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The Senate voted Monday to confirm billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as secretary of commerce in President Trump's Cabinet. Ross was approved by a vote of 72-27, with 20 Democrats and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joining 51 Republicans to vote "aye." Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., did not vote due to his ongoing recovery from back surgery. The Senate later voted 67-31 to move forward on the nomination of Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., to lead the Interior Department. A final vote on Zinke's confirmation could occur on Tuesday or Wednesday. Ross is the 14th member of Trump's Cabinet to be cofirmed, with...

The relevant part: "> *For my question*, it's basically some variation of [not quite phrased > right yet]: I know when I talk to my friends who are attorneys we are all > struggling with what happened to the emails and aren't satisfied with > answers to date. While we all know of the occasional use of personal email > addresses for business, none of my friends circle can understand how it was > viewed as ok/secure/appropriate to use a private server for secure > documents AND why further Hillary took it upon herself to review them and > delete...

The bizarre nature of reality as laid out by quantum theory has survived another test, with scientists performing a famous experiment and proving that reality does not exist until it is measured. Physicists at The Australian National University (ANU) have conducted John Wheeler's delayed-choice thought experiment, which involves a moving object that is given the choice to act like a particle or a wave. Wheeler's experiment then asks - at which point does the object decide? Common sense says the object is either wave-like or particle-like, independent of how we measure it. But quantum physics predicts that whether you observe...

Well, actually they are just hiring a bunch of layabouts off of Craigslist as usual… New York! [GOTV] Get Political, Get Paid! Make $100 on Election Day! (Brooklyn) Date: 2010-10-24, 2:49PM EDT Reply to: job-d4rju-2023184855@craigslist.org New York Working Families (http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/) was formed in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions and community activist organizations to fight for economic and social justice. The Working Families Party is hiring campaign staff to GET OUT THE VOTE on Election Day November 2nd, 2010. All applicants must be 18 years of age or older, posses strong communications skills and a real commitment to social...

You may remember that during the long debate prior to the enactment of ObamaCare socialized medicine, Democrat leaders sharply rejected claims that ObamaCare would lead to government rationing of medical care. Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said last August on ABC, "Let me just say, A, there's no rationing in any of these bills, so we don't have to worry about that." And President Barack Obama himself said at a rally in Pennsylvania that the real culprits for the rationing of care were health insurance companies: "The insurance companies continue to ration health care. ... That's...

After several days of denying eyewitness reports of a second man from Northwest Flight 253 being arrested following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of the plane by a Nigerian passenger linked to al-Qaida, the chief U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in the Detroit area has admitted another passenger was taken into custody. Ronald G. Smith sent an e-mail to the Detroit News, the paper reported, apologizing that the information provided to federal investigators by two attorneys aboard the plane had not been made available earlier.

A massive volcanic eruption that occurred in the distant past killed off much of central India's forests and may have pushed humans to the brink of extinction, according to a new study that adds evidence to a controversial topic. The Toba eruption, which took place on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia about 73,000 years ago, released an estimated 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere that blanketed the skies and blocked out sunlight for six years. In the aftermath, global temperatures dropped by as much as 16 degrees centigrade (28 degrees Fahrenheit) and life on Earth plunged deeper...

A pro-life organization is blasting a Switzerland-based cosmetics manufacturer whose website openly admits some of its products were developed from the tissues of an aborted baby. Children of God for Life is a non-profit organization focused on the bioethics of embryonic tissue use in medicine and manufacturing. One of its current campaigns includes petitioning pharmaceutical companies to produce safe, effective alternatives to vaccines derived or cultivated from aborted fetal tissue.

The State Fair sent about 100 4-H participants home because several members contracted the H1N1 virus and about a dozen more developed flu-like symptoms.

This image shows a large impact shown on the bottom left on Jupiter's south polar region captured on July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Credit: NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope Facility As we reported yesterday, an amateur astronomer snapped evidence of an impact on Jupiter. Now, NASA has confirmed the black spot on the giant gas planet is in fact an impact and not just a weather-related disturbance. And Anthony Wesley has now made the biggest observation of his life. "It still feels very surreal right now," he told Universe Today. "I guess it will take...

