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Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin says she will oppose the health care reform bill expected to be considered this weekend in the House. The South Dakota Democrat says the plan falls short of her goals for health care reform and could threaten existing access to health care for many South Dakotans. Herseth Sandlin says she's also concerned it doesn't do enough to bring down the federal deficit and could affect future health care for seniors. The House could begin consideration this weekend of the 10-year, $1.2 trillion legislation that would extend health coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and...

June 17, 2009—The fossil hand of a long-necked, ostrich-like dinosaur recently found in China may help solve the mystery of how bird wings evolved from dinosaur limbs, according to a new study. The ancient digits belonged to a 159-million-year-old theropod dinosaur dubbed Limusaurus inextricabilis. Theropods are two-legged dinos thought to have given rise to modern birds. Although it was a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus rex, the newfound dinosaur was a small herbivore, said study co-author James Clark, a biologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The animal was about 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) long and had relatively short, clawless...

From William Randolph Hearst's ginned up hysterical stories about marijuana to the "10-cent plague" comic book scare of the 1950s to The New York Times warning of "cocaine-crazed Negroes" raping white women across the Southern countryside, the media has always whipped up anxiety and increased readership via thinly sourced exposes of the next great threat to the American way of life. And since the British sociologist Stanley Cohen defined the moral panic phenomenon in the early 1970s as hysterical overreactions to imagined threats to social order, no publication has done a better (by which we mean worse) job of scaring...

Remember O. Henry’s tale, The Ransom Of Red Chief? A couple of con men kidnap a rich banker’s son. The boy turns out to be a hellion who makes the kidnappers’ lives a living hell. By the end of the story, rather than paying a ransom, the boy’s father demands money to take the rascal back. So beleagured are the kidnappers that they pay up. The O. Henry tale comes to mind in observing the way that Republican turncoat Arlen Specter is making his new-found Dem colleagues miserable. As recounted on this evening’s Hardball, in the course of just a...

It has been said that director Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo (1959) as a reaction to two popular westerns which angered him - High Noon (1952) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). His comment on the former was, "I didn't think a good sheriff was going to go running around town like a chicken with his head off asking for help, and finally his Quaker wife had to save him." Hawks also considered 3:10 to Yuma, which had outlaw Glenn Ford playing psychological games with lawman Van Heflin, "a lot of nonsense." So Rio Bravo was the director's take on heroism...

This summer Price, 57, plans to continue on a journey to prove just that as he joins an expedition to Mount Ararat. His team believes that it is there, in Eastern Turkey, where Noah's Ark remains preserved underneath layers of rubble and ice. "There's a whole trail of history pointing to it [Mt. Ararat]," Price said in a recent interview. "But in our age, people tend to think it is more of a story like Jack and the Bean Stalk.' Our aim is to show that the Bible is good history." ...... A Kurdish shepherd told them that he had...

Democrat Barack Obama's once double-digit lead in Washington state is no more, according to this latest SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KING-TV Seattle and KATU-TV Portland Oregon. In an election today, 09/08/08, eight weeks till votes are counted, it's Obama 49%, McCain 45%. Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll 4 weeks ago (before both candidates had named their running mates), Obama is down 2 points; McCain is up 1. Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll 8 weeks ago, Obama is down 6; McCain is up 6. Obama led by 17 points in June, led by 16 points in July, led...

...Poole’s analysis shows a fascinating and perhaps disturbing trend. Despite the perceptions of many in and out of the blogosphere and punditry, the parties have moved away from compromise, not towards it...

"Dino Killer" Asteroid Was Half the Size Predicted? Ker Than for National Geographic NewsApril 10, 2008 The meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs might have been less than half the size of what previous models predicted. That's the finding of a new technique being developed to estimate the size of ancient impactors that left little or no remaining physical evidence of themselves after they collided with Earth. Scientists working on the technique used chemical signatures in seawater and ocean sediments to study the dino-killing impact that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 65 million years ago. They...

