The former Marine and Vietnam War veteran reigned for two decades as the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee with responsibility for funding the military. He served as its chairman in the early 1990s and again in 2007 when Democrats regained control of the House.

Mr. Murtha emerged as a strong figure in House debates over the Iraq war, which he grew to vehemently oppose. But he also used his perch as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense to secure additional funding for military equipment, at times thwarting calls from some liberal Democrats to stop all war spending.

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Atlas Fraley participated in a football scrimmage at Middle Creek School in Apex during that hot day in mid August.  Following the scrimmage he went home.  His parents were working and not there at that time.  Fraley experienced cramps enough to be concerned, he dialed 911. 

Atlas Fraley's 911 call:   "Yes, this is an emergency.  I am having full body cramps.  I think I need an IV or something.  My body is hurting all over.  I just came from football practice and I think I need an IV or something."

According to the 911 calling logs Atlas then told the 911 dispatcher that the cramps were throughout his body following the dispatcher's question.

When asked about taking any medications during the emergency call Fraley answered that he usually took Albuterol for asthma but that his symptoms were not signs of an asthma attack, more of dehydration.  Atlas again requested an IV due to his belief that he was suffering from dehydration. 

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Former John Edwards aide Andrew Young said Friday that he has turned over a copy of his ex-boss’s sex tape to the FBI.

In court documents reviewed by The Associated Press, Young said his attorney has sent a copy of the tape to federal investigators, but that he still has the original tape in a safe deposit box in Atlanta.

Young was held in contempt of court Thursday for refusing to hand over all copies of the tape.

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...............a blast from the past below:

The Orange County sheriff's office released today a copy of a report alleging a "domestic between spouses and larceny of wallet" on Oct. 10, 2008, at the home of John and Elizabeth Edwards.

In the report, Elizabeth Edwards describes how John Edwards came to the home to eat dinner with his children after a sports event, Mark Johnson reports. She told him they were dining with the babysitter, and he had no business being there, according to the report.

Moments later, John Edwards challenged his wife’s comment and said the house was his, as well. Then Elizabeth Edwards said she saw her husband take her lime green wallet, which contained $320, credit cards and a Motorola Razr phone. John Edwards went down to "the barn," an adjoining structure that includes a full-size basketball court, for several minutes before beginning to leave, according to the report.

Former John Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife Cheri argued in court papers today that Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, has no legal claim to a purported sex tape she allegedly made with the one-time presidential candidate.

The Youngs, who were ordered to appear in a North Carolina court Friday morning, said they are not in possession of a "personal video" tape that matches Hunter's description.

Hunter referred to making and hiding a videotape, which "depicted matters of a very private and personal nature," in or around September 2006, according to an affidavit filed last Thursday. She was awarded a temporary restraining order that prevents Young from distributing the tape and photos in his possession, which she claimed belong to her.

Young said the woman in the racy video that is in his possession was noticeably pregnant. While the woman's face is not seen in the video, Cheri Young said the woman is wearing a bracelet and a thumb ring typically worn by Hunter.

Hunter was pregnant in 2007 and gave birth to Edwards' daughter, Frances Quinn, on Feb. 27, 2008.

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In the interview, Marshall talks to IE's Paul Boyd about the scandal with John Edwards and the role Rielle expects Edwards to play in their young daughter's life.

When asked by IE if her sister still loves John Edwards, Marshall replied, "Oh yeah...She still believes that they will be together."

Though most of the country now considers John Edwards persona non grata, the former North Carolina Senator may still have one devotee — his mistress Rielle Hunter.

In an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, former Edwards aide and author Andrew Young talked about his understanding of the relationship between his ex-boss and Hunter.

During the conversation, Sean Hannity asked Young "When did [Edwards] stop seeing Hunter...or has he?"

"I don't think he has," Young responded.

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Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones has scheduled a hearing Friday for Andrew Young, who has said he has a video of Edwards having sex with a woman.

According to an autopsy report, Carson was shot five times. Investigators have said Demario Atwater and Laurence Lovette drove Carson's SUV to various ATMs in Chapel and Durham before the murder. They say the Athens, Georgia woman watched as hundreds of dollars were withdrawn from her bank account.

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Defense attorneys in the federal trial against one of the two men charged with killing former Student Body President Eve Carson claim he was abused by police and have asked for videos taken during his arrest and during the interrogation of a key witness.

The defense filed the motion Monday to see whether Demario James Atwater, 23, was subjected to the physical and mental threats and abuse he claims occurred during his arrest.

The defense also thinks video of the treatment of a key witness, Shanita Love, could be critical in an evaluation of her testimony at trial.

Several motions to gather evidence that could be beneficial to Atwater's case also were filed Monday and Sunday.

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Credit card numbers are so passe. Today’s hackers know the real powerhouse data to steal is emission certificates.

That’s exactly what hackers went after last week when they obtained unauthorized access to online accounts where companies maintain their carbon credits, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel.

