Excessive Radiation Levels Detected at New Mexico Waste Site

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Photo Credit: DougtoneUnderground sensors have detected excessive radiation levels inside a nuclear waste storage site deep below New Mexico’s desert, but no workers have been exposed and there was no risk to public health, U.S. Department of Energy officials said on Sunday.

An air-monitoring alarm went off at 11:30 p.m. local time Friday indicating unsafe concentrations of radiation inside the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in what DOE officials said appeared to be the first such mishap since the facility opened in 1999.

As of Sunday, the source of the high radiation readings had yet to be determined, and a plan to send inspection teams below ground to investigate was put on hold as a precaution.

“They will not go in today. It’s a safety thing more than anything. We’re waiting until we get other assessments done before we authorize re-entry,” DOE spokesman Bill Mackie said.

The facility, located in southeastern New Mexico near Carlsbad, is designed as a repository for so-called transuranic waste, which includes discarded machinery, clothing and other materials contaminated with plutonium or other radioisotopes heavier than uranium.

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Food Prices Soar as Incomes Stand Still (+video)

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Photo Credit: CBS NEWSWriter Jen Singer, the mother of two teenage boys, wrestles with her grocery list every week to keep the household budget from getting away from her.

“I’d like the government to stop by my house, come food shopping with me and see where the real costs are,” she said.

The adage “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is impossible thanks to apple prices, she said.

“We go through one of these every few days,” she said, holding a loaf of bread. “It’s a big part of my take home pay.”

It’s is not her imagination. While the government says prices are up 6.4 percent since 2011, chicken is up 18.4 percent, ground beef is up 16.8 percent and bacon has skyrocketed up 22.8 percent, making it a holiday when it’s on sale.

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Cuba Shuts Down US Travel Visas

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Photo Credit: flippinyank/flickrThe government of Cuba announced late Friday that it will no longer process visas for U.S. travel to Cuba.

Cuba said travel will end until a new U.S. bank can be found to process visa fees that are collected and routed to Cuba.

Cuba’s decision means only humanitarian travel will be permitted to the island nation from the United States, and that the “people-to-people” visas and other educational travel will be shut off. Cuba said it would cut off “family visits, academic, cultural, educational, scientific, sports” and other exchanges.

The decision is a blow to the goals of the Obama administration, which sought to expand travel opportunities to the island. It will also have an immediate impact on Cuba’s access to hard currency, on which many of its citizens rely.

M&T Bank of Buffalo, New York, had long handled these transactions, but decided last year to terminate all of its embassy accounts. M&T had said it would continue processing visa deposits for Cuba until next Monday.

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The First, Legal Gay Marriage In Texas? (+video)

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Photo Credit: WNDJudge Carl Ginsberg presided over two ceremonies its participants believe are the first, legal gay marriage in Texas.

Two couples said their “I-do’s” and all four people consider themselves female. But one member of each couple has had their gender changed surgically from male to female.

“On all of my information, it still says male,” said Ashely Boucher. “So, legally I’m still male in the state of Texas. My presentation would suggest otherwise. But my documentation says that I can marry Genevieve no questions asked.

“If you were born male and became female through being transgendered or having a gender reassignment surgery, they consider you to be biologically male,” said UTA political science professor Thomas Marshall.

The couples struggled to find clerks and judges who would cooperate with the marriages trying as many as 17 courts according to one of the participants, Genevieve Jonte.

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Shocking Surprise for Woman Expecting Identical Triplets

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Photo Credit: ABC NewsKimberly Fugate, exhausted after an intensive labor and grueling cesarean section delivery of identical triplets, was ready to breathe a sign of relief, but the Mississippi mother’s doctor had a surprise for her.

“They had got the three out and they said, ‘More feet,'” Fugate said. “‘More feet’ … that’s all I heard and I said, ‘Nooo!'”

A fourth identical quadruplet had somehow been missed by numerous ultrasounds, managing to keep her existence hidden until she popped out behind three of her identical sisters last week at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The Fugate four, named Kenleigh Rosa, Kristen Sue, Kayleigh Pearl and Kelsey Roxanne after family members, arrived three months earlier than expected, and just a day before their mother’s 42nd birthday.

All four are currently doing well in neonatal intensive care after being born nearly 13 weeks premature. The girls will need to remain in observation, but Kimberly says she hopes to have them out by early May, on their original due date.

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Researchers: Crocodiles Can Climb Trees

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/KRISTINE GINGRASMost people entering crocodile territory keep a wary eye out on water and land, but research suggests they need to look up.

