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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An explosive storm surpassing the intensity of 2012's Superstorm Sandy is expected to reach Alaska's western Aleutian Islands over the weekend and bring unseasonably frigid temperatures to much of the U.S. next week, weather forecasters said Thursday. ...[snip]... The storm potentially could be one of the most intensive to ever hit the North Pacific, weather service forecaster Brian Hurley said. The Coast Guard and Alaska state emergency responders were keeping a close eye on its strength. The system is expected to push cold air into much of the lower 48 states next week, forecaster Bob Oravec said....

‘Too soon’? Shoppers horrified by ‘Easter creep’ [pics (at links)] Posted at 1:17 pm on January 18, 2014 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments I just saw an easter display at the store! #toosoon #cmon #itsjanuary— Jessica Michan (@jessicamichan) January 15, 2014 For the love of everything ever, it’s January.Easter is in April this year and we haven’t even hit Valentine’s Day. But the retail calendar works a little differently these days. Behold the Easter candy displays: I think it's a little early for the Easter candy display don't ya think ? #easter http://t.co/zdsDF3Rm6L— Frank Marzullo (@TrustFrank19) January 09, 2014 Yes, we...

The city clerk’s office has informed KRQE-TV that there’s been a record number for early voting on a proposed ordinance. What has caused over 23,000 people to vote as of this morning? The city of Albuquerque’s “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance,” which would ban abortions after 20 weeks, the juncture by which science shows the unborn child can experience pain. Early voting ends November 15th and Election Day is November 19th. (There is also a run-off election in one city council district that will give the city a new councilor.) There are four known late abortion centers in the...

More Minnesota public employees are staying on the job longer -- a result of the struggling economy and a change in the rules for public workers who have long enjoyed incentives to leave the workforce in their late 50s. Last year, about 60 percent of new retirees from Minnesota's public workforce -- not including public safety workers -- waited until they were 62 or older to retire. Just seven years ago, that figure was 40 percent, according to data from Minnesota's three statewide public pension plans. This trend is expected to accelerate sharply. Within the next decade, there won't be...

The Illinois Republican party claims early and absentee voting has precipitously fallen since the 2008 presidential election. According to the numbers, at this point in 2008, there were 260,376 early voters and 304,290 absentee voters. Now, the party maintains, there are 195,064 early voters and 46,232 absentee voters. That's a loss of 57 percent of voters, since the last election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama heads toward Election Day with an apparent lead over Republican Mitt Romney among early voters in key states that could decide the election. Obama's advantage, however, isn't as big as the one he had over John McCain four years ago, giving Romney's campaign hope that the former Massachusetts governor can erase the gap when people vote on Tuesday. About 25 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia. No votes will be counted until Election Day but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have...

DENVER - Almost one million Coloradans have cast early votes, according to new statistics from Secretary of State Scott Gessler. The data also shows that more Republicans have cast early ballots than Democrats. Gessler's office announced that 965,510 people have voted so far. Of those, 343,721 were registered Democrats and 370,982 were Republicans. ...

Dear Friend, In this video commentary, I discuss early voting and how Democrats and Republicans use it differently. Tune in!

With Election Day still more than a week away, more than 600,000 Colorado voters have already cast their ballots, the Colorado Secretary of State's Office reported this morning. Secretary of State Scott Gessler's staff said that based on reports from Colorado's county clerks, 626,097 voters had returned their completed mail ballots or had voted in person at their county's designated early-voting polling places as of Friday morning. On a statewide basis, that included ballots cast by: 244,263 Republicans; 225,850 Democrats; 149,877 voters unaffiliated with any political party; 3,258 Libertarians; 1,159 Green Party members; 1,035 American Constitution Party Members; and 655...

It has never occurred to me to vote early by absentee ballot, which might be nothing more than an indication of either a stable life or a dull one. I know where I will be on Nov. 6. I don't anticipate a hard-starting car or an autumn cold or even an overflowing toilet -- three reasons Michelle Obama gave in Wisconsin a few days ago when she urged an audience to vote early. She might as well have said, "Hurry up and vote for my man before you see the third debate,'' although I am not sure the third debate...

