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11/7/2008 - FORT LEE, Va. (AFNS) -- If you're a high school or college student and the child of a military family looking for ways to found your education, you might want to checkout the 2009 Scholarships for Military Children Program that began Nov. 3. Scholarship applications are available in commissaries worldwide and online through a link at https://www.commissaries.com and at http://www.militaryscholar.org. The program kickoff coincides each year in November with National Military Family Month, and the scholarships are a great way for commissaries to get involved with the community and demonstrate support for the contributions of military families. According...

Found a cool, free program today that gives you Aero-style 3-D windows in XP, without the Vista hassle. It seems to work pretty well so far, though not if you're extending your desktop across multiple monitors.

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, May 8, 2008 – Wilford Hall Medical Center here has launched a new program emphasizing the importance of literacy to parents and children alike. Reach Out and Read, a national nonprofit organization, uses several methods to promote early literacy as part of routine pediatric care, including having volunteers reading aloud in pediatric waiting rooms. Its main approach, though, is to promote literacy during well-baby or well-child visits for children from ages 6 months through 4 years. Pediatric providers trained in the Reach Out and Read model offer age-appropriate tips to emphasize to parents and...

<p>THE office computer of suspended Power Authority Inspector General Daniel Wiese was "wiped totally clean" of e-mails and other records just days before being seized by investigators probing an alleged State Police dirty-tricks squad, The Post has learned.</p> <p>The computer, believed to contain sensitive details of Wiese's communications with State Police officials, was grabbed last month at the Power Authority's headquarters in White Plains under a subpoena issued by the office of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a source close to the authority said.</p>

The Americans For Fair Taxation welcomes Congressman Rob Wittman to The Fair Tax movement. He joined The Fair Tax movement on February 14th. Representative Wittman is the 74th cosponsor. His signing is the second in February. Clearly the grassroots momentum for The Fair Tax is growing! Please keep up your enthusiasm for Fair Tax! Congratulations Representative Wittman for joining The Fair Tax movement!

SIERRA VISTA — For Kim Haywood, story time, painting and swimming is a lot more fun than chores. Haywood and her three youngest daughters took part in the activities for military families at the Hampton Inn Town Square Saturday. The activities for children ages 3 to 11 are a way for the new hotel to show their appreciation for military families, said Faye Jackson, the hotel director of sales. “It’s something different to do besides the usual Saturday chores,” Haywood said. “And to be able to swim in January is great.” The Hilton hotel, 4100 Snyder Blvd., openned in mid...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is going ahead with a controversial pilot program giving Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways despite a new law by Congress against it. The decision to proceed with the four-month-old program, which allows participating Mexican trucking companies to send loads throughout the United States, comes despite language in the recently signed catchall spending bill aimed at blocking it. But the Department of Transportation is taking advantage of a loophole in the new law, which prohibits the government from spending any money to "establish" the program. The government says the new rules don't apply to...

Here's today's quiz: What do Scottie Pippen, David Letterman and Ted Turner have in common? Answer: None of them are farmers, but all three have received thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies this decade. We could add to that list of non-farmer farm-aid recipients David Rockefeller, Leonard Lauder of the cosmetics firm, Edgar Bronfman Sr. of the Seagram fortune, and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen. Our point is that you don't have to drive a tractor, plant seeds, or even live anywhere near rural America to qualify for Uncle Sam's farm largess. And you sure don't have to be poor....

AFTER MUCH arcane political wrangling and procedural disputation, the Senate began debating a new five-year farm bill on Friday. Much of the price tag, projected at $288 billion, is accounted for by food stamps and other nutrition programs, but tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to farmers are included, too. Notwithstanding the fact that crop prices are surging and farmers are doing well, supporters of the bill, both in the Senate and the House, are hoping to enact this gigantic Christmas present with as little fuss as possible. ...Under the pending farm bill, the U.S. sugar industry would get...

12/4/2007 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- More than 3,300 country music radio stations nationwide will get a present in the mail this week, courtesy of the Air Force. This year's "Red, White, and Air Force Blue Christmas" radio program CD, featuring multiple Grammy Award-winning recording artist LeAnn Rimes, is not commercially available. Ms. Rimes recalls her fondest holiday memories in an in-depth interview on the program, intended as an hour-long public service announcement that station program managers can incorporate into their holiday playlists. The show also includes songs from Ms. Rimes' holiday album and her new release,...

Perhaps it's beneath the dignity of Members of Congress to shop at a grocery store, but if they did they'd know that food prices are rising faster than at anytime in 17 years. Milk now costs $3 a gallon in many states. Eggs, oranges, peas, tomatoes and rice are selling at or near all-time highs. The biggest winners have been corn producers, as corn prices have doubled in two years -- thanks in part to new mandates for ethanol. All of this is translating into the best gains in farm wealth in decades. Total farm income is expected to leap...

