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If you live along the Texas or Louisiana coast, you need to keep your eyes open for something that could mess with your plans next week. http://moe.met.fsu.edu/cgi-bin/gfdltc2.cgi?time=2008071900-invest94l&field=Sea+Level+Pressure&hour=Animation Click the FWD key. That particular forecast model, which actually has been one of the better ones in recent years, shows a Category 4 hurricane hitting just east of Houston by mid-week.

Ron Paul is frequently described as a strict constitutionalist who won't vote for anything not authorized in the Constitution. Some call him Dr. No. Some call him "The Taxpayer's Best Friend." It's a reputation that doesn't appear to square with the fact. Try to find the constitutional authority for the earmarks he submitted for the upcoming FY 2009 budget. Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science: • $250,000 for Galveston Economic Development Partnership, for Galveston Center for Business and Technology Development to help spin off private investment at National Lab of the University of Texas Medical Branch • $500,000 for City...

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — The opposition said Friday that its rallies had been banned indefinitely three weeks before the presidential runoff, while the U.S. ambassador accused President Robert Mugabe's regime of using food as a weapon to stay in power. U.S. Ambassador James McGee said the regime is distributing food mostly to its supporters and that those backing the opposition are offered food only if they hand in identification that would allow them to vote. If the situation continues, "massive, massive starvation" will result, McGee told reporters in Washington by video conference from Harare. Aid groups in Zimbabwe were ordered...

A plane has crashed into a building in the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil, according to reports. Local television network Globo TV showed footage of a cloud of dark smoke billowing above skyscrapers near the city's domestic airport, Congonhas. More to follow...

HARARE, Zimbabwe — I had never been arrested before and the prospect of prison in Zimbabwe, one of the poorest, most repressive places on earth, seemed especially forbidding: the squalor, the teeming cells, the possibility of beatings. But I told myself what I’d repeatedly taught my two children: Life is a collection of experiences. You savor the good, you learn from the bad. I was being charged with the crime of “committing journalism.” One of my captors, Detective Inspector Dani Rangwani, described the offense to me as something despicable, almost hissing the words: “You’ve been gathering, processing and disseminating the...

A lot of readers have wondered why the Texas caucuses have been so slow to report to the media. The answer: They're not reporting in great numbers anymore, and they don't actually have to. Nonetheless, we might still have a decent estimate of the final result for you to consider. Hector Nieto, spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party, explained to Election Central that the caucuses elected delegates to the state Senatorial district conventions that will then elect delegates to the state convention, and weren't required to report to the state party headquarters. The results that have come in came from...

A team of scientists from Hong Kong and Turkey believe they have discovered the remains of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey. After many years of searching, in the summer of 2007, the fourth expedition yielded results. Turkish mountaineering expert and explorer Mr. Ahmet Ertugrul came upon a cave at an altitude of over 4200 meters and inside found parts of a wooden structure. Samples were sent to Hong Kong University and the results clarified the findings were part of a petrified wooden structure In an exclusive interview with Infolive.tv, Mr. Ertugrul talks about the discovery and plans to...

Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - UCLA fired head football coach Karl Dorrell on Monday. Dorrell, a 1987 UCLA graduate, was dismissed despite a rather successful five- year tenure that included a bowl trip each season. "This was a very difficult decision for me," said UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero. "Karl has represented this program with dignity and class. He is a true Bruin and I respect what he has accomplished in his five years as our head coach, particularly off the field. But, at the end of the day, the focus has to be on results and I felt...

DALLAS — More than 40 teachers and one principal in Dallas might lose their jobs at five schools that received academically unacceptable ratings for two straight years, according to a district memo.Three high schools and two middle schools fell into the academically unacceptable category, and under state law, must go through a process known as "reconstitution."Only a handful of the state's 8,000 schools must go through this process, said Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency."When you reconstitute, you're cleaning house, basically," Ratcliffe said.The Dallas Independent School District has identified 44 teachers who could be fired, based on...

The Really Dark Horse Congressman Ron Paul, who we think we're safe in saying is the only GOP member of the House to support medical marijuana and oppose the death penalty and the Iraq war, has announced he's running for president as a Republican. Paul ran for the office on the Libertarian ticket in 1988 but, as even the most Xbox-addled of you must know, he didn't win. For the past ten years he's been representing the 14th District in Brazoria County, easily winning reelection despite his somewhat oddball policy positions. Steve Olafson has been a dedicated follower of Brazoria...

