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ALAMO — In a botched robbery Thursday night, a suspect shot a jewelry store employee who returned fire and shot the male robber, a sheriff's spokesman said. The shooting reportedly occurred at 7:15 p.m. during an attempted robbery at Alamo Jewelry Mart, 3189 Danville Blvd. The victim, a 53-year-old Hercules resident, who was shot in the upper torso, was rushed to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, investigators said, and was in fair condition. Once police arrived, the suspect, who also was shot, holed himself in the store, holding a handgun to his own head, said Contra Costa sheriff's...

House of Lords, 8 December 2009: Lord Turnbull: My Lords, on first reading the Committee on Climate Change’s latest progress report, I found it an impressive document. It was broad in scope and very detailed. But the more I dug into it the more troubled I became. Below the surface there are serious questions about the foundations on which it has been constructed. There are questions in four areas-the framework created by the Climate Change Act 2008, the policy responses at EU and UK level, the estimate of costs and finally the scientific basis on which the whole scheme of...

Alert for 85 al Qaeda SuspectsIn what is being described as an "unprecedented global alert," the International Criminal Police Organization today issued its largest-ever most wanted list for 85 terrorist suspects, who are sought by Saudi Arabia for allegedly plotting attacks against the country and for suspected links to al Qaeda. New Terror Scare in Saudi Arabia Alert for 85 al Qaeda Suspects In what is being described as an "unprecedented global alert," the International Criminal Police... Expand In what is being described as an "unprecedented global alert," the International Criminal Police Organization today issued its largest-ever most wanted list...

Thanks again, Marietta Daily Journal, for doing what news organizations are supposed to do: investigate and inform.

Law: American heroes are arraigned for allegedly punching a terrorist in wartime. What happens to Tiger Woods isn't vital to our country's future. What happens to Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe is. People are more likely to recognize the names of Tiger's alleged bimbo eruptions than the names of these three Navy SEALs we sent into battle. They are not household names in a nation consumed with Climate Gate, the public option and the antics of billionaire athletes. An administration consumed with apologies has said the architect of 9/11's massacre, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, must be given all the...

Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell believes in ending the death penalty, conserving water and reforming government — but he doesn't believe in God. His political opponents say that's a sin that makes him unworthy of serving in office, and they've got the North Carolina Constitution on their side. Bothwell's detractors are threatening to take the city to court for swearing him in, even though the state's antiquated requirement that officeholders believe in God is unenforceable because it violates the U.S. Consititution. "The question of whether or not God exists is not particularly interesting to me and it's certainly not relevant...

Teenagers shouldn't drink alcohol. That's the policy of the United States government, which spends billions to enforce laws backing the policy, and it also is the position of pretty much every respectable organization in the nation, including the Department of Education. So naturally, when looking to fill the post of the nation's top school-safety official at the Education Department, President Obama chose a guy who founded and led an organization that allowed bar guides to be handed out to high school students. Once again, "safe schools czar" Kevin Jennings has been involved in making schools less safe. As always, this...

Ok, calling all the mono-syllabic fill-in hosts who supposedly write "opinion" pieces but have not the courage of their own convictions to sign their name to either their written nor broadcast work: Explain this! Romney is 5% behind, Palin is 6% the also-rans are running... behind. Hey Jude... you're being called out... cause someone put a "bullet" in the "head" of your anonymous opinions.

Washington (CNN) -- Members of the Congressional Black Caucus called on President Obama Friday to address the skyrocketing unemployment rate facing minorities -- especially African-Americans and Latinos -- and greater economic conditions plaguing low-income communities. "Our job is to make sure the legislation that gets to the president's desk responds to the degradation and the crisis in our community," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, at a Friday news conference. "Our community is bleeding. And we are the worst hit." According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in November 2009 for blacks is at 15.6 percent --...

VALLEY STREAM (WPIX) - A Nassau County jewelry store owner was shot in the torso as he faced three would-be robbers and, amazingly, was able to detain one suspect until police arrived. At 7:11 p.m., three suspects -- a woman and two men -- attempted to rob Papandrew Jewelers, located at 11 Sunrise Highway at Franklin Avenue in Valley Stream. One man, Edward Hamilton, 24, of Brooklyn, produced a handgun and the store owner retrieved his own gun from behind a display case, according to police. The two exchanged gunfire when Hamilton jumped over the display case. The store owner...

