Free Republic

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) - There is nothing illegal about a message posted Thursday on a sign at a Vancouver used car dealership. But the sign was seen as racist and offensive. "That Kenyan is not my President" was the message in the bottom left corner of the business sign for Austin's Affordable Autos. President Obama's father was born in Kenya. The message, since taken down, was on private property for about four days. and the owner's freedom of speech is protected by the US Constitution. But that doesn't mean it didn't upset many people. Among the comments people said to...

Neighbor's chicken escaped. I caught it. Now what?

CLATSKANIE, Ore. - Parents and their teenage daughters, who say they were bullied into sending nude photos to boys at their school, have filed a federal lawsuit against the Clatskanie School District. The girls say they were harassed and abused for three years and that their school didn't do enough to protect them. "I thought, why would you ever send a picture of yourself out?" said one of the girls, Josi Harrison. "But what these boys do to you, you feel like you have no option." They were only 12 and 13 years old at the time, seventh-graders at Clatskanie...

OBERLIN — A Lorain County grand jury refused to indict an Oberlin man accused of shooting four men he said were harassing him. (snip) He was accused of shooting Quan Jackson, 23, of Oberlin; Emilio Hernandez, 26, of Lorain; Anthony Lee, 22, of Elyria; and Isiah Richardson, 17, of Oberlin, on April 25 Followup to this case

Friday’s hearing was held for the judge to consider what penalty, if any, he should impose for the rail authority’s failure to comply with the ballot initiative in its initial funding plan. The rail authority argues that the judge’s ruling was based on an old funding plan that has since been revised. Attorneys for affected landowners who are suing the state have asked Kenny to rescind construction contracts, including a $1 billion deal signed this fall, or prevent the state from spending any more of the voter-approved bonds. Inan said the state is not spending any bond money now, anyway,...

The official Crocodile Tears of President Obama Tour is rolling right along. Earlier this week, he gave a speech where he lied about the fact that he repeatedly lied to the American people about being able to keep their health insurance. Suddenly, we went from "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan...period!" to "your substandard, trashy plan is being replaced by a better one that you'll love and worship." (Ok, I added the love and worship part.) Now the latest tidbit is Obama's interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, where once again Obama displays false sadness and pain...

There is joy in Hogtown. The mighty Ford has struck out. They’re on their feet along the baseline out to left field, around the media tent and through the downtown Toronto core, where crowds gather to celebrate. Mayor Rob Ford, unbeatable as a relatively conservative politician, struck out against himself, felled by personal weakness rather than policy. For all his foibles as a politician — uncouth, unsophisticated, brash and instinctive rather than calculating and intelligent — as mayor the man has never really been touched by his political and ideological opponents. But now his enemies have something. In the wake...

While old Sol had been fairly quiet for the time where it was supposed to be active in its normal 11-year cycle, only recently has activity ramped up with increased flares and sunspots. During 2013, there has been intermittent strong activity (like this and this in May), but the activity since mid-October is really the first extended period of activity. Speaking of sunspots, a huge group called designated as AR 1890 has turned to face Earth. Thanks to astrophotographer Ron Cottrell for capturing the group today, above. Spaceweather.com reports that this sunspot has a trend of producing very brief flares....

The top editor of Guns & Ammo became the second employee of the venerable firearms magazine to lose his job after a column advocating gun control backfired, prompting rifle-toting readers to unload on the publication. In a statement posted Wednesday on the InterMedia Outdoors-owned magazine’s homepage, Jim Bequette apologized to “each and every reader” of the magazine for Dick Metcalf’s column that appeared in its December issue, which generated “unprecedented” controversy and left readers “hopping mad” in regards to the magazine’s commitment to the Second Amendment. ********** In his column entitled “Let’s Talk Limits: Do certain firearm regulations really constitute...

Pope Francis is raising the spirit of the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, say some local and national Catholic church leaders, who see parallels between the two as the 17th anniversary of Bernardin’s death approaches.

