Free Republic

The Texas Senate, by a 20-11 vote, agreed Tuesday to a call for a Convention of States to consider amendments to the U.S. Constitution to rein in federal power and set federal term limits. The Senate also agreed to impose a state jail penalty on a legislator who violates his or her oath as a delegate to a potential national Convention of States, a measure intended to allay concerns about a runaway convention that might seek to amend the Constitution in ways not intended by the Legislature. Under Article V of the Constitution, two-thirds of the states can call for...

TRAVIS COUNTY - On the day that Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez's new policy regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers at the local jail goes into effect, Gov. Greg Abbott is withholding $1.5 million in grants to the county, KVUE's and the Austin American-Statesman's Tony Plohetski has confirmed. A spokesperson for Abbott told Plohetski that starting Wednesday morning, "the governor's office is canceling all currently active Travis County criminal justice grants." Because the state has only paid about $300,000 of $1.8 million to the county, the loss is about $1.5 million. The grants support projects such as family violence...

A Travis County jury returned a not guilty verdict in Bryan Juarez’s murder trial. After resuming discussions on Monday morning, the jury deliberated for 10 ½ hours over two days. Juarez, 23, was on trial for shooting Christopher Burton at an East Austin apartment complex on the evening of Aug. 3, 2015. The altercation was sparked by Burton calling Juarez a gay slur. In Friday’s closing arguments, prosecutors said Juarez was fueled by anger and alcohol when he grabbed a gun from his apartment and confronted Burton about the slur.

DHAKA, Bangladesh - A senior government official says the head of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party has been executed for his role in acts of genocide and war crimes during the country's independence war against Pakistan in 1971. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan says Motiur Rahman Nizami , leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hung at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday inside Dhaka central jail amid tight security.

A North Korean military statement Friday warned U.S. soldiers to stop what it called "hooliganism" at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom or they'll meet a "dog's death any time and any place." It said U.S. troops pointed their fingers at North Korean soldiers and made strange noises and unspecified "disgusting" facial expressions. It also said that American troops encouraged South Korean soldiers to aim their guns at the North. A statement from Christopher Bush, a spokesman for the U.N. command, said they looked into the allegations and determined they were unsubstantiated. North Korea occasionally accuses South Korean and U.S....

A suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Afghan army personnel, killing six soldiers and wounding 11 on Thursday on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, the Defense Ministry. Five Afghan school children were also reported killed in a foreign forces airstrike, local officials said. The international coalition had no immediate comment. Thursday's bombing comes after almost a two-week lull in Taliban attacks in Kabul in the wake of a wave of bombings on guesthouses, government officials and vehicles of foreign aid workers in the heavily-guarded capital last month. Taliban insurgents have stepped up their attacks in recent months in Afghanistan...

My next youngest among five brothers died, like our grandfather and father, from combinations of strokes and cancer. Will be traveling from Texas with wife, son, and grandchildren to place ashes into the New River from the banks of the Virginia family farm. Like we did for our father. I want grandkids to know from whence they came. If given due respect, would like to post narrative of the journey here.

The underlying message from the head of Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft, was clear: If Europe and the United States isolate Russia, Moscow will look East for new business, energy deals, military contracts and political alliances. The Holy Grail for Moscow is a natural gas supply deal with China that is apparently now close after years of negotiations. If it can be signed when Putin visits China in May, he will be able to hold it up to show that global power has shifted eastwards and he does not need the West.

Two alternative links from their website. 1. Pa La Raza http://www.pizzapatron.com/chingona_3/ 2. Menu in english? I and my family live in San Antonio for decades. Will . . . unless offered free samples and apologies from this guy . . . will never buy some pizza not offered in french nor german . . . more close to San Antonio history prior to the Mexican revolution. Something new is okay. Just don't brand it as traditional San Antonio.

More than 1,100 National Guard soldiers and airmen in Hawaii - and thousands in other states - will be living with 20 percent less pay over the next three months as the Defense Department carries out automatic federal budget cuts. Guard members will be furloughed for one day a week starting Monday, so helicopter pilots and mechanics, pay and finance clerks and others who keep the guard operating will have eight hours less each week to do their jobs. It's not clear precisely what effects the unprecedented cuts will have. They could, however, make it more difficult for the guard...

