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The Indianapolis Motor Speedway officially opened with balloon races June 5, 1909, followed by motorcycle races Aug. 14 and automobile races Aug. 19. ...

On February 3rd, 1913, one of the two most historic events in US history took place: the ratification of the 16th amendment, which established Congress' right to impose a Federal income tax on Americans, and overturned Article I, Section 9 of the US Constitution which explicitly prohibited a general income tax. The amendment was brief and to the point, and read as follows: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration." And with that, the US Federal Income...

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today shared his personal experiences and passion for Boy Scouting with tens of thousands of Scouts and their families gathered for the 100th anniversary celebration of the Boy Scouts of America. Video U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates addresses an audience of more than 45,000 scouts during the Boy Scouts of America 2010 National Scout Jamboree on Fort AP Hill, Va., July 28, 2010. The massive group of boy scouts from all across America came to the 12,000 acre site for 10 days to celebrate the Boy Scouts centennial. DoD...

PLEASANTON — What birthday would be complete without a song? And to help celebrate 100 years of the Boy Scouts of America, hundreds of packs and troops obliged Friday with their own version. Scouts from throughout Northern California kicked off the Northern California 100th Anniversary Jamboree opening ceremony with their own chant at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Members from as far south as Yosemite to as far north as the Oregon border belted out: "We got spirit, yes we do. We got spirit, how about you?" The chant grew in volume and enthusiasm as it snaked its way from one...

SIERRA VISTA — As part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting in America, local Scouts showed off a variety of hands-on projects and enjoyed some outdoor games during expo in Veterans’ Memorial Park on Saturday. Scouts often do activities in secluded areas, so the expo gave them a chance to share some of what they do, said James Harper, district program chairman for Boy Scouts. Saturday’s activities included the assembly of two monkey bridges, the assembly of a catapult, miniature boat racing and the Pinewood Derby. Five age groups of Cub Scouts competed in the Pinewood...

A smoker who has 10 cigars day and enjoys a whisky with his morning tea has celebrated his 100th birthday.Mr Priestly began smoking at the age of nine, he has since smoked 153,000 cigars and 715,400 cigarettes Jack Priestly claims he has suffered no serious health problems related to his tobacco and alcohol habit. Mr Priestly, a widower and former baker, began smoking cigarettes when he was nine and claims to have smoked every day since. He changed to cigars in 1966 after he said he was told they were "healthier" and celebrated his century last Saturday.

Cap-and-trade is a huge tax hidden in a bureaucratic labyrinth of opaque permit transactions An unprecedentedly radical government grab for control of the American economy will be debated this week when the Senate considers saving the planet by means of a cap-and-trade system to ration carbon emissions. The plan is co-authored (with John Warner) by Joe Lieberman, an ardent supporter of John McCain, who supports Lieberman’s legislation and recently spoke about “the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring.” Speaking of endless troubles, “cap-and-trade” comes cloaked in reassuring rhetoric about...

Sen. Chuck Schumer, who likes to say he doesn't choose sides in Democratic primaries, is poised to break that rule yet again in a contentious state Senate race. Veteran Brooklyn State Sen. Marty Connor said he was shocked when Schumer informed him during a rural Democrats' event in Saratoga Springs on Saturday that Schumer will back his former aide and political neophyte, Daniel Squadron, against Connor this fall. According to Connor, Schumer, speaking in "a cold voice," informed the former state Senate minority leader: "You weren't there when I needed you; I owe you nothing." At issue was Connor's 1998...

PART 1 In just one year. Remember the election in 2006? Thought you might like to read the following: A little over one year ago: 1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high; 2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon; 3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%. Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen: 1) Consumer confidence plummet; 2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon; 3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase); 4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Friday blocked a Republican proposal to pay $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without strings attached. The 53-45 vote was 15 votes short of the 60 needed to advance. The measure was aimed at countering Democratic legislation that also would bankroll the operations, but would additionally require that troops start coming home in 30 days. The Democratic bill, passed by the House on Wednesday, set a goal of ending combat by December 2008. "We need to get the funds to the troops and we need to do it now," said Senate...

Senator Larry Craig is either incoherent or incompetent – or both. His press conference on Tuesday afternoon was exactly the wrong thing to do - on nearly every level. And I for one do not believe that most of his story holds. Save this one item, when he stated clearly, "I am not gay!" I'm sure there was no merriment whatsoever in his life the preceding number of hours up to the press conference. If he meant that was "not homosexual" that too is also likely. Homosexuality is not a state of defined being. Rather on the best science man...

Yesterday Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) thrilled residents of Capetown, South Africa by walking from their city onto the Indian Ocean waters to the former prison at Robben Island, where Obama viewed the onetime jail cell of former South African President Nelson Mandela.Did I make that stuff up? Yes. But some people are treating Obama as if he was the Savior. Earlier this month, Illinois Democratic Party Chairman and Speaker of the Illinois State House Michael Madigan ridiculed magazine cover boy Obama as "the Messiah."Here's an AP article about Obama's extended African trip. In the article, there is no mention of...

