Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- The North American Aerospace Defense Command and the Continental U.S. NORAD Region plans a training flight exercise over the Washington area. The exercise, called Falcon Virgo 10-03, will take place late this evening and early tomorrow. It will include civil air patrol aircraft and Coast Guard helicopters. The exercise is made up of a series of training flights held in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Capital Region Command Center, the Joint Air Defense Operations Center, the Continental U.S. NORAD Region (CONR), Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard and CONR's Eastern Air Defense Sector.

RICHMOND, Va. — A 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient can keep his 21-foot flagpole in his front yard after a homeowner's association dropped its request to remove it, a spokesman for Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Tuesday.

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - Prince William County Police say they have one man in custody on the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge campus after shots were fired in a classroom. The campus was placed on emergency lockdown, but no injuries were reported. According to investigators, they were notified around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday of a student who was armed with a gun on the campus. Officers responded to the scene, and the college was put on lockdown. A Prince William County Police spokesperson says the gunman, who is a male student, went into a classroom and pointed a gun at a female...

Every day at sunrise, Medal of Honor winner Col. Van T. Barfoot hoists Old Glory with respect and pride. However, the 90-year-old veteran was recently told to remove the flagpole from his own front yard or face a lawsuit and fines. In fact, the local homeowner’s association says the 21 foot flagpole violates neighborhood regulations and needs to come down soon – by December 11. If the flagpole is not removed, a Richmond, VA law firm will go after Col. Barfoot. Call for Urgent Action Please urge the Sussex Square Homeowners Association to drop the case and allow Col. Van...

<p>WASHINGTON -- White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that it is "silly" to think that a 90-year-old Medal of Honor winner is being asked to remove a flagpole from his front yard.</p>

Two Navy SEALs arraigned Monday on charges of mistreating a suspected Iraqi terrorist were buoyed by a public display of support outside Norfolk Naval Station, where they are scheduled to be court-martialed next month. About 100 supporters, some from as far away as Texas, gathered outside one of the base’s main gates to protest charges against three men. They carried flags and held signs reading “Save our SEALs” and “Is this America?” There was no controversy inside the courtroom where Capt. Moira Modzelewski, a military judge, took less than an hour to formally arraign two of three accused commandos: Petty...

God was missing for six days. On the seventh day, Michael, the archangel, found him - resting. He inquired, "Where have you been?" God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds. "Look, Michael. Look what I've made." Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?" "It's a planet" replied God, and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place to test Balance." "Balance?" inquired Michael, "I'm confused." God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth. "For example, he said, northern Europe will be a place of great...

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia is pleased to announce that Virginia's pro-choice license plate will soon be available for pre-order. The proceeds from the sale of these plates will go to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Virginia to provide comprehensive, reproductive health care, like annual gynecological exams and sexually transmitted infection testing. In order to move forward with the license plates, we must pre-sell 350 plates. We hope that you will be one of the many proud Virginians displaying the plate. To see a preview of the license plate, please click here. When the plate goes on sale, it can be...

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II is known for speaking his mind. As he prepares next month to be sworn in as the top attorney for the state, nothing has changed. For those concerned that the attorney general-elect is going to embrace his conservative principles and take on anyone who opposes those beliefs — even the federal government — Mr. Cuccinelli said they are right to be concerned. "If they're worried that I'm going to sue the federal government, their worry is well-placed," Mr. Cuccinelli said. In the Republican state senator's acceptance speech after winning the election in November, he promised to...

RICHMOND, Va.—Two Navy SEALs are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in military court on charges that they mistreated an Iraqi suspect in the gory slayings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah. One of the SEALs is accused of punching the detainee after his September arrest, while the other is accused of lying to investigators. A third SEAL also accused of lying to investigators about the episode will be arraigned later. All three men have men have received an outpouring of support from people who view them as heroes. A Facebook page created to support the SEALs had more than 45,000...

email from Equality VA, a pro-homosexual group in VA: Exciting news! The Kaine administration has started the rulemaking process that could result in state employees being able to choose either to include either a spouse or an “otherwise qualified adult” on their state health insurance plan. Equality Virginia has been working to achieve this goal for the past year. These efforts finally have resulted in publication of aNotice of Intended Regulatory Action that is the first step in a long process that will not conclude until months after Governor-elect McDonnell takes office in January. To move this proposal from suggestion...

