Free Republic

(English-language translation) In the midst of the fiscal crisis that keeps 95,000 [Puerto Rico] public employees out on the street, several [opposition] New Progressive Party Representatives held a press conference to show the episode of a television series that, in their opinion, demonstrates that Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá is pulling a publicity stunt out of the situation. Representatives Liza Fernández, Albita Rivera, Georgie Navarro, and Rolando Crespo met with the island’s press to watch the episode of an American television series. The reason behind the [press] conference was to demonstrate that the Governor has copied the actions of the series’...

(English-language translation) [Members of] the United Public Servants of Puerto Rico (SPU) marched to the Governor’s Mansion and the Capitol yesterday to hand Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and House Speaker José Aponte two giant banners with a layoff letter for each which announces that they will have to take leave without pay just as the 95,000 public employees who are unemployed since Monday. The march left Colón Square in Old San Juan towards the Governor’s Mansion, where an SPU delegation including its President Ellie Ortiz and its founder José La Luz were received outside by the Governor’s legal advisor Hugo...

(English-language translation) [Puerto Rico] Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá should resign from office if he is incapable of taking economy measures to avoid the present government crisis, former Governor Carlos Romero Barceló said yesterday, and also asked what became of the $400 million that were not assigned to the Aqueduct & Sewer Authority (AAA). The [opposition] New Progressive Party (PNP) leader declared that the short-term solution to this fiscal year’s deficit problem is a loan with a tax to corporations and organizations with a gross income that exceeds $10 million. In Romero’s judgment, the long-term solution to the economic problem is...

(English-language translation) The possibility of an agreement to solve the fiscal problem that yesterday kept the [Puerto Rico] government partially shut down for a second consecutive day vanished again in the afternoon when Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá abruptly left a meeting with House of Representatives Speaker José Aponte, alleging that the latter was being disrespectful. The Governor claimed that he decided to leave the meeting because Aponte addressed him in a mocking tone, which the Speaker flatly rejected, accusing him of lying. “At one moment, I told [Aponte] that I was glad that he could smile, because he was really...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The government of Puerto Rico ran out of money Monday, forcing the U.S. commonwealth to close public schools and shut down government offices, putting almost 100,000 people out of work. The legislature and governor failed to reach a last-minute accord that would have averted the first-ever partial shutdown of the government in island history. All 1,600 public schools on the island were closed two weeks before the end of the academic year, and 43 government agencies were shut down after last-minute negotiations between lawmakers and Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila failed. Acevedo blamed "legislative inaction" for...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Nearly 1,600 schools shuttered. Some 205,000 public workers unpaid. Most government offices closed. The U.S. Caribbean territory is staggering under a nearly $740 million budget shortfall and heading toward a grim scenario Monday, when it will run out of cash to pay salaries and provide public services if local lawmakers don't approve a bailout plan. Talk of the possible shutdown dominated the island Wednesday.

A major storm slammed the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states with nearly 2 feet of windblown snow on Sunday, nearing record levels as it blacked out thousands of customers and shut down air travel from Washington to Boston. Wind gusting to 40 mph blew the snow sideways and threatened coastal flooding in New England. And in a rare display, lightning lit up the falling snow before dawn in the New York metro area. By late morning, 22.8 inches of snow had fallen in Central Park, the city's second heaviest snowfall on record, surpassed only by the 26.4 inches that fell in...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – The U.S. military is shutting down its last MASH, the mobile hospital made famous by the long-running TV show about martini-sipping, wisecracking Army doctors. This month, the Army will donate the last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital to Pakistan where it has been caring for survivors of last year's massive earthquake, Rear Admiral Michael LeFever said Saturday at an air base outside the capital Islamabad. “This is the last MASH unit in the United States Army,” said LeFever. “We are excited that this MASH will live on in Pakistan.” The 84-bed, $4.5-million MASH unit includes a surgical suite...

IBM today announced free software and educational resources to help developers in Russia build and deploy innovative applications based on open standards and open source. Tapping into the booming software development market in Russia, IBM is giving software developers, architects and students free access to software and hundreds of new tools and technical and educational resources that will enable them to more easily build open standards-based applications. With a few clicks of a mouse, developers can download free versions of IBM middleware, IBM WebSphere Application Server Community Edition and IBM DB2 Universal Database Express-C, as well as access trial code,...

Selling stampede shuts down Tokyo stock market By Linda Sieg and Yukari Iwatani 7 minutes ago A stampede of sell orders forced the shut-down of the world's second-biggest bourse on Wednesday as investors fled the Tokyo stock market, spooked by fallout from an investigation into Internet company Livedoor Co. (4753.T). The Tokyo Stock Exchange suspended trading at 0540 GMT (2.40 p.m.), 20 minutes before the normal closing time, after the number of transactions threatened to exceed its computer system's capacity of 4.5 million trades per day. The exchange has been hit by a series of system problems in recent months,...

