Free Republic

Enhanced resources for this story – press conference audio – are available at www.statehousenews.com STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, NOV. 28, 2007…..Former and current Republican leaders blasted one of their own on Wednesday afternoon, ripping the record of former Gov. Mitt Romney in front of the state capitol and touching off an intra-party scuffle that pitted former allies in the small Massachusetts GOP against one another. Tearing into the presidential contender’s fiscal handling of the state and touting former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a more reliable candidate, former Gov. Paul Cellucci and former Treasurer Joe Malone, once rivals in the...

Rep. Mike Ferguson will announce today that he will not seek re-election to a fifth term in 2008. The 37-year-old Republican, who won re-election last year by just 1% against Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Stender, wants to spend more time with his four young children.Senate Minority Leader-designate Thomas Kean, Jr. becomes one of the most likely GOP candidates for the seat. Kean, the Republican U.S. Senate in 2006, was among the candidates who ran against Ferguson in the 7th district Republican primary in 2000, when Bob Franks gave up the seat to run for the Senate.Stender has been raising money for...

Several House Republicans who endorsed Fred Thompson for president now say that they are frustrated with what they view as an apathetic campaign, and at least one regrets having committed to the former Tennessee senator. “I think he’s kind of done a belly flop,” said an estranged Thompson backer who indicated he will not pull his public support before the “Super Tuesday” primaries. “We’ll just wait till after Feb. 5 because I think he’s going to get beat.”The disaffected members of team Thompson say that he has failed to put to rest whispers that he is unwilling to campaign hard...

The Democrats’ plans to stage a serious challenge to Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell , the current Senate minority leader, are still in their formative stages. Some national Democratic strategists are high on state Auditor Crit Luallen — she was easily re-elected in the state’s Nov. 5 election — and state Attorney General Greg Stumbo is another possible contender. Neither, however, has committed to the Senate race. Democrats are, nonetheless, emboldened by Democrat Steve Beshear’s trouncing of ethics controversy-plagued Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher — a McConnell ally — in the state’s off-year election. And they are sounding increasingly confident that they...

Per the Jewish news service JTA, top Giuliani aide Ken Kurson told a Jewish audience last night in New York that if Bill Clinton was "the first black president," than [sic] the former New York mayor would be the first Jew to reach the White House. Kurson was referring to Giuliani's support among Jews in New York and, presumably, his backing of Israel. The aide, who co-authored "Leadership" with the former mayor, also noted that he's a proud Jewish gun owner. The event was sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition and featured representatives from Romney and McCain, too.

SAN FRANCISCO — In a backhanded compliment to Apple Inc., online criminals are apparently so impressed with its scorching sales they are sending Macintosh computers an attack typically aimed at machines running Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Windows operating system. Symantec Corp. researchers said the Web sites serving up the new attack also deploy a Windows version. "For a while Mac users have enjoyed the benefits of being a small enough population that hackers didn't go after them directly _ that's obviously now changing," said Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager at Symantec Security Response. Lynn Fox, an Apple spokeswoman, said the Cupertino-based...

OLYMPIA, Washington: A Republican state legislator resigned Wednesday amid revelations that he had sex with a man he met at a pornographic video store while in Spokane on a party retreat. The move comes days after state Rep. Richard Curtis insisted to his local newspaper that he was not gay and that sex was not involved in what he said was an extortion attempt by a man last week.But in police reports, Curtis alleges he was being extorted by a man he had sex with in a Spokane hotel room. The other man contends Curtis reneged on a promise to...

NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 360 points Friday — the anniversary of the Black Monday crash 20 year ago — as renewed credit concerns, lackluster corporate earnings, and rising oil prices spooked investors.The market turned sharply lower in late afternoon when Standard & Poor's again reduced its ratings on residential mortgage-backed securities. The latest reduction, on more than 1,400 types of securities, added to investors unease about credit quality.In addition, mixed results from Dow components Caterpillar Inc., Honeywell Inc., and 3M Co. gave investors little incentive to take chances on the market. And...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — The skeleton of what is believed to be a new dinosaur species — a 105-foot plant-eater that is among the largest dinosaurs ever found — has been uncovered in Argentina, scientists said Monday.Standing alongside a replica of a neck vertebra more than 3 feet high, scientists from Argentina and Brazil said the find was remarkable because they have recovered the most complete skeletons one of one of these "giants" found so far.They said the Patagonian dinosaur appears to represent a previously unknown species of Titanosaur because of the unique structure of its neck. They...

Science Daily — In a molecular tour de force, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have provided an exquisitely detailed picture of natural selection as it occurs at the genetic level. Writing Oct. 11, 2007 in the journal Nature, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Sean B. Carroll and former UW-Madison graduate student Chris Todd Hittinger document how, over many generations, a single yeast gene divides in two and parses its responsibilities to be a more efficient denizen of its environment. The work illustrates, at the most basic level, the driving force of evolution."This is how new capabilities arise and new...

