Free Republic

Berkeley -- Berkeley, a place passionate about coffee and progressive politics, could become the only city in the nation to ban coffee not grown with strict protections for workers and the environment. The proposed ban -- contained in an initiative crafted by a lawyer one year out of law school -- has gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, City Clerk Sherry Kelly announced Thursday. It would require all cups of coffee sold in the city to be "fair trade," organic or "shade-grown." It would not apply to beans or ground coffee sold in bags, however. Violators...

WOODINVILLE -- The mystery began last week, when 10-year-old Kaare Tollefson noticed the hole while walking to his school bus.It was no wider than a quarter then. But no one knew how deep it was.     King County transportation employees inspect a hole on 164th Avenue Northeast in Woodinville. Paul Kitagaki Jr. / Seattle Post-IntelligencerClick for larger photo "I went and got a broom handle and stuck it in the hole and it didn't hit," remembered Jim Van Noy. He then tried it with a 16-foot pole.It still didn't reach the bottom.Since then, the Hollywood Hills neighborhood has been...

  Al Qaeda Training Manual The attached manual was located by the Manchester (England) Metropolitan Police during a search of an Al Qaeda member's home. The manual was found in a computer file described as "the military series" related to the "Declaration of Jihad." The manual was translated into English and was introduced earlier this year at the embassy bombing trial in New York. The Department is only providing the following selected text from the manual because it does not want to aid in educating terrorists or encourage further acts of terrorism. Al Qaeda Training Manual Cover - Lesson...

<p>In historic Show Low, red tags on homes that likely can't be saved from the fury of fire were grim signposts of two blazes that merged Sunday in northeastern Arizona.</p> <p>At least part of the city will burn, a firefighting official said.</p>

<p>The Justice Department is investigating whether Sun Microsystems has discriminated against U.S. citizens in favor of foreign workers here on temporary H-1B work visas.</p> <p>The investigation was prompted by a complaint in April by a laid-off Sun engineer, Guy Santiglia of Santa Clara. Santiglia, 36, lost his job when Sun laid off 3,900 in October. The Santa Clara company makes Unix-based servers that run corporate computer networks and Web sites.</p>

I AM A PILOT with a major airline who would like to express concerns regarding the FAA’s remedy of using sky marshals to make our skies safe, and present a solution involving “arming” pilots without actually arming pilots. First of all, where on the airplane will the sky marshal sit? In which class? When is the right time for him to jump into action against the one, three or five terrorists? How does he know how many there really are? Today we deal with terrorists with well- thought-out plans for accomplishing their objectives. A future revision to their plans will...

With often horrific yet eerily beautiful photographic images, Yale University Art Gallery presents a powerful panoramic view of the dark, cancerous, commercially compromised landscape of the contemporary American West. Before you step from Chapel Street into the New Haven museum, forget all about Ansel Adams and his majestic views of the West. Block all memory of those luminous black-and-white celebrations of a pristine paradise of holy light and transcendent beauty. The Yale show, which features the eminent contemporary photographers Emmet Gowin, Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, presents the antithesis of Ansel Adams' devout view of the West as the best...

SIDON, Lebanon, Jun 24, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A bomb exploded under a car near the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon Monday, security officials said. No one was injured. The explosion occurred about 500 yards from Ein el-Hilweh camp on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanese officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The bomb was placed under a car owned by a Palestinian schoolteacher who teaches in the camp, the officials said. The motive was not known. Ein el-Hilweh, which is home to 75,000 people, is controlled by Palestinian leader Yasser...

GAZA, June 24 (Reuters) - Clashes erupted between Palestinian police and Hamas supporters on Monday after the Palestinian Authority placed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Islamic militant group's founder, under house arrest in Gaza City. Witnesses said Palestinian police opened fire as the Hamas supporters marched towards Yassin's house after police announced Yassin was under house arrest. Police said the Hamas protesters had opened fire. One man was treated in hospital for a stomach wound which he said was inflicted by Palestinian police gunfire. "There was gunfire from the Hamas supporters. We are investigating the circumstances of the reported injury," a...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman has spent 10 working days in Connecticut this year - roughly the same amount of time he's spent campaigning for himself and others on the West Coast. As he tries to build his campaign for the presidency in 2004, Lieberman has logged 51 days in states other than Connecticut in 2002. And he's tried to boost his stature with what he bills as five major speeches, none in Connecticut; a sixth is scheduled for delivery in Washington Wednesday. His presence in the state is far below that of any other member of the Connecticut...

