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American troops of the 1st Infantry Division leaving the port of Weymouth, England en route to Omaha Beach in Normandy in June 1944 .June 6th, 1944- Into the Jaws of DeathTom Jensen, sergeant with the 626th Engineer Light Equipment Company, told the Chicago Tribune that many of the men he served with had no idea where they were going on that day: They didn't tell us anything we didn't need to know. Heck, some of the guys on our ship thought we were headed to Japan, not Normandy. Just months earlier, we were either in high school or working odd...

Cover Girl is a 1944 American comedy musical film starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. The film tells the story of a chorus girl given a chance at stardom when she is offered an opportunity to be a highly paid cover girl. The film was directed by Charles Vidor, and was one of the most popular musicals of the war years. Primarily a showcase for Rita Hayworth, the film has lavish costumes, eight dance routines for Hayworth, and songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin, including the classic "Long Ago (and Far Away)". Rita Hayworth in The Big Show...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Construction has begun on Rhode Island's new tractor trailer tolling system.The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) crews began installing the first two of 14 planned gantry locations by Exits 2 and 5 on Interstate 95.Lane closures are in effect through next week, then the contractor will test the new system for about a month. These gantries are expected to begin charging trucks by mid-March, once everything is working properly.The ongoing construction is not halting the plans of the Rhode Island Trucking Association (RITA) to sue the state. "It's discriminatory," said RITA President Chris Maxwell. You can't...

Beirut/Aleteia (aleteia.org/ar) – How appropriate that this was done by someone from Lebanon, and from the rocks of Lebanon, specifically from Tartej. From these rocks, Nayef Alwan, who is from Aitou al-Zgharta in Lebanon, sculpted the statue of Saint Rita. This statue will be erected at the birthplace of Saint Rita—at the entrance of the town of Cascia, Italy—which is at the intersection of the roads between Cascia and Roccaporena.Alwan Nayef, of Lebanon, was the winner chosen out of many who had submitted miniature sculptures of the Saint to the town of Cascia. The statue was first flown to...

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Santa Rosa lies in a monastery in Viterbo near Rome Researchers have used X-ray techniques to uncover the cause of death of a 700-year-old Italian saint. Santa Rosa - who died when she was 18 or 19 years old - was most likely killed by a blood clot in the heart, say the Italian research team. It is said the 13th Century saint had miraculous powers that allowed her to raise someone from the dead and to survive the flames of a burning pyre. Her mummified remains are conserved in a monastery near Rome. Santa Rosa is one of...

EDINBURG — Hidalgo County commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday recognizing the contributions of immigrants to the Rio Grande Valley and offering their support to comprehensive immigration reform efforts. Citing the $400 million that immigrants contribute to the state's economy, the resolution calls for change to immigration policies that cause "great anguish to county residents who daily experience the tragedy of families divided by ineffective laws." The resolution was approved in advance of a state convention by the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance where the group will ask Congress to pass legislation that provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents,...

In Norway they may think that President Barack Obama has a great knack for peace, but around here his forte seems to be stirring up strife. New Orleans is mad because Obama's visit tomorrow will be little more than a whistlestop. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is mad because New Orleans gets all the attention, such as it is, while the lingering effects of Katrina over there are ignored. And from southwest Louisiana comes the cry, "What about Rita, Gustav and Ike? The president really needs to take a look at Cameron Parish." Obama is also being denounced for an apparent...

Veterans In Politics Talk Show Introduces Chris Simcox and Rita Bonilla LIVE on www.AllTalkRadio.net June 13:: Chris Simcox President/Founder of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and Candidate for US Senator Representing the Great State of Arizona:: Rita Bonilla member of Secured Borders USA and activist "You Don’t Speak For Me!” "Veterans In Politics" is a weekly radio show produced by the Veterans In Politics International and hosted by Steve Sanson and co-hosted by Ronda Baldwin Kennedy. The "Veterans In Politics" show is live every Saturday 2:05 PM Pacific Time you can call in and speak to the guest or/and hosts...

Cars have been a huge part of our lives. We use them to get around anywhere. It might have been the best invention mankind came up with, but we all hate several common things about cars, such as the cost of gas prices and traffic. We think sometimes in our imagination how awesome it would be if cars had wings, so maybe one day we will fly through terrific! We also despise accidents, high insurance and drunk driving. Sometimes, I feel that we need other alternative means of transportation, such as a subway system in the state of Texas; maybe...

