Free Republic

JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon's doctors faced new criticism Thursday for failing to divulge a brain disease discovered after the prime minister's initial stroke and for prescribing blood thinners that may have contributed to a massive second stroke. The criticism added to a growing chorus of questions about Sharon's treatment. Some experts, however, said there was no clear-cut answer. As Sharon lay comatose for an eighth day Thursday, a brain scan showed the remnants of the blood in his brain from a Jan. 4 stroke have been absorbed, hospital officials said in a statement. In response, doctors removed a tube they...

WASHINGTON - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi offered Wednesday to be questioned by the Senate on his role in prewar Iraq but refused to apologize for fueling allegations that Saddam Hussein had hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction. Accorded a warm reception by the Bush administration, Chalabi lined up Vice President Dick Cheney and five Cabinet officers, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, for meetings this week and next. Chalabi, whose reputation in Washington has soared, fallen and now revived, was welcomed by administration officials whom he briefed on Iraq's reconstruction...

In the pre-Internet era, homebuyers relied on real estate agents to chauffeur them around to properties, help search for mortgages and provide other services, for which buyers typically paid 6 percent commissions when they closed escrow on their American Dream. For a $139,000 median-priced home sold in 1988 in San Diego County, that commission would have been $8,340, an amount shared equally between buying and selling agents and their brokers. But today, despite the emergence of sophisticated online searches for homes and loans, the commission system remains virtually the same. The $493,000 median priced home in June would have carried...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's feared cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," has appeared before Iraq's special tribunal as it steps up the process of questioning former regime loyalists over war crimes. Majid was one of eight aides to the former president to be questioned by investigators this week, officials said on Sunday, raising to at least 12 the number interrogated in the past 10 days. Majid last appeared before a judge in December. The new Iraqi government, facing fresh elections by the year's end, is keen to put Saddam and others on trial soon. But officials with...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Syrian authorities, under heavy American pressure to prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq, have extradited more than 30 Saudis who may have sought to join the Iraqi insurgency, officials said Monday. Also Monday, the head of Syria's state-run television urged Damascus to require entry visas to safeguard Syrian security. Syria does not currently require entry visas for citizens of Arab countries, making it both an attractive holiday destination and an easier route for Arab foreign fighters. This policy, Diana Jabbour wrote in an editorial published in the Al-Thawra government newspaper, can attract "fugitives and...

Soaring property taxes are a top worry in state legislatures across the country, where lawmakers are trying to appease disgruntled homeowners and, in some cases, courts that are demanding change in the system so schools are more equitably funded. Some states are weighing plans to lower taxes. Others just want to keep them from rising too fast. Still others are aiming to substantially change the tax system and find another way to help pay for schools that closes the quality gap between wealthy and poor communities. "People are facing being taxed out of their homes," said Ted Harris, a 69-year-old...

SACRAMENTO – Sequestered in private policy retreats at posh resorts in San Diego and Newport Beach, Assembly lawmakers billed taxpayers $2,000 for a Mexican buffet, $1,900 for shuttle van service, $26 for a pound of deluxe mixed nuts and $22 for valet parking. And $42 for a dozen cookies. The separate getaways for Democrats and Republicans cost at least $40,000, plus about $200 each in round-trip airfare for dozens of legislators and staff, according to receipts released yesterday by the Assembly Rules Committee. Among those slips of paper, the top aide to Assembly Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield asked...

A group of Jews from America arrived in Israel today to show their support for the struggle of the Jews of Gaza and the northern Shomron against the plan to expel them from their homes. 15 members of the group, which is being led by New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind and includes two State Supreme Court Judges, were detained upon reaching passport control, according to Ruth Lieberman, one of the people waiting to greet the group in Ben Gurion International Airport. “The police questioned them and told them that ‘the Gaza Strip is a closed military zone,’” Lieberman said....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Under pressure to show results from one of the governor's key budget initiatives, the state's Department of General Services announced last month that a new procurement program saved state and local taxpayers $1.1 million on an order for 1,600 police cars. But the state will actually save less than $75,000, according to purchasing records and interviews - a result that may prove to be the latest in a trail of disappointments for the "strategic sourcing" program, which faces a Senate hearing in the coming weeks and growing criticism among lawmakers. Launched by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in June...

