Free Republic

When presidential candidates volley numbers at each other and toward voters, the truth sometimes gets caught in the crossfire. In recent weeks, Ron Paul overstated the U.S. death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rudy Giuliani overstated the impact on national crime rates of declining New York rates during his mayoral tenure, Barack Obama overstated the potential impact of an increase in voter turnout among black voters in the South, and John Edwards chose the higher of two government estimates of the number of Americans without bank accounts to emphasize a point.

With two crucial meetings ahead that could determine whether the Episcopal Church splits over homosexuality, the leader of the church defended his support for an openly gay bishop yesterday in an interview with The Associated Press. The leader, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, said he voted at the church's General Convention last month to confirm the gay clergyman, Bishop-elect V. Gene Robinson, because Episcopalians in New Hampshire had overwhelmingly chosen him in an election. Bishop Griswold also said Scripture did not condemn same-sex relationships, a position that conservatives vehemently reject. Bishop-elect Robinson has lived with his male partner for more...

Cable's War Coverage Suggests a New 'Fox Effect' on Television By JIM RUTENBERG The two commentators were gleeful as they skewered the news media and antiwar protesters in Hollywood. "They are absolutely committing sedition, or treason," one commentator, Michael Savage, said of the protesters one recent night. His colleague, Joe Scarborough, responded: "These leftist stooges for anti-American causes are always given a free pass. Isn't it time to make them stand up and be counted for their views?" The conversation did not take place on A.M. radio, in an Internet chat room or even on the Fox News Channel. Rather,...

Mother Is Jailed After Children Are Sunburned By ADAM LIPTAK An Ohio woman has been jailed for allowing her three children to get severely sunburned at a county fair. The woman, Eve Hibbits, 31, of Brilliant, Ohio, faces three felony counts of endangering her 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old twin sons. She is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing today. "As soon as I looked at them I could tell," said Sheriff Fred Abdalla of Jefferson County, in eastern Ohio. "It looked like the children had been dipped in red paint. It was 95 degrees, and they were literally baking." The...

A Comic Book Gets Serious on Gay Issues By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES n the world of DC Comics, Kyle Rayner is Green Lantern, possessor of an emerald ring, one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. He uses it to right wrongs and keep the residents of New York City safe. His ring, however, is powerless to cope with the deadlines he faces in his civilian job as a freelance cartoonist. That's when Terry Berg, a teenage intern assigned to keep Kyle on track, entered the picture In April last year, eight months after his introduction to the supporting...

Web Cigarette Sales Burn Tax Income By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 9:05 p.m. ET BOSTON (AP) -- States are losing millions in tax dollars as more people buy cigarettes from online vendors who routinely ignore a federal law requiring them to report sales to local regulators, a new report says. The trend could undercut efforts by cash-strapped states to raise revenues by hiking cigarette taxes. In Massachusetts lawmakers recently approved a 75-cent hike on a pack of cigarettes, a move officials hope will bring in an extra $190 million annually. In Illinois, the state boosted cigarette taxes by 40...

Red Faces in White House Over '02 Analysis By ELISABETH BUMILLER WASHINGTON, June 13 — Who lost Karl Rove's slide show? That was the mystery today at the White House, where an administration that prides itself on secrecy was in a minor uproar over an intern who apparently dropped a computer disk containing a confidential analysis of the coming 2002 elections in Lafayette Park. The disk was then picked up by an enterprising Democratic Senate staff member, who made sure that its most embarrassing points were made public. Advertisement For example, the White House analysis of campaigns for the Senate,...