Free Republic

Documents say scholarship money should go to her relatives Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson apparently asked the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to send scholarship checks directly to her two grandsons and two greatnephews, rather than to their colleges. Johnson has insisted repeatedly that she left scholarship decisions to aides. But two letters she sent the foundation from 2006 undermine claims that she wasn’t involved in obtaining $31,000 for her relatives and two other ineligible recipients.

LANCASTER, Pa. — With simplicity as their credo, Amish farmers consume so little that some might consider them model environmental citizens. Manure that accumulates on Amish farms easily washes into nearby streams, then into the troubled Chesapeake Bay. The federal government’s work with Amish farmers is part of an initiative intended to restore the bay to good health. “We are supposed to be stewards of the land,” said Matthew Stoltzfus, a 34-year-old dairy farmer and father of seven whose family, like many other Amish, shuns cars in favor of horse and buggy and lives without electricity. “It is our Christian...

Less than a year ago, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was the most popular elected official in Texas and the odds-on favorite to be the next governor of Texas. Some polls showed her leading the incumbent, Rick Perry, by more than 20 points. What Hutchison didn't realize this time a year ago was that her fate may well have been sealed by Tax Day, April 15, 2009, when Perry spoke at tea party rallies in Houston, Dallas and Austin and suggested — merely suggested — that Texas might have reason to secede from the union. He never mentioned the word...

Our prayers to Edd and Nina, as well as all the entire Hendee family, on the loss of their son, Edd Jr. A Connecticut man died on Saturday after he hit a tree while skiing on Stratton Mountain, according to the Winhall Police Department. Edd K. Hendee, 33, of Riverside, Conn., was pronounced dead around noon on Saturday, police said. Winhall Police Sgt. Thomas Crowe said Hendee had been on the mountain skiing with a friend. Around 11 a.m., Hendee took the North American Trail. The trail is rated for experts, but Hendee’s family and friends told police he was...

The U.S. have successfully taken out a ballistic missile with a high-powered laser beam mounted to a plane, it revealed yesterday. The U.S. Missile Defence Agency (MDA) announced the feat after the test overnight on Thursday in central California. The plane uses lasers to lock onto the missile and follow its trajectory and then brings it down with a single shot from its nose - all in a matter of seconds.

AUSTIN — Texas has the worst performing food stamp program in the nation, the federal director for food assistance told state officials here Tuesday. It ranks last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a poor job getting eligible low-income people to apply, said Kevin Concannon, a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary, in an earlier meeting with reporters. And because Texas does not even come close to the national average in enrolling those eligible, grocery retailers like H-E-B and Randalls are missing out on nearly $1 billion a year in food sales,...

WASHINGTON -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson has joined black lawmakers in their push to get the White House to do more to directly help African-American communities disproportionately hurt by the nation's severe economic recession. Mr. Jackson, who lamented that he was not invited to President Barack Obama's recent jobs summit, said he has requested a meeting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to talk about economic aid for depressed minority communities. No meeting has been set.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Next year had been shaping up as a great year to get a big inheritance - no federal taxes on it. Congress, however, has other plans for the few wealthy heirs expecting a big boon. Uncle Sam may take a 45 percent cut after all. Under current law, the federal estate tax is scheduled to temporarily disappear next year before returning in 2011 at an even higher rate. But the House is expected to vote as early as Thursday on a bill that would permanently extend the current top rate of 45 percent on estates larger than...

Republicans in 5 state races may find new fights on their right flanks WASHINGTON— Canyon Clowdus thinks Americans “have less freedom and pay more taxes than ever.” “We need more John Wayne and Jesus in Washington,” the Marble Falls rancher and businessman declares. Clowdus is just the kind of grass-roots activist that national Republican leaders sought to fire up in the Tea Party movement that has spread across Texas in energetic rallies and heated town hall confrontations. Now, the 40-year-old Army veteran is seeking to unseat an incumbent congressman whom he calls a profligate spender. Just one problem: Clowdus, an...