The Very Rev. Gerald N. Dino, a Binghamton native, will be installed as bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Diocese of Van Nuys on Thursdayin Phoenix, Ariz., where the 13-state diocese is headquartered.Dino, who grew up in the Downs Avenue area of the First Ward and graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1958, was appointed to the position late last year by Pope Benedict XVI. Dino’s home parish was Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church on Clinton Street in Binghamton.Dino will become the only Broome County native to ascend to the office of bishop, Broome County Historian Gerald Smith said after...

Dino-Era Feathers Found Encased in Amber James Owen for National Geographic NewsMarch 11, 2008 Seven dino-era feathers found perfectly preserved in amber in western France highlight a crucial stage in feather evolution, scientists report. The hundred-million-year-old plumage has features of both feather-like fibers found with some two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods and of modern bird feathers, the researchers said. This means the fossils could fill a key gap in the puzzle of how dinosaurs gave rise to birds, according to a team led by Vincent Perrichot of the Museum für Naturkunde-Berlin in Germany. The find provides a clear example "of...

Dino Rossi is a former Washington State Senator and Republican nominee for Governor of Washington in the 2004 election, one of the closest elections in state history. In 2004, Rossi resigned his Senate seat to run for governor. His resignation was due to state fundraising laws that do not allow fundraising while the legislature is in session. He faced no significant opposition in the Republican gubernatorial primary as all other GOP candidates dropped out shortly after he declared his candidacy. He won the primary with 85% of the vote. In the November 2 election, over 2.8 million votes were cast...

I just got an automated call from RINO ex-Governor Pete Wilson to tell Californians how tough John McCain would be ON OUR NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. Oops. CORRECTION. What he *actually* said was how tough John McCain would be on illegal alien issues.... And I hung up the phone in scoffing disbelief. WE THE PEOPLE have from now until November to find and boost another GOP candidate regardless of the outcome of this senselessly-FRENETIC primary. I'm not taking any candidate's polling spin as fait accompli until the fat thighed lady sings a concession speech. Slow and steady, no need for panic. HALP...

Should Moderate Republicans Become DINOs? I'm serious! After long consideration in my Mississippi Primary, I decided I could do more good for my Republican Party by voting Democrat ... and weeding out some very bad candidates. I trust in the Republican Party to weed out our bad candidates, so ... I can vote for republicans in the general election. I really look forward to voting against the people I voted for in the primary. (HeHe) This could be more fun than I thought.

Two days after announcing she will run against Nancy Pelosi because the House speaker won’t impeach President Bush, Cindy Sheehan was in Union Square to help kick off a new “wear orange” campaign to protest the Iraq war. Sheehan had given Pelosi a July 23 deadline to introduce articles of impeachment against Bush or promised she would run against her in 2008 as a third-party candidate. Sheehan charges Bush’s taking the U.S. to war on the false pretense that Iraq had W.M.D.s is an impeachable offense. “I’m going to hold Nancy Pelosi accountable. I’m going to run in her district....

Why I believe in Creation Posted: December 17, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern I was stunned the other day when I asked evolution-believing listeners to my nationally syndicated radio show to call in and tell me why they believed. "Just give me one reason why you accept the theory," I said. "Just give me the strongest argument. You don't have to give me mountains of evidence. Just tell me why I should accept it." Not one evolutionist called in. Meanwhile, the phone banks lit up with dozens of evolution skeptics. Go figure. For more than 40 years, evolution has been taught...

Rossi creates cyberspace 'idea bank' Story Published: May 22, 2007 at 3:10 PM PDT Story Updated: May 22, 2007 at 3:52 PM PDT By Associated Press OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Republican Dino Rossi, now expecting to announce in December whether he'll seek a rematch with Gov. Chris Gregoire next year, on Tuesday announced a "Washington Idea Bank" for ordinary citizens to offer their thoughts on how to deal with the state's challenges. The former state senator, a real estate investor who lives in Sammamish, said the Internet-based brainstorming Web site will be augmented by about a dozen idea-gathering sessions...

