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George "Shadow" Morton (b. 9/3/1940), the innovative record producer associated with Phil Spector, died yesterday. Morton had visited Ellie Greenwich at the Brill Building when he heard songwriter Jeff Barry working on a tune. Morton commented that it wasn't a song, and Barry replied that if Morton was so great, why didn't he show them on of his songs. Morton said he'd return in a week. Sitting in his car, he wrote "Remember (Walking in the Sand)," which would be a hit by a local girl-group, the Shangri-Las (and an unknown Billy Joel on piano in the recording session). He...

To share in the celebration, her daughter and granddaughter both flew down from Canada.This Valentine’s Day, Dorrie Aber-Noyek is getting a lot of love at Memorial Regional Hospital as she celebrates her 106th birthday. “I think it’s really wonderful!” she said. To share in the celebration, her daughter and granddaughter both flew down from Canada. "She inspires us, she’s a very wise woman. She’s a very giving woman, and she has the most beautiful smile. And the smile is what identifies her and everyone responds to her," said her daughter Audrey Steinhauer. Aber-Noyek has been walking the halls and volunteering...

Hundreds of Palestinians throw rocks, Molotov cocktails at IDF soldiers near Ofer security prison and at several other West Bank sites in support of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners; 2 IDF soldiers hurt. Breaking News 15:32 Fan nabbed for racism against Muslim Betar player JPost.com Defense Widespread Palestinian rioting erupts in West Bank By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST.COM STAFF 02/15/2013 18:59 Hundreds of Palestinians throw rocks, Molotov cocktails at IDF soldiers near Ofer security prison and at several other West Bank sites in support of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners; 2 IDF soldiers hurt. Stone-throwing Palestinian protesters carry a protester injured by IDF...

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio's pause to take a drink of water during his rebuttal to President Obama's State-of-the-Union speech was declared “a possible career ender” by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. “Voters may tolerate a lot from their prospective leaders,” Blitzer observed. “We've learned that diddling interns is okay. A bogus birth certificate may be worth a few snickers, but does not seem to undermine our confidence in a man's leadership capabilities. However, the jarring interruption of a high-profile speech by a moment of thirst would appear to be the type of thing that raises serious questions about fitness to serve.”...

Federal prosecutors say a man on trial in Georgia was seeking to become famous as someone who survived a deadly bite from a black mamba -- but they say the story was a hoax. Authorities still searching for Black Mamba snake John K. Rosenbaum Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., is accused of touching off a desperate search for the snake in south Georgia after telling authorities he was bitten in November 2011 while meeting someone willing to sell him the snake at an exit of Interstate 95 in Camden County. The snake is among the world's deadliest, and his story touched...

Like many Americans, I keep wondering when the US economy will received a kick-start and get back on its feet. The Federal Reserve has certainly been quite active since 2008 in attempting to revive the economy, but has it worked? Here is a chart of The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators (blue) and the 10 year Treasury rate (green). While the LEI have been increasing with declines in the 10 year Treasury rate, it is a pale recovery compared with the 2001-2007 (Q3) under President Bush. Part of the problem with the inability to recover as quickly which we did...

Federal officials filed charges Friday against Jesse Jackson Jr. after the former congressman reportedly signed a plea deal for allegedly improperly spending hundreds of thousands in campaign funds. The paperwork was filed at the U.S District Courthouse in Washington. Jackson, who left the public eye last summer for treatment of bi-polar disorder and resigned from office in November, is not expected to make an appearance, but he offered a response in his first statement to the public in months.

More than 5,000 supporters of tighter controls on firearms crowded the state Capitol Thursday morning, demanding action from the General Assembly in the wake of the Newtown school massacre. "The American people have seen what happens in place after place...we cannot let what happened here in Connecticut ever be forgotten,'' Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told the crowd. "We will not rest until we have changed America. We will not rest until we have changed Connecticut." Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, among a host of elected leaders speaking to the rally, said that "we have to make sure that no one says...

This one’s long but stick with it. The good stuff doesn’t start happening until after we’re treated to the thousandth iteration of Charlie Rangel’s master plan to end war as we know it by reinstituting a military draft which virtually no one supports and which Congress will never again feel safe voting for. A draft which, incidentally, he thinks should now include women: “Now that women can serve in combat they should register for the Selective Service alongside their male counterparts,” Rangel said in a statement. “Reinstating the draft and requiring women to register for the Selective Service would compel...

