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Woman in online relationship beats man with bat at first meeting because she didn't want to date him anymore. A 24-year-old Oregon woman and a 26-year-old Alabama man had been dating over the Internet since 2013 and agreed this spring he would move to Oregon and live with her... read more http://www.albasun.com/2015/04/oregon-woman-beats-boyfriend-at-first-meeting.html

One of the most admirable things about Europe is that most (if not all) of the right-wing rhetoric that you hear in the US is explicitly against the law there. For example, attempting to link Islam with terrorism, saying that gay marriage isn’t really marriage, or saying that trans women aren’t really women would get you charged with discrimination and/or incitement to hatred. Numerous European public figures have been charged with hate crimes for implying that large-scale immigration is connected to higher crime. In fact, a politician in Sweden was prosecuted for hate crimes for posting statistics about immigrant crime...

Scientists working on Europe's Planck satellite say the first stars in the Universe lit up later than was previously thought. The team has made the most precise map of the "oldest light" in the cosmos. Earlier observations of this radiation had suggested that the first generation of stars burst into life about 420 million years after the Big Bang. The new Planck data now indicates they fired up around 560 million years after the Universe got going. "This difference of 140 million years might not seem that significant in the context of the 13.8-billion-year history of the cosmos, but proportionately...

The colorful past of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber’s fiancee includes a phase as an aspiring marijuana farmer.

US Senate to Protect the Media Monopoly's Right to Corrupt Presidential Elections   An apocryphal story from the good old 1960s tells of $3 million found under the bed of a deceased congressman, with the question automatically asked, at that time, “how does an honest, $50,000 per year congressman accumulate that kind of money?” These days, newspapers don’t blink at the President’s $10 net worth—chump change compared with the $100s millions accumulated by the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, remuneration for—speaker’s fees.   Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, slumming at only $3 million to $10 million, made hay clamoring for public...

Alison Spann was just 9 when she learned her father, a U.S. Marine-turned CIA operative, had become the first American killed in the war in Afghanistan. Thirteen years later, she found out her country had freed the Taliban leader behind his death. In the time between, Spann has cherished the memory of her father, Johnny Micheal “Mike” Spann, who was killed during a Nov. 25, 2001 prisoner uprising at a northern Afghanistan compound where he was interrogating Taliban fighters. The 32-year-old was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony in which he was lauded by then-CIA Director George Tenet...

Politics and Obama are wearing me down. So, I'm thinking of one of my favorite subjects and looking for some comments on remembering "the first time".

The professional press corps has been frozen out of Michelle Obama's swing through China. But the White House has partnered with CNN to bring in amateurs. Katie Hawkins-Gaar, a CNN editor, coordinated the effort to solicit and accumulate submissions from "iReporters" interested in asking questions about the "importance of students learning from one another's cultures," Mrs. Obama's stated emphasis for this trip. The White House's webpage dedicated to the first lady's trip describes the "assignment" as follows: CNN iReport Assignment: iReporters in the U.S. and around the world have submitted questions for the First Lady about study abroad. Stay tuned to watch Mrs. Obama answer...

A Predator drone designed to catch terrorists in Afghanistan was used to track a recalcitrant North Dakota rancher and his sons accused of cattle thieving and monitor them to see when they were unarmed and alert the police in a case believed to be the first where an American citizen was arrested with the aid of a drone. On Jan. 14, 2014, Rodney Brossart was acquitted of stealing cattle and criminal mischief, but convicted of terrorizing police (a conviction he is appealing) and sentenced to three years in prison with all but six months suspended. This all stems from an...

DETROIT — The last time there was a white mayor of Detroit, the Vietnam War was just ending and the nation was getting used to a Supreme Court decision called Roe vs. Wade. But now this city, which is in the midst of a trial to determine whether it is eligible for bankruptcy protection, is set to elect its first white mayor since 1974, Mike Duggan, and by an overwhelming margin. Recent polls show Duggan up by a nearly 2-1 margin over his opponent, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, in a city that is 82% African American.

