Free Republic

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's choice for vice president, has been a senator since 1972. He is one of only five senators who were present in 1973 when Congress passed legislation authorizing construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system (TAPS). Biden, then 30, was the youngest member of the Senate and not a leader in the lengthy debate over the pipeline. But his voting record is striking - at least to an Alaskan interested in history. Biden was a reliable "no" on TAPS. In July, when the Senate passed the Gravel-Stevens amendment allowing immediate construction of...

Mr. Wright, who has long prided himself on criticizing the establishment, said he knew that he may not play well in Mr. Obama’s audition for the ultimate establishment job. “If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me,” Mr. Wright said with a shrug. “I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen.”

LAWTON: Wright says he warned Obama at the beginning of his career that their relationship could have negative ramifications. WRIGHT: They're going to associate your name with mine, and that could be detrimental, I told him back then. It holds just as true, even more so, now.

FORT DODGE, Iowa — Mitt Romney found himself deluged by questions from reporters after a campaign appearance Thursday about whether he actually saw his father march with Martin Luther King Jr., as he claimed in a speech on his Mormon faith earlier this month.

PLANO, Texas -- A Plano mother who drowned her two children in 2003 is free to restart her life. Lisa Diaz is home with her relatives, just three years after killing her two young daughters. In September 2003, Diaz drowned the sisters, 3 and 6 years old. She told police voices told her to kill them and she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Doctors said Diaz had recovered enough to be sent home, and a judge ordered her set free. Collin County prosecutors released this statement: "Given Ms. Diaz apparent swift recovery, Judge Rusch had no choice...

City appears to choose top-dollar contract In seeking a contract to remove thousands of flooded and wrecked cars from New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin's administration recommended that the city go with the highest quoted price for the job, a review of the 14 proposals submitted last year shows.

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) - The NHL apparently has landed on his feet regarding a national television deal. According to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the NHL and cable giant Comcast have agreed to a two-year, $100 million deal to televise games beginning this season. The deal reportedly is pending approval by the NHL's Board of Governors, a process widely believed to be just a formality. The agreement, which concluded 10 days of negotiations, includes one- and three-year options for Comcast, but the NHL reportedly has the right to end the partnership after the initial two years. The company will be...

Group: Bloody Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan By NIKO PRICE ASSOCIATED PRESS CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Sudan is waging a bloody campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in the western Darfur region, killing thousands of people and driving more than 1 million more from their homes by bombing villages, shooting men and raping women, a prominent human rights group said Friday. Human Rights Watch, based in New York, called on the U.N. Security Council, scheduled to meet Friday on the Darfur situation, to step in to help stop the bloodshed and look for evidence of crimes against humanity. The rights group likened the...