Free Republic

An analysis of the propaganda campaign to get Al-Jazeera carried by more cable and satellite systems reveals an interesting fact. The terrorist TV channel is already available through something called MHz Networks. And it turns out that the MHz Networks is supported by the American taxpayers at the federal and state levels. MHz Networks is a division of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting and receives over $2 million a year from federal and state governments. In this case, because Commonwealth is based in Virginia, the culprit is the state of Virginia. However, Governor Robert F. McDonnell has proposed eliminating state funding of...

Both of Alaska's senators said Tuesday they were disappointed the top Senate appropriator was calling for a moratorium on earmarking, the practice that has directed billions of dollars in federal spending to Alaska. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski both said they agree there's a need to cut federal spending, but neither thinks an end to earmarks is the way to do it. "I have said many times before, Alaska is a young state with many needs, and we deserve our fair share of federal funding to develop our resources and our infrastructure," Begich said. Murkowksi, who...

David Cales saw the bomb that blew off his hand. He was a 26-year-old Chicago firefighter, a pipeman on Engine 8 out of Chinatown, that April day in 1983 when his company answered the call after an explosion at a Near South Side restaurant. The second bomb was in a shopping bag. Cales looked inside, saw the three sticks of dynamite, and instinctively went to throw it off a roof crowded with fellow firefighters. It exploded -- six firemen were hurt, Cales the worst. All the fingers on his left hand were blown off. His eardrums were shattered. He could...

NEA-Alaska Stands Firm in Support of Murkowski for U.S. Senate Association will work to re-elect Senator Murkowski Following the announcement by Senator Lisa Murkowski that she will run for her seat on the U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate, NEA-Alaska today announced continued support for her re-election. As the largest union in Alaska, the 57-member Political Action Committee for Education (PACE) pledged their support in early June by an overwhelming vote and stand by Murkowski in her bid for the senate seat. The NEA-Alaska PACE committee represent public school employees from Ketchikan to Kaktovik. "We're relieved to hear Senator Murkowski...

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday while visiting Anchorage that he plans to make critical decisions related to proposed drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the coming months. In his three-day visit to Alaska this week, Salazar flew over the two seas and visited Barrow and several oil developments on the North Slope in advance of making what he called "huge decisions that loom on the horizon" for the Arctic. Shell Oil, for example, hopes to explore on its offshore leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas next summer. Salazar decided not to sign off on the...

Expect to hear a lot about how much the Iraq war cost in the days ahead from Democrats worried about voter wrath against their unprecedented spending excesses. The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush's economic policies and his war in Iraq. As American Thinker's Randall Hoven points out, that's the message being peddled by lefties as diverse as former Clinton political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and The Nation's Washington editor, Christopher Hayes. The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war. Well, it was expensive to...

Ted Stevens died Monday the way Alaskans die, in a plane crash in the wilds of the state he devoted his life to. At 86, he was the last giant of statehood and a major architect of the Alaska that emerged from its territorial history. A U.S. senator for 40 years until his defeat in 2008, Stevens and four others were apparently killed Monday afternoon when a deHavilland Otter, owned by Alaska telecommunications company GCI, slammed into a hill north of Dillingham in bad weather. The group, which included several former Stevens aides and a GCI executive with her daughter,...

Three hundred travelers started the summer with an airplane nightmare they will not soon forget. Hundreds of Newark-bound passengers sat for four hours on a tarmac in a stifling cabin after bad weather diverted their flight from London in Connecticut and union regulations grounded it there. To make matters worse, passengers said, the plane's generators shut down for the second time, leaving them with no air conditioning and sweltering temperatures that reached 100 degrees. Some people on the inauspicious Virgin Atlantic flight fainted from the heat, said Andrew Porwancher, of Princeton, N.J. One passenger was taken to a hospital, but...

Twice an Exxon Valdez spill worth of oil seeps into the Gulf of Mexico every year, according to a new study that will be presented January 27 at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. But the oil isn't destroying habitats or wiping out ocean life. The ooze is a natural phenomena that's been going on for many thousands of years, according to Roger Mitchell, Vice President of Program Development at the Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat) in Rockville Md. "The wildlife have adapted and evolved and have no problem dealing with the oil," he said. Oil that finds its...

WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them. Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups. "They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?' " said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states. McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were...

