Free Republic

For the second year in a row, Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have allowed people to carry guns in government buildings. HB2729 would have required any government entity in Arizona to allow firearms in public buildings, unless the buildings had adequate security measures to ensure that no one could bring a gun inside. “I vetoed a similar measure last year, and it appears the majority of my concerns were not addressed in House Bill 2729,” Brewer said in her veto letter. “I am a strong proponent of the Second Amendment and I have signed into law numerous...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Historic cinemas, cafes and shops went up in flames in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the public rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal. As parliament prepared to vote on a new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a messy bankruptcy, a Reuters photographer saw the buildings engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky. The air over Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths...

A strong earthquake collapsed homes and buildings in eastern Turkey Sunday morning. Casualty report to come. The mid-day earthquake was recorded at 7.3 on the Richter scale, according to a Greek news agency, and 6.6 by the Associated Press.

The Empire State Building will celebrate the holiday, Eid-al-Fitr, by shining its world-famous tower lights green on August 30, 2011. In Islam, the color green symbolizes a happy occasion and the importance of nature. Eid-al-Fitr, or "the Festival of Fast-Breaking," is a joyous celebration which commemorates the end of Ramadan and marks the completion of a month of spiritual renewal for the global Muslim community. During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world observe a strict fast from sunrise until sunset, participate in prayer and demonstrate acts of kindness.

Just as students head back to college and families finish summer vacations comes the latest bad news from pest control companies: Bedbug infestations are getting worse and becoming more common in some places, including dorms, hotels, nursing homes, hospitals, office buildings, and schools and day-care centers. According to a survey released Wednesday by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky, pest control companies say there has been double-digit growth in infestations in the past year. About 54 percent of pest companies reported treating bedbugs in college dorms, compared with 35 percent in 2010; 80 percent reported treating...

PHOENIX - The Arizona House approved a gun-rights bill Wednesday that would generally let people take guns into government buildings, allowing a ban only if a site has armed guards and metal detectors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWa76N5B1_0

The scariest pool in the world, 55 stories above ground The "Sands Skypark" in Singapore is a pool, greenway and casino with an usual location. The whole thing sits atop not one, but three skyscrapers that make up the Marina Bay Sands hotel. The infinity pool itself is nearly 500 feet in length and features no discernible edge. So what would happen if you swam over? Don't worry, you wouldn't just plummet to the streets below. Instead, you'd fall where the rest of the water does: a basin that also acts as a filter for the water and sends it...

(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak signed permits Thursday for 28 educational institutions and public buildings. The educational structures are intended for the school year which begins in September (2010/2011, or 5771 by the Hebrew calendar). Barak said: “We are all obligated to carry out an open dialogue with the settler leaders, and to listen to them. This is a very serious and responsible group that exhibited a large degree of self-restraint in various tests in the past.”

Featuring log buildings presently under re-construction at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia. This provides a good look at how such buildings were made.

The incredible shrinking World Trade Center will be cut back from five iconic skyscrapers to just two signature towers under a new Port Authority plan, the Daily News has learned. Bludgeoned by recession and a war with developer Larry Silverstein, the Port Authority is proposing halving the office space it will build at Ground Zero - from 10 million square feet to 5 million, sources familiar with the plan say. The sources say the agency's new vision for the site calls for scrapping one tower that would have been taller than the Empire State Building and nixing two others that...

Highways The Texas Department of Transportation plans to let contracts for $4.1 billion in construction in 2008 are in jeopardy after having to return around $950 million to Washington over the past 18 months. The mood in Austin is uncertain, although voters approved Proposition 12 in November, authorizing the next Texas Legislature in 2009 to issue up to $5 billion in bonds (paid from general revenue) to build highway projects. A required independent audit of the Texas Department of Transportation during 2007 recommended that the department “should continue to pursue Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA) and toll pricing at levels that...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2007 – New buildings constructed under the guidance of coalition forces are sparking prosperity for Iraqi citizens, a senior U.S. military engineer in Iraq said today. “It’s a concept of ownership,” Navy Capt. Joe Hedges told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call from Baghdad. “We’re using Iraqi funds to build Iraqi facilities.” Hedges is assistant chief of staff for the engineering directorate of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq. His team is currently working to build military bases, barracks, airfields, schools and a hospital on 12 different sites in Iraq. “I’m excited,” Hedges said. “I think...

Share this with All your Friends... And SHOW this to your children and grandchildren !!!! THE YEAR 1907 This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine! The year is 1907. One hundred years ago. What a difference a century makes! Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1907: ************************************ The average life expectancy in the U.S. Was 47 years old. Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. Had a bathtub . Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three-minute call from Denver to New York City Cost eleven dollars. There...

LONDON (AFP) - Government buildings are to be provided with defences to stop them being rammed by cars or trucks packed with explosives. The Sun newspaper said the buildings were to be surrounded with security devices designed to look like street furniture, at a cost of 25 million pounds. The new Home Office building in central London will be used as a guide, The Sun said Saturday. The interior ministry has state-of-the-art black concrete bollards one metre apart encircling it with raised grass verges in large concrete "pools" outside the main entrance. "The architects want the measures to look good...

It’s not a good sign when cell windows at a state prison are broken. But that was the situation just last year at Reception Center-East, one of four facilities at the California Institution for Men in Chino. Officers had complained about the windows repeatedly, but nothing was done to fix them – until an inmate was caught after slipping out his window in an apparent escape attempt. After that, officers began 24-hour patrols outside East as officials waited for Sacramento to approve funding for repairs. The facility is less than a half-mile from a housing development under construction. ‘‘We’re gonna...

Church Buildings -- Monuments with Mixed Messages Design for Monastery Chapel, Clear Creek, Oklahoma, by Thomas Gordon Smith by The Rev. John A. Valencheck If you should happen to move to my town and needed to find a bank into which you could deposit your money, you might look into the one that is right down the street. Though it is a fine institution, it is not much of bank as far as bank buildings go. In fact, banking appears to be a rather minor aspect of what you might do in the building. Entering in the main door, if...

SUNLAND, CALIF. – Leaning on the wrought-iron fence that defines the front lawn of his cottage-size home, Marty Greer says he doesn't like what is happening to this California foothill community. "They're tearing down homes like mine and putting up homes like those," says the 31-year resident, pointing to a two-story home one block away. The magenta-stucco home dwarfs the one-story bungalows that line these hillside streets. Its walls stretch to the edges of the property line, not even leaving room for a swath of yard "I don't like it and the neighbors here don't like it," says Mr. Greer,...

CHICAGO: A 224-storey pyramid shaped building, the tallest in the world, is being built at Katangi, near Indian city of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh state. The 2222-foot (677m) Center of India Tower scheduled for November 6, is being financed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (The Beatles former spiritual leader), and will be his new world headquarters. The firm designing this tower are known for a previous large development, the Twin Towers in Battery Park City, New York. Meanwhile, a twisting 115-storey glass and concrete tower that would be the United States' tallest building may soon grace Chicago's lakefront, its developer said...

What do Islamist terrorists want? The answer should be obvious, but it is not.A generation ago, terrorists did make clear their wishes. Upon hijacking three airliners in September 1970, for example, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine demanded, with success, the release of Arab terrorists imprisoned in Britain, Switzerland, and West Germany. Upon attacking the B'nai B'rith headquarters and two other Washington, D.C. buildings in 1977, a Hanafi Muslim group demanded the canceling of a feature movie, Mohammad, Messenger of God," $750 (as reimbursement for a fine), the turning over of the five men who had massacred the...