to reach a potential goal of $300 million. ... "Wouldn't it be great if every person in the United States gave us one buck? If you could get every person, then that would be $300 million," Rob Momary said. "Everybody's had this idea, but no one's really done it to make it work. If we only get 1 percent, that's still $3 million, which...

Katrina is gone -- and so are many kids Team pursues difficult search for more than 1,300 missing children TINA SUSMAN Newsday Posted on Sun, Dec. 11, 2005 Royce Osbourne, in a skeleton mask, marches in a protest for hurricane victims' rights in New Orleans December 10, 200. Protesters feared they would receive federal funds to rebuild their homes. REUTERS/Lee Celano NEW ORLEANS - Three months after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, the fate of more than 1,300 children remains unknown. Until a few days ago, Lil Joe and Kolenik Williams, brothers from New Orleans, were among the...

Coloradans have no commonsense. Within one year we reelected a financially incompetent, liberal Ken Salazar, then raised our own taxes and legalized marijuana. What is wrong with my neighbors? Well, they want to smoke pot and pay more taxes. One problem explains the other. Drug abuse is a large cause of liberal thinking. This is proven historically as we look at the ‘60s and ‘70s. Drug abuse and modern liberalism are synonymous. Person becomes rebel. Rebel smokes pot. Pot affects mind, causing liberal thinking. Liberals raise taxes. Its simple! Fortunately state and federal law will ensure that nothing in Denver...

Is OBL dead?

SUN-SENTINEL INVESTIGATION FEMA does little to recover funds given to undeserving applicants By Megan O'Matz, Sally Kestin and Jon Burstein Staff Writers October 9, 2005 Federal officials, charged with disbursing billions of dollars in relief after one of the nation's worst natural disasters -- Hurricane Katrina -- are vowing to crack down on fraud by assigning about 350 auditors, investigators and inspectors to catch people and companies who try to cheat the government. But in a continuing investigation of disaster spending by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has found that the agency has rarely pursued individual...

1 million tires catch on fire in Wis. July 20, 2005 WATERTOWN, Wis. -- A massive fire erupted in a huge pile of tires at a recycling plant Tuesday, sending black smoke billowing for miles and forcing roads to be closed while firefighters tried to contain the blaze. The fire ignited in about 1 million tires at the Watertown Tire Recycling Co., said Lt. Doug Ninmann of the Dodge County Sheriff's Department. No one was injured and the cause wasn't determined, but people within a mile's radius were warned to take shelter if the smoke becomes too intense, he said....

Every so often, in the hushed galleries of Congress, history unfolds in a manner that casts the momentous business of Capitol Hill in stark, even humbling relief. Then there are moments spent discussing the Whizzinator. Yesterday morning in Room 2123 of the Rayburn Building, Rep. Bart Stupak, a sober-voiced Democrat from Michigan, held up an advertisement for the "drug-test subversion device," which received national attention last week when it was learned that an NFL player had been detained at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after authorities found the state-of-the-art prosthetic in his luggage (with a packet of dehydrated urine). The player...

Rosen goes to trial May 3 on charges of falsely underreporting the costs of the August 2000 gala — thus inflating the amount of campaign cash ostensibly raised for Clinton at the event.

Editorial: Raiding the tobacco till Friday, December 3, 2004 Three years ago, when the cash was flowing freely on Beacon Hill, Massachusetts led the nation in spending on anti-smoking programs. Voters had agreed to raise cigarette taxes to fund anti-smoking initiatives, and the state's share of the huge federal tobacco settlement brought in even more cash intended to mitigate the health effects of smoking. That investment was paying off. National polls consistently found Massachusetts teen-agers trailing teens from around the country in smoking rates. That was then. After years of budget shortfalls, Massachusetts has fallen to 40th place in tobacco-control...

CHARTED: Yoko Ono, 71, has the No. 1 single on the dance chart, "Every Man Has A Man Who Loves Him"/"Every Woman Has A Woman Who Loves Her," a mix of techno beats and her somewhat off-key vocals that delivers a message in favor of same-sex unions. "This is a victory not just for me but for all Americans who are against the administration's decision to ban gay marriage," Ono says about the success of the tune, as quoted by the BBC.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. DETROIT - A factory worker attacked and killed a fellow employee with a sword the suspect apparently made himself at the metals plant where both men worked, police said Thursday. Witnesses told police the 30-year-old man had complained he was being bullied by another worker at Peerless Metals, which makes metal powders used in automobile brakes. The suspect had been working on the sword for several days, apparently at work, and when he finished Wednesday, he struck the 40-year-old victim in the neck, nearly decapitating him, said police spokesman James Tate....

In 1997, Kerry questioned the size of the intelligence community during a speech on the floor of the Senate:

US soldiers in Iraq say 1,000 death toll meaningless 2 hours, 30 minutes ago BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - The deaths of 1,000 American troops in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein has only strengthened US resolve to restore security to the strife-torn country, soldiers said. Dismissing parallels with the 1961-75 war in Vietnam, officers lashed out at the media for playing the grim-reaper over the mounting casualty toll and failing to appreciate the sacrifices made by each soldier. "It sucks. The newspapers glorify it. Everyday, reporting the numbers going up and up, trying to push a point,"...