AL Court Watch Blog | To refresh everyone's memory young Mr. Alex Rochester was busted in the Ashland City Park on March 1, 2008 and charged with trafficking drugs. The drugs he was charged with trafficking are as follows; Cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, ecstacy, meth and xanax.

Science Insider | Scientists are greeting with surprise and dismay a project to use DNA and isotope analysis of tissue from asylum seekers to evaluate their nationality and help decide who can enter the United Kingdom. “Horrifying,” “naïve,” and “flawed” are among the adjectives geneticists and isotope specialists have used to describe the “Human Provenance pilot project,” launched quietly in mid-September by the U.K. Border Agency. Their consensus: The project is not scientifically valid--or even sensible.

Examiner | A new poll by Consumer Reports shows that most American parents will either hold off on vaccinating their children against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus or won't vaccinate them at all.

The New American | Irish voters will once again vote in a referendum on the EU’s Lisbon Treaty on October 2, which they last rejected on June 12, 2008 by a 53 percent to 46 percent “No” vote. Ireland’s rejection of the controversial Lisbon Treaty effectively blocked its implementation, since it must be agreed to by all 27 EU-member states to come into force.

NewScientist.com | The Pentagon's efforts to develop a beam weapon that can deter an adversary by causing a burning sensation on their skin has taken a step forward with the development of a small, potentially hand-held, version. The weapon, which is claimed to cause no permanent harm, could also end up being used by police to control civilians.

ZeroHedge.com | In an unprecedented disclosure, the FDIC has highlighted that it expects the DIF reserve ratio to be negative as of September 30. As there are a whopping 48 hours before that deadline, one can safely assume that the DIF is now well into negative territory: as of today depositors have no insurance courtesy of a banking system that has leeched out all the capital of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Let's pray there is no run on the bank soon.

Bloomberg | The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits rose more than forecast last week, a sign companies are still cutting workers as the economy pulls out of the recession.

PrisonPlanet.com | American Police Force, the paramilitary unit patrolling a small town in Montana, has been exposed as being a front group for the disgraced private military contractor Blackwater, now called “Xe”.

RawStory.com | BREAKING 10:08 AM ET:Vanity Fair will report in the next issue of the magazine that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson -- a former head of the investment bank Goldman Sachs -- tried to orchestrate secretive deals in the midst of the financial crisis but got blowback from prominent investor Warren Buffett. The following press release was obtained by Raw Story; the magazine appears today on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles.

NY Times | Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said Thursday that it planned to file charges against BAE Systems, the country’s biggest weapons maker, over bribery accusations in relation to arms deals in Africa and Eastern Europe.