Free Republic

Dozens of children were removed from public schools in this border city under a policy that aims to ensure all students live within district boundaries. Taxpayers have repeatedly urged the Calexico Unified School District to make sure students do not cross the border from Mexico, Superintendent David Alvarez said. The district asked all 10,000 students to prove residency by Wednesday under the policy adopted last year. "We're not interested in a student's citizenship status or their legal status here in our district," Alvarez said. "What the law requires us to do is verify whether a student lives in the Calexico...

WASHINGTON - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told Congress on Wednesday that overhauls of the nation's schools and immigration laws are urgently needed to keep jobs from going overseas. "The U.S. cannot maintain its economic leadership unless our work force consists of people who have the knowledge and skills needed to drive innovation," Gates told the Senate committee that oversees labor and education issues. Gates, whose charitable foundation has given away more than $3 billion since 1999 for educational programs and scholarships, noted that about 30 percent of U.S. ninth-graders fail to graduate on time. "As a nation, we should start...

Conservative state lawmakers are targeting what they see as left-leaning university professors, pushing a series of bills in recent and upcoming sessions designed to ensure that students are not unduly influenced by professors' beliefs. The push has raised concerns among the academic community about academic freedom, with many worried the push will put legislators and administrators in charge of the college classroom. Conservative lawmakers have floated or are planning a host of proposals that would restrict what students can be required ----

Workers Remove Litter from Iraqi Streets The street-cleaning project focuses on the busiest streets first, then moves to residential areas. By U.S. Army Spc. Cassandra Groce 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment HAWIJA, Iraq, July 11, 2006 -- Piles of trash and litter, the scourge of many Iraqi cities, are being removed by local workers from the street and alleys of Hawija, Iraq.Sanitation has been a continual concern for Coalition Forces and the Iraqi leadership. The street-cleaning project currently cleans the busiest streets, but will soon move to residential areas. The project employs many civilians. “This was a good project...

GOP lawmakers want Pelosi to remove MollohanBy Patrick O’Connor House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a taping of 'Meet the Press' at the NBC studios in Washington Sunday May 7, 2006. Pelosi promised 'honest leadership and open government' should the Democrats take control of the House after the November elections. (AP Photo/NBC Meet the Press, Alex Wong) Republican Reps. John Carter (R-Texas) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) are expected to send House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) a letter tomorrow asking her to remove Rep. Alan Mollohan (W.Va.) from the Appropriations Committee. Mollohan stepped aside as the ranking...

Surgeons Remove Two Fetuses From InfantBy PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 22 minutes ago A doctor pumps oxygen to two-month-old Pakistani girl Nazia after she went through a major surgery at a local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, March 28, 2006. Surgeons operated on Nazia to remove two fetuses that had grown inside her while she was still in her mother's womb. The chief doctor who performed the operation said 'Basically, it's a case of triplets, but two of the siblings grew in the other'. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Surgeons operated on a 2-month-old Pakistani girl...

2/23/2006 - HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFPN) -- Explosive ordnance disposal Airmen with the 16th Civil Engineer Squadron destroyed a World War II-era explosive device found in Pensacola. The 100-pound photo-flash bomb, common to the World War II or Korean War period, was found by construction workers Feb. 14 clearing storm debris in the waters of Santa Rosa Sound on Pensacola Beach. When they found the rubble, they dug it up with a backhoe. But, when they realized they found unexploded ordnance, the workers dropped the bomb onto the sand and notified the state fire marshal, who in turn requested military...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Christopher Cox, will have surgery Monday to remove a tumor and is expected to recover quickly and fully, the agency announced Friday. Cox, who became head of the SEC in August after 16 years in Congress as a California Republican, will have a thymoma removed, the agency said in a brief news release. A thymoma is a tumor on the thymus gland, which regulates development of the immune system and is located in the chest above the heart. It is not necessarily cancerous. The news release said Cox, 53, is expected...

ABOARD USS JOHN C. STENNIS (NNS) -- Sailors from USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), assisted a grateful community in Pearlington, Miss., in October by removing old refrigerators from the area, which had become a health hazard after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast coastline. Stennis, homeported in Bremerton, Wash., sent 50 volunteers to the hurricane-ravaged area of southern Mississippi. The aircraft carrier is named for Senator John C. Stennis of Miss., and considers the state its adopted home. "These smaller communities receive little attention after [Hurricane] Katrina," said Rick Hines, a FEMA volunteer from the West Indianapolis, Ind., fire...