As far as I can tell, the goal of the AARP — formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons — is to enslave all those of working age. Once enslaved, workers will support retirees in the style to which the AARP feels they are entitled. This would be good for the AARP because its real business is selling products to older people by direct mail, and the more income older people have, the better it is for the AARP. Too bad about everyone else.

If the White House is trying to figure how it lost control of the debate over healthcare in August, it could take a look at Glenn Beck’s television and radio ratings. The conservative talk radio host, who also has an hourly slot on Fox News every day, has seen his viewer numbers soar even as opponents have pressed companies to withdraw advertising from the show.

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute. “I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media,” the legendary newsman said. Such a commission on media reform, Rather said, ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive. At stake, he argued, is the very survival of American democracy. “A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy...

"It's the wave of the future!” Jared Woodfill tells a brave, mostly gray crowd squeezed into a Greenway-area office space amid paraphernalia ranging from life-size cutouts of Ronald Reagan and the Presidents Bush, a Goldwater campaign poster and an Ann Coulter action figure. They drove from Kingwood and from Clear Lake and from just down the street. Armed with legal pads, they came to learn how to effectively penetrate what's become, at least in politics, the domain of mostly whippersnapper Obamaphiles. Welcome to Facebook 101, Harris County Republican Party-style. Upon arrival, the more than 50 attendees receive a how-to packet...

Americans breathed a sigh of relief last year when the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment does, indeed, protect individuals from government infringement on their right to keep and bear arms. Unfortunately, some state and local governments still believe that prohibition does not apply to them. Last week, I filed a brief on behalf of Texas and 32 other states, asking the court to clarify that the Second Amendment applies just as much to local and state governments as it does to the federal government. At issue are local ordinances that ban handgun possession — even in the...

“A lot of people are very concerned that the party is not in as strong a position as it needs to be going into 2010,” Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said last week. Emmett said he experienced “a frustrating week” at the end of June trying to locate party officials when the local GOP office was closed and no one was answering the phone. “It's important that a lot of things get done now going into next year.”

Houston native Charles Bass had told the story about how he survived a deadly snake bite in Vietnam so many times it seemed natural to tell it again, this time in front of a TV camera on the Fourth of July. He pointed at scars on his hand and the crook of his elbow, explaining how he'd stuck a hollow bamboo in the vein to stop the venom from reaching his heart. The camera panned a display case full of his medals at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum on Southmore Boulevard. A placard explained that Sgt. Maj. Bass had earned...

Mayor Bill White on Thursday sought to calm and reassure the city in the wake of this week’s discovery of racist, sexist graffiti at a north Houston fire station. But at least some of his suggestions to boost harmony and smooth administration raised sparks with the nearly 4,000-member firefighters union. Rules meant to assure due process for firefighters suspected of wrongdoing have the potential to slow the investigation, White said. Also, rules requiring that promotion decisions be based largely on test scores make it difficult to put the best leaders in place, he said.

Still, even his explanations tend to end with a question mark, like this one earlier this year: “I see absolutely no reason for Texas to leave. But if Washington continues to disregard the states and continues to try to force states to change the way that they govern, who knows what may happen?”

Chávez's so-called back-to-the-land movement calls for the redistribution of land -- increasingly properties that the state has taken over in what officials term a "rescue" or "recuperation." The objective is to ensure "food sovereignty," thereby reducing dependence on imports. But nearly five years after the measures were implemented nationwide, farmers and agriculture experts say, Venezuela is not only far from self-sufficient in food, but also more dependent than ever on foreign countries. Food imports rose to $7.5 billion last year, a sixfold increase since Chávez took power a decade ago.

The House of Representatives, with little comment or opposition, on Friday approved an 8 percent increase in the budget for members' office expenses. House members will get an average $1.5 million in the budget year starting in October to run their Washington and district offices and cover travel and other official expenses. Overall, the budget for what the House calls members' representational allowances, or MRAs, will jump $51 million to $660 million.