Free Republic

POTOSI, Mo. – A Missouri school district and high school principal have affirmed a student’s right to bring her Bible to school and discuss religion with friends after a teacher allegedly forbid her from doing so. Angela English told reporters this week that her 15-year-old daughter Kiela called her on Wednesday, explaining that as she discussed a Bible passage with a friend in the hallway, she was confronted by a teacher who issued her a warning. “Her friend had her Bible out and both of them were reading a passage in their heads and were talking back-and-forth about the reading,”...

Top Democratic strategist, James Carville, advised Democrats seeking reelection to avoid discussing the economy. “The whole notion of an economic recovery is pure poison to any Democrat hoping to retain his or her seat,” Carville lamented. “The Administration has spurred too many false hopes with repeated promises of 'green shoots.' Our Party's credibility on this issue is totally shot.” Instead, Carville recommends “an approach that transcends the stale notion that getting people back to work ought to be a goal of the nation's economic policy. Democrats need to embrace the decline in workforce participation and increase in the number on...

Few mixtures in American life are more emotionally combustible than the one formed by the combination of politics and race. That helps explain why Democrats, in general, and President Obama, in particular, have tended to steer clear of overtly raising race as an issue to explain some of the opposition to Obama's presidency and agenda. There seems to be a shift in recent days, however. Top Democratic party officials have either directly or indirectly blamed race for some of the hostility to Obama, his policies, or both. Is this partly about activating minority voters during a midterm election year in...

Last night, Chris Hayes face off against Assemblywoman Michele Fiore over the ongoing saga of the Bundy Ranch. Fiore reminds us why we love TV. Fiore for the win! The Assemblywoman is feisty, unflappable, stays on message, goes at Hayes hard, and comes out looking great. A terrific segment and a good interview by Hayes, amazingly enough. The best part was when she left him flat-footed right at the end after catching him with the slaughter question. Although Hayes salvages the moment for himself with the barbecue crack. You can agree or disagree with Bundy or Fiore all you want,...

Officials say that the Laney’s can redeem their 80 cattle for $40,950Southwest New Mexico – The Diamond Bar Ranch was acquired by the Laney family in 1986, and its adjacent Laney Cattle Company was allowed to utilize grazing lands since 1883. According to the US Forest Service, however, they are no longer entitled to do so, and the USFS has posted notices along the fence line of their property advising people not to attempt to enter the ranch. Lands are being seized, and the cattle removed, “one way or the other.”Now they say that the cattle may be redeemed if the Laney’s pay for the costs...

Police searched a West Bluff house Tuesday and seized phones and computers in an effort to unmask the author of a parody Twitter account that purported to be Mayor Jim Ardis. The account — known as @Peoriamayor on the popular social media service that limits entries to 140 characters — already had been suspended for several weeks when up to seven plainclothes police officers executed a search warrant about 5:20 p.m. at 1220 N. University St. Three people at the home were taken to the Peoria Police Department for questioning. Two other residents were picked up at their places of...

Ten years after the death of Pat Tillman in a remote Afghanistan pass, monuments to his memory are everywhere. A stone marker in San Jose's community of New Almaden. An 8-foot statue in Glendale, Ariz. The Pat Tillman Stadium at Leland High School and the Tillman Tunnel that Arizona State football players run through. But the most fitting tributes to an admired man are not found in concrete and bronze. They are living legacies of flesh, blood and passion -- the Tillman Military Scholars. Nearly 300 active-duty service members, veterans and spouses inspired by Tillman's story have received college scholarships...

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time reading about the Bundy Ranch Saga, looking into the area in Nevada where the Bundys live, and asking Google a bunch of questions I wanted answers to. While researching, I happened upon a press release from an environmental group, and decided to call the person listed as the "contact" person. The leftist environmentalist and I had about a 45 minute conversation over the phone about the Bundy Ranch, Nevada, and the history of what has been happening there, from his perspective. It was a long time to be on the phone,...

Russian Nationalism Right After the fall of the Soviet Empire the Russian people felt a little humiliated. They felt like they were living in a beaten nation. Vladimir Putin has slowly been building a sense of nationalism that has resonated with the Russian people. He has put in place policies that have rejected the West’s programs of tolerance and multiculturalism which were working to destroy Russian identity and culture. It came as a shock to the Gay community that, during their protests, the Russian people didn’t care about them one bit. Inside Russia Putin is seen as a hero for...

he Obama administration once again has punted on a final decision for the Keystone XL pipeline, announcing ahead of the holiday weekend it is extending a key review period indefinitely -- a move that could push off a determination until after the midterm elections. Republicans, as well as red-state Democrats who want the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline approved, slammed the administration for the delay. Democrats even threatened to find ways to go around the president to get the project approved.

