Free Republic

The Canadian government has had to warn its citizens not to carry cash to the USA because the USA does not presume innocence but guilt when it comes to money. Over $2.5 billion has been confiscated from Canadians traveling to the USA, funding the police who grab it. If you are bringing cash to the land of the free, you will find that that saying really means they are FREE to seize all your money under the pretense you are engaged in drugs with no evidence or other charges. It costs more money in legal fees to try to get...

ISIS-linked militants in Algeria have beheaded a French tourist captured at the weekend - having earlier made threats to kill him if France did not stop bombing targets in Iraq. Herve Gourdel, 55, was captured by the Islamist group Jund al-Khilifa while hiking in the Djurdjura National Park on Sunday - just one day after he arrived in Algeria for a walking holiday... Gourdel, who lived in the southern French city of Nice, only arrived in Algeria on Saturday and was seized the following day while hiking in the heart of the Djurdjura National Park - whose dense forests, deep...

The number of people traveling to Switzerland to commit suicide has doubled since 2009, a new study shows. These "suicide tourists" are largely from Germany and the United Kingdom, although they also come from other countries including the United States and Canada, and nearly half suffer from nonfatal neurological conditions, such as paralysis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, the study suggests. Saskia Gauthier, MD, from the Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Zurich, and colleagues report their findings in an article published online August 20 in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Assisted suicide is restricted in many countries, but in...

HILDALE — Continental breakfasts are now being served at a bed and breakfast that has opened on the site of a sprawling, mostly unoccupied compound in southern Utah that was built for the leader of a polygamous sect. America’s Most Wanted Suites and Bed and Breakfast takes its name from Warren Jeff’s time on the list of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives. Accommodations in the Hildale bed and breakfast run from $85 to $200 a night. Hildale and neighboring Colorado City, Arizona, are both home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Former Jeffs...

The year 2014 was gearing up to be the best ever in Israel’s history for incoming tourism, with estimates of arrivals climbing 10% from last year’s 2.96 million. In a few short days, however, Operation Protective Edge has put an end to that. “Until the first siren in Tel Aviv, everything was normal. The day after the first siren, a few tourists left the hotels here and there, but a lot fewer than during Operation Pillar of Defense,” said Eli Ziv, director of the Tel Aviv Hotel Association, referring to Israel’s November 2012 military operation in the Gaza Strip. “I...

Locals call it the Door to Hell, a giant burning pit that has spit out angry flames for more than 40 years, casting a yellow-orange glow into the evening sky. "It takes your breath away," said visitor Gozel Yazkulieva, 34, from the Turkmenistan capital Ashgabat. "You immediately think of your sins and feel like praying."

In 2008, when American businesses were almost universally hoarding cash in a struggle to survive the financial crisis, Harris Rosen made a different call. Instead of pulling back, Mr. Rosen, the biggest independent hotel owner in this city built on tourism, hit the gas. He committed to spend $130 million to renovate his seven hotels, then added more international marketing staff members to sell them to tour groups from faraway places like Brazil and South Korea. Today, Florida’s economy is on the rise again, shaking off the dead weight of a housing bust that hit Florida harder than almost any...

Rolling pastures dotted with grazing cows, fields of corn and classic buggies driven by Amish in hats and bonnets — these are the images that attract visitors to Lancaster County, home to more than 30,000 of the Pennsylvania Dutch.Visitors who also bring big money to the state — to the tune of nearly $1.8 billion a year. Which explains why the winning bumper sticker in a contest sponsored by Pennsylvania's Tourism Office didn't feature the Liberty Bell or the battlefield in Gettysburg — but rather, "I Break for Shoofly Pie," an ode to the traditional Amish dessert.But pictures can be...

Promoting travel to the U.S. as a job creator, President Barack Obama wants to make it easier for people from other countries to visit the 50 states and spend money at their hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and other businesses. Obama planned to discuss the economic benefits of tourism to the U.S. and the latest steps he is taking to boost it at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, on Thursday. Obama acted two years ago to speed the processing of tourist visas for visitors from China and Brazil, steps that have dramatically reduced the length...