The hackers launched a targeted phishing attack against employees of numerous companies in Europe, New Zealand and Japan, which appeared to come from the German Emissions Trading Authority. The workers were told that their companies needed to re-register their accounts with the Authority, where carbon credits and transactions are recorded.

When workers entered their credentials into a bogus web page linked in the e-mail, the hackers were able to hi-jack the credentials to access the companies’ Trading Authority accounts and transfer their carbon credits to two other accounts controlled by the hackers.

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Even in 2010, growing up gay isn't easy. Add in the complicating factors of being a mentally challenged, biracial guy who wants to wave around pom-poms in a small town, and you have a recipe for the most hellacious high school experience in Eastern Washington.

Benjamin Grundy is a student at Garfield-Palouse High School (local population: 1,100) who says the school is discriminating against his wishes to do what all the other cheerleaders are doing. Namely, dance, wave pom-poms, wear a proper uniform and not just stand like there like a statue moving his arms.

That's what Grundy and his mom say he's been reduced to since the cheerleading coach instructed him he couldn't gyrate his hips like the girls do and the athletic director allegedly suggested he be the team mascot. Since writing letters to ACLU and a local congresswoman, Garfield has offered Grundy a uniform and pom-poms. But that's not enough, says his mom.

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Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaida are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery. The lethal explosives – usually PETN (pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate) – are inserted during the operation inside the plastic shapes. The breast is then sewn up.

Similar surgery has been performed on male suicide bombers. In their cases, the explosives are inserted in the appendix area or in a buttock. Both are parts of the body that diabetics use to inject themselves with their prescribed drugs.

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In a one-on-one interview with WRAL News two days after the release of his tell-all book about Edwards' campaign and affair, Andrew Young said he thinks John and Elizabeth Edwards became so power-hungry that they lost their moral compasses as they chased a bid for the White House.

Young's book, "The Politician," went on sale Saturday and was among the top sellers on Amazon.com by Monday.

Why indeed? This WTF question was first asked here.

"ThePolitician," which went on sale Saturday, chronicles the association ofauthor Andrew Young with John Edwards, beginning as Edwards was electedto the U.S. Senate in 1998 and extending through two unsuccessful bidsfor the Democratic nomination for president. Their close bond endedwhen Edwards used Young to hide an affair with a campaign staffer andthe fact that Edwards had fathered her child.

"It is anindisputable fact that I willingly participated in this ruse," Youngsaid in the prologue to his book, clearly referring to Edwards' affairwith Rielle Hunter, who was hired by the campaign to producepromotional videos.

Still, Young's portrayal of the Edwardses inthe 300-page book suggests that "the ruse" may have been John Edwards'persona as a down-to-earth champion of the working class and ElizabethEdwards' image as a valiant cancer survivor.

John Edwards builthis presidential campaigns on eliminating the divide between America'srich and poor, yet he lived an extravagant lifestyle and never appearedcomfortable rubbing elbows with lower-income people, Young writes. Hepreferred private jets, hid his luxury cars and imported suits duringcampaign appearances, built a lavish estate outside Chapel Hill andeven used plastic water bottles to conceal the wine he drank.

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Do you consider this okay, or an outrageous violation of your rights?

Regardless of your feelings, you should be aware that this is standard procedure in many Canadian teaching hospitals.

Medicalstudents routinely practice doing internal pelvic examinations whilesurgery patients are unconscious, and without getting specific consent,at least in Canada.

Guidelines in the United States and Britainsay specific consent is required but, by contrast, Canadian guidelinesstate that pelvic examination by trainees is “implicit.”

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The first violation notice is on its way, and he’s welcoming the opportunity to challenge it.

Adam Bliss, the owner of Hookah Bliss, Chapel Hill’s only hookah bar, has been fighting for the right to stay open since the North Carolina indoor smoking ban went into effect Jan. 2. Bliss maintains that the ban does not apply to him because hookah is a vaporized — not lit — tobacco product.

The law is enforced by a mostly complaint-driven system. Anyone who wants to report indoor smoking can file an anonymous complaint, which local health departments follow up on.

Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director, said that after a complaint was filed, he went to talk to Bliss to make sure he knew the law, as is customary for first offenses.

One expectation that Konsler said must be fulfilled is posting a “no smoking” sign in the business.

When Konsler followed up on Jan. 21 he found that Bliss had posted the sign but was still allowing hookahs to be smoked.

“We observed noncompliance with the law on that day, so our next step was to issue a violation,” Konsler said, adding that the notice is being prepared.

Bliss can get three violation notices before he can be fined up to $200 a day. If he continues to break the law, Konsler said he isn’t sure how the county will respond.

Issuing fines is the extent of the county’s enforcement power. Konsler said they cannot shut the bar down, and they do not have any plans to take Bliss to court.

But Bliss has an opposite sentiment. He’ll meet with a lawyer Wednesday to plan his lawsuit.

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The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.

Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.

A CNET News.com review of legal documents shows that courts have approved of this technique, even though it raises questions about entrapment, the problems of identifying who's using an open wireless connection—and whether anyone who clicks on a FBI link that contains no child pornography should be automatically subject to a dawn raid by federal police.

Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University, was raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI's hyperlink. Federal agents knocked on the door around 7 a.m., falsely claiming they wanted to talk to Vosburgh about his car. Once he opened the door, they threw him to the ground outside his house and handcuffed him.

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She believes she is a wolf — technically, a werewolf — and so shewears a tail. She also wears a harness in case someone special wants todrag her around.

And last week, she used a pocketknife in her kitchen to decapitate adog — already dead, according to Wolfie — that had been missing sinceJan. 5.

“I severed the head, boiled the head,” Wolfie said. “People make themistake of hacking the spine, which will fracture the skull.”

She added, “You also have to put (the head) outside for the brains to leak out.”

Before the teenager carted the cranium to the woods, someone held itup and snapped a photograph of it inside her Northwest Side house — ashot that ended up on the Internet.

Within days, the photo had spurred an aggressive animal crueltyinvestigation by Animal Care Services and the San Antonio PoliceDepartment.

It also inspired at least one so-called troll — a savvy, anonymousInternet user — to hack into Wolfie’s personal accounts, engage inamateur sleuthing and issue threats to those deemed responsible for thedog’s fate.

Bearing the brunt of these attacks, Wolfie — born Sarah Rodriguez —says she’s guilty of nothing more than an abiding love for taxidermy.

“I would never kill a canine,” she said. “I am a canine.”

Lisa Rodriguez, Wolfie’s mom, said she supports her daughter’s career goal.

“I say, ‘Don’t sever heads in front of me,’” she said. “She usually does it in the woods.”

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In what some Democrats are calling the "Louisiana Watergate," four young conservative activists - one of them a known political prankster - were arrested this week and accused of trying to tamper with the telephones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office.

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From the moment that Larry Sinclair made public his allegations of a drug and sex encounter in November 1999 with Obama two years ago, Sinclair has been attacked, illegally incarcerated and threatened with losing his Social Security disability payments. The Obama thugs have gone too far this time.
From Larry Sinclair.

“Today January 25, 2010 I returned to Social Security as instructed on 1-11-10.  This morning Supervisor Lucy Cruz admitted that Social Security LIED in their letter dated January 8, 2010 and that SSA Employee Boothe LIED to my face during our meeting on 1-11-10.

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Whole Foods CEO John Mackeyexplains the program in a letter, reproduced below. Apparently it'spart of an initiative to reduce health care costs, which is interestingsince Mackey is against the health care reforms that would actually reduce costs for all people.

Note that Mackey knows BMI isn't a perfect measure of health, but atleast it's cheap! Even more fun, though, is the poster for the newHealthy Discount program, breaking down exactly what BMI range hisminions need in order to get various discounts on his Tofu Pups.

If your BMI is above 30, you'll get to keep the original 20%employee discount, but you'll paying more than your thinner co-workers,who can knock as much as 30% off. Because if public health research hastaught us anything, it's that reducing people's buying power.

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On Feb. 19, registration begins at 9 a.m., and the symposium startsat 10 a.m. with three panels. The first will cover issues in freespeech, such as text messages with sexually explicit content and thecurrent and future implications of federal obscenity prosecutions. Thesecond panel will discuss the tension between free speech and thecensorship of sexually explicit language.

The third panel will bea more in-depth discussion of Flynt's views on sexually explicit speechand his contributions to the free speech debate. The discussion will beled by Rodney Smolla, dean of Washington and Lee University School ofLaw.

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The tape, say both our sources, is explicit and reveals that Edwards"is physically very striking, in a certain area. Everyone who sees itsays 'whoa'. She's behind the camera at first."

When rumors of the affair first broke Young was so loyal to Edwardsthat he pretended that he was the father of Hunter's daughter FrancesQuinn, now 2. But part of Young's disillusionment with the 2004 vicepresidential candidate and 2008 candidate came one day as he wentthrough a stack of DVDs at Rielle Hunter's house.

North Carolina's unemployment rate has reached a historic high.

The jobless rate reached 11.2 percent in December, according to a report released by the Employment Security Commission. That's up from 10.8 percent the previous month.

Nearly 250,000 people have lost their job since the recession started two years ago, with big blows to manufacturing and construction.

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Anibal R. Cordero, 24, and Jenna M. Zsebhazy, 18, were jailed after they allegedly tried to enter the home of Dennis F. Cherry late Thursday morning, State Police said.

Cordero and Zsebhazy were confronted by Cherry, 63, who was holding a rifle as they entered through an open garage door of the home, just south of Bulmore Road. Cherry detained Zsebhazy, while Cordero tried to flee in a vehicle, police said.

Cherry then fired about 15 rounds at the vehicle. There were no injuries, according to police. After then running from the scene on foot, Cordero was caught in a wooded area.

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Comedian Andy Dick accused of crotch-grabbing

Someone else's crotch, not his own. It allegedly happened in West Virginia, which has a notoriously low tolerance for that kind of hilarity. Snip:

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