Free Republic

An Illinois woman is charged with a hate crime for berating a Muslim woman about the Fort Hood shooting and then pulling at her headscarf. The charge could lead to three years in prison: justice or prosecutorial overkill? In the days after the Ft. Hood shooting, mosques around the country bolstered their security in anticipation of a backlash from Americans angry about a Muslim man alleged to have killed American soldiers on their own turf. Since then, only one alleged hate crime against Muslims has been directly tied to the Fort Hood rampage. Two days after the rampage by an...

The new attorney handling Georgia's appeal in the long-running legal battle with Alabama and Florida over water rights will be paid $855 an hour. Governor Sonny Perdue's office said Friday that Seth Waxman's hourly rate is a 10 percent discount off his normal rate of $950 an hour. Waxman is a former U.S. solicitor general who was tapped this week to replace Paul Clement after he had to withdraw because of a possible conflict of interest. Waxman is leading the state's appeal of a federal judge's ruling in July that concluded it was illegal for Atlanta to draw drinking water...

After a local government council voted unanimously to DISAPPROVE a zoning change request for a mosque to be located in suburban Atlanta, one of the locals was harassed and scared by a group of "Middle Eastern" men. "A Lilburn woman said her family was threatened and harassed as they traveled home from a City Council meeting about a controversial mosque. Janie Hood, whose family once farmed the area where the mosque was proposed, said “Middle Eastern” men who seemed to be associated with the congregation “boxed” her daughter’s car in as they traveled down U.S. Highway 29 on Wednesday night."

Creationists are ‘liars' (?): Geologist Donald Prothero doesn’t like the fact that we don’t agree with his ideas on evolution. I love the attitude some evolutionists have toward professional, scientific debate. Because creationist scientists do not agree with their biased, subjective and unsubstantiated ideas they spit the dummy and call us liars. The latest tirade from geologist Donald Prothero is in an opinion piece in NewScientist entitled ‘Evolution: What missing link?’1 I like that title. His article was picked up by the Telegraph newspaper in the UK which reported, ‘Creationists “peddle lies about the fossil record�.’2 Lies? Are creationists really...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

Congressman running for governor calls on president to produce birth certificate. It's the question that keeps poking its head up through piles of debunking documents: Is Barack Obama eligible to be president? U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal says Obama can dispel it with a birth certificate showing he's a U.S. native and therefore qualified for the White House. Deal, a Republican running for governor in 2010, called on Obama on Tuesday to "put the matter to rest ... and provide the documentary evidence." But two independent fact-checking groups and the state of Hawaii say he already has. Their conclusion: Obama was...

ATLANTA -- In the waning days of the Great Recession, the federal government is still jumpstarting the economy and propping up financial markets. It is also trying to sell Dresden Heights, a failed condo development on a noisy freeway ramp next to a Motel 6, a Waffle House and a Do-It-Yourself Pest Control. For more than a year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been seeking a buyer for 36 partially built condos it inherited from a high-flying, short-lived Atlanta bank. The agency has been fending off vandals, haggling with architects and uncovering the developer's blunders, all in a bid...

According to Thomas Bouchard, a US psychologist famous for his research on twins raised apart,[1] even scientists with good reason to believe that the majority are wrong can be silenced. The reason is...

Monday night Macon Police set a date for when they will decide whether to unionize. Jim Romar, teamster representative from the Law Enforcement League, says officers will vote on December 3rd and 4th. He says a location for voting has not been set yet. The union vote needs 50% plus one to

Knockout strategies have demonstrated that the function of many genes cannot be studied by disrupting them in model organisms because the inactivation of these genes does not lead to a phenotypic effect. For living systems, this peculiar phenomenon of genetic redundancy seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Genetic redundancy is now defined as the situation in which the disruption of a gene is selectively neutral. Biology shows us that 1) two or more genes in an organism can often substitute for each other, 2) some genes are just there in a silent state. Inactivation of such redundant...

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. -- Police said a love letter on the social networking web site Facebook sparked an on-campus, profanity-laced fight between two teachers at Rex Hill Middle School in Rex. The altercation allegedly got so out of hand, an officer ended up arresting both instructors. Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Jones spent the day in Clayton County and was able to obtain the police report that detailed the love triangle that erupted into fighting and cursing in front of students. The school district didn’t have much to say about the altercation, but parents did. Police: Teachers Fight Over...

