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WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2009 – The deployments of about 1,600 U.S. troops in Iraq could be extended in the weeks following the national election slated to occur in January, Pentagon officials said today. Some 1,000 soldiers from the Army’s 1st Cavalry Headquarters in Baghdad could be asked to stay up to 23 days longer and some 600 Marines from the II Marine Expeditionary Force in Anbar province could be extended up to 79 days, according to defense officials. Gen. Raymond Odierno said current military thinking is to maintain force levels between 110,000 and 120,000 troops for the two months after...

Top Democrat predicts extension of 'cash for clunkers' planTue Aug 4, 4:22 PM WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Democratic leader of the US Senate Harry Reid on Tuesday predicted that Congress would this week extend a wildly popular plan to entice Americans to trade in gas guzzling cars. The "Cash for Clunkers" plan, which offers drivers up to 4,500 dollars to replace obsolete autos with more fuel efficient models, exhausted its one billion dollar budget in a weeklong spree which boosted depressed car sales. Senate Majority leader Reid said after a meeting with President Barack Obama that despite congressional wrangling over...

NASA will likely have to continue flying its aging space shuttle fleet beyond its planned 2010 retirement date in order to complete construction of the International Space Station, a presidential panel said Tuesday. Former astronaut Sally Ride, a member of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, said that it was unlikely NASA could meet the current deadline of retiring the space shuttle by next year, as is currently planned. The first operational flights of the agency's replacement for the shuttle, the Orion spacecraft, may also be delayed a year or so beyond its 2015 target, she added....

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is extending the deadline for making its supposedly retired Windows XP operating system available to custom PC builders. Under the plan, system builders will be allowed to take delivery of XP licenses and media through May 30. Previously, Microsoft had announced a Jan. 31 XP cutoff date for system builders, which are typically smaller, build-to-order vendors. The news was first reported Friday by InformationWeek.com sister site ChannelWeb.

Despite the uproar over the state's proposal to build Trans-Texas Corridor 69 through East Texas, Lufkin's mayor says he supports the highway — as long as it follows the path of the current U.S. Highway 59. The Trans Texas Corridor/I-69 project is a statewide network of transportation routes in Texas that will incorporate existing and new highways, railways and utility right-of-ways. Anyone wishing to comment on the proposed road can go online to www.keeptexasmoving.com. TxDOT has expanded its public comment period for TTC-69 to Friday, April 18. Gov. Rick Perry appointed Gorden, along with 17 other Texans, to an I-69...

As the state's population continues to grow in its urban centers, expansion plans for the highway system continue to be the focus for transportation improvements. The Trans Texas Corridor proposal is aimed to alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality and provide safer traveling for drivers, among other goals. In 2002, Texas Governor Rick Perry released the plan to create the passageway, which spans northeast from Laredo to Oklahoma and is set to total 4,000 miles in the next 50 years. The $140 billion project calls for the incorporation of new toll roads, commuter railways, power lines and gas pipelines, while...

Thanks to an extended comment deadline, almost three weeks remain for people to let their feelings be known about the Trans-Texas Corridor. The most recent study of the proposal, which includes a stretch in Fort Bend County, must be approved by the federal government for the Texas Department of Transportation to proceed with planning and, eventually, construction. TxDOT and the Federal Highway Administration have extended their formal comment period through April 18. During this time, individuals are encouraged to submit written comments on either the project itself or what is called the Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS), which is a...

Lufkin Mayor Jack Gorden has been selected by the Texas Transportation Committee to serve on a citizens' advisory committee for putting together information regarding the proposed Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. According to Texas Department of Transportation officials, advisory committee members represent a cross-section of community and business leaders, landowners, local transportation experts and others. "Our goal is to enhance the public dialogue and meaningfully involve more Texans in transportation decisions," said Texas Transportation Commission Chair Hope Andrade. "These committees will have an important seat at the table as we work together to shape the future of transportation for our state." Gorden...

FORT WORTH -- The Trans-Texas Corridor is now so controversial, merely uttering the words in most political circles is taboo. "We're calling it a 'regional loop' because you can't say 'Trans-Texas Corridor' in the state of Texas anymore," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "The Trans-Texas Corridor is a lightning rod," he told visiting state representatives this week while explaining how the corridor would connect to regional highways by 2030. Opposition to the proposed construction of a $184 billion network of toll roads during the next 50 years is so strong statewide that...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

The Texas Department of Transportation's request for a 30-day extension of the public comment period for the Interstate-69/Trans-Texas Corridor Tier One Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been granted. The request was approved by the Federal Highway Administration which oversees the environmental review process for transportation projects. TxDOT has held over 500 meetings on the Trans-Texas Corridor including 254 county meetings, 95 environmental meetings and hearings on I-69/TTC, 171 environmental meetings and hearings on TTC-35, and 12 town hall meetings. The public comment period opened in December, and an extension through April 18th allows more citizens the opportunity to express their...