N.Korea Rejected Further UN Food AidNorth Korea reportedly turned up its nose at any more food aid from the UN and asked the World Food Program early last month to shut its Pyongyang office. A South Korean official said the North last year also vowed to turn down any further humanitarian aid from international bodies, and Seoul was trying to work out what exactly Pyongyang wants. There are said to be two reasons. One is that Seoul promised the North substantial food aid that allowed Pyongyang to cover its shortfall to some extent. It was initially estimated to be short...

At least eight Gulf Coast refineries in the path of Hurricane Katrina shut down or reduced operations by Monday, according to company and U.S. Department of Energy reports. The eight represent about 2.3 million barrels of daily refining capacity. In the Gulf, reports from the Mineral Management Services showed crude oil production down about 91 percent, or 1.37 million barrels. The Gulf also lost about 82 percent of daily natural gas production, according to the assessment released midday. Damage appears to be minimal, but Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association in Washington, said even that assessment...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish nuclear power plant shut down one of its three reactors Monday because of an abnormal accumulation of jellyfish in the cooling system. The Oskarshamn plant in southeastern Sweden uses water from the Baltic Sea in its cooling tanks. The water has been unusually rich in jellyfish in recent weeks, but the problem grew worse Monday morning, forcing officials to shut down the reactor. "When there are too many jellyfish in the cooling water, the flow is hindered and we have to clean it to keep the reactor going at full effect," plant spokesman Erik Mattsen...

LOS ANGELES - A major transmission line feeding electricity to millions of Southern California customers shut itself off because of a faulty sensor, triggering scattered blackouts in the middle of a heat wave, officials said Friday. The Thursday afternoon outages, lasting about 30 minutes, affected about 500,000 Southern California Edison customers in several communities east and south of Los Angeles. "There was an oil flow alarm that went off," said Carol Tucker, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which co-owns the transmission line. "Upon checking into it, we determined that there was no problem with...

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Farmers angry over pollution attacked a pharmaceutical plant in eastern China, a factory official and a news report said Tuesday, in the latest rural clash sparked by disputes over corruption, pollution and other problems. Protests that began July 4 have forced a halt to production at the Jinxing Pharmaceutical plant in Xinchang, a town about 125 miles south of Shanghai, according to its director's secretary, Xu Xiaoming. He said several hundred protesters were involved. Xu said local farmers were angry over pollution, but he would not give any other details of what prompted the protest. The...

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The first partial government shutdown in Minnesota history ended early Saturday as Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a temporary spending plan and lawmakers agreed on the outline of a two-year budget. "I'm pleased to announce agreement has been reached by the legislative leadership to put Minnesota back to work," Pawlenty announced around 2 a.m. The Legislature overwhelmingly approved the "lights on" measure to send 8,900 furloughed state employees back to their jobs by restoring funding until Thursday. Lawmakers now have until Wednesday night to hash out the final details of the two-year budget or risk another shutdown...

Growing up in my part of New York, you went to one of two barbers. Mr. McDougal was the old guy who gave you a slick crew cut when you were 7, parted on the side, and sent you out the door with a lollypop and a pat on the butt. When you got older, if you were cool, you went to Tony Palermo. He was a hip young neighborhood guy who picked up hair-cutting who knows where. Even though we were only 11 or 12, he'd let us look at his Playboys while he cut hair in his living...

ST. PAUL, Minn. - About 9,000 workers were laid off and highway rest stops were closed for the July Fourth weekend after Minnesota's government shut down for the first time in state history Friday. The shutdown came at midnight after lawmakers failed late Thursday to pass a temporary spending plan designed to keep the government up and running. The Senate adjourned 20 minutes after Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he hoped the two sides could agree on a stopgap measure to keep the state's doors open for 10 more days. "I'd like to say I'm sorry to the people of...

I stay current on updates, but have issues when I turn this idiot box off. I only turn off power when I hear thunder coming in, although I restart at regular intervals. Today I had to unplug everything for over an hour, then the system came back in good shape. Is there a solution other than just unplugging everything? Use little idiot words, please.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Still smarting from a fight over evolution, Kansas schools now face an almost unthinkable possibility: They might not reopen in the fall because of a political and legal battle over education funding. The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered legislators to provide millions more in aid to schools by July 1. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has called a special legislative session for June 22 to act on the order. Some Republicans who control the Legislature want to defy the court, arguing it cannot tell them exactly what to spend on anything. Their tough talk has educators and others...

