Free Republic

BEIJING (Reuters) - China should drop the barriers it maintains against foreign-made anti-pollution equipment as a means of quickly cleaning up its dirty air and water, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Thursday. In prepared remarks for delivery to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in which he praised the value of a "strategic economic dialogue" between the two countries, Paulson also welcomed China's action in letting the yuan rise in value. The Chinese currency has risen about 4 percent against the dollar so far this year, taking its cumulative gain since July 2005 to 18 percent. "Although the process...

The Yahoo link is a video link. I'm posting it to stress a point about the English language. While there have been many discussions about making English the official language of the USA, I seldom involve myself with the politics of the proposal. Instead, I have always maintained English is the worldwide language of commerce. This video clip supports my position. Not requiring English proficiency, especially in the USA, almost certainly assures certain people will be imprisoned in the lower class.

Contact: Amir Gilat agilat@univ.haifa.ac.il 972-482-40092 University of Haifa Evidence of commerce between ancient Israel and China Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries - during the time of the Crusades –ceramic vessels reached Acre from: Mediterranean regions, the Levant, Europe, North Africa, and even China – reveals new research, which examined trade of ceramic vessels, conducted at the University of Haifa. This research, conducted by Dr. Edna Stern under the direction of Prof. Michal Artzy and Dr. Adrian Boasz, examined pottery found during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority of Crusader period Acre and pottery found in shipwrecks around the...

McALLEN — In other parts of the state, transportation officials try to allay property owners' fears that a superhighway from Laredo north to Texarkana will result in a massive land grab. But in the lower Rio Grande Valley, the state's road builders spend more time assuring local leaders that they have a shot at being included. People in the fast-growing border area between Brownsville and McAllen have developed something of an inferiority complex about being the state's largest metropolitan area without an interstate highway. One after another, Valley leaders stepped to a microphone at public meetings last week and made...

A so-called “NAFTA Superhighway� earned support from the city’s mayor and discussion among residents Monday during a public hearing on the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-69 project. TxDOT held a public hearing at the Brownsville Events Center Monday to explain the progress of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a future segment of Highway I-69, which will link the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S.-Canada border. After a short presentation, the floor was open for comments. Among the local politicians, college students and retirees at the hearing there was a wide range of opinion on the project. According to Mario Jorge, district engineer for...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 29, 2008 – To many Americans, convenient shopping means easy, safe parking at clean, wholesome supermarkets. In Iraq, where shoppers often risk their lives buying groceries and vendors watch produce rot for lack of electricity or transport, marketing has different requirements. Iraqi vendors sell produce in makeshift stalls of poles and plastic sheeting near the site of the New Baghdad Market. The “Baghdad 2” embedded provincial reconstruction team and the U.S. Army 2-69th Armor Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, have been working with local leaders to revitalize the market. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Nicholas Hernandez  (Click photo for...

The federal government doesn't usually give things away, but starting Tuesday broadcast TV watchers can apply for a gift that could keep their sets from going dark in 2009. Via a toll-free hot line and Web site the Commerce Department will begin accepting applications for coupons worth $40 off a no-frills converter box to allow older televisions to receive digital broadcast signals.

Dec 31 05:14 PM US/Eastern John Dunbar, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Write a Comment WASHINGTON - Millions of US$40 government coupons become available Tuesday to help low-tech television owners in the United States buy special converter boxes for older TVs that might not work after the switch to digital broadcasting. Beginning Feb. 18, 2009, anyone who does not own a digital set and still gets their programming via over-the-air antennas will no longer receive a picture. That's the day the television industry completes its transition from old-style analog broadcasting to digital. The converter boxes are expected to cost between $50 and...

Anticipating that the enactment of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level might not occur for several years, the US Chamber of Commerce will continue to oppose state and local efforts to address illegal immigration. Immigration reform at the federal level is unlikely until businesses are faced with a lack of workers, said Chamber President Tom Donahue at a conference the largest business federation hosted, which examined the impact of state and local immigration laws. "To really get it done," Donahue said, "I think it has to hurt more." In the meantime, Donahue pledged to challenge state laws that businesses...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers put aside worries about slumping home sales and soaring gasoline prices and headed to the malls in November, pushing spending up by the largest amount in 3 1/2 years. The Commerce Department reported Friday that consumer spending surged by 1.1 percent last month, nearly triple the October gain. The gain reflected various promotional efforts by retailers such as heavy discounting and longer store hours at the start of the holiday shopping season....

Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez today released the following statement on the revised third quarter real gross domestic product (GDP) report, which showed that the American economy grew at 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2007, the highest rate of GDP growth in four years: “In the face of real challenges, our resilient economy has now experienced six years of uninterrupted growth. As the holiday shopping season begins, I am pleased with today’s strong GDP report, coupled with the 1.68 million jobs added over the past year and low unemployment. President Bush’s pro-growth policies are moving our economy forward....

Web Site Sells Teddy Bear Muhammad Cute and uncommonly cuddly, babies and parents alike will warm up to the adorable features of this cloud-soft plush, Muhammad, says the ad. The controversial teddy bear Muhammad, which nearly cost British teacher Gillian Gibbons her life, has been put up for sale on the www.teddybearmuhammad.com web site as the ideal Christmas gift for only US$9.95. An Arizona businessman, Mark Bold, thought up how to use the holiday hysteria and publicity from a British teacher in Sudan who was nearly sentenced to death for allowing her students to name their teddy bear Muhammad. Bold...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 — Five months ago, Suhaila al-Aasan lived in an oxygen tank factory with her husband and two sons, convinced that they would never go back to their apartment in Dora, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad. Today she is home again, cooking by a sunlit window, sleeping beneath her favorite wedding picture. *snip*The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryOctober 13, 2007 President's Radio Address   President's Radio Address  Audio  En Español       In Focus: International TradeTHE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This is an historic time for our Nation's economy. Last week, we learned that September was America's 49th consecutive month of job creation -- the longest uninterrupted period of job growth on record. And on Thursday, we learned that the American economy set a new record for exports in a single month. Millions of American jobs depend on exports. More exports support better and higher-paying jobs -- and to keep our economy expanding, we need...

The Eighth Continent Project, the world's most comprehensive program to integrate space technology and resources into the global economy, was launched here today at the Colorado School of Mines Center for Space Resources. “For the first time, government, industry and academia have joined forces with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to forge the next frontier in commercializing space technology and resources,” said Colorado Governor Bill Ritter. “With our region's unique cluster of businesses, IT infrastructure, research institutions and aerospace workforce, the Eighth Continent Project will position Colorado at the vortex of ‘Space 2.0.'” “'Space 1.0' was astronauts, rocket ships and billion-dollar...

OTTAWA — It's a threat that has left-wing Canadian nationalists and right-wing U.S. congressmen in rare and dismayed agreement: a freeway, four football fields wide, stretching from Mexico to northern Manitoba. Groups on both sides of the political spectrum say the corridor - dubbed the NAFTA superhighway - is a primary goal of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America established two years ago by the leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico. At separate press conferences in Ottawa yesterday, the road was held out as an example of the potentially repugnant effects of the trilateral partnership....

Ric Williamson and his fellow transportation commissioners will find themselves in a tight corner today as they meet in Austin to decide who will build the State Highway 121 toll road. On one level, the commission is simply fulfilling its duty as the Texas Department of Transportation's governing board by deciding whether to award a multibillion-dollar contract to Spanish construction firm Cintra or give it to the North Texas Tollway Authority. But a whole lot more is going on at another level. The Highway 121 decision also pits Mr. Williamson's desire to support Gov. Rick Perry's ambitious highway-building agenda against...

The call has gone out from on high at the Commerce Department for a few good men and women. Heeding President Bush's recent appeal for government civilians to serve stints in Iraq helping with the embattled rebuilding mission, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez sent an agency-wide memo last week imploring workers to sign up for a year in Iraq. "I am asking all Commerce employees to consider supporting this important effort," he wrote. Gutierrez noted that volunteers would work "under challenging circumstances with access to few amenities." On the bright side, he said, they "may" be eligible for overtime pay...

Hustler Hollywood will open a retail store in Berkeley in June By Kim Bell and Norm Parish ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Wednesday, Apr. 25 2007 BERKELEY — Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, is opening a retail store in June not far from Lambert Field that will sell sex toys, lingerie and other adult-oriented products. A vinyl fence in the rear of the property, to be called Hustler Hollywood, separates it from a Berkeley neighborhood. And Preston Park, a playground with children's climbing equipment and a slide, will sit below a Hustler Hollywood sign the store plans to hoist atop...

[quotes from chapter IV, typed by hand] “When he United States was founded, as a means to maintain a vibrant democracy the government exerted strong controls over corporate activities. For example, corporations could be founded to engage in public works projects like building a canal, but once the project was completed and the investors had received a decent profit, ownership of the project reverted to the government. Corporations were also excluded from being involved in the political process. But through the mid-1800s, corporate power grew with increasing industrialization and began to influence the political process to its own advantage, eventually...

