Free Republic

Michelle Obama has given a touch-up to the White House State Dining Room, the latest interior design change that will endure long after she leaves the building at a cost of $595,000. Her modest changes to the room where many dinners and other events are held follow this year´s more dramatic remake of the Old Family Dining Room and the unveiling of the Obama china service. The change, which has been years in the making, comes just months after head florist Laura Dowling quit her post and was escorted from the building by security. Scroll down for video -DailyMail.com reported

An Iranian Muslim cleric was hospitalized for three days after begin kicked and beaten up by two girls, one of whom he warned was “badly covered.” The incident in northern Iran was reported by the country's Mehr News Agency, whose outlook can be understood by the fact that it is owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization. The report was picked up first by Bloomberg News, which noted that the regime in Iran often sends out police to enforce strict Islamic dress codes, especially in the summer when women may be prone to wearing less covering. The cleric, Hojatoleslam Ali...

Reporting from Washington — Employers across the country added a modest 103,000 jobs to their payrolls in December, the government said Friday, closing out the year with a bit of a whimper instead of the bang that some economists were expecting. Analysts were expecting new jobs on the order of 150,000 after recent unemployment filings and private surveys of hiring and layoffs suggested that the anemic labor market was solidly improving. The Labor Department report, however, showed that the unemployment rate dropped dramatically last month to 9.4%, from 9.8% in November. The drop was likely due at least in part...

Comedy Central's coverage of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's weekend rally drew a modest TV audience. According to the network, 2 million viewers tuned in between noon and 3 p.m. on Saturday to watch the hosts and musical guests entertain about 200,000 fans on the Washington mall. Many more doubtless saw the show online, or caught coverage on the cable networks newtorks. This time period rarely draws big numbers for non-sports networks (the Rally audience was more than three times what the Comedy Central slot averages). Still, the rally received enormous media hype and 2 million is less than your...

Call it the "Rodney Dangerfield Recovery." It gets no respect from any quarter. Republicans pound away at its weakness, Democrats lament it, the media chronicles its troubles, investors fret about it, and many average citizens question whether it even exists. Polls show many people believe the economy is still in recession or getting worse. (Snip) "The labor market does continue to improve, despite a national pessimism," said Ward McCarthy, an economist at Jefferies & Co. The problem is growth in jobs and the economy overall is so sluggish it is "trying the patience of policymakers and the millions of unemployed

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The "modest" US economic recovery is slowing in some parts of the country, the Federal Reserve warned in its latest Beige Book report published Wednesday. "Economic activity has continued to increase, on balance, since the previous survey," the Fed said in a report, last published in early June, while noting significant head winds. "Among those Districts reporting improvements in economic activity, a number of them noted that the increases were modest, and two districts, Atlanta and Chicago, said that the pace of economic activity had slowed recently." The Fed's statement is unlikely to dampen concerns -- fanned...

by Karen Lynn Ford Other Articles by Karen Lynn Ford Modest Dress at Mass 08/27/05 About 12 years ago a woman in her early twenties went to Disney World. She loved Mickey Mouse and couldn’t wait to see him in person. She had a youthful love of everything the Magical World of Disney promised. In This Article...What I Wish I Had KnownA Detraction and DistractionStop Being So Mousy about It! What I Wish I Had Known Unfortunately, she also believed much of what she saw and learned in the “real world.” She thought that to get attention she needed to dress...

WASHINGTON (AP) - California's U.S. Senate race between Democrat Barbara Boxer and Republican Bill Jones cost a total of $19.1 million, according to final campaign finance reports made public this week. Spending by Boxer, the winner Nov. 2, accounted for fully three-quarters of that amount. Jones ended the race owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to consultants, airplane charters, lawyers, and even his own daughter, who did work for the campaign, the Federal Election Commission documents show. Jones' low spending made for one of the cheaper recent statewide contests. Boxer's 1998 victory over Republican Matt Fong cost more, as did...