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On a strip of California's Mojave Desert, two dozen rare tortoises could stand in the way of a sprawling solar-energy complex in a case that highlights mounting tensions between wilderness conservation and the nation's quest for cleaner power. Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy has been pushing for more than two years for permission to erect 400,000 mirrors on the site to gather the sun's energy. It could become the first project of its kind on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, leaving a footprint for others to follow on vast stretches of public land across the West. The construction would come...

Rachel Porcaro knows she's hardly rich. When you're a single mom making 10 bucks an hour, you don't need government experts to tell you how broke you are. But that's what happened. The government not only told Porcaro she was poor. They said she was too poor to make it in Seattle. It all started a year ago, when Porcaro, a 32-year-old mom with two boys, was summoned to the Seattle office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She had been flagged for an audit. She couldn't believe it. She made $18,992 the previous year cutting hair at Supercuts. A...

Please stop. I've recently recommended FR to several people and if this is their first visit to FR well it makes me and everyone on here look like an ASS! Stop it already.

DUmmies are trying to bury it as we speak ------------------------------- bump simple instructions, create an account, log in and press digg on article. millions of independents/MSM will see it. ----------------------------------------- Not motivated to vote? Here are some quotes from DUmmies trying to bury it "Hello Freepers. You guy sucks. Buried." "Dear Freepers- I'm sorry to tell you that your pathetic little attempts to get your trash put up on digg simply aren't going to work. You see, the primary demographic that uses digg is age 14-28. We lean to the left. "

October 6, 2008 If you’re one of those people who shows-off at parties by solving a Rubik’s Cube in under two minutes, the Rubik’s Mirror Blocks Puzzle might just stop you in your tracks. Also known as Hidetoshi Takeji's Bump Cube, the puzzle challenges its user based on geometry rather than by matching color sequences. To solve the Bump Cube you must order 27 blocks of nine different sizes into a neat and tidy cube. Unlike the original Rubik’s Cube, you can’t just pull the stickers off this one and pretend you’re a genius (or pull the entire thing apart...

With the deluge of threads being posted, and slated to increase greatly as the election heats up, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE .. especially if it's a news/breaking thread ... add the appropriate keywords to your posting form. So, if someone's looking for the latest string of "Obama" or "Sarah Palin" articles, let's say, they just click on that particular keyword at the top of the page, and those articles containing the keyword will come up chronologically. Thank you! Popular keyword options at the top of the main page: ~~~~ *110th *2008 *2008polls *ayers *bailout *barackobama *biden *bo *democrat *democrats *demron *economy...

Poll finds GOP got bump up LOCAL SURVEY: Palin on ticket put McCain ahead for Alaskans. By GEORGE BRYSON gbryson@adn.com Published: September 7th, 2008 01:58 AM Last Modified: September 7th, 2008 02:29 AM A new poll has determined that Alaskans are much more likely to support Republican John McCain for president now that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is his running mate. While that's not surprising, the magnitude of the shift is, said Jean Craciun, president of Craciun Research Group, the Anchorage-based polling firm that conducted the voter survey between Aug. 30 and Sept. 4. The six-day sample -- which began...

Less than one week after threatening to conduct an uprising against the Iraqi government and US forces, Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army, has called for his fighters to maintain the self-imposed cease-fire. The US and Iraqi military continue to strike at Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Baghdad. Ten “criminals” were killed in strikes in Sadr City, making 82 Mahdi fighters killed in the six days since Sadr threatened renewed violence. In a statement read during the Friday prayers at the Al Hikma mosque in Sadr City, Sadr called for his militia to halt the fighting. “You have...

Carrier launches are astonishing events. The plane is moved to within what seems like a bowling alley's length of the bow. A blast shield larger than any government building driveway Khomeini-flipper rises behind the fighter jet, and the jet's twin engines are cranked to maximum thrust. A slot-car slot runs down the middle of the bowling alley. The powered-up jet is held at the end of its slot by a steel shear pin smaller than a V-8 can. When the shear pin shears the jet is unleashed and so is a steam catapult that hurls the plane down the slot,...

It is Green Week at NBC, after all, so who can blame Andrea Mitchell for recycling two dilapidated defenses of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Andrea's heart didn't seem wholly in it, but like a burned-out public defender going through the motions, Andrea Mitchell apparently felt constrained to mount some kind of defense of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial remarks. And so she trotted out two hoary chestnuts: * that's the way it's done in African-American churches, and * media critics say he was "taken out of context." View video here.

