Free Republic

The vandals have sacked Italy again this year. Two German tourists spray painted slogans for a Munich soccer team onto the side of a 460-year-old landmark in Florence cops said — in the latest incident in which foreign troublemakers defaced an Italian cultural treasure. The exterior of the stunning riverside Vasari Corridor — which connects to the city’s famous Uffizi Galleries — suffered $10,800 in damages from the graffiti attack, Italy’s Carabinieri military police said. Police soon IDed the perpetrators as being among a group of 11 students staying at a local Airbnb — and took the vandalism so seriously...

A shocking video shows San Francisco school children having to pick their way through a filthy, open-air drug den of homeless addicts after getting off a school bus at the end of the day. The video, posed by Ricci Wynne, shows the elementary school kids filing off the 14 transit line in the Golden Gate City at 8th Street and Mission by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company building past dozens of sickly users nodding out on the sidewalk. 'This is no back ally,' he says in the tweet. 'This is the main artery of the city that has been...

Since progress is reportedly being made on the Russian-Turkish talks to open up a “grain corridor” in the Black Sea, it makes sense why Moscow might have ordered its naval forces to pull back a bit to show that it’s negotiating in good faith, although there hasn’t yet been any confirmation from the Kremlin about this. Kiev claimed that its forces coerced the Russian navy to “retreat” 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian Coast, though this development hasn’t been independently confirmed. In the event that there’s any credibility to Moscow’s reported naval movements, then it’s unlikely that they were done under...

For days the United Nations has been in (so far unsuccessful) talks on cobbling together an agreement on plans to unblock Black Sea grain exports from Ukrainian ports, including controversial discussions with Russia, which has stood accused of ‘weaponizing’ global food supply with its military blockade of key ports. Moscow has in turn charged that Ukraine said ports, making tanker traffic impossible, while also saying the West must ease sanctions if it hopes to get crucial grain exports flowing again. UN officials have said President Vladimir Putin’s offer to lift the blockade if sanctions are dropped is “complicating” the already...

One of Barack Obama’s best-remembered promises was, “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.” But at the very same time the president was making that promise, lawmakers on Capitol Hill were drafting legislation that would make sure that promise could never be kept. We call it Obamacare. Moreover, the problem is not only that millions of people were unable to keep the plan they had in 2010, when the health reform law was passed. They are not likely to be able to keep for long any plan they have selected this year on a health insurance exchange....

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz called, Thursday, for Israeli construction in the E-1 corridor between Jerusalem and the eastern suburb of Ma'aleh Adumim. Addressing a rally following a march from Ma'aleh Adumim to Mevasseret Adumin in the E-1 corridor, the Likud lawmaker said, "Whoever opposes it opposes the Ma'aleh Adumim bloc being part of the state of Israel and shouldn't tell stories." Rejecting the threats of boycotts against Israel, Katz continued, "Once we all talked about the merits of the father. Then we talked about security. After that it was the demographic problem and today it's the boycotts. We're not afraid...

The Battle of Juarez is showing signs that the good guys are not prevailing. The Juarez newspaper, El Diario de Juarez, has cried uncle in its mixed stance of reporting the progress of the war. In the front page editorial that appeared recently, the editor waved the white flag and asked the cartels publicly what they want from him. The murder of a photographer and another reporter in the recent past are hitting far too close to home for him to continue to be a brave purveyor of the truth. In a city ravaged by nearly 7,000 deaths since 2006...

By Ben Wear | Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 09:07 AM The death of the Trans-Texas Corridor was apparently not exaggerated. Outgoing Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick had created a stir a few months ago by declaring in an election forum that the Trans-Texas Corridor was dead. TxDOT officials at the time said, well, no, not exactly. This morning, at the Texas Transportation Forum at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Austin, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz said exactly that, according to spokeswoman Karen Amacker. “Amadeo told folks at the forum that the Trans-Texas Corridor, as it was originally envisioned, is no...

I was just looking at the task of providing wind power to according to T Boone Pickens Plan. It is not a pretty picture. But here is a try at it. TX power Requirement (MW) 104,754 MW Amount of Wind Power Desired 20.00% MW of Wind 20950.8 MW Area per Megawatt 0.02 MW/Acre Efficiency 35.00% percent Sq Miles Wind Power 2992971.4 Acres Acres / Sq MIle 640 SqMi/A Actual Sq Miles Req 4676.52 sq miles Distance from Minot ND to Big Bend TX 1300 miles Width of Corridor 3.60 miles Watts per Tower 1.5 MW Quantity towers 13,967 units Cost...

The Constitution guarantees Americans the right to be secure against all unreasonable seizures. My home state of Texas is unfortunately planning on some very unreasonable seizures of land with the monstrous Trans Texas Corridor highway project. The TTC plans call for a highway to cut through about 4,000 Texas miles, and with separate rail lines for passenger and freight, a multi-lane highway with separate truck lanes, utility and cable easements, this highway could be as wide as 1200 feet across. In the end this project would consume something like half a million acres of land in Texas . However, since...

