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The non-governmental group B’Tselem released footage Sunday of a seemingly deadly stand-off that occurred Saturday between Israeli settlers and Palestinian men near the settlement of Yitzhar and the town of Asira al-Qibliya. In the video, a group of presumed Palestinians is throwing rocks at what appear to be the settlers, who are armed with rifles. Less than a minute into the video, a man named as 24-year-old Fathi Asayira is seemingly shot in retaliation by a settler armed with a rifle. As the man who was allegedly shot is carried away by his companions, the settlers and what appears to...

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) launched an investigation Friday into a series of closed-door meetings between Obama administration officials and major automakers that resulted in beefed-up vehicle fuel economy standards. Issa sent out letters to executives of the country’s major automakers Friday alerting them to the investigation and requesting that they keep all documents related to meetings with administration officials on the standards. In the letters, which were obtained by The Hill, Issa says the administration’s efforts to negotiate the fuel economy standards “raise serious concerns.” The new rules, which were announced Friday by President...

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service is investigating five donors for making contributions to the kind of nonprofit groups that have become popular for spending millions of dollars on political ads in the past few years. The IRS is trying to determine whether the donors owe federal gift taxes for the donations, an agency spokeswoman said Thursday. The IRS did not name the donors or the nonprofit groups to which they contributed. But the agency's confirmation of an investigation could have a chilling effect on politically active groups that have become integral to campaigns for Congress and could play a...

Video: Donald Trump appeared on CNN today and slammed them for not fully investigating Obama's past; The segment aired on 4/7/2011. Side note: Donald Trump To Meet With AZ Birther Bill Author In NYC - source.

The state’s ethics enforcement agency disclosed Wednesday it is investigating several present and former leaders of California’s $43-billion bullet train project to determine if they violated regulations on receipt of gifts. The investigation follows reports in The Times that officials with the California High-Speed Rail Authority took overseas trips paid for by foreign governments jockeying to help their homeland firms secure state contracts. Though not providing specifics, Fair Political Practices Commission Executive Director Roman Porter said based on the paper’s reporting, his agency has “undertaken a proactive investigation.” The inquiries are focusing on California High-Speed Rail Authority Chairman Curt Pringle...

Minnesota officials are investigating a citizen's allegations that mentally disabled voters in one county were coached by their attendants to cast their ballots for specific candidates, a county attorney told FoxNews.com. Montgomery Jensen, a voter in Crow Wing County, says he and his wife saw a group of mentally incapacitated individuals ushered through the voting process by mental health staff, who told some of the group who they should vote for and, in some cases, filled out ballots on their behalf, according to an affidavit filed with the county attorney's office on Monday, a copy of which was obtained by...

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is investigating a handful of apparently anti-Muslim incidents in four states, including the stabbing of a Muslim cab driver in New York City. FBI agents and civil rights division investigators also are looking into vandalism and other incidents at mosques or mosque construction sites in Arlington, Texas; Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Madera, Calif.; and Waterport, N.Y. The open criminal investigations were confirmed by civil rights division spokeswoman Xochitl (SOH-chee) Hinojosa in response to a query from The Associated Press. Attorney General Eric Holder met Tuesday with Muslim and other religious leaders to discuss the attacks and the...

<p>I don't see this below, so I thought I'd post. The Triborough Bridge here in NYC has been closed because an abandoned rental truck, smelling of gas, has been found on the bridge. Who knows - may be nothing, but I thought it was worth the post.</p>

NEW YORK – The New York Times is looking into the work of one its reporters following accusations that he plagiarized from The Wall Street Journal and other sources. The paper published an editor's note online Sunday and in papers Monday that said reporter Zachery Kouwe "appears to have improperly appropriated wording and passages published by other news organizations." The Times said Journal editors pointed out similarities between a Journal story from Feb. 5 and Times pieces later that day and on Feb. 6. The Times said a search found other similar examples taken from media outlets like Reuters and...

Hien T. Tran, the California Air Resources Board scientist who was the lead author and project coordinator of the study justifying the air board's sweeping new efforts to limit diesel emissions, is being investigated by air board officials over allegations he lied about having a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of California at Davis. "We're going to take the appropriate actions if this is true," Leo Kay, ARB's director of communications, told me. James E. Enstrom, an epidemiologist with the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, raised the questions about Tran's qualifications in a Dec. 10 letter to the air...

