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Malt liquor and marijuana -- quite a combo. Mix in hundreds of thousands of dollars in stimulus money and you've got a project at the University at Buffalo that has raised a lot of eyebrows. And yes, if stimulus money is being spent -- that means you paid for it. $390 thousand dollars -- your federal tax dollars -- are going to study the effects of marijuana and malt liquor on young adults. Test subjects are being paid to drink the malt liquor and smoke the marijuana.

TROY, NY -- A grand jury has spoken in the Troy voting scandal. This morning, 116 felony charges were handed down against City Councilman Michael Loporto and Elections Commissioner Ed McDonough. The special prosecutor on the case said 50 Troy citizens had their right to vote taken away during the September 2009 primary. Both Loporto and McDonough are accused of writing the voters' names on the ballots, and sending them in to win the Working Families Party line for the Democrats. The prosecution said both men chose to take advantage of those who did not speak English, and at least...

<p>HONOLULU – President Barack Obama says Democrats and Republicans must work together in the new year and share responsibility for moving the country forward.</p> <p>In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said Saturday that lawmakers must return to Washington next week prepared to make serious decisions about how to grow the economy in the short run and stay competitive in the future.</p>

ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2010) — It goes without saying that conservatives and liberals don't see the world in the same way. Now, research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests that is exactly, and quite literally, the case. In a new study, UNL researchers measured both liberals' and conservatives' reaction to "gaze cues" -- a person's tendency to shift attention in a direction consistent with another person's eye movements, even if it's irrelevant to their current task -- and found big differences between the two groups. Liberals responded strongly to the prompts, consistently moving their attention in the direction suggested to...

"There needs to be a real movement right now, in the Democratic Party, among liberals and progressives to get someone to challenge Barack Obama, in the Democratic primary, in 2012..."

We all know that Hillary Clinton came close to winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2008. She wasn't successful, but some people clearly haven't forgotten about what could have been. The Secretary of State joined New Zealand Prime Minister John Phillip Key and New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray Stuart McCully for remarks Thursday at Wellington's Parliament Theatrette, and the Prime Minister made a little slip up. "And we, in a purely bilateral basis, have concerns about the fact that Australia has an FTA," began Key. "They’re a very important part of our market in New...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she expects President Barack Obama to stay the course on domestic and foreign policy even if Republicans make big gains, as expected, in hotly contested congressional midterm elections. Clinton told students and civic leaders in Malaysia that she had spoken to Obama by phone on the eve of the vote, and joked that she thought he seemed "a little envious" that she was abroad for an election that may see Democrats lose control of Congress."I think he was a little envious that I am here," Clinton said,...

Hundreds of Chris Gibson supporters welcome President Clinton to Gibson Country! Check out these photos!

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - 8:57 a.m.: The rally is over. Clinton said Gibson is an honorable man who should be respected for his miltary service. But Murphy has a better understanding of the economy. Clinton said the tea party should be supporting Murphy because he supported a bill to prevent future bailouts. "If you don't want more bailouts, you'd better vote for your current congressman." he said. Clinton said Murphy understands new technology. The U.S. Share of manufacturng batteries for hybrid cars has gone from 2 percent to 30 percent Clinton said. Clinton said the health care bill is important....

BRUNSWICK -- Chris Gibson's first political awakening came in 1979. He was 15, watching President Jimmy Carter tell Americans to turn down their thermostats. His father was collecting unemployment, out of work from his job as an elevator mechanic. "I remember just thinking, 'Is this it? Are our best days behind us?'" Gibson recalled recently. Then he heard Ronald Reagan, with his "sense of hope, his sense of optimism -- and I was attracted to the message." The same thoughts occurred to him in the summer of 2009 when Gibson, a colonel in the Army, became "concerned" with a growing...

Barack Obama the vigorous campaigner showed up at a rally for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick in Boston on Saturday...