Billy Carter's Old Gas Station: A National Monument? Legislation calls for the National Park Service to take over the storied building, making it part of the Jimmy Carter Historic Site. Some say that's not the best use of taxpayer money right now. Billy Carter's gas station would become part of a proposed Jimmy Carter National HIstorical Park under legislation before Congress. (Mark Davis) By Richard Fausset November 15, 2009 In the age of the $787-billion stimulus package, it is, perhaps, a modest question: Should the American taxpayer foot the bill to enshrine the gas station run by the late Billy...

Former Governor of Arkansas and host of Huckabee on the Fox News Channel will be speaking at First Redeemer Church on Sunday, November 22nd at 9:15 AM & 10:45 AM. Following the 10:45 service, Huckabee will be signing his new book "A Simple Christmas". Address: 2100 Peachtree Parkway Cumming, GA 30041 Phone: 678-513-9400

A Houston County sheriff's deputy accidentally shot himself in the finger while struggling with a runaway shoplifting suspect in Centerville, a GBI agent says. Deputy Derek Collins suffered minor injuries in the shooting, which was part of a wild chase from the Centerville police station into a neighborhood. Craig Rotter,assistant agent in charge of the GBI's Perry office, said Friday night that the suspect himself was also shot, But investigators are still trying to figure out who he is and who shot him, he said. He said the unidentified suspect was in stable condition in the Medical Center of Central...

While Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species has been described as “a grand narrative—a story of origins that would change the world”,1 ironically his book very pointedly avoided the question of the origin of life itself. This ought not be surprising. Darwin’s theory of the origin of species “by means of natural selection”2 presupposes self-reproduction, so can’t explain the origin of self-reproduction. Unfortunately, many proponents of evolution seem unaware of that. They don’t acknowledge that natural selection requires pre-existing life. As leading 20th century evolutionist Theodosius Dobzhansky lamented: ...

With so many armed robberies it's no surprise south Georgians are arming themselves in staggering numbers. Dougherty and Lee County probate courts have already had more applications for conceal carry permits in ten months this year than all of last year. Dougherty County has had 1,374 applications for conceal carry permits and Lee County has had more than 667 applications.

Dick's Sporting Goods informed GeorgiaCarry.Org that it permits lawfully carried handguns in its stores in Georgia, so long as the person carrying the handgun is abiding by state law. This issue arose when the President of GeorgiaCarry.Org, more precisely, me, was kicked out of the Fayetteville, Georgia store because of a lawfully carried H&K USP 45 pistol. I was carrying a holstered pistol, as is my daily habit, and wearing a GeorgiaCarry.Org T-shirt when I brought my eight year old son to the store to look at the Davey Crickett rifles that I knew to be in stock. My eager...

A salamander allegedly “18 million years old” is the latest fossil to produce astonishingly well preserved soft tissue. This time, it’s muscle tissue, and it is supposedly the most pristine example yet. Background—the “dinosaur connection”...

Two more parents are charged with making false statements to get their children into Houston County schools. District Attorney Kelly Burke says a grand jury Tuesday indicted George and Debra Lucas of Peach County on two counts each of making false statements. He says they told school officials that they lived in Perry. Earlier this year, a grand jury charged two more sets of parents with giving false addresses so their children could go to Houston schools. He said charges against two of them, Cliff and Tammy Pulsifer of Fort Valley, were dropped after the couple removed their children from...

The Tea Party Express II came to visit us in the Peach State this evening. Please post your pictures and comments here. Thanks to all who came out to support our Republic!!

Justin M. DeCrow had been in the Army for 13 years. At 32, Staff Sgt. Justin M. DeCrow had been in the Army for 13 years and -- with a wife, 13-year-old daughter and bothersome case of sleep apnea -- had decided it was time to become a civilian. His mother, Rhonda Thompson, said Friday that DeCrow had returned over the summer from a year's deployment in South Korea to Evans, Ga., where he had built a house several years ago. His wife, Marikay -- whom he had known since the start of elementary school -- had a business there...