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian piracy syndicates are trying to assassinate two black Labradors after the dogs helped find millions of dollars of fake DVDs and CDs, said officials on Thursday. Lucky and Flo sniffed out the discs during a raid by Malaysian officials on Tuesday at an office tower in Johor Baru, the capital of Johor state. "Sources informed the ministry of domestic trade and consumer affairs that syndicate members are looking for the dogs," said Firdaus Zakaria the ministry's enforcement assistant director. "The dogs are a genuine threat to the pirated disc syndicates, thus the instruction to eliminate them,"...

Republicans and Democrats yesterday rebuked the Bush administration for its recent agreement to open the border to Mexican trucks. The White House last week announced a pilot program allowing up to 100 Mexican trucking companies to operate beyond the 70-mile commercial zone inside the U.S. border. Within two months, the truckers will be allowed to drive cross-country. Several lawmakers said yesterday that Congress should block the policy change on the grounds of national security. "It should be revisited," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who is running for president. "I'd like to feel a lot better about the security...

My husband is thinking of selling our business. The business is operated out of our home, provides us with a good income (I am a SAHM and his office manager) we have no employees at the moment. A business associate of my husband's expressed interest in the business a few months ago, and would more than likely hire dh to run the business after the sale. Other factors: we are purchasing two investment properties, which may qualify for the go-zone depreciation allowance, have one child still at home who may or may not go to college. We do not intend...

The article, from one of the world's leading newspapers, touches on what a blessing saying "hasta la vista" to socialism really can be - not to mention future prospects! Ask the people who live in the hottest city of Europe - and they don't speak "cockney" or french with a Paris accent. The fall of Communism in Russia and China in combination with the orientation towards pro-capitalism of Scandinavia has already lead to a explosion of trade between the world's 14th biggest economy, Russia, the world's 4th biggest economy, China and the 8th biggest one, the Scandinavian countries (Source: IMF...

Supreme Court Hears Garbage Fees Case By MARK SHERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Local officials unfairly hurt private trash haulers by requiring them to process garbage at government-owned facilities, the haulers' lawyer told the Supreme Court Monday. "No waste can leave the counties," Evan Tager said, in describing how two upstate New York counties are violating constitutional protections for interstate commerce. The trash companies say they would pay much less to send the garbage to out-of-state transfer stations where it is sorted and baled before being shipped off for permanent disposal. Like other local governments that have built recycling...

  SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. (AP) - Taco Bell ordered scallions removed from its 5,800 U.S. restaurants Wednesday after tests suggested they may be responsible for the E. coli outbreak that has sickened at least three dozen people in three states. The fast-food chain said preliminary testing by an independent lab found three samples of green onions appeared to have a dangerous strain of the bacterium. "In an abundance of caution, we've decided to pull all green onions from our restaurants until we know conclusively whether they are the cause of the E. coli outbreak," said Greg Creed, president of Irvine,...

Chicago city officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to oust New Line Cinema as a sponsor because ads for its film “The Nativity Story” might offend non-Christians. The decision angered both the studio and Christian groups. “The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ,” said Paul Braoudakis, spokesman for the Barrington, Illinois Willow Creek Association, a group of more than 11,000 churches of various denominations. “It’s tantamount to celebrating Lincoln’s birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln.” Cindy Gatziolis, a spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Spectrum Health and Saint Mary's Health Care will require all their employees to not use tobacco at any time during their work shift beginning January 1. The staffs of both hospitals will need to arrive without smelling of smoke, and they can't use any tobacco products until they leave hospital property after their shift. Metro Health is also joining in the Smoke-Free Work Day Every Day campaign. In 2003, the Grand Rapids hospitals became the first in the country to jointly declare their hospital campuses smoke-free. Today, more than 30 Michigan hospitals have smoke-free campuses. This...

SEATTLE -- Non-tribal casinos have already lost tens of millions of dollars because of Washington’s new indoor smoking ban. A new financial study, conducted by our own KIRO Team 7 Investigators, discovers taxpayers could loose millions as well. Card-rooms, charity bingo halls, and some bars and restaurants are required to report financial information to the state every year. The state hasn't had a chance to look at the figures since the smoking ban took effect. I have. It looks like "no smoking" means economic devastation for the non-tribal gaming industry. If there was ever any doubt that gamblers are also...

Following are actual statistics reflecting examples of the negative impact upon individual businesses following the recently instituted smoking ban ordinances, effective in Springfield, Illinois and surrounding unincorporated Sangamon County this September 15, 2006 (less than two weeks ago). When small businesses account for about two-thirds of our country's economic growth and new jobs, it is difficult to comprehend elected officials' reasoning in voting to implement an intrusive ordinance which will hurt those same business owners. A restaurant owner who does not permit smoking will see it as a violation of his property rights if a coalition uses the political...

