Free Republic

The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) holds a public hearing today on whether to penalize cabbies who refuse to transport fares on religious grounds. Some Muslim cabbies at the Twin Cities Airport are refusing to carry travelers who have alcohol with them or who have service dogs.

With tough questions being asked at City Hall over why San Francisco's parking meters aren't generating more revenue, one possible explanation beginning to emerge is the astonishingly high number of handicap placards that have been handed out in the city. San Francisco has about 23,000 coin-fed parking meters, while city residents hold about 90,000 permanent and temporary handicap parking placards, issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, allowing them to park for free, said Judson True, spokesman for the city's Municipal Transportation Agency. That's about four placards for every meter. "While the MTA supports the legitimate use of disability...

Despite having a heavy hand in negotiations, the United States says it will not sign a global treaty codifying the rights of people with disabilities. The United Nations has been working on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since December 2001, when it formed ad-hoc committees to study the issue. Five years later, UN delegates are in a final week of negotiations over provisions of the draft convention, which aims to promote respect, autonomy, non-discrimination, inclusion, accessibility and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. "Our view is that the US actually already has in existence on the...

Only in America...can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance! Only in America...are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink! Only in America...do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions! Only in America...do people order double cheese burgers, a large fry, and a diet coke! Only in America...do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters! Only in America...do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and leave useless pieces of junk in the garage!...

An Early Handicap of 2008 It is very difficult to make any interesting arguments about what will happen in 2008 this far out. It is impossible, for instance, to say (a) which candidates on either side will run, (b) which candidates will receive the nominations or (c) which candidate will win the general election. It is easy, at this point, to get a sense of who is thinking about running and who is not. But that also makes it relatively uninteresting -- a quick peek at whom C-SPAN is covering on its "Road to the White House" will tell you...

A wheelchair-bound teenaged fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is upset new security measures will require her seat cushion to be examined by security staff. Melanie Schuknecht, 17, received a written notice from the Tampa Sports Authority informing of her of the new measure. She was requested to provide information on her disability and a letter from a doctor confirming medical items needed. The teen's mother, Kim, told the Tampa Tribune her daughter would endure the embarrassment of having to be lifted from her chair, as well as undergo more intensive scrutiny than other fans. Mickey Farrell, the stadium's operations...

Mayor Michael B. Coleman received national exposure as a Democratic candidate for governor on shock-jock radio Wednesday. It’s a venue he would have preferred to avoid, the mayor admitted later. "It didn’t end up well." But Coleman said he "just couldn’t bite my tongue" any longer after what he characterized as three days of bullying and "blasting the city" by conservative talk-radio host Glenn Beck. Even though Coleman was less than his rhetorical best during the chaotic eight-minute exchange with Beck, he said, "I’ll never be regretful of standing up to those who are not telling the truth, who misrepresent...

Facing Global Sanctions, Iran Uses Oil Fields to Seek Alliances By JAD MOUAWAD Published: April 19, 2005 EHRAN, Iran - As it faces the threat of global sanctions from the United States and Europe because of suspicions that it is turning its nuclear program to weapons production, Iran is fighting back with a powerful weapon of its own: its vast oil and gas resources. Iran's ruling clerics are meticulously arranging energy sales and building partnerships with influential countries, including China and India, as a way to win stronger friendships around the world. Abedin Taherkenareh/European Pressphoto AgencyAn oil terminal in the...

This documentary is fascinating. A man who has been in a coma and never expected to talk again, talks after 19 years of being in a coma. I hope you all get a chance to watch it....

The Groningen Protocol has left little doubt - there are those humans whose lives are so worthless they are deemed disposable. These useless, undesirable babies are better off dead because their doctors say they must be culled from our midst. Defective babies must be killed when their parents want them killed - and sometimes even when they don't want them to be killed: Under the Groningen protocol, if doctors at the hospital think a child is suffering unbearably from a terminal condition, they have the authority to end the child's life. The protocol is likely to be used primarily for...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- A British government official has sparked outrage by suggesting that children with disabilities should be killed. John Harris, a member of the Human Genetics Commission, told a meeting at Westminster that he saw no distinction between a late-term abortion and euthanizing a child with disabilities shortly after birth. In his comments, made to a governmental committee looking at human technologies, Harris endorsed infanticide in cases of a child carrying a genetic disorder that remained undetected during pregnancy. "I don't think infanticide is always unjustifiable," he said. "There is a very widespread and accepted practice of infanticide...

<p>At political hangouts like Simon's Restaurant, where wide-eyed legislative staffers and graying campaign consultants swill beer and wolf down pot stickers a couple of blocks from the state Capitol, it's the governor's race that's on the table.</p> <p>The 2006 governor's race, that is.</p>

<p>Charges were dropped yesterday against Ruth "Grammy" Gordon, an 83-year-old wheelchair-bound grandmother, who was originally charged with assault and battery, and assault with a deadly weapon, because an altercation she had last week with six airport security guards, that left all six hospitalized.</p>