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His first votes were largely along party lines, including one against a measure to require building 700 miles of border fence by 2011, which he opposed because "none of the relevant effective law enforcement agencies were asking for it," spokeswoman Jess McIntosh said. Fellow Democrat Amy Klobuchar voted for the measure. Many of Franken's new staffers -- 26 hired so far -- are Washington veterans, including chief of staff Drew Littman, a former lobbyist who has been an instrumental figure in setting up many Senate offices over the years. Franken also signed on to his first earmark requests on Wednesday...

Legendary former world champion Arturo Gatti, 37, has reportedly been found dead inside a beachside flat he was renting at the Hotel Dorisol of Porto de Galinhas, Pernambuco, Brazil . . .

Nothing to add. Hanks sings for himself! HankWilliams

For months after the 2008 election the propaganda was that the Republican Party was dead, and the United States Was entering the world of European Socialism. Newsweek even made it a cover story which pretty much recommended that we should stop fighting and get used to it. After all that was the way Obama and the Democratic party was heading, and their popularity was sky high. The mainstream media read the public totally wrong. Voters wanted the President's policies to work, or at the very least, thought that he should be given a chance to make them work--as long as...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Higher wages are on the way for those making the minimum. On July 24, minimum wage is going up by seventy cents to $7.25 an hour. Even though it's not even a buck, in a 40-hour week that adds up to 28 more dollars. An almost $30 raise for all employees is giving some businesses a headache. Waiting for ice cream on a hot summer day. Customers come to Rosewood Dairy Bar for a number of reasons. The workers like to think it's because of the low prices, and that's something they don't want to change,...

I'm going on staycation this week, but soon after returning from tending my tomatoes and taking afternoon naps, I'll be cooking Kass' Beer Can Chicken for 100 lucky loyal Tribune subscribers, and we'll drink beer and talk politics and anything else. Details at the end of this space. But first, let's welcome two new members into the Society of the PLMSRCS. Everybody knows this snappy acronym: the Society of People Lord Mayor Shortshanks Really Can't Stand. *snip* He's investigated the mayor's nephew receiving $68 million in city pension investments that Daley doesn't know anything about. He's teamed with the feds...

MOSCOW, Idaho – The giant Palouse earthworm has taken on mythic qualities in this vast agricultural region that stretches from eastern Washington into the Idaho panhandle — its very name evoking the fictional sandworms from "Dune" or those vicious creatures from the movie "Tremors." The worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have been only a handful of sightings. But scientists hope to change that this summer with researchers scouring the Palouse region in hopes of finding more of the giant earthworms. Conservationists also want the...

Manhattan, Kans., Jul 11, 2009 / 01:50 pm (CNA).- For more than four years, Kathryn Bloomquist has prepared to formalize a life of solitude and prayer. Late last month, she made the final step and was consecrated as a hermitess before Bishop Paul Coakley and a few witnesses.Now, as Sister Kathryn Ann of the Holy Angels, she will spend her days mostly in solitude, "lived to the praise of God and the salvation of the world," she explains.It is a path she has walked for much of her life.She moved to Kansas from Washington, D.C., with her husband, Len, in...

Police: Several People Shot After Massive Fight, 1 Dies Posted: 6:30 am EDT July 11, 2009Updated: 4:03 pm EDT July 11, 2009 CONCORD, N.C. -- Police were called to a scene involving multiple shootings in Concord early Saturday morning. Officers said one victim died. Officers said they got the first call just before 4 a.m. of about 150 people fighting in front of a home on Ervin Avenue. When they arrived, they found at least four people had been shot. Those victims were taken to the hospital. 20-year-old Keyarre Miller died shortly after. The surviving shooting victims are, Echo Latoya...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain intends to try to hold up two Obama administration nominees because of a dispute over land-swap legislation intended to pave the way for an Arizona copper mine, his spokeswoman said Friday. McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan confirmed the Arizona senator will oppose the nominations of Bob Abbey as director of the Bureau of Land Management and Wilma Lewis as Interior assistant secretary for land and minerals management when they are voted on by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. She said he intends after that to place holds on the nominations when they come before the...

