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Senator Edward M. Kennedy's 16-year- old son violated state law by taking a 24-inch walrus tusk from an island preserve that is home to thousands of walruses, officials said. The youth returned the tusk. [more]

When one first looks at this article in The New Republic speculating about if Ted Kennedy's son, Patrick Kennedy, could grow into a great political leader, you wouldn't be blamed for thinking it was a satirical story written by either Scott Ott or some other humor columnist. However the name of the author is Jason Zengerle and he is being dead serious which actually makes it funnier than any intentionally satirical story could be. What makes Zengerle's article especially funny is that he provides absolutely no proof that Patrick Kennedy displays the slightest bit of political leadership. In fact, Zengerle...

Troubled Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy’s slide back into rehab may have been triggered by stress related to his senator father’s grim cancer diagnosis, a relative said. “It’s sad,” Kennedy’s stepgrandfather, Edmund Reggie, told the Herald. “He’s been wrapped up in the senator so much. All of us expect (U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)) to progress better than what’s realistic. I think it really gets to Patrick,” Reggie said of the senior senator’s diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor in May 2008. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) checked himself in to an undisclosed rehab center once again this week. The lawmaker...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who has struggled with depression, alcoholism and addiction for much of his life, said Friday that he has checked into a medical facility for treatment. The Rhode Island Democrat said in a statement that his recovery is a "lifelong process" and that he will do whatever it takes to preserve his health. "I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine to ensure that I am being as vigilant as possible in my recovery," Kennedy said. He did not disclose where he was being treated. Kennedy, who has wrestled with alcoholism, bipolar disorder, an addiction...

WASHINGTON—Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who has struggled with depression, alcoholism and addiction for much of his life, said Friday that he has checked into a medical facility for treatment. Discuss COMMENTS (17) The Rhode Island Democrat said in a statement that his recovery is a "lifelong process" and that he will do whatever it takes to preserve his health. "I have decided to temporarily step away from my normal routine to ensure that I am being as vigilant as possible in my recovery," Kennedy said. He did not disclose where he was being treated. Kennedy, who has wrestled with alcoholism, bipolar...

HOUMA, LA (WAFB) - Houma police officers and Terrebonne Parish sheriff's deputies say an attractive woman named Patches has been arrested after her "calogne samples" made at least two men pass out. One of the incidents prompted a statewide alert to Louisiana law enforcement agencies. The first complaint happened in early June. Police say an 18-year-old man says he was leaving a Houma restaurant at lunchtime when he was approached by a woman who said she was selling cologne. Police say the woman asked the victim is he was interested in buying some cologne she was selling. "The suspect produced...

Rep. Kennedy Says Mental Health, Drug History Makes Him Stronger Advocate Tuesday , April 15, 2008 AP WASHINGTON — Rep. Patrick Kennedy says his personal struggles to recover from depression, alcoholism and substance abuse have made him a more compelling advocate in Congress for improved mental health care coverage. The Rhode Island Democrat, a son of Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, played a leading role winning House passage last month on a bill to expand coverage for people needing mental health and addiction treatment. "My own story gave a lot of my colleagues a comfort level to tell me their...

Microsoft researchers are hoping to use "information epidemics" to distribute software patches more efficiently. Milan Vojnović and colleagues from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, want to make useful pieces of information such as software updates behave more like computer worms: spreading between computers instead of being downloaded from central servers. The research may also help defend against malicious types of worm, the researchers say. Software worms spread by self-replicating. After infecting one computer they probe others to find new hosts. Most existing worms randomly probe computers when looking for new hosts to infect, but that is inefficient, says Vojnović, because...

I joined the MT National Guard last month. I was supposed to drill tomorrow, but they changed it for me to tonight. I just got my uniforms 10 minutes ago. The patches were rubber-banded together. I'm not sure which patch goes where. I have two for my last name and 1 that says "US Army" I also have a circular, which looks something like a sunburst over a mountain top. I'm not sure though and as far as I can tell it could be up-side down. I don't want to look like a dork! Can anyone help me?