Dear friend, Help us keep up our momentum -- contribute today! We've got the momentum! While George Allen may have led this race at the start of summer, his lead has largely disappeared as we head into the final months of the campaign. The Mason-Dixon poll now shows us within the margin of error -- a 12-point swing since late July -- and the WSJ/Zogby poll shows Jim Webb in the lead! At this point in the race, one thing is clear: as people get to know Jim Webb, they are rushing to support his leadership and authenticity; and as...

The most liberal republicans: (The score represent the portion of ACU-selected votes that the congressmen voted with the Conservative union. 12 SENATOR Chafee RI 20 Shays CT 32 SENATOR Collins ME 32 SENATOR Snowe ME 33 Leach IA 36 Kirk IL 40 Johnson CT 42 Gilchrist MD 44 McInnis CO 45 SENATOR Specter PA 48 Simmons CT 56 SENATOR DeWine OH 58 Tim Johnson IL 60 Biggert IL 60 Fitzpatrick PA 61 Shaw FL 62 Smith NJ 63 Foley FL 63 Freylingheusen NJ 65 LaHood IL 67 Gerlach PA 68 SENATOR Voinovich OH 69 Regula OH 70 Weldon PA 70...

Two US Senators face serious primary challenges this year. Neither is guaranteed victory. They are Lincoln Chafee (R, RI) and Joe Lieberman (D, CT). Except that a great many people would change the party names to RINO and DINO. That’s Republican/Democrat In Name Only. The charge of party disloyalty is easier to make against Chafee, who rarely votes with other Republicans, and even suggested that he would not vote Bush in advance of the 2004 election. Lieberman, of course, was ON his party’s Presidential ticket just six years ago. It has been said that (without much exaggeration) that Chafee casts...

This past weekend a gathering in Gillette, Wyoming highlighted the present, chaotic state of the Democrat Party. As Democrats around the country attempt to portray two faces to their constituencies, one representing moderation, and the other representing fire-breathing liberalism, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal essentially renounced the basic philosophies of his party. More stunning yet was that he did so in the presence of Democratic National Committee vice chairman Mike Honda. Honda then faced the daunting task of attempting to portray a bridge of commonality between Freudenthal’s pragmatic candor and the image presented nationally by the Democrats. In front of an...

Lou Nanne still has Dino Ciccarelli's back. The former Minnesota North Stars general manager gave Ciccarelli his big break in 1979 despite skepticism that the undrafted teenager with the sandpaper attitude and poster-boy name was too small and too fragile to survive the NHL. A quarter century later, Nanne is raising Cain with the Hockey Hall of Fame, which decides today whether Ciccarelli's 608 goals, 1,200 points and uncanny tolerance for abuse are worthy of induction. "It's ridiculous he's not in there," said Nanne. "There's no doubt his numbers are there. There are guys in there who are no comparison."...

Zell Miller falls ill during speech in Gainesville Associated Press Published on: 04/28/05 Former Sen. Zell Miller fell ill while giving a speech in Gainesville Thursday night and was taken to a hospital emergency room. His wife said he had flu-like symptoms. Miller, 73, excused himself from the stage at a banquet for the Gainesville Care Center at the Georgia Mountains Center and was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center.

Bellevue, WA – An internal e-mail adds to the evidence that the King County elections department knew about No Signature On File (NSOF) ballots well before it claimed to have discovered its “mistake.” King County rejected more than 700 ballots because it didn’t have signatures on file to match the signatures on the ballots. On Nov. 3, 2004, an e-mail sent to King County Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens included a list of NSOF voters. A copy of the e-mail is attached. But in December, when news of the NSOF ballots became public, King County Elections Director Dean Logan, Huennekens’ boss,...

Reality check on election contest rulings Gregoire & Dems lose most motions; New election still possible Bellevue, WA – Yesterday in Chelan County Superior Court, the Dino Rossi campaign won an overwhelming victory in Rossi’s election contest case. The judge rejected the Democratic Party’s efforts to throw the case out, allowing a trial to move forward, and although he specifically denied the Rossi campaign’s request for a revote, he left the path clear for nullifying the 2004 gubernatorial election. If the election is nullified, there will be a vacancy in the governor’s office and a new election must be held....

