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Meet Judy Faulkner. She is the founder and CEO of Epic Systems Corporation in Wisconsin. She is also a member of the GAO Health Information Technology Policy Committee and an advisory board member of the Journal of Healthcare Information Management. She is also politically active. In 2008, Faulkner gave at least $110,000 to political organizations and candidates, including $57,000 to the Democratic National Committee and $2,300 to then-Senator Barack Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. After Obama’s election, Faulkner continued giving to the Democrats, giving at least $85,000 through the 2010 midterm election. In 2010, Faulkner gave $60,000...

A whale nearly swallowed two people on a kayak and a woman on a surfboard. The humpback whale lunged from out of nowhere just several feet away, forcing thousands of anchovies to the surface, with sea gulls swarming around the scene in search of breakfast. Barbara Roettger filmed the epic near-miss event near Santa Cruz, California where recently a sailboat collided with another humpback whale and at least one kayaker capsized. Oh, and for the record, humpback whales typically are about 50 feet long and weigh 50 tons. That’s a whopping 2000 pounds for every foot of whale. Short be...

Returning to 2005 Spending Levels Would Match Current Revenues of 2.5 Trillion dollars. Outlays in 2005 were 2,472.2 Trillion. This solution would result in no rise the debt limit and we would have a balanced budget. This would also secure our AAA credit rating. This idea probably has too much common sense for the "Inside the Beltway Crowd."

Last weekend, a Tennessee woman was arrested at the Nashville airport for disorderly conduct after she refused TSA security measures for her children. The woman didn’t want her two children to have to go through a whole-body-imaging scanner. When a Transportation Security Administration officer told her the machines were safe, she said, “I still don’t want someone to see our bodies naked.” She won’t be pleased with a ruling then out of the D.C. Circuit today. This morning, the federal court ruled that the “naked scans” of air travelers do not violate Americans’ constitutional rights. Privacy rights group EPIC had...

Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets. The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan. 12, 2011 - A federal court granted the Department of Homeland Security's motion to conclude one of EPIC's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits. The decision stems from a 2009 lawsuit brought by EPIC, a leading privacy organization to obtain information about the controversial airport body scanners. As a result of the lawsuit, EPIC has already obtained the technical specifications and vendors contract for the screening devices that generate naked images of air travelers. According to EPIC, the documents show that the devices can store, record, and transmit images. "The documents show that the TSA was not...

This story might be epic, and could even go viral, but not if Lake Superior State University has anything to do with it. Just sayin.' The small college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, released on Friday its annual list of "banished words" -- terms so overused, misused and hackneyed they deserve to be sent to a permanent linguistic trash can in the year ahead. "Viral," often used to describe the rapid spreading of videos or other content over the Internet, leads the list for 2011. "This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined," Kuahmel Allah of Los Angeles said...

'Viral' and 'epic fail' among 2011's banished words 'Viral', 'epic fail' and 'Mama Grizzly' are among a list of 'banished' words and phrases for 2011. 7:59PM GMT 31 Dec 2010 Lake Superior State University in Michigan, USA, released its annual list of overused and misused words and terms that should be banned for the year ahead. 'Viral' is often used to describe the rapid spreading of videos or other content over the internet, leads the list for 2011. "This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined," Kuahmel Allah of Los Angeles said in making a nomination. Runners-up included 'epic'...

Minutes after Naomi Watts, movie star, arrived at the CIA’s secret Virginia training center called The Farm, she was thrown to the ground in a way that left bruises. When she cried out in pain, her instructor glared and informed her, “Don’t say 'ow’ again unless you need to go to the hospital.” During the days that followed, she was “stripped of everything that cloaked her in specialness,” said director Doug Liman. The actress chose the rough treatment, Liman said. He chose Watts to play Valerie Plame Wilson, the spy who was outed in one of the most controversial episodes...

The old guy tells his side. Interesting fellow. Several new details about the story came out... The original video of the fight is here (with translations).

OAKLAND — A You Tube video showing a fight between two AC Transit bus riders has ignited a flurry of online debates about violence, race and the safety of public transit. The video, which shows an older white man exchanging blows with a younger black man, is attracting hundreds of thousands of hits. The fight took place Tuesday afternoon on a bus in downtown Oakland, near the corner of Harrison and Webster streets. We will update this story when further details are available.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress09/mueller032509.htm Congressional Testimony Robert S. Mueller, III Director Federal Bureau of Investigation Statement Before the Senate Judiciary Committee March 25, 2009 Good morning Chairman Leahy, Senator Specter, and Members of the Committee. I am pleased to be here today. As you know, we in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have undergone unprecedented transformation in recent years, from developing the intelligence capabilities necessary to address emerging terrorist and criminal threats, to creating the administrative and technological structure necessary to meet our new mission as a national security service. Today, the FBI is a...

