Free Republic

249 people showed up at Whispering Pines Nudist Resort and Campground near Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., to take part in the American Association for Nude Recreation World Record Skinny Dip for the Guinness World Record in conjunction with AANR resorts nationwide at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon

Note: The following text is a quote: Federal Grand Jury Returns Indictment on Internet Bomb Threats Hammond, IN—The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana announced that a three-count indictment was returned against Ashton Lundeby for his role in Internet bomb and related threats directed to Purdue University, Indiana University/Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Ind., and numerous other educational institutions throughout the country. Lundeby, 16, of Oxford, N.C., was arrested by the FBI at his home in Oxford on March 6, 2009. A federal search warrant was also executed at that time. Lundeby was arrested pursuant to a...

Running out of places to raise taxes, NC proposes tax hikes on Internet transactions that would require out of state retailers to collect taxes on NC consumers. Retailers are fighting back citing a Supreme Court ruling which states it violates the interstate commerce clause of the constitution.

Retailer Amazon.com has cut off its relationship with affiliates in North Carolina effective today, report people who have been involved in the company’s marketing program. Affiliates helped Amazon sell by advertising books, music and other goods on their Web sites. If a customer clicked through those links and bought something on the Web site, the affiliate received a share of that sale. “We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account has been closed as of June 26, 2009,” reads and e-mail Amazon sent to its affiliates today. “This is a direct result of...

CHESAPEAKE – A Chesapeake man is among four people charged in an eight-month moonshine investigation in North Carolina and Virginia. Larry Donnell Parker, 57, of Tournament Drive, faces 12 charges of sale of alcoholic beverages without a license, possessing and transporting untaxed whiskey and maintaining a common nuisance. Virginia ABC agents say they seized one vehicle and 72 containers of untaxed whiskey when they arrested Parker last Thursday. They say he would sell the containers for $45 each. At the same time in Northampton County, NC, three people were arrested on 11 charges total, including the manufacture and distribution of...

A measure granting $20,000 each to surviving victims of North Carolina's forced sterilization program of the mid-20th century was approved Tuesday by a House committee but still appears a long shot for passage this year. SNIP An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 of the 7,600 people sterilized against their will between 1929 and 1975 are still alive, Womble said. SNIP The state-sponsored program sterilized people considered at the time to be mentally disabled and genetically inferior as a solution for mental retardation and mental illness because they would be prevented from producing offspring.

The far-left community group NACA just squeezed taxpayer dollars out of the state of North Carolina. NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America) is a very aggressive ACORN wannabe and it played a role in the subprime mortgage collapse by using the Community Reinvestment Act to hound banks into lending money to people they should have known wouldn't be able to pay it back. The state's Democratic governor, Bev Perdue, is even bragging about surrendering the $1 million grant from the One North Carolina Fund on her website. The grant is going to help NACA expand its operations. In her press...

The wait was long and by midday, the air conditioning had quit. But about 3,000 people found such conditions well worth tolerating Friday because of what else awaited them at an east Charlotte office park: The prospect of a job. One thousand fourteen jobs, to be precise, with Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, a community advocacy and homeownership organization that Thursday announced it planned a mass hiring in Charlotte. On Friday, the Boston-based nonprofit began a job fair, which continues today at its local office off Albemarle Road. The plan is to hire about 550 people immediately, and the rest...

ASHEVILLE, NC—Bernard von NotHaus, 65, formerly of Evansville, Indiana, and two additional defendants from Evansville, along with William Kevin Innes, 53, of Asheville, North Carolina, have been indicted in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on conspiracy and other charges in connection with an alleged unlawful operation to publish, possess and sell for profit, coins in resemblance and similitude to U.S. coins. All four defendants are also charged in the alleged conspiracy with uttering and passing, and attempting to utter and pass, a coin of silver in resemblance of genuine coins of the United States in...

