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The National Weather Service in Detroit/Pontiac has issued a winter storm warning that includes Monroe County for the time frame of 1 a.m. Sunday Feb. 1 to 7 a.m. Monday Feb. 2. RELATED: Pre-Groundhog Day snowstorm to sweep from Chicago to NYC The forecast is for "moderate to occasionally heavy snow," beginning late tonight and persisting through sunrise Monday. Accumulations of more than 8 inches of snow are likely "with the potential of up to 12 inches near the Ohio border," the warning that was issued at 4 p.m. today said. There also is the likelihood of blowing and drifting...

....The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed the epicenter of the quake as 8 miles south of Conway Springs, Kansas. According to Sumner County Emergency Manager, James Fair, a there are few structures with foundation damage. A tree with a diameter of 18-20 inches was uprooted and a propane tank was shifted off its foundation.

What’s the matter with Kansas? It’s a decade since Thomas Frank launched a thousand headlines with his book of that title, itself a reference to a famous 1896 essay by Kansas journalist William Allen White. Frank’s thesis was simple: Kansans, and by extension the rest of the red states, vote against their economic interests. Or as he puts it in the first page of his book: “People getting their fundamental interests wrong is what American political life is all about.” Is he right? Do voters in the great middle of the country ignore their economic interests to vote for the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Enterovirus D68 is likely coming -- if it hasn't already -- to a state near you. Since mid-August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed 140 cases of respiratory illness caused by Enterovirus D68 in 16 states: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Virginia. New Jersey also has confirmed a case of EV-D68, according to Donna Leusner, director of communications for the New Jersey Department of Health. And "in the upcoming weeks, more states will have confirmed cases of EV-D68 infection," the CDC said in a statement...

President Barack Obama is announcing the creation of two Pentagon-led institutes, using public and private resources, to boost advanced manufacturing, help create jobs and perhaps build the next “Iron Man.” One center will be in Obama’s hometown of Chicago, concentrating on high-tech digital manufacturing and design. The other will be located in Canton, Mich., near Detroit, and specialize in light metal manufacturing. …

Cash Price Propane: Mount Belvieu, Texas Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - $1.5114 Previous Day's price - $1.5155 Year ago - $0.8411 Natural Gas, Henry Hub $5.240 [1/28/2014] 5.750 [Yesterday] 3.191 [Year Ago]

(Reuters) - Millions of Americans are feeling the pinch of a propane shortage this week as brutal cold exposes the supply vulnerabilities of a fuel that heats homes, schools and businesses across wide swathes of the United States. Prices of the fuel, a liquefied petroleum gas, have rocketed to all-time highs in Midwestern states, distributors are rationing supplies, and some schools have shut due to a lack of the fuel during this year's second bout of Arctic weather.

Reuters reports that the FBI and other agencies are in the process of investigating multiple threats to Midwest Water Supply Systems. Specifically, the FBI has named Wichita, Kansas as a target, but utility facilities have also been put on alert in other Midwestern cities. (Reuters) The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation learned of the threats in the past two days and has contacted the water supply facilities and law enforcement offices for the municipalities, said Bridget Patton, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in Kansas City, Missouri. Patton declined to discuss the nature of the threats or the number of...

A major storm next week is poised to bring much needed rain, heavy snow and dangerous thunderstorms to the Plains. The main storm will be preceded by a lesser system with spotty rain, snow and thunderstorms during late Sunday into Monday. However, the main event over the Plains will begin Monday night and Tuesday and will sprawl eastward as the week progresses.

This is our heritage. This is what they want us to toss into the garbage.

The human cost of the War of 1812 was dramatic. Some 35,000 people were killed, wounded or missing at the end of the war. York (now Toronto), Niagara (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) and Washington, D.C. were torched. Elsewhere, homes and properties were looted and damaged and family lives were thrown into chaos. The borders between British North America and the United States might not have changed when the fighting stopped — the old lines were reconfirmed in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war on December 24, 1814. But once the treaty was signed, there wasn’t simply a return to the...

