A new poll from the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune shows Cruz easily ahead of fellow senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, by double digits, with Gov. Perry coming in a poor fourth.

And that was before his latest ‘oops’ moment, when he confused Lebanon with Libya, an easy mistake, since they are both on the other side of the globe, and both begin with the letter ‘L’.

The governor redrew the world map during a speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Washington, part of his swing through the East Coast to lure businesses to Texas.

Connecticut gun makers are not happy with the state’s new gun laws passed after last year’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

In April, PTR Industries of Bristol said it’s moving out later this year,

And even Colt’s Manufacturing is thinking about bolting.

Colt’s supplied the first guns to the new republic of Texas, and the Paterson was the side-arm of choice for the Texas Rangers who brought their own brand of law and order to the early west.

If the governor snags these and other businesses, then the million dollars spent for ads may not be such a half-cocked idea.

In an attempt to reinvigorate the effort for comprehensive background checks, Lee partnered with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America to get the message out. They’re looking for a comprehensive plan to protect the people, namely the children, of our nation.

No matter which side you take on the gun debate, honoring those lost in Connecticut, on December 14th, is something every American should agree on.

Besides the economy, Britain’s David Cameron and President Obama have to deal with the way their spy agencies gather intel, thanks to Edward Snowden, the former IT guy, who leaked the spy details to the press earlier this month.

The National Security Agency defends domestic spying by saying it has thwarted dozens of terror plots in more than 20 countries in recent years by gathering billions of phone records and data on the internet use of American citizens.

Now, the Guardian reports the British version of our NSA spied on diplomats during two G-20 meetings in London in 2009.

The Guardian claims Snowden gave the paper documents showing how British spies tapped into phone calls, and even set up fake Internet cafes to track emails and other online activities.

Syria is another issue that is sure to be on everyone’s agenda, particularly after President Obama last week said he is ready to send military assistance to the rebels.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is really, really against that idea, and asks how anyone can support people who eat their enemies.

He was talking about a video, supposedly of a rebel eating the heart and lungs of a government soldier.

Of course, this comes from a man who ripped off a New England Patriots Super Bowl ring because it looked like he could kill a guy with it.

Kenneth Podell, Co-director Methodist Concussion Center, says, “What we’re trying now is the old saying when in doubt, sit them out. If there is a concussion, they do not return to play.”

USA Football is instilling a new program called Heads Up Football which stresses the importance of player safety by demonstrating tackling techniques to make sure kids don’t suffer concussions.

Brain injuries can be tricky to deal with but this coach’s clinic tries to provide the tools to recognize the symptoms of the injury and to come up with a plan to deal with a concussed player

One of the best ways to avoid injury is to teach proper tackling techniques. The techniques they stress are the breakdown position, the buzz, the hit position, the rip and the shoot.

Greg McCaig, Cypress Creek High School head football coach says, “This is all new to them so I think what it is to try to get a consistent knowledge base where those guys understand that we’re going to teach them something helpful to their kids. We have to break old habits, but I think once they see what we’re trying to accomplish, I think they’ll be willing to institute them to make sure the game stays safe.”

The coaches took to the field to learn how to teach the heads up tackling techniques.

Cedric Davenport, MLK Texans coach, says, “The heads up program is the most awesome thing that I think that can happen for a youth kid today playing football.”

Being fundamentally sound when making tackles should prevent injuries, but remember you can’t spell fundamental without fun.

The 29-year-old infrastructure analyst who worked for government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton spilled the beans on NSA programs he felt were intruding on individual’s privacy and possibly unconstitutional.

“I, sitting behind my desk, certainly had the authority to wire-tap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the President if I had a personal email,” Snowden told the The Guardian.

The result has been a firestorm of controversy, with everyone from the NSA to the white house feeling the heat. And now Edward Snowden is on the run, hiding in Hong Kong and possibly moving throughout Europe and the Far East to evade capture by the U.S.

Here at home, the feeling is palpable. Privacy-focused companies like Duck Duck Go – a search engine like Google or Bing that doesn’t collect personal data – have seen a 33% increase in traffic following Monsieur Snowden’s revelation.

Local security expert Michael Gregg from Superior Solutions Inc. says aside from using search engines like Duck Duck Go, if you want to keep as much of your privacy as private as you can, using encrypted email services like PGP or hush mail is a good place to start. He also suggests using the “Do Not Track” feature in your browser.

Downloadable apps and other security companies have noticed an increase as well. But the question remains: if Uncle Sam wants to know what you’re up to, is there any real way to stop him?

21-year-old Marissa Powell was asked how pay inequality, considering women are the primary earners in 40% of American households, reflects on our society. Her thought-provoking answer left every viewer dumber than they were before.

She tries to spit out a comprehensive sentence, which was a failure. Her closing, which was almost as good as Miss Teen North Carolina’s “like, such as” answer, was:

“…we need to try to figure out how to…create education better so that we can solve this problem.”

Create education better?

It may have been a slip-up, but it’s true. We should make an effort to ‘create education better,’ because you can’t fix stupid!

This psychic psych-out happened in 2011, when Presley “Rhonda” Gridley phoned in her premonition to authorities, of a mass grave around a farmhouse in Hull near Hardin, a site some 200 miles away from where the psychic was calling from Hays County, just southwest of Austin.

The story gets weirder from here, when Gridley called saying there was 32 kids buried around the property. Needless to say that phone call got law enforcement scurrying. And where there’s police activity, the press is right behind them!

Owners Joe Bankson and Gena Charlton were on vacation when their home was getting ram shackled for dismembered bodies. Their house was torn apart, but nothing was ever found on the property.

A Dallas County judge has ordered Gridley to pay the home owners $6.8 million for damages to their home and for damages to their reputation.

But nothing can help the reputation of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office for following a psychic’s claim in the first place.

The 93-year-old woman driver somehow lost control and not only did she almost killed these people; her car broke a window, left skid marks along the side of the building and somehow squeezed all the way down the street.

Thankfully the pooch was a fast learner and proved that he’s not just a seeing-eye dog, but a lifesaving one too.