| Second knife linked to Meredith killling
Italian police claim to have found the murder weapon used in the killing of Coulsdon student Meredith Kercher. Detectives in Perguia say the small kitchen knife with a round handle was discovered under bushes in the valley near the share house where the 21-year-old exchange student was found semi-naked with her throat cut on November 2. The knife is to be sent to Rome for forensic testing along with two bloodstained paper tissues found nearby. It's the second knife linked by police to the killing. The first allegedly carried traces of Meredith's DNA. Meredith's funeral was held on Friday. .
Scientists design simple dipstick test for cocaine, other drugs
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a simple "dipstick" test for detecting cocaine and other drugs in saliva, urine or blood serum. The test is based upon DNA-gold nanoparticle technology, and can be packaged in user-friendly kits similar to those used for home pregnancy tests. Full story .
Decision On Possible New Trial For DeJac Days Away
Within the next few days, District Attorney Frank Clark says he'll decide whether he will oppose a new trial for Lynn DeJac.
For the past 13 years, DeJac has been in prison, convicted of killing her daughter Crystalynn.
On Friday, the county Crime Lab completed its testing of DNA evidence from Crystalynn's bedroom, the scene of the crime.
The testing was prompted after Buffalo Police named DeJac's boyfriend from back then, Dennis Donohue, as a "person of interest" in the crime.
DeJac's attorney, Andy LoTempio, says the tests reveal that DNA, which can be tied to Donohue, has been found three different times at the scene:
In a spot of Crystalynn's blood on the wall of her bedroom;
A swab taken from a rape kit done on Crystalynn;
And what was unknown until now, on the sheets on her bed.
Harry and the transfer that never was
Speculation runs riot: it's human nature, of course, and it makes people edgy. The thing that concerned all of us was why Harry would leave something so successful of his own creation. He made the environment down here that we all like; we couldn't get our heads round the thought that it might suddenly be taken away from us. Can you afford to get emotional in football? You're watching television, waiting to hear, and it's a strange time. I'd say that after all my years in the game you get hardened to things. But even I felt the buzz when Harry turned up to take training yesterday morning. I saw him as I arrived at the training ground and it was as if nothing had ever happened, business as usual. But with an extra smile. The media say Harry thought about it overnight. I can imagine him agonising over that.
Howard Zinn's Revisionist 'A People's History' Comes to TV
Hollywood doesn't learn. Even though the latest round of America-hating movies flopped, Project Greenlight producer Chris Moore will turn "A People's History of the United States" by pop historian and Karl Marx fanboy Howard Zinn into a TV miniseries and a feature-length documentary. Zinn's 1980 book influenced a generation of students with its negatively-framed distortions of American history which minimized successes like WWII. It exchanged traditional history for marginal topics such as Great Railroad Strike of 1877, Joan Baez and Angela Davis while omitting Washington's Farewell Address, the Wright Brothers and the Normandy Invasion. The December 10 Variety stated production begins in Boston this January. Ironically, it will use wealthy celebrities like Matt Damon, Danny Glover and Josh Brolin to convey the book's Marxist theory (bold mine): Miniseries will center on the actors and musicians as they read from the books or perform music related to their themes: the struggles of women, war, class and race.
Primary ballot still a blank slate for voters
That's because California Democrats allow decline-to-state registrants to vote in the primary, while Republicans bar them. As of the December report from the California secretary of state, there were about 29,503 decline-to-staters in Stanislaus County, about 14 percent of the county's registered voters. Hudson said many of those voters more closely identify with Democrats, but don't register with the party because they're cynical about the U.S. political system in general. "There's a feeling, especially among young people, that Democrat or Republican, it doesn't really matter," he said. Hudson said his group works to register more Democrats and plans to push from now until November, when voters pick the 44th president. For the Republicans, the independent vote won't make an impact in the primary.
For rabbi, God isn't in the details
When Rabbi Adam Chalom stands before the Sabbath flames and sings the Hebrew blessing to welcome Shabbat, there is no mention of God.
Chalom believes there are no prophets. He preaches that only hard work yields miracles. And until science unlocks life's mysteries, his most honest answer to why people are here and where they go when they die is, "I don't know."
God has nothing to do with it.
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