Local Truckers protest doesn’t strain Beltway as feared Natalie McGill, The Examiner Apr 24, 2007 3:00 AM (5 days ago) Current rank: # 1,923 of 5,158 WASHINGTON - The first day of a three-day truckers protest planned for interstates nationwide had little to no impact on Capital Beltway traffic Monday morning and afternoon. SaveAmericaFund.org, based out of California, asked truckers across America to rally together and create slow-rolling road blocks in protest of a change in U.S. Department of Transportation policy making it easier for Mexican-owned trucks to traverse the nation. But Maryland State Police spokesman Arthur Betts said nothing...

Former partners are competing for the contract to develop segment of Trans-Texas project Former business partners are now competing for one of the state's richest construction contracts — development of a transportation corridor between Northeast Texas and the Mexican border, passing near the Houston area.The Texas Transportation Commission voted Thursday to seek proposals from the two for development of the route designated TTC-69, part of the state's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor plan.Projects envisioned for the corridor include a $12 billion toll road running west of U.S. 59, high-speed passenger and freight rail, pipelines and other utilities.Spanish-owned construction giant Cintra and San...

Super Slab, the proposed 210-mile long road curving through Colorado's eastern plains from Fort Collins to Pueblo, has been reborn as the $2.5 billion "Prairie Falcon Parkway Express." The Front Range Toll Road Ltd., doing business as the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express Company, announced Monday it has filed a new corridor plan with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. The company is sending official notices via certified mail to owners of property along the project's path, said spokesman Jason Hopfer. About 4,000 notices were mailed, although the company figures there's only about 2,000 individual property owners -- some owning more...

What do the federal interstate highway system, the Golden Gate Bridge and Dallas-Fort Worth Airport have in common? All are indispensable projects involved in safely transporting millions of families and tons of products every year. All three were also bitterly attacked and criticized during their planning and construction phases. Americans have a love-hate relationship with roads, rail and air infrastructure. We demand safe, reliable transportation and depend upon it for quality of life, jobs and commerce. But nearly every major transportation improvement generates early controversy. Today, our state transportation system is at a crossroads. Texas is the leading exporting state...

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...

Robert Pastor intends to give away U.S. sovereignty to a newly forming North American Union exactly as he gave away the Panama Canal to Panama during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.As we are taught in grade school, George Washington is the Father of our nation. If the North American Union comes into existence as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) asserts, then we all better get prepared for a new hero. Robert Pastor is the person most likely to be proclaimed the father of the North American Union, a designation consistent with his decades-long history of viewing U.S. national interests through the...

Can the Port of Humboldt Bay be a participant in the new “Silk Road” as experts predict West Coast shipping trade traffic with China will triple by 2020? It could happen with the help of the Port of Oakland, which is setting the stage for a agreement with its northerly neighbor to begin an formal relationship in the upcoming months with the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District. But actual container shipping between Oakland and Humboldt's deep-water port couldn’t happen any sooner than 2011, according to Port of Oakland Maritime Director Wilson Lacy, who presented an overview of the...

The contractors building the Trans-Texas Corridor – a massive statewide transportation network critics claim is an important part of the controversial proposed integration of the U.S. and Mexico – have made large contributions to the campaigns of Texas politicians, including Republican Gov. Rick Perry. As WND has reported, opposition is mounting to the little-publicized efforts by the Bush administration, aided by corporate and political elites of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, including the Council on Foreign Relations, to push North America into a European Union-style merger. Critics of the Trans-Texas Corridor see the massive project – ironically funded by Spain...

The Texas segment of the NAFTA Super Corridor is moving rapidly toward approval. When built, the Trans-Texas Corridor, or TTC, will be a major super-highway with six lanes moving in each direction, twelve lanes across in total, described in the 4,000 page draft environmental study as including separate lanes "for passenger vehicles and large trucks, freight railways, high-speed commuter railways, and a corridor for utilities including water lines, oil and natural gas pipelines, and transmission lines for electricity, broadband and other telecommunications services." The TTC is expected to follow the current lines of Interstate 35, stretching from Laredo, Texas, on...

Trans-Texas Corridor constructors to sign contract with TxDOT Plans for the $7.2 billion, 600-mile turnpike from Oklahoma to Mexico are closer to becoming a reality. Latest News » Alcoa to lay off 2,000 worldwide » Gionfriddo leaving ICC » Austin lands NDBL basketball franchise » Spinal Concepts founder joins LDR Spine advisory board » Lance Armstrong not part of Subaru's new ad campaign More » Companies in the News » People in the News The Texas Department of Transportation and a private consortium led by Spanish toll road operator Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte SA and San Antonio-based Zachry...