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The city of Houston will turn its red-light cameras back on today, Mayor Annise Parker announced after this morning’s City Council meeting. According to a statement from the mayor’s office, tickets will be issued after a “short period of equipment testing.”

SYDNEY (AP) — Asian and African night owls were treated to a lunar eclipse, and ash in the atmosphere from a Chilean volcano turned it blood red for some viewers. The Sydney Observatory said the eclipse was to begin at 3:25 a.m. Thursday (1:25 p.m. EDT, 5:25 p.m. GMT Wednesday) and last until after 5 a.m. Scientists said the specific phenomenon happening Thursday — known as a "deep lunar eclipse" — often exudes a coppery color. But the intensity of the color depends on the amount of ash and dust in the atmosphere. Luckily for moon-gazers, there was plenty of...

University of Rochester What links speed, power, and the color red? Hint: it's not a sports car. It's your muscles. A new study, published in the latest issue of the journal Emotion, finds that when humans see red, their reactions become both faster and more forceful. And people are unaware of the color's intensifying effect. The findings may have applications for sporting and other activities in which a brief burst of strength and speed is needed, such as weightlifting. But the authors caution that the color energy boost is likely short-lived. "Red enhances our physical reactions because it is seen...

As a schoolboy, one of Red Skelton's teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance to his class. Skelton later wrote down, and eventually recorded, his recollection of this lecture. It is followed by an observation of his own.

An 11-year-old boy in Orange, MA is in the middle of flag controversy after he and his family claim one of his teachers banned him from hanging a picture of an American flag he drew in the classroom because it might offend other students. The boy‘s dad is adamant his son’s civil rights were violated. But the school has a different take, and says the prohibition was because the boy disobeyed instruction

Red Reps 7 here; [caption id="attachment_5755" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Hansen Clarke"][/caption] Freshman Congressman Hansen Clarke (D-MI) has a close working relationship with one of the U.S.'s most extreme Marxist-Leninist organizations - the pro North Korean Workers World Party. A former chief of staff to Michigan's pro Marxist congressman John Conyers, Hansen Clarke seems to be following in his former mentor's political footsteps. In 2008 Hansen Clarke worked closely with Detroit leaders of the Workers World Party on the house foreclosures issue. Clarke drafted and sponsored SB 1306 with long time W.W.P. collaborator Reverend Ed Rowe of Central United Methodist Church, a...

A top Kremlin official has told the United States Russia wants "red button" rights to a new US-backed missile defence system for Europe, a move that would allow it to influence the shield's day-to-day operational use. Sergey Ivanov, Russia's deputy prime minister, made the controversial demand during a visit to the United States where he met with top officials including Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. "We insist on only one thing," he said of the nascent US-backed missile defence shield. "That we are an equal part of it." "In practical terms, that means that our office will sit...

Joseph Stiglitz has created a frisson of excitement among the chattering classes with his recent piece in Vanity Fair. Stiglitz thinks that maybe the uprising on the Arab street will come here. His article decries the fact that in America, a small percent of the population has the greatest amount of wealth. He says they monopolize "the nation's income." The nation's income? What exactly does that phrase mean? Stiglitz' article is a classic re-statement of Marxism's critique of free enterprise. The idea that the rich somehow "control" all the wealth in the country, that they act in concert, that their...

Isn’t it about time that the mainstream media and all others begin to examine the record and conclude that a Communist holds the reins of power in the White House? Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it is often believed that Communism died with it. Not so; Communism is alive and well in China, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.

Red Reps 2 here; Mark Miller No State Senator bears more responsibility for the recent events in Madison, Wisconsin than Mark Miller. As Democrat minority leader, Mark Miller led a a boycott of all 14 Democrat State Senators. The group all bailed to neighboring Illinois on February 17, denying Republicans a quorum in the Wisconsin State Senate, so they could not pass Governor Scott Walker's controversial "Budget Repair Bill". Even before thousands of socialists and labor unionists descended on the State Capital, Miller reportedly worked with Madison mayor Dave Ciesliewicz in an attempt to persuade the Secretary of State to...

Long time Latino and Democratic Party activist Edwin Vargas, Jr. has announced a bid for the Hartford Connecticut mayoralty. One of several announced candidates for the November election, Vargas, who currently serves on Hartford's planning and zoning commission, must be considered a strong contender. Vargas' activist roots go back to 1971 when Hartford Connecticut received an influx of 30 Puerto Rican university students, who came to the city to teach and study - many, including Edwin Vargas, were active members of the pro Cuban, and staunchly Marxist-Leninist Puerto Rican Socialist Party.