Democrat Backs Supplemental Social Security Accounts (Update1) Check out - Bloomberg Omaha On Bush AgendaBush To Make 6th Visit President plans sixth stop in metro Details are slowly emerging about the president's trip to Nebraska next week. He's expected to be in downtown Omaha, at a location yet to be announced. This will be President Bush's sixth visit to the metro since taking office. The president was here three times in 2001. First, to push his tax cut, next to throw out the first pitch of the College World Series, and he was then briefly at Offutt Air Force Base...

Trap-shooting rarely qualifies a candidate for public office, but, in 2002, it helped decide the Tennessee governor's race. Sometime that summer, a range owner in eastern Tennessee got wind that both candidates--former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, and Representative Van Hilleary, a Republican--were avid hunters. As a way to bring his range a little publicity, he challenged the candidates to what he called the Great Tennessee Trap Shoot, to be held over the Labor Day weekend. A souped-up version of skeet, trap involves shotgunning clay pigeons from a variety of positions as they hurtle through the air. In other...

Guest columnist King County voters in good hands By Corky Mattingly Special to The Times I've been particularly troubled by one recurring comment regarding the gubernatorial recount in King County. It pertains to county Elections Director Dean Logan's professionalism and integrity. There also have been suggestions that Logan's decisions are based on partisan politics and are without justification or regard to Washington state law. As president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. All 39 counties conducted the recount process according to the rules currently in place, which are...

Rochester Republican Dan Swecker’s boycott of an inauguration ceremony last week for Democrat Christine Gregoire and the inaugural ball that followed had nothing to do with any disrespect by Swecker for the office of governor. Making such an erroneous claim or suggestion about Swecker misses the point of his protest, with which a majority of his constituents likely concur. The 20th District state senator, who represents Lewis County and parts of Thurston County, believes as do many others that the election for governor was so deeply flawed the result was illegitimate. Calling for a delay in legislative ratification of a...

Feds threatened suit over military ballotsBy David Postman and Ralph ThomasSeattle Times staff reporters   OLYMPIA — Less than a month before the November election, the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to sue Washington state because it was moving too slowly in mailing military ballots overseas. At that point Washington was the only state that hadn't mailed its overseas ballots. Questions about military ballots have come up frequently since the Nov. 2 election ended with a deadlocked governor's race. Democrat Christine Gregoire was certified governor-elect Dec. 30 and is to be sworn in Wednesday. But Republican Dino Rossi has...

OK, I'll ask: Should we vote again? By DAVID HORSEY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL CARTOONIST At a social gathering in early November, I was cornered by a key player in Christine Gregoire's gubernatorial campaign. He wanted me to know that one of my editorial cartoons had thrown the election to Gregoire's opponent, Dino Rossi. Being my friend, he made his accusation with good humor, but he was clearly serious and obviously disappointed in me. Meanwhile, I was getting heat at work from readers offended by cartoons they interpreted as unfair to Rossi. So it goes with my job. I make everyone...

Here is Gov.-elect Christine Gregoire's victory speech, as delivered Thursday in the state Reception Room of the Capitol: Well, an election night without end has concluded. The votes have been counted, the count has been certified and I am honored to stand before you as governor-elect of the great state of Washington. Today could not have happened without the wonderful people who are with me today - the "First Mike" of the state of Washington, my husband Mike, and our two wonderful daughters, Courtney and Michelle, and we're joined by Speaker Frank Chopp today as well. I want to start...

OLYMPIA - Dino Rossi has filed papers to run for governor in 2008, even as he continues to battle for the seat this year. Rossi registered as a candidate Dec. 13, submitting the required C1 form to the Public Disclosure Commission. "Right now, they’re telling us he’s a bonafide candidate," said Doug Ellis, spokesman for the Public Disclosure Commission. Rossi could not be reached this morning for comment on his decision to run. One benefit of becoming a candidate is that he can raise money to pay staff and lawyers used for the recounts and court fights that have taken...