ATLANTA, GA—STEVEN H. BALLARD, 53, of McDonough, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. to serve over five years in federal prison on a wire fraud charge involving a real estate investment scam that lasted over five years and defrauded a dozen victims in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said, “I am gratified that the U.S. Attorney’s Office was able to present the losses of so many victims to the Court, and thereby obtain justice for those who relied on this former attorney and his ‘legal’ papers. In...

ROME, GA—KENNETH LANE GRAVETT, 42, of Cedartown, Georgia, a former Deputy with the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, pleaded guilty today in federal district court to mail fraud relating to the submitting of a false insurance claim on a motorcycle. According to Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: In 2008, GRAVETT was a Deputy with the Polk County Sheriff’s Department. GRAVETT fell behind on making monthly loan payments on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. He then conspired with another individual to make it appear that the motorcycle was stolen, so that he could...

The ideal of the coolly rational scientific observer, completely independent, free of all preconceived theories, prior philosophical, ethical and religious commitments, doing investigations and coming to dispassionate, unbiased conclusions that constitute truth, is nowadays regarded by serious philosophers of science (and, indeed, most scientists) as a simplistic myth...

Those high-profile gubernatorial and congressional races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York got most of the headlines, but the genuinely revealing contests may well have been some of the down-ballot contests held in Maine, Georgia and Pennsylvania. In Maine, a referendum to repeal the state's recently enacted gay marriage law won 52-48 percent. despite a massive outpouring of resources by gay rights groups. Gay marriage advocates spent an estimated $4 milion defending the law, while opponents reportedly spent about $2.5 million. Turnout was higher than expected for an off-year election, according to Maine officials, and there were about 100,000...

Memory cards in seven voting machines were unintentionally left in Atlanta precincts Tuesday night, in a poll worker error that election officials say is not expected to affect the outcome of any race. Fulton County Board of Elections Director Barry Garner says he expects to gain access to the memory cards Wednesday morning and tally the remaining votes. Garner says poll workers in the seven precincts were in a hurry and did not ensure that all the cards were removed from the machines. He called the oversight unacceptable and said his office would put procedures in place to prevent such...

Darwin’s bulldog—Thomas H. Huxley --snip-- Huxley, although an unbeliever, was thoroughly familiar with the gospel, and had little time for Christians who compromised their position by supporting the anti-biblical belief of evolutionary naturalism. He wrote: ...

Atlanta has one more month and one more election to go before it chooses the city's next mayor: Councilwoman Mary Norwood and former state Sen. Kasim Reed will face each other in a runoff Dec. 1. With 100 percent of the vote counted, Norwood led the race with 45 percent. She maintained a comfortable margin throughout the vote counting Tuesday night but was unable to muster the 50 percent required to put the race away. Reed finished a strong second, with 37 percent, and City Council President Lisa Borders faded to a distant third with 14 percent in the eight-way...

ROME, GA—AARON FREEMAN, 49, of Rome, Georgia, and eight other Georgia men have been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly taking part in a scheme that caused FREEMAN’s employer, Temple Inland Inc., to pay more than $4.8 million for timber that did not exist. FREEMAN and seven of his co-defendants made their initial appearances in federal court in Rome today before United States Magistrate Judge Walter E. Johnson. “Temple Inland operates a paper mill outside of Rome that processes hundreds of truckloads of timber every day,” said Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates. “FREEMAN was a scale...

...Today, let’s talk cameras. Cameras on utility polls. Cameras on the corners of buildings. Cameras following you as you walk through town, a college campus, or your own neighborhood. Upset? Seems quite a few Atlantans are...

Sanford Bishop (GA-2) WASHINGTON OFFICE 2429 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC 20515-1002 Phone- (202) 225-3631 Fax- (202) 225-2203 ALBANY OFFICE 235 Roosevelt Avenue Albany Towers, Suite 114 Albany GA 31701 Phone: (229) 439-8067 Fax: (229) 436-2099 COLUMBUS OFFICE 18 Ninth Street, Suite 201 Columbus, GA 31901 Phone: (706) 320-9477 Fax: (706) 320-9479 THOMASVILLE OFFICE 137 East Jackson Street, Thomasville, GA 31792 Phone: (229) 226-7789 Fax: (229) 226-7860 Contact him http://bishop.house.gov/display.cfm?section_id=13 Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sanford-Bishop-Jr/18910585219 Dan Boren (OK-2) Muskogee Office 431 W. Broadway Muskogee, OK 74401 (918) 687-2533 (918) 686-0128 fax Claremore Office 309 W. 1st Street Claremore, OK 74017 (918) 341-9336...

