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Grant Opportunity - CDC Request for Proposals: Vaccine Confidence: The CDC Foundation is excited to announce a new funding opportunity that will award over $6.7 million to community-based organizations (CBOs) to support efforts to increase influenza and COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake for adults in racial and/or ethnic populations experiencing disparities in the United States. The CDC Foundation will provide $50,000 - $100,000 awards to an estimated 100 CBOs to: (1) Equip influential messengers by providing trainings and materials; (2) Increase vaccination opportunities and enhance provider partnerships; and (3) Establish partnerships with state and local health departments. The Request for...

A man who witnessed a stabbing in Oswego Township grabbed an AR-15-style rifle from his house and stopped the attack without firing shots Monday, according to the Kendall County sheriff's office.

Attention Illinois FReepers: Please spread the word about tomorrow's town hall meeting in front of Dick Durbin's office in downtown Chicago. 8/22/09 12:00pm-2:00pm Federal Plaza, 219 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago IL Dick Durbin refuses to hold townhall meetings so we're taking one to him. Join us for a townhall meeting outside Dick Durbin's Chicago office on Saturday, August 22. Be there at noon and bring friends, family, and neighbors. The more people we have the louder the message that voters can't be taken for granted. Organized by Cisco Cotto of WIND AM 560

MONTREAL (AFP) - A US tuberculosis patient who ignored warnings not to board a transatlantic flight with a potentially deadly strain of the disease is being sued by seven Canadians and two Czechs who flew with him, media said Thursday. American Andrew Speaker sparked an international health scare two months ago when he flew to Montreal via Prague, against doctors' orders. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had said he was infected with a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis generally irresponsive to drug treatment and asked him to turn himself into Italian authorities. But he refused, choosing to return...

CHICAGO - Five months after the city ordered restaurants to stop selling foie gras, it's liver and let liver in Chicago. While some fancy restaurants and gourmet shops no longer offer the goose or duck liver delicacy, others are flouting the ban, listing foie gras on their menus and, in one case, framing the city's warning letter. Evoking Chicago's Prohibition-era past, when a password could gain entry into a speakeasy, at least one restaurant is rumored to be serving foie gras to customers who ask for the "special lobster" dish. And one place has cleverly skirted the ban by offering...

American Music Awards on nowNext up- the Dixie Chicks, in case anyone is interested in hearing their vacuous rants....

Some country is about to have a Senate debate on a bill to legalize torture. How weird is that? I’d like to thank Sens. John McCain, Lindsay Graham — a former military lawyer — and John Warner of Virginia. I will always think fondly of Warner for this one reason: Forty years ago, this country was involved in an unprovoked and unnecessary war. It ended so badly the vets finally had to hold their own homecoming parade, years after they came home. The only member of Congress who attended was Warner. A debate on torture. I don’t know — what...

CHICAGO - Fire swept through a third-floor apartment on Chicago's North Side early Sunday, killing six children and injuring their mother and three siblings, authorities said. Candles may have caused the fire, officials said. Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco confirmed reports from neighbors that the family had been without electricity for at least a month and had been relying on candles for light. "What do you say?" Orozco said. "There's nothing you can say. It's been the worst in a long time. The only thing you can do is just pray for these poor people." The three-bedroom apartment in the Rogers...

The high school class of 2006 recorded the sharpest drop in SAT scores in 31 years, a decline that the exam's owner, the College Board, said was partly due to some students taking the newly lengthened test only once instead of twice. Fatigue wasn't to blame, the College Board insisted, even though this year's class was the first to take a new version of the exam which added an essay. It now takes an average of three hours and 45 minutes to complete the test, not counting breaks, up from three hours previously. The results come several months after numerous...

August 10th, 2006 (Westport, CT)--In response to numerous questions from the diabetes community, dLife today issued tips on traveling by air with insulin and other diabetes medication. On Thursday, August 10th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised the national security level to High (Orange) for all U.S. commercial flights. In addition, new travel restrictions have been put in place – including a ban of all liquids, gels, lotions, and creams of any kind in carry-on luggage. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), all necessary medications, including insulin, are exempt from this ban. Prescription medications should be labeled as...

