News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Iraq Takes Control of Green Zone - VIDEO - PHOTOS
Greetings From Iraq: Happy Sovereignty Day!

Operation Enduring Freedom
U.S. Preps for 20,000 Troop Surge Against Taliban

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Israel Slams Hamas Homes, Destroys Gaza Mosque
Hamas Resilient Despite Israeli Onslaught
Gaza Decisions Made Day-by-Day - PHOTOS (Graphic)
Fate of Revered Soldier Captured by Hamas Unclear
Hamas Rockets Put Israel's Nuclear Facility in Battle Zone
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Obama's Hawaii house - Video
Judge rejects release of two Guantanamo inmates
Aussies 'Unlikely' to Take Detainees (So we're supposed to close Gitmo, but no one wants their dirtbags back....maybe we should send 'em to the whiners who want them released)
Suspected U.S. Airstrike in Pakistan Kills 3 Militants
India says Pakistan attitude unchanged on militants
Beware of Disinformation From Gaza

Worldwide Wackos
Cuba celebrates revolution's 50th anniversary
Castro: Cuba Revolution Will Last Another 50 Years

Politics / Government
Portland Largest U.S. City With Openly Gay Mayor
Ex-Rhode Island Sen. Claiborne Pell Dead at 90
Mahalo, Hawaii: Obamas Head Home to Chilly Chicago
Caroline Kennedy's Star Rising in Senate Bid
Dems Could Try Stall Tactics to Block Burris From Senate
Obama to meet with congressional leaders on economy - Video
Madoff complying with assets disclosure deadline
China's Hu praises 30 years of ties with U.S.
Video: Illinois Governor arrested

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
4 Arrested in Calif. Lesbian's 'Extreme' Gang Rape
'Santa Shooter' Led 2 Lives While Plotting Murders
Caylee Anthony's Grandparents Seek Immunity
Officials: Ski Resort Shooter Killed Cat, Committed Suicide
Aspen Man Threatened 'Mass Death' Before Killing Self
North Carolina Father Suspected of Killing 3, Taking His 2 Children
Man says he shot car with paintballs to deter DUI
A look at Illinois' new interlock-ignition law
New ignition lock laws aim to foil drunk drivers

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Viacom and Time Warner reach deal to avoid blackout - Video

Science / Medicine and Health / Technology
Medics Caught on Tape Allegedly Decided Disabled Man Not Worth Saving
Beatles to zombies, videogamers set for varied '09
NASA says Columbia crew had no chance to survive - Video
Antibiotics before infections save lives: study
Esophageal cancer linked to osteoporosis drugs
Circulating fluid keeps donated kidneys healthier
Microsoft blames leap year for Zune glitch
Beatles to zombies, videogamers set for varied '09
Nokia CEO to favor profit over sales targets: report
China Mobile soars after 3G approval; pushes HSI up
Online holiday sales fall 3 percent
Video - 2008: a take on tech

Mother Nature
Gas Tax Hike a Carbon Surcharge? (Here we go...)
Great Barrier Reef Coral Decline May Spell Disaster
Avalanches Kill 2 at British Columbia's Whistler Resort
Beijing's New Year resolution: scrap polluting cars
Poison shrub oil powers New Zealand airline flight - Video
2009 to be one of warmest years on record: researchers
Whales throw New Year party in Maine: government
Sharks have wimpy bites, study finds
2 major Wash. passes closed by snow; 1 reopens

News from My Neck of the Woods
Special-needs student, 22, left on NYC bus in cold

Oddities
Teens Lost for 3 Days After Trying to Sneak Into Show: We Are Idiots
When to buy? When to sell? When to divorce? - Video
Easy come, easy go after gold glitch
Tick tock ... tick: Extra second added to 2008 - Video
Peruvian Jesus born to Virgin Mary on Christmas
Warner Bros blacks out "Dark Knight" from China
Video: And Finally.. The Oddest of 2008.
Suicides in national parks increase in 2008

