Free Republic

In a week when we celebrated one of the greatest speeches in history, we also saw discrimination win over science. Again. Ideology defeated reason. As a scientist, I was saddened in a way I am not usually wont. The Great State of Vermont threw away cheap clean energy this week out of ignorance and fear. Vermont chose to be stupid, and will hurt the environment as a sidebar.

President Barack Obama faces a clear uphill battle in swaying skeptical lawmakers of the merits of military action in Syria, as top officials were dispatched to Capitol Hill Sunday to make the administration’s case. For example, Senate Democratic aides are drafting new language for an authorization of military force in Syria, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said Sunday. The administration’s proposal is too open-ended — a complaint many lawmakers have — Leahy said after leaving the classified briefing. The current version wouldn’t garner his support, but he indicated that a more tightly written draft might. “I know it’s going to be...

elief was tempered with caution in Western Massachusetts on Wednesday as news spread that the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station plans to shut down late next year. New Orleans-based Entergy Corporation made the announcement on Tuesday, citing the availability of cheap natural gas and the current economy, which has made it less profitable to operate a nuclear power plant. “This was an agonizing decision and an extremely tough call for us,” said Leo Denault, Entergy’s CEO in a statement released to the media. The company said it will begin shutting down at the end of its current fuel cycle in...

Former Vermont Gov. and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean showed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) irritates the left as much as the Republican establishment when he declared that he was fearful that Cruz would one day become president. "God help us if he ever gets to be anything more than the senator from Texas," Dean said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. Dean was responding to an interview CNN's Candy Crowley had done earlier in the week with Cruz in which Cruz said that he would do whatever he could to encourage a "grassroots tsunami" that would...

Vermont authorities have determined that the June 16 shooting death of a Hudson Falls man who was killed as he was stabbing his ex-girlfriend at a home in western Vermont was "justifiable homicide" and no charges will be filed. Vermont State Police announced Friday night that the man who shot 29-year-old Aaron Allen as he stabbed his former girlfriend at her home in Danby, Vt., was "legally justified" to take action as she was attacked. Michael White, 24, of Danby, Vt., shot Allen twice with a .30-06-caliber rifle, and Allen died the next day at Rutland Regional Medical Center in...

Government workers in the city of Seattle have been advised that the terms "citizen" and "brown bag" are potentially offensive and may no longer be used in official documents and discussions. KOMO-TV reports that the city's Office of Civil Rights instructed city workers in a recent internal memo to avoid using the words because some may find them offensive.

RUTLAND — Joshua Severance says his Second Amendment rights to openly carry a firearm were violated, but Rutland police say they were following the law when they handcuffed and briefly detained the Milton man this week. In a case that appears destined to end in a courtroom, Severance, 26, says he was walking down a residential Rutland street Monday afternoon with his shirt off and his 9mm Beretta semiautomatic handgun holstered on his hip when a city police cruiser stopped in front of him and an officer ordered him to place his hands on the hood. “I figured they wanted...

BENNINGTON, Vt. — An infestation of bedbugs has forced the temporary closure of a homeless shelter in Bennington, Vt. ... In the meantime, the women and children who would normally stay there are being placed in temporary locations, including motels

The defendants in Rob MacIver’s red-light ticket case are members of the police department and his town’s administration, but neither of them showed up to the hearing on Friday. MacIver, a 56-year-old Vermont man, is looking to win $2,000 for the damages he incurred while protesting a ticket he received for supposedly running a red light last December, according to WCAX.com. MacIver says he didn't go through a red light and the police’s video proved his point. However, police have insisted he violated the law.

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Bosnian immigrant accused of lying to U.S. immigration authorities by denying involvement in war crimes during the conflict in Bosnia two decades ago pleaded not guilty on Friday. Prosecutors allege Edin Sakoc, who has been living in Burlington, the state's largest city, was involved in war crimes against a civilian Bosnian Serb family in 1992. An indictment says he raped a Serb woman and aided in the killing of the two elderly people she was caring for and the burning of the house they were staying in. ... Vermont has a sizable Bosnian community. Between 1993...

