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LOS ANGELES — It used to be considered bad form to out gay public figures - but now California judges are being asked to reveal their sexual identities in the name of diversity.

The Judicial Applicant and Appointment Demographics Inclusion Act, which took effect Jan. 1, requires the state ...

With the Obama administration ramping up the pressure on natural-gas drilling companies, industry leaders fear a looming wave of federal regulations could strangle what has become one of the most vibrant sectors of the economy.

At least 10 federal departments and agencies are investigating or crafting new rules to govern ...

A decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California to put several deportation cases on hold in light of Obama administration immigration directives was criticized Thursday by two senior Republican lawmakers who said the court ruling was an "overreach of its authority."

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar ...

How Great is That Darkness 12-9-10

MICHIGAN

Man in Detroit explosive case still not mentally competent

MARQUETTE | A judge has ruled that a Michigan man who authorities say placed an explosive outside a federal building in Detroit last year is still not mentally competent to face the charges.

The Mining Journal of Marquette reports that ...

MAD ISLAND, Texas — Strange things are aloft in the bird world.

Endangered whooping cranes flew 2,500 miles from Canada to Texas, where they usually spend the whole winter. Instead, they pecked around for a short time and flew back. In Nebraska, other cranes never left.

Some ducks just ...

Andrew Breitbart, the conservative journalist, Internet pioneer and provocateur who helped reshape the media landscape with tenacious and original political style, died early Thursday after collapsing on the street near his Los Angeles home. He was 43.

His passing was announced through a posting on his extensive online news empire ...

PHOENIX — Armed with a new 10-page report he commissioned, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday he suspects the birth certificate President Obama released last year is a "computer-generated forgery" — and also raised questions about the authenticity of the president's selective service registration card.

In an extensive — ...

Star-Starved Christianity 7-21-11

I want An American President 3-31-11

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A bill that would prohibit state money from being used for sex change surgeries for prison inmates is one step closer to becoming law.

The Senate Corrections and Penology Committee on Thursday approved the bill that now goes to the Senate.

Under current policy, the South ...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World is retooling an Epcot exhibit on childhood obesity after critics complained it was insensitive to obese kids and reinforced stereotypes.

The interactive exhibit, Habit Heroes, featured animated fitness superheros Will Power and Callie Stenics and super-sized villains Snacker and Lead Bottom, who eat junk ...

PHILADELPHIA — A woman arrested in connection with an illegal buttocks-enhancement injection that left a patient sickened last month is considered a "person of interest" in the death of a tourist who underwent a similar procedure last year, police said Thursday.

Padge Victoria Windslowe, 42, was arrested Wednesday night as ...

PHOENIX (AP) — America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff finds himself entangled these days in his own thorny legal troubles: a federal grand jury probe over alleged abuse of power, Justice Department accusations of racial profiling, and revelations that his department didn't adequately investigate hundreds of Arizona sex-crime cases.

Rather than seek ...

TRENTON, N.J. — Civil rights organizations are calling for investigations into the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslims in the U.S. Northeast.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut said Thursday it is among 10 groups that asked for investigations in letters to state police, cities and the presidents ...

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — A U.S. woman was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday for killing a pregnant acquaintance and cutting her baby boy alive from her womb.

Kathy Coy agreed to the sentence in a deal last month in which she avoided a possible death penalty by ...

PHOENIX (AP) — A grandfather who forced his grandsons on two grueling hikes in the Grand Canyon in searing August heat was found guilty of child abuse after a trial in which the three boys described going without food and water and being choked and kicked during the long treks.

Investigators ...

First God created idiots: practice for creating politicians 7-21-11

Let's try to educate the world 3-31-11

CHARDON, Ohio — A teenager was charged Thursday with killing three students in a school shooting, the first step in proceedings that could see him charged as an adult and facing the possibility of life without parole if convicted.

The charges filed in Geauga County juvenile court accuse T.J. Lane, ...