Free Republic

June 25, 2002 Suits Say Wal-Mart Forces Workers to Toil Off the Clock By STEVEN GREENHOUSE ANSAS CITY, Mo. — After finishing her 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift, Verette Richardson clocked out and was heading to her car when a Wal-Mart manager ordered her to turn around and straighten up the store's apparel department. Eager not to get on her boss's bad side, she said, she spent the next hour working unpaid, tidying racks of slacks and blouses and picking up hangers and clothes that had fallen to the floor. Other times after clocking out, she was ordered to...

VATICAN CITY (AP) _ Monsignor Timothy M. Dolan, an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis who headed the American seminary in Rome, was named by the pope Tuesday to succeed retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland. Pope John Paul II accepted Weakland's resignation May 24 _ a day after he acknowledged paying a $450,000 settlement to Paul Marcoux, a former Marquette University student who said Weakland sexually assaulted him in 1979. Weakland was the highest-ranking American cleric to acknowledge settling a sexual assault allegation against him. Dolan will succeed Weakland in Milwaukee. Dolan, 52, served five years as secretary to two papal delegates...

<p>Since September 11, some congressional Democrats have imitated chameleons, altering their observable ideological coloration for tactical political advantage. Like their reptilian counterparts, the motivation has been simple: survival. The transparent calculation has been that if they marched in lock step with a popular Republican president on national and homeland security matters, while highlighting disagreements over domestic policy, Democrats would get credit for bipartisanship while denying the GOP the benefits of its most potent wartime appeal.</p>

Vouchers Could Boost the Quality of Education By Marianne M. Jennings June 24, 2002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Arizona Education Association, desert arm of the NEA, refused to endorse Arizona's current superintendent of public instruction for re-election because Superintendent Jaime Molera is pro-choice, a voucher guy. A Milton Friedman disciple and free-marketeer, he understands that competition increases quality and decreases price. No self-respecting teacher is going to let him get away with that prattle, studies aside. In fact, a 2002 study by Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin and Mathematica Policy Research, not exactly bastions of conservative thought, concludes that vouchers are...

AI-index: AFR 46/035/2002 25/06/2002 printer friendly format Zimbabwe: Impunity enables ever more human rights violations The Zimbabwean government has systematically ensured that those responsible for torture, abductions and political killings are never brought to justice, Amnesty International said in a new report released today; The Toll of Impunity. "Impunity has become the central problem in Zimbabwe where state and non- state actors commit widespread human rights violations without being brought to justice. Unless the cycle of impunity can be broken, human rights abuses will continue unchecked and victims and their families will not see justice," the organization said. The failure...

As Americans brace themselves for terrorist activity at home, one of America's largest trading partners – China – is engaging in "a policy of intervention and naval adventurism," which could draw the U.S. into a major war in the Asia/Pacific region. China is "seeking the subservience of mainland Southeast Asia to Chinese national needs," and is "the main obstacle to democratic reform in mainland Southeast Asia today," according to a report in the China Reform Monitor, a publication of the American Foreign Policy Council. For the first time in that nation's long history, Chinese naval capability now extends into...

With a sales-tax plan for schools officially on the ballot in Johnson County, area business leaders have joined ranks to send voters an election-season S.O.S. -- "Support Our Schools." On Monday, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce voted to spend $50,000 on an educational campaign to convince Johnson County voters that a quarter-cent sales tax to generate revenue for schools and cities deserves their support in the August primary. "This is a historic opportunity for the people of Johnson County to support schools," said Fred Logan, a Prairie Village lawyer and organizer of a separate get-out-the-vote effort. "I think...

Did you hear it last night? A thunderous, whooshing noise coming from somewhere near downtown Miami? That was the sound of Miami's bid to host the 2004 Democratic National Convention being flushed down the proverbial toilet by Alex Penelas. Last night, our Democratic mayor held a fundraiser for Mario Diaz-Balart's Republican congressional campaign. ''Mario's a friend,'' Penelas said Monday before the $250-per-person event at Perricone's Marketplace. ``That goes beyond anything else.'' Penelas, without a hint of sarcasm, said he believes hosting a fundraiser for a Republican will actually strengthen Miami's chances of landing the Democratic convention. Miami is one of...

We all make a hundred value judgments a day about who we will consort with (and why), what neighborhoods we'll enter, and what influences we want our children exposed to. However, the left cannot confess to the concept of judgment (even though they too judge). Leftist beneficiaries, and the number one money source of Democratic campaign coffers, are trial lawyers and judges who have twisted the legislature and courts into an anti-common sense money tree, but that's for another column. The point here is that no matter the spin, the left's dirge of being "non-judgmental" is precisely the reason...

Sept. 11 comment doomed peppery 'Politically Incorrect' By DIANE HOLLOWAY Cox News Service After five years and 1,200 shows on network television, Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" is turning toes up. The official last day is Friday, but ABC wrote the show off last September, when the provocative host took issue with President Bush calling the suicide hijackers cowardly. "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly," Maher said Sept. 26, on the first show that aired after a post-attack hiatus. "Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about...

