Free Republic

If you’re moved to click one or both of the following to read the complaint (they’re both the same text) and send an e-mail via that page by clicking where indicated on the red text, I give you my thanks in advance.Mona Gambetta Refuses to Replace Inadvertently Discarded PaymentComplaint 1Rich Dad Poor Dad Owes Me Payment for Copyediting Book Complaint 2

High levels of natural gas are escaping from the aging pipes beneath the streets of the nation’s capital, creating potentially harmful concentrations in some locations, a new study has found. Natural gas leaks pose explosion risks, health concerns, and contribute to climate change. The paper, which appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, also provides information that could help companies justify additional financial incentives for fixing leaks quickly. Robert Jackson and colleagues note that natural gas leakage is a serious problem on multiple levels, including impacts on the economy and climate. Property damage is estimated at $133 million...

Rosetta, the first spacecraft built to orbit a comet and land a probe on these icy nomads, is now waking up after more than two years of slumber, and videos filmed as part of an international competition will help greet the spacecraft after it awakens. Comets are some of the most primitive building blocks of the solar system, with many dating to soon after its formation. Comets also likely helped seed Earth with water and other ingredients of life. By analyzing the composition of the comet, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will help scientists learn more about the role...

HOUSTON—A Mexican national facing execution in Texas this week has drawn support from Mexican officials, a former Texas governor and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who appealed to Gov. Rick Perry and state courts for a reprieve — so far, unsuccessfully. Edgar Tamayo, 46, a Mexican citizen, is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday for fatally shooting Houston Police Officer Guy Gaddis in 1994. Gaddis, 24, had been flagged down near a nightclub by a man who accused Tamayo of robbing him. The officer arrested Tamayo, handcuffed him and put him in the back of his patrol car....

Interstellar flight certainly ranks among the most daunting challenges ever postulated by human civilization. The distances to even the closest stars are so stupendous that constructing even a scale model of interstellar distance is impractical. For instance, if on such a model the separation of the Earth and sun is 1 inch (2.5 centimeters), the nearest star to our solar system (Proxima Centauri) would be 4.3 miles (6.9 kilometers) away! The fastest object ever built by the human species is the Voyager 1 space probe, moving at a speed of 18 miles per second. If it were heading toward Proxima...

Newly released videos obtained by CBS News suggest that the 16-year-old girl who was run over by a fire truck and killed after surviving a crash on ill-fated Asiana Airlines Flight 214 might have been visible to rescue workers, contradicting earlier reports that she was covered with fire-extinguishing foam. Ye Meng Yuan died at San Francisco International Airport in July. One video, shot from a camera attached to an emergency worker's helmet, captures footage of a firefighter shouting warnings about Ye to a driver of a rescue vehicle. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop, stop, stop! There's a body. ... There's a...

BATAVIA — A judge as required by a higher court officially reduced the sentence for Jacquetta Simmons Monday in Genesee County Court. “It was obvious the sentence I imposed I thought appropriate,” Judge Robert C. Noonan said. “I have no discretion to modify the sentence.” Noonan then sentenced Simmons to one year in Genesee County Jail, with credit for time already served. Simmons served about four weeks before she was released after a judge granted her a stay pending appeal. With good behavior, she could be released after about seven months. Simmons was convicted Aug. 24, 2012, of second-degree assault...

Join The Savage Nation Call Michael Savage at 855-400-SAVAGE 855-400-7282 3pm to 6pm weekdays ET.

Sarah Campbell would like churches everywhere to supplement the cross with a new symbol of hope — solar panels. That, she said, is exactly what the 750 members of the Mayflower United Church of Christ did last week when they flipped the switch on one of the largest solar arrays in Minneapolis as a brazen and public strike against climate change.

Click on pic or here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VwWRpIinxs

As the saying goes, no two snowflakes are exactly alike. Russian photographer Alexey Kljatov's collection of high-resolution magnified flakes makes this widely-held belief more convincing. The Moscow-based photographer captured dozens of structurally diverse snowflakes, showcasing the complexity of each one against a dull backdrop. "This year I planned to save current temperature and relative humidity, taken from weather sites with all shooting sessions, but previously I [didn't] do that."

