Free Republic

Even after an unambiguous, direct denial from the source of the alleged report, ABC is still pushing the story that: "As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting." Buried deep in the article is a clear and direct denial: "The Pentagon did not comment Tuesday, but on Wednesday evening following the publication of this report, the Defense Department provided a statement from Col. R. Shane...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) will conduct low-altitude helicopter flights over downtown Boston and the Boston Marathon race route, Friday, Oct. 8, through Monday, Oct. 11. NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) aircraft will measure naturally occurring background radiation as part of standard preparations to protect public health and safety on the day of the event. The aerial surveys are in support of the 2021 Boston Marathon. The public may see NNSA’s twin-engine Bell 412 helicopter, which is equipped with radiation sensing technology. The helicopter will fly in a grid pattern over the areas at...

Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX) and several other House Republicans are calling for President Joe Biden to undergo a cognitive assessment after his trip to Europe. In a letter dated June 17, Jackson and his colleagues noted Biden agreed to such an assessment and detailed several examples of where Biden’s “mental decline and forgetfulness have become more apparent over the past eighteen months,” including: In March, forgetting the names of the Pentagon, the Department of Defense, and the Defense Secretary Misidentifying time of day and Democrat members of Congress in February In May, confusing the dates of riding an Amtrak train...

As the nation deals with an air traffic controller shortage, some qualified candidates are not getting hired to fill those positions. Officials said Arizona State University’s air traffic management program has seen its enrollment numbers drop 50 percent. That is due to new hiring procedures put in place last year by the Federal Aviation Administration. Until recently, students who attended an FAA-approved college training initiative program like the one at ASU were shown preference in the controller hiring process. Now, those students are in the same applicant pool as anyone from the general public who applies for a controller job....

The U.S. intelligence community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment removed Iran and its proxy Hezbollah from the list of terror threats to the United States. The annual assessment of the intelligence community, which is released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, led by General James Clapper, backed away from years of precedent when the decision was made to remove Iran and Hezbollah from the terrorism threats list, The Times of Israel reports. Outside of the politically correct verbiage and categorization issues (such as replacing the term “jihadist” with “violent extremist”), the report reveals that the intelligence community believes Tehran...

Ok people here's the problem: Property taxes I am sure you agree are un-American! Why should we ~rent~ our own property from the various government entities rather than owning it outright, for all of time for our personal use/posterity!? So here's the question: what do we need to do to END PROPERTY TAXES? (I know we are a smart bunch, much smarter than the left-so we CAN get this done, somehow..).

Belgian police have demanded that Lola, a theatre-starring donkey, be removed from the balcony of a cultural centre in Brussels after neighbours complained about her braying.Lola is staying on the first-floor balcony while she performs in a play at the Arab Cultural Centre, located in the same building in the Belgian capital. But police ordered Lola's keeper to move her indoors after receiving complaints about the donkey making too much noise. Despite the police demands, Lola was still outside on Friday, and the director of the cultural centre was berating her neighbours for interfering.

Thank you - and your colleagues Edward Lotterman, Frederick Melo and Ruben Rosario - for shedding light on the city of St. Paul/Ramsey County real estate tax "system." That system puzzles me. Should I conclude that it is broken? Perhaps even a less than artful attempt, like mine below, might add to your helpful analysis. Compare the real estate tax system to the "progressive'' income tax. A published schedule indicates the basic tax burden that a particular amount of income will bear. Or, compare the real estate tax to the "regressive'' sales tax. A product purchase price leads to a...

From the Executive Summary: During the past two years the state of Texas has become increasingly threatened by the spread of Mexican cartel organized crime. The threat reflects a change in the strategic intent of the cartels to move their operations into the United States. In effect, the cartels seek to create a “sanitary zone” inside the Texas border -- one county deep -- that will provide sanctuary from Mexican law enforcement and, at the same time, enable the cartels to transform Texas’ border counties into narcotics transshipment points for continued transport and distribution into the continental United States. To...

The Pentagon reports that 75 percent of Americans aged 17 to 24 cannot join the United States military - 26 million young Americans. .. Even with a high school degree, many potential recruits still fail the Armed Forces Qualification Test (the AFQT) and cannot join.