NCSU Chancellor James L. Oblinger resigned this morning after days of shifting explanations about a deal he cut for former provost Larry Nielsen when Nielsen stepped down last month. Both men are at the heart over a controversy about how former state first lady Mary Easley gained a job at the university in 2005, then an 88-percent pay hike last year to a $170,000 salary. Last month McQueen Campbell, a friend of the Easleys who Gov. Mike Easley had appointed to the NCSU board of trustees, admitted to UNC system President Erskine Bowles that he had told Oblinger that Easley...

Copyrighted News Article. Gov't says they are trying to 'undermine the US currency system'. Link

RALEIGH -- The state Senate voted Thursday to ban smoking in bars and restaurants in North Carolina, setting the stage for what would be a historic prohibition of a product that created thousands of jobs, built Duke and Wake Forest universities and has long been an integral part of the culture in the nation's top tobacco-producing state. House members passed a tougher version last month, meaning that lawmakers will still have to work out a compromise, assuming the Senate passes the measure in a second vote Monday. The bill passed Thursday by an eight-vote margin, 26-18. The state's tobacco interests...

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The chancellor and provost at N.C. State have been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury meeting in Raleigh this week, according to federal records released Tuesday afternoon. Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen were asked to bring documents related to the hiring, promotion and salary of former first lady Mary Easley. The subpoenas follow reports in The News & Observer about the circumstances surrounding Easley's hiring at N.C. State in 2005 and the expansion of her duties last year, which raised her pay to $170,000. Mary Easley has come under pressure to resign her position from Oblinger...

State rejects request for DNA test on 18th-century remains from Bath A Raleigh author is attempting to reopen the 274-year-old estate of a Beaufort County man he thinks was once a member of Blackbeard's pirate crew -- and whose bones may be stored in a box in Raleigh. Kevin P. Duffus, a writer and filmmaker, says he needs access to the estate of Edward Salter, a landowner and merchant who died in 1735, to help confirm that the state has Salter's remains. With the backing of some of Salter's descendants, Duffus is seeking to have DNA testing done on bones...

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Juvenile Information Filed Hammond, IN—The United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana previously announced that a juvenile was arrested pursuant to a federal warrant. The arrest stems from a false bomb threat directed to Purdue University on February 15 and similar threats directed to other schools. The FBI, the Purdue University Police Department and the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor's Office, conducted an extensive investigation into this matter, resulting in that arrest. Over recent days several media sources have reported information that is incorrect. Accordingly, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana wishes to further announce that...

Rep. Virginia Foxx said in an interview with WXII12 News Friday that she regrets making comments about the Matthew Shepard Bill and plans to move ahead with her work in Congress. The Fifth District congresswoman has been under fire for calling the gay man's 1998 beating death a "hoax"....

Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby's bedroom in his mother's Granville County home is nothing,if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere–on the bed, on the floor,on the wall. But according to the United States government,the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15. The family was at a church function that night, his mother, Annette Lundeby, said. "Undoubtedly, they were given false information, or they would not have had 12 agents in my house with a widow and two children and three cats," Lundeby said....

For once, I actually agree with Olbermann. Rep. Foxx should indeed apologize. Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tortured and murdered in Wyoming. His story is portrayed in the play and film "The Laramie Project". Personally, I disagree with "hate crime" legislation because all crime can be considered "hateful". Does it really matter why someone is murdered? Murder is by definition a "hate crime". Is there really any need to complicate the laws? That said, Rep. Foxx's comments are truly "despicable", insensitive and shameful.

Our poll this month has incumbent US Senator Richard Burr holding onto a slim one point lead over potential Democratic challenger, Attorney General Roy Cooper 35% to 34%. 32% of voters say they are undecided at this point. We also asked favorability ratings of each. Burr has 33% favorable, 18% unfavorable for a net +15 favorability rating. 49.5% of voters either had no opinion or had never heard of Burr. For Cooper, he has 28% favorable, 8% unfavorable for a net of +20. 64% of voters either had no opinion or had never heard of Cooper. So basically, the status...