WASHINGTON - Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That's got them scratching their heads about what's just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That's an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday. Astronomers have known for many years that there are patches in the universe where nobody's home. In fact, one such place is practically a neighbor, a mere 2 million light years...

Yahoo has patched a buffer overflow vulnerability in its instant-messaging tool that would have enabled attackers to potentially execute code on a compromised machine.

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) (L) and Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-MA) listen during Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's address of a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress in Washington July 26, 2006. REUTERS/Molly Riley (UNITED STATES)

PAPER: Rep. Kennedy Takes Weekly Urine Tests And Near-Daily AA Meetings Thu Jul 13 2006 08:38:04 ET A month after pleading guilty to driving under the influence, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) now follows a strict court-ordered script that includes, among other things, weekly urine tests, twice-weekly meetings with a probation officer, near-daily Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and a weekly meeting of recovering addicts led by a Navy captain, ROLL CALL reports. Kennedy, sources say, has to report to a probation officer twice a week at the Washington, D.C., courthouse complex. And on one of those days he has to, ahem, relieve...

The only thing missing at Patches Kennedy’s press conference yesterday was his father’s post-Chappaquiddick neck brace. “I’ve always said,” the dim lad began, “I wanted to take full responsibility for my actions - ” Full responsibility - but no mug shot. Full responsibility amounted to a suspended license - wink, wink - and $350 in fines and court costs. Do you think Patches had to arrange a payment schedule with the probation office? “Today in court, I accepted the consequences of my actions.” Riiiight. That poor window-washer who iced the seagull high above Devonshire Street is looking at more time...

ZARQAWI VS. ROVE Which news item do you think the liberal moonbats are more upset over: - the death of Zarqawi - no indictment of Karl Rove To take poll . . . Click here !

"Rep. Patrick Kennedy has reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to a charge of driving under the influence of prescription drugs... "

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., center, speaks to Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., left, during the House Appropriations Committee meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 6, 2006, in Washington. Kennedy, the Rhode Island Democrat can expect the scrutiny to hit new levels as he seeks to put his personal life and political career back on track after crashing his car and spending nearly a month in drug treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Seated at the back is Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Rhode Island Republicans have received piles of “hate mail” from supporters of U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, angry that the GOP has called for the troubled six-term congressman to step down. “This has clearly hit a raw nerve somewhere,” Rhode Island GOP spokesman Chuck Newton told the Herald.“We’ve received mountains of hate mail from all over.” Most of the letters and emails include angry and in some cases obscene tirades blasting party leaders for pushing for Kennedy’s ouster as a result of his legal troubles, Newton said. Republicans initially called for Kennedy to step down the day after he slammed...

Fresh from rehab, Rep. Patrick Kennedy said yesterday he wants to be treated like an African-American from Washington if and when he gets charged for crashing his car on Capitol Hill. Denying that he was drunk and or that he asked the Capitol Police for preferential treatment, Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman, said he's prepared "in terms of bookings, in terms of mug shots, fingerprints, whatever they might have me do." "It's what anyone else would have done to them if they were an African-American in Anacostia," Kennedy said in a shaky voice, referring to the mostly minority neighborhood in...

Patrick Kennedy, fresh from his second stint in drug rehab, yesterday said he's building recovery support networks .....and will continue to undergo treatment for his addiction to painkillers. ........ the younger son of Sen. Ted Kennedy - entered the drug and alcohol treatment at the Mayo Clinic May 5, a day after he slammed his Mustang into a security barrier near the U.S. Capitol. An admitted binge drinker and pain-pill abuser, Kennedy, 38, had been treated at the clinic over the Christmas holidays.........Kennedy told reporters, "I know that I am doing everything I need to do to succeed."

PATCHES SOBRIETY Will Congressman Patrick "Patches" Kennedy (D-RI) remain sober? Yes No To take poll .... click here !

New York. After his second smash-up in three weeks, Patrick Kennedy was escorted home by obliging cops and to hell with any test for booze or drugs. Tests are for the lower orders, not Kennedys. Chappaquid-ding one’s way out of trouble is in the Kennedy tradition. A smash-up is followed by a cover-up, then by denial of responsibility due to circumstances beyond their control, all neatly presented in a press conference for genuflecting hacks, and then on to rehab. Congressman Kennedy says that he doesn’t remember anything about the crash. He would, wouldn’t he? He was speeding, driving in the...