While Democrat Christine Gregoire won the third — and presumably, final — tally in the governor's race by 130 votes, no one is sure yet whether the election really is over. And no one is sure about what happens next. Even Gregoire isn't quite claiming victory yet. Supporters of Republican Dino Rossi, who was leading after both the initial vote count and the first recount, are exploring their options for challenging the outcome of the just-concluded hand recount. There is a massive gulf separating the perceptions of Gregoire and Rossi. Gregoire says the state's election system showed itself to be...

Are numerous other counties counting previously rejected ballots? No. Case made by Secretary of State and Democrats is wrong Seattle, WA – Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed and Democratic leadership have proclaimed that King County is not alone in counting numerous ballots that were previously rejected by county canvassing boards. However the claims are untrue. In Chelan and Thurston counties, each reconsidered one previously rejected ballot. “Two counties, two ballots,” said Washington State Republican Party Chair Chris Vance. “That’s it.” While King County is revisiting hundreds upon hundreds of ballots that were previously rejected – not once but twice...

Republican emotions were inflamed by party chairman Chris Vance, who blamed King County elections officials, democrats, and even those 700 plus voters for this situation. Once again, he demanded their votes not be counted, and left the door open for calling for a whole new election if they are. "If there's another outcome or another decision and questionable or illegal ballots are brought into the process, we reserve all of our options," he said. . . . Democrat candidate Chris Gregoire said voter trust will be eroded more by disqualifying legitimate ballots than correcting mistakes by elections officials and counting...

Saturday, December 18, 2004 Another governor election may be in our best interest Given the fiasco going on up in King County with the second recount, we suspect more and more people are coming to the conclusion we should have another election for governor. That was suggested this week by former long-time Secretary of State Ralph Munro, a Republican who was highly respected for his job performance by people in both parties. ‘‘This thing could just degenerate and spiral downward,’’ Munro said Thursday of the second recount and all of the controversy and lawsuits it has generated, with more likely....

Ballot checks vary widely across state By Christine Willmsen and Susan Kelleher Seattle Times staff reporters It never mattered much — until this election. But the fact that one county in Washington verifies ballot signatures differently than another county has taken on more significance as the gubernatorial election hangs on a handful of votes. A Seattle Times survey of counties shows that procedures for evaluating signatures are highly subjective and vary widely from county to county. More than 3,400 ballots in Washington were rejected in the November election because the signatures didn't match those on file with elections officials. And...

Last updated: 16:46 38 of 39 counties reporting Votes recounted Rossi Gain in Recount 8 Votes; Rossi Now Leads by 50 Votes

Up to 162 ballots missing By Keith Ervin Seattle Times staff reporter King County election officials will enter a locked "cage" in a warehouse this morning to look for a plastic mail tray they believe contains up to 162 misplaced absentee ballots. Elections Director Dean Logan said the ballots, like 573 other ballots that were improperly rejected, were set aside because workers couldn't find voter signatures that corresponded to them. But unlike the other ballots, these apparently were left behind and forgotten. The original 573 votes were mistakenly identified as having mismatched signatures and then disqualified. If the ballots are...

State Auditor Brian Sonntag says he cannot properly account for any of Medicaid's $6.1 billion annual budget in Washington because the program's employees deliberately obstructed an official audit. Sonntag plans to "disclaim" the entire state Medicaid system in a highly critical audit his office expects to release within two weeks. A disclaimed audit means the auditor did not get enough information to reach an opinion, because the information was either withheld or non-existent. The state agency that oversees Medicaid disputes the findings, saying the audit "falls short" of professional standards. Among the concerns state auditors investigated, Sonntag said, were improper...