The state's health director said Monday afternoon that there are suspected cases of swine flu in North Carolina, but declined to say how many cases or where they were located. Dr. Jeffrey Engel said Monday evening that officials are involuntarily isolating patients who may have the virus. He declined to specifically say how many suspected cases were in the state, noting that the number is always changing, and he declined to say where they were located. "We're working very closely with providers, and they are investigating cases on a daily basis," Engel said. "It's a very fluid situation and there...

The city of Wilson, NC was tired of high internet, cable, and telephone prices, so they decided to do something about it. They started their own, city-owned, ISP. Now Time Warner Cable and Embarq have teamed up to convince North Carolina's legislature to propose bills outlawing community owned ISPs because the big guys cannot possibly compete.

It's been said that conservatism has different meanings for different people. It may not be textbook, but without a whole lot of navel gazing, here's what it means to me and what Free Republic is all about: In a word, Freedom! In two words, Preserving Freedom. In a handful of words as stated by our Founding Fathers, to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity! America was founded on the proposition that all men are created equal by God and that our unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are granted directly by God...

Do not believe the nattering nabobs of negativity. The Nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt was a huge success!! What we need now is MORE and LOUDER!! Obama has no clue. Being confronted by millions of fed-up citizens is new to him. He never expected the otherwise docile American people to rise up against his wannabe Marxist/fascist totalitarian regime. He's now lashing out at us through the Dept of Homeland Security as if We the People are his enemy. Well, we are! And he now knows it. And he's scared witless!! And the media has been reduced to the speechless,...

Sadly, after only a few years in office, Donnie Harrison has gone completely native and taken up the bad habits of his predecessor *Socialist Sheriff John Baker*with a letterhead shakedown solicitation of the public to fund the increasingly senile and predatory NC Sheriff Association.

Congratulations FReepers and Patriots! According to Henchster's ongoing tallies, we've surpassed 750,000 participants in our nationwide Tax Day TEA Party/Tax Revolt! Woo hoo!! All 50 states fully engaged! Over 600 cities represented and reports still coming in! Huge turnout, huge SUCCESS!! Elected officials take note: DO NOT TREAD ON ME!! Tyranny, usurpation, corruption, overreaching, big spending, high taxing will no longer be tolerated! We the people are FED-UP and we're not going to take it anymore! Ignore us at your own peril! All Congressional seats, all elected offices throughout the land at risk! Revolution is in the air!!

There’s nothing like a justifiable homicide to bring out the bigotry resting in the heart of Old Media reporters. Last week, Demario Brown, on the run from police, held up two women at gunpoint and forced them into the house they were visiting, and then held two additional victims at gunpoint while demanding money he claimed was stolen from him. Then things began to go wrong for Mr. Brown as one of the victims, Timothy King, fought back with his own gun. In the exchange of fire, Mr. Brown was fatally wounded, ran out of the house and collapsed a...

If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further: But in an interview on Fox TV in San Francisco, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) chalked up the GOP grass-roots effort as “AstroTurf.” “This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grass-roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class,” Pelosi said....

After the 2010 census has been held, the number of seats held by each state in the U.S. House of Representatives will change. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently estimated what the 2010 reapportionment will mean for each state. Eight states are expected to lose one seat each, in the U.S. House and in the Electoral College. They are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. States that will gain will be Texas (3 seats), and one each for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah. If the bill now pending in Congress to expand the...

A dirty little secret gun control advocates avoid mentioning is that many gun laws have racist origins. In southern states, some date to reconstruction and ensuing decades of racial unrest as whites passed “Jim Crow” laws to segregate southern states and limit the ability of blacks to vote and hold elected office. One example thoroughly documented by David Kopel in The Samurai, the Mountie, and the Cowboy: Should America Adopt the Gun Controls of Other Democracies? were laws designed to disarm blacks “cloaked in neutral, non-racial terms,” such as Tennessee, which adopted its “Army and Navy” law barring handguns except...

We cheer the reddest. We corn the hardest. And, apparently, we grin the widest. Because Nebraska is the happiest state in the U.S., a new study says. The survey — conducted by personal finance Web site MainStreet.com — ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia from fiscally happiest to saddest based on a few factors of economic well-being. These included foreclosure numbers, unemployment rates and the ratio of average debt to average annual income. “It reflects the attitude of this state,” said Gov. Dave Heineman. “We are a positive people with a can-do attitude who are focused on...