Spc. Donald Williams helps an Iraqi Boy Scout tie off his tent Saturday during an Iraqi Scout event in Baghdad. BAGHDAD — In a sunny grove in the International Zone in Baghdad Saturday, excitement and laughter filled the air as Iraqi Scouts, leaders and Coalition volunteers of the Green Zone Council enjoyed a day of socializing and outdoor scouting activities. Blankets, tables, and scout-made tents were sprinkled among the trees, and the upbeat mood was contagious – there wasn’t a frown to be seen.“You almost forget we’re in Iraq!” said Lt. Col. Tina Flanagan, a Coalition Soldier who has been...

Program Molds Elite Iraqi Warfighters An Iraqi operator training course modeled after the U.S. Army Special Forces course has turned out its 10th graduating class. By Master Sgt. Melissa Phillips Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force- Arabian Peninsula BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 9, 2007 — For one Iraqi general, the key to building a united, non-sectarian army lies in fostering a mindset of religious and cultural tolerance among soldiers. "I will never forget the American and coalition men and women … who provided the first stepping stones for us to make our country better." Iraqi Brig. Gen. Fadhil Jameel Jameel Barwari...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2007 – Some race around the track with the intensity of an Olympic sprinter. Others crash and smash in a full contact contest rivaling rugby. Still others push themselves through a grueling obstacle course laced with unexpected hazards. Each shares one common reality: life in a wheelchair. More than 500 disabled veterans took part in a remarkable competition earlier this summer, and a Pentagon Channel crew was there to document their achievements. These athletes’ stories will be shared in a brand-new edition of the station’s monthly documentary, “Recon.” “Wheels of Courage” takes viewers to the 27th...

PARIS (AFP) - Experts in artificial intelligence have built a computer programme that can understand simple jokes, marking an important step in making robots seem friendlier to humans, the weekly New Scientist reports. Previous attempts at getting machines to understand humour have failed miserably, because what is funny to humans is subjective and complex -- and fiendishly difficult to programme. But, says New Scientist, Julia Taylor and Lawrence Mazlack of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio have devised a prototype joke-detection software. They began by loading a programme with a database of words, extracted from a children's dictionary to keep...

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2007 – Two Massachusetts teens are working to turn Americans’ unwanted cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid talk time for the nation’s troops. Brittany Bergquist, 16, and her brother, Robbie, 15, founders of Cell Phones for Soldiers, deliver prepaid phone cards to Coast Guardsmen aboard the USCGC Campbell. The Massachusetts teens collect and recycle unwanted cell phones, using the profits to purchase the phone cards. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Cell Phones for Soldiers is the original (cell phone) recycling program created to benefit the troops and provide free...

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2007 – “The Early Show” on CBS took advantage of the New York’s 20th annual Fleet Week to share its support and appreciation for the thousands of sailors and Marines enjoying the city, as well as for military members serving around the world. John Bolaris of CBS’s "The Early Show" talks with Roxie Merritt about the America Supports You program May 24, 2007 in New York during Fleet Week. Merritt, a spokeswoman for the Defense Department program and a retired Navy captain, shared how America Supports You offers Americans a venue to support servicemembers. Courtesy photo  (Click...

... one proposal that arose was to preempt jihadist motives by providing them with 72 virgins now. Why want for Paradise when you can get your gals today? The program would be based in the United States, and located somewhere close to plentiful supplies of strip bars, liquor stores, and BBQ pork restaurants (bear with me on this). New Orleans might be a good candidate for a location, and I know they would like the federal dollars that come with it.

ESCONDIDO -- U.S. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said Thursday that he would support a guest-worker program similar to the Bracero Program that brought thousands of low-skilled laborers from Mexico starting in the 1940s and ending in the 1960s. The Bracero Program was widely criticized by human rights groups for abuses, but Bilbray said it created economic opportunities for poor Mexicans. Bilbray said migrant workers should be allowed to come to work in the United States, but should not be able to become permanent residents, nor should their children born in the country be granted U.S. citizenship. "The old Bracero...

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2007 – The United States is keeping a watchful eye on developments in North Africa to ensure terrorists don’t gain a foothold there, a senior U.S. military officer said in remarks provided to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee at a hearing here today. The Defense Department is participating in the U.S. State Department’s Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership, Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock stated, because of concern that Islamic terrorist organizations like al Qaeda may use ungoverned areas of North Africa to gain new recruits and train for future attacks. Craddock is chief of U.S. European...