Excerpt: Yes, you can get a ticket for driving while wearing the new eyewear-like Google Glass wearable computer, which is now being tested nationwide for possible entry into the consumer market. Cecilia Abadie, 44, who lives in Temecula and works at a golf store in San Diego, got just such a ticket Tuesday night after being stopped for speeding by a California Highway Patrol officer. Quickly, Abadie posted a note on the Internet: "A cop just stopped me and gave me a ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving! ... Is Google Glass illegal while driving or is this cop...

Here is the evil queen's actual money-quote footage from the Senate floor on who will be selected to become government "approved" reporters. Video - 3:13 Pay close attention, folks. We're standing on the ledge of Federally Issued, Press-Pass Identity Cards for "Gov't Allowed" Reporters. No others need apply. Got a video camera, or audio recorder ? Make sure your Ausweise* is in order. (Permission to be on Reich Property)

AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (AFNS) -- They waited patiently each day, week and month checking the news, filing repeals and losing hope. But, Master Sgt. Angela Shunk and Tech. Sgt. Stacy Shunk received the news they had been longing for on Sept. 3, 2013, when the two Aviano Airmen were informed that they had received an assignment together under the join spouse program - the first of its kind in the Air Force since a Supreme Court decision about the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. Prior to the June 26 decision, the Shunks were faced with the near...

Britain is planning to join forces with America and launch military action against Syria within days in response to the gas attack believed to have been carried out by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against his own people.

NEW YORKA New York City public elementary school has adopted an all-vegetarian menu, serving kids tofu wraps and veggie chili. Public School 244 is the first public school in the city to go all-veggie. The animal-welfare group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it might be the first all-veggie public elementary school in the nation. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott says he's proud of the "trailblazing" school. He ate the new food with children on Tuesday.

AFP - Taiwan on Wednesday reported the first case of the H7N9 bird flu outside of mainland China. The 53-year-old man, who had been working in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, showed symptoms three days after returning to Taiwan via Shanghai, the Centers for Disease Control said, adding that he had been hospitalised since April 16 and was in a critical condition. A passenger (right) has her temperature checked by a Centers for Disease Control staff member at the entrance of Sungshan Airport in Taipei on April 4, 2013. Taiwan on Wednesday reported the first case of the H7N9...

This year's White House Easter Egg Roll has been turned into a "fat camp" to inflict exercise and the First Lady's "Let's Move!" healthy meal plans on kids who want just want to celebrate the season on the South Lawn. An e-mail from the "Let's Move!" campaign says the Easter Egg Roll has been turned into a "Let's Move! Social": "We're excited to announce that our next White House Social will be a Let's Move! Social here, at the White House. On Monday, April 1st, 2013, the First Family will host the 135th annual White House Easter Egg Roll with...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he is willing to be the first Iranian sent into space on behalf of the nation’s space program. "I am ready to be the first human to be sent to space by Iranian scientists," Ahmadinejad said on Monday, adding that he is willing to sacrifice his life for the country’s space program. "Sending living things into space is the result of Iranian efforts and the dedication of thousands of Iranian scientists," he said, according to the Mehr news agency. Ahmadinejad’s remarks come following the announcement last week that Iran had successfully launched a monkey into...

Many of my children have stepped backword into a precipice of darkness "yeah" into a revelation not of Me for I desire for my children to walk in the fullness of my glory and goodness each day. I came to stand in the road to Damascus to deliver Paul out of just this thing for truly though he knew My word he had yet to meet me and it is these "Sauls" of disaster I am after in these last days . So "GO" My church and declare the wonders of my fullness for there is no one thing or...

Israel was drawn into the Syrian civil war for the first time on Sunday, firing warning shots into the neighboring country after a stray mortar shell from across the border hit an Israeli military post. The Israeli military said the mortar fire caused no injuries or damage at the post in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and then annexed. But in recent weeks, incidents of errant fire from Syria to the north have multiplied, leading Israel to warn that it holds Syria responsible for fire on Israeli-held territory.