Mary Parks was charged in the death of her son back in September of 2007. Parks' nearly two-year-old son died of heat stroke after being left in his mother's car. Authorities say Parks went to pick her child up from daycare, but its staff told her the child was not there. That's when she found the toddler unresponsive in the back seat of the car.

FAIRFAX, Va. -- Neither the first snow of the winter nor the slushy, untreated roads could deter hundreds of fans from coming here Saturday morning to get a copy of “Going Rogue” signed by it’s author, Sarah Palin. The BJ’s in the Fair Lakes Shopping Center welcomed hundreds of people to line up and wait for hours to meet the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate. People came prepared to withstand the elements. Winter coats, umbrellas and most importantly plastic shopping bags, protected their books from the chunky, wet falling flakes. Some cuddled an armful of books for their favorite...

A deadline looms for businesses to glean usable parts from hundreds of automobiles. Last summer's Cash for Clunkers program has clogged auto salvage yards with a glut of trade-ins that are too damaged to drive but too good to be sent directly to scrap. The less glamorous side of the auto industry is having trouble digesting the byproducts of the buying frenzy that put nearly 700,000 new automobiles on the nation's roads -- and took the same number off. The future of millions of usable auto parts is in limbo as a critical deadline looms this winter under the federal...

A Vermont court ordered a Christian child taken away from her mother and given to a lesbian ex-partner, setting up, according to a lawyer for the Christian family, a dispute that the U.S. Supreme Court likely will have to resolve. Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, told WND the recent order from the Vermont judge that Lisa Miller turn over her young daughter, Isabella, to the lesbian ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, on New Year's Day is being appealed. In the interim, a separate court hearing on the dispute is scheduled to be heard in a Virginia court during this coming week....

President Barack Obama’s past continues to haunt him. A friend e-mailed me this revealing post by Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., pastor of The Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Virginia. Bishop Jackson wrote it last June, but I have not seen it circulated or mentioned before now. Now, someone found it and put it on their own blog. Like so many of us, Bishop Jackson describes himself as once a leftist Democrat; an African-American who grew up in a black urban community in Pennsylvania, and a man who is disturbed about what he calls “a strain of anti-Semitism in the black...

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - What a difference a year has made for Virginia's Republican Party. Hailing a turnaround that seemed impossible after a historic 2008 trouncing in a Democratic sweep led by Barack Obama, jubilant Republicans cheered the party's newest star, Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, at their annual winter meeting Saturday. "The Republican resurgence has begun in Virginia," McDonnell told a crowd attending the party's 26th Annual Donald W. Huffman Republican Advance in Williamsburg. In Staunton, nearly 160 miles west down Interstate 64, the Democratic Party's central committee hunkered down under a heavy snowstorm. McDonnell's victory by 19 percentage points over...

A letter written by the first US President, George Washington, has sold at auction for $3.2m (£1.9m). The sale, at Christie's in New York, was a record for a letter written by Washington. The four-page letter was written in 1787 to the president's nephew, Bushrod Washington, and urges adoption of the country's new constitution. A partially written poem by Edgar Allan Poe sold for $830,500 - a record for a 19th Century literary manuscript. 'Power of the people' Christie's said the Washington letter had been owned by descendants of Bushrod Washington for more than 100 years. The buyer was not...

Sarah Palin brought a taste of the Alaska winter with her to a Saturday book signing at the BJ's Wholesale Club in Fairfax. After alternating between drizzle and rain for much of the night Friday, snow flurries began in earnest about 8:30 a.m. "I wanted to feel like I was at home" Palin said, as she walked into the store while the first snowfall of the season soaked a crowd of about 2,000 people who came to meet her.

New details revealed Friday about the university's response — from the time the victims were found to when they alerted the campus of a gunman on the loose — brought angry reactions and questions from some victims' families about leadership during the massacre that ended with 33 people dead.

