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LOS ANGELES Jul 17, 2006 (AP)— A teenage girl reunited with her father last year after a decade in foster care is suing Los Angeles County for taking so long to bring them together. County supervisors had said in September that the reunion of Melinda Smith, now 17, and father Thomas Marion Smith was the result of a "groundbreaking effort," and congratulated county agencies for locating the father. But the lawsuit alleges that the Department of Children and Family Services failed to use "due diligence" to locate Thomas Smith. It claims the agency never notified Smith, who had continued making...

Answers in Genesis had been an international organization, with the U.S. branch under Ken Ham based in Kentucky, and an Australian branch under Carl Wieland in Queensland (which was formerly known as the Creation Science Foundation). Now the Australian group (along with ministries in Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa) has changed its name to Creation Ministries International, explaining in a recent brochure that the U.S. group did not want to be "subject to an international representative system of checks/balances/peer review involving all the other offices bearing the same 'brand name'." ... The U.S. group, known for spending millions on...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Wayne Gretzky will not face criminal charges in connection with a multimillion-dollar sports betting ring busted in New Jersey last week, and he is unlikely to be called to testify against others in the case, his lawyer said Thursday. Attorney Ron Fujikawa said he received assurances from New Jersey authorities last week that the hockey great was not in any way a central figure in the criminal investigation. That's not surprising, Fujikawa said, because Gretzky did nothing illegal. ... Gretzky's wife, Janet Jones, also is unlikely to face criminal charges in the case, her lawyer said...

... It's hard for modern Christians to imagine how such public turmoil could be created by an argument between theologians—or how God could work through the messiness of human conflict to bring the church to an understanding of truth. To us, in retrospect, the Council of Nicaea is a veritable mountain in the landscape of the early church. For the protagonists themselves, it was more in the nature of an emergency meeting forced on hostile parties by imperial power and designed to stop an internal row. After the council, many of the same bishops who had signed its creed appeared...

The nomination of White House lawyer Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has raised questions about her qualifications and political ideology. Conservatives and liberals alike fear that Ms. Miers will not represent their views, and will rule on issues in ways that harm our nation. But clearly we are not asking the right questions about Supreme Court nominees. The issue is not how candidates intend to wield judicial power, but rather whether they understand that the Constitution imposes limits on that power in the first place. We are guilty of permitting our federal courts to become politicized, when the proper...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur that died 68 million years ago has provided some of the strongest evidence yet that birds are the closest-living relatives of dinosaurs, scientists said on Thursday. Soft tissue found in the animal's thighbone strongly suggests it was a female, and just about to lay eggs, the researchers report. The bone tissue is strongly similar to that made inside the bones of female birds -- and no other living type of animal -- when they are producing the hard shells of eggs just before they lay them, said Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina...

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California are reporting at the 229th national meeting of the American Chemical Society progress toward the creation of a system for replicating a modified form of DNA containing an unnatural base pair. According to the Scripps Research scientists, this finding is a significant step towards expanding the genetic code and the ability of DNA to act as an information storage and retrieval system in the test tube and in simple, engineered organisms, such as yeast or bacteria. DNA with three or more base pairs could find broad applications in a number...

Beginning last November, the city of San Francisco began a program whereupon clinically obese men between the ages of 18 and 55 could undergo a procedure whereupon approximately 1/2 an inch is removed from each vas and the ends are sealed - commonly referred to as a vasectomy - completely free of charge. The overwhelming turnout led the State of California to follow suit, and now California is the first state in the Union to offer state-funded vasectomies to men who have been diagnosed as obese. Why would a state adopt such a controversial program? The basis is simple: vasectomy...

MOBILE, Alabama — Brandishing an assault rifle as she sprayed bullets at an abortion clinic in Alabama, and shouting to state troopers that “my gun will be taken from my cold, dead hands,” the new Hillary Clinton launched her campaign for the Presidency. “I’m tougher than anyone when it comes to the war on terror," she said. “To prove it, I will nuke Korea, Iran and Syria whether or not they have weapons of mass destruction. And screw the UN. I won’t let Europeans dictate our foreign policy. Bush is wrong to be cozying up to the Europeans. It’s the...

The barons of the American labor movement gathered Jan. 10 at the AFL-CIO fortress across Lafayette Park from the White House, with doors closed to the public as usual. The AFL-CIO Executive Committee's agenda prepared by President John Sweeney allotted 30 minutes for reform of the labor federation. But James P. Hoffa of the Teamsters insisted much more time was needed to debate badly needed changes. As Hoffa desired, more than two hours were spent on proposals by him and Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union. They would diminish the influence of the AFL-CIO, returning power to individual...