MANTECAL, Venezuela - Hugo Chavez is driving across the plains of Venezuela, raving about a Hollywood film in which the enslaved hero rises up to challenge the emperor of Rome. "'Gladiator' — What a movie! I saw it three times," the president tells an Associated Press reporter traveling with him in a Toyota 4Runner, along with his daughter and a state governor. "It's confronting the empire, and confronting evil. ... And you end up relating to that gladiator." The parallel is unstated but clear. To Chavez, the United States is the empire, and he is the protagonist waging an epic...

Epic HeroHow a self-taught British genius rediscovered the Mesopotamian saga of Gilgamesh—after 2,500 years By David Damrosch In November 1872, George Smith was working at the British Museum in a second-floor room overlooking the bare plane trees in Russell Square. On a long table were pieces of clay tablets, among the hundreds of thousands that archaeologists had shipped back to London from Nineveh, in present-day Iraq, a quarter-century before. Many of the fragments bore cuneiform hieroglyphs, and over the years scholars had managed to reassemble parts of some tablets, deciphering for the first time these records of daily life in...

September 18, 2006 BREAKING: Largest U.S. Islamic Charity Raided by FBI Printer Friendly By Debbie Schlussel I've been writing about LIFE for Relief and Development for years, and I think my columns (especially this one), have finally made a difference. Ditto for my complaints about LIFE to Assistant U.S. Attorney for counterterrorism, Ken Chadwell. Less than half an hour ago, the FBI began raiding LIFE and hauling out documents. Well, it's about time. LIFE--the largest Islamic charity still open for business in America--openly admitted on its 1995-'97 taxes to be a major funder of HAMAS. Headquartered in the Orthodox Jewish...

"GMUG" stands for the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests. Combined, they encompass some 2.9 million acres of National Forest lands in Central and Western Colorado. These three forests are home to some of the most outstanding recreational opportunity in the West. Right now, the forest's are revising their Forest Plans. These management plans provide broad guidance on what activities may or may not occur on these lands. The BlueRibbon Coalition (BRC), a national recreation advocacy group that champions recreational access and responsible use of public and private lands, is growing increasingly concerned about the influence several anti-access groups...

Mexican Indians preserve epic endurance race By Tim Gaynor | December 15, 2005 CEROCAHUI, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's Tarahumara Indians are struggling to preserve one of the world's toughest endurance contests: a race of up to 100 miles over flinty mountain tracks while kicking a ball. The tribe calls itself the "Raramuri," which in its language means "foot runner," and its men take to the trails of northwest Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains every few weeks in flimsy sandals for a 24-hour-long foot race that would make marathon runners shiver. Their bizarre long-distance game, dubbed the "carrera de bola" or "ball...

Joe's In For It Now - Friday, November 04, 2005 @ 3:23:37 PM This story popped up today on American Thinker. Apparently, Wilson outed his wife far before Novak ever did, and the site which normally carries the program and the speech is down. Does anyone have the mp3 in which Wilson gives his speech? Please, please, please email us at editor@spectator.org if so. Posted By: J. Peter Freire The American Thinker http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=3345 The speech was given at EPIC, the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, a left wing organization, which has, a least for the moment, an audio file...

Iran is determined to acquire nuclear weapons and the United States may find it less costly to deter a nuclear-armed Iran than to dismantle its weapons program, according to two U.S.-funded researchers who advise the Pentagon. "Can the United States live with a nuclear-armed Iran? Despite its rhetoric, it may have no choice," concluded the report by Judith Yaphe and Air Force Col. Charles Lutes, which was released on Thursday. The potential for rolling back Iran's program, once it produces a nuclear weapon, "is lower than preventing it in the first place and the costs of rollback may be higher...

Transcriber's introduction:The following outline and transcript, created by the poster, are based on an audio recording of Joseph Wilson's evening keynote lecture to the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) on June 14, 2003, delivered several weeks prior to Wilson's New York Times op-ed of 7/6/2003 which preceded the controversial Robert Novak article mentioning Valerie Plame's CIA background. Wilson's speech was immediately preceded by that of the other keynote speaker, Ray McGovern of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. After their individual speeches Wilson and McGovern held a joint question-and-answer session. Other participants in the forum and their respective topics...

<p>The trip that three Democratic congressmen made to Baghdad last week was jointly funded by two private organizations — a religious group and a charity, both of which oppose a war with Iraq.</p> <p>The costs were shared by the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq, a project of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, and a charity in Southfield, Mich., called Life for Relief and Development (LIFE), which provides humanitarian aid to Iraq.</p>

In the public eye, Conrado Cantu had it all. The former Cameron County sheriff was often described as charismatic, a man with a firm handshake and a popular catchphrase “Animo” — meaning cheer and encouragement — that became synonymous with his own name. He had politicians by his side, voters on their feet, a badge and a fleet of law enforcement officials at the ready. But the brass badge that adorned his chest was used to shield political allies and drug traffickers, federal investigators are alleging. It helped the former lawman collect a percentage of drug profits and shake down...