Patrick Kennedy has been a party animal for quite some time, according to the National Enquirer, which comes up with some never-before-seen photos of the Rhode Island congressman partying like a rock star in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Now there’s a shock . . . . The 38-year-old son of Sen. Ted Kennedy, who just checked himself into rehab for prescription-drug addiction after an early-morning car crash in Washington, D.C., dressed up like disgraced pop star Michael Jackson - complete with blackface - for a party at his father’s Virginia home in 1989. “He applied dark makeup to...

During a briefing with reporters yesterday, Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he was aware of Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s (D-R.I,) substance-abuse problem and had “noticed it before.” In response to a question about the handling of Kennedy’s early-morning car accident by the Capitol Police, Boehner indicated that it would be easier to make a judgment when all of the facts are released. He then elaborated on the question, saying he had known of Kennedy’s problem. “For those who have been around here, worked here, he has been fighting this disease for a long time, as has been testified to by...

Howie Carr has done it again! I'd like to think it's a rare photo...Patches & Fatboy loaded down with coolers, but I'd guess there are more of these than of the Statue of Liberty. Capn' Carr is giving away these magnets in a shameless self promotion of his radio show. Howie, c'mon! The poor guy's got a disease! It's not his fault, and it was a prescription, not like David, or Skakel, or Michael, or the old Patches, or I guess any of them. Cut the victim some slack. As to a free magnet of these models of integrity and...

Published: May 09, 2006 12:20 PM ET NEW YORK A report in the Tampa Tribune today states that Janet Weaver, the executive editor of the paper, was arrested early this morning on a charge of DUI. Tampa police arrested Weaver at 12:30 a.m., says the report, and found that she had a blood alcohol level between 0.081 and 0.085. The legal limit for drivers in Florida is 0.08. She spent about five hours in jail, and then was released on $500 bond. Weaver was hired to be managing editor at the Tribune in 2004, and was promoted to executive editor...

Patrick Kennedy is carrying a torch for a now-married ex-galpal and his broken heart may be the reason he’s gone off the rails, friends say. “He’s lonely,” said one of Patches’ Rhode Island pals. “He’s a mess, and it’s really sad. It really is.” Word is that Patches pines for his ex, Tatiana Platt, an America Online exec he dated for more than a year until she left him for her now-hubby, renowned architect Campion Platt. We hear that Tatiana has been defending her former paramour, saying the Rhode Island congressman has gotten a “bad rap” after a suspicious car...

It can't be argued that the Patrick Kennedy adventure on wheels is being ignored by the media. But part of the coverage has been suffused in a bit of overweening Kennedy-dynasty sympathy. Washington Post reporter/columnist Dana Milbank, who danced a jig of mockery in orange hunter clothes over Dick Cheney's shooting accident, wrote in Saturday's Washington Post about the "miserable character" who suffered after the crash: Kennedy tried to ignore the din of shouted questions as he walked to the door, but he couldn't avoid the woman in the front row who asked if he would resign. He shook his...

<p>If there is one thing that Senator Edward Kennedy is adamant about, it is that government officials play by the rules.</p> <p>"The vast majority of Americans share our commitment to basic fairness," he lectured his fellow senators last May, when Republicans were threatening to trigger the "nuclear option" -- to change the Senate's rules to prevent judicial nominations from being filibustered. "They agree that there must be fair rules, that we should not unilaterally abandon or break those rules in the middle of the game."</p>

Rhode Island Democrats are expected to endorse Representative Patrick Kennedy for re-election when they meet tonight in West Warwick. Party members will endorse candidates for Congress and the state's top jobs -- governor, secretary of state, general treasurer and attorney general. Kennedy has checked himself into the Mayo Clinic for treatment for addiction to prescription drugs following a Thursday car accident in Washington. He says he can't remember driving to Capitol Hill or crashing his car. Kennedy's doctors say he was taking Phenergan for stomach and intestinal problems and Ambien, a commonly prescribed sleeping medication. Police say he appeared intoxicated.