When you're a Clintonite, you're a Clintonite all the way. From your first Monicagate defense, To Hil's last primary day.—with apologies to Leonard Bernstein Look next to the definition of "Clinton loyalist" in the dictionary, and you're likely to find a photo of Lanny Davis. The man who would have put Baghdad Bob to shame for his unflinching flackery during Bill's Monica mess is back on the beat for Hillary. Yesterday, Davis wrote a HuffPo column purporting to set forth 10 Undisputed Facts showing Obama's weakness as a general election candidate against John Mccain. As Jake Tapper has observed, some...

Gordon Brown was last night accused of losing control of Northern Rock after it emerged that the bank's best mortgages have been sold on to a little-known offshore company based in the Channel Islands. ** Northern Rock has subsidiary in tax haven Under an agreement entered into by the previous Rock board, control over more than £47 billion of the bank's prime mortgages was passed to Granite, a separate offshore company backed by City investors. To compound the problem, Northern Rock is alleged to also have an agreement to continue supplying top-quality mortgages to Granite once existing loans expire. If...

SACRAMENTO – With every budget proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger repeats his mantra. “I will not raise taxes on the people of California because they are already paying enough taxes,” Schwarzenegger said last month as he unveiled his plans to attack a potential $14.5 billion budget gap. Nearly three weeks later, he reiterated that pledge. Speaking to newspaper publishers, Schwarzenegger said, “Raising taxes is out of the question because you can't tax your way out of this problem.” Yet, by substituting fees in lieu of taxes, Schwarzenegger proposes to reach into the pockets of motorists, disabled Medi-Cal recipients and homeowners for...

A Bulgarian woman and a Romanian man have the world's best-looking bottoms, according to the jury of a backside beauty contest sponsored by a lingerie firm, a company spokeswoman said Thursday. Beyond a 10,000-euro (14,400-dollar) cash prize, Kristina Dimitrova, 19, and 24-year-old Andrei Andrei each won a modelling contract for the company's next international advertising campaign as well as a year-long insurance policy for their rear ends in case of injury. Some 15,000 people from 29 countries responded to a call by the European company Triumph to post photos of their backsides on the Internet three months ago. The site...

I am just curious; here we are nearly a week after the Iowa straw poll. You remember the won that Romney bought for $3.5 Million. Well I am reviewing the polling and it appears I was wrong. I stated that Romney would probably get a bump out of Iowa but it would be short lived. Well according to the daily Rasmussen numbers Romney was running between 13% and 15% for 8/1 – 8/7, for 8/8 – 8/11 15% and 12%, for 8/12 – 8/17 14% - 15% (with one day at 16%). I thought this win was supposed to put...

The percentage of older Americans in the workforce is increasing markedly, partly driven by a need for affordable, employment-based health insurance. A report released this morning by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute said the percentage of 55-and-older persons in the labor force ballooned from 38 percent 1993 to 45 percent in 2006. The percentage of Americans aged 65 to 69 jumped from 18 percent in 1985 to 29 percent in 2006. The increased workforce participation — especially among full-time, full-year workers — also is prompted by the need to accumulate retirement savings, the institute report said. Two primary forces...

The Washington Times CBO: Bill would only reduce illegals by 25% June 4, 2007 DEVELOPING / 6:13 p.m. The Senate's immigration bill will only reduce illegal immigration by about 25 percent a year, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report, Stephen Dinan will report Tuesday in The Washington Times. The bill's new guest-worker program could lead to at least 500,000 more illegal immigrants within a decade, said the report from the CBO, which said in its official cost estimate that it assumes some future temporary workers will overstay their time in the plan, adding up to a half-million by...

I just woke up from watching the Democrats' debate last Thursday, and I am rested and ready to report! Someone needs to tell the Democrats to stop talking about their families. I know they're trying to demonstrate their "family values," but using actual, live human beings to illustrate the freakish ideas of the Democratic base just makes normal people uncomfortable. When Chris Dodd was asked about gay marriage, he said he always thinks of his little daughters — aged 2 and 5 — and imagines them turning out to be lesbians, saying he would want them treated equally. To prove...

There is no point to electing Pro-Family, Pro-Life, Pro-Free Speech, Pro-Second Amendment candidates anymore. At least, that's what we're essentially being told by the Rudy Giuliani for President crowd. The candidates themselves have no impact on such issues, we're told, and so we shouldn't take that into consideration when choosing whom to elect. Yes, the Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Gun, Pro-Free Speech voters should not take their respective issues to the voting booth. They are issues that can be addressed simply by nominating judges. That's all that matters. So we're told. So this is where the Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Gun, Pro-Free Speech crowd...

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.