Free Republic

There will be a new face on the Texas State Board of Education after Brandon Hall, a 27-year-old pastor from Parker County, defeated incumbent Pat Hardy in the District 11 Republican primary. Hall received 53.24% of votes compared to 46.76% for Hardy. Hall will advance to the general election along with Democrat Rayna Glasser, who ran unopposed in her party’s primary. Hall ran on a platform of protecting parental rights, preventing the teaching of Critical Race Theory and promoting Christian conservative values in education. He’s also a supporter of Gov. Greg Abbott’s push for voucher-like education savings accounts, which would...

Reporting from Sacramento -- California has often been tagged as the "nanny state" for passing laws that some people say interfere with citizens' lives. But now it has earned the label for a whole different reason, thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Republican governor announced this week that he had appointed a nanny -- his own children's nanny, in fact -- as a part-time state regulator on the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Lindsay Ann Schnaidt, 32, a Democrat from Hermosa Beach who has worked for the Schwarzenegger family for seven years, will be paid $100 a day...

The Board of Equalization – which oversees collection of many state taxes – is one of the least-known important state agencies. But if the board gets its way, it could soon be both high profile and highly unpopular. That's because it wants the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to give it a staggering number of new employees – 325 – over the next three years to serve as tax detectives hunting down the businesses and individuals who buy goods on the Internet but fail to pay the state's “use tax.” What's that? You weren't aware that you owed the state...

Liberals have been beating their collective breast in recent years over the Bush administration's post-9/11 assault on civil liberties. But Michigan Democrats-- from Gov. Jennifer Granholm to the State Board of Canvassers-- have joined ranks with a radical, 1960s-style Trotskyite group to deny state residents the most basic of all rights: the right to vote. The group, which... calls itself By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), has been engaged in a long guerilla campaign to prevent the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) from getting on the state ballot. This initiative, backed by Ward Connerly, ...seeks to end, once and for all,...

<p>Republican Party leaders endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor Monday, a move to unite behind a single candidate that angered supporters of Republican rival Tom McClintock.</p> <p>"Tom McClintock has been a strong member of the party," said Mario Rodriguez of San Clemente, vice chairman of the state party governing board. "But the numbers were not there for him."</p>