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Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty attorney Rick Esenberg told the court during oral arguments Monday that the chief executive’s ability to rewrite state law tramples on the separation of powers with the Legislature.

(CNN) The coronavirus pandemic has challenged Christian churches to find socially distant ways to launch Holy Week on Palm Sunday. Also known as Passion Sunday, the day recounts the biblical story of Jesus' triumphant arrival in Jerusalem before his crucifixion, with palm leaves and clothing laid in his path. It comes on the last Sunday of Lent and first day of Holy Week. Before the deadly pandemic's social distancing guidelines altered life across America, Christians often celebrated with processions and the distribution of palm leaves. So faith leaders throughout the country have come up with new ways to observe the...

Red Double of the First Class Hodie, si vocem Domini audiertis, nolite obdurare corda vestra. Today, if ye shall hear the voice of the Lord, harden not your hearts. EARLY IN THE MORNING of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary, his Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethania. The Mother of Sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose himself to danger, for his enemies are bent upon his destruction; but it is not Death, it is Triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being...

Scientists have grown a tree from what may be the oldest seed ever germinated. The new sapling was sprouted from a 2,000-year-old date palm excavated in Masada, the site of a cliff-side fortress in Israel where ancient Jews are said to have killed themselves to avoid capture by Roman invaders. Dubbed the "Methuselah Tree" after the oldest person in the Bible, the new plant has been growing steadily, and after 26 months, the tree was nearly four feet (1.2 meters) tall.

The scientific world is stunned by research which backs an Aboriginal legend about how palm trees got to Central Australia. Several years ago Tasmanian ecologist David Bowman did DNA tests on palm seeds from the outback and near Darwin. The results led him to conclude the seeds were carried to the Central Desert by humans up to 30,000 years ago. Professor Bowman read an Aboriginal legend recorded in 1894 by pioneering German anthropologist and missionary Carl Strehlow, which was only recently translated, describing the "gods from the north" bringing the seeds to Palm Valley. Professor Bowman said he was amazed....

et out the cigars—Methuselah, a Judean date palm tree that was grown from a 2,000 year old seed, has become a papa plant. Elaine Solowey, of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura in Israel, recently broke the good news to National Geographic: “He is over three meters [ten feet] tall, he's got a few offshoots, he has flowers, and his pollen is good," she says. "We pollinated a female with his pollen, a wild [modern] female, and yeah, he can make dates." Methuselah sprouted back in 2005, when agriculture expert Solowey germinated his antique seed. It had...

A number of well-known brands disappeared in the last year in large part due to economic forces. Many of them were in the retail industry, led by Circuit City. ATA and Aloha airlines are gone. Gateway Computers has effectively disappeared after being bought by Acer. It still has a website, but the brand is no longer marketed. As the recession deepens and stretches out quarter after quarter, more companies will close or will shut divisions. More brands will disappear because their parents firms fold or can no longer afford to support them. Other brands will be obliterated by mergers. 24/7...

As the recession deepens, economic forces continue to drive consolidation in the retail industry, debt comes due and increasingly discerning consumers buckle down on discretionary spending, an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street predicts that a number of well-known brands are likely to disappear before the end of 2010. To determine which brands are most likely at risk, 24/7 Wall Street examined 100 large brands it believes are in trouble and, for each, looked at public financial records, sales information, analyses from industry experts, the competitive landscape in each’s industry and the likelihood that a brand could be sold off in...

American consumers may soon be able to pay for merchandise by hand - literally. Two friends in New Jersey have come up with PulseWallet, a system that links your credit card information and other payment methods to your palm. The technology scans the patterns of the veins in your palms. You can then use that information to confirm your identity when you pay for something at a checkout or elsewhere by using a biometric payment terminal. "You are your wallet. Secured with a key that only you hold," the company's website said. The devices are set for mass production in...