Denny Scaffer in Atlanta brought up an interesting question today on his talk show. What was Patrick Kennedy wearing the night of his accident? For someone claiming to have risen from bed thinking he needed to rush to the Capitol to cast a vote, was he wearing his SpongeBob Sqarepants pajamas? Or was he still dressed in the clothes he wore the day before? Inquiring minds want to know.

It's hard to imagine that Patrick Kennedy would have gotten elected to Congress a dozen years ago without his last name. It's equally hard to imagine that the media would be going wild about his late-night car crash and prescription drug addiction if he weren't a Kennedy. The only lingering mystery is why national news organizations didn't pounce earlier on the Rhode Island Democrat's long history of alcohol and drug abuse, depression and a series of downright embarrassing incidents.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rep. Patrick Kennedy was still in college when he took elected office as a state representative. Nearly two decades later, he has spent his entire adult life as a lawmaker. (snip) In Congress, Kennedy has pushed for greater mental health care coverage, citing his own struggles with depression and addiction. (snip) A tennis player and avid reader of biographies and autobiographies, Kennedy has a passion for sailing. "He can go out and be out of the public eye. It's tranquil, and it's something he enjoys," Marcella said. (snip) "He's a warm, nice, optimistic, kind person. That's what...

WASHINGTON - Detectives probing U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s early-morning car wreck interviewed workers at the Hawk ’n’ Dove bar yesterday while rank-and-file Capitol police are pushing prosecutors to throw the book at the well-connected pol. “Mr. Kennedy, by his own admission, was operating under the influence of narcotics, which is a violation,” said Lou Cannon, president of the Capitol police union. Cannon said detectives probing the Rhode Island Democrat’s 2:45 a.m. wreck visited several watering holes along Pennsylvania Avenue yesterday, asking bartenders and waitstaff if they saw Kennedy in the hours before the congressman crashed his Mustang convertible into a...

by Mark Finkelstein May 6, 2006 Let's imagine it was, oh, Karl Rove who had been involved in a car accident under circumstances identical to those surrounding Patrick Kennedy. Think the Today show would be focusing on his 'courage' and largely taking at face value his claim that prescription medicines caused the crash? Or would they be asking another question: was Kennedy telling the truth when he claimed that no alcohol was involved? That 'Today' was in a decidedly forgiving mood was clear from the show's very opening. Note the graphic Today attached to Kennedy's image: "Seeking Treatment". Not "Telling...

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Among the patrons at the News Café, an airy bar downtown, the debate erupted almost as soon as Representative Patrick J. Kennedy finished making his emotional appearance on a television above the liquor bottles and colored lights. Kennedy, the six-term congressman who represents this old factory city, said he would enter a rehabilitation clinic for his addiction to pain medication, a day after crashing his car into a barrier outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Bobby LaBonte was not impressed. ''He lost my vote, I'll tell you that," said the 58-year-old former Marine, who called himself a...

Capitol police investigate motive behind story By Casey Ross Saturday, May 6, 2006 - Updated: 02:16 AM EST Police are investigating whether U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s bizarre crash-scene story about being late for a 2:45 a.m. vote was a desperate attempt to escape an OUI bust by invoking a law that prevents members of Congress from being arrested while en route to formal sessions, authorities said. Kennedy, who yesterday admitted an addiction to prescription pain medication, told officers upon emerging from his Mustang convertible Thursday morning that he was “late for a vote,” even though formal business had ended hours...

A high-ranking official at the National Fraternal Order of Police cited the mishandling of Rep. Patrick Kennedy's (D-R.I.) car accident Thursday as just one more example of problems the Capitol Police Department is experiencing since Chief Terrance Gainer retired. Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), said the fact that no investigation was conducted after Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) crashed his car into a security barrier at C and First Street SE was unacceptable but symptomatic of the way the Capitol Police Department is being run after Gainer's departure on April 6.Gainer retired after charges...

