Free Republic

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is touring the hardest-hit of California's farmland today, as efforts continue to gauge the damage done by the recent cold snap. The tour of Central Valley farms and orchards coincides with the opening of one-stop assistance centers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and 16 other communities for agricultural workers out of work because of the frigid temperatures. The centers are offering job and unemployment assistance, food, healthcare and other services, according to the governor's office. New centers are at the following locations: * Workforce Development Center 1151 Spruce Street Riverside, CA 92507 * San Bernardino Employment...

Stuck Mojo guitarist and songwriter, Rich "The Duke" Ward, will be appearing on the Fox Radio Network (FNC) at approximately 7:10 EST, Tuesday, December 19th on John Gibson's "The Big Story" to discuss the song/video "Open Season" from the new Stuck Mojo album "Southern Born Killers." To listen, click on the link below and choose the "Listen Live" button. http://www.foxnews.com/bigstory/index.htmlWith "Open Season," Stuck Mojo has taken a stand against the current, global jihad being waged by violent, Islamic extremists. This war is not only against America or Western Civilization, but against anyone who does not agree with their interpretation...

Excited with anticipation, local children watch as the concrete walls are laid and the rebar for columns are installed. Working through the Provincial Reconstruction Development Council and the local maneuver unit, the 25th Infantry Division, the Governorate of Kirkuk requested the construction of a permanent facility to replace the tent school in Zakros. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Mike Bransford New Iraq-Zakros Primary School to Open in Kirkuk By Polli Barnes Keller U.S. Army Corps of Engineers TIKRIT, Iraq, Nov. 21, 2006 -- Construction of a $269,000 primary school that will educate approximately 300 children began September...

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo., Nov. 17, 2006 -- In advance of the holiday season and its 51st season of tracking Santa Claus on his annual journey around the world, the North American Aerospace Defense Command today activated its “NORAD Tracks Santa” Web site for 2006. The U.S.-Canadian command’s program began in 1955 when an errant phone call was made to NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local child who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement. The commander who answered the phone that...

VIENNA (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Iran was open to "new conditions" to resolve its nuclear dispute with Western powers and believed talks could produce agreement. "We are in favor of dialogue and negotiation and we believe that we can resolve the problems in a context of dialogue and of justice together," Ahmadinejad told a news conference during a visit to the Senegalese capital Dakar. "I am announcing that we are available, we are ready for new conditions," he said without elaborating, before leaving to fly to a summit of Non-Alignment Movement countries in Cuba. The United...

NEW YORK - Maria Sharapova began the U.S. Open with as much buzz about her sponsorships as her strokes, as much talk about her getups as her game. She's long insisted she's more about substance than style, though, and now she owns a second Grand Slam title to prove it. Better on the biggest points all night, the third-seeded Sharapova beat No. 2 Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-4, 6-4 in the U.S. Open final Saturday to add a follow-up championship to her breakthrough title at Wimbledon in 2004. "I experienced it two years ago, and I knew that I wasn't done," Sharapova...

The patrol pulled up and men of the U.K. 3 Squadron Royal Air Force Regiment jump out of their vehicles and approached a crowd of waiting men. Unlike most places in Iraq the airmen are relaxed. They are able to remove their helmets and conceal their weapons as they meet and greet the familiar faces of the Shaghamba tribe. For the Iraqis and British airmen the occasion is a happy one. The ceremony marked the completion of a project financed by Coalition forces in Iraq to pump water into a Marsh Arab village near Basra Air Station. "We are very...

7/19/2006 - KIRKUK AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Fifty-eight Air Force engineers filling a shortage of Soldiers in Iraq have completed more than a dozen construction projects, often under fire, throughout a 10,000-square-mile zone for the Army's 1st Brigade Combat Team. After six months, the Airmen of the 732nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron's Detachment 10 have maintained and repaired six convoy routes and seven forward-operating bases. "It's been very strenuous, and sometimes extremely dangerous. I'm ready to get home, see my family and unwind," said Master Sgt. Ken Dunbar, Det. 10 superintendent of operations and acting first sergeant. "We have...

WASHINGTON, July 12, 2006 – United Service Organizations of Metropolitan Washington will get a sizeable boost from Northrop Grumman Corporation tomorrow to help establish its newest military airport lounge, at Washington Dulles International Airport here. Jerry Agee, the company's corporate vice president, will present a $50,000 check to Elaine B. Rogers, president of the USO of Metropolitan Washington, to begin development of the lounge. Northrop Grumman has committed another $375,000 over a five-year period to support USO's operating budget at Dulles, said Adrienne Trout, vice president of communication and development for USO of Metropolitan Washington. "USO is very excited," she...