America is about to view a remake of a classic story. It's not a multi-million-dollar Hollywood comic book-turned-movie spectacle nor a modernized version of a long-favored stage drama. Rather, America is discovering a 700-year-old stage for herself - the story of the Janissaries. The Janissaries were the elite fighting force of the Moslem Ottoman Empire for centuries. Their ranks were filled with young Christian men (who often converted to Islam) conscripted to fight for the sultan. They became instrumental in holding together the Ottoman Empire precisely because they were free from the tribal loyalties that left other Moslem Arabs...

Martha Stewart was scheduled to make her regular appearance this morning on "The Early Show" on CBS to do a segment on summer salads. But to keep her plum spot on the show, she also had to agree to be interviewed by the co-anchor, Jane Clayson, on something even more timely — her decision to sell her stake in ImClone Systems Inc. a day before it publicly announced that regulators had rejected its cancer drug, Erbitux. Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS News, said that it would be impossible for Ms. Stewart to appear on a CBS news program without...

Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin speaks to reporters in his home in Gaza Strip on Monday, after being placed under house arrest by the Palestinian Authority. WASHINGTON/GAZA CITY, 25 June — US President George W. Bush yesterday called on Israel to take “concrete steps” toward Middle East peace by halting settlements and withdrawing troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip “as we make progress toward security” via Palestinian reforms. “As we make progress toward security, Israeli forces need to withdraw fully to positions they held prior to Sept. 28, 2000. And consistent with the recommendations of the Mitchell...

Prayers requested during week of 6/23/02 Continued prayers for foster childPraise report on friend and prayers for foreverfree's mother and pastorPrayers for gwmoore and familyPrayer request for those affected by bus accident in TexasPrayer request from LeeMcCoy for resolution to two issuesUrgent prayer request for Teacup, mini teacup, and sonPrayer request for potlatch and mother Prayers requested during week of 6/16/02 Continued prayers for Lex and familyPrayers for EggsAckley's mother and familyPraise report--Update on NatureGirl's father-in-lawPrayers for VaBthang4's stepfather GaryPrayer request for JoePrayers for JohnnyGage's sister-in-law AngelaPrayer request for gwmoore's fatherPrayers for the wife of a friend Prayers requested during...

The Oslo "peace process" was born on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993. It died yesterday in the White House Rose Garden. From the beginning and putting aside the palaver about a New Middle East the strategic calculus that informed Oslo was a simple one: Deputize thugs to take care of thugs. Revive the weakened strongmen of the PLO and they will do Israel's dirty work against Hamas and Islamic Jihad without fear of cavil from sundry human-rights groups in Israel and beyond. Wash your hands of the Palestinians once and for all, leave them to their sqalor,...

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is planning to step up its scrutiny of Global Crossing's business practices in light of the company's acknowledgment that employees at several of its offices had shredded documents after the Securities and Exchange Commission began investigating the company in February. The committee had already been gathering information about the company and will probably schedule Global Crossing hearings soon, a spokesman for the panel said. The same committee has also held hearings on business practices at Enron, Arthur Andersen and the biotechnology company ImClone Systems. "We're intensifying our investigation of Global Crossing to include a...

<p>Nearly two horrific years into the latest round in the seemingly interminable conflict between Israel and the Palestinians -- and from the perspective of my own longstanding involvement in Israel's military defense -- I have never been more convinced that there is no military solution to this conflict. As we work to defend ourselves against terror, we must also strive to return to a political process whose goal is to provide security today and hope for tomorrow for both Israelis and Palestinians. President Bush's speech yesterday, calling for fundamental change within the Palestinian Authority, is a positive step in that direction.</p>

The following story was reported by AP last Friday: FBI Warns Police That Terrorists Might Try to Use Fuel Tankers Against Jewish Neighborhoods "The FBI is advising law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for terrorists who possibly are plotting to use fuel tankers to attack Jewish neighborhoods and synagogues, a federal law enforcement official said Friday. Another official said the warning was based on interviews with captured al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who indicated such a plot had been discussed." Along the same lines, several reports have been coming out recently concerning possible terrorist attacks being planned for the...

<p>The ''no-new-taxes'' budget appeared to be the least popular budget proposal among several lobbyists who represent some of the state's largest public and private interest groups swirling around Capitol Hill yesterday.</p> <p>Six days before a balanced budget must be passed, none of the three tax measures on the table has enough backing for a consensus among lobbyists.</p>

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | President Bush's call yesterday for "a new and different Palestinian leadership" resolved an 18-month battle within his administration on whether to break with one of the basic tenets of U.S. Middle East policy for over a decade. Ironically it was Bush's father who arranged the 1991 peace conference in Madrid that led to formal U.S. recognition of Yasser Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian people -- a recognition the current president called into question Monday. And it was the intense diplomacy between Israeli leaders, Arafat and U.S. diplomats following the Madrid summit that led to Arafat's historic...