Police shot and killed a mountain lion this morning in Des Moines. Kevin Baskins, with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says it’s extremely unusual for such an animal to end up in a residential neighborhood. “Certainly, we see the occasional mountain lion wander through the state of Iowa, but to the best of our knowledge, we really have not seen one in urban setting like Des Moines,” Baskins said. ”The only explanation we can think of is that mountain lions will follow river corridors and the river is in fairly close proximity to where this cat got shot.”...

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Flush with cash, Mitt Romney plans to open a new front in the White House race by challenging President Barack Obama in upper Midwest states where he might not have dug in otherwise. Obama is intensifying his efforts to cast his Republican rival as out of touch, which he's already been working pretty hard at doing. This is the beginning of the homestretch to Election Day, when everything in the two campaigns goes into overdrive and a September or October surprise could upend it all. -snip- In the coming weeks, Romney's team is expected to pay for...

Economists are warning that the current drought in the Corn Belt is going to result in higher food prices... But there is one thing the president can do to alleviate the effects of the drought: suspend the nation's ill-conceived ethanol program. That program now burns up 40% of the U.S. corn crop...

Would it be possible to privately cloud seed in order to make it rain? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding

Barack Obama’s political base always has been more “creative class” than working class—and his policies have favored that base, seeming to cater to energized issue and identity constituencies including African-Americans, Hispanics, gays, and greens, often at the expense of blue-collar workers. Yet improving conditions for those workers—particularly in the industrial heartland—could save his flagging presidency. The industrial zone’s four key states—Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—constitute the most critically contested territory in this year’s contest. Fifty-four electoral votes are at play here, with Pennsylvania’s 20 votes alone equaling all those at stake in the much-ballyhooed battleground of the Intermountain West (Colorado,...

Xcel Energy Inc. will seek to phase out subsidies for solar power and spend more to help customers conserve energy in Minnesota. The Minneapolis-based utility said Friday that it will reduce spending on its popular Minnesota Solar Rewards program to $2.5 million in 2013 -- half its current level -- before its elimination. The program has helped 560 Minnesota homes and businesses install solar arrays since 2010. Xcel Energy Inc. will seek to phase out subsidies for solar power and spend more to help customers conserve energy in Minnesota. The Minneapolis-based utility said Friday that it will reduce spending on...

Baseball-sized hail is tearing the siding off homes in northeast Nebraska, a tornado has touched down in Kansas and forecasters are warning residents across the nation's midsection to brace for "life threatening" storms. The National Weather Service says a rain-wrapped tornado touched down in southwest Kansas on Saturday afternoon, while at least three possible tornadoes were reported earlier in central Oklahoma. No injuries were immediately reported. But forecasters are expecting the most dangerous weather later in the day and are warning residents across the region of possible fast-moving tornadoes overnight. Officials say a large area spanning from Minnesota to Texas...

At least three possible tornadoes hit central Oklahoma early Saturday in a prelude to what forecasters warned could be a day of "life-threatening" storms in the nation's midsection. No injuries were immediately reported. Department of Emergency Management official Michelann Ooten said the possible tornadoes were reported west and north of Oklahoma City. One was spotted near Piedmont, a small town where a twister last May killed several people. The National Weather Service was working to confirm the reports. Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Brown told The Associated Press the storms were fairly weak but still damaged some homes. A tornado that...

Weather Channel TORCON (Tornado Conditions) Index for Saturday: IA southwest - 6 to 7 IA northwest - 5 IA central, northeast night - 4 to 5 KS central, northeast - 8 KS southeast night - 6 MN southwest - 4 MN south, east-central night - 5 MO northwest night - 6 NE central, northeast - 5 NE southeast - 7 OK west, north-central (except panhandle) - 7 OK central, northeast night - 7 SD southeast - 4 TX northwest near Wichita Falls - 6 TX central night, west of I-35 - 4 WI west-central night - 5 The highest TORCON...