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WASHINGTON - Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday. Astronomers have known for many years that there are patches in the universe where nobody's home. In fact, one such place is practically a neighbor, a mere 2 million light years...

Yahoo has patched a buffer overflow vulnerability in its instant-messaging tool that would have enabled attackers to potentially execute code on a compromised machine.

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) (L) and Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-MA) listen during Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's address of a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington July 26, 2006. REUTERS/Molly Riley (UNITED STATES)

PAPER: Rep. Kennedy Takes Weekly Urine Tests And Near-Daily AA Meetings Thu Jul 13 2006 08:38:04 ET A month after pleading guilty to driving under the influence, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) now follows a strict court-ordered script that includes, among other things, weekly urine tests, twice-weekly meetings with a probation officer, near-daily Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a weekly meeting of recovering addicts led by a Navy captain, ROLL CALL reports. Kennedy, sources say, has to report to a probation officer twice a week at the Washington, D.C., courthouse complex. And on one of those days he has to, ahem, relieve...

The only thing missing at Patches Kennedy’s press conference yesterday was his father’s post-Chappaquiddick neck brace. “I’ve always said,” the dim lad began, “I wanted to take full responsibility for my actions - ” Full responsibility - but no mug shot. Full responsibility amounted to a suspended license - wink, wink - and $350 in fines and court costs. Do you think Patches had to arrange a payment schedule with the probation office? “Today in court, I accepted the consequences of my actions.” Riiiight. That poor window-washer who iced the seagull high above Devonshire Street is looking at more time...

ZARQAWI VS. ROVE Which news item do you think the liberal moonbats are more upset over: - the death of Zarqawi - no indictment of Karl Rove To take poll . . . Click here !

"Rep. Patrick Kennedy has reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs... "

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., center, speaks to Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., left, during the House Appropriations Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 6, 2006, in Washington. Kennedy, the Rhode Island Democrat can expect the scrutiny to hit new levels as he seeks to put his personal life and political career back on track after crashing his car and spending nearly a month in drug treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Seated at the back is Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Rhode Island Republicans have received piles of “hate mail” from supporters of U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, angry that the GOP has called for the troubled six-term congressman to step down. “This has clearly hit a raw nerve somewhere,” Rhode Island GOP spokesman Chuck Newton told the Herald.“We’ve received mountains of hate mail from all over.” Most of the letters and emails include angry and in some cases obscene tirades blasting party leaders for pushing for Kennedy’s ouster as a result of his legal troubles, Newton said. Republicans initially called for Kennedy to step down the day after he slammed...

Fresh from rehab, Rep. Patrick Kennedy said yesterday he wants to be treated like an African-American from Washington if and when he gets charged for crashing his car on Capitol Hill. Denying that he was drunk and or that he asked the Capitol Police for preferential treatment, Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman, said he's prepared "in terms of bookings, in terms of mug shots, fingerprints, whatever they might have me do." "It's what anyone else would have done to them if they were an African-American in Anacostia," Kennedy said in a shaky voice, referring to the mostly minority neighborhood in...

Patrick Kennedy, fresh from his second stint in drug rehab, yesterday said he's building recovery support networks .....and will continue to undergo treatment for his addiction to painkillers. ........ the younger son of Sen. Ted Kennedy - entered the drug and alcohol treatment at the Mayo Clinic May 5, a day after he slammed his Mustang into a security barrier near the U.S. Capitol. An admitted binge drinker and pain-pill abuser, Kennedy, 38, had been treated at the clinic over the Christmas holidays.........Kennedy told reporters, "I know that I am doing everything I need to do to succeed."

PATCHES SOBRIETY Will Congressman Patrick "Patches" Kennedy (D-RI) remain sober? Yes No To take poll .... click here !

New York. After his second smash-up in three weeks, Patrick Kennedy was escorted home by obliging cops and to hell with any test for booze or drugs. Tests are for the lower orders, not Kennedys. Chappaquid-ding one’s way out of trouble is in the Kennedy tradition. A smash-up is followed by a cover-up, then by denial of responsibility due to circumstances beyond their control, all neatly presented in a press conference for genuflecting hacks, and then on to rehab. Congressman Kennedy says that he doesn’t remember anything about the crash. He would, wouldn’t he? He was speeding, driving in the...

Patrick Kennedy has been a party animal for quite some time, according to the National Enquirer, which comes up with some never-before-seen photos of the Rhode Island congressman partying like a rock star in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Now there’s a shock . . . . The 38-year-old son of Sen. Ted Kennedy, who just checked himself into rehab for prescription-drug addiction after an early-morning car crash in Washington, D.C., dressed up like disgraced pop star Michael Jackson - complete with blackface - for a party at his father’s Virginia home in 1989. “He applied dark makeup to...

During a briefing with reporters yesterday, Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he was aware of Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s (D-R.I,) substance-abuse problem and had “noticed it before.” In response to a question about the handling of Kennedy’s early-morning car accident by the Capitol Police, Boehner indicated that it would be easier to make a judgment when all of the facts are released. He then elaborated on the question, saying he had known of Kennedy’s problem. “For those who have been around here, worked here, he has been fighting this disease for a long time, as has been testified to by...

Howie Carr has done it again! I'd like to think it's a rare photo...Patches & Fatboy loaded down with coolers, but I'd guess there are more of these than of the Statue of Liberty. Capn' Carr is giving away these magnets in a shameless self promotion of his radio show. Howie, c'mon! The poor guy's got a disease! It's not his fault, and it was a prescription, not like David, or Skakel, or Michael, or the old Patches, or I guess any of them. Cut the victim some slack. As to a free magnet of these models of integrity and...

Published: May 09, 2006 12:20 PM ET NEW YORK A report in the Tampa Tribune today states that Janet Weaver, the executive editor of the paper, was arrested early this morning on a charge of DUI. Tampa police arrested Weaver at 12:30 a.m., says the report, and found that she had a blood alcohol level between 0.081 and 0.085. The legal limit for drivers in Florida is 0.08. She spent about five hours in jail, and then was released on $500 bond. Weaver was hired to be managing editor at the Tribune in 2004, and was promoted to executive editor...

Patrick Kennedy is carrying a torch for a now-married ex-galpal and his broken heart may be the reason he’s gone off the rails, friends say. “He’s lonely,” said one of Patches’ Rhode Island pals. “He’s a mess, and it’s really sad. It really is.” Word is that Patches pines for his ex, Tatiana Platt, an America Online exec he dated for more than a year until she left him for her now-hubby, renowned architect Campion Platt. We hear that Tatiana has been defending her former paramour, saying the Rhode Island congressman has gotten a “bad rap” after a suspicious car...

It can't be argued that the Patrick Kennedy adventure on wheels is being ignored by the media. But part of the coverage has been suffused in a bit of overweening Kennedy-dynasty sympathy. Washington Post reporter/columnist Dana Milbank, who danced a jig of mockery in orange hunter clothes over Dick Cheney's shooting accident, wrote in Saturday's Washington Post about the "miserable character" who suffered after the crash: Kennedy tried to ignore the din of shouted questions as he walked to the door, but he couldn't avoid the woman in the front row who asked if he would resign. He shook his...

<p>If there is one thing that Senator Edward Kennedy is adamant about, it is that government officials play by the rules.</p> <p>"The vast majority of Americans share our commitment to basic fairness," he lectured his fellow senators last May, when Republicans were threatening to trigger the "nuclear option" -- to change the Senate's rules to prevent judicial nominations from being filibustered. "They agree that there must be fair rules, that we should not unilaterally abandon or break those rules in the middle of the game."</p>