Free Republic

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) dropped out of the Democratic presidential race, paving the way for former Vice President Joe Biden to win the 2020 nomination. Sanders was unable to build on his early momentum in the race after wins in New Hampshire and Nevada as well as virtual tie in Iowa, going on to lose a string of states to Biden after the former vice president consolidated the support of moderate Democrats. The departure marks Sanders's second failed attempt at the Democratic nomination after he came up short in his 2016 challenge against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The...

Portland might wait 5 years on paving projectsby KGW.com Staff and Tim Gordon Updated yesterday at 2:09 PM PORTLAND - Portland's Bureau of Transportation says it can't afford to do some big repaving projects. Southwest 4th Avenue was scheduled to be repaved. That project is on hold, along with others the bureau hoped to contract out over the next five years. Potholes riddle SW Oak St. through downtown Portland. The street was targeted for a big repaving makeover but now fixing the cracks and patches will have to wait. "Of all infrastructure, the transportation infrastructure is visible above ground, so...

There was an article in the Washington Post yesterday talking about Obama's plan to tackle rising unemployment. An odd sub-headline stuck out like a sore thumb: "Plan Aims to Create or Save 2.5 Million Positions by 2011." I get the create part, but saving a job sounds like a liberal weasel-word for patting yourself on the back for the status quo. So for example, if I don't fire any of my employees and Obama enacts his proposals, whatever they are, has he saved a job? More . . .

Want your road to riches to remain paved with gold? Then you'd better pave your sidewalks with granite. Beverly Hills...City Manager Roderick Wood wants to start jack-hammering the dull concrete sidewalks along Rodeo Drive, ..home to ...Prada, Gucci, Cartier and Tiffany — and replace them with glimmering Kenoran Sage granite pavers. Never mind that the city just wrapped up a $16-million, two-year streetscape makeover that included new concrete sidewalks. ...."The greatest peril in today's luxury market is for one to rely on history only to become history." ... Wood said. .. But ...a rocky reception...there is the price. The city...

ATLANTA - Thomas Settles grew up on a dirt road in Edgefield, S.C., a road so crummy it washed out completely after a heavy rain and he sometimes couldn't get to school. Summers were spent choking at the road's dust. Now 53, Settles owns a paving company in Atlanta and is on a mission to save poor Southerners from the indignities he grew up with. He's out to make dirt roads as good as paved ones. "Look at this," he says, holding up a plastic jug of molasses-looking brown stuff. "This is all it takes." The brown stuff is an...

<p>One hundred days is not much time to streamline a massive and entrenched public school system. But that was the bold promise of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he became California's new governor last November.</p> <p>Schwarzenegger still has a long way to go, but after two months on the job, he has taken some notable steps.</p>

The woman in the cover illustration is called "Mother Palestine." Inside, articles by controversial Israeli historians Benny Morris and Avi Shlaim, and Palestinian historian Nur Masalha, tell the tale of a bellicose colonial Israel that displaced innocent Arabs from their homes in 1948, and from then on prevented peace by provoking and murdering Palestinians. No, this is not a Palestinian Authority history text, but part of a curriculum being taught in regular Santa Barbara classrooms and paid for by your tax dollars. The above items were published in "A Reader and Resource Guide Introducing the Middle East Into Social Studies...

American special forces are already paving the way for mass invasion By Patrick Cockburn in Dohuk, northern Iraq 07 March 2003 In the mountain city of Dohuk, some 40 highly trained US special forces are secretly preparing the way for the American armies expected to invade Iraq in the next few weeks. "We will help any kind of force which comes to destroy the Iraqi regime," said Faisal Amin Rostinki, a veteran Kurdish soldier who is head of security for the 23,000-strong Kurdish force that has its headquarters in Dohuk. While confirming the presence of US soldiers he refused to...