New satellite imaging has revealed that hurricanes Katrina and Rita produced the largest single forestry disaster on record in America - an essentially unreported ecological catastrophe that killed or severely damaged some 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana. The die-off, caused initially by wind and later by the pooling of stagnant water, was so massive that researchers say it will add significantly to the greenhouse gas buildup - ultimately putting as much carbon from dying vegetation into the air as the rest of the American forest takes out in a year of photosynthesis. In addition, the downing of so...

Anna Nicole Smith's longtime companion Howard K. Stern is suing a journalist for "exploiting" the memory of the late model/actress. Stern filed a $60 million lawsuit against Rita Cosby on Tuesday over "false allegations" in her new book "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death." The book claims Stern and Larry Birkhead - the father of Smith's daughter Dannielynn - were lovers who plotted to get control of the late star's estate. Cosby, a former MSNBC correspondent, claims there is a sex tape to prove the pair were lovers. But Stern's attorney, L. Lin Wood, has furiously...

Rita Cosby is leaving MSNBC at the end of the month. Her contract was due to expire April 1 and was not going to be renewed, according to sources familiar with the matter. MSNBC cancelled Cosby's 10 p.m. show, Rita Cosby Live and Direct, in June. The network dumped Tucker Carlson's 11 p.m. show then too to make way for documentary programming. At the time, Cosby was named head of a new specials unit, but she has been featured sparingly since. The former Fox News personality gained notoriety for her celebrity pieces, most recently a story on Anna Nicole Smith's...

Last September, the Small Business Administration, which provides most long-term rebuilding aid to disaster victims, accelerated its lending to homeowners and businesses in the Gulf Coast, responding to criticism that it had been slow to respond to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005. But now federal investigators are looking into accusations that in speeding up its work, the agency made thousands of loans without following its own rules to avoid fraud. Current and former employees of the agency have told investigators that agency workers failed to secure proper proof that borrowers owned the houses they were supposed to rebuild or...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- In the neighborhood President Bush visited right after Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. government gave $84.5 million to more than 10,000 households. But Census figures show fewer than 8,000 homes existed there at the time. Now the government wants back a lot of the money it disbursed across the region. The Federal Emergency Management Administration has determined nearly 70,000 Louisiana households improperly received $309.1 million in grants, and officials acknowledge those numbers are likely to grow. In the chaotic period after two deadly hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, slammed the Gulf Coast in 2005 - Katrina making landfall...

WASHINGTON — Just as federal housing money was to start flowing again to thousands of Texas-based hurricane evacuees, a federal appeals court put everything on hold Friday. The ruling means that about 4,200 families in Houston, San Antonio and Austin who were left homeless by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will have to wait until at least February to find out whether the federal government is required to restore their rental assistance payments. By then, the temporary housing program will have expired — unless Congress or President Bush extend it.

NEW ORLEANS Hundreds of modular homes meant for hurricane victims were damaged beyond repair while unused and unprotected from weather.The Federal Emergency Management Agency bought the homes as emergency housing for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.Katrina slammed the Gulf coast in August of 2005.Rita came ashore in southeast Texas the following month.The failure to protect the homes from the sun and rain while they were in storage was outlined in a report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general.FEMA says many sat unused for months at an Army depot in Texarkana, Texas, because of restrictions on where such homes...

MCALLEN - Jurors today will hear about maintenance and safety practices of charter bus company Global Limo Inc. but not about the bus fire that killed 23 nursing home residents evacuated from Houston last year as Hurricane Rita bore down. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa granted a defense motion to limit testimony to alleged mismanagement that occurred during a four-month period before last year's accident. James H. Maples, president and director of Pharr-based Global, faces charges he falsified driver time records and failed to adequately inspect and maintain his fleet of buses. The company was shut down for safety violations...

Millions of dollars given to those fleeing RitaFEMA didn't require receipts or proof of damage By Ted Oberg (9/25/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - It could've been the most profitable toll-free phone call you ever made. During the Hurricane Rita evacuation last year, thousands of Houstonians stopped on their way out of town to call FEMA and collect thousands. If you didn't get free FEMA money, your neighbor may have. Thousands of dollars were just a phone call away. Last year, with Hurricane Rita spinning in the Gulf of Mexico and criticism of FEMA spinning out of control, the agency was willing...

Challenging the widely held view that levees and hurricanes are two of the biggest perpetrators in the ongoing demise of Louisiana's coast, researchers from Louisiana State University say the millions of tons of sand and silt swept in by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita prove that major storms actually help wetlands. Their conclusions, reported in today's edition of the journal Science and based on sediment measurements taken after the storms, call into question the entire foundation of Louisiana's sweeping coastal restoration program. That effort has been driven by the assumption that levees along the Mississippi River starved the coast of vital...