Free Republic

The Obama administration will not implement a controversial piece of the healthcare reform law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday. Sebelius said the department will not continue trying to implement the CLASS program, which was intended to provide insurance for long-term care. Republicans charged that the program’s financial structure was unsustainable, and Sebelius conceded as much Friday. “We have not identified a way to make CLASS work at this time,” she wrote on the Huffington Post's website. Sebelius said HHS will “suspend” implementation of the program. The department recently reassigned the people it had placed in the...

JONESBORO, Ark. -- Three men convicted of killing three 8-year-old Cub Scouts and dumping their bodies in an Arkansas ditch changed their pleas Friday, resolving a yearslong effort to win their freedom. Under a plea bargain, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were being freed immediately. The boys' families were notified about the pact ahead of time but were not asked to approve it. The defendants, known by their supporters as the West Memphis 3, agreed to a legal maneuver that lets them maintain their innocence while acknowledging prosecutors have enough evidence against them. They were credited with time...

This is a Sunday afternoon exercise in fun and memories of days-gone-by. We do a lot of fightin' and arguin' here in FR during the week, so on Our Lord's day of rest, how about relating your memories of things that have passed on into the dustbin of American history - things you yearn for or wish were still among us. Have you caught yourself saying to your kids or your friends, 'well, when I was a little kid, we did it this way' or 'we didn't have any money but we were happy'.

While learning the Declaration Of independence by heart, I realized that many readers may "pass over" so many of the beautiful phrases without really grasping their meaning. Therefore, I have endeavored to offer the following "Declaration of Independence for Dummies" in "street corner English". Actual words/phrases of the Declaration of Independence will be italicized, with my simpler translation following on normal font. Here Goes: ”When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary or one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...” Whenever a group of people needs to split from their government... ”...and...

<p>11-25) 21:32 PST -- San Francisco supervisors today banned the use of the Segway Scooter on city sidewalks, agreeing with senior advocates that the new technology poses a threat to the old, the young, and the disabled.</p> <p>"It's a really big gizmo," said Supervisor Chris Daly, who sponsored the legislation. "You kind of lean on it and it takes off." He said he watched as one user trying it out failed to navigate with the small platform device and crashed into a wall.</p>