Adobe . . . has made a bold move to abandon their customers . . . and force them into a subscription sales model which some of us might remember from the 1950s door-to-door book and encyclopedia sales women who sold my mom a set. Only now . . . Adobe abandoned all their customers. From now on . . . you don't get rent to own. You only get to rent . . . What do you think?

The United States will face major challenges over the next four years. For the first time in history, its citizens confront the prospect of handing down to the next generation a nation that is less wealthy, less healthy, less secure and less in control of its destiny. President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have both laid out plans to avert such national misfortune. . . . We believe President Obama has demonstrated a better grasp of the essential issues and offers a better vision for the United States. Voters should give him a second term in the...

The House Intelligence committee isn't going so far as to say the Chinese government is trying to turn us into a nation of Manchurian Candidates by using Chinese-made smartphones. What it is saying, after a yearlong investigation, is that two Chinese telecommunications equipment makers, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, may, under the direction of the Chinese government, make the equipment they sell purposely vulnerable to cyber-security leaks. "We simply cannot trust such vital systems to companies with known ties to the Chinese state, a country that is the largest perpetrator of cyber espionage against the U.S.," said committee chairman Mike Rogers...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has won a fourth term in office after defeating opposition leader Henrique Capriles, electoral officials say. Mr Chavez won 54% of the vote, the country's electoral council announced. Noisy celebrations among Chavez supporters erupted across the capital Caracas following the result. Turnout was 80% in the hotly contested election and voting was extended beyond the official closing time at some polling stations with long queues.

When Pete Navarro showed up three years ago in this industrial city a few hours' drive from the border, he spoke barely a word of Spanish and hardly knew a soul. The San Antonio resident, who went to Jay High School, lost his legal residency in December 2009 and was deported to his native Mexico. He hadn't been there since he was a child, and the only people he knew were his aunt and her family. He left his parents and two children in San Antonio. “So when I got here, my two cousins were my best friends, because they...

It's the eight-legged discovery of the millennium! An endangered species of spider not seen in more than three decades unexpectedly appeared in Northwest San Antonio two weeks ago. Biologists and science buffs, rejoice. There's just one downside if you're an area commuter: The spider, no bigger than a dime, showed up in the middle of a $15.1 million highway underpass project on Texas 151 at Loop 1604. And in this particular case of nature vs. man-made road, the arachnid wins. The highway project is on hold indefinitely. SNIP . . . No other spiders have been spotted in the hole...

French president Francois Hollande says there will be no exceptions to his plan to impose a 75 per cent tax rate on millionaires. Mr Hollande's comments came after France's richest man, businessman Bernard Arnault, announced he was applying for Belgian citizenship. Announcing the start of a two-year plan to fire up France's faltering economy, Mr Hollande stood by his plans for the top tax bracket, which would be the highest marginal rate in the industrialised world. "I am in a battle and will not look back," he said. "I am setting up a calendar... two years to create a policy...

Eight years after California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the push for legalizing same-sex marriage was “too much, too fast, too soon,” the Democratic Party will make history Tuesday when it is expected to be the first major party to endorse same-sex marriage in its platform. While the plank packs no legal power, it marks a cultural milestone. “Another important societal cue that things are shifting,” said Amy Simon, an Oakland pollster who is working for advocates who want to legalize gay marriage in Maine and Washington. “As people are working through their conflicting feelings on this, they're looking for cues...

The mass-produced tomatoes we buy at the grocery store tend to taste more like cardboard than fruit. Now researchers have discovered one reason why: a genetic mutation, common in store-bought tomatoes, that reduces the amount of sugar and other tasty compounds in the fruit. SNIP But the new study, published this week in Science, found that the mutation that leads to the uniform appearance of most store-bought tomatoes has an unintended consequence: It disrupts the production of a protein responsible for the fruit's production of sugar. SNIP The study authors set out to pin down the genetic change that makes...

South Korea has seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies, which some people believe can cure disease, officials said Monday. The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder, the Korea Customs Service said. Customs officials refused to say where the dead babies came from or who made the capsules, citing possible diplomatic friction with Beijing. Chinese officials ordered an investigation into the production of drugs made from dead fetuses or newborns last year. The customs office has...