By now I'm assuming that Harley-Davidson has figured out whom to fire for putting Elton John in front of 150,000 of its best customers as the 100th anniversary party's grand finale. So I called the company to check. "No, of course not," said Harley spokeswoman Amy Alarupi. "No one is going to lose their job over this." How about a forced transfer from the Juneau Ave. office to the Juneau, Alaska, outpost? There's nothing wrong with Elton John that being The Rolling Stones instead wouldn't fix. Anyone who says he was a good choice for these leathery bikers is still...

<p>Bob Hope is one of the last troupers alive with service ribbons from vaudeville, movies, radio and television. He had a quip for every occasion. Everybody remembers the laughs if not the jokes. "I'm so old," he said yesterday, celebrating his 100th birthday, "they've canceled my blood type." But it's his long tradition of spending Christmas with young Americans on far-flung battle stations that the old trouper will be most fondly remembered. Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper that has followed American soldiers to a dozen wars and police actions, invited veterans to post their remembrances of Bob Hope on its Internet site (www.estripes.com), and reading them is an evocative stroll through the history of the most violent years of a violent century. The vets remember remarkably few of the actual jokes, but they recall in detail the beautiful girls, often including the reigning Miss America ("I brought 'em along to show you what you're fighting for," as he always introduced them), the music and laughter, the selfless good humor of the man, and above all the touches from home that if only for a couple of hours lifted the men out of the backwater islands of the South Pacific, the broken cities of Europe, the squalid Korean villages, the dusty desert base camps, flight decks, and a hundred hospital wards. "In Vietnam in 1968," recalls Pat Eastes, who identifies himself only as a one-time gunship pilot of the 25th Infantry Division, "I was assigned to fly gun cover during his show at Cu Chi. ... We received fire off the end of the runway and reported to the tower that Charlie was taking potshots in the area. Mr. Hope's aircraft landed without incident, and while we flew circles around base camp, the show went on as planned. On takeoff, the tower advised the pilots of Mr. Hope's plane that the gunships had received small-arms fire, and so the takeoff was one of those 'max climb,' all-out jobs that C-123s could do so well. We were entertained and surprised when seeing the headlines the next day or so in Stars and Stripes that Bob Hope had been shot at taking off from Cu Chi. I guess it was a good headline, but it was a bit enhanced." Getting shot at was merely grist. As it happened, I spent that particular Christmas Eve with Hope, Billy Graham and the late Cardinal Francis Spellman, hopscotching across 'Nam to take Christmas to the troops. "Billy Graham and Cardinal Spellman," Hope quipped. "Now those are the two bookends you want." When the rumble of artillery suddenly threatened to drown the banter on stage, the master of perfect timing seemed to have been listening to a metronome: "That's all right," he said when the rumble subsided. "We've been getting 21-gun salutes all day. Three or four of the guns are usually ours." He was also the master of the casual pose, decked out in bright yellow trousers and waving the ubiquitous golf club. But the pose was only that: nothing had been left to coincidence or circumstance. His writers always preceded him, by a day or so, taking names to go with the mess-hall gossip. Hope worked it all into the patter. The troops loved it. The seating was carefully arranged: the wounded GIs in the front rows, then the enlisted men, the officers at the rear. He made a point to chow down with the troops, but he visited with their officers as well, often at the Officers Club. His small-d democrat's instincts were not a pose. "I was a combat medic," recalls Paul L. Pleticha of the 25th Infantry Division, "and sat in front with the wounded from our hospital. After a great two hours of laughter and singing, he came to our hospital wards and spent two more hours just talking with the wounded. He always kept a smile and a joke going to keep the spirits of the men up." Like so many typical Americans, Leslie Townes Hope was an American by choice, coming with his family to Cleveland when he was 4 ("I left England as soon as I found out I wasn't eligible to become king.") He joined a vaudeville troupe as a teenager, once working "third billing to Siamese twins" and sometimes as warm-up for Fatty Arbuckle. He even worked for a while as a newspaper reporter before going to Hollywood just as the movies were entering their golden era. He and his pal Bing Crosby (who coined the mock insult "ol' Ski-nose") invented the road movie. Critics panned their slapstick humor decorated with gorgeous babes like Dorothy Lamour and Jane Russell, but the movies earned millions. "I would have won the Academy Award if not for one thing: my pictures" he once said. "Academy Award night at my house was called Passover." Presidents were eager to play a round of golf with him because they knew his jokes would assuage the disappointment of hooks and slices. He last played a presidential foursome in 1995, with Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. "Clinton had the best score," he said afterward, "Ford the most errors and Bush the most hits. Me, I cheated better than ever." Sure he did. But who's complaining?</p>