Free Republic

The National Center for Public Policy Research is claiming a scalp today after Ford Motor Co. formally withdrew from the liberal U.S. Climate Action Partnership. The conservative non-profit announces today that Ford has withdrawn from the organization, which uses corporate support form management to work against shareholders' interests by promoting a cap-and-trade framework for carbon emissions.

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., steps from her campaign bus to greet supporters after winning the Iowa Republican Party's Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa. (Associtated Press, File) Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann announced today she will seek a fourth term in the U.S. House following her failed presidential bid. Bachmann declared her plans in an interview with the Associated Press. The Republican congresswoman had been mum on her plans since folding her presidential campaign after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses earlier this month.

Arlington, Va.—May the government force entrepreneurs to do useless things, like build extra rooms in their stores that they do not need and will never use, just to prove they are serious about their business? That issue is at the center of a major lawsuit filed today, January 19, 2012, in Minnesota State District Court by the Institute for Justice (IJ) on behalf of Verlin Stoll, the 27-year-old owner of Crescent Tide Funeral Home in Saint Paul.

Minnesota lawmakers today will begin looking into the issue of payments for unused sick and vacation time to retiring state employees. The joint legislative subcommittee hearing follows reports by the Pioneer Press and KSTP-TV in November about $57 million paid out in unused sick time to state employees - a practice largely unheard of in the private sector - and $32 million paid out in unused vacation time between January 2008 and June 30, 2011.

In November 2011, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported $86 million in unused vacation pay, sick time, and other severance had been paid to departing state workers and MnSCU employees in the past three years. And the total is growing by the day. Now, the University of Minnesota has released its separate payroll records, showing it paid departing employees $30 million during the same time period. That brings the total to at least $116 million for all departing state workers in the past three years.

In November 2011, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reported $86 million in unused vacation pay, sick time, and other severance had been paid to departing state workers and MnSCU employees in the past three years. And the total is growing by the day. Now, the University of Minnesota has released its separate payroll records, showing it paid departing employees $30 million during the same time period. That brings the total to at least $116 million for all departing state workers in the past three years.

Ted Cruz is surging. Ted Cruz has climbed 6 points to 18% in a new poll, putting him a solid second place in the 8-candidate field. Meanwhile, the frontrunner -- Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst -- has dropped 5 points to 36%. Cruz has cut Dewhurst's lead from 29 points in September down to just 18 points today. This is great news, but it's even better than it looks. If Dewhurst fails to get 50% of the vote in the April 3rd primary, he will be forced into a run-off with the second place finisher. And if Cruz makes it into...

E.R. Companion, of Eagan, writing to the editor in Sunday's Pioneer Press, wondered why our elected officials would commit to spending billions of dollars for a so-called high-speed rail line from the Twin Cities to Chicago. (Well, because they're nuts.) Companion was referring to a story that appeared Jan. 12 featuring the idea that the Minnesota Department of Transportation has begun studying environmental impacts along the 400-mile route, which would take passengers to Chicago, through Milwaukee, in an advertised five hours and 30 minutes. Companion wondered what was high-speed about that, and I could not agree more with his sentiment....

FOREST LAKE, Minn. - A Forest Lake homeowner says he is livid about an "outrageous, unnecessary ending to a great wildlife story" after a police officer came onto his property at about 7 a.m. on Saturday and shot two orphaned fawns that often slept in the dog house at close range without warning. Jeff Carpenter contacted FOX 9 News about the weekend shooting, saying an officer "brutally gunned down" the twin, 6-month-old fawns his family had come to love thirty yards from his home. Carpenter said he was working in the home office when he was startled by a shotgun...

After allegations of election fraud during the last presidential election surfaced in Indiana, dozens of Republican county and state officials in Indiana are taking lessons on how to prevent mischief in the presidential nominating petition process. A seminar in LaPorte, Ind., for Republicans was called after the revelations of what is alleged to have happened in the Hoosier state four years ago, when signatures and names were allegedly falsified on documents that got then-Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the ballot. Similar accusations have surfaced elsewhere during the current 2012 contest for the White House.

Gov. Mark Dayton and top DFL lawmakers proposed a jobs plan Wednesday that they contend would put thousands of unemployed Minnesotans back to work. The DFL's prescription includes the $775 million bonding bill, which would include money to help businesses expand. But it also would give Minnesota businesses a $3,000 tax credit for each unemployed person, veteran or recent college graduate they hire over the next year and a $1,500 credit for each new hire through June 2013. Leaders said the $35 million program would create 10,000 private-sector jobs this year and would be paid for by closing corporate tax...