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga. (WRDW) -- The score is now neighbors two gun ranges zero after a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in Columbia County. One property is in Harlem, the other in Grovetown. Neighbors have been fighting the one in Grovetown for years. About a dozen people who live near the Newmantown Gun Club showed up Thursday night to try to keep the property from being rezoned for a gun range. They say the noise is a disturbance, but the biggest issue is safety after they found bullet holes in homes nearby. In June deputies issued a cease and desist...

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SALT LAKE CITY — A coalition of conservation groups is hailing a federal judge's ruling Monday to strike down portions of the Richfield Bureau of Land Management plan they said gave deference to off-road vehicles at the expense of the environment. "This landmark decision is a resounding rejection of the BLM’s mismanagement of Utah’s stunning public lands,” said Stephen Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. ... The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance was among seven groups that filed a legal challenge to the Bush-era plans following their adoption in 2008, contending they imperiled pristine landscapes. The Richfield plan...

With no remaining fuel to guide its re-entry there’s no way to nudge its descent. And while most of GOCE is predicted to disintegrate in the atmosphere, several parts might reach Earth’s surface. Experts predict as much as 25% of the spacecraft will survive reentry, as many parts are made of advanced materials, such as carbon-carbon composites. Today, engineers from the GOCE mission said that the spacecraft it predicted to enter into Earth’s atmosphere sometime during the night between Sunday and Monday, November 10-11, 2013. Break-up of the spacecraft will occur at an altitude of approximately 80 km. “At the...

Dealing with divorced and remarried: Cardinal Marx lays into the Vatican Cardinal Marx : " We are going to see that the issue is completely discussed" Should the Catholic Church allow divorced and remarried to be re-admitted to communion? No, says Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican. The Munich Cardinal Marx does not want to accept this. Freising - The Bavarian bishops want a broad debate on the way that divorced and remarried people are treated by the Catholic Church. They distance themselves thereby from the Prefect of the Vatican...

President Obama told a group of donors at a high-dollar Miami fundraiser that the United States needed to be "creative and thoughtful" as it continued to update its policies towards Cuba. "We've started to see changes on the island," Obama told the crowd, which included Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.). The fundraiser — with tickets that ranged between $2,500 and $32,400 — was held at the Miami home of Jeorge Mas, the chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation. The non-profit group dedicated to restoring democracy on the island is one of the most influential Cuban...

A 16-year-old was arrested Friday for allegedly stealing two high-powered FBI guns in Andover. The weapons, a Colt M16-A1 Rifle and a HS Precision Series 2000 Sniper Rifle, were stolen from a FBI SWAT vehicle parked at an agent’s home in Andover sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning during a series of vehicle break-ins in the neighborhood. Andover Police Commander Charles Heseltine said investigators found fingerprints on the FBI vehicle and another vehicle that was broken into. Those prints were run through a national database and that led them to the teenager.

On Friday, the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released a report titled “Discrimination and Hate Crime against Jews in EU Member States: experiences and perceptions of antisemitism.” The online survey polled 5,847 self-selected individuals who identified as Jewish in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Sweden and the UK, states in which an estimated 90 percent of European Jews live. … In Germany, the KPMD, a service for registering crimes, has recorded a decline in anti-Semitic crimes since 2009. However, by itself, that says nothing about the perceptions of Jews living in Germany. According to the FRA...

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - Efforts to build a company marketed as selling anti-rape underwear has created controversy. The product is called AR Wear, which stands for anti-rape. Two women are trying to get their business off the ground, saying the panties, shorts, knickers and tops are designed to prevent a rapist from gaining access to a woman's body. They said the product will give females additional power over their bodies in the event of an assault. But some advocates for rape victims are crying foul. The New York women have launched a campaign on the crowd-funding site, IndieGoGo.com. The...

As I have discussed here previously, the first state to explicitly ration Medicaid–an integral feature of all single payer systems–tightened the screws against terminal cancer patients a few months ago. Now, the issues is gaining wider discussion in Oregon. From an opinion column published in the Statesman Journal by Peter J. Pitts: In August, Oregon’s Health Evidence Review Commission issued an update to its guidelines for providing cancer treatment to low-income individuals covered by the state Medicaid program. These new guidelines require that Medicaid deny coverage for certain cancer treatments for patients that have been deemed “too” sick, haven’t responded...