* HOUSTON - A would-be robber is shot to death by a tire store owner in north Houston, and officers are searching for three suspects who got away. The shooting took place after 8 p.m. Wednesday at the 11100 block of Bauman Road. Police say four men tried to stage a robbery at the El Mante Tire Shop at the 11000 block of Bauman Road at approximately 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. The store owner, who has a license to carry a concealed handgun, drew his weapon and started shooting. One robbery suspect died in the shop, but three others escaped in...

ROME, OCT. 26, 2009 (Zenit.org).- As the theory of evolution turns 150 years old, one group of scholars is calling it a scientific impossibility.After a year of conferences celebrating the 150th anniversary of Darwin's 1859 book, "On the Origin of Species," a Nov. 9 conference is planned to provide empirical proof to debunk evolution. Rome's Pope Pius V University will host the daylong conference that will present a scientific refutation of evolution theory. Peter Wilders and H. M. Owen, organizers of the event, told ZENIT that the conference is aimed to "stimulate debate among scientists" and that it is particularly...

History serving “a social aim,” rather than chronicling the past in a detached manner, is what readers get in A People’s History of the United States. With any luck, “The People Speak,” the History Channel documentary based on the book that premieres this Sunday, will be, like so many Hollywood productions, unfaithful to the original. Given A People’s History of the United States’ infidelity to facts, this might be the only chance viewers have of seeing anything resembling an accurate retelling of history.Through Zinn’s looking-glass, Maoist China, site of history’s bloodiest state-sponsored killings, transforms into “the closest thing, in the...

Lesbian nominee approved by Senate committee despite pro-family outcry Washington D.C., Dec 11, 2009 / 12:48 pm (CNA).- Despite the complaints of her critics that she supports same-sex "marriage" as well as previously endorsing polygamous relationships, the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of Chai Feldblum to be one of five commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and sent her nomination to the Senate for a full confirmation. “At this time of challenge, Americans need committed, capable public servants working full time on their behalf,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and...

New species might arise as a result of single rare events, rather than through the gradual accumulation of many small changes over time, according to a study of thousands of species and their evolutionary family trees. This contradicts a widely accepted theory of how speciation occurs: that species are continually changing to keep pace with their environment, and that new species emerge as these changes accrue. Known as the 'Red Queen' hypothesis, it is named after the character in Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There who tells a surprised Alice: "Here, you see, it takes...

For the past 28 years, the village of Amelia, Ohio, has hosted a Christmas parade. It won't this year. One person threatened village mayor Leroy Ellington with legal action. Rather than duke it out, Ellington caved. He offered to host a " Holiday Parade." Village residents told Ellington where to stick the "Holiday Parade." Each year, it comes to this, a facile attempt to take the name "Christmas" from the Christmas season. How did we get to the point of political correctness where saying "Merry Christmas" risks a lawsuit or being kicked out of school? Christmas Day, Dec. 25, honors...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco has reversed a judge's order that backers of Proposition 8, the state initiative that banned same-sex marriage, give their campaign strategy documents to opponents trying to overturn the measure. In a unanimous ruling today, the Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals tossed out the order that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued in October against backers of Prop. 8, which state voters approved in November 2008. Walker had said lawyers for two same-sex couples and a gay-rights group were entitled to see internal memos and e-mails between Yes on 8...

Unfortunately, what Harry Reid giveth, Harry Reid taketh away.

This is the third installment of a Monday series excerpting the chapter on political causes from Thomas Sowell's latest book, "The Housing Boom and Bust."IBD Exclusive Series: Thomas Sowell on The Politics of the Housing BoomIn 2002, the George W. Bush administration urged Congress to pass the American Dream Downpayment Act, which subsidized the down payments of prospective homebuyers whose incomes were below a certain level. After passage of that act, the president also urged Congress to pass legislation permitting the Federal Housing Administration to begin making zero-down-payment loans at low interest rates to low-income Americans. In 2004, Federal Housing...

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is warning that the "nuclear option" is being considered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass ObamaCare... This means only 50 votes would be needed to pass a healthcare takeover bill that would tax Americans to the tune of $500 billion, while gutting Medicare $464 billion. Grassley, and others believe the current plan on the table would lead to "rationed care, shuttered hospitals, overburdened doctors and waste." No doubt feeling the pressure to punch ObamaCare through before Christmas, Reid is now demanding lawmakers work on Sunday... Reid's quick-step signals a shift for Grassfire. We can't...

