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Senate Sponsors: OBAMA. Short description: 11/1/97-ISLAMIC COMMUNITY DAY Synopsis of Bill as introduced: Declares November 1, 1997 to be South Shore Islamic Community Center Day. Last action on Bill: SESSION SINE DIE Last action date: 99-01-12 Location: Senate Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE - 0 SENATE - 0 Declares November 1, 1997 to be South Shore Islamic Community Center Day. 97-10-16 S REFERRED TO SENATE RULES COMMITTEE RULES 99-01-12 S SESSION SINE DIE 90_SR0110 LRB9007260KBkbA 1 SENATE RESOLUTION 2 WHEREAS, Since 1995, the South Shore Islamic Community 3 Center, located at 2672 E. 75th Street, has worked to improve...

The housing bill signed Wednesday by President George W. Bush will provide a stream of billions of dollars for distressed homeowners and communities and the nonprofit groups that serve them. Brody Mullins/The Wall Street Journal Acorn volunteers registered people to vote in late July. One of the biggest likely beneficiaries, despite Republican objections: Acorn, a housing advocacy group that also helps lead ambitious voter-registration efforts benefiting Democrats. Acorn -- made up of several legally distinct groups under that name -- has become an important player in the Democrats' effort to win the White House. Its voter mobilization arm is co-managing...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senate lawmakers on Saturday overwhelmingly passed a broad package of housing legislation, hoping to send a calming message to financial markets and voters amid the ongoing deterioration of the housing market and a growing number of bank failures. Meeting in a rare weekend session, the Senate voted 72-13 in favor of the bill, which includes tax breaks for homeowners, a $300 billion program to refinance loans for struggling borrowers, and a dramatic rescue plan for embattled mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Other provisions include an increase in the federal debt limit to $10.6 trillion...

WASHINGTON -- House and Senate leaders have largely hammered out a compromise deal on a mammoth housing package that would permit the government to bolster Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an emergency, overhaul supervision of the housing-finance giants and allow the government to insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages. The deal comes after tense negotiations and is likely to remain a source of contention when the House of Representatives votes Wednesday. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that a temporary measure to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could cost the government as much as...

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac -- emboldened by emergency regulatory actions that have triggered a two-day rebound in its battered stock -- is considering raising capital by selling as much as $10 billion in new shares to investors, according to people familiar with the matter. The high-stakes maneuver would have the potential to avoid a full-blown government rescue for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, twin keystones of the U.S. housing market. The publicly traded, government-sponsored companies own or guarantee about $5.2 trillion of home mortgages, or nearly half the total outstanding, and are at the center of government efforts to prop...

Selected excertps... IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the failed thrift, reopened its doors under federal control Monday and promptly moved to toss ailing homeowners a lifeline by halting all foreclosures on the mortgages it owns. "We can't make any promises," Ms. Bair said. "We're going to look at each one before we are going to let them continue on to foreclosure, and when we find people who want to stay in their homes, we are going to try to work with them to see if we can modify their loan." What's less certain, for example, is how the FDIC is going to...

IndyMac Bank, a prolific mortgage specialist that helped fuel the housing boom, was seized Friday by federal regulators in one of the largest bank failures in U.S. history. The Pasadena, Calif., thrift was one of the largest savings and loans in the country with about $32 billion in assets. It now joins an infamous list of collapsed banks, topped by Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co., which failed in 1984 with $40 billion of assets. IndyMac specialized in Alt-A loans, a type of mortgage that can often be offered to borrowers who don't fully document their incomes or assets....

The National Spelling Bee began its first rounds today. All of the action can be followed at: www.spellingbee.com. Also, the championship rounds will be broadcast live on ABC (for the first time) beginning at 8PM EST Thursday evening. I'm placing my guess on Speller #238, Samir Patel, from Fort Worth, Texas. He will be worth the price of admission for you to watch tomorrow evening. He was HILARIOUS last year when we participated in the Bee!

Here is the Colorado Revised Statute related to firing a public school teacher. Talk about job security! 22-63-302. Procedure for dismissal - judicial review. Statute text (1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (11) of this section, a teacher shall be dismissed in the manner prescribed by subsections (2) to (10) of this section. (2) The chief administrative officer of the employing school district may recommend that the board dismiss a teacher based upon one or more of the grounds stated in section 22-63-301. If such a recommendation is made to the board, the chief administrative officer, within three days...

I have been a supporter of Alito from the beginning and pray that he is composed of the proper fabric to be an "original intent" jurist on the Supreme Court. Having said that, I am aware of the following court decisions in which Alito participated that are worthy of debate. I'm especially interested in hearing from those in the legal profession. Blackwell -v- Knoll Summary: In 1995, Alito voted with the majority enabling women to get tax-payer funded abortions by claiming rape, even when no rape had been reported to legal authorities. Alexander -v- Whitman Summary: In 1997 Alito voted...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - With the help of the Catholic Church, Australian researchers have successfully grown adult stem cells harvested from the human nose, avoiding the ethical and legal problems associated with embryonic stem cells.

Challenge yourself. How many words can you spell correctly? This were words used during this weekends Colorado State Spelling Bee. The boy who won had only been studying for the bee since the beginning of February. Here's the spelling test here Here's a 3 minute video showing a synopsis of the bee here Here's the article that was written about the bee here

So.....you think you're smart? Try this quiz... Quiz

A person was fatally stabbed this afternoon in the cafeteria at Montbello High School, Denver police said. The identity of the male victim was not released. Police said they were not certain whether the victim was a student at the northeast Denver school. According to police, the victim was stabbed in the cafeteria shortly before 1:30 p.m. today and has since died of his injuries. There were no suspects in custody as of early this afternoon.

Hi FReepers, I have a question on BB guns and I can't find the answer to it, so I figured that I would ask the best source on the internet: FReeperdom! I have an old (1970's) Crossman 760 pump bb/pellet gun. I just purchased a new Crossman for my young son and took mine out of mothballs to shoot with him. When I pump air into my rifle I can often hear air escaping from the gun (it sounds like out of the muzzle). Is this something that can be fixed? Is Crossman corporation still around (I can't find a...

From Merriam-Webster Online: Phantom: 1a) something (as a specter) apparent to sense but with no substantial existence.Jury: 3) one that will decide. Fellow FReepers: As our brave troops undertake Operation Phantom Fury to rid the US (and all of the world) of terrorist insurgents, it is only fitting that we carry out the battle on our homeland by fighting the terrorist of unborn babies, Arlen Specter. Here are the various things you can do to participate in "Operation Phantom Jury": 1) Call your Senator, along with Senator Bill Frist and let them know that we will not stand for Arlen...

I think I just did something bad? BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

To our Vietnam Veterans: We can never begin to express the pride and honor that we have for ALL of you, for protecting our country in the hour of need. You are THE difference in this election. YOU fought the battle and were victorious! HOLD YOUR HEADS HIGH!!! Because of YOU your comrades did not die in vain! WE LOVE YOU AND APPRECIATE YOU!!! Please accept this SALUTE on our behalf!

A resource for tonight..please pull if not useful.

Freepers, This election has taken a lot out of all of us, so while we're in between tasks of getting George Bush re-elected I found some FUN that we can have: I always like to know the strategy of my enemy, so I listened to 'Err America' for a while tonight. They had on some guy from 'Texans for Truth' who was promoting his website: www.videovotevigil.org. He was stating how they had just increased the bandwidth and were going to have folks send in pictures and video detailing how the Dumbocrats are being denied their vote. I thought to myself:...