Free Republic

There is a bill before Congress called the "Open Courts Act", that is designed to make it easier for members of the public to have access to court documents at the Federal District and Appellate level. The bill is HR-8235, and is co-sponsored by Hank Johnson and Doug Collins. I would strongly support this as it is something we sorely need. Today, when a decision is made in federal courts at the district and appellate level, if you want to read the decision itself or transcript of the oral arguments, you have to have an account with the PACER system....

Reuban Kipyego took his pacing duties an unexpected step further when he won the Abu Dhabi Marathon on Friday, December 6. As the designated runner who was tasked with pacing the elite field through a specific point in the race, the 23-year-old Kenyan was expected to drop out around 30K. But Kipyego kept running all the way through the finish line, breaking the tape in a time of 2:04:40. The pacemaker turned champion beat runner-up Joel Kimurer by a minute and 41 seconds. As the marathon champion, Kipyego earned $100,000 in prize money. “I was setting the pace for the...

Montana legislators will consider Wednesday afternoon whether to join every other state in the nation in putting anti-bullying policy into law. A bill being introduced by Democrat Rep. Kimberly Dudik in the Montana House Education Committee would define bullying, prohibit it in public schools and require that public school districts enact their own policies addressing bullying. […] Julie Hertzog, director of PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, said most state laws enforcing bullying definitions and procedures were enacted in the mid-2000s, with updates like cyberbullying provisions being added every year. She said the laws build better environments for kids to learn...

Did you know that before the basketball season, Indiana Pacer Ron Artest changed his jersey number to 91, the same number Dennis Rodman wore for the Chicago Bulls? Last season Artest wore 23, the number Michael Jordan wore for the Bulls. The change was telling. Early Sunday evening, National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern, to whom image is indeed everything, announced the penalties for the players involved in the Friday night brawl between the Indiana Pacers, the Detroit Pistons, and fans in the stands at the Palace of Auburn Hills that once again tarnished the quickly-eroding image of his league.