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SOUTHERN SHORSURAK, Afghanistan, July 21, 2010 – Marine Corps Cpl. Matt Garst continues to do his job here, thanks to an enemy-emplaced roadside bomb that malfunctioned. U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Matt Garst absorbed the direct blast of an improvised explosive device in Shorsurak, Afghanistan, June 23, 2010. Fortunately for Garst, the bomb’s explosives didn’t completely detonate. After spending a day to rest and attend to some aches and pains, Garst continued his mission. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Few people survive stepping on an improvised explosive device. Even fewer walk away the same day after directly absorbing...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday stopped companies from developing oil and gas wells on billions of dollars in leases off Alaska's northwest coast, saying the federal government failed to follow environmental law before it sold the drilling rights.

A hidden-camera documentary from the Center for Immigration Studies is the latest Internet sensation in the immigration debate. The YouTube video from the advocacy group, showing hundreds of border crossers on sensitive mountain and desert trails in Arizona, has surpassed 100,000 page views since it was posted July 14. The video has also been a frequent topic of discussion on cable news in the past few days, stealing some of the thunder from SB 1070-related developments in the courtroom. View the video The documentary is not the first immigration-related video to go viral. Previous YouTube hits featured national politicians -...

an “honor killing” of a 17 year old girl, Seyma G., by her brother “Y.G.” The brother accused with the murder was a member of the anti-democracy group Hizb ut-Tahrir. The murdered girl, Seyma G. had reportedly been staying in a shelter for women, fleeing family abuse. The international group Hizb ut-Tahrir is against democracy and freedom, seeks the creation of a global Islamic caliphate, and calls for the “death penalty” for “traitors” who leave Islam. The Hizb ut-Tahrir America organization had a conference scheduled for July 11, 2010 in a Chicago area suburb, that was canceled by Marriott Hotels.

The Navajo Nation Honors one of its fallen warriors. Red the AP story.

Deborah Atwood was soaked and shaken up -- but glad to be in one piece -- after experiencing what she described as a "free fall" on a United Airlines flight Tuesday night. Atwood, a resident of Northwest Washington, was one of 255 passengers on the jetliner that departed Dulles International Airport headed for Los Angeles and experienced turbulence that injured 21 people. "All I could think of was the final scene in 'Thelma & Louise,' " Atwood said Wednesday, referring to the end of the 1991 movie when the two title characters fly off a cliff in a vintage convertible....

I'd vote for President Obama again. I'd vote for U.S. Sen. John McCain again. I'd switch my vote from Obama to McCain. I'd switch my vote from McCain to Obama. I wouldn't vote.

I am a proud tea party member who happens to be a black woman. Unlike Hilary Shelton, Senior Vice President for Advocacy for the NAACP who was recently caught on tape lying about his alleged tea party experience, I have both attended and spoken at tea party rallies. Never once have I felt afraid. Never once have I witnessed pervasive racism. Never once have heard speakers use language that was racially divisive.

It took less than two hours from the time President Barrack Obama signed the new financial regulation bill before word of the latest unintended consequence hit the news wires. According to a report at Bloomberg, which you can read by clicking here, the new law may "flash freeze" the nation's credit markets. Moodys Investment Services, Standard and Poors, and Fitch Ratings have already told the Wall Street Journal that they are not going to allow underwriters to cite their ratings in bond-registration documents. Rumor has it that Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are considering prohibiting lenders from using their credit scores...

WILKES-BARRE – An Exeter man was sentenced Tuesday to eight to 16 years in state prison on charges he set fire to his home. The fire set off an explosion that damaged 55 homes, three businesses, an elementary school and left two 13-year-old girls injured. Luzerne County Court Judge Tina Polachek Gartley sentenced David Lamoreaux, 43, of Penn Avenue, on three felony counts, including two charges of arson and one charge of causing a catastrophe. “I truly am sorry,” Lamoreaux said Tuesday. “I’m not that kind of person at all … I’m sorry.” Lamoreaux pleaded guilty to the charges in...