Women and girls as young as 16 were smuggled into this country from Mexico and brought to Charlotte to work as prostitutes. For $25 and $30, authorities said, they performed sex acts – sometimes with 20 men a day. Jorge Flores Rojas, a 44-year- old undocumented Mexican national accused of running the sex trafficking ring, has been sentenced in Charlotte to 24 years in prison, authorities said Tuesday. He was ordered to pay $117,000 in restitution to one woman. He also must register as a sex offender. Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Ryan said Tuesday that prostitution rings like the one...

"This is the very first English Jihadi Magazine aimed at the laymen, students of knowledge, political activists, intellectuals and scholars of the Ummah. It will seek to educate the Ummah on a monthly basis as to the latest happenings in fields related to Politics, Society, Economy, Technology etc. as well as educate the Muslims on the worldview of the Jihadi current. This magazine will serve as a platform for the English speaking Muslim Community to discuss their ideas, differences and thoughts on various issues related to the Islamic world and the hot issues which many stay silent on."

Are you ready for a FReepathon!!? Well, it's a new quarter and a new president and he's everything we knew he would be. In less than 90 days he's managed to take an economic downturn and turn it into an unmitigated disaster for good old American capitalism. Never let a good crisis go to waste! The government is now printing money as fast as they can run the presses. Our federal budget is doubling and tripling and the Fed is running with no controls or oversight whatsoever from the congress, pumping trillions more into the "economy." The government now spends...

Published: Apr 03, 2009 02:00 AM Modified: Apr 03, 2009 05:48 AM John Edwards investigation reported From Staff Reports The National Enquirer reported on its Web site that a federal grand jury in Raleigh is investigating whether former Sen. John Edwards violated campaign-finance laws in his bid for president in 2008 by making payments to Rielle Hunter, his admitted mistress. U.S. Attorney George Holding said Thursday that he "was not going to confirm or deny any investigation" regarding Edwards. A federal grand jury was convened in Raleigh on Wednesday. Grand jury proceedings are secret. Such grand juries have the power...

Hunker down Southeast FReepers, it's supposed to be a bad one..

Dropout Grants Subsidize Dropouts by: Daniel Allen, April 01, 2009 The policies of Beverly Perdue, the Democratic governor of North Carolina, were brought into question recently by a report showing that North Carolina’s high school dropout rate is getting worse, despite millions of dollars set aside in the state budget. The dropout grant programs have many supporters, but new research carried out by the John Locke Foundation suggests that evidence does not offer a bright forecast for the program’s future. The author of the report, Terry Stoops, found that “only 14 [out] of 100 North Carolina schools served by state-dropout-prevention-grant...

------------------------------cut------------------------ “In this month, we saw a shooting in Germany, we saw a church shooting and we saw an assault weapon rampage in Alabama that killed 10 people,” said Kolar. “That's an epidemic and that's just one month." But pro-gun groups are also at work this session. Grass Roots North Carolina President Paul Valone said "no carry zones" like Pine Lake Health and Rehabilitation post signs on site – a welcome sign for criminals. “Concealed handgun laws deter violent crime,” Valone said. “To that effect, we have legislation in the works to remove restaurants and public parks from the list...

On Sunday morning, gunman Robert Stewart barged into Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, North Carolina, and killed seven patients and a nurse, wounding three others. As in previous massacres, the killer picked a so-called “gun free” zone where firearms are officially prohibited. According to an employee of Peak Resources Incorporated, which operates Pinelake and five other health care facilities, all of their facilities are posted against concealed weapons. As in numerous other rampages, Stewart was stopped after he was shot by an armed individual, in this case 25-year-old Carthage police officer Justin Garner, who was himself among the wounded....

http://www.wral.com/news/local/audio/4846048/

CARTHAGE, N.C. – A single shot from a decorated police officer stopped a gunman's rampage through a North Carolina nursing home, ending a slaughter that left eight people dead and three more wounded, police said Monday. Carthage Police Chief Chris McKenzie said Monday the gunman may have targeted the home because his estranged wife, whom he did not name, works there. ... Authorities said Robert Stewart, 45, went on a terrifying rampage in the Pinelake Health and Rehab center on Sunday morning, killing seven residents and a nurse and wounding three other people. He was stopped by a single shot...