WASHINGTON - House and Senate conferees abandoned giving makers of the gasoline additive MTBE liability protection against environmental lawsuits on Sunday, removing the major roadblock to enactment of broad energy legislation. Senate negotiators rejected a House proposal for an $11.4 billion MTBE cleanup fund that House Republicans had hoped would serve as a compromise and still provide the liability shield to the oil industry. But Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, said "the proposal has not been accepted by the Senate" and that he would offer another MTBE proposal on Monday. Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting record),...

Va. Police Remove 246 Cats From Two Homes Mon Jul 11, 6:20 PM ET FAIRFAX, Va. - Animal control officers have removed 187 cats from a house in Mount Vernon and 59 cats and one dog from a home in Falls Church, authorities said Monday. In the Mount Vernon case, police went to a home on Ludgate Drive, Friday, to find Ruth Knueven, 82, living inside with 187 cats. Officers said the dead bodies of 86 more were left in trash bins outside. Most of the surviving cats were sent to an animal shelter, but animal control officers said they...

Federal Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother were tragically executed by someone many were hoping would be a white supremacist. Almost to Lefkow's chagrin, it was only an irate citizen who did the deed despite even the best hopes of the Anti-defamation League, CNN, and CNN's Terror Tracker, Henry Schuster http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/03/schuster.column/. After the killer was found, Judge Lefkow's immediate reaction

January 12, 2005 Petition to Recall Sam Reed, Washington State Secretary of State In accordance with RCW 29A.56.110, Initiating proceedings -- Statement -- Contents -- Verification - Definitions, the undersigned legal registered voters of the state of Washington demand the recall and discharge of Sam Reed, Washington State Secretary of State, under the provisions of sections 33 and 34 of Article 1 of the Constitution. We, the undersigned citizens and registered voters in the state of Washington charge Sam Reed, of the herein stated acts of malfeasance, and acts of misfeasance while in office, and violating his oath of office,...

Our Last Christmas in America I, after much research, have come to know hundreds upon hundreds of unborn children of American Citizens are banished, exiled, removed from the soil of these United States each and every year. It is disheartening to know so-called "pro-life" and "pro-family" groups and organizations are in either overt or covert support of the exiling of unborn children of United States Citizens. "Why, why your care, why your concern, about these unborn children" you ask? I am a natural born citizen of the United States. My wife came to the United States as in immigrant by...

Now is the time to organize, Does Kerry actually think be can get by with his behavior? Ideas please.

I already have a vanity. Can I return this?

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Tuesday demanding that Israel comply with a world court decision and tear down the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank. The vote was 150 in favor, 6 opposed - including the United States - and 10 abstentions. The assembly's vote, like the opinion of the International Court of Justice, is not legally binding, but both have symbolic value as international statements of condemnation for the barrier. The 191-member world body voted after lengthy negotiations between the Arab League and the European Union which resulted...

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - A Ten Commandments monument that stood on the lawn of City Hall for 47 years has been removed after a federal judge said its presence violated the separation of church and state. The 1,600-pound hunk of granite was taken Friday to a garage that houses the city's historical memorabilia. Calls to the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, which had sued the city to have the statue removed, and the city attorney were not immediately returned Saturday. The monument was donated to Duluth by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in 1957. The Eagles gave similar...

REDLANDS, Calif. (AP) - Under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, the city is voluntary removing the cross on its logo rather than get tangled in a court battle that's doomed to fail. For nearly 40 years, a shimmering cross hovering over a church steeple has been emblazoned on the city seal. By Friday, it will disappear from logos on city vehicles, City Hall doors and police badges. The ACLU demanded its removal, contending the cross is a Christian symbol and violates the Constitution's ban on government endorsement of religion. "We cannot afford to engage in a fight that...

To our big surprise we discovered that there exist some fences and barriers in the world, outside of Israel. Some of them even can be found at major UN members. Please help the world get rid of the fences and write to the heads of state and representatives to the United Nations. Here is a sample letter. First, we start with the fence between Mexico and the USA. There is really no need for this fence since the millions of illegal Mexicans in the United States do not commit suicide bomb attacks in American restaurants. Write to mr. Bush and...