Free Republic

$7,300. That is approximately what each household in California will be asked to cough up to pay for the $42.6 billion bond package on the ballot November 7th, should it pass. While there is a clear consensus that our infrastructure is in desperate need of repair and expansion there is also a growing cynicism that saddling future generations with $84 billion in bond payments over the next 30 years represents more of the same fiscal irresponsibility we have come to expect from Sacramento. Despite tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending to support these measures, a hearty array of...

BEAUMONT, Calif. (AP) -- As flames roared through the canyons of Southern California, authorities increased the reward to $500,000 Friday for the arrest of the arsonist responsible for the deaths of four firefighters in the nation's worst such tragedy in five years. A fifth firefighter lay in grave condition with burns over 90 percent of his body. Firefighters labored through thick smoke as curtains of wind-whipped orange flame pushed through uninhabited brushland about 90 miles east of Los Angeles. The blaze that broke out Thursday destroyed about 10 structures, including homes, forced 700 people to flee, and flushed coyotes and...

Netflix Offers $1 Million Prize for Major Leap in Recommendations The New York Times is reporting that Netflix is offering a $1 million prize for anyone who can come up with a major breakthrough in movie recommendations. Recommendation systems, also known as collaborative filtering systems, try to predict whether a customer will like a movie, book or piece of music by comparing his or her past preferences to those of other people with similar tastes. Such systems will look at, say, the last 10 books, movies or songs a customer has rated highly and try to extrapolate an 11th. Computer...

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has authorised a reward of up to $A6.7 million for information leading to wanted Al Qaeda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri in Iraq. Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli says the reward has been offered in the hope it would encourage persons to come forward with information on al-Masri. The State Department says al-Masri is an Egyptian national and a senior Al Qaeda leader in Iraq. He is a direct associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who was recently killed by US forces. "Trained in Afghanistan and...

$10m reward to find Iraq killers The Russians were seized on 3 June Russia is offering a $10m (£5.4m) reward for information leading to the capture of the militants who killed four Russian diplomats in Iraq. A group linked to al-Qaeda released a video on Monday showing two of the captives being killed. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered special services to "find and destroy" the killers of the hostages, who were abducted in early June. The reward offer has been widely publicised on Arab television channels. 'Time and effort' "In return for information leading to a result, Russia's National...

Iraq Premier: $25M to Be Paid on Al-Zarqawi Jun 08 2:47 PM US/Eastern Email this story By The Associated Press Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday that the $25 million bounty on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's head will be honored. "We will meet our promise," al-Maliki told al-Arabiya television without elaborating. The United States had put forth the $25 million bounty for information leading to the death or capture of al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi, a 39-year-old Jordanian-born terrorist, was killed in a U.S. airstrike Wednesday. Also killed in the airstrike was al-Zarqawi's deputy and...

TWO Filipinos will share a 500,000-dollar reward from the US government for a tip that led to the arrest of a key terror suspect in the southern Philippines last year, the US Embassy said Monday. Hilarion del Rosario Santos III, the alleged head of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, a group of Christian converts to Islam that has been closely associated with Al Qaeda-linked militants, was arrested in southern Zamboanga city in October together with six other suspects. His group is believed to have links to Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf, which is operating in the southern Philippines, and...

4/27/2006 - SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- One might think explosive ordnance disposal troops are adrenalin junkies. But they are meticulous about their work and don’t take unnecessary risks. However, because they deal with explosives placed by the enemy, the risk is real. “We all know the consequences,” said Tech. Sgt. William Sistler, a 447th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron EOD team chief. “But we don’t think about it.” Since January, the EOD Airmen here responded more than 340 times in an area of responsibility covering 500 square miles. Even though they face the chance of injury or death every...

A man suspected of burning and stabbing a pit bull puppy that later died was arrested early Thursday, according to reports. Deshann Brown, 21, was arrested shortly after midnight in Corinth, a community in Denton County, and charged with animal cruelty, according to a report from NBC 5. The 10-month-old puppy, named Mercy, died Sunday despite efforts to save her from extensive injuries. She had been cut, stabbed, doused with gasoline and set afire. At one point last week, her caretakers said she had experienced a comfortable night and was eating. Mercy was found about two weeks ago in a...

Brad at Broken Messenger had a really nice article yesterday on how our commitment to an object determines our true love of it. He explains how our commitment to Christ costs us a little bit now but gains us much, much more in the future. As I write this, I think about the single seed that gets planted in the ground now – dying, as it were – but yields a great harvest later. Brad writes: A relationship with Christ is a full commitment to be sure. His yoke is indeed light and His gifts are bountiful, but His will...