Democratic Congressman Mike Honda, now engaged in a contentious fight for re-election in a Silicon Valley House race, has made the unusual move of locating his 2014 campaign office inside the headquarters of a major South Bay labor organization — the Service Employees International Union Local 521. The details about Honda’s campaign office emerged after the Chronicle reported last week that Honda can’t vote for himself in the 2014 election because his home is located outside the 17th Congressional District he represents.

Video at source. Go to the link for the story. My computer is not cooperating today and it will not allow me to copy and paste even an excerpt of this heart-warming story.

SIERRA VISTA — The Type 1 Incident Management Team that has overseen containment efforts of the Brown Fire since Tuesday will transition out of command on Sunday. Minimal fire growth occurred Friday, in part due to increased humidity and lower temperatures, and Hot Shot crews continued to reinforce the hand line of cleared vegetation and fuels surrounding the fire perimeter. These crews also stared work on the areas inside the hand lines, extinguishing smoldering spots closest to the line. The fire was declared to be 25 percent contained on Thursday evening by Clay Templin, commander of the Type 1 Incident...

Photo: Alma E. Hernandez, For The San Antonio Express News Henry Vichique, shown with his pregnant wife, above, is the 19 year old man who was tased by police for carrying a WWII Russian rifle in a San Antonio residential neighborhood while walking home.  From the Houston Chronicle: San Antonio police arrested him March 30 while he was walking home with a loaded Russian World War II-vintage rifle slung across his shoulder. The event occurred after dark.   Police at the scene told Henry that people had reported that he had been pointing the rifle at others.   Henry replied that...

A new Obama administration privacy policy released Friday explains how the government will gather the user data of online visitors to WhiteHouse.gov, mobile apps and social media sites, and it clarifies that online comments, whether tirades or tributes, are in the open domain. "Information you choose to share with the White House (directly and via third party sites) may be treated as public information," the new policy says. The Obama administration also promises not to sell the data of online visitors. But it cannot make the same assurances for users who go to third-party White House sites on Facebook, Twitter...

WASHINGTON — People who have accounts on the enrollment website for President Barack Obama’s signature health care law are being told to change their passwords following an administration-wide review of the government’s vulnerability to the confounding Heartbleed Internet security flaw. Senior administration officials said there is no indication that the HealthCare.gov site has been compromised and the action is being taken out of an abundance of caution. The government’s Heartbleed review is ongoing, the officials said, and users of other websites may also be told to change their passwords in the coming days, including those with accounts on the popular...

Virginia’s highest court has denied a conservative group’s effort to force the University of Virginia to turn over emails from a controversial climate scientist who worked at the school. The Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday held that the public university wasn’t obligated under the state’s freedom of information law to release thousands of emails that Penn State researcher Michael Mann wrote while he was a UVA professor several years ago. Mr. Mann in 2009 came under scrutiny among global warming skeptics after hackers leaked thousands of email exchanges between the professor and other researchers that suggested that the scientists sought...

The federal government seized Raymond Yowell’s cattle — all 132 head — and hauled them across the state and sold them at auction. Then the U.S. Bureau of Land Management sent Yowell a bill for $180,000 for back grazing fees and penalties, and later garnished part of his Social Security benefits. Yowell claims the government violated his constitutional rights, broke an 1863 treaty and saddled him with a debt that he doesn’t owe. “There’s no other way,” said Yowell, a member of the Te-Moak Band of Western Shoshone, who still works a small cattle ranch with his son in northeast...

With the exception of the IRS I think we have gotten the unwanted attention of just about every federal, state and local agency that exists. The gauntlet of regulations, fees and penalties have become so daunting that our management team just withdrew our permit application and decided not to pursue the expansion in our county or even state. The deck is so stacked against business today it is necessary to ask oneself if the goal of our government is to create a post industrial society out of America

Regional Mitigation Strategy for the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone Technical Note 444 http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/... is a farse...... Why you ask? Because it doesn't answer a simple question....what happens when the "Dry Lake" is no longer dry????