Running for the Illinois Legislature usually requires renting a campaign office, setting up a political fund, sending out mail pieces and posting yard signs. Democrat Michelle Chavez did none of that and still managed to unseat an incumbent House Republican from Cicero. Chavez, whose run for town president in 2003 drew only 4 percent of the vote, beat first-term Rep. Frank Aguilar (R-Cicero) Tuesday by an improbable 53 to 47 percent margin, sparking talk of chicanery in a town famous for its murky, cutthroat politics. House Speaker Michael Madigan's office, which maintains a tight watch on House races, said it...

Apparently Curt Schilling doesn't regret his endorsement of President Bush [related, bio] after all: The Sox hero has recorded automated phone calls backing Bush that will be made until Election Day. Trying at least not to be outdone, Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign yesterday signed up three Sox executives to campaign with him today in New Hampshire. Kerry's spokesman went so far as to say yesterday the Sox wouldn't have won the World Series if Bush had had his way as owner of the Texas Rangers. ``I don't think any member of Red Sox Nation can afford four more years...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A judge who set bail at $10,000 to $50,000 for people charged with minor offenses such as loitering or bicycle violations has lost his job. The state's highest court narrowly upheld the recommended removal of Henry R. Bauer from Troy City Court, in a decision that not only costs him his $113,900-a-year job, but prevents him from ever holding judicial office again in New York state. In a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals said it found Bauer had committed "grievous misconduct," including a pattern of setting excessive bail for low-level offenders. One man spent...

<p>WASHINGTON - President Bush’s political team is orchestrating a vastly larger advertising campaign than thought possible under federal law, taking control of millions in Republican Party funds simply by inserting the phrase “our leaders in Congress” in selected commercials. ...</p>

MIAMI (AP) -- The nation's leaders need to put aside partisan labels to help Florida recover from the devastation of three major hurricanes during the past month, Democratic Senate candidate Betty Castor said Saturday. In her party's weekly radio address, Castor said Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan "have cut a terrible swath of destruction," destroying homes and damaging military bases and the state's agricultural industry. "At times like these, we are not Republicans or Democrats. We are all Americans," Castor said. "The worst of Mother Nature brings out the best in human nature." Castor, a former state education commissioner, defeated...

STUART, Fla. (AP) - A mental health counselor with a history of assault arrests ordered his two pit bulls to attack a group of people who were riding out Hurricane Frances inside their office building, police said. Two people were bitten and one of the dogs was stabbed. Ryan C. Moore, 54, who treats anger management problems and addictions, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated battery for allegedly releasing his dogs with the command "Go get them" while he and the others were riding out the Sept. 4-5 storm. William E. Schoonmaker, who operates an insurance agency in the...

MOSCOW (AP) - Police stopped a man driving a car wired with land mines and explosives in downtown Moscow early Saturday, Russian security officials said. The man, detained by Moscow police around 1 a.m., told police he had been paid $1,000 to park two cars with explosives in them along a Moscow street frequently used by top government officials, said the duty officer at the Federal Security Service. The officer said the man later suffered a heart attack and died while in police custody, but he refused to elaborate. Police later located a second car in a residential neighborhood in...

... In 1996, for example, Republican nominee Bob Dole and Democratic nominee Bill Clinton ruined the presidential debates before they even started. During debate negotiations, Dole demanded the exclusion of Reform Party nominee Ross Perot, even though Perot had received $29 million in taxpayers' funds for his campaign and over three-quarters of eligible voters wanted him included. Clinton, meanwhile, desired the smallest possible audience for the debates -- what George Stephanopolous called a "nonevent" -- because he was comfortably leading in the polls. ... The American people never knew why a candidate they wanted to see was excluded, why the...

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Justice has asked an appellate court to keep its arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John Gilmore is challenging federal requirements to show identification before boarding an airplane. A federal statute and other regulations "prohibit the disclosure of sensitive security information, and that is precisely what is alleged to be at issue here," the government said ... ... "would be detrimental to the security of transportation," the government wrote. Attorneys for Gilmore, ... said they don't buy the government's argument and that its latest request raises only more...

BERNALILLO, N.M. (AP) - A well-known former judge pleaded guilty on Thursday to cocaine possession and aggravated driving while intoxicated. He was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation. "I feel embarrassed and humiliated as a result of my actions," former Judge John Brennan told retired state District Judge George Perez, who accepted the pleas. Perez granted a conditional discharge to the cocaine possession charge, which means it will be removed from Brennan's record if he successfully completes probation. The DWI charge will remain on Brennan's record. Brennan, a chief judge of the state district court in Bernalillo County for...