<p>June 24, 2002 -- Right-wing rabbi Yakove Lloyd yesterday said he was going ahead with plans to have armed squads patrol Borough Park and Flatbush in Brooklyn to protect their Jewish residents from terrorist attacks.</p> <p>But there was no sign of the patrols early this morning, when they were expected to begin.</p>

Infighting between the Jewish establishment and media critics undermines the struggle against bias This morning I received a typical e-mail from a close friend living in Jerusalem. In the hours after the latest horrifying Palestinian suicide attack that killed 19 Israelis and wounded 52, he sent a message that was titled "We are okay." It went on to say that his wife had listened to the sirens of the emergency vehicles rushing to rescue those who were not already dead, though she had not heard the blast itself. But when we view and read accounts of this despicable crime, don't...

<p>For $2,000, anyone - including terrorists - can get a car and dress it up to look like a New York police vehicle, a Post investigation has found.</p> <p>Last week, state officials alerted law enforcement to be on the lookout for terrorists with fake ambulances or police vehicles.</p>

One in 20 Russian adults will be infected with the HIV virus within five years, threatening a massive epidemic in Europe, according to an independent survey by British scientists. Researchers at Imperial College, London, have been studying the likely spread of HIV in Russia and have concluded that 5 per cent of the adult population will be HIV- positive by 2007. 'This means four million adults will develop Aids,' said one doctor, who added that there was no upper limit. 'It could easily be a lot worse - at least double. And these people will die within 10 years.' The...

<p>June 24, 2002 -- Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of assassinating Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein, a new poll reveals.</p> <p>The Time/CNN poll revealed that 51 percent of Americans say the U.S. should whack Saddam, while 39 percent are opposed.</p> <p>The poll also showed that Americans oppose U.S. strikes on terrorist nations that haven't attacked us but may be planning attacks.</p>

<p>June 24, 2002 -- A suicide bomber was behind the massive blast outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, that killed 12 earlier this month, Pakistani officials said yesterday.</p> <p>Investigators first thought a remote-controlled car bomb was used in the June 14 attack.</p>

Russia has failed to secure guarantees from Iran that Tehran will return spent nuclear fuel which could be converted into weapons-grade plutonium, despite repeated assertions to the contrary from Moscow. Internal Russian government documents obtained by the Guardian show that no agreement has been reached on the sensitive issue of how to handle the used nuclear fuel from a power station being built by Russia in Iran, which is due to come into operation in a couple of years. Russia's nuclear cooperation and military deals with Iran have become a major bone of contention with the US since September 11....

<p>June 24, 2002 -- President Bush wants terror master Osama bin Laden toe-tagged by Sept. 11, 2002 - the first anniversary of the attacks that killed thousands of Americans in New York and Washington.</p> <p>Sources told Time magazine that U.S. military officials are now planning a summer campaign to ferret bin Laden out of his mountain hideaway on the Pakistani border.</p>

<p>TAYLOR -- Johnie Heard says it's all God's doing.</p> <p>It was the Lord who made her place a sign in the window proclaiming her government-subsidized apartment a "24-Hour Prayer Station," where sermons play nonstop on a tape-recorded loop and lost souls are never turned away.</p>

<p>Most people should spare themselves the torment of viewing the video of Daniel Pearl's murder. The ghoulish tape is now available on the Internet — a "commercial," as the New Republic rightly notes. The tape is intended not for the likes of you and me — civilized human beings who recoil from the very idea of viewing a beheading — but for Islamists around the world, thirsty for American and Jewish blood.</p>