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Microsoft released its largest-ever set of security patches Tuesday, fixing a total of 49 bugs in products such as Windows, Internet Explorer and Office. There are 16 groups of patches (called updates) in total. Microsoft says that two of them -- the Internet Explorer fix numbered MS10-071 and a Windows patch numbered MS10-076 -- should get top priority. Microsoft thinks attack code is likely to be developed that will target bugs fixed by both of those updates. NCircle Director of Security Operations Andrew Storms agrees that those two updates should be a top priority as they could be leveraged in...

Happy days here again for Kerry and PatchesBy Donna Goodison Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - Updated 4 hours ago Sen. John Kerry is still King of the Hill. The Massachusetts Democrat’s net worth increased by more than $20 million last year to at least $188.6 million, extending his reign as the richest member of Congress. Outgoing Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, meanwhile, ranked among the richest members of Congress for the first time - thanks to an inheritance from his father, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, according to The Hill. **SNIP** “Voters have had enough with the millionaires club, and...

Roll Call’s gossip column Heard on the Hill received a tip that Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., capped off a recent speech on his struggle with substance abuse by visiting Capitol Lounge and downing a series of shots. After slamming down the first round, another was ordered, then a third. Our tipster and his friend stopped doing shots, but Kennedy drank three more until the bartender cut him off, at least from obtaining any more shots, our tipster says. Our tipster adds Kennedy was in a lively mood, joking with others at the bar and even boasting about President Barack Obama,...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), a professed Roman Catholic, told CNSNews.com Wednesday that federal funding of health plans that cover elective abortions is “not a question of morality” but “a matter of health -- public health.” “Obviously there’s going to be some legal decisions that are going to be coming forward, I’m sure, that are going to adjudicate this,” Kennedy said at the Capitol. “But obviously, we’ve got to protect women’s health. Half of our population are women, and -- this is a matter of public health. He added: “It’s not a question of morality or anything; it’s...

A Washington Post report about U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy’s decision to retire quotes the Rhode Island congressman as saying he is not leaving for good what the Post calls “the family business.” “I consider it taking a sabbatical,” Kennedy told Post reporter Philip Rucker. Rucker’s story, posted Thursday afternoon on www.WashingtonPost.com, said Kennedy “will transfer his roughly $500,000 in campaign funds to an interest-bearing account, which he says he might tap if he chooses to run for the Senate some day.” Kennedy spokesman Adam Brand suggested in an e-mail exchange with the Providence Journal that, while Kennedy’s campaign fund...

U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy decided to abandon public office to focus on his personal life and family after watching his father die surrounded by loved ones, the 16-year congressman said in a wide-ranging magazine interview. Kennedy, who announced his decision not to seek re-election in a two-minute video clip, told Rhode Island Monthly he decided to let go of his House seat at Christmas after spending the fall reflecting on the death of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. “It’s pretty simple in this respect: I went through something that caused me a great deal of soul searching and self-reflection,” Kennedy...

WASHINGTON – A Democratic official says Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election for his seat representing Rhode Island in the U.S. Congress. ... The decision by the eight-term congressman comes less than a month after a stunning Republican upset in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his late father, Edward Kennedy, held for almost half a century.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy has come out swinging against the man who now sits in the Senate seat his father held for 47 years. Telling a blog for the Hill newspaper that Senator Scott Brown was "in the tank for the Republicans," the Rhode Island Democrat called Brown's candidacy a "joke." The putdown is a familiar one for the Kennedy family. Forty-eight years ago, a thirty-year-old Ted Kennedy heard the same taunt from his primary opponent, Massachusetts Attorney General Edward McCormack: "If his name was Edward Moore, with his qualifications -- with your qualifications, Teddy -- if it was Edward Moore,...

The son of the late US Senator Edward M. Kennedy has criticized Senator Scott Brown for accelerating his swearing-in, saying it showed Brown's candidacy was "a joke," a publication that covers Capitol Hill reports. Representative Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat from Rhode Island whose father held Brown's seat for 47 years until his death last year, said Thursday that "Brown's whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today when he was sworn in early in order to cast his first vote as an objection to Obama's appointment to the NLRB," according to The Hill's Blog Briefing Room. "Senator Brown is...