My office sent this press release earlier in the week. You are invited to attend my town hall on Chinese drywall. See details below! Also, let me know how you think I'm doing. Take my 1-question survey here. ---Congressman Cao -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- December 9, 2009 ***MEDIA ADVISORY*** Cao to Host Town Hall on Chinese Drywall Washington, DC - Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao (LA-2) will conduct a public town hall and briefing about Chinese drywall for Louisiana residents whose homes were rebuilt with this tainted material. The event will be held on Monday, December 14, 2009 from 9:00am - 11:00am CST at...

The first time Howard Zinn's now-classic book "A People's History of the United States" appeared on TV was in "The Sopranos" on HBO, when Tony's teenage son A.J. came home from school with a copy of the book and told his parents that, according to Zinn, Columbus was a slaveowner and murderer. Tony got mad, and replied, "In this house Columbus is a hero. End of story!" That was 1999. This Sunday, Dec. 13, Zinn's "The People Speak" – the documentary inspired by his books "A People's History" and "Voices of a People's History," will be broadcast on the History...

Children are uniquely malleable beings, readily convinced of magically colorful tales – Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are the first that come to mind. This innocence is beautiful, but it is a quality that can easily fall victim to radically foreign ideas if taught consistently and pervasively at an early age. One need only look at the birth of fascism or socialism to see a recipe for how radical ideas become ubiquitous among a nation’s youth. Enter Howard Zinn – an author, professor and American historian – who, with the help of Hollywood and the History Channel, intends to...

Finally, there is some good news on the health care front. The headlines went to a possible compromise on the contentious issue of the public option, but the greater victory may lie in less-publicized Senate action that might actually cut the costs of our impossibly expensive health care system. This week, the outlines of such a change emerged in a package of amendments proposed by 11 freshman Democratic senators — who have an abundance of common sense that more than compensates for their lack of seniority and renown. Since they came back from their August recess, with the angry words...

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Climate deniers are on the offensive, even here. Check out the press release to see the way these guys operate. In the advisory, they call themselves the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and they are inviting the press to an International Climate Eco-Summit (ICE 2009). Sounds so smooth. Meanwhile tomorrow's event comes after another one organized by the Americans for Prosperity just yesterday where a group of fifty U.S. clean energy youth activists stormed the stage in Copenhagen during a live webcast also featuring endless climate crisis denier Christopher Monckton. He goes buck. Here's the video (Monckton spills the...

The Libertarian Party is stuck in a loop that sustains its electoral irrelevance. Now is the perfect time for a strategy change. America has long used third parties as forums for statements of dissatisfaction with the big two. But while Theodore Roosevelt, Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, and Ross Perot generated considerable heat, they were populist flares who soon burned out. Every four, years the Libertarian Party picks a presidential candidate who tallies meager vote totals. In 2008, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr received 523,686 votes -- 0.4% of the national total. Clearly, the purpose of the exercise isn't to win....

Last February I mentioned the events that would commemorate the life and work of Charles Darwin in 2009. I had no idea at the time that I would be invited to participate in one of these events. But there I was, precisely 150 years after On the Origin of Species first appeared, seated with other scientists in front of a packed room that featured, among other interesting things, a life-sized model of a baleen whale. The venue was the National Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, and the occasion was a panel discussion titled Design without a Designer? [1]...

The classic confrontation between Humphrey Bogart and Alfonso Bedoya in "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is being reprised, featuring banditos from East Anglia, Penn State, Washington and the U.N. "We're Federales," they tell us. "You know, climate police. Evidence? We ain't got no evidence. We don't need no evidence. We don't have to show you any stinkin' evidence." The U.S. alone has spent over $30 billion on alarmist "climate science" the past 20 years — plus $35 billion on renewable energy — based on the banditos' tales of a global warming catastrophe if we don't slash fossil fuel use and...

Senator Jim DeMint is urging the Republican establishment to tack further to the right. That's because he believes the leadership has swung too far to the left. In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody, DeMint (R-SC) said his party deserves a better slate of candidates than the ones put forward to run against the Democrats "I need some new Republicans, people who believe in constitutional government, a balanced budget and liberty and so I’m out across the country recruiting new Republicans who I think if they get here will not only challenge the institutions of government but...

Michelle Obama is more than just the First Lady; she's also Barbara Walters' "Most Fascinating Person of 2009." During the broadcaster's TV special on Wednesday night, Obama was given the top honor over people such as Sarah Palin, Kate Gosselin, Lady Gaga, and Brett Favre. In addition to appearing on Wednesday night's TV special, Walters saved part of the interview for Thursday's episode of "The View." During the previously-unaired footage, the First Lady talked about attempting to raise humble and gracious children while they continued to live in the White House. In terms of responsibility, Obama told Walters that "they...