ABC13 Eyewitness News (12/15/04 - HOUSTON) — A Richmond couple is upset at a Sugar Land pet store they say gave away their beloved Pomeranian to a stranger. Jana Brown says she dropped off her purebred Pomeranian named Mercedes to a Sugar Land Petco to get groomed more than a week ago, just as she has done dozens of times before. But ... ~snip~ Click here to continue and see video

Will Legislature pick governor? It could happen By David Postman Seattle Times chief political reporter OLYMPIA — The state Supreme Court's unanimous rejection of the Democratic Party's recount lawsuit yesterday settled — for the moment, at least — the legal issues in the contentious governor's election. But it also raised the prospect of the fight moving back into the political arena, with questions about whether the eventual loser will use a vaguely worded provision in the state constitution to try to force the Legislature to overturn the result. That, according to one attorney, "is the ultimate nuclear weapon in the...

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 Count votes that count SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD The Washington Supreme Court Tuesday reached a unanimous and sound decision in rejecting the Democratic Party's request to effectively alter state election law by judicial fiat. It is, of course, impossible to know which gubernatorial candidate would have profited had the court ordered all 39 counties to include in the hand recount ballots that had been previously rejected. Democrats presumably believed the change would have benefited their candidate, Christine Gregoire. But it doesn't matter who would have benefited (this newspaper endorsed Democrat Gregoire). The justices' reading of the...

"It's tough being Republican in this state," Rossi joked with the crowd of 75 - mostly Republicans - who filled the reception hall at Hawthorne Funeral Home and Memorial Park. "You have to win three times." ... "Achievement and accountability have to be the cornerstones of the K-12 education system," Rossi told the crowd, who applauded loudly. "We cannot achieve great things by lowering our standards." ... He also said he approves of performance audits, which aim to reduce government waste and improve efficiency. "The first question always should be, ‘Should government be doing this function in the first place,'"...

Keep Legislature out of the governor’s race THE NEWS TRIBUNE Last updated: December 11th, 2004 02:40 AM (PST) The latest plan by some state Democrats to capture the governorship is downright embarrassing – and that’s putting it mildly. In a letter to Secretary of State Sam Reed, Democratic Party lawyer David Burman claimed that under the state constitution, the race between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire could be decided by a vote in the state Legislature, where Democrats control both houses. That’s because an obscure constitutional provision grants power to lawmakers to decide the outcome of a “contested...

Saturday, December 11, 2004 · Last updated 9:34 a.m. PT Man or machine? Rossi-Gregoire recount prompts dispute over accuracy By DAVID AMMONS AP POLITICAL WRITER OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Humans versus machines? No, it's not an old Schwarzenegger sci-fi flick, but a high-stakes dispute in the often strange world of Washington politics. With the governor's race hanging in the balance, an unprecedented third vote count is now underway in the state's 39 counties - by real live human beings this time. The two previous tallies, both by machine, showed underdog Republican Dino Rossi to be the winner by the tiniest margin...

King County election officials are now saying the cost of a hand recount in King County alone will top $500,000. Democrats made a down payment of 25 cents a vote to get a statewide recount. They will be liable for the total cost unless the results are changed by the recount and Christine Gregoire takes the lead. It now appears the cost will far exceed the $730,000 the Democrats paid to the Secretary of State. Estimates are now that it may cost $1.3 million. King County, the largest county with some 880,000 votes, began the hand recount at about 9:30...

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Gary Locke and legislative Democrats proposed Wednesday that Washington adopt California's vehicle-emission standards, the toughest in the world. Locke, a two-term Democrat who leaves office in January, also announced a freeze on state government purchase of four-wheel-drive sports utility vehicles. The state motor pool will begin shifting to hybrid vehicles. The proposal to adopt California's auto standards, effective the 2009 model year, is the centerpiece of the lame-duck governor's package of bills to combat global warming.

Below are important excerpts from the AP wire: ... Besides demanding a new recount, Democrats are asking the high court to order election departments to reconsider several thousand previously rejected ballots and potential trouble spots. These include questioned "provisional" and absentee ballots, including hundreds where the voter's signature was missing or didn't match the one on the voter registration card. ... Added Gregoire, "I love Dino's line `If you count and count and you count again, what do you get?' You get yourself a governor, Dino, because it's over at that point."* ... Republicans are more upset with the Supreme...