Though the reptiles lack obvious physical features to suggest this is possible, crocodiles in fact climb trees all the way to the crowns, according to University of Tennessee researcher Vladimir Dinets.

Researchers in the climbing study observed crocodiles in Australia, Africa and North America. The study documented crocodiles climbing as high as six feet off the ground. But Dinets said he received anecdotal reports from people who spend time around crocodiles of the reptiles climbing almost 30 feet.

Dinets said crocodiles lack the toe and foot structure that would be expected of a climber. However, smaller and juvenile crocodiles in particular were observed climbing vertically while larger ones tended to climb angled trunks and branches, all of which is a measure of the reptiles’ spectacular agility, he said.

“They just go slowly,” he said. “Eventually they get there.”

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Cruz to Get Hero’s Welcome in Iowa and New Hampshire

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreConservatives in Iowa and New Hampshire are preparing a hero’s welcome for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after he showed up Senate Republican leaders during a crucial vote on the debt limit.

Cruz infuriated his Senate Republican colleagues this week when he filibustered a clean bill to raise the debt limit. His objection forced Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and 11 other Republicans to vote with Democrats to advance the legislation.

But in Iowa and New Hampshire, two important presidential primary states, conservative activists are cheering Cruz’s stand and buzzing about a possible presidential run in 2016.

Activists in the two states said they plan to show Cruz their appreciation when he visits in March and April.

“A tickertape parade,” said Steve Deace, a conservative radio host based in Iowa when asked what kind of reception Cruz will receive from activists next month.

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Zogby Grades the President: Blowing it Over ‘Half-Baked’ Obamacare

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner Pollster John Zogby reports in our weekly White House report card that President Obama has to finally take responsibility for Obamacare and fix it fast or see his legacy tarnished.

“Responders to this column have noted how easy I am as a grader, at least when the president is concerned. I do think a good professor is a nurturer, as well as one who demands high standards. So when a student comes to me and says his paper was rushed and he faced all sorts of problems at home, I give him a pass.

“When he comes back to me with a half-baked version and says he was bullied, I say take some more time and get it right. But when he says he needs even more time to get it right even if it takes him until after the semester ends, I say enough already. So it goes with the latest postponements with Obamacare.

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Rand Paul: GOP ‘Will Not Win Again in My Lifetime’ the Presidency, Absent Change

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Photo Credit: Timothy D. EasleyBy Cheryl K. Chumley.

Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky warned his fellow Republican politicos that without change, the GOP would fail miserably in the upcoming White House contest — and that goes for the next few decades.

“I think Republicans will not win again in my lifetime for the presidency unless they become a new GOP, a new Republican Party,” he said, during an interview with Glenn Beck on TheBlaze that aired on Thursday, Politico reported. “And it has to be a transformation, not a little tweaking at the edges.”

In fact, the GOP needs a complete overhaul that includes a “better message” that resonates with a wide population, “in a way they can understand it,” he said, on the show. One example: Rather than talking taxes, talk civil liberties, he suggested.

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Rand Paul: Republican Won’t Be President Until There’s a ‘New GOP’

By Courtney Coren.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has an ominous prediction for the future of his party: It won’t win the White House unless it undergoes a major transformation.

“I think Republicans will not win again in my lifetime for the presidency, unless they become a new GOP, a new Republican party, and it has to be a transformation, not just a little tweaking at the edges,” Paul said in an interview with conservative talk show host Glenn Beck on The Blaze.

Paul said he thinks it’s better to find what those in the party can agree on and unite around those things instead of focusing on the disagreements. That is is one of the reasons why he decided to endorse the re-election bid by fellow Kentucky Sen. and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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Report: Feds Want to Track Your DNA Like a License Plate

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Photo Credit: WNDThe federal government doesn’t just want the ability to track down your car; it wants to be able to track down your body as well.

Just as details are emerging about a controversial, nationwide vehicle-surveillance database, WND has learned the federal government is planning an even more invasive spy program using “physiological signatures” to track down individuals.

The goal of this research is to detect – as well as analyze and categorize – unique traits the government can exploit to “identify, locate and track specific individuals or groups of people.”

According to the program’s statement of objectives, “The scope of human-centered [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR] research spans the complete range of human performance starting at the individual molecular, cellular, genomic level.”

Documents WND located through routine database research reveal the ability to follow people by detecting “certain characteristics of operational interest” is designed for U.S. military and intelligence-gathering superiority.

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