Delaware County's ban on smoking in most work places has become a problem for some nursing homes, which are both work places for employees and homes for the residents. The smoking ordinance does not prevent people from smoking in their homes, but it does ban smoking in most public buildings and work spaces. If a nursing home bans smoking, they could lose federal funding for failing to comply with regulations, but if they allow smoking they could face fines or a lawsuit from the county health department, officials said. Federal regulations state that if a nursing home changes its...

Churchill Downs could be hurt financially if it is forced to go completely smoke free, a company official said Wednesday. Kevin Flanery, Churchill Downs Inc.’s vice president for national public affairs, told a Louisville Metro Council committee considering a new, tougher smoking ban, that the race track is already facing heavy competition from Indiana and from computer and telephone betting services.And he said the company’s experience at a Florida track shows some people will stop betting when a smoking ban takes effect. But the former head of the Greater Louisville Medical Society testified that his group favors a complete...

A private smokers club in Smiths Falls challenged Ontario's indoor smoking ban with its grand opening Friday — and Ontario officials did not brave the fumes to attend. Instead, the club's founder was charged under the province's Smoke-Free Ontario act the day before it opened. Since Ontario's indoor workplace and public smoking ban went into effect, ashtrays and cigars have been illegal in bars. The grand opening of Do' Little's pub as a club for members of a private smokers association took place at noon at the Comfort Inn on Centre Street in Smiths Falls, about 65 kilometres south of...

WASHINGTON -- The Census Bureau collects the most personal information about Americans, from how much money they earn and where they spend it to how they live and die. It's all confidential as long as no one steals it. Lost or stolen from the Census Bureau since 2003 are 217 laptop computers, 46 portable data storage devices and 15 handheld devices used by survey takers. Although the number of people affected isn't known, the Commerce Department reports that passwords, encryptions and other safeguards were in place. Nothing so far indicates a misuse of any information. "The department takes very seriously...

Park Ridge aldermen will resume discussion of the city's public smoking ban, following complaints from three restaurant owners that their businesses have been adversely affected by it.The restaurant owners spoke briefly to the City Council Monday night, prompting Mayor Howard Frimark to ask the aldermen if the smoking ban should be brought back before the Procedures and Regulations Committee. Alderman Jeannie Markech agreed that it should, and made a motion for the discussion. Eight aldermen voted in favor of the issue going back to committee and five voted against. One alderman was absent.The next meeting of the Procedures and Regulations...

There have been a bunch of books about the mistakes made after the American invasion of Baghdad, George Packer's Assassin's Gate and Thomas Ricks' Fiasco being the two best in my opinion.Yesterday, the Washington Post published an excerpt from Rajiv Chandrasekaran's effort. He was their bureau chief there for a few years and his book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, will be released tomorrow.I haven't read the book, but the excerpt is as damning as anything could be. It outlines how people were recruited to serve in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the group that ran...

Jobs are being eliminated by special interest activist organizations Now that air quality test results by the likes of the American Cancer Society are proving that the secondhand smoke kills argument is completely fabricated. http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html It's time for lawmakers to investigate why this fallacy has permeated the local government debate.....and specifically who is funding and spreading that false information. http://www.rwjf.org/about/founder.jhtml The "who" is in large part the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And since RWJF is an affiliate of the Johnson & Johnson Company (the manufacturer of competing nicotine product interests Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ), it stands to reason that the...

Scheming is afoot in Congress to create an unjustified loophole in the patent laws for foreign infringers despite dampening the incentive to American businesses to invent. Legislation has been proposed that would facilitate the unauthorized importation of products made outside the United States by means of a process protected by a U.S. patent.

Robin Brayman, a 44-year-old Greenfield resident, thought she had saved quite a bit of money buying cigarettes online, until she received a bill from the state demanding more than $2,000 in unpaid sales and cigarette taxes. "I had no idea. When I first started buying, the Web site said the cigarettes were tax-free, duty-free. You assumed you didn't have to pay anything," Brayman said. Brayman, like many other smokers, purchases cigarettes online because they are offered at a deep discount. A carton of Marlboro Full Flavor 100s costs $29.45 plus shipping from BuyCheapCigarettes.com, the site Brayman patronized. The same...