Gerry Moniz didn't hesitate when asked what she thinks of the nationally publicized dispute between Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin and Patrick Kennedy over whether the congressman should refrain from taking Communion given his support for abortion rights. "I think Patrick Kennedy is wrong," Moniz, 56, said when asked to comment on Monday at an East Providence shopping plaza. A Catholic from West Greenwich, she added, "If he doesn't want to be Catholic, he should go to another church. The rules of the Catholic Church are, "We don't approve of abortion.' And he doesn't like that." At St. Francis Chapel...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rep. Patrick Kennedy says Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has barred him from receiving communion because of his support of abortion rights. The Providence Journal reports on its Web site Sunday that Kennedy said in an interview that Tobin issued the order during discussions with the Democratic lawmaker, further escalating a simmering ideological dispute between the two men. Under church rules, Tobin can prevent Kennedy from receiving communion within his diocese, which covers Rhode Island. It’s unclear whether bishops outside Rhode Island will take the same path.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy's 16-year- old son violated state law by taking a 24-inch walrus tusk from an island preserve that is home to thousands of walruses, officials said. The youth returned the tusk. [more]

When one first looks at this article in The New Republic speculating about if Ted Kennedy's son, Patrick Kennedy, could grow into a great political leader, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking it was a satirical story written by either Scott Ott or some other humor columnist. However the name of the author is Jason Zengerle and he is being dead serious which actually makes it funnier than any intentionally satirical story could be. What makes Zengerle's article especially funny is that he provides absolutely no proof that Patrick Kennedy displays the slightest bit of political leadership. In fact, Zengerle...

Troubled Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy’s slide back into rehab may have been triggered by stress related to his senator father’s grim cancer diagnosis, a relative said. “It’s sad,” Kennedy’s stepgrandfather, Edmund Reggie, told the Herald. “He’s been wrapped up in the senator so much. All of us expect (U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)) to progress better than what’s realistic. I think it really gets to Patrick,” Reggie said of the senior senator’s diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor in May 2008. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) checked himself in to an undisclosed rehab center once again this week. The lawmaker...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who has struggled with depression, alcoholism and addiction for much of his life, said Friday that he has checked into a medical facility for treatment. The Rhode Island Democrat said in a statement that his recovery is a "lifelong process" and that he will do whatever it takes to preserve his health. "I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine to ensure that I am being as vigilant as possible in my recovery," Kennedy said. He did not disclose where he was being treated. Kennedy, who has wrestled with alcoholism, bipolar disorder, an addiction...

WASHINGTON—Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who has struggled with depression, alcoholism and addiction for much of his life, said Friday that he has checked into a medical facility for treatment. Discuss COMMENTS (17) The Rhode Island Democrat said in a statement that his recovery is a "lifelong process" and that he will do whatever it takes to preserve his health. "I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine to ensure that I am being as vigilant as possible in my recovery," Kennedy said. He did not disclose where he was being treated. Kennedy, who has wrestled with alcoholism, bipolar...

HOUMA, LA (WAFB) - Houma police officers and Terrebonne Parish sheriff's deputies say an attractive woman named Patches has been arrested after her "calogne samples" made at least two men pass out. One of the incidents prompted a statewide alert to Louisiana law enforcement agencies. The first complaint happened in early June. Police say an 18-year-old man says he was leaving a Houma restaurant at lunchtime when he was approached by a woman who said she was selling cologne. Police say the woman asked the victim is he was interested in buying some cologne she was selling. "The suspect produced...

Rep. Kennedy Says Mental Health, Drug History Makes Him Stronger Advocate Tuesday , April 15, 2008 AP WASHINGTON — Rep. Patrick Kennedy says his personal struggles to recover from depression, alcoholism and substance abuse have made him a more compelling advocate in Congress for improved mental health care coverage. The Rhode Island Democrat, a son of Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, played a leading role winning House passage last month on a bill to expand coverage for people needing mental health and addiction treatment. "My own story gave a lot of my colleagues a comfort level to tell me their...

Microsoft researchers are hoping to use "information epidemics" to distribute software patches more efficiently. Milan Vojnović and colleagues from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, want to make useful pieces of information such as software updates behave more like computer worms: spreading between computers instead of being downloaded from central servers. The research may also help defend against malicious types of worm, the researchers say. Software worms spread by self-replicating. After infecting one computer they probe others to find new hosts. Most existing worms randomly probe computers when looking for new hosts to infect, but that is inefficient, says Vojnović, because...

I joined the MT National Guard last month. I was supposed to drill tomorrow, but they changed it for me to tonight. I just got my uniforms 10 minutes ago. The patches were rubber-banded together. I'm not sure which patch goes where. I have two for my last name and 1 that says "US Army" I also have a circular, which looks something like a sunburst over a mountain top. I'm not sure though and as far as I can tell it could be up-side down. I don't want to look like a dork! Can anyone help me?