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Illinois Democrats are backing off an effort to give $100 million in a push to land President Obama’s presidential library and museum -- following accusations of voting “shenanigans” and nasty Chicago-style politics, not to mention the state’s dire financial situation. A Democrat-led House committee approved the money last week at an out-of-town hearing in Chicago with no Republicans in attendance. They instead relied on a procedural move that allowed them to use votes from a previous meeting. “What they did last week was under-handed and sneaky and offers further proof that they no longer can be trusted with taxpayer money,”...

Which stories are included in the official Star Wars canon has been a source of debate for years, but in light of the new upcoming films, Lucasfilm has made a statement regarding what it considers to be the true timeline. In short, all of the Expanded Universe – including video games, comics, and novels – didn't really happen.

It was an angry book. Much of the response was angry too. Some towns banned it, some towns burned it. Every town talked about it. "The Grapes of Wrath" was published 75 years ago this month, a seminal masterpiece of American literature that seems freshly relevant to this era of wealth disparity, rapacious banks and growing poverty. John Steinbeck introduced readers to the Joads, a poor, proud clan of Depression-era Oklahoma farmers who set out for the promised land of California in a rickety truck after their own land dries up and blows away and the bank seizes what little...

The incarcerated may be the Bard's ideal modern audience.It's his 450th birthday, and The Bard has never appealed to a wider or more diverse audience. American higher-ed English departments may be teaching him less than they used to, but the Internet and modern film and TV interpretations have helped democratize appreciation of his works around the world. That’s only fitting: In Shakespeare’s era, the royalty in attendance at his productions was joined by crowds of commoners called “groundlings” and “stinkards” who paid a penny to stand in the pit, sweltering in the heat, while even more milled about outside. Related...

On the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, Michael Billington has picked the best Hamlets he's seen in each decade of his theatregoing life. To help you choose your own favourite Prince of Denmark, here are 45 actors who've found a method for the character's madness

<p>LONDON — Would you like some kitten with your coffee?</p> <p>Feline company is exactly what one of London's newest cafes is offering — and stressed-out city-dwellers are lapping it up.</p> <p>"People do want to have pets and in tiny flats, you can't," said cafe owner Lauren Pears, who opened Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium last month in an area east of the city's financial district.</p>

FULL TITLE: Boys turning to action-packed video games because books are 'too girly' for them, says award-winning children's author Boys are being put off reading because of the influence women have on children’s literature, says an award-winning children’s author. Jonathan Emmett warned that children’s books were too girly because of the influence of mostly female panels of editors, publishers, reviewers and judges. One publishing company’s research suggested women bought 95 per cent of picture books for children, he added. The writer believes boys are being starved of what they enjoy in books, such as swashbuckling pirates, battles, or technical details...

Illegal Immigration might also be called "Illegal Migration!" To really understand illegal migration, I suggest: "The Camp of the Saints," by Jean Raspail.

Boys are being put off reading because of the influence women have on children’s literature, says an award-winning children’s author. Jonathan Emmett warned that children’s books were too girly because of the influence of mostly female panels of editors, publishers, reviewers and judges. One publishing company’s research suggested women bought 95 percent of picture books for children, he added. The writer believes boys are being starved of what they enjoy in books, such as swashbuckling pirates, battles, or technical details about spaceships, and so are driven to more action-packed video games instead. …

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life [Kindle Edition] Charles Murray (Author) 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews) Print List Price: $17.95 Sold by: Random House LLC Length: 146 pages (Contains Real Page Numbers) Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here. Whispersync for Voice: Ready

I am trying to find the name of a Science Fiction story I read thirty to forty years ago. The plot line revolves around a former Mercenary stranded on a newly settled planet. The leaders of the planet have decided that they have about a hundred years to get their population up to a level that will allow them to fend off others. The solution is to pair post pubescent women with slightly older men and breed as rapidly as possible while building the infrastructure necessary for a society. I seem to remember that the main item of value on...

Don’t think this is a burial of Game of Thrones; it really is one of the best shows on TV right now. But “the best” and “frustrating” aren’t mutually exclusive, and there’s a lot Game of Thrones does that it could stand to stop doing. Like, for example…

Harry Chapman Pincher looks back on his extraordinary career as Daily Express defence correspondent, as he marks his 100th birthday. His employers called him "the lone wolf of Fleet Street", the man who got the stories other journalists seemed to miss. For over 30 years, until his retirement in 1979, Harry Chapman Pincher was the defence and science correspondent for the Daily Express, then Britain's biggest-selling daily newspaper. Few military or atomic secrets in the 1950s and 60s were safe from Pincher. His contacts in the scientific and military establishment brought him one exclusive after another. In retirement he turned...

BBC America Series Premiere: Saturday, April 19th at 10/9c From Star Wars to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and from Jurassic Park to Doctor Who, each program is packed with contributors behind these creations and traces the developments of Robots, Space, Invasion and Time. Narrated by Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who writer, actor, and co-creator of the BBC’s Sherlock, the series determines why science fiction is not merely a genre… for its audience it’s a portal to a multi-verse – one that is all too easy to get lost in... Home | About the show | Episode Guide | Photos | Videos

In 2011 Barack Obama led an allied military intervention in Libya without consulting the US Congress. Last August, after the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, he was ready to launch an allied air strike, this time to punish the Syrian government for allegedly crossing the ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons.​＊ Then with less than two days to go before the planned strike, he announced that he would seek congressional approval for the intervention. The strike was postponed as Congress prepared for hearings, and subsequently cancelled when Obama accepted Assad’s...

Gandalf’s horse Shadowfax from the Lord of the Rings films has died.The famous horse, called Blanco, had been ill for some time and owner Cynthia Royal made the decision to have him put down.In a statement posted to theonering.net, Royal explains that Blanco had suffered from ‘serious issues with his intestinal tract and liver.’She was present when he was euthanized in his stable.‘Although my heart was breaking,’ she explains, ‘as my final gift to him, I stayed strong, balanced and focused, gently repeating “Relax Blanco. Let go. Walk into the light. Relax and let go” as the Blanco I’ve known...

It was the best of hugs; it was the worst of hugs. Or so the description might have gone had Charlie Crist labored a bit longer on his new memoir, in which the erstwhile governor of Florida—who is now campaigning for the job again—relives the fateful embrace with President Obama that he claims sunk his political fortunes in 2009. Rather than try for style, Crist renders the moment with the racy, staccato gusto that one might expect from a pulpy romance. ................................................. But fiction is yours to write if you’re an aspiring politician with a book deal. Crist’s The Party’s...

Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez returned to his Mexico City home on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, after a week-long hospitalisation for a lung infection, but officials said he remains in "delicate" condition.

Since 1941, comic book fans have followed the exploits of teenaged Archie Andrews and his friends. This July, they'll find out how he dies. "Life With Archie" #36 hits stores on July 16, and CNN can reveal exclusively that it tells the story of how Archie sacrifices himself to save a friend. Few details are known, but it seems fitting that Archie would go out a hero. The 37th issue one week later will end the series. The "Life With Archie" series has been telling the stories of possible future Archie scenarios for the past few years, and so Archie...

A secret package arrived at CIA headquarters in January 1958. Inside were two rolls of film from British intelligence — pictures of the pages of a Russian-language novel titled “Doctor Zhivago.” The book, by poet Boris Pasternak, had been banned from publication in the Soviet Union. The British were suggesting that the CIA get copies of the novel behind the Iron Curtain. The idea immediately gained traction in Washington.