The six-month cease-fire ordered by Moqtada al-Sadr for his Mahdi Army soons expires, and many wondered what Sadr might do. Reuters reports that Sadr has decided to keep his militants sidelined for at least another few months. Sealed envelopes have gone to key Shi'ite mosques, with instructions to open them only in time for Friday prayers (via Hot Air): Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is expected to extend a six-month ceasefire by his Mehdi Army militia, two senior officials in his movement confirmed for the first time on Thursday. They said Sadr had issued a declaration to preachers to...

(LEAD) N. Korean leader asks Roh to extend Pyongyang visit by one day SEOUL, Oct. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Wednesday asked South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to extend his North Korea visit by one day and stay in Pyongyang until Friday, Roh's public information secretary announced here. "North Korean leader Kim made a proposal for Roh to extend his stay in Pyongyang. The South's government officials and the presidential aides will positively consider the proposal," Yoon Seung-yong said in a media briefing. Roh was originally scheduled to return to Seoul on Thursday. According to pool...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2007 – Some 3,200 soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, will have their tour in Afghanistan extended for up to 120 additional days, Defense Department officials announced today. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates approved the extension was based on the recommendations of commanders on the ground, whom Gates visited last week, Bryan Whitman, a DoD spokesman, said. The extension will provide military capability for NATO to build on the success achieved in promoting stability and security in Afghanistan while denying safe haven for the Taliban, he said. “What is certain is that Secretary Gates...

CHICAGO -- Former Gov. George Ryan can remain free while he appeals his racketeering and fraud conviction, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was issued without explanation Tuesday. Ryan, 72, was convicted in April of steering lucrative state contracts and leases to lobbyists and friends and using state employees and tax dollars to operate his political campaigns. He was sentenced in September to 6 1/2 years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Rebecca L. Pallmeyer had refused to grant bail to Ryan. But the appeals court overruled her and said...

FT WAINWRIGHT (Army News Service, Aug. 18, 2006) -- When the extension of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team to Iraq was announced, the Department of the Army responded by deploying a Tiger Team to Fort Wainwright to begin working Soldier and family issues. The Tiger team got down to business Aug. 4 and worked long hours before leaving last weekend. While at Fort Wainwright, the Tiger Team confronted a variety of issues affecting deployed Soldiers and their families. “This is the top priority of the Army’s leadership,” Col. Dennis Dingle, chief of the DA Tiger Team said. “We are...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2006 – The most important thing military leaders can offer their people is an up-front assessment of what they’re facing, as exemplified by the way the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team’s leaders informed the troops about their extension in Iraq, DoD’s top enlisted adviser told American Forces Press Service. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared his thoughts after returning from Alaska, home of the “Arctic Wolves.” The Defense Department announced July 27 that the brigade, which was in the midst of wrapping up...

The Pentagon has extended the tours of about 3,500 US troops in Iraq for 120 days in a move that dashed hopes of a reduction in the US force this year in the face of surging sectarian violence. The Pentagon also identified four other brigades with 25,000 troops for deployment to Iraq late this year and early next, enough to maintain the US force at about 130,000 troops for a year. "Additionally, the Secretary of Defence approved a request by the commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) to extend the deployment of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team operating in Iraq...

An identity-stealing keylogger that disguises itself as a Firefox extension and installs silently in the background was discovered Tuesday by security vendor McAfee. According to the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company, the "FormSpy" Trojan horse monitors mouse movements and key presses to steal online banking or credit card usernames and passwords, other login information, and URLs typed into Firefox, the popular open-source browser. Another component of the Trojan sniffs out passwords from ICQ and FTP sessions, and IMAP and POP3 traffic, said McAfee. All collected information is sent to an IP address hard-coded into the Trojan. The scam starts with spam...

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Friday rejected attempts to reauthorize several provisions of the USA Patriot Act as infringing too much on Americans' privacy, dealing a major defeat to President Bush and Republican leaders. In a crucial vote Friday morning as Congress raced toward adjournment, the bill's Senate supporters were not able to garner the 60 votes necessary to overcome a threatened filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47 Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and GOP congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act...