( Atlanta has thrived in SPITE of it's useless, tax everything, do nothing, give perks to officials city government, NOT because of it!! It's the entreprenuers, transportation hub, and the climate that have Atlanta humming!) White candidate scrambles vote, attitudes in Atlanta race By Joseph Curl For decades as white residents fled to the suburbs, Atlanta's black political establishment, led by a string of strong mayors, revived the moribund economy and so revamped the city's image that it earned a national reputation as "Hotlanta." Ironically, that success - including a winning bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics and a...

August 8, 2006 These are the Blue Dog democrats to pound on obamacare Part #1 Jason Altmire (PA-4) Aliquippa Office 2110 McLean St. Aliquippa, PA 15001 ph: 724-378-0928 fx: 724-378-6171 Natrona Heights Office 2124 Freeport Road Natrona Heights, PA 15065 ph: 724-226-1304 fx: 724-226-1308 Washington DC Office 332 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 ph: 202-225-2565 fx: 202-226-2274 Satellite Offices Cranberry Township Office Cranberry Township Municipal Building 2525 Rochester Road Cranberry Township, PA 16066-6499 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm - First and Third Thursdays of every month Ellwood City Office Ellwood City Municipal Building Lawrence Avenue Ellwood City, PA 16117 2:00...

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has announced election of The Reverend Bernice King, the youngest daughter of The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (the organization's founder), as its eighth president. The announcement has raised concern among the LGBT community and its supporters. Bernice King has been vocal against marriage equality and has stoked the homophobic fires when she said, "I know in my sanctified soul that he (Dr. King) did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage."

Authorities say a charter bus carrying members of the Morehouse College band has crashed on Interstate 75, injuring several students on their way to a football game.

An Iraqi immigrant accused of running down his daughter in Arizona with his car because she was becoming "too Westernised" has been arrested in Georgia, authorities say. Jim Joyner, a spokesman for the US Marshals Service in Atlanta, said on Friday that Faleh Almaleki was arrested when he arrived at Atlanta's airport. He had been sent from the United Kingdom after authorities denied him entrance. Almaleki, 48, awaits extradition to Arizona and will face two counts of aggravated assault, according to Peoria police. He is accused of striking and then running over his 20-year-old daughter and a family friend with...

Union anger over the Federal Aviation Administration's decision to revoke the licenses of two Northwest Airlines pilots threatens to disrupt voluntary safety-reporting programs used by many carriers, according to industry officials. FAA regulators Tuesday revoked the licenses of both pilots aboard Northwest Flight 188, which failed to respond to air-traffic controllers for about 90 minutes. The union isn't defending actions of the pilots, who asked to be protected under voluntary reporting rules. But officials of the Air Line Pilots Association claim regulators jumped the gun and disregarded voluntary procedures worked out over many years among regulators, airlines and unions. The...

A harbor dredging operation carried out despite concerns from wildlife officials killed at least six loggerhead sea turtles in September - two in Savannah and four in Brunswick. The Army Corps of Engineers dredged the entrances to both the Savannah and Brunswick harbors for a total of 15 days using most of $6.8 million in federal stimulus funds meted out for the project.The corps usually avoids such summertime dredging precisely for the protection of turtles, Measures were taken to reduce the turtle death toll to the federal limit allowed for this particular dredging, a limit the corps successfully petitioned to...

About an hour ago a twin engine Cessna general aviation aircraft crashed into a home about three miles (straight line) from our house. The sole occupant of the home (friend of a friend) died in the home. Unknown yet about how many souls were on the plane. I was working at home today and heard/felt the 'boom'. Weather is overcast, light rain, winds 10 miles or less from the east, 65 degrees. Probably not more than 5 miles north of the airport. I guess the plane would have departed to the east, made a left hand turn. Should have been...

Quantcast Political Insider The Democratic attack on Mary Norwood 7:03 am October 30, 2009, by Jim Galloway Cover image of Flyer sent by Democratic Party of Georgia declaring Mary Norwood a Republican The first sharp, negative attack of the Atlanta mayoral race hit the mailboxes of voters on Thursday, declaring front-runner Mary Norwood’s Republican past to be “the elephant in the room.” The flyer, paid for by the state Democratic party, urged voters: ”Vote for Kasim Reed. Vote for Lisa Borders. Vote for Reuben McDaniel.” Reed and Borders, of course, are mayoral candidates trailing Norwood in the polls. McDaniel is...