Urgently requesting prayers from my fellow FReepers for my mother. I just received a call that they think she had a stroke this morning, she is only 58.Freepers who know about strokes and treatments, please write. I know you all are the best and can provide me with the best advice and information.Am traveling to Iowa so not sure when I will be able to post again.Please keep my mom and my family in your prayers! Thank you

Let us pause briefly now in memory of Ann Coulter, who has been banished from the opinion pages of The Gazette. OK, that’s long enough. It was a tough week for Coulter. While the decision was being made to stop publishing her column here, she was being relentlessly vilified at the annual conference of the Ann Coulter Defamation League, aka the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. I’d be surprised if either event bothered her much. Coulter is the tall, thin, blond, extremely acerbic conservative who was added to our Sunday lineup to replace Cal Thomas. The announcement prompted angry letters...

Heat waves. Melting glaciers. Rising sea levels. Catastrophic storms. Migrating viruses. Population displacement. Over the past 100 years, the mass consumption of fossil fuels, especially in America, has contributed to a dangerous warming of the earth that has adversely impacted the way we live. The cautionary documentary TOO HOT NOT TO HANDLE offers a guide to the effects of global warming in the United States.

LONDON (Reuters) - Seven times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong will make his marathon debut in the New York City race on November 5, New York Road Runners president Mary Wittenberg said on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Armstrong, 34, set his record winning streak after he had been diagnosed with cancer and given less than a 50 percent chance of survival. "I was thrilled to learn late last night of Lance's decision to run the New York City marathon," Wittenberg said in a statement. "A bit like winning the lottery after you thought you had lost. "Lance epitomizes both the American...

Like a lot of homeowners, Larry Tomko has grown weary of geese. He's tired of scraping poop from his driveway with a snow shovel. He's fed up with boorish geese gobbling millet he leaves for chickadees. He feels overrun when dozens of the feathery transients loll in the pond a few steps from his yard. When his frustration brims, Tomko has run out his front door waving his arms and shouting at the geese. Sometimes he launches bottle rockets at them. About 10 years ago, he started firing pellets from an old air rifle at the geese. They would squawk...

Her worldwide album sales may have topped the 50 million mark, but home for singer Linda Ronstadt is anything but flashy. During the school year, she and her two children reside in a four-bedroom, two-bathroom Craftsman-style San Francisco duplex she bought a couple years ago for its "good light, good architecture and nice view of the bay." The multi-Grammy-winner -- who comes to the Rosemont Theatre March 25 for a special performance with the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra -- says she gravitates toward anything that's from the past -- specifically, before 1906. She has furnished her home with "a funny mixture...

PHOENIX - A man pulled a gun during a legal proceeding Thursday and took as many as nine people hostage in an office in a central Phoenix high-rise, authorities said. Police Sgt. Andy Hill said the gunman and hostages were inside a hearing room in a National Labor Relations Board office on the building's 18th floor. The floors immediately above and below were evacuated. "We are not aware that anyone has been hurt or that any shots have been fired," Hill said. He said police had been in contact with the gunman, and that the man had been in touch...

RUSH: Jerry in Long Beach, I'm glad you waited, sir, welcome to the program. CALLER: Uh, Rush, I'm a proud member of the longshoremen's union. RUSH: Yes, sir. CALLER: I don't appreciate you attacking our union, try to make this part of this debate. Are you telling us that Republicans don't care about our jobs? Are you telling us that Republicans want to break our union? RUSH: No. CALLER: Is that what this deal was about? RUSH: No! No. CALLER: Or is this about -- Or is this about President -- RUSH: There you go again! There you go stereotyping!...

There are a number of magazines/newspapers and other periodicals who take advantage of readership by publishing editor's opinions in the form of news. An example: Vanity Fair.These articles are readily available, and free, on the Vanity Fair website:The first article is from the Vanity Fair editor-in-chief, Graydon Carter. In this letter, Carter describes how he believes that "the Bush Administration has attempted to remake America into everything we have long deplored".In what I find a most disturbing and worrying piece, Vanity Fair film critic Michael Wolff reviews a number of films, including 'V for Vendetta' which he describes as '...