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) admitted Wednesday that under the Senate immigration bill, forging up to two passports is not a crime, adding that the bill leaves the decision whether to charge someone with passport fraud up to the discretion of prosecutors. On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked Leahy, “One of the provisions has to do with passports; that’s an important component. Do you know how many passports someone is able to forge before it’s a crime?” Leahy said, “Well, it depends upon which interpretation is being used. You could have one form which is two, but then there are...

AUGUSTA, Maine — Lawmakers who are also military veterans were angered Tuesday when a host of their colleagues switched votes on a bill that would have required public schools to give recruiters in uniform access to school grounds. According to the Maine Department of Education, a handful of schools in Maine have disallowed uniformed recruiters but those opposed to the legislation said there was no evidence recruiters in uniform were being barred. The bill was offered by the administration of Maine's Republican Gov. Paul LePage. Republicans who supported the bill, LD 1503, noted 20 Democrats who voted for the measure...

Israel is concerned that cutting US aid to Egypt because of a military coup could jeopardize the peace treaty. Israel is concerned that the Obama administration will suspend the $1.3 billion annual military aid to Egypt following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, and that suspension of aid could jeopardize the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Israel may ask the US to find a way to continue the aid program, even though US law bans financial aid to regimes that seized power in a coup, US sources told "Globes" yesterday. The sources familiar with the complicated three-way US-Egyptian-Israeli relationship said that keeping...

Good news from Arkansascarry.com: In July, 2013, Arkansas will become the fifth state in the United States to enact “Constitutional Carry” into law. Act 746 of the 2013 General Assembly was signed into law by Governor Mike Beebe on April 4th, 2013, after receiving only one “nay” vote from the legislature. Constitutional Carry occurs in a state when no laws exist that generally restrict the carry of handguns (open or concealed) for self-defense purposes. Arkansas law 5-73-120 currently prohibits the possession of a handgun if it is possessed “readily available for use with a purpose to employ the handgun… as...

Patient autonomy is fast becoming a one-way street. Choose to die by refusing life-sustaining treatment–sacrosanct! Want to live with life-sustaining treatment? Not your call. I recently helped successfully fight an attempt in Texas (SB 303) to legalize no consent DNRs. But they have been passed in VT and MD.

Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who electrified anti-war liberals during the 2004 presidential race, said Thursday he would consider another run for the White House – a statement that will surely be met with mixed reaction in the Democratic Party.

DANBY, Vt. — The stepmother of a Vermont man who shot a Hudson Falls man to death Sunday said her stepson was defending his family. Vermont State Police said Aaron Allen, 28, of Hudson Falls, died after being shot by Michael White, 24. Police said Allen went to a house on John Corey Road Sunday evening with a knife and was stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Heather Thompson, when he was shot. Thompson, 22, had a restraining order issued in Washington County against Allen because of an April arrest for unlawful restraint, police said. “He came to kill her, and who knows,...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who helped draft the immigration reform bill currently being discussed in the Senate, says he will walk away from the negotiations if it includes a controversial amendment to provide immigration benefits for gay couples. "If this bill has in it something that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I'm done," said Rubio during an interview on the Andrea Tantaros Show on Thursday. "I'm off it, and I've said that repeatedly. I don't think that's going to happen and it shouldn't happen. This is already a difficult enough issue as it...

N.Y. 3 Feet of Snow: Reversed Global Warming Causes Unusual Amount of Snowfall on Memorial Day Weekend In New York [PHOTOS] 3 feet of snow had just fallen in New York over Memorial Day weekend, and the unusual amount of snowfall sparked speculations that say the extreme weather was caused by reversed global warming. **SNIP** Although during May of last year, the temperature had been going up due to global warming, this year's Memorial Day weekend experienced what some have called "reversed global warming," as the temperature is dropping much more than usual. Residents of New York were surprised to...

EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. - Jeremy Dodge doesn't want to leave his childhood home in East Montpelier. But his days on Foster Road are numbered. "It's my homestead," he said. "You know, I planned on dying here." That plan changed last year when the town put his property up for tax sale. Dodge owed almost $18,000 in back taxes. He thought if it went to auction, he'd be homeless in 30 days. The day before the tax sale, his neighbor knocked on his door with an offer to buy him out that Dodge thought would be his saving grace. That neighbor...