On October 15th, the Washington Post did on article on early voting in Iowa and how it is "looking good for democrats." They explained that of all ballots cast, it's 53% democrat and 28% republican - a 25% lead. In 2008, democrats won the early vote by 18% Now, today, only 3 days later, the Iowa Secretary of State reports of ballots cast, it is now 49% democrat and 30% Republican. That's a SIX POINT swing in just 3 days. Furthermore, the ballots "requested" is 46% to 31%. A report from Politico yesterday said this: "Republican voters’ requests for ballots...

Early voting: Half of U.S. begins voting by tomorrowBy NBC's Kyle Inskeep 1 day ago Election Day may be Nov. 6th, but with President Obama grabbing a lead nationally and in key swing states, Americans are already starting to vote. Idaho, South Dakota, and the crucial swing state of Virginia are the first states to begin early, in-person voting today. Also today, absentee voting begins in Minnesota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Georgia, Arkansas, Idaho, and Maryland, bringing the total number of states already accepting ballots to 13. Twelve others -- South Carolina, New Jersey, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire,...

The Department of Labor inadvertently released initial jobless claims numbers on an agency website a day prior to its official Thursday release. According to a Labor Department press release, the news announcing jobless claims data was placed in an automated software system on August 8 in preparation for being posted on the Internet on August 9. Two weeks ago, new testing procedures were implemented for the automated system. "A test of the automated system that was conducted on Thursday inadvertently triggered the release of the unemployment claims report," the release said.

North Korea could carry out an underground test of a nuclear weapon as early as Tuesday night as the North's reclusive leadership dramatically tries to up the stakes with the U.S. and the West, U.S. officials told NBC News. U.S. officials say North Korea may already have an arsenal between 12 and a "few dozen" far more advanced weapons, many more than generally believed.

As I look at the Real Clear Politics averages of the polls of the various match-ups between President Obama and the various Republican candidates, I know I am supposed to feel impending doom. But I don’t. Let’s see, the numbers this morning are: Obama 49.0% Romney 43.3% Obama 50.0% Santorum 42.5% Obama 53.0% Gingrich 39.1% Obama 48.6 % Paul 40.4% But I don’t feel doom. Here are 9 reasons why: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September and October. A couple could copulate today and still have a baby by Election Day. President Obama’s leads of 5.7% to 13.9%...

On November 16, 1990, Barack Obama, then president of the Harvard Law Review, published a letter in the Harvard Law Record, an independent Harvard Law School newspaper, championing affirmative action. Although a paragraph from this letter was excerpted in David Remnick's biography of Obama, The Bridge, I had not seen the letter in its entirety before this week. Not surprisingly, it confirms everything I know about Barack Obama, the writer and thinker. Obama was prompted to write by an earlier letter from a Mr. Jim Chen that criticized Harvard Law Review's affirmative action policies. Specifically, Chen had argued that affirmative...

Potential GOP presidential candidate Sarah Palin turned down a chance to speak at the prestigious Herzliya Conference this week, abandoning her plan to visit Israel early this year. "She was invited; the president was invited,” a conference spokesman said, according to the Washington website The Hill. “All of the top people in the U.S. were invited. But it's not as if her attendance was imminent or expected." Palin's advisors have not commented on her no-show. The former Alaska governor reportedly planned to visit Israel early this year to try to improve her image of being poorly informed on foreign affairs....

very early...few details

With CBS chief executive wife Julie Chen safely ensconced in CBS's new daytime gabfest "The Talk," CBS News got the all-clear to announce, just in time for the holiday season, that it was giving other members of "The Early Show" on-air team the old heave ho-ho-ho. Gone, as of Jan. 3, will be anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez and weatherman Dave Price. The network wants you to know, however, that they will continue to be employed on air by CBS News - just elsewhere.

As in cities today, the earliest towns helped expose their inhabitants to inordinate opportunities for infection -- and today their descendants are stronger for it, a new study says. "If cities increase the amount of disease people are exposed to, shouldn't they also, over time, make them natural places for disease resistance to evolve?" asked study co-author Mark Thomas, a biologist at University College London... study co-author Ian Barnes, a molecular paleobiologist at University College London, screened DNA samples from 17 groups long associated with particular regions of Europe, Asia, and Africa -- for example Anatolian Turks and the southern...