BROWNSVILLE, —- A sheriff’s deputy slammed shut the gate at Conrado Cantu’s home Wednesday as federal agents left with property collected for an ongoing investigation that has landed the former lawman in jail. Federal authorities arrested ex-Sheriff Cantu, his former captain, Pct. 1 Deputy Constable Rumaldo Rodriguez, and a former jail vendor on undisclosed criminal charges Wednesday. The three men are scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate today. Officials with the FBI, DEA and U.S. Customs confirmed their involvement in a Wednesday morning operation but would not provide details about the case against the defeated sheriff that was unseated...

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Presidential race tightens in Michigan 9/20/2004, 6:37 p.m. ET By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The race between Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and President Bush has tightened in Michigan, with Kerry and running mate John Edwards getting 48 percent and 44 percent going to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new poll released Monday by Lansing-based EPIC/MRA. An early August poll conducted by EPIC/MRA had the Democrats leading the GOP ticket 49 percent to 42 percent, with third party candidate Ralph Nader and running mate Peter Camejo getting 3 percent and...

The dismissal of lawsuits brought against Northwest Airlines has online privacy advocates renewing calls for federal privacy legislation. In a decision dated June 6, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that seven consolidated class action lawsuits against Northwest had no merit--in part because the privacy policy posted on the airline's Web site was unenforceable unless plaintiffs claimed to have read it. The plaintiffs had contended that the airline, in giving passenger information to the government in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, violated laws and its own privacy policy. "Although Northwest had a privacy policy for...

The truth about an epic tale of love, war and greed (Filed: 24/03/2004) The legend of Troy has an enduring grip on the imagination. Aidan Laverty talks to the scientists who say they have proved that a siege really took place It's one of the greatest stories ever; the tale of a war fought over the love of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. Now as Hollywood breathes fresh life into the myth, archaeologists have uncovered new evidence from the site of Troy that brings us closer than ever to the truth behind this ancient legend. City scan:...

An Antiwar Activist Known for Being Committed Yet ErraticBy JAMES DAO Published: March 12, 2004 TAKOMA PARK, Md., March 11 — Susan P. Lindauer wore her liberal politics on her sleeve, as well as on her aging Mazda, where bumper stickers proclaimed her unabashed opposition to the Iraq conflict. "Peace in Iraq through change at home," one said. "War is not the answer," another said. To her neighbors — who described her as gentle if somewhat lonely — Ms. Lindauer was typical of this left-leaning enclave on the northern doorstep of Washington, a place fondly known by its residents as...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095652/posts Accused spy for Iraq worked for California congresswoman (Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose)Sac Bee ^ | 3/11/04 | AP- Washington Lockerbie Trial Document: Susan Lindauer Susan Lindauer Revolving Doors   http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095691/posts Saddam Spy Suspect Lindauer: 'I'm an Anti-war Activist'NewsMax ^ | 3/11/04 | Limbacher     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095762/posts American charged in Iraqi conspiracy [Andy Card's distant cousin]CNN ^ | March 11, 2004     http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095744/posts How Susan Lindauer Was Caught NRO ^ | 11 March 2004 | Byron York"discussed the need for plans and foreign resources to support [resistance] groups operating within Iraq." Lindauer is a former journalist for U.S. News...

Today: March 11, 2004 at 16:15:43 PST Accused Spy Is Cousin of Bush Staffer By MATTHEW DALYASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The woman charged with working for the Iraqi spy agency is a distant cousin of President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, and has held a variety of jobs in journalism and on Capitol Hill. Susan Lindauer, 41, worked in the press offices of four Democratic members of Congress. She also worked for Fortune magazine, U.S. News & World Report, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Fox News. Her father, John Lindauer, was the Republican nominee for governor in Alaska in...

NEW YORK -- An American citizen was arrested Thursday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy, prosecutors said. Susan Lindauer, 41, was arrested in her hometown of Takoma Park, Md., and was to appear in court later in the day in Baltimore, authorities in New York said.

<p>Media organizations prepared Tuesday to oppose any efforts by the Justice Department to subpoena journalists and their notes to learn who leaked the identity of an undercover CIA agent to columnist Robert Novak.</p> <p>Subpoenas could be challenged on the basis of First Amendment guarantees of freedom of the press, said Bill Felber, editor of The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury and freedom of information chairman for the Associated Press Managing Editors. But they could also be challenged, he said, if they were too broad or if the information could be obtained in other ways.</p>

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Baghdad nine that day, The score stood ninety-five to one, with but one inning more to play. And then when Basra died at first, and Kirkut did the same, A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of Hussein. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast. They thought, "if only Saddam could but get a whack at that. We'd put up even money now, with Saddam at the bat." But Blix preceded Saddam, as did also Villepin; and...