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NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron step out of the International Space Station to conduct a spacewalk.

Long before she was tall enough to sit behind a steering wheel, Paula Nelson-Blattner was experiencing the best and the worst of the Howard Frankland Bridge. “As a kid, I was always nervously asking my parents, ‘Did you check your gas?’” said Nelson-Blattner, 52, who got the creeps crossing the concrete span, perched as it is atop golf-tee shaped pillars as far as 58 feet above the waters of Old Tampa Bay. “Of course, once you’re close enough to read the warnings, not a gas station is in sight and it’s far too late to turn back.” The “check your...

She turned to me the other morning and said, “You heard of The Gateway?” It didn’t register in the moment. She continued, “It’s blowing up on TikTok.” Later on, she elaborated: it was not in fact the ill-fated 90s computer hardware company folks were freaking out about. No, they’ve gone further back in time, to find a true treasure of functional media.The intrigue revolves around a classified 1983 CIA report on a technique called the Gateway Experience, which is a training system designed to focus brainwave output to alter consciousness and ultimately escape the restrictions of time and space. The...

The European Space Agency (ESA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday (Oct. 27) formalizing its collaboration on Gateway, a planned outpost in lunar orbit that NASA sees as key to its Artemis program of crewed moon exploration. Under this new agreement, ESA will provide Gateway with a habitation module and a refueling module, both of which the European agency will operate once the hardware is up and running. ESA contributions will also include two additional service modules for NASA's Orion capsule, the spacecraft that will launch Artemis astronauts from Earth atop the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rockets....

With the first two major elements of NASA’s Lunar Gateway under contract and development, Northrop Grumman has outlined their plans for the overall Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module, which will serve as the primary habitation and nexus for the lunar station. HALO will now launch in a fully integrated configuration with Maxar’s Power and Propulsion Element — a change that has brought about alterations to HALO. The duo will launch aboard a yet-to-be-officially confirmed rocket from the Florida spaceport in 2023. The cargo items now excluded from launching on HALO will have to be delivered separately on a future...

An ability to get on contract quickly and a price far lower that other companies were key factors in NASA’s decision to award a contract to Maxar Technologies for the first element of the lunar Gateway, the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE). A source selection statement released by NASA May 23 outlined the agency’s assessment of proposals for the PPE submitted by Maxar and four other companies: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). The document shows that Maxar, identified in the document as Space Systems Loral (SSL), the former name of its satellite manufacturing...

The DOJ IG’s report released on Friday was a bombshell. Now we know hidden in it were pieces of information that when put into context with information released at that time indicate unimaginable corruption! Anthony Weiner was sentenced to nearly 2 years in prison in September 2017 for sexting minors. The pervert was Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer’s protégé and is married to Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s favorite aide during the 2016 Presidential campaign. When NYPD investigated Weiner’s crime for texting minors sometime in and around 2016 they obtained his computer that at least one source said included up to 650,000...

A lawsuit filed last year by West Virginia's Republican attorney general Patrick Morrisey has resulted in a new Trump administration directive to evaluate the opioid production quota system, which Morrissey says is "responsible for many deaths across the country." Morrisey, who has been attorney general since 2013 and is now running for U.S. Senate, has long viewed the Drug Enforcement Agency's quota system on controlled substances as broken, believing it was setting limits based on sales numbers instead of true medical needs of Americans. He told the Washington Free Beacon he has been digging for information on the system for...

I'm scared to post this for fear of being yelled at, banned, hurting Jim's feelings...I truly value, love, enjoy everyone here, even those I've argued with...we are family. That said, families ask tough questions... Over the past year, more recently, fewer posts are made getting the scoop, informing, starting great discussions. I've always considered myself a bit player here, and such a Friday cat and scared of technology, I lurked for 5 yrs before making a user ID, so my dob on Freep really isn't accurate...been here a while. So I ask who are we? Our purpose is? Jim is...

Over the past decade, out-of-state drug companies shipped 20.8 million prescription painkillers to two pharmacies four blocks apart in a Southern West Virginia town with 2,900 people, according to a congressional committee investigating the opioid crisis.The House Energy and Commerce Committee cited the massive shipments of hydrocodone and oxycodone — two powerful painkillers — to the town of Williamson, in Mingo County, amid the panel’s inquiry into the role of drug distributors in the opioid epidemic.“These numbers are outrageous, and we will get to the bottom of how this destruction was able to be unleashed across West Virginia,” said committee...