Sometimes things are not as they appear peering through the legislative looking glass. Congress increasingly has an "Alice in Wonderland" feel to it, where statements by lawmakers and activists create a strange dissonance and legislative reality that is out of sync with political rhetoric. Yet because their press releases represent the authorized voice of the opposition, Democratic Party leaders' idiom has an aura of validity — however phony. There is a method to the madness. Democrats are laying political sod, preparing the ground for the 2006 congressional elections. Call it "project overreach"; like many aspects of the Democratic Party these...

DAY 2: SENATE DEMS SHUT IT DOWN Senate Democrats Obstruct People's Agenda By Shutting Down Senate Committees Over Up-Or-Down Judicial Votes _____________________________________________________________________________________________________     "It's remarkable that Democrats have gone to such great lengths to put partisan bickering above the business of the American people. By following through on their promise to shut down Senate committees Democrats are choosing political showmanship over addressing the War on Terror, gas prices, the challenges of higher education, and other critical priorities. Americans elected their Senators to vote, not play games with the United States government. 'The Party of No' should be ashamed...

A search for clues in the latest shutdown of the Hope Creek nuclear reactor. A radioactive steam leak caused the shutdown Sunday night. The plant's operator says the slow leak began in February. That was just weeks after the trouble-plagued plant had been shut for three-and-a-half months because of a bigger leak. P-S-E-and-G Nuclear said yesterday the problem could be diagnosed and fixed within the next few weeks. The company also said no radioactivity was released outside the plant and no workers were harmed in either of the steam leaks. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission put Hope Creek and two...

It seems the showdown over the nuclear option is being set up for sometime soon now.If, and thats a big IF Senator Frist has the votes, and finally does it, the dems have threatened to shut down the senate.This is equivalent of saying if you punch me, I will slice my wrists.If the GOP, using the same common sense God gave a screwdriver, simply tapes each senator up for election in 2006, and tapes them, as they either walk out (as they are threatening to do) or refusing to work, it will be one of the most devestating commercials to...

WASHINGTON - President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday. Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity. The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping. The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's...

The Lieberman-Cheney Vice Presidential Debate MODERATOR: From Centre College in historic Danville, Kentucky, good evening, and welcome to this year's only vice presidential debate sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. I'm Bernard Shaw, moderator. Tonight we come to you from the hall in the Northern Center for the Arts on the campus of Centre College. Thank you to President John Rausch, the faculty, students and community leaders state-wide, we thank you for hosting this debate. The candidates are the Republican nominee, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney of Wyoming, and the Democratic nominee, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. The Commission,...

I saw a young man I know casually at a party the other night, and he said his website had been shut down by the Secret Service. He laughed when I asked why...and then told me the name of the website. I just about fainted dead away. The young man, let's call him Phil, acted as if it were a big joke. He said they'd come to his home, taken him away, confiscated his computer, etc.. Finally, after questioning him and telling him how stupid he'd been, they let him go. Phil is very clever, smart, and I thought, responsible....

DUARTE, Calif. -- Employees at the Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte say they were given no warning that the facility is being forced to shut down. The news was very emotional for the patients and the employees at the hospital. The hospital on Buena Vista Avenue has served serving its patients for 73 years -- but now it is being forced to shut down. Hospital administrators are saying simply that they have no other choice -- they can't afford to stay in business. More than 100 employees will lose their jobs. The hospital administrators say changing health care has forced...

A Halloween costume and plastic gun are the culprits in today's shutdown of the House of Representatives, Capitol police say. "Capitol police also said they had apprehended a suspect, according to an aide who said he heard the information via a pager system operated by security officials," the Associated Press reported. The hullabaloo lasted two hours or less.

A 15-year-old Italian boy was given the cold shoulder after hitchhiking 1,250 miles to see a Swedish girl he fell in love with on holiday. The schoolboy met the 17-year-old on holiday in the US and couldn't stop thinking about her when he got home to Milan. So he hitchhiked to Sweden where he was picked up by police at a service station only 110 miles from his destination of Taeby, near Stockholm. Police spokesman Mikael Kinaa said: "He told us he was meeting up with his girlfriend living in Stockholm." Officers found out the boy had been reported missing...

Negotiations in progress as shutdown nearsBy JOHN P. McALPIN AP Political Writer June 28, 2003, 4:54 PM EDT TRENTON, N.J.(AP) _ Legislators came to work Saturday, ordered by Gov. James E. McGreevey to agree on a budget and a series of tax and fee increases or else deal with a shuttered state government. The Senate Budget Committee, where Republicans have blocked the budget by refusing to vote on any measure that raises taxes, must act by midnight Saturday so the full house can vote Monday. Monday is the constitutional deadline for a balanced budget. Without one, McGreevey says all operations,...