WASHINGTON – The government is investigating whether any laws were broken involving details about the disclosure that Barack Obama's aunt was living in the country illegally. The Associated Press learned late Friday learned that Obama's half aunt, who is from Kenya, was ordered to leave the United States years ago after an immigration judge denied her request for asylum. The woman, Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUHN on-YANG-oh), is living in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama's late father. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked its inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility on Saturday to investigate whether...

An FBI agent confronted by a Muslim student at the University of California, Irvine, earlier this month was trying to get a closer look at a "suspicious" truck at the time, federal authorities said Sunday. The agent had followed the truck to the campus from a separate location as part of an investigation that was unrelated to the school or student activities, bureau spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said. "The investigation the agents were engaged in had nothing to do with the UCI campus or student activities there," she said. The FBI's response comes after a Muslim student said an agent bumped...

Investigating canals across time, from spaceUr takes a step back to see ancient networks By Alvin Powell Harvard News Office Jason Ur: 'If you press your nose against a Monet, all you see is a blur. If you take a few steps back, you see lilies, you see bridges. For this reason, remote sensing data is really irreplaceable.' (Staff photos Kris Snibbe/Harvard News Office) < The view from space of an ancient canal network is recasting archaeologists' understanding of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh and of the farming economy that supported it at its height of power almost 3,000 years...

SIERRA VISTA -- Four people believe they were shot at from south of the border on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. But no evidence has yet been found to substantiate the incident, Border Patrol spokesman Gustavo Soto said Wednesday. U.S. Forest Service investigators also have not found evidence to support the report. "They perceived shots having been fired," Border Patrol spokeswoman Andrea Zortman said Thursday. "We turned everything over to the Park Service." Kym Hall, Coronado National Memorial's superintendent, said four people were stopped as they passed eastbound through the memorial at about 7:45 a.m. for driving erratically....

NEW YORK - Major League Baseball says it's not investigating Barry Bonds but merely monitoring the ongoing government probe involving the San Francisco Giants slugger. The New York Daily News, citing unidentified major league sources, reported on Sunday that "MLB security officials are convinced that Bonds may be at risk of conviction over allegations of tax fraud, and are conducting their own probe into Bonds relationships and activities." "There's nothing new. There's no investigation," baseball spokesman Rich Levin told The Associated Press on Sunday. "Nothing has changed. We're monitoring the federal investigation, as we have from the very beginning." Bonds'...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley agreed Thursday to testify Feb. 3 before the legislative committee investigating his use of federal election funds, his aides said. Shelley made the commitment Thursday morning, meeting a 10 a.m. deadline to confirm his appearance before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee's hearing next month. The committee's chair, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, said she would seek a subpoena to compel his testimony if he did not agree to come. Shelley made the commitment in a letter and telephone call to Parra, said his spokeswoman, Caren Daniels-Meade. "He looks forward to participating," she...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

BALTIMORE (AP) — The president of the NAACP is stepping down as head of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group, according to newspaper reports. Kweisi Mfume, who has been president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since 1996, planned to make the announcement Tuesday, The (Baltimore) Sun, citing an anonymous source, reported in Tuesday editions. The resignation was also reported Tuesday in a USA Today opinions column by weekly contributor DeWayne Wickham. [flip]Last month, the NCAAP announced that the Internal Revenue Service was reviewing the organization's federal tax-exempt status. NAACP chairman Julian Bond said...

Feel free to Blast Lisa Getter: lisa.getter@latimes.com WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) has informed the NAACP that it is investigating whether the civil rights organization improperly "intervened in a political campaign" when it posted on its website a speech by Chairman Julian Bond that condemned the Bush administration's policies. The IRS sent a letter Oct. 8, less than a month before Tuesday's election, to the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People informing it of the investigation. The group has until Nov. 5 to respond. "I think what's at issue is our right to...

Frédéric Desagneaux, consul general of France for San Francisco, is not happy with the light being shown on his country’s involvement with U.N. corruption in Iraq. Poor thing. Yesterday, the independent committee investigating corruption in the U.N.’s “oil-for-food” program for Iraq made public the names of 3,545 companies that sold goods to Saddam. Also published were the names of 248 companies which received Iraqi oil under the program. Through oil-for-food, Saddam stole “$10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers.” Leave it to the U.N. to pull off one of the biggest scandals in world history. Evidence is emerging...