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Multiple people are dead after a shooting this morning at a Connecticut elementary school, according to a report. According to a witness report, the school's principal and another staffer were killed while the vice principal was shot in the leg afte a gunman opened fire in a hallway. A witness said gunshots were heard in the hallway during a meeting and that "100 rounds" must have been fired, according to CNN. After the shots were fired, three people ran into the hallway but only the vice principal crawled back. Cops responded to reports of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary...

President Barack Obama on Thursday brushed aside concerns that he favors socialism, saying in an interview with Univision that his policies are so mainstream that he would have been considered a moderate Republican in the 1980s. Via the transcript of the interview by Alina Mayo Azze of "Noticias Univision 23" in Miami: AMA: One issue that Cuban-Americans are worried about is, they believe that you favor a socialist model for our country. Cubans and Venezuelans especially because of what they have gone through. What do you think of that? PBO: I don't know that there are a lot of Cubans...

We are not having a debt crisis. It’s important to make this point, because I keep seeing articles about the “fiscal cliff” that do, in fact, describe it — often in the headline — as a debt crisis. But it isn’t. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows. And even the confrontation over the debt ceiling that looms a few months from now if we do somehow manage to avoid going over the fiscal cliff isn’t really about debt. No, what we’re having is a political...

ESPN announced Friday morning that commentator and Saturday First Take host Rob Parker has been suspended for his comments Thursday concerning Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. Parker may not be out of hot water; network spokesperson Mike Soltys added that ESPN was conducting a "full review" of the incident.

A gunman retreated from a Casper nail salon last week after realizing one of its customers was packing heat. Police say about 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, a man walked into Modern Nails at 2645 E. Second St. and asked a female employee if she wanted to buy some diamonds. The man walked toward the front desk area and the woman replied that she had no money to buy diamonds. A witness said the man then reached into his coat pocket and began to take out a silver-colored pistol. At that moment, a woman who was getting her nails done...

A poll by Pew Research Center shows that majorities of Americans only favor solutions that impact wealthy Americans to reduce the national debt and avoid the "fiscal cliff."Pew provided respondents with 12 deficit reduction options and asked if they approved or disapproved of each option. Majorities approved of five of the options: raise taxes on income over $250,000 (69 percent), limit deductions a taxpayer can claim (54 percent), raise the tax rate on investment income (52 percent), reduce Medicare benefits for higher income seniors (51 percent), and reduce Social Security benefits for higher income seniors (51 percent).Deficit reduction solutions that impact...

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the United States does have plans to draw down its military personnel from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but that the United States is “not departing Afghanistan.” “Well, first and foremost, we’re not departing Afghanistan. We are going to maintain an enduring presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014,” Panetta said at a Wednesday press conference alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Afghanistan. …

It felt like Christmas had come early when I got my package of Buckyballs in the mail a few days ago. Buckyballs are small, super-strong spherical magnets made of the rare-earth metal Neodymium. A set of 216 Buckyballs fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. Obviously Buckyballs are adult toys, and Maxfield and Oberton emphatically warns users not to give them to children, eat them, inhale them, or place them near objects (such as pacemakers) that are sensitive to magnets. However, for those who use Buckyballs with common sense and due care, they are reasonably safe—just like countless other...

No .. I’m not talking about the fiscal cliff, nor am I talking about the almost $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities we face as a nation. Iran and a nuke? Yeah .. that’s serious all right, but I’m told that we are messin’ with Iran right now in ways that you couldn’t even imagine – ways that could derail their nuclear plans for some time to come. Is the real problem our sagging economy? An oncoming second recession? The growth of government dependency? Sure … all of those are problems and all are difficult to deal with … but they...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said what she views as optimistic market data is a sign that investors believe an agreement to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” will be reached, that the markets “trust that we would not be so stupid as to go over the cliff.” At a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday, Pelosi said, “If we agree that we will have a solution and that we will avoid the cliff—I think we all should agree to that—then what are the steps we need to take and how quickly can we take them, so that we at...