ATLANTA - College-age drinkers average nine drinks when they get drunk, government health officials said Tuesday. That surprising statistic is part of a new report highlighting the dangers of binge drinking, which usually means four to five drinks at a time. Overall, about 1 in 6 U.S. adults surveyed said they had binged on alcohol at least once in the previous month, though it was more than 1 in 4 for those ages 18 to 34. And that's likely an underestimate: Alcohol sales figures suggest people are buying a lot more alcohol than they say they are consuming. Health officials...

BISMARCK, N.D.—North Dakota granted a fourth extension of state aid for study of a plan to build a coal-to-liquid fuel factory, while the project's developers wait to see if the political climate in Washington changes after the presidential election. Dallas-based North American Coal Corp. and Headwaters Inc. of South Jordan, Utah, formed American Lignite Energy LLC in 2007 to oversee construction and operation of the $4 billion plant at a yet-to-be chosen site in western North Dakota. David Straley, a North American Coal Corp. spokesman said a decision on whether to start construction depends on a change of political climate...

Find below a state government request for you to provide public comments on the Obamacare "essential health benefits" requirement for individual and small group insurance policies. Note that this list of benefits (health care services), whether you agree or find them objectionable, will be imposed by the State....as allowed by the federal government.  The Feds are being gentle now, allowing "flexibility" for States to do as they wish, but that is likely temporary. Once the State has acquiesced to the presumption of federal control, expect the Feds to mandate the health care services they want included, and exclude the services they...

MARINE ON ST. CROIX — Shawn Lawrence Otto thinks many of the world's problems - especially its political problems - can be attributed to a lack of scientific rationale. Potentially harmful myths he identified: global warming is a concocted idea, vaccines cause autism and cell phones cause brain cancer. Such beliefs are what spurred the 48-year-old Marine-based screenwriter and blogger to complete his latest writing project, a nonfiction book published in October called "Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault of Science in America" (Rodale Press Inc.). The tome started last year is targeted toward a general audience. He's now in...

SALINAS, Calif. - Bullying is taking a new form online, but it's not kids attacking other kids. Now, they're turning on their teachers. What kids are doing is they're pushing their teachers over the edge, secretly recording it on their phone and uploading it to Youtube. It's becoming a teachers' worst nightmare. Students are purposely getting them angry so they can capture it all on camera. You can find a number of "Cyberbaiting" videos students are posting on Youtube. In one of them, a teacher is accused of spitting on a student, another one shows a teacher throwing and smashing...

Former Fannie Mae executive Ed Pinto, who worked at the mortgage giant before it began buying up risky mortgages, has also described Fannie Mae’s key role in buying up and promoting risky sub-prime mortgages, which Fannie Mae did on a large scale, despite having a capital cushion that was tiny compared to private banks, resulting in its later insolvency and massive taxpayer bailout. A recent book about the causes of the crisis by New York Times business reporter Gretchen Morgenson and financial analyst Josh Rosner, “Reckless Endangerment,” chronicles how “it was Fannie Mae and the government housing policies it supported,...

The generic name for this mayhem is ice cross downhill, a label that reflects its blending of elements from skating, skiing and boardercross (snowboard racing). Crashed Ice, the title of this series of races, offers an additional nod to what happens to many of the racers. Falls are such a part of the race that competitors are required to wear full hockey or motocross protective gear.

Anoka-Hennepin teachers want to get rid of the district's controversial policy governing classroom discussions about sexual orientation - and they don't want a proposed new one to replace it. Union representatives of the 2,800-member teaching staff voted Monday against having any policy that would place dictates on classroom conversations about sexual orientation or any other topic deemed controversial, according to Julie Blaha, president of Anoka-Hennepin Education Minnesota. Those results were presented to the Anoka-Hennepin school board Monday night. "Despite the good intentions of it, it turned out to be more confusing and limiting than helpful," Blaha told board members, referring...

MILWAUKEE - Oshkosh, Wis., police on Monday confirmed they had positively identified the body of a man believed to be the 21-year-old son of Green Bay Packers' offensive coordinator Joe Philbin. Oshkosh police spokesman Joseph Nichols said the identity of the person, whose body was pulled from the Fox River near the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus, was not being released pending official notification and wishes of the family. Members of the Packers, however, were told that the body was that of Michael Philbin. In addition, some players sent condolences out on Twitter. Police said foul play was not suspected, but...