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Last Elephant Leaving San Francisco Zoo Amid Dispute Over Size of Half-Acre Compound The Associated PressSAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yielding to pressure from animal-rights groups, the San Francisco Zoo is giving up its last elephant, marking the first time in the facility's 75-history that it will be without at least one pachyderm. The zoo's only remaining elephant is being moved to a sanctuary in the Sierra foothills after elected officials voted to require a larger compound for elephants at the seaside attraction. The 38-year-old elephant named Lulu is the fourth animal to be relocated or to have died in the...

We all know people who have done everything right as parents: daily family Rosary, home schooling, vigilance over the children's friendships and reading material, serious observance of feasts and fasts, no television - they have done everything right, and yet some of their adolescent and adult children have abandoned the Faith. Perhaps it was just Original Sin, darkening their minds and weakening their wills; perhaps it was just the world, the flesh or the devil. There must have been attrition in every age; we have famous apostates to prove it. Perhaps, though, some of those children would have stayed the...

"Over it is nineteen." " We appointed angels to be guardians of Hell, and we assigned THEIR NUMBER (i.e.19) (1) to disturb the disbelievers. (2) to convince the Christians and Jews (that this is a divine scripture), (3) to strengthen the faith of the faithful, (4)to remove all traces of doubt from the hearts of Christians, Jews, as well as the believers, and (5) to expose those who harbor doubt in their hearts, and the disbelievers; they will say," What did God mean by this allegory ?" God thus sends astray whomever He wills, and guides whomever He wills, None...

I realize that the background set for the Democrat's Frown and Lack Forum is not actually an American Flag, but from a distance the set looks as if it is symbolic of an American flag - and that flag looks as if it is flying upside down. I wonder if the Democrats are expressing contempt for our country? Democratic presidential contenders on stage in Des Moines, IowaJanuary 11, 2004 during the final debate before the Iowa caucuses.L-R are Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt (news - web sites),former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (news - web sites),Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web...

"Howard Dean wants the white trash vote," wrote Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer in recent mockery of the Vermonter. "That's clearly what [Dean] meant when he said he wanted the votes of 'guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.'"After Dean was savaged by Al Sharpton, who called the Confederate flag an "American swastika," Krauthammer was rhapsodic. His humiliation serves Dean right, Krauthammer chortled. He should never have pandered to Southern "yahoos" and "rebel-yelling racist redneck(s)."What is it in the wiring of these neocons that they so loathe white Southerners who cherish the monuments, men and memories of the Lost...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- New Mexico placekicker Katie Hnida alleges she was a target of sexual harassment in 1999 when she was on the football team at Colorado. "I was treated much more like a piece of meat there," she said in a story in The Albuquerque Tribune on Friday. "Because I'm a pretty feminine gal, and they didn't respect that about me." Hnida on Friday declined to speak with The Associated Press about her time at Colorado and the allegations she raised. "I have nothing to say," Hnida, a senior at New Mexico, said after a practice session. Hnida told...

Former President Jimmy Carter, arguably the world's best-known peace negotiator, has agreed to try to help Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue soothe racial tension over a proposed referendum on the state flag. Details have not been worked out, but one possibility is a summit of community leaders and citizens at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Perdue said during a news conference Friday. "It could begin this conversation that I think we need to have to come together to heal," the governor said. Deanna Congileo, director of public information at the Carter Center, confirmed Friday afternoon that Carter, winner of the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON (AP) — The maker of the nation's coins is looking for some change. The U.S. Mint, responding to some gripes among experts and collectors that current coin designs are stagnant and boring, is exploring making over all U.S. coins, except for the quarter. The idea of new coin designs, while still in its infancy, was discussed in a report by a Mint task force in late August. The task force cited ``one fundamental objective'' in proposing a redesign of the coins: ``The Mint must endeavor at the beginning of the...

Americans who value the Constitution should stand with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and oppose George Bush's attempted power grab in conjunction with establishing a Department of Homeland Security. The Bushies are trying to frame the debate as either protecting bureaucracy or providing security for Americans. In fact, the debate is about preventing an authoritarian president from sacrificing the Constitution in the name of providing security. Let me remind you that those who prefer security to freedom will lose both. Bush wants to be able to disregard labor contracts and civil-service rules, as well as move money within the department as...

In a commercial that ran during the Christmas-New Years holidays a few years ago, the husband was trying to keep an old car patched up, while the wife wanted him to get a new one. At the end, the wife asks: "Should an old acquaintence be forgot?" And she answers emphatically, "Yes!" No group is more in need of forgetting old political ties and making some new ones than blacks. The black vote has been almost an automatic monopoly of the Democratic Party for years. Yet the dominant forces among Democrats have agendas that are directly contrary to the interests...