Free Republic

State corporations' liabilities reportedly exceed USD 8 billion Economy While government officials say that they have enough resources to tackle the income gap resulting from falling oil prices, liabilities with contractors and workers continue to grow. The Venezuelan state is in default with contractors which, in turn have failed to pay their employees. The companies providing services to state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) and the Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) are going through the most critical situation. The boards of directors of the state companies are negotiating with suppliers to settle debts, but the liabilities of both the oil...

For many Minnesota Muslims, it's been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest. The African Development Center, with support from the state's housing agency, is now offering Islamic mortgages as a way to help close the home ownership gap among Muslim immigrants. Minneapolis, Minn. — Islamic law does make exceptions to the ban on interest, if one's family is at stake. But the exceptions are open to interpretation and for many observant Muslims, conventional mortgages are strictly taboo. Nawawi Sheikh is one of them. The Somali-American says he and his wife...

NIAGARA FALLS—Two days after a man was sentenced to probation and community service for putting up a sign as a “joke” in a public works garage that said “whites only” on a drinking fountain, city police were called to a home in the 600 block of 25th Street on Sunday to investigate another racially charged sign. This one was clearly no joke. No charges were filed Sunday, but police told the woman she must take down the handwritten sign on a fence on her property saying, “I rent three bedrooms [at her address to] white people Niagara Falls.” The 53-year-old...

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) said Monday night that he was pleased to see Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele apologize to radio host Rush Limbaugh, whom he called a “leader for many conservatives.” “I'm glad he apologized,” Jindal said during an interview on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” “I think the chairman is a breath of fresh air for the party,” he added. “As I said before, I think Rush is a leader for many conservatives and says things that people are concerned about. [He] articulates very well the concern people have about growing government spending without an end in sight.”...

After her ninth DUI arrest, Arden de Saussure resolved to give up the Jim Beam. In jail she met cocaine addict Michelle Weaver, who told her she’d turned her last trick on Philips Highway. The two Jacksonville women pledged they would help each other fly straight on the outside. “We were both scared to death, but we were both so determined,” said de Saussure, a former Ortega debutante. Today — about seven years later — they own and operate the busy Arden’s Kafe & Katering, a country-style lunch spot off Roosevelt Boulevard staffed by addicts, many on jail work furloughs...

Just got this from Gun Owners of America. If you are not a member and you are interested in protecting your 2nd Amendment rights then you should give them a look. ================================================================================================================== Senate Repeals D.C. Gun Ban by Large Vote -- But the fight in the House is just beginning Monday, March 2, 2009 By a resounding vote of 62 to 36 last week, the U.S. Senate has approved an amendment, offered by Senator John Ensign of Nevada, to repeal the D.C. gun ban. Congratulations! But the battle is not over. This week, the House will take up the D.C....

Global Warming: On Hold? Michael Reilly, Discovery News March 2, 2009 -- For those who have endured this winter's frigid temperatures and today's heavy snowstorm in the Northeast, the concept of global warming may seem, well, almost wishful. But climate is known to be variable -- a cold winter, or a few strung together doesn't mean the planet is cooling. Still, according to a new study, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades. Earth's climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 despite...

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leah At 52 years, here is Carrie Fisher, looking like Mike Myers.

In the current environment of massive fraud and monetary mayhem, I recently encountered a small financial error. But I refused to swallow a 25-percent loss at the checkout counter, where I was charged an extra $1 for a pint of organic grape-sized tomatoes. As a weekly special, the advertised price was $3.99 per container. But when I studied my receipt at the checkout lane, I noticed that I had been charged $4.99 for the tomatoes. Here's what that episode taught me: Always check receipts. Checkout errors are common, according to one industry survey. In 2003, A.T. Kearney indicated that there...

RANGERS will keep trying to catch a four-metre croc lurking in the mangroves of Queensland's Fraser Island, as long as there's a risk to tourists and boaties. Wildlife officer Rob Allan said the saltwater crocodile is ignoring tasty treats intended to tempt it into two traps along the Great Sandy Strait on the southwest side of the World Heritage listed island. "We are a bit surprised because each of the two permanently moored traps we've set up have a pig's head in them and the smell of that would go for miles for a crocodile," Mr Allan said. "It's ignoring...

