Reports from Silver Springs, Maryland say that a gunman, James J. Lee, is in custody after a standoff on Wednesday at the Discovery Channel headquarters.

At an afternoon news conference, Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger confirmed that after four hours, the gunman was shot, wounded and in custody. It was later reported the gunman is now dead.

Police say the gunman was holding three hostages, and all three hostages are safe and out of the building.

“He came in with explosive devices strapped to his person…”

Calling it a historic moment, U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that combat operations in Iraq had ended and the 50,000 transitional troops left behind would return home by the end of 2011.

“From this desk, seven and a half years ago, President Bush announced the beginning of military operations in Iraq,” the President said in an 8 p.m. televised speech to the nation. “Much has changed since that night.”

Obama said a war to disarm a state became a fight against an insurgency, while terrorism and sectarian warfare threatened to tear Iraq apart…

About two hundred and forty pre-schoolers in Contra Costa County, California are being tracked with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology as part of a Head Start facility upgrade made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The month-old system requires students to be digitally signed in by parents, and then to put on a numbered, v-shaped jersey with the RFID tracking device sewn into the chest area on the right side.

The jersey is similar to what basketball athletes wear and is placed over the children’s everyday clothing…

The family of an Indianapolis man killed by an on-duty cop, who was driving at nearly twice the posted speed limit and who tested at twice the legal blood alcohol content, is appealing to the Governor of Indiana to intervene in the matter after the county prosecutor dropped the DUI charge.

“I am pleading for your assistance to intervene in the investigation,” the victim’s widow, Luisa Montilla-Wells, said in a letter to Governor Mitch Daniels.

“My family, the families of the other two victims involved in the tragedy, and the constituents of Indianapolis have lost confidence and their faith in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD)…”

Whether it’s projecting friendliness and showing genuine interest in others, or gracefully receiving criticisms from a friend, all of us seek to nurture social relationships.

A new report by the Pew Research Center – on the future of social relations – seeks to captures people’s expectations on the role of the Internet in this process.

Whether it’s through email, texting, instant messaging or social platforms like Facebook, people are rapidly expanding their network of connections.

And while few of us can resist the urge to add or accept requests for new “friends” in our online life…

In his prime, he was a Champion Barrel Racer that earned multiple trophies for his owner, displaying great strength and pride.

His darkest moments came when he was left for dead after being knocked over the head with a sledge hammer and locked in a barn with nothing to eat but his own waste.

Now, a New York family who rescued this twenty-four year old quarter horse named Jet over three years ago are desperately seeking a new home for him where he can retire with dignity and grace.

“We’ve been going from one place to the other, different rescues in the area, trying to improve his situation,”the mother, Milly, said in an exclusive interview with Big 3 News…

Calling it a “heart wrenching day” as his delegation saw firsthand flooding damage in Pakistan, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called on countries of the world to bring relief to those impacted by the disaster.

“The scale of the disaster is so large, so many people, in so many places, in so much need,” Ki-Moon told reporters in Islamabad on August 15, 2010.

“People are marooned on tiny islands with flood waters all around them. They are drinking dirty water. They are living in the mud and ruins of their lives.”

The UN estimates that nearly one out of ten Pakistanis has been directly…

For many, the opposite of oppression is not acceptance, it is instead immigration.

Since the founding of the United States, its borders have provided security and home to many who would seek asylum from one form of oppression or another.

One glance across Times Square in New York City, and it is quite apparent that to be an American means that you might be from one of many races, religions, or cultures.

Prior to 1890, individual states regulated immigration into the United States. However, throughout the 1890’s European politics became unstable, restrictive laws…

A young man from Boston, Massachusetts is using the Internet to help raise awareness and funds in the fight against cancer for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF).

The 2nd Annual “Artists 4 Life” charity event will be held on the popular social broadcasting website BlogTV on the following dates (2010 Artists 4 Life Official Schedule):

Friday – August 13 from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.
Saturday – August 14 from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Sunday – August 15 from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m.

The event will consist of about 55 online performers — musicians, singers, poets, painters and artists — showing off their talent and talking…

It’s a state that shares 1,200 miles of border with a neighboring country — Mexico — that is plagued by violence, drugs and political corruption.

As each day passes, warnings signs are increasingly evident that Texas, and other border states, are on the receiving end of increased danger on U.S. soil.

Today, Texas Governor Rick Perry hand-delivered a warning letter to President Barack Obama — who was scheduled to speak at the University of Texas in Austin on higher education and the economy — urging the federal government send 1,000 troops to the Texas-Mexico border…

From $500,000 given to Dayton, Ohio to pay for at least 8,000 new blue, 96-gallon, microchip-embedded bins to track citizens participation in the city’s recycling program…

To $62 million sent to Pittsbugh, Pennsylvania to extend the North Shore Connector’s, the stimulus dollars are hard at work.

Two Republican Senators on Tuesday released an oversight report detailing what they call are 100 examples of stimulus projects being mismanaged…

A federal district judge in California has ruled that Proposition 8 — the voter-approved initiative which sought to strictly define marriage as an act between one woman and one man — violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The decision effectively overturns the voter initiative and allows same-sex marriages in the State of California.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said Proposition 8 “unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry…”