Police Releasing Few Details CARTHAGE, N.C. -- At least five people have been shot at a nursing home in Moore County, police said Sunday afternoon. Police were at the scene of the shooting at the Pinelake Nursing Home at 801 Pinehurst Ave. in Carthage at 12:30 p.m. According to sister station WNCN, the five people shot were taken to Moore Regional Hospital. WXII 12 has a crew at the scene and will bring more information as soon as it is available.

WASHINGTON – Double-digit unemployment rates hit more states in February, with North Carolina and Rhode Island seeing their rates hit record highs. The U.S. Labor Department's report, released Friday, showed the terrible toll the recession, now in its second year, is having on workers and companies alike. Seven states have unemployment rates that topped 10 percent last month. That's up from four states in January.

More states logged double-digit unemployment rates in February, with North Carolina and Rhode Island seeing their rates hit record highs. The U.S. Labor Department's report, released Friday, showed the terrible toll the recession, now in its second year, is having on workers and companies alike. Seven states have unemployment rates that topped 10 percent last month. That's up from four states in January.

Seven states posted unemployment rates above 10 percent in February, as Georgia is inched toward the double digits, according to seasonally adjusted figures released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Georgia's unemployment rate for February was a record high 9.3 percent. Metro Atlanta's unemployment rate also was 9.3 percent in February. Michigan registered the nation’s worst rate, with 12 percent of its labor force out of work as of February 2009. Also in double digits were South Carolina (11 percent), Oregon (10.8 percent), North Carolina (10.7 percent), California (10.5 percent), Rhode Island (10.5 percent), and Nevada (10.1...

Modern day versions of Paul Revere have been sounding the alarm about illegal immigration for years now with little effect on North Carolina's elected officials, the notable exception being a growing number of our Sheriffs. We have warned local lawmakers of the cost of becoming sanctuary cities and tried to tell anyone that would listen that this state was becoming a magnate for illegals who spread the word that North Carolina was soft on illegals. Despite the trend of self deportation due to the economy, North Carolina is viewed by illegals in this country as a sanctuary state. A recent...

Evidence for health claims is thin, but a Pittsboro woman is pushing for testing. There is nothing smooth about a cool glass of camel's milk. The animals aren't cooperative, milk production is less than stellar and it's illegal to sell across state lines. Still, proponents, led by Millie Hinkle of Pittsboro, say camel's milk may be an elixir, curing maladies from allergies to autism to diabetes – although the science behind such claims is thin. The prospect of a cure-all is what inspires Hinkle, a naturopathic physician who read about the health benefits in a magazine three years ago and...

Even if Democrats don’t agree with Barack Obama on everything, who among them would challenge a president with a 73 percent approval rating? He’ll soon find out. Sooner or later, the bonhomie of Obama’s Inauguration will dissipate — and the novelty of having a soul mate in the Oval Office will give way to intense internal debates over the extent and substance of Democratic change. Either that, or some people will just get on Obama’s nerves. The president’s friends might not become his enemies. But here are 10 Democrats — and some runners-up — who could soon find themselves on...

A North Carolina family's dog didn't eat the children's homework, he ate mom's money. Kelley Davis said she had an extra $400 in cash to deposit after working extra hours as a physical therapist. She told the News & Observer of Raleigh that on Friday she planned to deposit the money, but it wasn't in her pocket. She remembered leaving it in the bedroom and it occurred to her that the family's 2-year-old greater Swiss mountain dog, Augie, might have eaten it. Davis, 42, said when she took Augie for a walk Saturday, she found parts of three $100 bills...