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Earth's Milky Way Neighborhood Gets More Respect Old picture: Local Arm a small "spur" of Milky Way. New picture: Local Arm probable major branch of Perseus Arm. CREDIT: Robert Hurt, IPAC; Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF. Our Solar System's Milky Way neighborhood just went upscale. We reside between two major spiral arms of our home galaxy, in a structure called the Local Arm. New research using the ultra-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) indicates that the Local Arm, previously thought to be only a small spur, instead is much more like the adjacent major arms,...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A man who walks around his neighborhood with a rifle strapped to his back says he is not a threat to harm anyone, but some neighbors fear he is an incident of vigilante justice waiting to happen. John Schultz, 19, also wears a bullet-proof vest, carries ammunition and has a knife in a holster as he walks through Walnut Creek, which is off Sunset Road in north Charlotte. The gun is his grandfather’s 303 British Enfield from WWII. His walks cause double-takes as well as safety concerns for some. Schultz says others thank him and wave at...

A Muslim movement has bought a posh house in the heart of a large upscale Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore, whose main artery is known as “Synagogue Row.” The Muslim sect is considered to be pacifist and at the opposite end of Islam extremism. Located on the edge of Pikesville – synonymous with “Jewish” – the Colonial-style house known as “Slade Mansion” was sold for $900,000 to the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, according to the Baltimore Sun. Baltimore’s Jewish population is unusual in that it is almost totally contiguous despite its size of an estimate 100,000 Jews. It stretches for miles...

CHICAGO - President Obama went out for a four-block stroll through his Hyde Park neighborhood this morning after spending his first night at home in over a year. The president, dressed in tan slacks and a white, open-collared shirt with sleeves rolled up, walked down South Woodlawn Avenue alongside senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, both clearly enjoying the sunny and seasonable weather, according to pool reporters on scene. A Secret Service agent followed closely behind. "Nice day, huh?" Obama called out to members of the press who were positioned to observe the stroll. ... Obama and Jarrett ended at the home...

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Until recently, Seif Awad worked a day job as an account manager for Cisco. But since Saturday he has begun volunteering at nights, protecting his neighborhood with a volunteer defense squad of young male neighbors armed with makeshift weapons. Last night he armed himself with a big stick. On Sunday, Awad bought gasoline canisters and started making Molotov cocktails. "If anyone comes on the street we're going to throw those at them," Awad said. "And I have a friend here who has a gun." Shortly before he spoke on the phone Sunday night with CNN, Awad...

A little off the top, some spirited sports commentary, neighborhood gossip and a bit of man-to-man advice on domestic affairs: it’s all there at the barbershop, an institution that plays a beloved and central role in the African American community. Increasingly, in recent years, the black barbershop owner has become an influential source of health advice too. Public health officials and researchers have been actively enlisting his help in an effort to narrow gaping disparities in healthcare access and uptake that put black men at a deep disadvantage compared with whites. And deputizing the barber—an already respected figure in many...

Cedar Falls, IA – The latest ad from Doris Kelley makes a number of ridiculous accusations, but it’s the use of a song from the classic television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that puts it over the top. The Walt Rogers campaign has learned that Family Communications, Inc., the nonprofit corporation that administers copyrights related to the show, did not grant permission for Kelley to use the song in her attack ad; in fact, the organization never permits political use of its copyrights, according to Chief Operating Officer Kevin Morrison. The group will be issuing a “Cease and Desist” letter to...

A long-time Jewish neighborhood in the Lebanese city of Sidon that kept its Jewish name throughout the tribulations of Lebanese-Israeli tensions has finally lost the name. The residents renamed the neighborhood, known for decades as Haret al-Yahud (Neighborhood of the Jews), Haret Gaza. It happened at the end of last week, when the Arab world commemorated International Quds Day (Jerusalem Day). Sidon is the third-largest city in Lebanon, located about midway between the two largest cities, Tyre and Beirut, and only some 60 kilometers from Israel. Haret al-Yahud was long populated mostly by Jews, part of the Lebanese Jewish population...

We are barraged by reminders that the economy is oh so slowly pulling out from a deep and broad recession. The jobs are lagging, as is their usual reaction to slow recoveries. For those of us old enough to remember the times are reminiscent of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The similarity is further reinforced by the constant comparisons coming from the more conservative commentaries of President Obama to President Carter. The liberals are touting the same President Obama as a savior much in the same mold as President Reagan, though they would never mention Reagan. But all of...

An interesting “stand-off’’ of sorts developed outside a barbecue President Obama was attending at a friend’s house Saturday night between followers of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on one side and members of the press and the U.S. Secret Service guarding the president on the other. Just a few blocks from Obama’s home in the Kenwood/Hyde Park neighborhood, Obama’s friend Marty Nesbitt lives across the street from the ornate yellow-gold home where Farrakhan lives.

