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Rick Danko, singer and songwriter for The Band died today. No further details were announced. The Band recorded "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", and "The Wait". The Band was the subject of a documentary concert film by Martin Scorcese titled "The Last Waltz".

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered "striking" differences between men and women in a part of the brain linked with ability to estimate time, judge speed, visualize things three-dimensionally and solve mathematical problems. The differences, the researchers say, may underlie well-known trends that vary by sex, such as the fact that more men than women are architects, mathematicians and race-car drivers. In a study reported this week in the journal Cerebral Cortex, the researchers show that a brain region called the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) is significantly larger overall in men than in women. The area is part of ...

Next Wednesday I have to drive into our town to pay our real estate taxes for the year. During the time that I will be driving to/from town I will, according to Hillary, be homeless. Please pray for me. The stigma of being called homeless by my family and friends is almost more than I can bear. It just seems unfair that while my wife and kids will be home in our $200,000 house awaiting my return that I have to be called names and be pitied. I hope when W gets elected he will pass a law that all ...

GOP to condemn income tax By Bonna M. de la Cruz / Staff Writer The state Republican Party is expected to join a group of GOP state lawmakers in formally denouncing a state income tax in a move that would further isolate Gov. Don Sundquist from the party. Legislators also want party leaders to develop a plan to use the income tax issue to beat the Democrats in next year's elections. That, too, estranges the Republican governor, who had offered Democrats some cover if they supported tax reform, saying he would campaign for them. The 66-member Executive Committee of the ...

President Clinton Won't Go But Howard Phillips presidential candidate of Constitution Party and Larry Klayman of the Judicial Watch will go to Panama on Dec 14, 1999. When the United States pulls out of Panama next week under the Carter-Torrijos treaties of 1977, the CHINESE will move in. And while President Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore won't be on hand to greet them, Howard Phillips and Larry Klayman will.

Don't be surprised if Woody Allen's next film is about a man who finds out that his estranged son is a child genius and is going to university at 11. Satchel Allen, the only biological child of film director Woody Allen and actress Mia Farrow - who was renamed Seamus Farrow after his parents' acrimonious split in 1992 - has applied to study at New York's Columbia University next year. Apparently Allen, who has been estranged from his son for four years, had no idea he was attending a college for gifted high-school children in Massachusetts.

End of BlueCross Deal Adds TennCare Strain By BOB GARY JR. Staff Writer For years, TennCare has held together despite increasing strain caused by the combination of too many patients and too little money, but now it appears that there's a break in the dike. About 1.3 million Tennesseans are enrolled in TennCare, the state's $4.3 billion health insurance program for the poor, uninsured and uninsurable. Half of those patients are covered by one insurer: Chattanooga-based BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. In 16 Northeast Tennessee counties BlueCross has been in a business arrangement with Tennessee Health Partnership for the past 31/2 ...

Glancing through yesterday's thread as well as older threads on Buchanan, one issue that keeps coming up is Buchanan's harping on corporations for their lack of patriotism and pursuit of profit above all else, even the jobs of American workers. This criticism of Buchanan is typical of that leveled by insincere conservatives who insist on holding him to a ideological level of purity they themselves never approach in a thousand years. Most of these critics of Buchanan of course merely repeat blanket economicist doctrine originating in Universities or think tanks sponsored by large corporations - two bastions of internationalist ...

The choppy waters of Internet copyright law just got even rougher. This week, a federal judge in Utah issued a preliminary injunction against Sandra and Jerald Tanner, whose site, which contains criticisms of the Mormon church, provides links to text pirated from the church's Handbook of Instructions. The judge, whose injunction will stand until the case is tried or settled, said it is likely the couple engaged in "contributory copyright infringement" by linking to a site they knew, or should have known, contained the unauthorized copies. The Tanners' lawyer, on the other hand, argued that since the couple were acting ...

If Bedrooms Are for Sleeping, Why Won’t the Mayor Build More? Wake-up Call for Rudy   It's official: Under the reign of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, all sleeping is to be done in bedrooms. The mayor laid down that edict on November 19 when he announced that homeless people who sleep on the street risk arrest. "Streets do not exist in civilized societies for the purpose of people sleeping there," spat the mayor, who himself lives in a mansion with no fewer than five bedrooms. "Bedrooms are for sleeping." But an analysis of the Giuliani administration's spending to produce ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barry Toiv, a deputy press secretary for President Clinton who has never really held a private sector job, has one now. Toiv announced Friday that he is leaving the White House at the end of the year to become a managing director at the giant public relations firm Burston-Marsteller. The mild-mannered Toiv, 44, whose previous idea for a change in his life was to shave his mustache, said: "I've reached the point in my life where it's time for a change." He was speaking on a scratchy phone line from West Memphis, Ark., where he was ...

