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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The country tumbled deeper into recession and probably logged its worst economic performance in a quarter-century during the final three months of last year as battered consumers and businesses throttled back spending. The U.S. economy is deteriorating at an alarming clip as the housing, credit and financial crises -- the worst since the 1930s -- feed on each other in a vicious cycle that has proven difficult for Washington policymakers to break.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year was the eighth warmest year on record, according to the National Climatic Data Center. The world's temperature in 2008 tied that of 2001 according to the center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Preliminary calculations show the world's average temperature for 2008 was 0.88 degree Fahrenheit above the 20th Century average of 57.0 degrees F. The ranking means that all of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1997. Climate scientists around the world have raised concerns about global warming caused by the so-called greenhouse effect in which chemicals, largely...

The year 2008 tied with 2001 as the eighth warmest year on record for the Earth, based on the combined average of worldwide land and ocean surface temperatures through December, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. For December alone, the month also ranked as the eighth warmest globally, for the combined land and ocean surface temperature. The assessment is based on records dating back to 1880. The analyses in NCDC’s global reports are based on preliminary data, which are subject to revision. Additional quality control is applied to the data when late...

This is the second part of the 2008 review and as was true for part one the following photos may not necessarily be the best photos or the most important but they are chosen because they appeal to me and hopefully to you as well. It maybe because of the content, the expression on the face(s) or just an unusual photo. As I explained there are so many photos I have split this thread into 4 the first one will be January - March, this one the the second one April - June, the third July - September and the...

This is the third part of the 2008 review and as was true for parts one and two the following photos may not necessarily be the best photos or the most important but they are chosen because they appeal to me and hopefully to you as well. It maybe because of the content, the expression on the face(s) or just an unusual photo. As I explained there are so many photos I have split this thread into 4 the first one being January - March, the second April - June and this one the the third one July - September,...

This is the fourth and final part of the 2008 review and as was true for parts one and two and three the following photos may not necessarily be the best photos or the most important but they are chosen because they appeal to me and hopefully to you as well. It maybe because of the content, the expression on the face(s) or just an unusual photo. As I explained there are so many photos I have split this thread into 4 the first one being January - March, the second April - June, the third July - September, and...

U.S. foreclosure filings spiked by more than 81% in 2008, a record, according to a report released Thursday, and they're up 225% compared with 2006. A total of 861,664 families lost their homes to foreclosure last year, according to RealtyTrac, which released its year-end report Thursday. There were more than 3.1 million foreclosure filings issued during 2008, which means that one of every 54 households received a notice last year. "Clearly the foreclosure prevention programs implemented to date have not had any real success in slowing down this foreclosure tsunami," said James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac in a statement. And...

Outdoor Mag: Obama is 'Gun Salesman of the Year' @ 10:47 am by Walter Alarkon President-elect Obama is the Gun Salesman of the Year, according to The Outdoor Wire, a news service for outdoor sports. "Manufacturers are months behind on orders for semi-automatic pistols, AR-style rifles, and anything with so-called 'high-capacity magazines'," declared The Outdoor Wire's publisher, Jim Shepherd. "Buyers we’ve surveyed across the country seem to have a single explanation for their rush to purchase firearms — Obama." Guns are in demand because sportsmen are wary of Obama's support for gun control laws, Shepherd said. "Mr. Obama has consistently...

2008 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary This past November, the Smithsonian Institution completed an acclaimed renovation of its National Museum of American History, which houses many of our Nation’s most treasured historical artifacts. The highlight for many visitors is the Star-Spangled Banner Gallery, which provides a permanent home for the garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry on the morning of September 14, 1814. The appearance of the flag at dawn marked the success of American soldiers in repulsing a British attack during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the song that has become...