Thursday, May 1, 2003 5:30 p.m. PST William Morris Agency brings down web site critical of anti-war celebs HollywoodHalfwits.com The web site Boycott-Hollywood.us was shut down today due to legal measures brought by attorneys on behalf of the William Morris Agency, which represents various Hollywood celebrities. The web site was known for providing a platform for the public to exercise their free speech rights by commenting on actors who criticize President Bush and the war efforts. Apparently, free speech is a one way street in Hollywood. The law firm Rintala, Smoot, Jaenicke and Rees appealed to domain registrar Dotster.com and...

Shut-down of high-tech plant by Celestica roils Rochester Sherri Cruz Star Tribune Published Feb. 11, 2003 ROCH11 Toronto-based Celestica Inc. didn't decide to close its Rochester circuit board plant by the end of June because of poor economic conditions. The work still will be done, but it will be done someplace else -- overseas, where it costs less.

<p>BANGOR, Maine (AP) The cost of a prolonged shutdown of Great Northern Paper Inc. could be nearly 5,000 jobs and $115 million in annual wages, according to an economic analysis by the state.</p> <p>''This is a devastating body blow,'' said Craig Holland, a labor market analyst with the Maine Department of Labor.</p>

Millions of Londoners suffered a Black Tuesday today as militant unions plunged the capital into its worst single day of strikes since the Winter of Discontent in 1978. Teachers and council workers demanding thousands of pounds in extra pay joined firefighters who began day five of their latest eight-day stoppage. More than 20 of the deepest Tube stations remained closed because the Army was unable to provide cover for the striking Fire Brigades Union and there was the threat of a fresh round of strikes on the Tube. Union leaders stepped up their rhetoric in response to Tony Blair's defiant...

<p>WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) A plan to revitalize the C.F. Hathaway Co. brand name has workers from the shirtmaker's former factory upset.</p> <p>More than 200 Hathaway workers lost their jobs when the company's owner, Windsong Allegiance Apparel Group, shut down the factory Oct. 18.</p>

Shut them down FREEPERS for this piece of garbage.

Everything is not coming up Rosie for Gruner & Jahr USA, publisher of the embattled Rosie magazine. Company officials say they have decided to shut down the monthly magazine and axe approximately 120 staffers as a result of the recent defection of and subsequent legal battles with its namesake Rosie O'Donnell. "Gruner & Jahr deeply regrets the need to take these actions, particularly in light of the magazine's imminent success," said a company statement Tuesday. "However, Rosie O'Donnell's actions, in breach of her contract, have left us with no choice in the matter." Gruner & Jahr had kicked around the...

<p>LEBANON, Maine - The outgoing message on the Town Hall's voice mail is spoken in an upbeat female voice: ''The Lebanon Town Office will be closed until at least August 14th. Please call back then for further information. Thank you.''</p>

AUGUSTA — Although he once vowed he would never use “gimmicks” like state shutdown days to balance the budget, Gov. Angus S. King told reporters Wednesday he would be incorporating that very mechanism in order to offset a dramatic decline in projected revenues. “I do this with the greatest reluctance,” King said. “I said seven or eight years ago that I would not do this and here I am doing this. I’m fessing up. I never dreamed I would be in this situation. I see this as the best of a series of unpalatable alternatives.” The first of three state...

At first, Monica Gabriel insisted the May 30 end of ground zero recovery efforts would make no difference to her. Yes, it will mean her husband may be left anonymous in the pit of ash and dirt when workers march off the site and concede publicly that there is nothing left to find. But no, Gabriel said, it won't change anything. Then the West Haven widow began to talk it out. She talked about other widows who had received remains. She'd heard about one who had her newborn with her when police delivered a package with what was left of...

Will Bridgeport Bite the Hand that Feeds its Poor? By Ken Von Kohorn, Chairman Family Institute of Connecticut The Bridgeport Rescue Mission is a faith-based charity that helps the poor in both body and spirit. Working out of the Fanny Crosby Memorial Home on Fairfield Avenue, the mission offers food, shelter, long-term drug rehabilitation, and recreational programs for youths that might otherwise have nowhere to go but the street. Importantly, the Rescue Mission also offers spiritual sustenance -- Bible Clubs, Sunday School, and chapel services. On Monday evenings the Rescue Mission’s Mobile Soup Kitchen travels to South Street to distribute...