Free Republic

On the outside, the metal box looks like an oversized bread container. But what's inside could save an abandoned newborn's life. The box is actually a newborn incubator, or baby box, and it could be showing up soon at Indiana hospitals, fire stations, churches and selected nonprofits under legislation that would give mothers in crisis a way to surrender their children safely and anonymously. Indiana could be the first state to allow use of the baby boxes on a broad scale to prevent dangerous abandonments of infants if the bill, which unanimously passed the House this week, clears the state...

Large boxes, shoe boxes, and even just items that look like boxes – cats, it seems, can't resist squeezing into cardboard spaces. Scientists say they haven't fully understood why our feline friends have an affinity for boxes, but they have a number of theories. The most popular is that cats are instinctively drawn to boxes because they offer security and shelter from predators while they stalk their prey.

Beginning in June of 2011, all new cars manufactured and sold in the United States will be required to have a mandated black box device installed, which can be used to monitor several different physical and technical data points. (snip) The installation and use of these black boxes can have infinite possibilities for local, state, and federal governments to monitor and record data for a number of other revenue programs that are currently under consideration. In March, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a proposal to institute a tax on mileage to help pay for the federal budget deficit. Additionally,...

The State of California has stooped to looting the contents of safety deposit boxes to bolster state funds.

A month before the historic recall that drove Gov. Gray Davis from office in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in a TV commercial making a promise to the voters of California."Here's my plan," he said. "Audit everything, open the books, and then we end the crazy deficit spending. "... If you're happy with the way things are, keep your current leaders. If you want to change this state, then join me."Voters joined in droves. But as he prepares to leave office seven years later, Schwarzenegger's promises are a distant echo.He leaves a legacy of landmark environmental laws, public works spending and...

Ever since California voters recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sacramento has been passing gimmicky state budgets that did not raise taxes, but also kicked structural deficit spending into the next year. Well, the party's over. In September, Schwarzenegger signed another kick-the-shortfall budget. Then the Wall Street meltdown caused capital gains to disappear, rich people's income to retract - and state revenues to shrink. As the Legislative Analyst reported this week, the state budget shortfall could reach $28 billion over the next two years. State Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer noted...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday appointed two former aides to well-paying state jobs, less than two weeks after ordering spending cuts to most state agencies. The state faces a multibillion dollar budget deficit over the next year-and-a-half. His latest appointments benefited a former speech writer and an assistant to Schwarzenegger's chief of staff. Jeffrey Danzinger, 47, of Fair Oaks, who was deputy communications director and chief speechwriter for the governor until 2006, is moving from being a member of the Integrated Waste Management Board to serving as an adviser to the board. His pay will be $103,603 in his new...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2008 – An Air Force Space Command major and two staff sergeants stationed at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., are proving that just three servicemembers can affect people halfway around the world. Air Force Maj. Jason Gross (third from left) and a security detail prepare to deliver Victory Boxes to a local school in Iraq. Defense Department photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Maj. Jason Gross and Staff Sgts. Rosalia and Billie Burgan are making a huge difference in the lives of Iraqi and Afghan families through the Texas-based Victory Boxes project. The program encourages...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2008 – Support by the boxful from a New York home-front group is keeping servicemembers’ spirits high as they serve overseas. “Being so far away from home, we want our daughter, son-in-law, and the 450 soldiers in their unit and other units to know that we love them, and think about them every day,” said Sylvester Henry, president of Adopt A Unit US. “Our objective is to provide the (servicemembers) with an abundance of support and comfort in order to encourage strength and optimism (while) bringing them as close to home as possible.” Helping servicemembers feel...

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2007 – When Becky Mizener sends a care package to one of the more than 1,000 servicemembers on her list, they can be sure that it’s “packed with pride.” Mizener’s soldier son, Jesse, was killed Jan. 7, 2004, just outside of Baghdad. Before his death, he regularly received care packages from his mom. After a while, he asked her to send them to some of his buddies. Soon, she was shipping to 17 soldiers in her son’s unit and the whole platoon on holidays. When Jesse was killed, Mizener realized she couldn’t stop supporting the soldiers...