Notice how this document bears similarities to our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. A declaration of rights made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention; which rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government. SECTION I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring...

The Navy Seals facing court martial for the alleged abuse of a terror suspect arrested for killing four Americans face up to a year in military confinement, discharge for bad conduct, and forfeiture of two-thirds of their pay for a year, if convicted, according to defense attorneys.

STERLING, Va. - A close inspection by Customs and Border Protection officers at Dulles International Airport turned up something unexpected. Inside a fully-cooked chicken they found cocaine with an estimated street value of $4,300. The 60.4 grams (2.3 ounces) of coke was found inside two small, clear plastic bags inside the chicken's cavity. Officers discovered the white powdery substance during a secondary inspection after a flight from El Salvador arrived shortly after midnight Saturday. It tested positive for cocaine. "CBP officers have seen many unique narcotics concealment methods, and they all present the same challenges to discover them. Our officers'...

Senator Ralph K. Smith (R - Roanoke) Virginia State Senator Ralph K. Smith (R - Roanoke) has pre-filed Senate Bill 3 ahead of the 2010 Virginia General Assembly session. SB 3 would require Clerks of Virginia's Circuit Courts to accept renewal applications for concealed handgun permits by mail and to mail the permit to the applicant once it approved by the court. Senator Smith's mail order gun permit proposal is likely the first of an avalanche of mainly pro but also some anti-gun rights bills to be considered by the 2010 Virginia General Assembly. Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip...

In early November, retired Senior Chief Jeffrey Sparenberg was the guest of honor at military heritage day in Delaware. Sparenberg spent 23 years in the Navy, including time on the destroyer Cole, and he was at Fort DuPont State Park that day to donate a flag that he said flew over the Cole shortly after it was attacked nine years ago. The flag, he hoped, would be put on view at the planned Delaware Military Museum. A photograph from the ceremony shows Sparenberg on the steps of a shuttered brick building. The left side of his chest is covered with...

The commanding officer and top enlisted sailor serving on the Norfolk-based destroyer James E. Williams were relieved of command today after numerous cases of fraternization among the crew and allegations of sexual assault. Cmdr. Paul Marquis, skipper of the Williams, was assigned to administrative duty by Capt. Robert C. Barwis, the commander of Destroyer Squadron 26, according to a Navy spokesman. Master Chief Timothy Youell, who served as the command master chief on the Williams, also has been reassigned to an administrative job. The actions come in the wake of nine fraternization cases between senior and junior enlisted personnel on...

Time: December 5, 2009 from 11am to 2pm Location: BJ's Street: 13053 Fair Lakes Shopping Center City/Town: Fairfax VA Website or Map: http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin Event Type: book, signing Organized By: O. P. Ditch Latest Activity: 1 day ago

In a priority mail five-paragraph letter, the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond has ordered Colonel Van Barfoot to remove the pole by 5 p.m. Friday or face legal action. According to the letter, Barfoot would have to pay all legal fees and costs if the legal proceeding pursued by Sussex Square Homeowners Association is successful. Family members say Barfoot is the most decorated American combat veteran alive. He has been awarded more than 20 medals, including the Medal of Honor, The Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, The Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. This fall, his native...

Friends of the missing Virginia Tech student will be walking in the Vinton Christmas parade, which starts at 7 p.m......The 20 year old disappeared after going to a Metallica concert in Charlottesville on October 17.....Harrington was well known at the Roanoke office of Mental Health America, where she was a volunteer with the Forgotten Victims Group, which helps children of domestic violence. Harrington started volunteering there when she was in the eighth grade.....Some of the very people Harrington helped will be marching in the parade and passing out fliers about her disappearance. The group plans to pass out about 2,000...

Virginia State Senator Ralph K. Smith (R - Roanoke) has pre-filed Senate Bill 3 ahead of the 2010 Virginia General Assembly session. . . . Senator Smith's mail order gun permit proposal is likely the first of an avalanche of mainly pro but also some anti-gun rights bills to be considered by the 2010 Virginia General Assembly. Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave expects pro-gun bills to do well in the 2010 session in part because of election victories by pro-gun House of Delegate candidates last month.