One of the biggest public supporters of the Affordable Care Act has reportedly decided that some of his staff should be exempted from the new law. CNN reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is the only top congressional leader to exempt some of his staff from having to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. That’s right, even House Majority Leader John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who have voted against the healthcare law dozens of times, have told their staff to sign up for insurance plans through the federal exchange. The news will likely provide...

Bit by bit, the media narrative around the travails of Obamacare and its main enrollment vehicle, HealthCare.gov, is starting to look up. Or to put it more precisely, it is no longer so crushingly negative. After weeks of stories about website crashes and canceled health plans – and an extraordinary mea culpa from President Obama – a competing story line is starting to emerge. Slowly but surely, people are navigating the exchanges and getting insurance – for some, cheaper and better than what they had. Last week, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times touted a “surge” in enrollment...

Early Friday morning on Fox’s Red Eye, host Greg Gutfeld finally broke the silence and announced the departure of long-time “repulsive sidekick” and panelist Bill Schulz. The brief announcement came after a prolonged, unexplained Schulz absence from the show. “A lot of viewers have wondered where the heck Bill Schulz went,” Gutfeld said. “Sad to say he has decided to move on from the show. He’s been a close friend of mine for 13 years, and he’s been a huge part of Red Eye since its inception, and we wish him the best.” No further reason was given for his...

Oprah Winfrey, one of the wealthiest people in the world, is throwing the race card again. During an interview with the BBC Friday, she not only said that President Obama is treated with disrespect because he’s black, but also that entire generations of racists are going to have to die for racism to end (video follows with transcript and commentary): WILL GOMPERTZ, BBC: The issue of the civil rights movement, and the way that black people around the world are treated, particularly I suppose in, around the world… OPRAH WINFREY: Around the world. GOMPERTZ: Around the world. Look at place...

Former Dem nominee for VA-Gov in serious condition. Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, is in critical condition after being stabbed in his home and his son Gus is dead from a gunshot wound, law enforcement sources told the Richmond Times-Dispatch this morning. Deeds is being treated at the University of Virginia Medical Center. Authorities said they are trying to determine the sequence of events at the Deeds home in Bath County early today. Further details were not immediately available.

Suddenly, congressional Democrats are catching Hillary Clinton fever. It’s still three years until the next presidential election, but already her endorsements from party leaders are piling up. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) delivered a speech in Iowa over the weekend urging Clinton to run in 2016, and other Democrats are touting her potential candidacy. Democratic strategists say it makes sense for lawmakers to line up behind Clinton — even before she’s announced her candidacy — because she is virtually assured of winning the party’s nomination.

One Day of Fighting. Ten Different Perspectives Fallujah 2004 Garrett Anderson and Antonio de la Torre have been creating digital films together since they met at a high school digital media production class in the year 2000. Several of the students from that class are working in similar professional fields today. Garrett served as a U.S. Marine infantryman from 2003-2007; during which he deployed to Iraq as well as Afghanistan and continued to collaborate with Antonio when visiting home on vacation. The two filmmakers decided in late 2011 to interview members of Anderson’s former platoon who fought alongside each other...

The Navy Jack is the ‘don’t tread on me’ flag, one that has earned a revered place in America’s naval history and a beloved place in sailor’s hearts, through its use for over two centuries. This symbol of America’s naval ferocity has spanned our country’s entire existence, flying from the masts of the Continental Navy during the war of independence, to today’s War on Terror. In fact, an amendment to the Navy code called SECNAV Instruction 10520.6 clearly states that as of 31 May 2002 all ships are to fly the flag throughout the duration of the War on Terror....

Rep. Trey Gowdy says President Barack Obama’s latest comments about his health care law could earn him another Nobel Prize — for fiction. “The president already has a Nobel Prize for peace, I think he’s shooting for one in fiction,” Gowdy (R-S.C) said Monday on Fox News’s “The Kelly File.” Gowdy hit the president on changing his language on whether people would be able to keep their insurance plans under Obamacare, after host Megyn Kelly made reference to remarks Obama made Monday regarding existing coverage.