STOCKHOLM (AFP) — British writer Doris Lessing on Thursday won the Nobel Literature Prize for five decades of epic novels that have covered feminism and politics, as well her youth in Africa.Lessing, who will be 88 on October 22, is only the 11th woman to have won the prize since it was first awarded in 1901.The Swedish Academy described her as "that epicist of the female experience who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny."Lessing was out shopping when the prize was announced and only learned the news several hours later when she returned...

Hillary Clinton is leading Barack Obama in the polls for the Democratic nomination. Now, for the first time, she raised more campaign cash. Her campaign announced this morning that it raised $27 million during the third quarter and drew 100,000 new donors -- its best quarter yet. "This is the moment when you showed that America is ready for change and that you are ready to make history. This is the moment when your dedication defied the skeptics," Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton's campaign manager, said in a statement headlined "Our Fundraising is Through the Roof" and posted on the campaign...

A few months ago, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins received an e-mail message from a producer at Rampant Films inviting him to be interviewed for a documentary called “Crossroads.”The film, with Ben Stein, the actor, economist and freelance columnist, as its host, is described on Rampant’s Web site as an examination of the intersection of science and religion. Dr. Dawkins was an obvious choice. An eminent scientist who teaches at Oxford Universityin England, he is also an outspoken atheist who has repeatedly likened religious faith to a mental defect.But now, Dr. Dawkins and other scientists who agreed to be interviewed...

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) reported raising $2.6 million in August for its efforts to coordinate the party’s 2008 national campaign for Senate seats. In doing so, the DSCC continued to outperform its partisan counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), according to monthly reports filed late last week with the Federal Election Commission. There was some consolation for the GOP side, as the gap between the two committees was smaller than it has been in most of the months since the Democrats claimed control of the Senate in January. The Republicans’ Senate campaign unit raised $2.4 million in...

The discovery of four fossil skeletons of early human ancestors in Georgia, the former Soviet republic, has given scientists a revealing glimpse of a species in transition, primitive in its skull and upper body but with more advanced spines and lower limbs for greater mobility. The findings, being reported today in the journal Nature, are considered a significant step toward understanding who were some of the first ancestors to migrate out of Africa some 1.8 million years ago. They may also yield insights into the first members of the human genus, Homo.Until now, scientists had found only the skulls of...

Merck Study Shows Partial Protection Against Additional Cancer-Causing Strains A study by the company that makes Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against cervical cancer, suggests it may be even more effective than previously thought. The vaccine, manufactured by Merck, had previously been thought to only protect against 70 percent of cervical cancer caused by viruses. However, the new research indicates that it may also have at least some effect against viral strains that cause the other 30 percent. The new data was presented this week by Merck at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The finding was an...

Authorities are considering hate crime charges in the case of a woman who was tortured while being held captive for at least a week. They're also investigating the possibility that she was lured by a man she met online. The victim's mother says her daughter was repeatedly called a racial slur while her captors sexually abused, beat and stabbed her. Six people, all white, were arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of the 20-year-old black woman, who was held at a home in Big Creek in Logan County. The victim, Megan Williams, is being treated at a Charleston hospital....

Top money managers earn such huge incomes that even when their compensation is mixed with the much lower pay of clerks, secretaries and others, the average pay in investment banking is 10 times that of all private sector jobs, new government data shows. Investment banking paid an average weekly wage of $8,367, compared with $841 for all private sector jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a routine report issued Thursday. The report also showed how far ahead hedge fund managers are of other investment bankers in making money. In Fairfield County, Conn., home to many hedge funds, the...

TITUSVILLE - State Rep. Bob Allen told police he was just playing along when a undercover officer suggested in a public restroom that the legislator give him oral sex and $20 because he was intimidated, according to a taped statement and other documents released Thursday. Allen has already denied any wrongdoing, but the recordings and documents offered new details about what he and police say happened on July 11 inside the men's room at Veterans Memorial Park. "I certainly wasn't there to have sex with anybody and certainly wasn't there to exchange money for it," said Allen, R-Merritt Island, who...

Controversial new research casts doubt on the long-held belief that circumcision reduces sexual sensitivity for men who have undergone the procedure. Circumcision, a procedure performed throughout history — for reasons ranging from the fulfillment of a biblical covenant to a means of curbing masturbation — has received both praise by those who tout its supposed medical benefits and scorn from those who claim it has traumatic aftereffects. Now, in a Canadian study appearing in the most recent issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers found that the glans, or head of the penis, is just as sensitive on a...