Fox News
USC Rolls Over Penn State 38-24 in Rose Bowl
New Year's Day Fire Kills 5 in Washington - PHOTOS
61 Killed in New Years Eve Club Fire - PHOTOS (Graphic)
Reuters
Red Wings beat Blackhawks at Winter Classic
States, cities struggle with economic crisis
Q&A: What is municipal bond market?
Calif. budget woes tarnish outlook
Rhode Island worse-off than most
Wall St bets on bull year for 2009
Stocks end dismal year on higher note
Factbox: S&P 500 winners & losers
Factbox: Worst year ever for Nasdaq
Factbox: Third worst year for Dow
U.S. steel industry urges "buy America" recovery plan
Obama to meet with congressional leaders on economy - Video
Fannie says IndyMac has $1 bln in mortgage obligations: report
Europe's gas flowing day after Moscow cuts off Kiev
Global stocks rise on first trading day of year - Video
Losing the luxury appetite
Technology and Trust
New year, new hope
The nonprofit challenge
Heal your way to higher earnings
Factories slash output and jobs in big emerging markets - Video
City National subject of bailout review: report
Bank of America, Wells close mergers as banking transforms
After worst year ever, commodities may lag recovery
GM gets $4 billion rescue loan, Chrysler on hold
Bank of America, Wells close mergers as banking transforms
More Gulf industrial projects at risk after Dow
ONGC to proceed with Imperial Energy takeover
Heath Ledger 2008's biggest movie story: poll - Video
French actress Huppert to head Cannes film jury
August date for Quentin Tarantino World War II movie - Video
Taylor Swift tops album chart for 4th week
Music album sales tumble further in 2008
Video: New Year river dive stuns crowds
Travel Picks: Top budget-friendly 2009 destinations
Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Tianjin, China
Just a Minute With: Oscar winner Cate Blanchett
Japan shoppers grab lucky New Year bags amid gloom
Magic turn on the style to overpower Bulls
Angels and Fuentes agree on two-year contract
Bruins beat Penguins to notch 10th win in a row
Indians sign infielder DeRosa from Cubs

Associated Press
Aspen tries to recreate New Year after bomb scare
France's Isabelle Huppert to head Cannes film jury
Bernie Hamilton, 'Starsky and Hutch' captain, dies
Virginia Tech tops Cincinnati, ends BCS drought
Prolific mystery writer Donald Westlake dead at 75
Nebraska beats Clemson 26-21 in Gator Bowl
Ask AP: Digital TV switch, keeping sailors healthy
FAA: 2 dead in fiery plane crash at Ill. airport

NewsBlaze
NP ready to take lead in Abu T'shir
Wolfhounds Train Iraqi Police
Soldiers' Angels and Patriot Guard
Iraq News
Read about Operations in Iraq
FOB Warhorse Memorial Photos
Videos

CENTCOM
Job training opens doors for former 'Sons of Iraq'
Medical clinic opens in Kabani
Baghdad operation showcases Iraqi readiness
Sons of Iraq, IP and IA work together to make provinces safe
Mullen surveys Golden Mosque reconstruction

USJFCOM
2008 Year in Review
Command begins new capability development on three projects
USJFCOM fires unit helps training center improve joint training for Army units
More about Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team
U.S. Joint Forces Command clarifies Joint Operating Environment 2008
Command releases report examining the future - Read the report
USJFCOM, NATO reach historic first for simulation federation

Multi-National Force - Iraq
Air Force Surgeons Rotate Through Iraq
82nd Paratroopers Prepare for Iraq Mission
Camp Liberty Soldiers Ring in the New Year
Iraqi Commandos Learn Border Security
Citizen's tip leads IA, MND-B Soldiers to Baghdad weapons cache
Airport transitions to civil authority in southern Iraqi province
IA detains 5 after IDF attack near Kut
IA, MND-B Soldiers find weapons caches west of Baghdad
ISF secure warrants, arrest 13 suspected criminals

DefenseLink
HOLIDAY MESSAGES
Bush Thanks Troops for Making Country Safer - Video
Chairman Honors Sacrifices of Troops, Families

TOP NEWS
U.S. Turns Over Green Zone Security Responsibility to Iraq
U.S. Seeks Supply Routes for Afghanistan
Armed Forces Inaugural Committee Moves Into High Gear as Jan. 20 Nears