"..But the larger question is: Why does anyone bother to hunt whales anymore? The economics of whale hunting are simply dismal. No whaling nation profits from it. Japan’s annual, much-criticized Antarctic hunt hasn’t involved private capital for years. As Leape notes: “Japan’s is a very small industry, employing less than 1,000 people, catching many more whales than they can sell. They try to promote it with school children and free-whale-meat days and it’s not catching on.” In Norway, although government-subsidized coastal whalers have missed their annual quota nine times in the last decade, blubber stockpiles mount as consumers ignore state-backed...

Egyptian experts have begun to explore the depths of Lake Qarun south of Cairo using remote sensing radars in search of sunken artefacts... Khaled Saeed, who heads the department of pre-historic affairs at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the team under his supervision hopes to pinpoint "huge basalt rocks" at the bottom of Lake Qarun. According to Saeed, the discovery of the rocks was first made by Egyptian-American scientist Faruq al-Baz, a veteran of NASA's Apollo programme, five years ago. Baz, who now runs the Centre for Space Studies at Boston University, was carrying out a satellite survey of...

It’s the same story in Kentucky’s race for U.S. Senate again this month. Republican Rand Paul continues to hold a modest lead over Democrat Jack Conway. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Paul picking up 49% of the vote, while Conway earns support from 41%. Four percent (4%) would prefer another candidate, while six percent (6%) more are not sure. Support for both Paul has been at 49% for three straight surveys while Conway has held steady at 41% or 42%. With the exception of a big bounce immediately after his primary win, Paul has...

It happened at the Kum and Go gas station on 86th Street North near Main Street.NewsOn6.com OWASSO, OK -- An Owasso Police officer shot a suspect who tried to rob an Owasso gas station Wednesday afternoon. It happened at the Kum and Go gas station on 86th Street North near Main Street around 5 p.m. Owasso Police tell the News On 6 a man armed with a rifle tried to rob the store. Officers said a witness ran outside calling for help. An off-duty Owasso Police officer, who was filling up his personal vehicle, confronted the suspect. Police said the...

...lately, I have discovered that I, like the public at large, have been completely misinformed as to what really goes on when organs are donated.

Not looking past 2010 by any means, but looking at this match, I see many conservative opportunities. Chances to retire some RINO's and many possible pick ups, if we are playing long game.

Most of the groups busted by the Utah County Major Crimes task force are made up of Hispanics, said director Lt. Phil Murphy. "The majority of them are not residents," . His Weber-Morgan county counterparts have kept statistics on their drugs busts. Of the 483 busts made between May 2009 and May 2010, 8 percent involved undocumented immigrants. But those 38 people were responsible for 82 percent of the total amount of drugs seized. Just a few short years ago, Utah was infamous across the country for having a massive number of meth labs. Strict laws have since cut the...

Just northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio, a sort of wooden Stonehenge is slowly emerging as archaeologists unearth increasing evidence of a 2,000-year-old ceremonial site... Like Stonehenge, the Ohio timber circles were likely used to mark astronomical events such as the summer solstice. Formally called Moorehead Circle but nicknamed "Woodhenge" by non-archaeologists, the site was once a leafless forest of wooden posts. Laid out in a peculiar pattern of concentric, but incomplete, rings, the site is about 200 feet (57 meters) wide. Today only rock-filled postholes remain, surrounded by the enigmatic earthworks of Fort Ancient State Memorial (map). Some are thousands of...

There is currently a fierce battle among several major news outlets to claim the front-row seat in the White House briefing room recently vacated by long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who retired amid scandal in June. One of the news outlets battling for the seat is Fox News, which is currently the only TV-network without a front-row seat. It will ultimately be up to the nine-member White House Correspondents’ Association board to decide who gets the highly coveted placement. This morning, The Daily Caller’s Jonathan Strong reported how some members of the now defunct Journolist list-serv discussed how Fox...

Anti-poverty advocates, business groups and unions all realize it’s now or never for Congress to move on restoring the estate tax. With the August recess looming, both sides of the debate are calling on lawmakers to act now on the tax. Lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill in the fall, hesitant to take a potentially toxic vote so close to the midterm elections on what could be termed a tax increase. The estate tax — which has lapsed since the beginning of the year — will return in 2011. It will be at its highest rate in 10 years, with...