Google Inc. is testing a Firefox extension that displays blogger comments on the Web page being viewed. The Blogger Web Comments for Firefox, released in beta this week, shows a display panel on the bottom right of the browser that lists bloggers' comments. Clicking on an item launches a new tab for viewing the blog. For people subscribing to Google's blogging service, called Blogger, they can use an "add comment" link on the display panel to post their own comment on their blog. Google will automatically add to the blog a link to the page being viewed. The extension is...

I think that it has been well established that "conservatives" or whatever it is they call themselves these days (e.g., storm troopers) in matters concerning politics value little more than the state's power in which they imagine themselves to participate and the supposed glory that war and domestic national securitism brings to them. Now strictly speaking this is a delusion, because their only access to power lies in the accidental agreement of their opinions with those of the managers of the state. This access will evaporate as soon as the state does something that displeases our conservatives. It is always...

Do You Want to Live Forever? By Sherwin Nuland Febuary 2005 Wandering through the quadrangles and medieval bastions of learning at the University of Cambridge one overcast Sunday afternoon a few months ago, I found myself ruminating on how this venerable place had been a crucible for the scientific revolution that changed humankind’s perceptions of itself and of the world. The notion of Cambridge as a source of grand transformative concepts was very much on my mind that day, because I had traveled to England to meet a contemporary Cantabrigian who aspires to a historical role similar to those...

10,000 Troops Get Iraq Extension Associated Press December 2, 2004 WASHINGTON - With the insurgency still a threat to Iraq's planned elections, the U.S. force is about to expand to its highest level of the war - even higher than the initial invading force in March 2003. The force will grow from 138,000 today to about 150,000 by mid-January, the Pentagon said Wednesday. Extra troops are needed to bolster security before the national elections scheduled for Jan. 30. The increase in troop strength also underscores the fact that, despite enormous effort and cost, American commanders have yet to train...

Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000. Here, he explains why. Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today. I claim that we are close to that point because of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) project to prevent and cure ageing. It is not just an idea: it's a very...

The time extension in Allegheny county (Pittsburgh) is due to few provisional ballots in polling centers and the number of University of Pittsburgh students trying to vote. Supposedly many aren't on the books. There were so many students that registered to vote that they wanted their own polling place at Pitt. The link is from channel 4 (local ABC station). This is the part of the article that is even worse than extending the polling time. "In several Pittsburgh-area precincts, people who should have been casting their votes with provisional ballots were apparently permitted to use voting machines instead." http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/politics/3884568/detail.html...

Ah, the travails of a tiny country caught at the crossroads of greater powers. Sound familiar? Lithuania? Armenia? Israel? There have been so many holocausts that we could easily pick one out of a hat and discuss it. But because of recent developments in Damascus and Beirut, we’ll discuss Lebanon today. In a move I found quite surprising, the U.N. Security Council voted Friday in, support for a free and fair electoral process in Lebanon's upcoming presidential election, conducted according to Lebanese constitutional rules devised without foreign interference or influence. The new U.N. resolution also called for, the restoration of...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - An environmental group is accusing California farmers of not paying back a $1 billion interest-free loan used in the 1930s to build a large irrigation project that supports much of California's farm industry. The Natural Resources Defense Council, a congressman and others are also attacking contract renewals for the Central Valley Project, whose 20 reservoirs deliver river water to more than 3 million acres of farmland, including those in west San Joaquin Valley. The Bush Administration is attempting to push the deal through quietly and swiftly, according to the group, while millions of taxpayers' dollars used...

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - NASA has extended the mission of the Mars Odyssey orbiter which has been studying and mapping the Red Planet since early 2002 as well as serving as a relay for data from the surface rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Odyssey's primary mission, which cost $297 million, ended Tuesday. The $35 million extension will fund operations through September 2006, and NASA noted that the spacecraft has enough fuel left to operate through the rest of the decade and the following decade at the current rate of consumption. "Odyssey has accomplished all of its mission-success criteria," said Philip Varghese,...

I just heard a soundbite by Kerry saying he and Edwards are for the middleclass working people of this country. Not true, and here's why!

