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36 million motorists are preparing to travel this Thanksgiving holiday, here are some tips on how to arrive safely so that you may have a thankful and happy holiday with friends and family.

* Use common sense: Thanksgiving is the most traveled holiday – be sure to use extra caution.

* Perform a pre-trip: Safety begins in the driveway. Check your vehicle’s tires, wipers and fluids. Have your radiator and cooling system serviced. You can prevent many of the problems that strand motorists on the side of the road before you leave your home.

* Plan your trip: Know your exit by name and number, allow plenty of driving time and factor in stops for food and rest.

* Check your emergency kit: Contents should include: battery powered radio, flashlight, blanket, jumper cables, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, bottled water, non-perishable foods, maps, tire repair kit and flares.

* Be aware of changes in weather: Weather conditions across the U.S. will be changing – especially during early mornings and evenings with the cold. Watch for ice, snow and other weather related obstacles. Also, remember weather can change dramatically from when you start your trip to when you end. Bring a sweater and watch for the signs.

* Leave early and avoid risks: Leave early so you won’t be anxious about arriving late and to accommodate delays. Road conditions may change due to inclement weather or traffic congestion.

* Know your limitations: Don’t drive when tired, upset, or physically ill. Remember, when traveling in a car, you are in control and can take a break if needed.

* Be aware of truck blind spots: When sharing the road with large trucks, be aware of their blind spots. If you can’t see the truck driver in his or her mirrors, then the truck driver can’t see you.

* Take care when changing lanes: Never try to gain a few seconds by attempting a risky maneuver and think twice about changing lanes just get around a vehicle that is traveling at a speed close to yours. Do not cut a truck short – they can take up to two football fields to fully stop.

* Slow Down: With the extra highway congestion due to Holiday travel, speeding becomes even more dangerous. Allow a 3 to 4 second space cushion between you and the vehicle in front of you and reduce your speed.

* Buckle up: Safety belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent and are a simple way to increase your safety on the road.

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer

Sarah Palin’s new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven’t become any truer over time.

Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer’s dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush — a package she seemed to support at the time.

Click here to read full article

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Beware the math. Some Republican lawmakers critical of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package are using grade-school arithmetic to size up costs and consequences of all that spending. The math is satisfyingly simple but highly misleading.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

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An author of ‘50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology’ discusses some of his favorite misconceptions.

Opposites attract….We use very little of our brainpower….the full moon makes you do crazy things….American culture teems with commonly accepted pop-psych beliefs. Read this article from U.S.News & World Report that discusses 5 of those myths. (READ IT HERE)

Does the full moon make you crazy?

HAMMOND, La. (Oct. 15) – A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

(Read the full article from the Associated Press here then return to this page to comment – FULL ARTICLE)

Article from the Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Joseph Hairston enlisted in the Army in 1940 as an 18-year-old and still remembers the cold stares and disgusted gazes of his white commanding officers.

Hairston, 87, served in the 599th Field Artillery Battalion and became one of the Army’s first black commissioned officers. He deployed to Italy in 1944 and, like other black soldiers, ate, slept and trained separately from white soldiers. Even so, Hairston remained in the Army and went on to serve in Korea. He retired after 20 years. “I believe in my country,” Hairston said. “As bad as the past has been, there’s nowhere else I want to be.” (more…)

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
Sun Oct 11, 3:58 am ET

MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly “running out” on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it’s not the end of the world.

Or is it?

Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. “I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff.”

It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood’s “2012” opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.

At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the “Curious? Ask an Astronomer” Web site, says people are scared.

“It’s too bad that we’re getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they’re too young to die,” Martin said. “We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn’t live to see them grow up.” (more…)

October 8, 2009 4:49 a.m Associated Press

LEBANON, Pa. – A soccer mom who gained national attention when she openly carried a loaded gun to her 5-year-old daughter’s game was shot dead Wednesday along with her husband in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, police said.

Meleanie Hain and Scott Hain were pronounced dead Wednesday night at their home in Lebanon, a small city about 80 miles west of Philadelphia.

The couple’s three children were home at the time but weren’t hurt, police said. They were taken to stay with friends and relatives.

Meleanie Hain, 31, and Scott Hain, 33, had been having marital problems for about a week, neighbor Mark Long said. Scott Hain had left the couple’s home on Tuesday, and Meleanie Hain didn’t know where he was, but he returned Wednesday, Long said.

Autopsies on the Hains were to be conducted today, coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum said.

Meleanie Hain made headlines after she attended a children’s soccer game in a park on Sept. 11, 2008, with a handgun in plain view holstered on her hip, upsetting other parents.

The county sheriff, Michael DeLeo, revoked her gun-carrying permit nine days later.

Hain successfully appealed the permit revocation, although the judge who restored the permit questioned her judgment and said she had “scared the devil” out of other people at the game.

Hain sued DeLeo in federal court, alleging that he violated her constitutional rights and prosecuted her maliciously when he took the permit away. She said that because of his actions her baby-sitting service had suffered, her children had been harassed and she had been ostracized by her neighbors in Lebanon, which has about 25,000 residents.

DeLeo said at Hain’s appeal that he revoked her permit after fielding the parents’ complaints. He said he based his decision on a state law that prohibits certain gun permits from being given to anyone whose character and reputation make him or her a danger to public safety.

After Hain sued DeLeo, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which says it tries to reform the gun industry through sensible regulations, offered to defend him for free.

“It is a case that calls out for common sense,” Brady Center attorney Daniel Vice said then. “It’s ridiculous to bring a gun to a child’s soccer game.”

A court hearing on Hain’s $1 million lawsuit was postponed in May after an attorney in the case was involved in a traffic accident.

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