As mentioned here before, Huntington, Indiana had a shortfall of 1.7 million dollars in its tax revenues. This has led to layoffs of city personnel, proposed rate increases, a fight over Local Option Income Tax, and the possible trimming of city services. Herein lies the bulk of the problem. The city is short of funds and the economic climate is bad. Unemployment is high, the city has lost valuable companies, and home values are dropping because of foreclosures. On top of all of this, the federal government has seen fit to mandate a major infrastructure overhaul of the transfer systems...

The administration's handling of Afghanistan policy has been amateur hour. The leak of General Stanley McChrystal's assessment of the dire situation there faces President Obama with by far his most serious foreign-policy challenge. It's also a challenge to what appears to be his whole approach to foreign policy. ...who's responsible for allowing President Obama to get into this mess? What mess? That, of course, is the administration's immediate spin. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even maintained...that while Gen. McChrystal might be making one set of recommendations, the administration is talking with others who disagree. Really? Is Obama running an administration...

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's grim assessment of the Afghanistan war has opened a divide between the military, which is pushing for an early decision to send more troops, and civilian policymakers who are increasingly doubtful of an escalating nation-building effort. Senior military officials emphasized Monday that McChrystal's conclusion that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan "will likely result in failure" without an urgent infusion of troops has been endorsed by the uniformed leadership. That includes Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command and architect of the troop "surge" strategy widely...

Dropouts Seek a Boost From Equivalency Exams Numbers Seeking a Degree Swell -- But Gains May Be Limited A growing number of Americans are taking high school equivalency tests in their hunt for any leg up in a bleak labor market. Adult-education centers across the country report backlogs and waiting lists for prep courses cramming dozens of topics and years of lessons into weeks or months. But the potential for a better job and pay that drives many to seek a General Educational Development diploma comes with a caveat: The certificate generally is of limited value unless students use it...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3, 2009 – Enemies of America remain in Afghanistan, and the United States must stay there to defeat the terrorists, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today. That is the focus of President Barack Obama’s regional strategy announced in March, Gates said. The secretary said he is studying the assessment Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, submitted earlier this week. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke during a Pentagon news conference. Gates said he has passed McChrystal’s assessment on to the White...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1, 2009 – Iraqi security forces have undertaken a broad self-assessment in the wake of series of deadly attacks in the Iraqi capital last month, a U.S. commander there said today. A wave of truck bombings in Baghdad killed at least 100 people and injured more than 500 others in a deadly Aug. 19 assault that exposed a lapse in security, according to U.S. defense officials. “The Iraqi security forces, as a result of that, have done a great deal of introspective assessing, to make sure that they understand how they can mitigate that from ever happening again,”...

The soaring costs of a college degree are prompting colleges to consider a three-year degree program. Britain has long granted a degree for three years of college. I would like to suggest a one-year degree program. And I don’t mean an associate’s degree. Here are some hard facts most colleges will never tell you and most parents could not tolerate hearing. The general requirements of the first two years at most colleges are what high school should have been. That is what junior should have learned had he not been busy getting high, getting drunk, and being socially promoted. Better...

Open Space Authority to Return Assessment Funds San Jose, CA, May 29, 2009 – Property owners who have property within the jurisdiction of the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority will soon be able to claim refunds of an assessment charged by the Authority on their real estate tax bills between 2002 and 2008. In 2001, the Authority approved a $20 annual assessment on single-family homes located within the Authority’s territory to help purchase and maintain open space and parkland. Higher amounts were charged for multi-family and commercial properties. The Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and...

The Homeland Security Assessment targeting mainstream conservatism was amateurish, poorly written and its logic absurdly shallow. It's a shot across the bow in the unfolding information warfare. The DHS Intelligence Assessment Document marked "For Official Use Only" and entitled; Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide. Its stated purpose was to "deter, prevent, preempt, or respond to terrorist attacks against the United States." Read the entire document here. If this DHS Assessment is an example of the kind of analysis our decision makers receive from our intelligence...

Editorial: Assessment ruling won't serve state well Monday's state Supreme Court decision striking down an assessment by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority was one more nail in the coffin of California's quality of life. Not that the court was unreasonable. The justices were interpreting Proposition 218, as convoluted and mean-spirited an anti-tax law as California voters ever passed. The 1996 initiative aimed to tighten the rules set by Proposition 13 to make it even harder for government to raise revenue, and it's succeeding all too well. Californians must come to grips with the kind of place they want...