Pakistani intelligence sources on Thursday identified three of four al Qaeda members believed to have been killed by a U.S. airstrike last week, though they have yet to recover the bodies. One of the dead was said to be Abdul Rehman Al-Misri al Maghribi, a son-in-law of al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri. Another was Midhat Murfi al Sayid Omer, an expert in explosives and poisons who carried a $5 million U.S. reward on his head. The third man named was Abu Obaidah al Misri, al Qaeda's chief of operations

(Los Angeles -AP, December 1, 2005) - A Southern California cab driver's simple act of honesty has turned to gold. Two weeks ago, the driver, Haider Sediqi, tracked down a jeweler and returned to him the $350,000 worth of diamonds he left in the back seat of the taxi. As a way of saying "thank you," the jeweler sent the cabbie a $10,000 check and a diamond bracelet. But the honest cabbie was just as impressed with the man's thank-you note. The jeweler wrote that the cab driver had "changed his life." The driver is putting the money in a...

WATCH THE VIDEO: OPRAH'S MESSAGE "Today, I stand before you to say in no uncertain terms, as a matter of fact, in terms that I hope are very certain, that I have had enough. With every breath in my body, whatever it takes, and most importantly with your support, we are going to move heaven and earth to stop a sickness, a darkness that I believe is the definition of evil that's been going on for far too long. The children of this nation, the United States of America, are being stolen, raped, tortured, and killed by sexual predators who...

A report to be published Saturday says that Demi Moore's ex will pony up a million cash to any civilian who turns in the terrorist scum. Bruce Willis is such a die-hard patriot that he's offering $1 million to any civilian who turns in terror kingpins Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The hairless Hollywood he-man announced his bounty offer on MSNBC's "Rita Cosby: Live and Direct" this week. Willis also revealed he was in talks to make a movie about the Deuce Four, the soldiers whose heroic exploits have been chronicled by embedded blogger Michael Yon....

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A Brazilian court will consider a psychic's claim that the U.S. government owes him a $25 million reward for information he says he provided on the hiding place of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Brazil's second-highest court, the Superior Court of Justice, decided on Thursday the Brazilian justice system could rule on the matter and told a court in the psychic's home state of Minas Gerais to judge the case. The lower court had earlier told Jucelino Nobrega da Luz it could not take up his claim and it would have to...

VelvetRevolution Launches ’Government Accountability Reward Fund’; $100K Reward for Information Leading to Arrest, Conviction of Corrupt Gov’t. Officials 30 minutes ago To: National Desk, Legal Reporter Contact: Ilene Proctor, 310-271-5857 SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- VelvetRevolution.us, a network of more than 120 progressive organizations seeking honest government, just launched the ’Government Accountability Reward Fund’ to induce whistleblowers to come forward with information about criminal activity by high government officials. Specifically, VR has a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of officials involved in the following three incidents: 1) the illegal...

Officials at Virginia Commonwealth University are pledging a $20,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the location and return of missing VCU freshman Taylor Marie Behl. "Please keep Taylor, her family and friends in your thoughts as we hope for her safe return," VCU President Eugene P. Trani wrote yesterday in a letter to the university and VCU Health System "communities." The announcement came a day after Behl's family posted an $11,000 reward for information about her disappearance.

A Kentucky cab driver who told authorities he drove fugitives George and Jennifer Hyatte to an Ohio motel will be given a $10,000 reward next week. John P. Clark, newly appointed acting director of the U.S. Marshals Service, will be in Covington, Ky., to present the money to cabbie Mike Wagers. Wagers, 33, picked up the Hyattes on Aug. 10 at a Kentucky low-budget motel and took them to Columbus, Ohio. The Hyattes were arrested about 10 p.m. without incident. They are charged with first-degree murder of Tennessee correctional officer Wayne "Cotton" Morgan, 56, during a daylight escape at the...

Family of Alabama teen missing in Aruba offers reward 6/2/2005, 5:04 p.m. CT By TITO LACLE The Associated Press ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — The family of an Alabama high school graduate who disappeared in Aruba offered a reward for her safe return Thursday, as scores of tourists and locals volunteered to post fliers and help in the search. Natalee Holloway's family asked Aruba radio and television stations to broadcast the reward offer, though they did not specify an amount, said her mother, Beth Holloway Twitty. The family promised to reward anyone who brings the missing teenager safely to a police...

China Appeals for Public Aid in Drug Fight By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer Thu May 26,11:00 PM ET BEIJING - Chinese officials issued an unusual appeal to the public on Thursday for help fighting drug trafficking, acknowledging in a nationally televised news conference that they have failed to stop surging narcotics abuse despite repeated crackdowns. Drug smuggling and the difficulty of fighting it are rising as a result of globalization and freer trade, the officials said, citing the seizure this month of 900 pounds of the party drug ketamine brought in from India via the Middle East. "Although we've...