ROCKTON -- Rockton leaders snuff out an idea to ban smoking at public places. Tuesday night at their meeting, a motion to draft an ordinance banning smoking in public places failed to get anywhere. Rockton Village Trustee Dennis Meade put the issue before board members, but no one seconded the motion. The proposal would've kept people from lighting up on streets, sidewalks, parks and in businesses. Several community members including business owners spoke out at the meeting against a ban saying it would hurt their business. Others claimed it a ban would go against their rights. One person at...

The mother of deceased Ground Zero worker James Zadroga described Mayor Bloomberg as a "cold, heartless person" for opposing a series of new laws that address the health battles of 9/11 rescuers."I don't think he realizes how the common people live - maybe for one month he should try and live on $500 a week," Linda Zadroga wrote in a letter to the Daily News. "But when [you're] a billionaire, you have no concept of the so-called middle class. Well, one day he may have some tragedy in his family he will need to deal with, and then maybe...

NON-SMOKERS are being banned from drinking in outdoor smoking areas in pubs and clubs under draconian council rules. Some councils are forcing licensed venues to hire bouncers to enforce the bans, costing tens of thousands of dollars a year, while preventing non-smokers from using outdoor areas. It has raised concerns about discrimination against non-smokers and suggestions that councils are going beyond the State Government's legislation and imposing their own rules. The Daily Telegraph has learned that at least two councils – Fairfield and North Sydney – have already employed the tactic when approving development applications from premises wishing to...

Senator Susan Collins introduced legislation on Aug. 3 to help crack down on illegal sales of tobacco to children by banning the shipment of cigarettes and other tobacco products through the U.S. mail. Specifically, the bill would add cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to the U.S. Postal Service's list of restricted, non-mailable products. A first violation of mailing such a product would be liable for a civil penalty of up to $5,000 or 10 times the estimated retail value of the tobacco products, including all federal, state, and local taxes, whichever is highest. Civil penalties of up to $100,000 would...

China is building up military forces and setting up bases along sea lanes from the Middle East to project its power overseas and protect its oil shipments, according to a previously undisclosed internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

WASHINGTON -- Quietly leaving his post as surgeon general, Dr. Richard Carmona said he would judge himself successful if he had persuaded one student to make good health choices or one mother to stop smoking. Carmona's report condemning secondhand smoke was a hallmark of his tenure as the nation's 17th surgeon general.

Israel Needs War With Syria, Iran for Regional Stability By Jonathan Ariel Israel News Agency Jerusalem----July 31, 2006 .... The current Mid-East crisis offers a unique opportunity to achieve what the invasion of Iraq failed to accomplish, the defeat of fanatical Islamism, and the accompanying creation of a new regional strategic status quo. The current war between Israel and Hezbullah, which has been raging for the past 15 days, is, in reality an Israel - Iran war, the first war between Israel and a non Arab state. It is also the first war in which Israel is not fighting a...

The issue is no longer just about smoking. Passing a state law outlawing smoking in most public places was, by this comparison, the easiest thing to do. The law was not required to address the inevitable hardships such a bill was destined to inflict. There was clapping and backslapping on the floor of the state Senate the afternoon it passed there. But none of that really matters now, when the issue is one of how it impacts people's lives. They are men and women who once ran tiny, yet prosperous, packed-to- the-kegs establishments, who now tend mostly empty bars. The...

They're making one last attempt to force the City of Beaumont to continue to allow smoking in bars and restaurants. Opponents of a ban on smoking in public buildings say they don't have enough signatures right now, but they plan to work hard in the next 24 hours getting the support they need. Lee Melton/Comedy, Texas "I own a business and pay a lot of Taxes and now I can't smoke in my own building." Smoking ban opponents say they are not quitting when it comes to getting enough signatures on this petition. Lee Melton/Comedy, Texas "Four ladies on...

After missing a deadline, the U.S. Department of Commerce finally has granted a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain complete disclosure of a congressionally unauthorized plan to implement a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that critics say could lead to a EU-style alliance in North America. The plan is being implemented through an office within the Department of Commerce called the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," under the direction of Geri Word, who is listed as working in the agency's North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, office.As WorldNetDaily previously reported, the White House has established...

Revenue from video lottery terminals in New Brunswick declined last year, in part because of the province's ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation says.The lottery corportation's 2005-06 annual report shows that money generated by VLTs fell by almost $8 million, or six per cent, from the previous year.ALC spokesman Robert Bourgeois said a province-wide smoking ban imposed in October 2004 was one of the major reasons for the decline."There were other factors as well, such an increase in competition from unregulated internet sites," Bourgeois said Friday. "But definitely, the smoking ban would have been one of the factors."The...