Free Republic

Scouring for his next meal in a dumpster downtown, a homeless man is ticketed by Houston Police. Now, opponents point to the citation as validation of arguments against the city’s homeless feeding ordinance.

I had been asked to walk in the Media Memorial Day Parade, due to knowing the veterans for many years and working with them at Veterans Nights at The Media Theatre. Ed Buffman had asked me to assist with carrying the PA Veterans Museum Banner, as has been done regularly several times before. I had with me a Gay Pride Flag, one that was to memorialize all of this country's gays and lesbians who had died in the line of duty. I wanted to drape it over my shoulders as a quiet remembrance. I was told point blank by Ed...

You can measure the continuing power shift in Washington by looking at the costly package of veterans’ benefits sponsored by James Webb, the Virginia senator elected on an anti-Iraq war platform in 2006. President George W. Bush has promised to veto the measure. The scene is set for a showdown and Mr Bush is set to lose it. Over Memorial day, the editorial pages of US dailies backed Mr Webb’s bill as the least the country could do for soldiers who have sacrificed so much. A majority of Republican senators joined Mr Webb’s Democrats to render the bill veto-proof. John...

LEEDS, Mass. (AP) - Peter Mohan traces the path from the Iraqi battlefield to this lifeless conference room, where he sits in a kilt and a Camp Kill Yourself T-shirt and calmly describes how he became a sad cliche: a homeless veteran. There was a happy homecoming, but then an accident—car crash, broken collarbone. And then a move east, close to his wife's new job but away from his best friends. And then self-destruction: He would gun his motorcycle to 100 mph and try to stand on the seat. He would wait for his wife to leave in the morning,...

In the last few weeks the Portland, Oregon VA hospital has been sending a letter to veterans informing them that their non-"life-or-limb" surgery has been cancelled or postponed. The Portland VA facility, with a satellite campus in Vancouver, Washington, serves veterans in Oregon, southwest Washington and parts of Northern California. It all boils down to dollars, or lack of them. The Portland VA, like every VA facility, is caught in a funding crisis with no end in sight. Funding for the VA has increased every year, Internet myths aside. But the dollars have not kept up with the number of...

Talking about Veterens benefits!

David will take on Goliath, Mar. 13, as Southern Golden Gate Estates property owner Jesse Hardy fights the state of Florida for 160 acres of land he has called home for 27 years.Located in what is called the "Hole in the Donut," the property is part of the state's 55,000-acre buy-out to restore natural water flows to the SGGE, once slated for development.Hardy says his property is not necessary to the restoration project and will not be adversely affected by it."I'm not against any of the environmentalists' work to re-hydrate the Southern Golden Gate Estates," he says. "I'm all for...