Large body of water is indication life might have once thrived on planet Scientists at Brown University said Thursday they had found tantalizing evidence that the northern lowlands of Mars once bore a wide ocean that, until it dried up, had waves, hidden depths and long beaches. The findings, reported in today's issue of Science, were hailed for making the best case yet for the existence of a sea on primordial Mars. Although the findings bore no direct evidence of alien life on the planet, the large amounts of water would indicate life might once have thrived on the planet. ...

To: National Desk Contact: Rachel Querry, 301-258-8255, or Howard White, 301-258-3072, both of the Humane Society of the United States; Web site: http://www.hsus.org WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The old adage, 'Let the buyer beware' has taken on a new urgency this holiday season thanks to an ongoing investigation into the international trade in dog and cat fur by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). The undercover investigation into the international dog-and-cat fur trade by the HSUS, the nation's largest animal protection organization, has discovered that American retailers, including Hallmark and Ben Franklin, are (unknowingly) selling 'collectible' ...

Lineup for the Sunday TV news shows: ABC's "This Week" – Topics: Foreign hot spots and Republican candidates' debate. Guests: National Security Advisor Samuel Berger and Republican presidential candidates Orrin Hatch and Alan Keyes. ––– CBS' "Face the Nation" – Topics: Middle East peace prospects, Chechnya, Cuban boy and Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate bid. Guests: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Harold Ickes, adviser to Mrs. Clinton. ––– NBC's "Meet the Press" – Topics: Russian espionage and the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Guests: Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence; Paul Redmond, former ...

Nuclear Scientist Lee Arrested By H. Josef Hebert Associated Press Writer Friday, Dec. 10, 1999; 3:21 p.m. EST WASHINGTON –– Fired scientist Wen Ho Lee was indicted today for removing nuclear secrets from a secured computer at the Los Alamos weapons lab where he worked, government officials said. FBI agents immediately arrested Lee at his home outside of Los Alamos, N.M., and he was being taken to Albuquerque for an initial appearance later today before a federal magistrate, said FBI Special Agent Doug Beldon. The indictment, which was expected to be unsealed later in the day, was issued by a ...

Thursday Night December 9 Leno NASA still hasn't communicated with the Mars Lander. They say there is a better chance of Bill communicating with Hillary than ever making contact with the Lander. Things are getting a bit testy with Bill and Hillary. Today, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton says she opposes her husband's "Don't ask, don't tell" for the military. I wonder why? It's worked so well for their marriage. They're doing a Monica Lewinsky movie. An unknown actress from North Carolina will play Monica. I wonder how she got the part? And how did that audition go?

Date State Event Jan. 15 Louisiana Republican Presidential Congressional District Caucuses Jan. 24 Iowa Presidential Caucuses Alaska Republican Presidential Precinct Caucuses/Straw Poll Feb. 1 New Hampshire Presidential Primaries Feb. 12 Delaware Republican Presidential District Caucuses South Carolina Presidential Primaries Feb. 22 Arizona Republican Presidential Primary Michigan Presidential Primaries Feb. 26 Virgin Islands, Guam, Republican Presidential Caucuses American Samoa Feb. 27 Puerto Rico Republican Presidential Primary Feb. 29 North Dakota Republican Presidential Caucuses Virginia Republican Presidential Primary Washington Presidential Primaries March 7 California Presidential and State Primaries Connecticut Presidential Primaries Georgia Presidential Primaries Hawaii Democratic Presidential Precinct Caucuses Maine Presidential Primaries ...

This is where Pat will be this weekend. For those that are interested. Friends, There are three Reform Party state conventions taking place this weekend and I need your help! If you have family or friends in Arkansas, West Virginia or Hawaii please inform them of their respective state conventions listed below and ask them to attend. Once again, many thanks for all you have done to assist this campaign! All the best, Pat Arkansas Reform Party Convention Saturday, December 11, 9:00AM Ramada Hotel 120 West Pershing North Little Rock, Arkansas For more information call 501.224.0850 West Virginia Reform Party ...

The recent school shootings in Oklahoma have once again brought the subject of gun control to the forefront in public, political debate.   Liberals are telling us that incrementalized gun confiscation can make America a safer place in which to live.  And it is tragic that many of our citizens believe them, thereby revealing one of our greatest problems as a nation. The militant feminists are constantly whining about our discriminatory patriarchal society.  America is not a patriarchal society.  It hasn't been for many years. The rise of political correctness is an indication that we are living in a country that has ...

Study finds that about 300 genes are needed for simplest 1-celled living things WASHINGTON - A team of geneticists has come close to determining the minimum number of genes required for life to arise, an advance that ultimately could allow scientists to design and create living organisms from scratch. Tired of waiting for philosophers to answer the question "What is life?" the researchers took a scientific approach and concluded that about 300 genes are needed for a candidate life form to pass for "alive," a state generally defined by an ability to reproduce and respond to the environment. The discovery ...