RUTH Madoff had a rough time at California Pizza Kitchen the other night. Slinking into the East Side eatery with a young female friend, she ordered a salad and white wine, but quickly got flustered. "The waiter said she was upset because she had coupons and they expired before she could use them," a witness told us, adding that several diners told the waiters they shouldn't serve her. One bit of good news for Ruth, though -- she'd just learned her Ponzi-schemer hubby, Bernie Madoff, will be locked away in upstate Otisville, the prison his lawyer had requested. "I'm so...

Here is video of CNN's Anderson Cooper showing us all just what we probably thought - he's an elitist - so much so that he has no idea how to get whipped topping (Redi-whip) out of a can! . . . . . (Watch Video)

Although Mr Obama has made foreign policy pronouncements for some parts of the world since assuming office in January, this year, he is yet to make one for Africa, and his visit to the country, which the White House describes as “one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa”, is expected to be used as a platform to unveil his foreign policy for Africa. “It is expected that President Obama will make a major foreign policy statement on Africa”, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, told the Daily Graphic. For Ghana, Obama's visit will be a celebration...

We have recently read discussion in the mainstream media revolving around possibly creating a second stimulus package because, it seems, the first stimulus package — which has currently only expended around 20 billion dollars of its 787 billion dollar appropriation — either isn’t “comprehensive enough” or isn’t working, the opinion of which depends upon the political affiliation of the media person doing the analyzing of this new second stimulus idea. Such talk of yet another allocation of dollars the United States does not have nor has a hope of raising — without offering sky-high interest rates on its bonds and...

Some of you may not agree with Tammy Bruce, but she gave a great analogy of Sarah's statements today in the Washington Times. Check it out

The Republican chief judge of the Richmond-based federal appeals court has retired suddenly because of illness, giving President Obama another opening to fill on what was once considered the nation's most conservative appellate court. Karen Williams of South Carolina, the first female chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, stepped down this week shortly after learning that she was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, according to her family. Alzheimer's, for which there is no cure, can cause mental deterioration and memory loss. Williams is 57 years old. The 4th Circuit, an influential voice...

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut the door Thursday to a resolution by a Houston lawmaker honoring Michael Jackson because debate on the symbolic measure could raise "contrary views" about the pop star's life.

Joe Jackson wants to teach his grandkids the ABCs of showbiz. The notoriously hard-driving stage dad said he sees star power in Michael Jackson's two youngest children. "I keep watching Paris. She maybe wants to do something," Joe Jackson, 80, said on Friday in an interview with "Good Morning America." "And Blanket, he can really dance." The comments by Jackson's father - who said Thursday he suspects foul play in his son's untimely death - came as British tabloid The Sun reported today that Jackson had lethal levels of painkiller Demerol and heroin substitute methadone in his body when he...

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Rachael Ray has undergone surgery to correct a problem with her vocal cords, according to People. A rep for the talk show host and all-around foodie said she had surgery last week. “After several months of vocal therapy and on the advice of her doctors, Rachael decided to have a benign cyst removed from her vocal cord,” rep Charlie Dougiello told People, which first reported the news. Dougiello said Rachael is taking it easy following the surgery. “According to Rachael’s doctors the minor, non-invasive procedure was a success and she is already resting at home,” he...

DNA tests linked a reputed Genovese capo - along with 11 million other white men - to hairs found in a hat at the scene of a gangland rubout, a forensic scientist testified Thursday. Michael (Mikey Cigars) Coppola went into hiding in 1996 to avoid giving a DNA sample. He remained a fugitive for more than a decade. Coppola is on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for racketeering and blowing away gangster John (Johnny Coca Cola) Lardiere outside the Red Bull Inn in New Jersey on Easter Sunday 1977. The killer dropped a blue cap - likened by one police...