SAN ANTONIO - Former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales became a free man Friday, getting about six months trimmed off his four-year sentence on account of good behavior, authorities said.Morales, 50, was a two-term attorney general from 1991-98 who helped win a $17 billion settlement against big tobacco companies. In 2002, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor.The courtroom victory against big tobacco was eventually Morales' undoing. He admitted to falsifying a contract so that a longtime friend and lawyer could personally profit from the settlement. Morales had contended that Houston lawyer Marc Murr was due $560 million from...

JOHN Kerry walked away from the 2004 presidential election saying he'd never let himself be "swift-boated" again. Kerry's failure to respond to television ads featuring false claims about his military service, where all he did was earn a Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, helped seal his fate.Right now, it looks likeTexas Gov. Rick Perry should take note. Perry's toll road plans are in the midst of being swift-boated — by his own fellow Texas Republicans no less.There is so much misinformation being spewed in the halls of Austin that years of Texas' work and billions in private...

The 27-year-old victim returned to house after fleeing together with girl A southwest Houston father shot and killed a 27-year-old man Saturday after arriving home to find the man with his 13-year-old daughter, police said.After the parents arrived at their home in the 6900 block of Chasewood, the girl and 27-year-old man fled out the back door, said Houston Police Department spokeswoman Johanna Abad. The man later called the mother by phone and returned to talk to the parents, but the girl remained missing throughout the night.When the man returned to the house, the father was waiting for him with...

WASHINGTON — White House spokesman Tony Snow made a startling claim earlier this month, one that shed some light on changing perceptions about the job he's doing.During a briefing, Snow responded to a question about climate change by noting that, "We're talking about nuclear development, which is now championed by, among others, Greenpeace."Beg your pardon?"I think there's some Greenpeace people who are certainly advocates of nuclear power," Snow said.As whoppers go, that was a good one. Certainly, it was news to Greenpeace."Golly, you know, I can't believe the White House would get that wrong," said Jim Riccio, Greenpeace nuclear policy...

As an observer and frequent participant at Free Republic, it's not hard to notice that a great deal of the threads about the 2008 Presidential election center around two people, Rudy Giuliani, and Duncan Hunter. That seems odd, because there are other major contenders, notably John McCain, Mitt Romney, and to a lesser extent, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, and Tom Tancredo. I might have even omitted one or two "lesser extent" candidates. The Rudy threads are fairly ugly, with a lot of good people throwing mud at each other. The cans of spam lying in the dust could feed an...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — A woman playing the penny slots Saturday morning left the Resorts Atlantic City casino with her own little jackpot — a new baby boy. Eight-months pregnant Nyree Thompson, 32, went into labor on the casino floor about 9:30 a.m. Thompson said she mistook labor pains for gas at first, but after going to the restroom told a security guard that she might be giving birth. Thompson said the guard thought she was joking. Then her water broke. "A guard came over and said, 'Don't push,'" Thompson said. "I said, 'Forget you, this baby is coming right...

Any attempt to judge our history by today's standards -- out of the context in which it occurred -- is at best problematic and at worst dishonest.For example, consider the following quotations:"So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished.""[T]here is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality."By today's standards, the person who made the first statement, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, would be considered enlightened. The person who made the second,...

AUSTIN — Flashy billboards and television ads beckon Texans to casinos in Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Buses and cars full of eager gamblers zip over to those states to plop down cash playing blackjack, roulette and slots. It's a pot of money Texas ought to have a piece of, gambling proponents say, to help pay for education and other important services. But time and again anti-gambling forces have blocked casinos or any semblance of them in the conservative Lone Star State. In some circles the idea of casino wagering is akin to a state income tax — a Texas...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won a big re-election victory recently. I didn't stay up to see the returns. I had a hunch he might make it. And why not? Anyone who can attack the United States, belittle our president at the United Nations while providing subsidized food for the poor, free university educations and many cash benefits for ordinary folks back home, has a winning political platform these days. Forgive me for not getting on the bandwagon. Based on his recent history and his statements following his re-election, we can make one certain prediction. The people of Venezuela are facing...

SUVA, Fiji — Fiji's coup leader ran want ads in local newspapers today to fill vacant Cabinet jobs, trying to piece together a new government for the south Pacific country. Army chief Frank Bainimarama has removed a swathe of senior civil servants, including top police officers, saying he is weeding out corruption entrenched in the administration of ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase."Applicants must be of outstanding character and without any criminal records," the advertisements noted, asking aspirants to submit applications at military headquarters by Tuesday. "Each must not have been declared bankrupt.""The deadline indicates the urgency in trying to get...