SACRAMENTO – Creating commissions to address thorny issues has become a hallmark of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's governing style. The problem is they never seem to amount to much. High-profile Schwarzenegger advisory panels on prisons and government efficiency went nowhere. Now the governor has launched commissions on issues lawmakers have struggled with for years: prison sentences, the state water system and public-employee pensions. An in-depth report on schools requested by another Schwarzenegger panel, along with legislative leaders and the state schools chief, is scheduled to be released tomorrow. “Commissions are where intractable issues go to die,” said Thad Kousser, a political...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger drew immediate criticism Thursday for declaring that the state's Board of Chiropractic Examiners should represent chiropractors despite the panel's mission statement of protecting the public. The Republican governor made the remark as he tried to distance himself from his own chiropractic appointees, including two of his earliest bodybuilding friends, after the board took questionable actions last week that consumer advocates say favor the chiropractic industry. "They run their board by themselves, independent of us," Schwarzenegger said after touring the San Joaquin County jail in French Camp to promote his prison plan. "We don't give them directions. What...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he will seek a review of California's prison sentencing guidelines, a politically risky undertaking that is part of a wide-ranging plan to address the state's burgeoning prison crisis. The governor also is proposing an $11 billion building program to add space for thousands of additional inmates and changes to the state parole system. Schwarzenegger characterized the state's prisons as in crisis and "in deep need of reform." "My administration inherited a system that was dangerously overcrowded, poorly managed and out of control," he said during a Capitol news conference to release his plan. "Now we...

SACRAMENTO--Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doled out high-paying and prestigious state jobs this year to dozens of outgoing members of his administration, including six-figure salaries for posts he once said were a waste of taxpayer money and should be eliminated. An Associated Press investigation of Schwarzenegger's staffing purge since last year's special election revealed that he has appointed or transferred 40 former staffers elsewhere in state government. At least half of those saw their taxpayer-funded salaries increase after they left Schwarzenegger's office, some by more than $30,000 a year. Schwarzenegger also gave six former staffers jobs with state boards and commissions he...

SAN DIEGO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday announced he had signed an executive order that creates a state maritime security council that should improve coordination and information sharing by federal, state and local governments on port security issues. As envisioned, the California Maritime Security Council will identify potential threats, organize training exercises and develop a statewide maritime security strategy. Officials said it will formalize relationships that already exist and make it easier for local ports to coordinate responses when problems occur. With the San Diego Convention Center as his backdrop, the governor was joined by other state officials, representatives...

Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation Wednesday creating a sex-offender management board to improve the state's oversight of sex offenders and foster communication between law-enforcement officials. The bill closely resembles a bill Schwarzenegger vetoed last year. The 2005 parole of convicted rapist David Allyn Dokich to Mead Valley, an unincorporated community south of Riverside, highlighted a lack of communication between state and local agencies. The sheriff's department had little notice of Dokich's arrival. Under AB 1015, a 17-member board will oversee the management and treatment of sex offenders. The goal is to reduce recidivism and protect the public. In his veto message...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger revived a commission he once considered part of the wasteful bureaucracy yesterday to push his own plan to raise the minimum wage and circumvent the Legislature. Schwarzenegger appointed four new members to the Industrial Welfare Commission, which met yesterday to consider his petition to raise the minimum wage by $1 an hour, but without the automatic increases that Democratic lawmakers want. For the past two years, the Republican governor and the Democrat-controlled Legislature have battled to a standstill over the issue. The Legislature has twice sent Schwarzenegger bills to raise the current $6.75 hourly minimum...

California's action-star governor pledged in his first State of the State address in 2004 to "blow up the boxes" of the state's bloated bureaucracies. But that campaign fizzled like a box office dud -- one that Gov. Schwarzenegger has apparently forgotten. The governor on Tuesday announced his support for SB 162, which the Senate passed in January. The measure would split emergency health duties from the Department of Health Services. The result: A new state bureaucracy, the Department of Public Health, would concentrate exclusively on preparing California to address a bioterror attack or an epidemic, such as the avian flu....

Nowhere in the Inland area is the crunch to house the poor more evident than in the Coachella Valley, where 15,000 migrant workers are expected to arrive in the next few weeks for the grape and citrus harvest. Most will spend each night outside or crammed in a car or shed, said Nadia Villagran, special projects manager for the Indio-based Coachella Valley Housing Coalition. "They're working hard during the day and have to sleep at night in cardboard boxes, in a tree or in a car," she said. "It's shocking to see." Migrant-housing programs in the desert are confronting the...

Meet the infant at the center of the debate about a mother's rights to give up her child anonymously. Pavel Müller, a doctor at the private medical clinic GynCentrum in Prague 9, was watching the Winter Olympics when he heard the alarm ring. He rushed outside to find a healthy, 1-month-old girl lying on her back and wearing an oversized wool cap inside the clinic's so-called baby box, which is rigged with a sensor that goes off whenever its doors are opened. Soòa was born prematurely to a 23-year-old single mother, and is one of a set of twins. Her...