Free Republic

I am a native Angeleno who was born in this city more than 50 years ago and has lived here ever since. Over the years, I have witnessed firsthand the effects of unchecked illegal immigration in California and can no longer remain silent on this issue. I believe we need to start enforcing our immigration laws to limit the number of people coming into the state. Let me tell you about myself to dispel any notion that I'm racist because of this stance. I am an African American woman of mixed ethnic ancestry whose parents encouraged her to embrace diversity...

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon will become the nation's second state to officially register gay-marriage licenses, after the Oregon Court of Appeals refused yesterday to order a hold on the process. ------------- SNIP------------------- Gay-rights groups, though, hailed the appeals court's actions as a victory. Yesterday's action upholds an earlier decision by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Frank Bearden, who ordered the state to process the existing licenses issued to gay couples. In the same ruling, Bearden ordered Multnomah County not to issue any more licenses to same-sex couples until there could be a binding response to the gay-marriage question from either legislators...

WASHINGTON — The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan. When the House passed the controversial benefit by five votes in November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But the administration's analysts in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded months earlier that the drug benefit could cost upward...

Two days ago, I posted an article entitled, Lawmakers debate Mexican ID cards. This desribes the legislative attempt to allow use of a matricula consular card as bonafide identification for a Washington State Driver's license. I have composed a form letter to send to your state representative opposing this bill. The letter is posted below. Feel free to send it word for word or change it any way you like. I just want as many people to voice their opposition to this travesty as possible. If you want the letter as an MS Word document, feel free to private freepmail...

OLYMPIA _ Tomas Villanueva got up at 3a.m. Thursday, made coffee, pulled on two flannel shirts, and drove his old van from the Yakima Valley to the state Capitol. He hoped to win over state lawmakers on a matter important to him. The lawmakers were busy. Villanueva was granted less than two minutes to make his case. Sitting at a microphone, he asked lawmakers to allow more widespread acceptance of Mexican consular ID cards as legitimate identification. The change wouldn't affect Mexicans' immigration status or right to work here, he said. But people need an ID, he said, to open...

For the second time in just over a year, Oregon voters have voted to reject a tax increase crafted by state lawmakers. Just minutes after 8 p.m., early unofficial returns in Yamhill County are not much different than they are around the state. Of nearly 25,000 ballots counted so far, 16,443, or nearly 66 percent, are in the "no" column. Little more than 8,400, or about 34 percent, supported the measure. With 22 percent of the vote counted, Measure 30 is failing 58 percent to 42 percent. "It's not going to be close," Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts told KATU-TV a...

WASHINGTON — Weary of Senate Democrats' continued efforts to block President Bush's judicial nominees, Republicans have planned a 30-hour, all-night session Wednesday to force a marathon debate about Democratic stalling tactics that have left several nominations in limbo. The talkathon, supported by the entire 51-member GOP caucus, would freeze the business of the Senate, preventing further work on the nine unfinished fiscal year 2004 spending bills, a comprehensive energy measure and Medicare legislation. It also endangers the target recess date of Nov. 21. "The objective is to get an up or a down vote. These nominees deserve their day in...

Pat and Kevin Tillman have returned stateside from Operation Iraqi Freedom and have been selected by the Army to participate in a three-month-long elite Ranger training regimen. "The boys have been back for a couple of weeks now, and now they are stationed in the Tacoma, Washington, area," their father, Patrick Tillman Sr., said on Monday. "They are both healthy and fine, and we, of course, we are very relieved and very happy." Pat Tillman walked away from a three-year, $3.6 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals, and his brother Kevin gave up a minor league baseball career to enlist...

This has been a trying week for those with math anxiety, not to mention anyone who, owing either to their fear of numbers or their lack of millions of dollars of disposable income, may be struggling to understand the impact of the tax-cut bill that President Bush signed into law Wednesday. White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, for instance, said the new measure, which includes $330 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years, would create "more than a million jobs." Many economists dispute Fleischer's analysis, but even if it turned out to be true, given the overall job...

Washington quarterback Cody Pickett plans to leave this morning for a seven-hour drive to his home in Caldwell, Idaho. When he returns in a couple of weeks, he said he hopes Rick Neuheisel will still be his football coach. "He's our coach right now, and we expect him to be there (once the season starts)," Pickett said yesterday. But UW officials could decide as soon as today that Neuheisel will no longer be Washington's football coach and that an interim coach — likely either offensive coordinator Keith Gilbertson or longtime defensive-line coach Randy Hart — will take over for next...

The Battle of Midway, fought over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean war. Prior to this action, Japan possessed general naval superiority over the United States and could usually choose where and when to attack. After Midway, the two opposing fleets were essentially equals, and the United States soon took the offensive. Yamamoto's intended surprise was thwarted by superior American communications intelligence, which deduced his scheme well before battle was joined. This allowed Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, to establish an ambush...

Another Memorial Day finds the American people once again acknowledging the debt we owe the men and women who serve this nation in uniform. The skill and valor they demonstrated in rolling up the opposition in Iraq is but the latest evidence of the quality of the people in the armed forces. Cynical as reporters are supposed to be, none of those I know who were embedded with units in the Persian Gulf came back with anything but the deepest admiration for those whose actions they covered.----SNIP------ Is it wrong to suggest that those who are the recipients of this...

I-807 renews Initiative 601's policies For years, we've asked voters to consider several new ideas with our initiatives. And voters have responded by not only helping us qualify these new ideas for the ballot but by overwhelmingly endorsing them on four general election ballots in a row. So, thanks to the hard work and determination of our thousands of supporters statewide, we all have dramatically lower vehicle tab fees, strict limits on property tax growth, and our elected officials are now asking our permission for tax increases. This year, rather than offering a new idea, we are instead offering voters...

Mexican doctors to staff California clinicsA new state law permits doctors without U.S. licenses to work at nonprofit clinics, setting a precedent other states may follow. By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Jan. 20, 2003. Additional information In what looks to be a first in the United States, California is allowing 30 physicians and 30 dentists from Mexico to bypass its medical licensure system and practice in the state.The Mexican doctors will work under a three-year, nonrenewable license at designated nonprofit clinics as soon as July 1, if money can be secured for the program. The pilot is being touted...

SNOHOMISH — Police yesterday questioned the actions of an armed citizen who opened fire on suspects in a robbery of a neighborhood jewelry store. They said prosecutors will consider charges against him. Neighbors and the owner of the store praised the man as a hero and good Samaritan. One of the suspects was wounded when the man, identified by witnesses as Brian Wyatt Haynes, 51, the owner of a nearby antiques and watch-repair store, shot out the tire of the getaway car and then fired at least one round through the rear window of the fleeing vehicle. -------SNIP-------- "This is...

Maria Cantwell - D 1,197,213 48.73% Slade Gorton - R 1,194,670 48.63% Jeff Jared - L 64,545 2.62% November 22, 12:36 PM

From the Washington State Election Web site As of 17:00, 11-16-00. Gorton: 1,121,216 votes (48.93%) Cantwell: 1,110,819 votes (48.47%)