State and university employees could wind up with IOUs in their pay envelopes instead of checks in February if the planned sale of state buildings hits a snag, state Treasurer Dean Martin warned Monday. And that could leave worker with a piece of paper that won’t help them buy food for their families, pay the mortgage or heat their homes.

It wasn't so long ago that Barack Obama's speeches were being hailed as "extraordinary" "rhetorical magic" (Joe Klein in Time) that should be "required reading in classrooms" (Bob Herbert in The New York Times). Pity the poor grade-schoolers who have to be on the bus at 5am for a daylong slog through the 4,000-word sludge of the President's Nobel thank you. Rich Lowry, my boss at National Review, writes that Obama has become a "crashingly banal" bore. The good news is that he "is not nearly as dull as, say, Herman van Rompuy". Who? Oh, come on. Herman van Rompuy....

On Wednesday, Liberty Counsel lawyers appeared in court to defend Lisa Miller. Last month a Vermont court ordered the custody of Miller's biological daughter transferred to her former lesbian lover. The ACLU and Lambda Legal Defense Fund are seeking to transfer custody of 7-year-old Isabella to Janet Jenkins, a Vermont resident who lived with Miller in that state before the latter's conversion from the homosexual lifestyle. Miller met with the ire of a Vermont judge after she refused to send her daughter to scheduled visitations with Jenkins because, she says, Isabella has been traumatized by past visits. The Virginia Court...

Long feared by US intelligence, Muslim radicalisation is gaining momentum in the United States, which has had a spate of cases featuring youths recruited and trained overseas for jihad. The latest case - five US nationals arrested in Pakistan on Wednesday on suspicion of plotting an attack - deepened concern that militant Islamist groups are successfully enlisting potential attackers inside the United States, much as they have in Britain. (snip) "We've known for several years that al-Qaeda and its allies like Lashkar-e-Taiba have put a high priority on recruiting assets in the Pakistani communities in the United States, and the...

Hypocrisy: Sen. Max Baucus' office defends his girlfriend's big pay raise by pointing to the raises others living off the taxpayer spigot got. What sympathy for the 10% of Americans suffering unemployment. If you didn't think the Democrats in power in Washington are doing enough to spark a people's rebellion, just look at their latest shenanigans. Congress is raising the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion in hopes that next October, when Republicans will be pounding them on this, voters won't remember what they were up to way back in December of 2009. But that astronomical amount...

Zaytuna College, which plans to be the first accredited Muslim college in the United States, is set to open next fall in Berkeley, California. The college has been hailed as a victory for moderate Islam, a place to promote religious understanding by "blending traditional Islam and American culture and establishing a permanent place for the religion in American society," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. But Zaytuna College may not be as moderate as it seems--or moderate at all. The college's founders, Hamza Yusuf Hanson and Zaid Shakir, are similarly lauded as even-keeled Muslims who, according to the Chronicle,...

Hundreds of thousands of people living in Catalonia will vote in referendums on Sunday Around 160 municipalities across the northeastern region will stage unofficial polls asking their citizens whether they are in favour of breaking away. The 700,000 votes are not legally binding but demonstrate the strength of a movement that threatens to rupture Spain. Chief among those leading the revolution is Joan Laporta, president of Barcelona FC, the club that has become synonymous with Catalan identity and the struggle against perceived oppression. When he is not on the sidelines at matches, Laporta has been travelling between towns in Catalonia...

Amid mounting criticism that minorities, women and low-income workers are missing out on business opportunities and jobs under the stimulus bill, the Obama administration is urging the nation's governors to work harder to ensure that these groups participate fully in state transportation projects that receive federal funding. The issue of equity has cast a cloud over the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act in recent weeks as various reports appear to confirm what minority advocates and some economists have been saying: that the fruits of the stimulus bill may not be reaching groups who are suffering the most in the worst...

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Staff Sgt. Azhar Sher is a rare and valued commodity in the Army. Fluent in Pashto and a variety of other languages spoken in Afghanistan, the infantryman has spent most of the past five years there because, he said, he believes in the mission. Five deployments in five years, no problem. But back home, living on post? That can be a problem for a Muslim with Pakistan-born parents, no matter how patriotic. "I belong to a very large extensive family and, let me be very blunt and honest with you, my family wears traditional clothes and practices...