Ok, I know there are some people who still get a bit offended when I talk about “government schools,” or “tax-funded indoctrination centers.” You can be honest. You think my outrage at the dramatic downward spiral of student standards, the censorship of even the barest symbols of God and country, the usurpation of parental roles by government officials, the peddling of self-esteem as the only commodity to our tiny epicureans….well, you think I’m overstating it. Our schools wouldn’t really be that blatantly schilling for government, would they? They aren’t really just cheerleaders for Obama, right? Those are just the big-city...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) Documents detailing the dubious fundraising practices of a disgraced Roman Catholic religious order called the Legion of Christ were released to the public Friday, showing how the organization took control of an elderly woman's finances and persuaded her to bequeath it $60 million.

Video's at link. Judicial Watch today released previously unseen USDA videos revealing a compulsory “Cultural Sensitivity Training” program requiring USDA employees to bang on tables, chanting in unison “The pilgrims were illegal aliens” while being instructed to no longer use the word “minorities,” but to replace it with “emerging majorities.” Judicial Watch received the videos pursuant to a May 18, 2012, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The sensitivity training sessions, described as “a huge expense” by diversity awareness trainer and self-described “citizen of the world” Samuel Betances, were held on USDA premises. The diversity event is apparently part of...

Cheaper Than Dirt just made the largest single contribution to the Second Amendment Foundation and first “Diamond Level” donation of $100,000. The Second Amendment Foundation is pretty happy about this. “The level of support from CheaperThanDirt both delighted and shocked me,” said Second Amendment Foundation director Ray Carter. “SAF has never before received a single donation of this size and by itself Cheaper Than Dirt’s contribution will make possible a major expansion of SAF legal action and education efforts. We are privileged to consider Cheaper Than Dirt a partner in our efforts.” “Created in response to the generous donation from...

Russia's authorities on Friday cautioned residents of the Urals to stay away from any unidentified objects after a meteor dramatically burned up above the region, with a precious meteorite apparently plunging into a local lake.

Taxes: The president may try to satisfy both environmentalists and pro-growth blocs by tying the shovel-ready project curiously left out of the State of the Union to just-introduced carbon-tax legislation. Having failed to lower the sea levels in his first term, President Obama, in the first SOTU of his second term, highlighted the need for fighting climate change and proposed an Energy Security Trust Fund to siphon off money from those who actually produce abundant and useable energy to fund alternative energy sources which constitute a rounding error in the percent of energy produced by various sources. Two days later,...

While many decry the way Alex Jones presented his argument on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight recently, none can argue with the balance and calm approach, head of Gun Owners of America, Larry Pratt presented. Pratt skillfully and methodically destroyed Piers Morgans ridiculous pro-communist gun-control argument piece-by-piece, discrediting his claims that the UK, a country with the highest violent crime rate in Europe, was made safe by gun control.

A settlement announced Friday is expected to end the state’s long-running dispute with the EPA over mandatory controls to reduce haze-causing pollution at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in northwest New Mexico. The agreement, which incorporates most of a compromise plan proposed by the New Mexico Environment Department to the EPA last year, calls for the closure of two of the plant’s four units by Dec. 31, 2017. They would be replaced by a 150- to 200-megawatt natural gas-fueled unit. The two remaining units would be equipped with state-proposed and less expensive pollution controls using selective non-catalytic reduction technology...

America is getting soft and here’s why. Everyday, I see and read about more complainers, cry-babies, and thin-skinned whiners. Whatever happened to the old adage, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me”? It seems that, now, everyone is offended by something and everyone is willing to don a cap with a big “V” for “victim” on it. I don’t get it. Take, for example, President Obama. He’s the biggest cry-baby of them all. Here’s the most powerful man in the world and he’s upset with a cable news network. How many snide remarks are...

<p>Facebook didn't pay any federal or state income taxes last year and will receive a hefty tax refund, according to a recent report.</p> <p>How did the social network manage to swing such a nice tax break?</p>