Free Republic

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Melissa Harrington feels the city of Lincoln, Neb., is all wet -- for busting her at a wet T-shirt contest. She's filed a $75,000 claim for restitution against the city and the police department, claiming officers are intimidating bar owners to keep them from hiring her for promotions.

The reports have circulated for days, fanned by breathless warnings to friends and family via phone calls and e-mails: Immigration agents are conducting raids across Austin, rounding up employees and customers at flea markets and store parking lots, in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and even outside public schools. Whether the reports are valid was difficult to ascertain Tuesday. Though two groups called for an end to the raids, federal immigration officials would not confirm that raids are even taking place, and the Mexican consul general in Austin said "there is absolutely no evidence" that they are. Despite a lack of official...

Haunted Harrington: Is there a ghost at City Hall?; Witnesses share their stories By Cathianne Werner-Porterfield, The JournalHARRINGTON — You're all alone in an old house at night. Considering yourself a sane person, you have no reason to be afraid. You're safe. Nothing is going to lurch out of the dark shadows and jump into your path. But you a hear a noise … a strange creaking sound … on the floor above you and sanity and reason go out the window and are taken over instantly by fear and apprehension. You collect yourself and speak reassuring words out loud....

A 42-year-old police officer arrested on charges he raped his teenage daughter has been released without bail, prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutors in Queens had requested $25,000 bail for the officer, whose name has been withheld by authorities. Queens Criminal Court Judge William Harrington ruled the defendant could go free after issuing an order barring him from having any contact with his 15-year-old daughter. The officer has been charged with rape, incest, endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse based on allegations by the girl that he raped and molested her several times since 2001, court papers said. The...

It is time for Christian liberals to respond to the efforts of the Republican Party and all its spokespersons to paint -- with as broad a brush stroke as possible -- all liberals as immoral and anti-religious. In his Wednesday column asking why so many people hate Bush, Cal Thomas implied that all liberals believe that God is merely an idea of man, that all liberals deny that it is God who makes the rules, that all liberals "wish to create their own version of heaven on Earth through the secular god of big government and a capitulation to our...

Probe to 'look inside' asteroids By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff in Paris, France Studies of asteroids would aid Earth-protection strategies A new space mission concept unveiled at a Paris conference aims to look inside asteroids to reveal how they are made. Deep Interior would use radar to probe the origin and evolution of two near-Earth objects less than 1km across. The mission, which could launch some time later this decade, would also give clues to how the planets evolved. The perceived threat of asteroids colliding with our planet has renewed interest in space missions to understand these...

More Catholic Bishops: If You're Pro-Abortion, Skip Communionby Steven ErteltLifeNews.com Editor July 9, 2004 Winona, MN (LifeNews.com) -- More Catholic bishops have said that anyone who supports abortion should recuse themselves from taking communion. Bishop Bernard Harrington of the Diocese of Winona in Minnesota is the latest to make a communion decision in the wake of a national meeting of American bishops on the issue."It is time we recognize that morality and ethics -- not our political parties -- determine what we believe," Harrington wrote in the latest edition of the diocesan newspaper, The Courier.Harrington added that "any Catholics who...