Gordon Brown has said Britain will pay £1.5 billion to a European Union climate change project despite the British recession and his Government’s huge deficit. At an EU summit in Brussels, the Prime Minister offered to pay the money into an EU fund intended to help poorer countries to cut their carbon emissions. The offer will make Britain the largest contributor. France and Germany each promised around £1.2 billion to the EU fund, which will be worth around £6.5 billion in all. Mr Brown had previously signalled the UK contribution would be £1.2 billion. Officials said the Prime Minister offered...

Health Care: IBD recently ran an extensive series of pieces by economist Thomas Sowell highlighting government's involvement in the financial meltdown. We did it both to correct the historical record and to warn about future interventions of the same kind. The most important warning is over current plans by Democrats in Congress and the White House to "reform" the U.S. health care system in a way that will end up hamstringing private insurers, bankrupting doctors and adding trillions of dollars to U.S. debt — while not improving health care in America one jot. As the sagacious Sowell has noted many...

ORANGE - Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today – but the president failed to get a school named after him in the Orange Unified School District. The district's board voted unanimously tonight to deny a petition for a proposed charter school named after Obama. The district held a public forum on Nov. 12 to determine public interest for the proposed charter school – which no one attended. "It's unfortunate that we have to waste our time with this petition as I see it," said school board President John Ortega. "But we have to follow the Education Code and...

Thomas SowellIBD Exclusive Series: Thomas Sowell on The Politics of the Housing Boom (Fifth and final installment of serieesCongressional support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went far beyond words. When the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight — the agency overseeing these government-sponsored enterprises — turned up irregularities in Fannie Mae's accounting and in 2004 issued what Barron's magazine called "a blistering 211-page report," Republican Sen. Kit Bond called for an investigation of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, tried to have their budget slashed and sought to have the leadership of the regulatory agency removed. Democratic Congressman...

LifeNews.com Note: Center for Bioethics and Culture consultant Wesley J. Smith, is also a Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics at the Discovery Institute and the associate director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. He is the author of the Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World.   "Flash Forward" is a new and interesting television drama presented on the ABC Television Network. The premise is brilliant - due to reasons still unknown, everyone in the world (except the bad guys) blackout for two minutes seventeen seconds. Planes crash, people collapse on the streets, swimmers...

Perhaps when the history of our times is written, ours will be called The Era of Narcissistic Catechisms. To understand why this is the case it is enough to consider the fortunes of two green movements. On the main stage of global affairs this week we have the much touted UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Standing with 15,000 delegates representing green activism groups and politically correct scientists the world over are international celebrity leaders like Nobel Peace Prize laureates Barack Obama, Al Gore and Desmond Tutu and their fellow celebrities and Oscar and Grammy winners Al Gore, Leonardo Dicaprio,...

COPENHAGEN, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Population control has emerged as a key issue for "climate change" talks in Copenhagen, after the issue was brought forward by Chinese delegates. Zhao Baige, vice-minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC) said, "Population and climate change are intertwined, but the population issue has remained a blind spot when countries discuss ways to mitigate climate change and slow down global warming." "Dealing with climate change is not simply an issue of CO2 emission reduction but a comprehensive challenge involving political, economic, social, cultural and ecological issues, and the population concern...

In research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, in which almost 2,000 felons were interviewed, 34% of felons said they had been “scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim" and 40% of these criminals admitted that they had been deterred from committing a crime out of fear that the potential victim was armed. Allowing law-abiding people to arm themselves offers more than piece of mind for those individuals -- it pays off for everybody through lower crime rates. Statistics from the FBI’s Uniformed Crime Report of 2007 .....

While the wizards of smart are convening in Copenhagen, attempting to solve what they perceive to be the biggest global societal ill - anthropogenic climate change, one of the things that likely won't be discussed is the possibility of the opposite occurring, global cooling. But AccuWeather's chief hurricane forecaster, Joe Bastardi warns it is a bigger threat than global warming. He says the phenomenon is coming, based on three priniciple reasons - 1) Natural reversal of ocean cycles, 2) Low sun spot activity and 3) An increase in volcanic and seismic activity. Bastardi made this case on the Fox Business...

Need evidence for Darwinian evolution? Just make it up. That’s the lesson of Donald Prothero’s book, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). Prothero is a professor of geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles. On November 30, he teamed up with atheist Michael Shermer (founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine) to debate Stephen Meyer and Richard Sternberg of the Discovery Institute. Shermer wrote the foreword to Prothero’s book, calling it “the best book ever written on the subject.” In fact, “Don’s visual presentation of the fossil and genetic evidence for evolution is...