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Buffalo's small corner groceries - a staple of inner-city life for decades - are the target of a federal investigation into a food stamp scam that costs taxpayers millions of dollars. These family-owned stores are at the core of a new type of crime - abusing food stamp debit cards, the very tool government hails as an effective weapon in fighting fraud, investigators say. A yearlong undercover probe has resulted in 14 owners and employees being charged this month with illegally exchanging food stamp benefits for cash. Investigators believe the cash was often used to buy drugs. In Buffalo, eight...

DOHA, Qatar, Jun 25, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Tuesday said the new U.S. policy statement on Mideast peace has wasted a great chance to offer hope to the Palestinians. Farrakhan, an American, told reporters that Monday's speech by U.S. President George W. Bush had sought too many concessions from the Palestinians, which would lead to more frustration and suicide attacks against Israelis. Bush on Monday became the first American president to endorse Palestinian statehood. But he also set strict terms for such a move, including the election of new leaders...

Racist, anti-Israel Congressman Earl Hilliard is behind in early returns. Will he go down? U S House 7 - Dem 119 of 488 precincts reporting (24%) Artur Davis 13,894 55% (i) Earl Hilliard 11,496 45%

It seems like every time we go out, I’m pleased to see that my lawn is not the worst looking one in the neighborhood because I can always count on this one house on the corner. Yeah, my grass is kept a little high but it gets mowed whereas these guys on the corner have a front yard full of various weeds with no grass I can discern. Hey, this isn’t personal and I have nothing against them. I also view my neighbors in Texas as incredibly environmentally conscious; doing their part to aid in oxygen production now that the...

Sun accused of worker discrimination U.S. citizen employee says he was canned in favor of foreigners The U.S. government is looking into Sun Microsystems' hiring practices after an ex-employee filed complaints alleging that the Santa Clara firm discriminates against American citizens in favor of foreign workers on H1-B visas. The technology firm said the U.S. Department of Justice recently requested information from Sun after former employee Guy Santiglia accused the company of bias against U.S. citizens when it laid off 3,900 workers late last year. Santiglia, who was among those dismissed, had also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department...

The Radio FreeRepublic Chat Server is UP tonight. (020625)click here

Jun 25, 2002 (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the American decision to abandon Yasser Arafat and call for a new Palestinian leadership was made "reluctantly" and only after giving him numerous chances to renounce "terrorism" and implement reforms. "What I said at that time was that Mr. Arafat had been anointed, but what we're saying this time, and what we have come to the conclusion on, is that he is not giving the Palestinian people, and his associates along with him are not giving the Palestinian people, the kind of leadership that...

<p>NEVILLE: Welcome back to TALKBACK LIVE, everybody. I'm Arthel Neville.</p> <p>Angela Salazar got a mixed bag of boos and cheers when she gave her valedictorian speech last night in New Brunswick, New Jersey. But it had absolutely nothing to do with what Angela said. Instead, the reaction was to the fact that she gave her speech in both English and Spanish.</p>

'Bumfights' makes gladiators of homeless On shocking video, they fight and smoke crack Reality video may have sunk to a new low with the one-hour shockfest titled "Bumfights," a new Internet-only video that depicts homeless men and women fighting each other and participating in dangerous stunts. Inspired by a street fight they saw in San Francisco, a pair of film school dropouts who live in Las Vegas shot or solicited footage of fights of the homeless, fake abductions, sexual acts and drug use, and compiled it in a wildly popular video that is billed as "the most hilariously shocking video...

I say this with near-metaphysical certitude. If Martha Stewart had made her name in the 1980s, she would have been more reviled than Nancy Reagan, Pic Botha, Kurt Waldheim, and Michael Milken by those eager to portray the Reagan years as a dimension of Hell straight from Dante's Inferno. Think about it. Not only is Stewart a rich go-go businesswoman, but she makes her money from encouraging women to bake, knit, and sew! Who cannot see that she would have been denounced regularly by the Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and the Anna Quindlen crowd. "She's an Aunt Tom to...

