Free Republic

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A professional wrestler claimed Friday that the state is intruding on her privacy by requiring her to provide proof from her doctor that she is not pregnant within a week of every match. Julie Utley also said pregnancy testing is too expensive for many women to continue participating in the sport. She estimated it would cost her at least $60 a month for tests. The rule took effect in November and is part of state requirements for licensing contact sports such as professional boxing, wrestling and martial arts. Utley, 19, said she has not wrestled since...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Miffed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will snub George W. Bush when the US president begins a visit to California amid a clash over fundraising for their Republican Party. The movie-star state governor, a moderate in Bush's conservative party, late Wednesday expressed irritation that the president apparently ignored his plea to delay the fundraising trip and said he would not take the time to meet Bush. The cash clash brings to the surface long-standing tensions between the two men as Schwarzenegger moves to raise crucial funds for himself ahead of a special election next month on which he...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, initially expected to headline the Democratic response to the Republican convention, are both missing in action this week -- leaving the job to lesser-known lawmakers. The low-key Democratic response at the GOP convention is a sharp contrast from the Republican counterattack in Boston, where party luminaries included Rudy Giuliani.

<p>Miffed because Democrats failed to endorse his "fiscal recovery plan" at their state convention, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger summoned top Assembly Democrats to his office for a private meeting last week and demanded to know what was up.</p> <p>Democrats in the Legislature had given Schwarzenegger the votes he needed in December to place his $15 billion debt-reduction bond and a companion measure on the March 2 ballot. But at the convention, some Democrats spoke against the plan, and a vote on whether to endorse it was put off indefinitely.</p>