An interesting “stand-off’’ of sorts developed outside a barbecue President Obama was attending at a friend’s house Saturday night between followers of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on one side and members of the press and the U.S. Secret Service guarding the president on the other. Just a few blocks from Obama’s home in the Kenwood/Hyde Park neighborhood, Obama’s friend Marty Nesbitt lives across the street from the ornate yellow-gold home where Farrakhan lives. For the past two years...

President Obama has new neighbors. The first family's pals next door, Bill and Jacky Grimshaw, closed Wednesday on a $1.4 million deal for their 6,000-square-foot 1906 colonial mansion with an unfettered view of the Obama's Kenwood estate. The new owners, who plan to spend an additional $1 million renovating the house, asked their real estate agent, Matt Garrison, not to reveal their identity. "They want their privacy respected. They're not interested in notoriety. They're just a normal Chicago home buyer who happened to buy next to the president," Garrison said. "They'd probably prefer not being next to the president, but...

There is scope for debate – and innumerable newspaper quizzes – about who was the most influential public figure of the year, or which the most significant event. But there can be little doubt which word won the prize for most important adjective. 2009 was the year in which "global" swept the rest of the political lexicon into obscurity. There were "global crises" and "global challenges", the only possible resolution to which lay in "global solutions" necessitating "global agreements". Gordon Brown actually suggested something called a "global alliance" in response to climate change. (Would this be an alliance against the...

Over the years, I've noticed that most white "progressives" (= liberals) that I've known -- the ones who are on hair-trigger Al Sharpton Alert for the slightest hint of racism in others -- have one feature in common: they live at the corner of Whitebread Avenue and Mayonnaise Lane. The same people who bray the loudest about how "diversity is our strength" and how great the "diverse inner city" is almost always live in the lily-white outer suburbs themselves -- places where a black or Hispanic person had better have a rake or lawn mower in his hands if they're...

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BAGHDAD, May 12, 2009 – A partnership among the local government, Iraqi security forces and the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, has given citizens of northwestern Baghdad’s Hurriyah neighborhood an improved community. Sheik Maqmoud al-Falahi, right, a tribal leader in northwestern Baghdad, speaks to attendees of the “Hurriyah Walkthrough” ceremony in the Kadamiyah district of northwestern Baghdad, May 11, 2009. After the ceremony, civic leaders and members of the Iraqi media walked through a thriving market street in Hurriyah to see security and economic gains in the neighborhood. U.S....

WASHINGTON - "Fore!" The federal government is preparing to spend millions to purchase a fleet of small electric vehicles that critics compare to golf carts. The $838 billion economic stimulus bill that passed the Senate yesterday contains $300 million for the government to purchase a fleet of "green" cars. But the money won't just go to buy fuel-efficient hybrids such as the Ford Escape or Chevy Volt. The cash also can be used to purchase "neighborhood electric vehicles." The NEVs, which resemble streamlined golf carts, scoot at up to 25 mph, operate on battery power and can be plugged into...

A rising chorus of GOP leaders are protesting that the blockbuster Democratic stimulus package would provide up to a whopping $5.2 billion for ACORN, the left-leaning nonprofit group under federal investigation for massive voter fraud. Most of the money is secreted away under an item in the now $836 billion package titled “Neighborhood Stabilization Programs.” Ordinarily, neighborhood stabilization funds are distributed to local governments. But revised language in the stimulus bill would make the funds available directly to non-profit entities such as ACORN, the low-income housing organization whose pro-Democrat voter-registration activities have been blasted by Republicans. ACORN is cited by...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 3, 2008 – In the not-too-distant past, Baghdad’s Sadr City district was considered by many to be one of the worst places to live in Iraq. Violence riddled the district, sewage-filled gutters overflowed onto the roads, and children played on trash piles containing concertina wire and rubble from houses -- the remnants of the violent fighting that drove Iranian-backed criminal elements out of the area. An Iraqi man digs a hole while repairing the sewer system in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Clayton Merkly  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Now, when...

BAGHDAD — Army engineers are making things a lot easier for Iraqi contractors to clean up trash on the streets of Baghdad. The project, in conjunction with 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment’s Task Force Iron Gimlet, calls for engineers to remove large rubble and debris so that Iraqi contractors are able to clean up trash. The 955th Engineer Company, a U.S. Army Reserve unit based out of Missouri, which is attached to the 46th Engineer Combat Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, serving with Multi-National Division - Baghdad, has been assigned the vital job of picking up what can’t be...