By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press Writer
The National Rifle Association has hired private investigators to find hundreds of people whose firearms were seized by city police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to court papers filed this week.
The NRA is trying to locate gun owners for a federal lawsuit that the lobbying group filed against Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city's seizure of firearms after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane.
In the lawsuit, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation claim the city violated gun owners' constitutional right to bear arms and left them "at the mercy of roving gangs, home invaders, and other criminals" after Katrina.
The NRA says the city seized more than 1,000 guns that weren't part of any criminal investigation after the hurricane. Police have said they took only guns that had been stolen or found in abandoned homes.
NRA lawyer Daniel Holliday said investigators have identified about 300 of the gun owners and located about 75 of them. Some of them could be called to testify during a trial, he added.
"Finding these folks has been a nightmare," Holliday said. "That is really the guts of our case ...   more »

By Sarah Thomsen
If you're ticketed by Green Bay police, you'll get more than a fine. You'll get fingerprinted, too. It's a new way police are cracking down on crime.
If you're caught speeding or playing your music too loud, or other crimes for which you might receive a citation, Green Bay police officers will ask for your drivers license and your finger. You'll be fingerprinted right there on the spot. The fingerprint appears right next to the amount of the fine.
Police say it's meant to protect you -- in case the person they're citing isn't who they claim to be. But not everyone is sold on that explanation.
"What we've seen happen for the last couple of years [is] increasing use of false or fraudulent identification documents," Captain Greg Urban said.
Police say they want to prevent the identity theft problem that Milwaukee has, where 13 percent of all violators give a false name.
But in Green Bay, where police say they only average about five cases in a year, drivers we talked with think the new policy is extreme.
"That's going too far," Ken Scherer from Oconto said. "You look at the ID, that's what they're there ...   more »

For a patient with a chronic health condition, it's impossible to know if something's wrong until a symptom crops up.
But doctors are working on a technology that one day will continuously monitor a patient's health from the inside.
Aisha O'Mally loves her walks, but a few years ago, her heart was failing.
"I remember being just tired. Tired. I couldn't go up the stairs, I was coughing a lot. I couldn't sleep lying down," she recalled.
Aisha's heart deteriorated to the point she needed a heart transplant.
"There's so many things that are going on in your body that you're not aware of, and sometimes the doctors aren't aware of until blood work or until you're feeling completely sick."
Detecting these changes before symptoms is the goal of researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center. They're developing an implantable sensor that reads internal chemistry.
"Those things that we're looking at are hormones and proteins that get released into the blood stream and into the tissues when the heart's under stress, when the body wants to make a change," Dr. Spencer Rosero, a researcher, said.
A so-called "living chip" containing a patient's cells will be placed in a device ...   more »

    A staff member from a high-tech company in Yancheng, eastern China's Jiangsu province, displays a gene ID card that the company has made for a young customer, on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007. (
    BEIJING, Dec. 13 -- A two-year-old girl in Yancheng, eastern China's Jiangsu province, on Wednesday became one of a few Chinese people to possess a gene identity card.
    The Yangtse Evening News reported that the girl was brought by her parents to a local high-tech company, where a card carrying the girl's gene information was presented to the family.
    The card, about 8 by 5 centimeters big, looks like an ordinary ID card printed with the young girl's photo, name and birth date. Besides that, it has an extra series number which the company claims to have         produced based upon the recipient's 16 genetic loci.
    The company says unlike voice or fingerprint tags, such gene codes are unique and are able to identify the holder, unless he or she has an identical twin, from the world's other six billion residents.
    It comes in handy for parents to identify their child in case they are separated for a long time, ...   more »

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, Dec. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- Recent high-profile discussions about UFOs and the call by former pilots and officials for full government disclosure concerning what is known -- if aything -- about these strange aerial sightings have people of all walks of life speculating about the nature and intention of extra-terrestrial entities.
Among others, Bible scholars have long been intrigued by the weight of historical evidence suggesting unearthly contact by interdimensional beings. Theological discussion on this topic has grown recently due to the increase in sightings of unexplained phenomena. Some believe this may be a sign that the earth is teetering toward an epic event.
Shortly before his death in 2005, ABC news anchor, Peter Jennings, narrated an extensive documentary on UFOs. The History Channel, A&E, The National Geographic channel, Discovery and others followed with documentaries on UFO sightings, abductions, visitations, even ghostly apparitions that were recorded in UFO flap areas. Then a well-publicized UFO event occurred in 2006 when a metallic, disc-shaped craft was witnessed hovering over Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The sighting was important because the witnesses included American Airlines ground personnel, passengers, pilots, and the airport's air traffic controllers.
Prophecy expert Terry James believes this ...   more »