EXCISE TAXES RAISE $336 MILLION FOR WILDLIFE . . . When a target shooter purchases a box of ammunition or a hunter a new deer rifle, they are contributing to a system that has been responsible for supporting healthy wildlife populations in America for the last 70 years. These contributions, in the form excise taxes paid on sporting firearms, ammunition and archery equipment, benefit every state and amount to a surprisingly large number: nearly $336 million for 2009, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

HAVANA – Fidel Castro said Tuesday he was consulted on the sweeping leadership changes by his brother Raul's government and that two of the ousted officials had been seduced by "the honey of power." The article published on a government Web site gave the first official hint of why at least two powerful officials were removed in the abrupt shakeup — Cuba's largest in decades. The move was widely seen as Raul Castro putting his personal stamp on the government he inherited from Fidel Castro a year ago. But the elder brother wrote that he had been consulted about the...

Word up - we must organize. Organize to lobby, to protest, get others involved...

For more than a month, Norm Coleman stressed flaws in Minnesota's election system. And on Monday, Coleman lawyer Jim Langdon wrote the three-judge panel to suggest the problems are so serious they may not be able to declare a winner. "Some courts have held that when the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin between the candidates -- and it cannot be determined for which candidate those illegal votes were cast -- the most appropriate remedy is to set aside the election," Langdon wrote in a letter to the court. Coleman's team rested most of his case Monday in the...

A Spruce Street man has been charged with shooting a city man in the face at Garfield Avenue and Spruce Street Monday afternoon. Michael McGilberry Jr., 27, was arrested at the police station Wednesday night after turning himself in to authorities. He is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. The victim, 22-year-old Richard Jamison, has been released from Camden's Cooper University Hospital, according to Bridgeton Police Det. Lt. Michael Gaimari. Jamison was shot in the right cheek following an altercation with McGilberry and at least one...

E.J. Dionne asked a question in his column yesterday that would seem to allow for a quick and easy answer, especially to those who don't bother to think about what he's really asking: Do We Want a More Equal Society? The central issue in American politics now is whether the country should reverse a three-decade long trend of rising inequality in incomes and wealth. Dionne begins this exercise by establishing as fact something that may be true to numbers, but is certainly not true to truth. First, Dionne completely ignores the fact that every group has increased its time adjusted...

HARTFORD -- Activist Michael Wintergreen doubts rich people in Connecticut will object to paying more income taxes. The self-described veteran of "Corporate America" urged state lawmakers on Monday to raise taxes on incomes greater than than $200,000 a year. "From my own personal experience, a lot of upper income folks will be OK with higher tax rates," said Wintergreen, a representative of Connecticut Working Families, a union-backed political group. However, a recent statewide poll suggests that people of all income brackets are mostly opposed to state tax increases. The legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee heard testimony Monday on legislation...

Recent events mark Japan’s return to the world’s stage, or at least so it seems. Tokyo was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s inaugural overseas destination. Last week, Prime Minister Taro Aso was the first foreign leader to visit the Obama White House. All this suggests that Washington sees Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, as a powerful nation. If only we saw ourselves the same way. The truth is, Japan is a mess. Mr. Aso’s approval rate recently hit 11 percent, and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party is in open disarray. His predecessor barely lasted a year. The opposition Democratic Party...

Here's a peek at our justice system. A Miami juvenile court judge recently told a 15-year-old runaway foster child that she could end up a 'dead crack whore' if she didn't straighten up, reports the Miami Herald. Exasperated that the girl was refusing to return to a home where she said her caregiver hit and cursed at her, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Spencer Eig lectured the sobbing teen about making bad choices during what began as a routine hearing. ''You're throwing your life away,'' Eig told the girl. ``You could end up on the street toothless. You've seen these toothless hags...

WASHINGTON (AP) - An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for an imprisoned Salvadoran immigrant in the killing of federal intern Chandra Levy, nearly eight years after the case captivated the nation's capital and ended the career of a congressman. The warrant accuses Ingmar Guandique (gwan-DEE'-kay) of killing Levy on May 1, 2001, as she walked her dog through Washington's Rock Creek Park, said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor. Guandique, 27, is already serving time in a federal prison in Adelanto, Calif., for attacking two women in the same park.