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When former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) announced his second presidential bid on Tuesday, he played up his blue-collar, working-class background in an attempt to distinguish himself from some of his rivals. "I don't have a global foundation or a taxpayer-funded paycheck to live off of. I don't come from a family dynasty, but a working family. I grew up blue collar, not blue blood," Huckabee said in his announcement, which he delivered in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. Huckabee's statement took aim at several of his potential competitors in the 2016 election. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her...

A Raipur-bound IndiGo plane from Kolkata carrying 167 passengers, including the Delhi Daredevils IPL team, vacated the runway in the "nick of time" as another flight, a Jet Airways plane from Mumbai had landed on the same runway by that time, avoiding a possible mishap, sources said. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has launched a probe into the incident, which happened today morning, they said. "During taxiing, another aircraft was landing, so our plane had to take a right turn. There was absolutely no panic among our players," a DD team official told PTI here. Raipur is the second...

Monsignor Charles Pope writes, "The gospel from Sunday (John 15:1-8) presents us with an important meditation on the difference between love and kindness. Perhaps some further reflections from this gospel are in order today. There is an unfortunate tendency in our times to reduce love to kindness. Kindness is an aspect of love, but so is rebuke. It is an immature notion of love that reduces it merely to affirming, or that refers to proper correction as a form of “hate.” We saw in yesterday’s gospel that proper care involves the Lord “pruning” us so that we bear more fruit....

A 55-year-old woman was shot dead by villagers, who mistook her to be a wild boar that they were chasing from a nearby farm at Eravalam Madura Katchikuppam village near Thirukovilur on Tuesday evening. Police booked 16 villagers in connection with the incident and arrested six persons so far, including the man who shot the woman with a country-made gun. Local sources said Parvathy (55), wife of Subramanian of Katchikuppam village was diverting water at her sugarcane farm when a gang of villagers, who were chasing the boar saw it entering Subramanian's farm. The gang surrounded the farm in order...

y Tom Paulu(0) Comments Like my co-worker Sarah Grothjan, who wrote the previous Take a Hike blog post, I like to head out into the wilds by myself, though not without some angst. As I’ve gotten older – past 60 -- I’ve found that old hiking friends aren’t available as often as they used to be when we were single and didn’t have weekend house chores and family responsibilities. I often can’t clear a hiking day until a few days in advance, and I don’t have much flexibility about when I can go so hiking clubs aren’t always an option....

The South Carolina Legislative Audit Council has issued a scathing report criticizing the state health department for numerous deficiencies in its inspection of the state’s three freestanding abortion facilities that could “result in serious problems for patients” if the problems are not addressed. The three free-standing abortion facilities operating in South Carolina are: The Women’s Clinic of Greenville, Planned Parenthood of Columbia, and the Charleston Women’s Medical Center in Charleston. Discrepancies were noted in the number of abortions performed at one facility and the number reported to the Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Public Health Statistics and Information Services....

Nice try. Tyler, the Creator's career has been fraught with controversy over his problematic lyrics. He's been accused of negligently tossing around rape jokes, casually using homophobic slurs, and, as one writer summed it up, "inciting hatred." In the past, Tyler has defended his use of the other F-word, telling NME in 2011, "I’m not homophobic. I just think '******' hits and hurts people. It hits. And 'gay' just means you’re stupid. I don't know, we don’t think about it, we're just kids." Tyler's 24 now, and he's finding more creative ways to respond to critics. For the spring/summer collection...

Bookmakers place former health secretary ahead of Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna and others to take over in wake of Miliband resignationAndy Burnham has emerged as the favourite to replace Ed Miliband, after the Labour leader stood down in the hours after the party’s disastrous general election result. Bookmakers placed the former health secretary ahead of Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna and others to take over from Miliband. According to one bookmaker, David Miliband was also in the running. But others agreed that Dan Jarvis and Tristram Hunt had a better chance. The contenders Andy Burnham Live Election live: Osborne and May...

Certain biases remain acceptable. There’s a full-fledged boycott against two gay New York City hoteliers who recently hosted an event in their home for Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). How would the media react if a Republican business owner hosted an event for a gay politician – and mainstream Republican-friendly organizations boycotted them as a result? There would rightfully be outrage. The two gay hotel owners have been attacked and harmed financially – despite their long history as activists and philanthropists – for hosting a discussion with Cruz. (It wasn’t even a fundraiser.) This is the liberal thought...