<p>What a great honor: on Jan. 14, Keith Olbermann named me runner-up to Glen Beck for "World's Worst of 2008."</p> <p>Freepers, I'm deeply humbled by this great award, and I want to thank my publicist, my editor, my wife, and all you little people out there (just kidding, you little people).</p>

Tuesday January 13, 2009 Nation's First Government-Funded Abortion Alternatives Program Helps 20,000 Women in 2007-08 HARRISBURG, PA, January 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Real Alternatives, the statewide program administrator for the award winning Pennsylvania Alternative to Abortion Services Program, has reported that in fiscal year 2007 -2008 a record 19,742 women were provided comprehensive counseling, mentoring, and support.In 2007-2008 the program received its highest funding of $6.5 million per year by the Commonwealth's Department of Public Welfare."We have seen a steady decrease in annual abortions since the start of the program 13 years ago," said Kevin Bagatta, Real Alternatives President...

On January 8, 2009, Richard John Neuhaus, 72, the intellectual force behind an influential coalition between Catholics and Protestants passed away after a long battle with cancer. A Lutheran pastor who converted to Catholicism in 1990 a priest in 1991, Neuhaus served as the president of The Institute on Religion and Public Life, the conservative think tank that publishes First Things magazine. Neuhaus was active in liberal politics until Roe v. Wade was handed down. His view on the importance of upholding religious orthodoxy is sumarized by “Neuhaus’s Law”, which states that “Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or...

I did a lot of Q-and -A interviews on talk radio recently about the bailout. And I got dozens of angry letters about my written opposition to government money going to the Big Three. But one argument struck me. For all those who wish to save the UAW and “high-paying union jobs”, why not just buy American? I have this unsupported, but I think empirical notion that those on the Left in California both supported the bailout and the idea of unions, but seem to like Hondas and Toyotas better than Focuses and Escapes—and most certainly Mercedes, Volvo, Lexus, and...

2008 ranked 15th coldest of the thirty years of records for the University of Alabama MSU based lower tropospheric temperatures (right in the middle of the pack). It was the coldest year since 2000. It continues the downtrend of the last 7 years. This compares with the Hadley Center data which (together with the equally alarmist WMO) claims 2008 will rank 10th warmest since 1850. (159 years!). How can an “average year” in one data base appear be a “top 6%” warmest year in another? Well the global data bases of NOAA GHCN, NASA GISS and Hadley CRUT3v are all...

Wednesday January 7, 2009 By the Numbers: The Ten Most Popular LifeSiteNews.com Stories of 2008 January 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - From the bizarre to the beautiful, in 2009 LifeSiteNews published thousands of original stories on many of the most important developments having to do with the issues of life, culture, faith and the family. But after crunching the numbers we found that the following ten stories came out on top as the most read LifeSiteNews.com stories of the past year. Many of these stories are just as important now as they were when they were first published. We hope you enjoy this retrospective.The Top 10 Most...

Bloomberg, link only: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=atCU2FgMa07I&refer=home

The 2008 annual temperature for the contiguous United States was near average, while the temperature for December was below the long-term average, based on records dating back to 1895, according to a preliminary analysis by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C... Chart:

Move over, Fluffy and Fido. There's a new batch of pet names in town: "people" names! Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI), the nation's largest and oldest provider of pet health insurance, scoured its database of more than 466,000 insured pets to find the most popular dog and cat names of 2008. (Animals not insured by VPI were not included in the survey.) But for those who like to think outside the (litter) box, VPI also came up with a list of unusual pet names, like Meatwad and Miss Fuzzbutt. The company's employees selected 50 unusual dog names and 50 unusual cat...

At a time when the oil and gas industry was reaping record profits, producers got a break under Texas' new business tax, according to a draft report from a state advisory committee. Oil and gas producers paid nearly $411 million last year under the new business tax, down from nearly $489 million in 2007. The industry also separately pays state levies including severance taxes, which skyrocketed with 2008's higher oil prices. Most other industries ended up paying more last year than in 2007 under the business-tax expansion, according to a draft of the Business Tax Advisory Committee's report to the...

The total value of the bailouts undertaken by the federal government in 2008 now exceeds the combined cost of every major war the United States has ever engaged in, according to a comparison of war costs calculated by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the value of the bailouts as calculated by Bloomberg News or Bianco Research. According to CRS, all major U.S. wars (including such events as the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, but not the invasion of Panama or...