There has been a huge 13 percent drop in the number of people in Britain identifying themselves as Christian, according to new data released from the 2011 Census. The shocking statistics reveal that the number of Christians has fallen from 37 million to 33 million since 2001. Christians now make up only 59 percent of the population, as opposed to 72 percent in 2001. Meanwhile, the number of Muslims has risen from 1.5 million to 2.7 million - or 5 percent of the population - while the number of people describing themselves as having no religion rose by 10 percent...

Parents in the Missoula County, Montana school district have taken bullying accusations to a whole new level. They’re claiming Christmas songs that refer to “our Lord” are “unfair, unconstitutional and [are] a form of bullying,” according to the Billings Gazette. The parents say there are all sorts of faiths represented in the community and children singing the songs at a recent school concert “were uncomfortable.” The school district responded by saying, “During the holidays we, as a school district, are very cognizant regarding our district policy pertaining to the holidays and the importance of separation of church and state,”...

Speeding tickets generate revenue for the city or county in which they’re issued. If the police department is low on revenue, they’ll set up a speed trap on a busy road and lie in wait for the non-violent speed violators. If the city is really desperate, they’ll invest in a speed camera system that will be distributed around the city and send citations to the registered owners of the alleged speeding vehicles. And if they’re still not happy with the money they’re making, they’ll start issuing speeding tickets to people who aren’t even speeding. In Baltimore, Maryland, they’ve generated over...

I speak to you today as a teacher.-SNIP-When I decided to become a teacher, Dr. Schaefer’s example inspired me to try to the best of my ability to teach basic, simple truths in the most understandable way. I have learned how very difficult it is to simplify. Years after the war, I returned to Washington State University and found Dr. Schaefer. He, of course, did not remember me. I was just one of many hundreds of cadets in his classes. I thanked him for what he had taught me. The math and calculus had long since faded away, but not...

Bypassing Congress, the Obama administration has issued a proposed administrative rule, which if adopted, would mandate the installation of “black boxes” in all automobiles and light trucks beginning in 2014. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed the regulation on Dec. 7, which it said “would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash.” The proposed standard would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs)—so-called “black box devices”—to collect specific safety-related data in all light passenger vehicles beginning Sept. 1, 2014. …

Ocean explorer Robert Ballard, who is responsible for the discovery of the Titanic shipwreck, says he may have discovered evidence of the Great Flood described in the Book of Genesis. Ballard is now on a mission to find evidence that the "mother of all floods" actually occurred, he told Christiane Amanpour of ABC News. "We went in there to look for the flood," he told ABC News. "Not just a slow moving, advancing rise of sea level, but a really big flood that then stayed... The land that went under stayed under." The explorer's mission was prompted by research conducted...

Although there’s been a breakthrough in the strict laws against concealed carry of firearms in Illinois 1, there may be some dark clouds in an expansion of gun rights in oppressive Illinois. There are several potential problems. The well publicized 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has left the door open to Illinois granting concealed carry permits to carry a concealed firearm just as is it is handled in New York state. Although it’s a giant leap in Illinois gun rights, before anyone gets overly excited, the fact is that the Court left the door open in Illinois to restrictive Concealed...

DEVELOPING: A gunman opened fire Friday inside a Connecticut elementary school, and authorities reported multiple deaths -- including the gunman -- according to CTNow.com. Reports also said children were shot but it remains unclear whether any were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Authorities said the gunman, who was not identified, is dead. An official with knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press that the man apparently had two guns.

On December 11th, a 3 judge panel from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional Illinois’ near total ban on the concealed carry of firearms. The 47 page decision in Moore v Madigan gives the Illinois legislature 180 days to craft legislation “…consistent with the public safety and the Second Amendment as interpreted in this opinion…” (1) In the 2008, District of Columbia v Heller decision the Supreme Court upheld the 2nd Amendment right of American citizens to “…use arms in defense of hearth and home…” by finding unconstitutional the 32 year, Washington D.C. ban on the keeping of...

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