Results so far (excerpted from View Results page): Lifted: 46096 votes Extended: 146687 votes

FORT WORTH, Texas — Bankrupt Atlanta-based energy company Mirant Corp. can have an additional eight months before filing its reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court, a judge here ruled Wednesday. In the course of arguing over the extension, though, a Mirant consultant delivered some bad news for stockholders: There will be no money left for them unless something changes before the case is done. When Mirant entered Chapter 11 last year, it looked as if there would be something left for shareholders once creditors got paid. The blow to shareholders came during questioning by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael Lynn...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) launched a campaign to get an extension of controversial anti-terrorism legislation passed after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Insisting that the USA Patriot Act had helped prevent more terrorist attacks, Bush criticised members of Congress, who include Democratic presidential contender John Kerry (news - web sites), for threatening to block the renewal of parts of the legislation next year. "Some politicians in Washington act as if the threat to America will also expire on that schedule," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Yet we have seen what...

The two key Senate authors of the bill that created an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks said Thursday that they would introduce legislation next week to extend the panel's deadline by eight months, to next January. The senators, John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, said they were prepared to fight for the extension over the opposition of the White House and Congressional Republicans. Both want the 10-member commission to meet its original deadline of May 27. "An extension until after the November elections is warranted to ensure a comprehensive and thorough...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Army officials are working on developing a compensation package for soldiers in Iraq whose scheduled return home has been delayed, an Army official said.The Associated Press reported Monday that the Pentagon is extending tours of duty in Iraq for about 1,500 soldiers, mainly helicopter and other transportation support personnel.About 1,000 of the 1,500 soldiers affected by the delay are assigned to Europe-based units, according to U.S. Army Europe spokesman Michael Tolzmann.The affected personnel, from eight different units, “have been notified through their chains of command,” Tolzmann said in a Wednesday e-mail to Stripes.The delays are necessary...

THE HOUSE PLANS to show up today for what looks to be its sole day of work this month; the Senate will put in an appearance Tuesday. After that, lawmakers will likely leave for a long Christmas break, but unless Republican leaders change their minds, Congress will leave a major task undone: extending emergency benefits for the long-term unemployed. The emergency program will begin to phase out starting Dec. 21; as a result, an estimated half million of the nation's jobless will be without benefits by the time lawmakers come back to town Jan. 20. Ordinarily, unemployed workers are entitled...

No extension of deadline for Iran, nuclear chief says By Angus McDowall in Tehran 16 October 2003 Iran cannot expect an extension to a 31 October deadline to prove it does not have a secret atomic weapons programme, the UN nuclear watchdog chief said yesterday. "I cannot accept that by the end of the month we will be in a position ... [where] we believe we have not got all the information we require," the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said. Diplomats have said Iran might ask for the deadline to be extended. Mr ElBaradei said Tehran was...

The Associated Press Thousands of National Guard and Army Reserve forces are in for a longer stay in Iraq. The Army is reportedly extending their tours of duty in Iraq and surrounding countries to a year, months longer than many troops had anticipated. Most troops have been called up for a year of total service, which includes weeks of training in the U.S. before deployment and debriefings after they return home. The Washington Post reports the new policy was issued Friday without a formal announcement. It means many Guard and Army Reserve troops could have their original year-long mobilizations extended...

Bush Supports New Extension of Assault-Weapons Ban By Shannon McCaffrey Knight Ridder News Service     WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is bucking the National Rifle Association and supporting a renewal of the assault-weapons ban, set to expire just before the presidential election.     "The president supports the current law, and he supports reauthorization of the current law," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told Knight Ridder.     Tossing out the ban on semiautomatic weapons is a top priority for the NRA. President Bush said during his presidential campaign that he supported the current ban, but it was less clear whether he...

WASHINGTON - After declining to engage on the issue for months, President Bush (news - web sites) changed course Saturday and said extending unemployment benefits for laid-off workers is so urgent it should be "a first order of business" for the new Congress. AP Photo About 750,000 of America's jobless are due to stop getting unemployment checks three days after Christmas, with more to lose benefits after that. As part of an economic stimulus package passed in March, Congress approved a 13-week extension in federal unemployment aid, which runs out Dec. 28, for people who have exhausted the 26 weeks...

<p>Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon next week will seek another extension to file his 2001 tax returns, his campaign staff said Friday.</p> <p>Simon, a millionaire businessman whose campaign has been criticized for his initial refusal to release past tax returns, is still awaiting filing data from several investment partnerships in which he is involved, said campaign consultant Jeff Flint.</p>

<p>The Republican-led House yesterday voted to make permanent the Bush administration's tax cuts, but Senate Democrats promised to kill the measure that is fast becoming an election issue.</p> <p>The House vote was 229-198 along party lines. The lone "no" vote among Republicans came from Rep. Constance A. Morella of Maryland; nine Democrats voted for the bill.</p>