Is public prayer still acceptable? Amid lawsuits and strife, community leaders wonder what courts will allow
CULPEPER, Va. (AP) At a recent town council meeting, vice mayor Pam Jenkins cautiously asked “everyone who is comfortable” to join in saying “Amen” for a community member who had just died. Loudly, and with more than a hint of defiance, residents obliged. Two months ago, leaders of this northern Virginia community reluctantly stopped their…
Read MoreInstitute compiling top movie quotes
LOS ANGELES (AP) Arnold Schwarzenneger and his “I’ll be back” line as the Terminator is one of the most popular recent movie quotes. Humphrey Bogart, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack Nicholson are competing in a war of words. The American Film Institute is surveying Hollywood types for the top 100 quotes from U.S. movies, with contenders…
Read MoreHoliday shoppers: Beware of recalled toys
WASHINGTON (AP) With the busiest retail shopping day of the year coming Friday, here’s a reminder from the government: check those holiday shopping lists to make sure no recalled children’s toys are on them. The Consumer Product Safety Commission compiled its annual top 10 list of children’s product safety recalls to coincide with the start…
Read MoreDid first man arrive in North America sooner than scientists believe? New study indicates date may have been long before Ice Age
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) When was the first man on this continent? For years, scientists have held the belief that man first arrived about 13,000 years ago when migrants crossed the Bering Strait during the Ice Age into modern-day Alaska but were unable to move further south because of ice-sheets covering what is now Canada. But…
Read MoreDeer hunter opens fire, kills 6 in woods
BIRCHWOOD, Wis. (AP) As several deer hunters made their way through the woods of northern Wisconsin, they were startled to come upon a stranger in their tree stand. But what happened next was even more astonishing. Asked to leave, the trespasser, wearing blaze-orange and carrying a semiautomatic assault rifle, opened fire on the hunters and…
Read MoreDecades of crusades nears end for Graham
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) More than 80,000 people gathered in the Rose Bowl to hear the Rev. Billy Graham preach on the last day of what probably was one of his final crusades. About 312,500 of the faithful, the curious and the nostalgic attended over the course of the four-day crusade, which marks the 55th anniversary…
Read MoreCage’s new movie tops box office
LOS ANGELES (AP) Nicolas Cage’s treasure hunt soaked up more box-office cash than a cartoon sponge. Cage’s “National Treasure” debuted as the No. 1 weekend movie with $35.3 million, coming in just ahead of “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,” which opened in second with $33.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. After two weekends in the…
Read MoreBeing Hindu in the Bible Belt
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) Ketki Shah recalls the day that classmates at her daughter’s school told the young girl she and her family were going to hell. “That’s when we started meeting every week,” said Shah, a Hopkinsville resident and follower of the Hindu faith, as she spoke recently to students and staff gathered during an…
Read MoreBack at the island and seeing double: Reality show new take on stranded island sitcom
NEW YORK (AP) The cast members will be doubled, and TBS hopes it leads to double the fun, beginning Nov. 30 with a return to Gilligan’s Island in reality TV form. Who knew two SS Minnows were shipwrecked on a deserted island in a terrible storm? Yes, viewers tuning into TBS’ “The Real Gilligan’s Island,”…
Read More‘Seinfeld’ makes holiday presence with DVDs
NEW YORK (AP) Regulars Michael Richards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander (from left) reunite for “The Seinfeld Story,” a retrospective of the 1990-98 series, Thursday on NBC. History has it that “Seinfeld” ended in 1998. Yet it thrives in reruns airing twice a day in syndication in some cities, and as many as…
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