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A female teacher at a private boys' school has been charged with sexual activity involving a sixth-form pupil. Classics mistress Hannah McIntyre, 24, is accused of abusing a position of trust and sexual activity with a child. The teacher, a keen musician, was suspended from Merchant Taylors' Boys' School, in Crosby, Merseyside, following her arrest in January. Yesterday police confirmed she had been charged with sexual misconduct with one pupil, and will appear in court later this month. Although sixth-form students are above the age of consent, it is a criminal offence for teachers to engage in sexual activity with...

Zillow.com estimated that the White House — if it was put on the market as a residence — would be valued at about $308 million. But the estimated value has fallen about 7% or $23 million from a year ago...The 55,000-square-foot White House has 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 16 bedrooms, 3 kitchens, and 18 acres of land in downtown Washington, the Web site said...Zillow estimated that one would need to earn $55.3 million a year to afford a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for the house. And by the way, the 20% downpayment would be $62 million.

Late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms... "Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States," said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University's extension center in Riverhead, New York. She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States. "Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe's are some of...

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has today published a clarification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) reiterating the Church's stand against abortion. The clarification notes that it comes after the CDF received communications from political and church leaders expressing concerns about an article published in the same newspaper by the new head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Salvatore (Rino) Fisichella. The clarification is an impressive compilation of most of the strongest statements of the Church in defense of human life. It runs though teachings from the Bible, the early Church, Councils and Popes, reaffirming...

Here is a video report on the heinous killing of a Florida couple who have sixteen children - eight of whom are adopted. The couple, Byrd and Melanie Billings, of Beulah, Florida, were shot to death in their bedroom around 7 pm Thursday night, July 9, while eight of their children were in the house. Police are looking for three suspects seen on a security camera inside the house. Many of the children adopted by the Billings have autism and Down's Syndrome. . . . . . (Watch Video)

Take a listen to the following line from Obama's latest press conference: We all know that the President is fond of reading Trig-Truther-in-Chief Andrew Sullivan and the Huffington Post, but his advisors really should have told him that the "Africa is a country" claim was a hoax or a blatant lie. I think she's still inside his melon.

Pope Benedict gave US President Barack Obama a surprise gift of the Vatican bioethics document "Dignitatis Personae," and discussed the ethics of abortion and embryo research in their first meeting in Rome this afternoon. A Vatican statement has said that in their private discussion, the pope addressed issues of "the defense and promotion of life and the right to abide by one's conscience." At the customary exchange of gifts, Obama presented Pope Benedict with a relic - a stole that had been draped over the body of the US's most popular Catholic saints, St. John Neumann, Bishop of Philadelphia from1852...

Three times in a row, the moonbats have been a NO SHOW! A little birdie told us their website stated different times and other location on certain Saturdays. So, Lurker Bill and I rushed down early to find them not there. We even stayed a bit longer to make sure they didn't show up and they didn't. I guess they follow the clock in Westminster and think it’s always 12 o’clock, therefore never the right time to protest, especially against a WAR that is no longer Bush’s but Obama’s. BELOW: Time stands still for the moonbats BELOW: 3 strikes and...

Futile Care Theory is bearing down on us now like a…well you pick the cliche`. But it isn’t a joke. If you want treatment, and the bioethics committee of a hospital thinks it is “non beneficial,” your stated desires mean very little.Now the San Diego Medical Association has adopted a futile care policy.  According to the SDMA, patients  “always have the right to refuse treatment.” But it’s a one-way street–and your advance directive can be overruled.  From the new “Model Hospital Policy on Non-Beneficial Treatment and Conflict Resolution”: A healthcare provider or institution is not obligated to comply with...

The CrunchPad, a simple touch-screen computer for Web-browsing only, is nearing reality with a company formed to oversee its manufacture. A dream product of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, the CrunchPad is designed to be "dead-simple," in Arrington's words. With just a half gigabyte of RAM, a 4 GB solid state drive and no physical keyboard, the device isn't capable of much besides running Firefox on Linux. In addition, the CrunchPad will have a single button for powering on and off, and will include headphone jacks, one USB input, low-end speakers, a microphone and a Web cam. The idea is to sell it for...

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- President Obama on Tuesday for the first time staked his fledgling presidency on pulling the country from its economic crisis, promising dispirited Floridians that his stimulus plan will produce tangible results such as jobs and tuition credits or he'll be ousted from office in 2012. "I expect to be judged by results and ... I'm not going to make any excuses," he said. "If stuff hasn't worked and people don't feel like I've led the country in the right direction, then -- you'll have a new president." But even after he cautioned people that they can...

This was in my archives and I think it is worth putting out for everyone to see. It is a 1940's film clip of the "Master Plan." I have no other information, other than what you see.

A man with a flag stuck to his forehead waits to catch a glimpse of U.S. President Barack Obama on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, in Ghana's capital Accra, July 11, 2009

Over the last couple of weeks, an interesting phenomenon has developed across the globe. People have been using social networking on the internet to rise up against oppressive governments and steer the direction of debate. Sites like Twitter and Facebook have become powerful tools in this fight. In Iran, massive protests have been coordinated to fight back against an unfair election. Iranians used Twitter to send protest locations, maps to hospitals, and to alert people where the government goons were launching there counter attacks. Twitter proved to be the most powerful tool in there uprising. While the final result of...

Can we all agree that the Gestapo/SS has a - what can we call it – bad reputation? As the enforcers for the National Socialist Workers Party (NAZI) they handled the detail work of taking care of the Third Reich’s enemies. How did they acquire such a bad reputation? Before you dismiss this as a stupid question, can we agree that during World War 2 atrocities were committed by all sides? Innocent civilians were killed by all sides; that’s the nature of war, especially war with dumb bombs and unguided weapons. Both the Axis and the Allies killed their enemies...

Here is video of Stuart Varney talking with influential trader Larry Livin who says market insiders know that the real unemployment data is much higher than the reported 9.5% - that it is actually above 15%. He does not see any reversal of high unemployment in the near future. . . . . (Watch Video)

For those interested in exploring one of the greatest internal and transnational threats to the United States, there is a new book out this week by Samuel Logan, This is For the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America’s Most Violent Gang. The book traces the history of Brenda Paz, a young Honduran who joins MS-13 and eventually becomes the most effective police witness against the organization, before she was killed. But besides the individual story, the book shows just how powerful and ruthless the MS-13 has become. Given that it now has chapters in thousands of cities across the United...

NEW YORK -- Cesar Perales has fought his share of critics over the years, in legal battles for minorities denied jobs, bilingual classes in schools and more Latino police officers. But none of those efforts compares with the tempest his Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund has stirred because of the dozen years that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor served as one of its board members. Conservatives have called the group's stances against capital punishment and for abortion rights, as well as its advocacy of affirmative action in worker discrimination cases, "extreme" and "shocking." Some have suggested Sotomayor's longtime...

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling. On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize what one called the "troubled and litigious work history" of firefighter Frank Ricci. This is opposition research: a constant shadow on Capitol Hill. "The whole business of getting Supreme Court nominees through the process has become bloodsport," said Gary Rose, a government and politics professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. On Friday, citing in an e-mail "Frank Ricci's troubled and...

Here is a video report on plans for President Obama and family to tour a former Slave Castle during his trip to the African nation of Ghana. The castle was used as a place to house thousands of Africans captured for the slave trade before they embarked for their journey to America. The report also shows how the people are prepared to greet Obama as a favorite son of Africa. . . . . . (Watch Video)