Col. Van T. Barfoot, one of the country's last-surviving Medal of Honor winners, is under the gun from his Henrico County community's homeowner association. In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard.

Steve Hunt WINS the GOP nod and will now face Dave Marsden!!! Final results: Steve Hunt – 51% Marianne Horinko – 25% Will Nance – 24% The special election is Tues Jan 12, 2010....let's support Steve with donations and volunteers for this important race to beat Democrat Marsden, who "got a room" in the district so he could run for this seat.

Gov. Tim Kaine did a victory lap around Virginia on Tuesday to mark the beginning of a historic ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, speaking confidently of the law's longevity despite his successor's opposition to it. Flanked by legislative allies at Chadwicks restaurant in Alexandria, the outgoing governor said the ban would cut heart and lung disease associated with exposure to secondhand smoke among restaurant patrons and workers, while not hurting the businesses' bottom lines. The stop was sandwiched by visits to Charlottesville and Richmond. The new law represents one to Kaine's few major policy wins in a term...

I've taken an interest in this sleazy "blue dog" who manages to hold onto his seat in the conservative coal district of Virginia. He voted for cap-n-trade!! He believes he's untouchable, yet I noticed he voted against Pelosicare, after talking up the takeover before. That he started out supporting it, and then voted against it points to a deal he must have cut with Pelosi. So he just might feel his seat threatened. Any sign of a Republican challenger?

GOP Firehouse Primary for 37th Senate Dist. Posted on November 30, 2009 by Riley The firehouse primary to determine the Republican nominee in the special election to fill the 37th State Senate Dist. being vacated by AG-elect Ken Cuccinelli will be held TONIGHT! Here’s the details – Dec 1, 2009 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm Centreville High School 6001 Union Mill Rd Clifton, VA 20124-1131 Identification will be required in order to vote All voters will be required to sign a pledge stating that they intend to support the nominees of the Republican Party in the future. Electronic voting machines...

President Barack Obama should be wary of committing the U.S. to any binding climate standards at a global conference this month without congressional input, one senator warned. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) sent a letter to the president late last week warning Obama against agreeing to any binding climate change agreement during a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark this month. "I would like to express my concern regarding reports that the Administration may believe it has the unilateral power to commit the government of the United States to certain standards that may be agreed upon at the upcoming [conference]," Webb wrote to...

Department of Human Resource Management Commonwealth of Virginia Health Benefits Program [1 VAC 55 ‑ 20] Public Comment Forum On this Action: This action will amend section 1VAC 55 320(E) to include adults, other than spouses and incapacitated adult children, as participants in the Health Benefits Plan for State Employees NOIRA Stage - View the regulatory documents In Progress! Opened on 11/23/2009 and closes at 11:59pm on 12/23/2009 More about public comment forums Enter a comment

Dec 7 Navy SEALs Courts-Martial PROTEST - Norfolk Virginia SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Type: Causes - Protest Network: Global Date: Monday, December 7, 2009 Time: 8:00am - 6:00pm Location: Naval Station Norfolk City/Town: Norfolk, VA Description As most of you already know, some of our military’s most elite, the Navy SEALs are under fire from the US Government for none other than bloodying the lip of one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. Matthew McCabe, Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe & Petty Officer...

Fall painting, raking leaves, winterizing the summer’s motorized yard equipment, cutting and splitting firewood - then there’s every day work if one has it, to pay the bills. And before I know it, the Olney AARs are 3 weeks behind. So here’s the oldest two weeks. I have something special for Weeks 202 and 203 so they will be separate AARs. Pictures for both weeks are by [Mrs] T. WEEK 200, Nov. 07,2009 Roll call of this week’s 11 patriots includes Legionnaires Glenn (WWII - Marines), Halsey (Korea - USMC), Dennis (Korea - Army), Carl (Vietnam - Army), Lurkers Bill...

Restaurants all across Virginia are preparing for new smoking regulations. Beginning tomorrow, restaurants will be allowed to have a smoking area only if they segregate smokers into rooms with separate ventilation systems. The law also allows smoking on outdoor patios and in private membership clubs.