Patrick Kennedy & Double Standards 05/05 04:37 PM I don't wish anyone ill, except our nation's enemies. It's a good thing that Patrick Kennedy is going back into rehab. But I am very angry. For nearly three years we witnessed the persecution of Rush Limbaugh, who became addicted to painkillers resulting from back and neck problems. We witnessed leaks by prosecutors who spread lies about him being involved in money laundering, drug rings, and doctor shopping. But the media happily repeated them. Some mocked him. Rush got help. He has been clean for years. And in most cases, when someone...

CNN reports Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) will hold a press conference today at 3 p.m. in Washington, D.C. to discuss his recent traffic incident on Capitol Hill.

Congressman Patrick Kennedy said he does not recall the accident, or the citations from the Capitol Police. But a police union official charged senior officers ordered the patrol officers to leave the scene; blocked them from running field sobriety tests; and later gave Kennedy a ride home -- in the view of Fraternal Order of Police chapter president Lou Cannon, special treatment. "It's not the normal course of action," he said. "I think that he was given consideration in regards to his position, and that he was afforded the opportunity to be taken home." The Capitol Police issued a terse...

PATCHES Do you believe Congressman Patrick Kennedy's explanation for the car accident he had at the Capitol in the wee hours of Thursday morning? Yes 3% No 97%

Patches checking into rehab? Live Howie Carr show thread!

MAY 5--Here's the official Capitol Hill Police report on yesterday's early-morning crash involving a disoriented Patrick Kennedy. According to cops, the Rhode Island Democrat (and son of Senator Ted Kennedy) appeared unsteady on his feet, had red and watery eyes, and had slightly slurred speech upon exiting his Ford Mustang after crashing the vehicle into a barricade near Capitol Hill. The reporting officer checked off a box indicating that Kennedy was under the influence of alcohol and that the politician's ability was "impaired." Kennedy, 39, has denied that alcohol was involved in the 2:45 AM accident, claiming instead that he...

WASHINGTON -U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy insisted yesterday that he had consumed “no alcohol” before he slammed his Mustang convertible into a concrete barrier near his office, but a hostess at a popular Capitol Hill watering hole told the Herald she saw him drinking in the hours before the crash. “He was drinking a little bit,” said the woman, who works at the Hawk & Dove and would not give her name. Leaving his office late last night, Kennedy refused to say whether he’d been to the Hawk & Dove the night before. Earlier in the evening, Kennedy issued a statement...

For talk radio hosts seeking fresh fodder, it was just what the doctor ordered: yet another flap involving Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), son of the notorious Teddy (D-Chappaquidick). Call it talk's instant battery recharge. How could anyone resist this one? Late Thursday, news spread like wildfire that Rep. Kennedy had been involved in his second car accident in just the past two weeks, this time at 3am, near the Capitol. Unlike his father's infamous 1969 wreck, there were no fatalities this time. One striking similarity, however: in all three crashes, based on available details, favoritism allegations seem to have substantial...

Bad news for Patches Kennedy, good news for Cynthia McKinney. At the risk of sounding like Jesse Jackson, do you think there’s a bit of a racial double standard at work here? White congressman swerving around Capitol Hill at 2:45 a.m., with no lights on, smashes up his car, staggers around outside, claims he’s on his way to a “vote,” inquires if the cops know who he is, and . . . is given a lift home. That’s how Patches Kennedy got treated. Then there’s Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, a black congresswoman who strides through a security gate, is chased...

WASHINGTON -U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy insisted yesterday that he had consumed “no alcohol” before he slammed his Mustang convertible into a concrete barrier near his office, but a hostess at a popular Capitol Hill watering hole told the Herald she saw him drinking in the hours before the crash. “He was drinking a little bit,” said the woman, who works at the Hawk & Dove and would not give her name. Leaving his office late last night, Kennedy refused to say whether he’d been to the Hawk & Dove the night before. Earlier in the evening, Kennedy issued a statement...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had had no alcohol before the accident. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. "I was involved in a traffic accident last night at First and C Street SE near the U.S. Capitol," Kennedy said in a written statement released by his office. "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident. I will fully cooperate with the Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake." Kennedy appeared to be intoxicated when he crashed...