IRAQ NEWS
Renovations Form Strong Foundation
Diyala 'Sons of Iraq' Invest in Future
Iraqis Lead Coalition to Dismantle Bombs

AFGHANISTAN NEWS
Doctors Combat Waterborne Illness
Coalition Kills 11 in Shootout With Terrorists

MILITARY NEWS
Air Force Surgeons Train in Iraq
Navy to Commission Aircraft Carrier

AROUND THE SERVICES
U.S. Army, Iraqi Leaders Discuss Elections
Female Marines Give Up Locks for Love
Country Singer Brings Cheer to Sailors
Air Force 'Thunderbirds' Set Schedule

Weather
Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Germany
Ansbach Aschaffenburg Berlin Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin/Schonefeld Bremerhaven
Darmstadt Frankfurt Frankfurt/Main Freiburg/Breisgau Garmisch
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Geilenkirchen Gelnhausen Giessen Kitzingen
Hanau Am Main Heidelberg Mainz Mannheim Nurnberg Stuttgart Trier
Wiesbaden Wurzburg

Gitmo

Guam
Agana Agana Heights Agat Andersen AFB Asan Barrigada

Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut
An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Japan
Kadena Air Base Okinawa Tokyo Yokohama

Philippines
Baler Radar Site Catanduanes Radar Site Manila

South Korea
Cheju Upper/Radar Chonju Chunchon Inch'on Kunsan Masan Mokp'o
Osan Pusan Seoul Suwon Taegu Taejon Tonghae Radar Site Ulsan Yosu

Today in History
0069 - Roman Lower Rhine army proclaims its commander, Vitellius, emperor
0533 - John II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1235 - Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names
1492 - Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day)
1570 - Tsar Ivan the Terrible march to Novgorod begins
1602 - Spanish forces in Ireland surrender to the English at Kinsdale
1757 - British troops occupy Calcutta India
1776 - 1st revolutionary flag displayed; Austria ends interrogation torture
1788 - Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
1800 - Free black community of Philadelphia PA petitions Congress to abolish slavery
1811 - US Senator Thomas Pickering is 1st senator censured (revealed confidential documents communicated by the President of the US)
1831 - Liberator, abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston
1839 - 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)
1842 - 1st US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Pennsylvania
1861 - Colonel Charles Stone is put in charge of organizing DC militia; SC seizes inactive Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor
1863 - Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River) ends
1871 - King Amadeus I of Spain inaugurated at 25
1885 - General Wolseley receives last distress signal of General Gordon in Khartoum
1890 - Alice Sanger becomes 1st female White House staffer; Record 19'2" alligator shot in Louisiana by E.A. McIlhenny
1893 - 1st US commemoratives & 1st US stamp to picture a woman issued
1896 - Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops)
1903 - President T. Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola MI, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
1905 - Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Perrine; Japanese troops capture Port Arthur
1910 - 1st junior high schools in US open in Berkeley CA
1919 - Anti-British uprising in Ireland; Lithuania gains independence
1920 - 10,000 US union & socialist organizers arrested (Palmer Raids)
1923 - Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood FL, 8 killed (compensation awarded in 1995)
1925 - Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region established (now in Tadzhik SSR)
1929 - US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls
1933 - US troops leave Nicaragua
1934 - 1st state liquor stores open, in Pennsylvania
1935 - Bruno R. Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Lindbergh baby
1936 - 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis MO
1938 - Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
1942 - 28 nations, at war with Axis, pledge no separate peace; German troops in Bardia surrender; Japanese troops occupy Manila, in the Philippines
1944 - 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
1945 - Allied air raid on Neurenberg; Radio Orange ends cooperation at Liese-Aktion
1947 - Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali
1956 - Poujadists/communists win French parliamentary elections
1959 - USSR launches Mechta (Luna 1) for 1st lunar fly-by, 1st solar orbit; Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees
1960 - Senator John F Kennedy, announces his candidacy for President; John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years
1964 - Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan; Failed assassination attempt on President Nkrumah of Ghana
1965 - Martin Luther King, Jr., begins a drive to register black voters; Obverse design of all Canadian coins is changed to depict the Queen with a slightly more mature look
1966 - 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
1968 - Christiaan Barnard performs 2nd heart transplant
1970 - US population is 205,052,174
1971 - A barrier collapses at Ibrox Park football ground at end of a soccer match in Glasgow Scotland, killing 66
1972 - Mariner 9 begins mapping Mars
1974 - 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon; Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres
1975 - US Department of Interior designates grizzly bear a threatened species
1978 - Bülent Ecevit forms government in Turkey
1979 - Sid Vicious' trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spingen begins
1983 - Garry Trudeau takes a 20-month break from writing "Doonesbury"
1984 - Riot in Tunis kills over 100; Wilson Goode, sworn-in as Philadelphia's 1st black mayor
1987 - Troops of Chad President Habré conquer Fada oasis
1988 - Oil storage tank spills 3.8 million gallons, Pennsylvania; Mulroney & Reagan sign Canada-US free trade agreement
1994 - Battles between army & rebellious Indians in South Mexico, kill 57
1995 - Bus crashes in Luzon Philippines, 29 killed; Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (estimated 15 billion light years away)
1998 - Autopsy of Chris Farley shows he overdosed of opiates & cocaine