More than three decades after Maynard H. Jackson Jr. became the first African-American mayor of a major Southern city here, the era of uncontested black leadership in the cradle of the civil-rights movement is facing its first true test: A white city councilwoman leads the mayoral race by a wide margin just days before the Nov. 3 election. Recent polls show Mary Norwood, a fiscal conservative who lives in a heavily white, wealthy section of Atlanta, with support ranging from 39% to 46% of likely voters. That puts her potentially within striking distance of winning outright next week or heading...

The Medical Center of Central Georgia is cutting hours, clinics and pharmacy offerings at its W.T. Anderson Health Center, which provides primary and specialty care to the poor. In addition, the Anderson Health Center will not be accepting new primary care patients into its CarePartners program, which provides primary and specialty care on a sliding-fee scale based on patients’ income, assets and insurance. (snip) Bibb County, which always has provided funding to the Medical Center to offset the cost of treating the county’s poor, cut the hospital’s allocation by almost $3 million for fiscal 2010. Hospital CEO Don Faulk had...

Prominent antitheist and self-styled “atheist” Richard Dawkins has written a new book, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Ironically, he admits about all his previous pro-evolution books: “Looking back on these books, I realized that the evidence for evolution is nowhere explicitly set out, and that it seemed like a good gap to close.”. Naturally, CMI is preparing a book to answer Dawkins’ latest. In a chapter about alleged bad design, Dawkins had a section about the loss of wings and evolution of features like halteres, the little drumstick-like stabilizers behind the one pair of wings on...

CNN's prime-time programs finished fourth and last among the cable news networks in October. CNN's programs finished behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but also its own sister network HLN.

First Dupage Bank, Westmont, IL Riverview Community Bank, Otsego, MN Bank of Elmwood, Racine, WI Hillcrest Bank Florida, Naples, FL Flagship National Bank, Bradenton, FL American United Bank, Lawrenceville, GA Partners Bank, Naples, FL

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's a big number that only tells part of the story. The number of banks that have failed so far this year topped 100 on Friday — hitting 106 by the end of the day — the most in nearly two decades. But the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad...

Authorities hoped to enlist the aid of a UPS manager in intercepting a package of marijuana. Instead, investigators say, the manager took matters into her own hands. Rather than let police know a package in her store contained suspected drugs, Anna K. Wright of Atlanta is accused of stealing the pot, selling it, and then lying about what she did. According to the U.S. District Attorney's Office, Wright, 33, was alerted that a package could arrive for a particular mail box. When it did, authorities wanted Wright to contact them. A package did arrive. But Wright apparently decided to take...

Shallow water light ranges from the ultraviolet to red (wavelengths 360 nm - 650 nm). Going deeper, the extremes disappear and the spectrum narrows to a blue (approx 480 nm). Of the fish species whose colour vision has been tested to date, all except one can see in the ultraviolet (UV). The exception is the scabbardfish, which is the subject of a new research paper. The authors find that the fish that are sensitive to UV have a pigment that absorbs UV light, but the scabbardfish lacks this pigment and has, instead, a pigment that is violet-sensitive. The scabbardfish (Lepidopus...

The British Broadcasting Corporation in England has deemed it necessary to try and absolve Darwinism from any responsibility for the Holocaust and the many other atrocities committed in the name of evolutionary progress ever since Darwin published his Origin of Species in 1859. To achieve this, BBC2 produced a TV “documentary” entitled Darwin’s Dangerous Idea,[1] written and presented by their journalist and political commentator Andrew Marr. This 3-part series...

Child’s Body Found In Search For Missing Girl Somer Thompson disappeared on way home from school on Monday TODAY staff and wire Authorities say they have not identified a child's body they found Wednesday in a landfill while searching for a missing 7-year-old girl. Family members were hopeful the girl is still alive, though neighbors in the girl's community feared the worst. The partially covered body of the child was found in a Georgia landfill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving from the neighborhood where Somer Thompson disappeared Monday. Sheriff Rick Beseler said investigators searched...