In the latest public flaring of labor-management tensions at state prisons, the head of the California Department of Corrections on Wednesday called for Assemblyman Rudy Bermúdez, D-Norwalk, to step down from a position overseeing the department's budget. In a letter to Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, Corrections Director Jeannie Woodford charged that Bermúdez has a conflict of interest because he is on leave from a job as a state parole officer. At a hearing Tuesday, Bermúdez, who chairs the Assembly's budget subcommittee on prisons, complained about the department's investigation into the slaying of a correctional officer by an inmate last month...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is becoming entwined in the campaign fundraising efforts of a group that under state law is required to remain independent of him. As he travels the state to build support for an agenda that would reshape California government, the governor is sharing the stage with leaders of a fundraising committee that has been formed to support his proposals. State campaign laws dictate that if such committees are under the control of politicians, then the size of the donations the committees can accept must be restricted. The committee, Citizens to Save California, is accepting donations without...

New to the Alameda County Board of Education, Dennis Chaconas challenged Superintendent Sheila Jordan's scheduled raise but was rebuffed Tuesday night by a legal opinion claiming her salary was set in stone. In 2002, the previous set of board members voted to give Jordan a compensation package including a $60,000 raise and $13,125 increase in benefits by January 2006 — a 21 percent increase the first year and a combined 35 percent increase over the next three years. On Tuesday, Chaconas, the former superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District, made a motion to freeze the scheduled increase in January....

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

The Los Angeles Unified School District's citizen bond oversight committee questioned on Wednesday how the district is spending voter-approved bond revenue and warned that it might run out of money before all projects are built. The panel has been asked to sign off on using bond revenue to pay salaries, leases and expense reimbursements, which members noted were legal but violate the spirit of the two bond measures -- to build and repair schools. Members said these items should have been paid for using other sources, including the district's general fund. And while the district has about $14 billion in...

Gutenberg Printing Method Questioned By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Nov. 12, 2004 — Johannes Gutenberg may be wrongly credited with producing the first Western book printed in movable type, according to an Italian researcher. Presenting his findings in a mock trial of Gutenberg at the recent Festival of Science in Genoa, Bruno Fabbiani, an expert in printing who teaches at Turin Polytechnic, said the 15th-century German printer used stamps rather than the movable type he is said to have invented between 1452 and 1455.Overlapping Letters in the Gutenberg Bible Gutenberg and His Bible Gutenberg (c.1397-1468), whose real name was Johannes...

Does Sen. John F. Kerry really own a "Communist Chinese assault rifle," as he suggested in an interview in the latest edition of Outdoor Life magazine? ... it is legally registered, and how did he get it into the United States? ..."Senator Kerry's own words once again trip him up in an apparent hypocrisy," SAF (Second Amendment Foundation) Founder Alan Gottlieb said in a press release.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - An environmental group is accusing California farmers of not paying back a $1 billion interest-free loan used in the 1930s to build a large irrigation project that supports much of California's farm industry. The Natural Resources Defense Council, a congressman and others are also attacking contract renewals for the Central Valley Project, whose 20 reservoirs deliver river water to more than 3 million acres of farmland, including those in west San Joaquin Valley. The Bush Administration is attempting to push the deal through quietly and swiftly, according to the group, while millions of taxpayers' dollars used...

SACRAMENTO - A year ago on the campaign trail, Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to veto last-minute legislation and end backroom dealing in the Capitol. Now, as the Legislature winds down he is asking lawmakers to endorse his own late proposals on some of the most far-reaching issues of the session. Before legislators leave town as early as Friday, Schwarzenegger wants them to sign off on five Indian casino deals, a Bay Bridge financing scheme and bills involving access to lower-cost prescription drugs and solar energy -- all plans released in the past week. The governor's timing ``makes it almost impossible to...

Palestinian prisoners questioned on EU funds By Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem (Filed: 05/08/2004) The European Union is planning to send investigators to Israel to interview Palestinians held in Israeli prisons over suspicions that the Palestinian Authority may have diverted EU donations to fund terrorist operations. The plan follows an investigation, begun at the end of last year, by the EU fraud investigation agency, Olaf. Arafat: payments There had been claims that Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and senior officials transferred EU funds to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the military wing of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction. EU...

CHICAGO - Top members of Senate candidate Jack Ryan's own party are questioning his honesty after the unsealing of his embarrassing divorce papers, a controversy that some analysts say could sink his campaign. Republican National Committee (news - web sites) member Mary Jo Arndt said Ryan misled her about the contents of the divorce records, which include allegations that he insisted that his then-wife, actress Jeri Lynn Ryan, go to sex clubs with him. Ryan denied the allegations. The records were released Monday after a judge ordered the documents unsealed. Ryan and his ex-wife both fought the release, saying it...