It's rare for a president to pull funding from a sweetheart transportation project. But on the final Friday of 2017, the Trump administration announced that it was backing away from an Obama-era plan to lavish billions in federal aid on the Hudson Tunnel project. Billed as "the nation's most urgent major infrastructure project" by its proponents, the venture envisions a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River along with repairs to an existing rail tunnel damaged by Hurricane Sandy. All of this would mostly serve to increase rail transit service within the New York City metro area. Given the huge...

Mass shootings in America are getting deadlier. Of the 30 deadliest shootings in the US dating back to 1949, 18 have occurred in the last 10 years. Two of the five deadliest took place in just the last 35 days.

President Trump's declaration that opioid abuse is a public health emergency is sparking debate about addiction. Tragically, myths and misinformation are blocking the path to preventing more deaths. Start with the causes of the opioid crisis. On "Face the Nation," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, chair of Trump's opioid commission, blamed overprescribing doctors. "This crisis started not on a street corner somewhere. This crisis started in the doctor's offices and hospitals of America." That's untrue, Governor. It contradicts scientific evidence and lets drug abusers off the hook. At least three-quarters of opioid pill abusers and almost all heroin addicts got...

<p>Those battered by opioid epidemic applaud Trump effort, but ask 'where's the money?'</p> <p>Parents of children who overdosed on opioids have waited patiently for President Trump to declare the epidemic a "national emergency," as he twice promised he would.</p> <p>On Thursday, some were disappointed. To some survivors, the declaration instead of a public health emergency is too little, too late.</p>

Newly installed signs share Sierra Vista’s status as a gateway to the Arizona Trail, inspiring residents and visitors alike to explore this key outdoor recreation asset that begins at the international border with Mexico and meanders over 800 miles north to Utah. The City recently installed signs at each end of Buffalo Soldier Trail, completing a project initially spurred by Bernie Stalmann, a local resident who is a longtime member of the Arizona Trail Association board of directors. Sierra Vista is the fifth of 33 gateway communities in the state to install these signs provided by the Arizona Trail Association....

In fact, it appears the growers don't appear to be very mellow at all. According to an editorial in the Fresno Bee, "Acres of ancient trees are disappearing and illegal marijuana farms are popping up in their place. Streams and rivers are being sucked dry, diverted sometimes miles away through plastic pipes into tanks. Several species of fish, along with a rare breed of wild rodent, are on the verge of extinction." Evidently this is because when you are an outlaw, it's cheaper to despoil parkland and steal water than it is to buy your own land and your own...

“I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from ... cigarettes.” This sentiment, expressed by Barack Obama in January and shared by millions, has once again been challenged — this time by an academic review of 20-years worth of research. The handiwork of Dr. Wayne Hall, a professor of addiction policy at King's College London and drug advisor for the World Health Organization, the review implicates cannabis in a whole host of health problems, but, in particular, in mental-health issues and addiction among habitual users — especially teenagers.

Here’s another follow-up to my article about Jim Hoft’s dishonest tactics in promoting his bogus claim that officer Darren Wilson suffered a fractured eye socket in a purported struggle with teenager Michael Brown. As I pointed out in the earlier piece, Hoft posted a stock image of a CT scan of a fractured eye socket, but apparently erased the words “UNIV OF IOWA” from his copy of the image. Well, thanks to LGF readers @franklinftw and @loveheylola, I can now remove the word “apparently” from that description, because we have proof that Hoft (or someone who works with him) did...

Imagine going to the dentist for a free regular checkup, and getting a free $25 gift card in return. It’s happening right here in Pennsylvania, and taxpayers are paying for all of it. Every year, Pennsylvania spends $20 billion to provide medical care to low-income and disabled residents. But one of the biggest problems the state has is getting people to use those medical services for preventative care. Now a new program designed to address that problem has some people outraged. "I am upset." Michelle Tonkin is seeing red thanks to a Walmart gift card, which she recently got in...

Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader - including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing - his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate. "I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol," Mr. Robertson said in an interview on Wednesday. "I've never used marijuana and I don't intend to, but it's just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn't succeeded."