FoxNews.com | A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

321gold.com | Our government never ceases to amaze me: U.S. government officials are in advanced talks about aiding CIT Group Inc., one of the country's primary lenders to small and midsize businesses, people familiar with the matter said.

AP | More than two dozen Israeli soldiers who fought in the Gaza war say the military forced Palestinians to serve as human shields and used reckless firepower that caused needless deaths, according to a report released Wednesday.

Numbersusa.com | Yesterday, the Senate adopted two immigration-reduction amendments through a voice vote, marking our third and fourth victories this week. Sen. Charles Grassley's (R-Iowa) E-Verify amendment to the Homeland Security spending bill allows employers to check the workplace eligibility of all employees, not just new hires.

SMH | DOCTORS in Lithgow have protested against the use of industrial run-off in the town's drinking water, saying it could be contributing to the area having some of the state's worst rates of cancer, heart disease and other health problems.

AFP | The US budget deficit reached more than one trillion dollars for the current fiscal year in June as the government wrestled with a prolonged recession, official data showed Monday.

Reuters | The U.S. federal government will spend $884 million to buy more ingredients to make an H1N1 swine flu vaccine, the Health and Human Services department said on Monday.

IntelDaily | The history of the CIA is replete with examples of agency officials obscuring key details when telling members of Congress about controversial programs. In the 1980s, CIA Director William Casey was famous for mumbling over such points and gruffly reacting when asked to repeat himself.

 By Jason Leopold | IntelDaily | July 11, 2009

RawStory.com | A 42-year-old Louisiana man has died, apparently of a broken neck, after being pulled over by a police deputy. A dash cam video shows Deputy Chris Sturdivant of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office with his arms around Adam Stogner’s neck after the officer suspected the man of putting a small quantity of drugs into his mouth.

MSNBC | Afghan villagers had complained to the U.S. Marines for days: The police are the problem, not the Taliban. They steal from villagers and beat them. Days later, the Marines learned firsthand what the villagers meant.

WSJ | The U.S. government signed contracts  with four companies worth a total of almost $1 billion to purchase ingredients used to make vaccines against the new H1N1 influenza virus.

NYT | Since 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency has developed plans to dispatch small teams overseas to kill senior Qaeda terrorists, according to current and former government officials.

Dprogram.net | According to a former 31-year IBM employee, the highly-publicized, mandatory switch from analog to digital television is mainly being done to free up analog frequencies and make room for scanners used to read implantable RFID microchips and track people and products throughout the world.

Uruknet.com | The president has set a limit on the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. For now. That's how escalation works. Ceilings become floors. Gradually.

NewsWithViews.com | "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." (Matt. 5:13 KJV)