The transparency standards for an NFL quarterback rising higher than for the Secretary of State surely speaks to the bread-and-circuses quality of 2015 America. We expect more from our gridiron heroes than from our nation’s leaders. Perhaps the tizzy over Tom serves as a tacit admission that we also expect more responsiveness to public opinion from 345 Park Ave. than from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. No law decrees that a quarterback must turn over his texts and emails to the NFL the way that the Federal Records Act demands that the Secretary of State turn over correspondence to the government. Yet...

BOOM: Veteran Attorney Reveals Baltimore Prosecutor Could Face JAIL for What She Just Did You may perhaps have noticed the swiftness and sloppiness with which Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby charged the six officers involved in Freddie Gray’s arrest with his death. A number of other people have noticed, too — notably Page Croyder, an attorney and 20-year veteran of the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office. In a blog post that was picked up by the Baltimore Sun, Croyder said that Mosby could even be jailed for false arrest. She also said that, if not an arrest, the attorney was opening...

It is a startling next step in the natural burial movement. Even as more people opt for interment in simple shrouds or biodegradable caskets, urban cemeteries continue to fill up. For the environmentally conscious, cremation is a problematic option, as the process releases greenhouse gases.Armed with a prestigious environmental fellowship, Katrina Spade, a 37-year-old Seattle resident with a degree in architecture, has proposed an alternative: a facility for human composting. The idea is attracting interest from environmental advocates and scientists. The woman laid to rest in wood chips is a first step in testing how it would work. “Composting makes...

Toronto's Catholic Register is parrotting this story from RNS referring to a front-page article at L'Osservatore Romano calling the cartoons of Mohomet "blasphemous." This is quite incredible really. One can blaspheme God. One cannot blaspheme a man. If Mahomet ever really existed can be debated. If he did, he was a warlord; a murderer, a child-molester and a Jew-hating Christ denier -- and antichrist. He was no prophet. I'm not suggesting that we should engage in mocking anyone; but I won't call the mocking of a man, blasphemy because it is not. Shame on those Catholics who would use such...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny Welcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

The Larry H. Miller Group of Companies will not renew its lease with Tooele County and Miller Motorsports Park will close. The summer schedule will continue as planned then the park will close at the end of the season on October 31, 2015. “On behalf of my family, I would like to thank all of those who have supported the track over the years, both locally and worldwide, for their enthusiasm and use of the facility,” said Gail Miller, owner of the Larry H. Miller Group. The 511-acre facility opened in April 2006. It hosted seasonal automobile, motorcycle, kart, off-road,...

Let’s face it, there is one route the finance guys have yet to try. You have to pray to a saint! Am I right?We had a problem. A BIG problem! Exactly, it was all about money. We were staring two mortgages in the face. Changing houses is easy if your bank goes along with the idea. We had found our new dream residence. Signed on the dotted line and then our bank refused us a bridging loan. We needed badly to sell our old house.I mused, stared at the sky. My wife was more practical.“We will ask St Anthony,”...

The Spectacle Blog THOUGHTS ON THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF VE DAYBy Aaron Goldstein on 5.8.15 | 1:18PMSmallerLargerPrint Article Seventy years ago today, the Nazis surrendered to the Allies in Berlin ending Hitler's 1,000 year reign at twelve. But in those 12 years, the Nazis caused a millenium of misery. I had the good fortune of being in London during the 50th anniversary of VE Day celebrations which were held at Hyde Park. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. There must have been 2 million people there. There was an enormous crowd yet I didn't feel overwhelmed by it. I had...

This year marks the 750th anniversary of the death of St Simon Stock I wonder what you were thinking when you dressed this morning. Had you already laid out your clothes for the day? Did certain expectations dictate your choices? The simple fact is that how we dress can say a lot about who we are, what we do, how seriously we take life and its tasks. I have clear memories of one Christmas, when a child, having received a soldier’s outfit as a present and I can remember to this day the sense of pride and purpose that...

Last November, Microsoft said that it would bring some of the core features of its .NET platform — which has traditionally been Windows-only — to Linux and Mac. Today, at its Build developer conference, the company announced its first full preview of the .NET Core runtime for Linux and Mac OS X.In addition, Microsoft is making the release candidate of the full .NET framework for Windows available to developers today [April 29, 2015]. The highlight here, though, is obviously the release of .NET Core for platforms other than Windows. As Microsoft VP of its developer division S. “Soma” Somasegar told...

The Obama administration is injecting its open border agenda to the federal landmark that once served as the gateway for legal immigration with a new gallery blasting the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and the deportation of “unauthorized immigrants.” Located in the New York Harbor and situated near the iconic Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and its structures are federally-owned landmarks operated by the National Park Service (NPS), which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. From 1892 to 1954 the island received and processed around 12 million immigrants, mostly Europeans fleeing war, religious persecution and famine. Among...