A Palm Bay homeowner says he shot and killed two men in self-defense during an altercation inside his house, according to police. Dispatchers received a 911 call around 1 a.m. from someone at a home on Thuringer Street NW. The caller said shots had been fired, and officers found two men dead inside the home. According to Palm Bay police, two men who had a mutual friend with the homeowner were loitering

...and earns spot in Google Science Fair finals This girl's science project really puts your baking soda volcano to shame A 15-year-old girl in Canada has invented a flashlight that only needs the warmth of the hand to turn on. Ann Makosinski, a high school junior in Victoria, British Columbia, was trying to think of a way of harvesting untapped energy when she was inspired to make the flashlight. She realized that the warmth generated by the human body was an overlooked energy source. Her project objective was to create a flashlight that ran solely off the heat of the...

Mystery software venture to focus on webOS, Enyo, cloud The Hewlett Packard global business division formerly known as Palm is in major upheaval yet again, as HP moves to spin off its webOS team into a new subsidiary, to be called Gram. The new venture was announced at an internal meeting late last week, webOS Nation reports, but exactly what Gram is being launched to accomplish remains something of a mystery. Newly christened Gram employees are being told to treat the venture as they would a startup. They can discuss what they're doing with close friends and family, but outsiders...

HP just announced its plans to discontinue operations on webOS devices, specifically the recently announced TouchPad and webOS phones. The future of webOS is uncertain as HP simply added that it would "continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward". This likely means that HP is looking to either license out the software or dump it in an outright sale.  At this point I don't know that HP needs to be at the helm of the webOS project. Licensing it out could generate short term revenue from companies looking to hedge their bets against Google/Motorola,...

The Touchpad, not reliant on Android, Windows or (of course) iOS, is a sign that HP demands to be taken seriously as a software company.Yes, HP (HPQ) has now jumped into the tablet fray with its TouchPad.  It's a whiz-bang cool gadget, and some folks will want to rush out and buy it.  Are we talking iPad numbers? Not likely, but whether HP sells as many of its flavor of tablets  in this first outing isn't perhaps as important as HP finally wrenching its destiny away from Microsoft (MSFT) and placing it in its own hands. Let's be very clear,...

A tablet probably can't succeed without a complementary smartphone base.With Hewlett-Packard set to unveil its first webOS-based tablet on Feb 9, we think the company's gambling it can leverage its $1.2 billion Palm acquisition to turn mobile thin-clients into an opportunity rather than threat.

Oh, hello. A trusted tipster just sent in these internal renders of HP / Palm's "Topaz" webOS tablet, which is one of two tablets currently being developed in Sunnyvale. That's right, two tablets: the 9-inch Topaz and a 7-inch model codnamed Opal -- a lineup that fits nicely into Palm's "Something big, Something small, Something beyond" tagline for its upcoming February 9th event. Looking at the render, we're seeing the no-button design we'd previously heard about (we're assuming the gesture area rotates with the display), a front-facing camera, a micro USB port on the bottom, and what appears to be...

For four years now, I have been carrying around a Palm TX which holds all my appointments, contacts, and to-dos, which are sync'd to my PC (Outlook 2003/Windows XP) by a USB cable. It's worked fine until recently, now showing signs of battery/display problems. It may be fixable, but there is still a concern about it being an orphan device which may not work with the next generation of PC software. So I am asking the techies at FR what I should replace it with. I have only two core requirements: (1) First, must be a standalone device with no...

WEST PALM BEACH — Thousands of people are lined up this morning outside the Palm Beach County Convention Center - some arriving by the busload, hoping the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America will help them save their homes. They are here from throughout the country, including Detroit and California. "I'm here because I have to be," said P. Reed, who drove all night from South Carolina. "They put me in foreclosure last week."

I'm thinking of getting a Palm Pre Plus from ATT or Verizon as a successor to my Palm Centro. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?

Boy Survives Falling Off Balcony After Bouncing Off Palm Trees A four-year-old boy had a lucky escape after falling from a 17th floor hotel balcony only to bounce off palm trees and land with minor injuries. By Paul Thompson 06 Jun 2010 Rescuers found Joey Williams still alive after he bounced off a cluster of palm trees and landed on a dirt surface near the hotel's swimming pool. Apart from surviving the 80ft fall he somehow managed to land between two pipes jutting up from the ground. Less than four hours after the fall at his hotel in Miami, Florida,...