President Bill Clinton's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo answered questions in 1998 at a press conference regarding HUD policy that would ensure that banks could not discriminate against low-income minorities when considering individuals from this group for housing loans. In this video (h/t Eyeblast) he says: "To take a greater risk on these mortgages...yes. To give families mortgages they who they would not have given otherwise?...yes." Mr. Cuomo is then asked if this people in this group could have gotten the loans at all in the first place. In a telling response, he answers: "They would not...

New York’s 20th congressional district has a problem. It’s an R+2 district, one that Bush carried 54 percent to 46 percent in 2004, and one that Obama carried by 3 percent, a classic swing district. But their Democratic congressman, Scott Murphy, is one of those so-called “moderate Democrats” who are never moderate when it really counts. He voted for Obamacare, and staunchly opposes repeal. He voted against a ban on federally funded abortions. He voted for cap-and-trade. Murphy likes to talk a lot about his strong views on pay-as-you-go, but he voted to raise the debt ceiling. He voted for...

Freshman Rep. Scott Murphy, locked in a tight re-election contest in upstate New York, released a political advertisement Wednesday that may be the election season’s most aggressive embrace of the health care law passed by Congress this year. The advertisement doesn’t so much extol the health care law’s virtues as it attacks his opponent, Chris Gibson, for wanting its repeal. “Chris Gibson would let insurance companies go back to denying coverage for pre-existing conditions; he would let them restore lifetime limits on coverage. Chris Gibson would eliminate mandatory coverage for preventive care like mammograms and colon screenings, and seniors would...

Chris Gibson’s congressional campaign has issued a memo describing an internal poll showing the retired Army colonel from Kinderhook is trailing Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, by four points. In a head-to-head match up, the poll found Murphy leading Gibson 42-38. The pollsters write in a memo: “Among the voters most interested in the election, Gibson leads, 41%-40%.” The poll was conducted early last week by Public Opinion Strategies and surveyed 400 “likely” voters, determined by their self-rating. Dan Odescalchi, a Gibson spokesman, said the sample was 41 percent Republican, 27 percent Democratic and 32 percent un-enrolled or other parties....

Federal regulators are hard at work making the world a safer place for kids -- starting with the threat posed by toxic paper clips. Never heard of a toxic paper clip? Neither have the manufacturers of science kits for classrooms across the country. But they're now locked in a debate with federal officials, who just moved a step closer to requiring costly new safety tests on the components of those kits. The kit makers warn the requirements could end up mandating pointless tests on components ranging from paper clips to nails to rulers. "There's never been a problem with lead...

American Bio Medica, one of Columbia County’s largest manufacturers, is fighting the federal government’s attempt to expand its regulation of the company’s products. The company makes drug testing kits for workplaces and government agencies. The FDA wants to begin regulating saliva drug testing kits, which make up about 20 percent of American Bio Medica’s product line. Chris Gibson, the Republican candidate for the 20th Congressional District seat, touring the plant on Smith Street Thursday, told the company’s assembled workforce this was “capricious legislation.” “Twenty percent of your company’s business is at risk,” he said. The saliva tests make up about...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Former President Bill Clinton rallied the Democratic faithful in New England on Sunday, urging them to support his longtime friend and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut and persuade their neighbors not to give in to their anger toward the economy and incumbents. He also made stops in Maine and Massachusetts, appearing with candidates for governor and other offices. "Any time in life you make a really important decision when you're mad, there's about an 80 percent chance you'll make a mistake," Clinton told a crowd in New Haven, Conn., estimated by Blumenthal's campaign to...

Despite outrage over George Bush's limited ability to wiretap into American phone calls, Obama wants to take it a step further and be able to monitor every single form of communication any American citizen uses. The same kind of authority the government has to wiretap into phone calls could be coming to Facebook, instant messaging, and every American's browser history, thanks to a push from the Obama administration. The White House plans to introduce a bill into Congress next year that would give Obama the ability to tap into literally every communication any citizen makes online. The move causes a...