(snip) "I think it's time for us to start looking at this seriously," said Supervisor Gerald W. Hyland (D-Mount Vernon), who has been lobbying behind the scenes for the tax since the board's retreat this past summer. He said a meals tax would bring in about as much as a property tax increase of 5 cents per $100 of assessed value and would be spread over a larger group of people. "The best thing to say to a room full of people is that even though we're in a tough time and a recession, you still go out to eat,"...

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine emerged from a closed-door meeting with his top economic advisers Monday, saying that to offset a projected budget shortfall next year, he may have to raise taxes -- a prospect quickly dismissed by Gov.-elect Robert F. McDonnell. After meeting with his Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates, Mr. Kaine said he won't take anything off the table when it comes to fulfilling his responsibility to protect the state's AAA bond rating, providing Virginians with necessary services and keeping the state competitive to attract business. The purpose of the meeting was to set revenue projections that will be...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Officials say a Washington Metro subway train crashed into the back of another at a rail yard, injuring three workers. The Metro transit agency says injuries were minor and not life-threatening. No passengers were on board when the crash occurred at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday. Metro says a six-car train was returning to the West Falls Church Rail Yard in northern Virginia when it rear-ended a parked six-car train. Two workers were cleaning the parked train to get it ready for service.

Rep. Tom Periello is holding a town hall via telephone next Monday, November 30, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. You can call in by dialing 1-877-269-7289. You will need to enter the PIN number “14581″ Feel free to let Tom know your opinion about his support of the 2 worst bills in United States legislative history: Cap and Trade and the so called Health Care Reform bill.

Results of SurveyUSA News Poll #16075

WASHINGTON — The brazen reality TV hopefuls who managed to crash the White House state dinner earlier this week may face criminal charges, the Secret Service said today. Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin says the agency is moving closer to beginning a criminal investigation. He says that’s one reason the Secret Service hasn’t yet explained what happened when Michaele and Tareq Salahi arrived at the security checkpoint Tuesday for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Mackin says there’s less the Secret Service can say as the probe moves closer to a criminal investigation. He says the agency isn’t...

Leesburg, Virginia: Looks like the traditional Loudoun County Courthouse Christmas displays will be absent this year. For almost 50 years the Rotary Club of Leesburg has placed a Christmas tree on the courthouse grounds, Leesburg Today reported. For 20 years, Dennis and Debbie Welch has set up the courthouse nativity scene. But a new policy from the Facilities and Grounds Committee of the Loudoun County Courthouse prohibits any displays, according to Leesburg Today. Phil Rusciolelli has spearheaded the Rotary Club's Christmas tree initiative the past five years.

RICHMOND | The governors of Virginia and Maryland, both Catholics, said Tuesday that it would be wrong for the church to suspend or reduce social services in the nation's capital if the District approves gay marriage. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley criticized the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington's response to the District's gay marriage proposal during a joint appearance on Washington radio station WTOP. The D.C. Council is expected to approve gay marriage next month. The archdiocese says that unless the proposal is amended to add a religious exemption, its Catholic Charities won't be able to continue...

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who leaves office in January, today encouraged people with nonviolent felony convictions who have paid their debt to society to apply to have their voting rights restored. Speaking on his monthly call-in radio show on WTOP in Washington, Kaine noted that both he and his predecessor as governor, Mark R. Warner, have restored the rights of more Virginians than any of the previous governors of the commonwealth combined. Virginia and Kentucky are the only states that require people who have lost their rights through felony convictions to apply for reinstatement. In addition to voting rights, convicted...

Terry McAuliffe, the millionaire businessman who ran unsuccessfully for Virginia governor this year, is negotiating with investors and a U.S. automaker to lure a factory to southern Virginia -- raising speculation that the ambitious Democrat is not done with state politics. McAuliffe has talked with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) to brief him about his plans, which are focused on luring thousands of jobs to a part of Virginia where unemployment is high. McAuliffe declined through a spokeswoman to comment on his efforts, but Kaine confirmed the meeting and said McAuliffe is in the "very preliminary" stages of trying to...