Ann Coulter will be appearing on the Hannity and Colmes show TONIGHT at 9 pm EDT. She will be discussing her new book, "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right." The book came out on newstands TODAY and is already an A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400046610/ref=im_co_bh_1_1/102-1982049-4477769">Amazon.com bestseller.

NEW YORK United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan rejected US President George W. Bush's call for new Palestinian leadership, saying the Palestinians must elect their own leaders, and that the timing for new elections is "not optimal." "They elected Chairman Arafat, they are planning new elections, let them elect their own leaders," Annan told reporters yesterday at UN headquarters. He admitted, though, that a major drawback is the popularity of extremist groups opposed to peace with Israel. "You could find yourself in a situation that the radicals are the ones who get elected. And it will be the result of a...

<p>Zimbabwe imposed its ban yesterday on production for nearly 3,000 white-owned farms as a leading aid expert said there was "precious little time" left to avoid a devastating regional famine.</p> <p>The white farmers, who work on the country's most productive acreage, have 45 days before they must surrender their holdings under a land-expropriation bill President Robert Mugabe signed last month.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal investigators have detained a man they say was a roommate of at least two of the Sept. 11 hijackers last summer, a U.S. official said Tuesday. Rasmi Al-Shannaq, a Jordanian citizen, was taken into custody Monday for overstaying his visa, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Early Monday, the State Department's diplomatic security service and the FBI raided a house in Baltimore looking for Al-Shannaq. Al-Shannaq was questioned about what he knew of the hijackers and any possible plans they might have discussed. The official would not say where Al-Shannaq was being held....

Vostok: The Lake of ShadowsCover Story FATE Magazine 2002-06-01 00:00:00 by Scott Corrales “Doubt of the real facts, as I must reveal them, is inevitable; yet if I suppressed what will seem extravagant and incredible there would be nothing left.” —H. P. Lovecraft, “At the Mountains of Madness” The inspiration for this article began in the summer of 1996, when a series of email messages began to appear suggesting the possibility that “someone” or “something” was surreptitiously removing all recent maps of Antarctica. The notion was so outrageous that even die-hard conspiracy theorists found themselves having to clarify the...

the we got 2 blue lines it's miller time whoooooo hooooooooooooooooo

  Amtrak to Keep Trains Running for NowJune 25 — By John Crawley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amtrak pushed itself back from the brink late on Tuesday and will keep trains running this week while it works with the Bush administration and Congress to try and resolve its financial crisis, the railroad's president said. David Gunn, who told Congress last Thursday a decision on shutting down might have to be made this week, said the railroad could delay that to the first week of July now that a potential solution to its problems might be near. "It's too soon to know...

Enter below the white man's label from which you wish to unshackle yourself and a true name for our brothers and sisters shall be granted to you.

As a companion to http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/705904/posts' The Worst War Movies Ever Made thread, I offer you the best war movies ever made, and I wanted to get mine in first. Here's my list, in no particular order. 1. Battleground (love James Whitmore in this!) 2. Full Metal Jacket (love the DI, R. Lee Ermey. "Hard core, man! F***ing Hard core!") 3. Glory (even though it's not quite historically accurate and it's about Yankees, it's a very moving film, IMHO. Great musical score, too.) 4. The Boys in Company C (same DI as in Full Metal Jacket. Made very soon after Vietnam,...

Bruce Rodin displays a pack of potassium iodide pills sold by his company, Anbex Inc. Anbex is one of only two companies with FDA approval to sell the pills to ward off thyroid cancer in the event of a nuclear incident. (Photo by Rich Schultz) `Sinkhole' Nuke Pill Business Becomes Bonanza in Age of TerrorBy KEVIN COUGHLIN And SUSAN K. LIVIOc.2002 Newhouse News Service Soon after Three Mile Island in 1979, Bruce Rodin and Alan Morris hit on a surefire plan to get rich. They would sell KI pills -- tablets containing potassium iodide that could ward off thyroid...