Site last updated May 3, 2009, 12:00 PM ET U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection(As of May 3, 2009 11:00 AM ET) States # of laboratory confirmed cases Deaths Alabama 1   Arizona 18   California 26   Colorado 4   Connecticut 2   Delaware 10   Florida 3   Illinois 3   Indiana 3   Iowa 1   Kansas 2   Kentucky* 1   Massachusetts 7   Michigan 2   Minnesota 1   Missouri 1   Nebraska 1   Nevada 1   New Hampshire 1   New Jersey 7   New Mexico 1   New York 63...

Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. The “report” (PDF file here) was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real. I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.

Announcement from CNBC during Mad Money that Geithner now has votes to be confirmed, and more at regular news time.

SALT LAKE CITY – Trouble-making zebra mussels have arrived in Utah. But not where they were expected to show up. Electric Lake is Utah's first body of water where the damaging, nonnative mussels have been confirmed, state wildlife officials said Wednesday. The officials said they were surprised the fast-spreading mussels appeared there first because it's a high-elevation lake with relatively few boaters. It is boaters who sometimes unknowingly transport the mussels from lake to lake on their crafts. Most expected the mussels to show up first at Lake Powell. The mussels "showed up in one of the least-expected places," said...

You’ve probably never heard of Rebecca Nurse, but bear with me for a moment. Nurse arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1640. There, despite being known as a woman of virtue and piety, she was accused of being a witch. On July 19, 1692, she was hanged. Now almost 315 years to the day later, one of Nurse’s ancestors is suffering through a witch hunt of a more modern variety. I’m talking about Judge Leslie Southwick, whose nomination to the long-standing vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is being thwarted by Senate Democrats. Sadly, Judge...

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2007 – A body found in Iraq May 23 is that of one of three U.S. soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division’s 31st Infantry Regiment believed to have been abducted during a May 12 ambush, Defense Department officials confirmed late yesterday. Iraqi police found the body of Army Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, a native of Torrance, Calif., in the Euphrates River south of Baghdad and turned it over to American officials for identification. A massive search continues for Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich.,...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2006 -- Defense secretary nominee Robert M. Gates told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing today that if he’s confirmed to the top Pentagon post, his highest calling will be to ensure success in Iraq and look out for the men and women in uniform. Robert M. Gates, defense secretary nominee, responds to questions during a Senate Armed Services Commitee hearing regarding his confirmation, Dec. 5. Photo by Cherie A. Thurlby  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates told committee members during his opening statement that he’s “under no illusion why...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously approved President Bush's defense secretary nomination Tuesday and sent it to the full Senate for approval, the committee's outgoing chairman said. Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, announced the committee's 21-0 decision after a closed session. Robert Gates testified before the committee for hours Tuesday, telling members that the United States was not winning the war in Iraq, and that the U.S. course there "over the next year or two" would shape the entire Middle East. At his Senate confirmation hearing, Robert Gates gave no timeline for ending the conflict in Iraq, but...

Don’t Despair Strong justices can still be confirmed. By Edward Whelan The Democrats’ capture of formal control of the Senate is bad news for President Bush’s judicial nominations — especially to the federal courts of appeals — during his final two years in office. But don’t be fooled by Democrats’ bluffing. There’s still plenty of room to get another excellent Supreme Court justice — or even two or three more — confirmed. Skeptical? Consider the last Republican appointee to the Court to be confirmed by a Democrat-controlled Senate — Clarence Thomas in 1991. That Senate had 57 Democrats and only...

netWMD is proud to participate in the 2,996: A Tribute to the Victims of 9/11 project. Stuck to the top until Sept. 12. Sareve Dukat kept her composure, even though the United States was under attack by Islamo-fascists, drunk on religion, hatred, and a lust for power. The date was September 11, 2001. An airliner full of civilians was just cynically rammed into tower #1 of the World Trade Center in New York City. Ms. Dukat would not survive the day that has become the defining moment for a generation of Americans, myself included. Dukat, who was working on the...