"San Francisco, open your Golden Gate. You'll let nobody wait outside your door." Those are the lyrics of the city's signature song, but now somebody should call "rewrite." On Tuesday, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency voted to bar nonresidents' cars from the crooked part of Lombard Street on Saturday and Sunday afternoons between June 21 and July 13. Last year, the agency banned tour buses from driving by the iconic Painted Ladies on Alamo Square. Thanks to well-heeled city residents who can afford to live in these world-famous properties, San Francisco is hoisting a Golden Drawbridge. Kelly Edwards,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will make a pitch for U.S. tourism at a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Thursday as part of his efforts to provide a boost for U.S. economic growth.

The actor denies being paid by Mexican government to pose in a selfie with its president “House of Cards” star Kevin Spacey is facing criticism after a selfie he tweeted last Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was reported to have been paid off by the Mexican government. Spacey vehemently denied the report. “One of these Presidents is real. With President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico last night,” Spacey tweeted May 7, as he posed with Nieto. Mexican tourism board chief Rodolfo López Negrete Coppel told Forbes that the actor was paid, but declined to reveal how much. Earlier,...

The number of trips to St. Petersburg canceled by foreign tourists has increased by 15 to 20 percent this year when compared to the same time last year, tourism industry representatives said at a press conference Monday. According to Leonid Flit, chairman of the management board of the North-Western regional department of the Russian Tourism Industry Union, the increase in canceled trips and bookings is due to recent events in Ukraine.

Recent threads brought to light potential business interests Reid may have in and around Bunkerville. http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3146700/postshttp://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3145746/posts?page=160#160 Here is some additional information which may explain WHY these business interests exist. Excerpting a blog entry dated June 2nd, 2013, from Friends of Gold Butte: The Gold Butte National Conservation Area with Wilderness Act has been introduced by Senator Reid. Conservationists have worked for permanent protection of Gold Butte for over ten years. Please take action today and show your support the Gold Butte National Conservation Area with Wilderness! http://www.friendsofgoldbutte.org/2013/06/gold-butte-nca-proposal-introduced/ Excerpting a blog entry dated June 6th, 2013, from Friends of Gold Butte:...

Under the guise of experiental, educational sojourns in the Middle East, an ongoing, extensive tourism subterfuge of global proportions is at work today. This comprehensive and coordinated fraudulent operation includes travel agency fronts, terrorist groups, international NGOs, Islamists, and Leftists. They include such organizations as the Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies, Abraham Path, the Soros Foundation to Promote Open Society, and others. All of them, whether unwittingly or intentionally, are part of an effort to turn tourists, college students, and Christian pilgrims against the Jewish state of Israel. Using the rubric of “a connection between people from the Middle...

MINERAL WELLS — Every time Annette Bennett walks out the back door of the family business, the Baker Hotel still looms large, but it possesses little of its majestic past.

The US State Department issued a travel warning Monday on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, strongly warning US citizens against travel to the Gaza Strip. The advisory was updated due to what the State Department said was the complex security environment in the region.

HAMILTON, Mo.—This tiny farm town used to be known as the home of James Cash Penney Jr., founder of the namesake department store chain. These days, it is better known in some circles as the home of Jenny Doan. Those would be quilting circles. Over the past few years, Mrs. Doan, 57 years old, has become a veritable superstar of the craft. Her YouTube tutorials on how to make quilts have drawn as many as a million viewers, some from as far away as South Africa. Her family's Missouri Star Quilt Co. gets as many as 30,000 orders a month...

In feudal times, serfs were tied to the land—unable to leave without their overlord’s permission. In the old Soviet Union, workers were tied to their jobs—unable to leave without the government’s permission. In many insurance plans, medical services rendered outside of the network are uncovered. This becomes a problem when the network is extremely narrow, as many of the plans offered under the Affordable Care Act are. It is bad enough when the “network” is bounded by the state’s borders. It is worse when the boundary is the county or city line—as is the case with many of the “affordable”...

Lured by U.S. citizenship for their children, thousands of Chinese women give birth annually in the States, supporting a thriving birth-tourism industry. Jiang Wenjun was getting ready to go to America. His wife, due to give birth to their son any day, was already there. Like any expectant parents, the Shanghai couple agonized over how best to prepare for the arrival — and upbringing — of their firstborn child. American citizenship, they decided, was one of the finest gifts they could bestow. “America is the strongest country in the world,” says Jiang, whose son was born just days after he...