Attention, taxpayers and Tea Party activists. The Purple Army is coming to your town. Don’t let these Big Labor goons monopolize the protest square like they monopolize government workers. Here’s there current schedule over the next four days nationwide via the SEIU website. All hands on deck: 2/21 – Helena, MT 2/21 – Carson City, NV 2/21 – Raleigh, NC 2/21 – Austin, TX 2/21 – Madison, WI 2/22 – Sacramento, CA 2/22 – Denver, CO 2/22 – Des Moines, IA 2/22 – Annapolis, MD 2/22 – Boston, MA 2/22 – Springfield, MA 2/22 – St. Paul, MN 2/22 –...

Several members of the approximately eighty strong, far left Congressional Progressive Caucus have documentable ties to the Communist Party USA, or its front organizations. These include, but are certainly not limited to, Caucus vice chair Dennis Kucinich, Caucus founder and Senate member Bernie Sanders and house members Corrine Brown, John Conyers, Danny Davis,; Rosa DeLauro, Barney Frank, Jesse Jackson, Jr. Barbara Lee, Charles Rangel, Bobby Rush and Maxine Waters Here's another for the list - none other than Progressive Caucus co-chair and California 6th district Rep. Lynn Woolsey. Below is a scan from the Communist Party's newspaper People's Weekly World...

RICHMOND - After two straight years of crushing electoral defeats, Virginia Democrats know they need to do something to start winning again - they're just not sure what. Some party leaders and activists say Democrats should keep the focus on the same policies, but also must do a better job of communicating. "I think the problem is the message is not getting out,'' said C. Richard Cranwell, the outgoing chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia. "We've got to overcome the disconnect." Others say Democrats need to concentrate more on policies that Republicans have been advocating: creating jobs and cutting...

A book called "Ernie" was written by Borgnine. The book was originally titled " I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to keep my nuts warm". The publishers were squeamish about using that title, thus "Ernie" became the name of his biographical book. I loved the original title. He said when he was looking for work and not having much luck, he walked by a nut vendor on the street. There on the side of the vendor's cart was " I don't want to set the world on fire, I just want to keep my...

The ‘slow boat’ to Centauri concept we’ve discussed before in these pages envisions generation ships, vessels that take thousands of years to cross to their destination. And based on current thinking, that’s about the best we could manage with the propulsion systems currently in our inventory. Specifically, a solar sail making a close solar pass (a ‘sundiver’ maneuver) could get us up to 500 or 600 kilometers per second (0.002c), making a 2000-year journey to the nearest star possible. It’s hard to imagine under what circumstances such a mission might be launched.But let’s think long-term, as Greg Matloff (New York...

The Kazanjian Red Diamond, one of the most spectacular gemstones ever discovered, goes on display today at the American Museum of Natural History. Red is the rarest color in diamonds — less than 20 are known to exist in the world today. What’s more, the Kazanjian Red Diamond has an amazing back story. The gem was discovered in the 1920s in Litchenburg, South Africa. When found, it was a hefty 35 carats uncut. A diamond broker paid a modest eight pounds per carat for it. It was later sent to Amsterdam to be cut and polished by the Goudiv brothers....

Over the years, Sen. John McCain has been known to change his views every now and then. Environmentalists hope this is one of those times. Now that McCain has dispatched a conservative primary challenger and Arizona appears set to send him back to the Senate, climate advocates are optimistic they will soon regain one of their biggest champions. ... Multiple sources said McCain reassured them in private that he still believed in the climate issue... ...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Racism may be less of a factor in politics than other realms of life, according to a new University of Florida study, which found few white voters in Florida to be upset by the presidential candidacy of a black man, and many to be proud of it. To assess attitudes among white voters in a southern state about Barack Obama's historic election to the presidency, two UF political scientists analyzed results from four statewide telephone surveys -- each involving between 449 and 829 respondents – conducted in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009. Their study...

Looks like the AFL-CIO is no longer even trying to hide the fact that it no longer sports a traditionally American political outlook. The labor union has announced that it is joining a voter registration drive called One Nation Working Together. This coalition is filled with some of the most extremely leftist groups in America today including the ACLU, Enviro extremists, La Raza, Code Pink, various anti-war groups, and the Communist Party USA. This new move by the AFL-CIO finds hearty support from the People's World newspaper, a publication dedicated to communism and the "direct descendent" of the communist Daily...