From the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, our nation's emergency responders learned hard lessons, many of them taught by failure. Foremost among ... Read More

The newly-repaired levees that failed New Orleans three years ago during Katrina absolutely must stand up to Hurricane Gustav. Sitting below sea level, the levee system is all that protects ... Read More

With Hurricane Gustav just leaving Cuba, and already a category 3 storm, President Bush wasted no time in clearing both Louisiana and Texas to receive federal emergency aid. The action ... Read More

It's not a pretty story, but the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released an online storybook on the pandemic flu of 1918 that killed more than 50 million people ... Read More

Annual household income in the U.S. increased for the third straight year in 2007, reaching $50,233, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. The poverty rate, however, ... Read More

Still suffering criticism from its dealing with Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is already gearing up for a response to Hurricane Gustav, now threatening to hit the ... Read More

By July of 2007, America’s jails held 1,518,535 prisoners. An estimated 809,800 of them were parents of minor children, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The 744,200 fathers and ... Read More

In May we reported on the Federal Reserve's plans to enact federal regulations to prevent banks from employing unfair and deceptive credit card practices. Now Consumers Union reports that the ... Read More

Over the past 10 years, more than 1.6 million businesses have been taking income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes out of workers' pay checks, but not sending it ... Read More

A decade after the passage of welfare reform in 1996, the birth rate among U.S. women receiving public welfare during 2006 was three times higher than that of women not ... Read More

At last white smoke bubbles from the stovepipe and the Earth can again be at peace. Barack Obama has chosen a vice presidential running mate -- veteran U.S. Senator Joseph ... Read More

Uncontrolled fires, not controlled demolition, brought down World Trade Center Building 7 (WTC 7) on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a three-year investigation conducted by the National ... Read More

By the end of September, every public and private K-12 school, preschool and post-secondary school in the nation should have received a federally-distributed Public Alert Radio. The radios sound an ... Read More

The telemarketing industry, already suffering from the wild success of the National Do Not Call Registry, asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to ease up and allow their members to ... Read More

Americans driven from their cars by high gas prices have started to return to the railroads, as Amtrak reported a whopping 14 percent increase in ridership from July 2007, through ... Read More

The fact, as reported by U.S. Politics Guide Kathy Gill, that a majority of "likely voters" want to see presidential candidates Bob Barr (Libertarian) and Ralph Nader (independent) included in ... Read More

Since 2001, former postal worker Steven M. Padgett delivered mail to Route 32 in Apex, North Carolina… or not. On May 6, 2008, Padgett admitted to investigators that he had ... Read More

As thousands of airline passengers were standing in line to be screened or body scanned, having their behavior evaluated and their names checked against the FBI's massive terrorist watch list, ... Read More

The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) has been expanding its fleet of whole body scanning devices capable of "seeing" right through passengers' clothing to detect prohibited dangerous items. TSA assures that ... Read More

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector told American Airlines that the maintenance on one of its planes had been improperly deferred or delayed. American politely thanked the inspector, then proceeded ... Read More

Want to see how fast you can run? Thank a Nevadan for "allowing" the government to bury all of the nation's radioactive waste outside of Las Vegas at Yucca Mountain. ... Read More

The new American pastime – leaving the car at home – continued at a record-setting pace in June, as the Federal Highway Administration reported that since November 2007, we have ... Read More

Even with thousands of pages of tax laws, two-thirds of all large U.S.- and foreign-controlled business operating in the U.S. managed to pay no (zero) federal income tax on a ... Read More

Nevada has the fire in its belly! From the tons of high-level radioactive waste to be buried under Yucca Mountain, to naturally occurring steam trapped beneath 105,211 acres of desolate, ... Read More

Giant government defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. has agreed to pay $4 million in fines for selling Hellfire missiles and other prohibited "significant military equipment" to the United Arab Emirates. ... Read More

Apparently, nothing is sacred anymore. Now identity thieves are trying to use voter registration as a means of stealing your personal financial information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns you to ... Read More

When Newark, New Jersey police, along with agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raided a Newark home-turned heroin factory in the wee hours of July 31, the DEA ... Read More

It must be where the party is, as Americans sought medical help in doctors' offices and emergency rooms over 1.1 billion times in 2006, or about four visits per person ... Read More

In a dispute arising from the great Firestone/Ford tire recall of 2000, a federal court has ruled that the U.S. tire industry cannot use the Freedom of Information Act as ... Read More

You know what’s worse than having to take off your shoes at airport security? Having to pull your laptop computer out of its bag and stuff it back in. Well, ... Read More

President Bush has signed into law a bill providing funding that could be used to assist senior citizens, rural residents, and minorities in preparing for the nationwide conversion to all ... Read More

After last week's 5.4 "moderate" earthquake near Los Angeles, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) strongly suggests that all southern Californians prepare for the predicted "Big One" by taking part in ... Read More

"Congress must have adjourned. Folks are letting their kids play outside again." Yes, my fellow Americans, the second session of the 110th U.S. Congress has adjourned for a nice long ... Read More

In finding the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) unconstitutional, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has again confirmed that content on the Internet is protected by the First Amendment ... Read More