In the eyes of the federal agents who secretly watched him, Alberto Zatarain was a drug dealer who made all the right moves. He had at least three aliases. He switched cell phones every month and drove ugly old cars to avoid notice. After dark, he holed up and watched TV inside a rented matchbox house in Richfield that rattled from low-flying jets. No clubs, no parties, no women. And every few months, when another runner came up from Mexico, Zatarain handed off suitcases of cash -- profits from a booming business that stretched from metro suburbs to farm towns...

Condi and Sergei air differences over an open microphone By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow (Filed: 01/07/2006) Condoleezza Rice, America's secretary of state, is famed for her sang froid but one person seems to be able to rattle her - Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. The pair are known to have goaded each other on several occasions, reflecting the souring relationship between Washington and Moscow. However, a candid conversation between the pair was revealed to the world when a technician failed to switch off an audio feed during a closed-door lunch at a meeting of foreign ministers in Moscow. For...

PARIS (AFP) - Israeli soldier Shahar Peer was one of the top marksmen in her military training and now she has Martina Hingis in her sights at the The 19-year-old Peer knocked out Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva 6-4, 7-5 on Saturday and faces Hingis on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals. Win or lose, Peer will continue to combine her tennis career with her obligation to serve two years military service with the Israeli army. "I had to train with weapons during my two and half weeks basic training. I was one of the best in shooting. I...

Lorena Solorio remembers her younger brother teasing her as a child, telling her he was better than she was. Born in the United States, he was a citizen. Brought to the country in the trunk of a car, she was not. ``I couldn't understand why we had to sneak in,'' she said Sunday. Now an employee of Catholic Charities of San Jose and a U.S. citizen, Solorio works with many children who are in the country illegally. As the national debate over illegal immigration continues to swirl, she said, she sees in those children the same confusion she felt as...

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., May 19, 2006 – The military showcased its personnel and equipment for its own today as the annual Joint Service Open House kicked off here. Duluth, Minn., Air National Guardsman Maj. John Klatt poses for photos with Abreanna Ball, 9, at the Joint Service Open House at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., May 19. Abreanna was touring the military displays with students from Benjamin D. Foulois Elementary School near the base. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The festivities, open today for military and civilian defense security badge holders...

President Bush plans to address the nation on Monday night at 8 PM to con the American public into buying into his ludicrous immigration policies. His approval ratings are at an all-time low, with only 31% of Americans approving of his job performance, while "68% believe the United States is worse off today than it was before Mr. Bush became president." Bush's immigration policies would open the floodgates to illegals, and Americans do not approve -- and it looks like the Senate agrees. Another poll shows support for the House's tough and very sensible immigration legislation, HR 4437: ...69 percent...

cspan 2 now. Saying the USA must accept internation migration This is foreign ministers giving the talking points of the DNC.

The state Legislature's legal adviser says the University of California regents have violated state open-meeting laws by voting behind closed doors on executive pay packages. In a 12-page opinion, the Office of Legislative Counsel wrote that the state Education Code requires regents' committees to meet in public whenever they take action on compensation proposals involving the president, chancellors and certain other top executives. The regents have held at least a dozen such meetings in private during the past five years, UC records show. --snip-- "It is our opinion that a standing committee of the Board of Regents of the University...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Raising money for local Republicans even as he ponders his own political future, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Monday that Republicans must increasingly be "a big party" that accepts divergent views. Giuliani said that broad-brush themes, like limited government, ought to define the Republican Party — not hot-button social issues like abortion and gay rights. "The major thing that we organize around as Republicans is government that puts more reliance on people than government," Giuliani said. "They (Democrats) tend to think of government solutions as most of the answers." Giuliani was in Iowa...

British troops in Iraq are afraid to open fire, secret MoD report confirms By Sean Rayment. Defence Correspondent (Filed: 30/04/2006) British troops in Iraq "lack the confidence to open fire" because of a "fear of prosecution", says a confidential Ministry of Defence (MoD) report seen by The Sunday Telegraph. It confirms that soldiers believe that if they shoot dead insurgents they will become embroiled in a "protracted investigation" and if prosecuted will receive "no support from the chain of command". British troops show restraint when attacked in Basra The study into soldiers' confidence is understood to have been ordered by...

Afghan Police Open Tactical Training Facility The facility allows Afghan National Police cadets to train to respond to domestic violence, apprehension of an insurgent, a hostage situation or when contraband is expected in the home. By Combined Security Transition Command–Afghanistan ABUL, Afghanistan, April 21, 2006 — The Afghan National Police took a major step toward advance training with the opening of the Brummet Tactical Training House at the Central Training Center April 18. This opening reflects the progress being made by the Afghan National Police.During a ribbon cutting ceremony, Afghan Brig. Gen. Khadadad Aga, Central Training Center commander, inaugurated...