White House plans to axe NASA's return-to-the-Moon Constellation programme and ground the Space Shuttle have sparked unified opposition from Congress, which looks determined to preserve a full spectrum of US manned spaceflight activities. A draft Congressional bill leaked to Flight International sets out the politicians' alternate plan. It involves possibly extending Shuttle life to 2015, running competitive commercial crew and cargo programmes and continuing development of Constellation's vehicles including a heavylift rocket designed to get astronauts to the Moon in the 2020s and then Mars. senator Bill Nelson of Florida says of the opposition to the Obama plan: "I have...

Alaska State Troopers are investigating the actions of a pair of vigilantes alleged to have made forcible citizens arrests of two young fugitives accused in a series of burglaries in the Anchor Point area over the past two months. The fugitives, a boyfriend and girlfriend duo, were served up for troopers, who found them bound with zip ties and disarmed of the weapons they were believed to have stolen during at least nine burglaries perpetrated since December. Items stolen from the cabin of Mark Cocke, who would later be involved in the citizen's arrest on Monday, included a Ruger .44...

NBC has heard your complaints, America, and they have a message for those who are whining about the dearth of live event coverage at the Winter Olympics: We don't really care. Other media outlets are picking up on the viewer outrage and doing their best to channel it toward the Peacock Network—and the network has been less than receptive. Seattle Times columnist Ron Judd has a rather amusing article (in a "you can't be serious" kind of way) about trying to set up an interview with Christopher McCloskey, NBC Universal's vice president for communications, who is based in Vancouver. He...

Poor weather will prevent state troopers from searching today for a Conoco Phillips Alaska employee missing in the avalanche that killed company president Jim Bowles on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers says. The avalanche that killed Bowles occurred in the Grandview area wilderness between Girdwood and Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. Bowles was with a group of about 12 snowmachiners when the avalanche roared down a slope. His body was recovered before nightfall, while the second rider also caught in the slide, Alan Gage, was missing and presumed killed, troopers said. Bowles has headed Conoco Phillips Alaska...

There'll be little room for history in Anderson Cooper's new home. Before he bought his century-old firehouse in Greenwich Village, bronze plaques honoring members of Fire Patrol 2 who died in the line of duty -- including on 9/11 -- were stripped from the building to make it easier to sell. The plaques were rescued from a pile of trash by Arnie Roma, whose son, Keith, a member of the fire patrol that worked out of the building, died on Sept. 11, 2001, rescuing people from the World Trade Center. A plaque in his son's honor graced the firehouse's facade....

Area firefighters from multiple departments were scrambling to respond to at least two church fires within three miles of each other in Smith County on Monday night — the latest in a rash of East Texas church fires, many of which have been ruled arsons. Firefighters first responded to a fire at Dover Baptist Church, 21166 Farm-to-Market Road 1995, near the intersection with Texas Highway 110 North, where flames were tearing through the roof about 20 minutes after the first witnesses spotted it. Firefighters from various departments including Lindale, Van, Dixie, Winona and Red Springs were on the scene. A...

(CBS) Thanks to a recently filed Congressional expense reports there's new light shed on the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Denmark and how much it cost taxpayers. CBS News Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports official filings and our own investigation show at least 106 people from the House and Senate attended - spouses, a doctor, a protocol expert and even a photographer. For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That's $2,200 a day - more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment. CBS News asked members of Congress...

NEW HAVEN — Attorneys for a group of black city firefighters Monday filed a motion asking a federal court to halt the promotion of 10 other firefighters (including four minorities) who scored well enough on 2003 exams to be promoted. The 10 firefighters’ advancements were approved Friday by the Board of Fire Commissioners, just three days after the board ratified the promotions of 14 other firefighters (all but one of them white) mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DeStefano. The 10 in question scored high enough on the test to be promoted, but weren’t plaintiffs with...

A year ago someone set fire to Wasilla Bible Church. Today, that person is still out there. The Wasilla Police Department is leading the ongoing investigation, but none of the leads they've chased so far have ended up panning out. "The investigation is still open, and we're still asking the public to contact us if anybody has heard anything," Deputy Chief Greg Wood said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the state fire marshal's office both assisted in the initial investigation, and the state crime laboratory collected evidence at the scene. An ATF press release issued...

WASHINGTON -- In a strongly worded message to Congress outlining presidential priorities for a military spending bill, the Obama administration said Friday it disapproved of including money for pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard. The White House move drew swift rebuke from the state's two senators, Republican Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Mark Begich, who had together sponsored the pension fix. The legislation honors 26 elderly Alaskans who are the few remaining survivors of a military unit that served the country with valor, Murkowski said, calling the administration's direction "deeply disappointing, bordering on insensitive."...