Birthdays
1642 - Mehmed IV, sultan (Turkey)
1647 - Nathaniel Bacon, leader of Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia (1676)
1699 - Osman III, sultan (Turkey)
1727 - James Wolfe, commanded British Army (captured Québec)
1835 - Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1861 - Helen Herron Taft, First Lady (1909-13)
1873 - Anton Pannekoek, Dutch astronomer/marxist theorist (Communist Tactics)
1880 - Louis Breguet, French aviation pioneer
1895 - Count Folke Bernadotte, statesman (Red Cross, UN)
1899 - Paul-Henri Spaak, Premier/Secretary-General of NATO (1957-61)
1913 - Ernest Sidey, British air marshal; Juanita E. Jackson Mitchell, US head (NAACP)
1920 - Penelope Jessel, politcal activist; Peter Harrison Swan, bomber pilot/stockbroker
1927 - Richard Belmont Ray (Representative-GA)
1928 - Dan Rostenkowski (Representative-IL, -94), House Ways & Means Committee chair
1928 - Vaughn Beals, CEO (Harley Davidson motorcycle)
1931 - Toshiki Kaifu, premier of Japan (1989-91)

Passings
1763 - John Casteret Earl Granville, English premier, dies at 72
1861 - Frederik Willem IV King of Prussia (1840-61)/Germany (1849-61), dies at 65
1863 - Roger Weightman Hanson, Confederate Brigadier General, dies in battle at 35
1904 - James Longstreet, Confederate General, dies at 82
1921 - Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, German chancellor/PM (Prussia); referred to the international treaty guaranteeing Belgian neutrality as "a scrap of paper", dies at 64
1923 - Sam Carter, Black resident of Rosewood FL, lynched by KKK
1945 - Betram Home Ramsay, English Admiral/Commander Naval Forces (Normandy), dies at 61
1955 - José Antonio Remon, President of Panamá (1952-55), assassinated
1960 - Friedrich Adler, Austria social-democrat, assasinated PM Stürgkh, dies in Zürich at 80
1990 - Alan Hale, Jr., actor (Skipper Jonas Grumby-Gilligan's Island), dies of cancer at 71
1994 - Caesar Romero actor (Joker-Batman), dies at 86; Dixy Lee Ray, chairwoman (US Atomic Energy Commission), dies at 79
1995 - Mohammed Siyad Barre, President of Somalia (1969-91); Siad Barre, General/President of Somalia (1969-91), dies at 84

Reported Missing in Action
1966
MacLaughlin, Donald C., USN (MD); A4C disappeared while on combat mission

1967
Menges, George Bruce, USAF (OH); O1F shot down - remains returned August, 1980

1970
Brooks, Nicholas G., USN (NY); A6A shot down (w/Fryar); remains returned February, 1982

Fryar, Bruce C., USN (NJ); A6A shot down (w/Brooks)

Lindstrom, Ronnie G., USAF (MN); F4D shot down (w/West)

West, John T., USAF (MD); F4D shot down (w/Lindstrom)

Labels: Headlines, History