Free Republic

The national bird, the bald eagle, will have a national tree, the oak, to alight on if legislation passed Tuesday by the House makes its way through Congress and is signed by the president. The oak tree, said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, is present in all 50 states and "represents the fundamental characteristics of this great nation: strength, endurance and beauty." Goodlatte, in a statement, said the oak, in addition to being a highly prized material for furniture and flooring, has played a vital role in the nation's history. He recalled how Andrew Jackson took shelter under Louisiana's Sunnybrook Oaks...

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. - Two men died Tuesday after a tree fell on the pickup truck they were riding in near Grand Rapids. Kenneth Michael Johnson, 42, and James Matthew Booth, 40, both of rural Grand Rapids, were working for Harris Township at the time, Itasca County sheriff's officials said. Sheriff Pat Medure said the two men were riding in their township work truck when an oak tree fell on its cab at about noon.

VENTURA, Calif. - A man who bulldozed more than 300 oak trees on his property could face more than 3 years in jail after he was convicted on criminal charges. William Kaddis, 58, could also face fines of nearly $100,000. He also was convicted Friday of illegally keeping 62 dogs on his property in the town of Ojai, altering a stream without permission and filing a false police report. The oak trees, protected under a 1992 Ventura County law, were destroyed sometime before October 2001. "This was the largest rape of land in the history of Ventura County, and if...

OXFORD, Miss., Oct. 21 — This was no everyday summit conference. For a start, there were a lot more bluejeans than pinstripe suits.There were dire predictions, of course, and the requisite amount of pointing with alarm. But instead of conference rooms perfumed with cigar and cigarette smoke, there were tents perfumed with oak and hickory smoke, and instead of a final communiqué full of dependent clauses, there was a final speech by Calvin Trillin of The New Yorker, full of one-liners.More than 300 people, mostly Southerners, some more knowledgeable than others, gathered on the campus of Ole Miss last weekend...

Just reported on Maryland nightly news: The "Wye tree", a 460 year old white oak in Wye Mills, MD, has fallen down across a highway. It is not certain if it was struck by lightening or the victim if high winds (stormy here today). Previously, some of it's branches were cut and made into gavels. The "Liberty tree" (somewhere else in Maryland) cracked and was cut down recently and made into guitars. I'm typing all this from memory, so pardon any errors. If anyone has a URL or official report, please do post it.