Free Republic

WASHINGTON, April 20 - The apprehension on Wednesday of more than 1,100 illegal immigrants employed by a Houston-based pallet supply company, as well as the arrest of seven of its managers, represents the kickoff of a more aggressive federal immigration enforcement campaign intended to hold employers accountable for breaking the law, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today. Saying the hiring by companies nationwide of millions of undocumented workers is often a form of organized crime, Mr. Chertoff, a former federal prosecutor, said the government will now attempt to combat the practice with techniques similar to those used to try...

WASHINGTON — Al Gore has a major campaign under way _ to change policies on global warming. The 2000 Democratic presidential nominee has hired longtime political associate Roy Neel to aid in his effort to raise awareness about global warming, a problem Gore calls "a planetary emergency." Gore's movie and book about the issue, both called "An Inconvenient Truth," are set for widespread release in May. "He's taking an increasingly high-profile role in working on the climate change issue," Gore spokesman Michael Feldman said. Gore repeatedly has brushed aside talk of another presidential bid, telling a Tennessee audience last month,...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In adolescents, intimate kissing with multiple partners, attending college, and a history of preceding illness are independent risk factors for meningococcal disease, whereas religious observance and meningococcal vaccination are tied to reduced risks, new research shows. Meningococcal disease -- a bacterial infection of the fluid within the tissues surrounding the brain and spinal cord -- is largely a disease affecting children younger than 5 years, although in recent years both the US and UK have seen rising rates among teens. This trend served as a major stimulus for the development of the meningococcal vaccine, which...

SELMA, ALA. - On stage, the famous jazz pianist Thelonious Monk wore a collard-leaf pin in his lapel - an act of solidarity, in the guise of a key Southern food, with his sharecropper roots. Standing in front of Selma High School the other day, principal Roosevelt Wilson broke with Mr. Monk and proclaimed war on the humble but proud collard, the leafy green usually cooked with lard, and all the other unhealthy Southern foods it evokes. "If I could, I'd tell them never to eat collards again," says the appropriately lean Mr. Wilson, as he surveys gossiping gaggles of...

A surge in oil prices last week to almost $70 a barrel on concerns about the restart of Iran's nuclear program only hints at what may lie ahead. Prices could soar past $100 a barrel, experts say, if the U.N. Security Council authorizes trade sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation, which the West accuses of trying to make nuclear bombs, and Iran curbs oil exports in retaliation. A sharp global economic slowdown could follow. That's the dilemma the United States and European nations face as they decide whether to act. But Iran would also pay a hefty price if the...

A presidential contest between the two famous women is just a dream. EVERY couple of weeks, mostly on quiet news days, some cable news anchor rolls out a rumour that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, despite her protestations to the contrary, is planning to run for president in 2008. A couple of populist political commentators known for their willingness to speculate on anything, no matter how far-fetched, are then rolled out to explain why Rice's emphatic and repeated denials that she would ever run for any elected office should not be believed. Then the dream presidential contest for 2008 is...

WASHINGTON In the past week, the Bush and Clinton camps have traded nasty words and asides in a series of exchanges with faint echoes of the 1992 presidential campaign. On the surface, the most recent skirmishing seemed to start with assertions by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, that Republicans were running Congress "like a plantation," and that the Bush administration would "go down in history as one of the worst." But strategists in both parties said the hostilities were more likely the opening shots of the 2008 presidential campaign season. ... The battle has been building for...

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal judge Friday they want to subpoena journalists and news organizations for documents they may have related to the leak of a CIA operative's name. In a joint filing with prosecutors, lawyers for I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby, 55, warned U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton that a trial likely will be delayed because of their strategy to seek more subpoenas of reporters' notes and other records. Libby was indicted last year on charges that he lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's defense minister hinted Saturday that the Jewish state is preparing for military action to stop Iran's nuclear program, but said international diplomacy must be the first course of action. "Israel will not be able to accept an Iranian nuclear capability and it must have the capability to defend itself, with all that that implies, and this we are preparing," Shaul Mofaz said. His comments at an academic conference stopped short of overtly threatening a military strike but were likely to add to growing tensions with Iran. Germany's defense minister said in an interview published Saturday that...

JAKARTA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - An Indonesian toddler who died this week has tested positive for bird flu, officials said on Thursday, a day after wealthy nations promised almost $2 billion to tackle the spread of the lethal virus. The boy's 13-year-old sister died last week after being infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, according to local tests. Both cases still need to be confirmed by outside laboratories recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Wealthy nations pledged $1.9 billion to fight bird flu at a conference in Beijing on Wednesday. The money will be spent on measures to...

Wednesday, November 16, 2005 Public Comment Period Closes December 12, 2005 Public comments are now being accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its newly proposed federal regulation regarding the testing of chemicals and pesticides on human subjects. On August 2, 2005, Congress had mandated the EPA create a rule that permanently bans chemical testing on pregnant women and children. But the EPA's newly proposed rule, misleadingly titled "Protections for Subjects in Human Research," puts industry profits ahead of children's welfare. The rule allows for government and industry scientists to treat children as human guinea pigs in chemical experiments...

CHICAGO - Forget shuffleboard, needlepoint and bingo. Web logs, more often the domain of alienated adolescents and home to screeds by middle-aged pundits, are gaining a foothold as a new leisure-time option for senior citizens. There's Dad's Tomato Garden Journal, Dogwalk Musings, and, of course, the Oldest Living Blogger. "It's too easy to sit in your own cave and let the world go by, eh?" said Ray Sutton, the 73-year-old Oldest Living Blogger and a retired electrician who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. "It keeps the old head working a little bit so you're not just sitting there gawking at...

The nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bush did not come as a complete surprise. I wrote in my Sept. 19 FOX column that Miers was a dark-horse candidate if the president decided to nominate a woman..... Miers was a logical pick for President Bush for a variety of reasons: She was a pioneering female attorney in Texas, as she was hired by a major Dallas firm in the early 1970s when few Southern law firms were hiring women. She rose to be co-managing partner of this very large firm, served as the first woman...

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay said he felt "nothin' but joy" Friday as he ended a week of legal and political troubles surrounded by adoring local supporters. In his first appearance in the area since he was indicted and lost his House leadership post, DeLay, R-Sugar Land, shared hugs, handshakes and, of course, speeches with about 200 people who packed a Galleria-area rally to see him. The people who squeezed themselves into the San Jacinto Room of the Houston Engineering & Scientific Society building on Westheimer were clearly ready for battle. They pasted themselves with "Tom DeLay for U.S. Congress" stickers...

DeLay struggles in new role By Patrick O'Connor The day after he was indicted by a Texas grand jury, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) stood by himself at an intersection outside the Cannon office building. Gone were the security detail, the staff and the gaggle of reporters. The former majority leader stood alone waiting for the light to change on his way to an afternoon vote. When approached and asked what he thought of his new Cannon office, DeLay smiled and said, "It's got a great view of the Capitol." DeLay's new - and perhaps temporary - role as a rank-and-file...

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Even before he was elected to Congress in 1996, Roy Blunt from Missouri signaled his intention to be a major player on Capitol Hill. And he did it in the universal language of politics - money. In a move of unusual perceptiveness, Blunt - himself a man of modest means - began sending contributions from his own campaign coffers to 21 Republicans throughout the country running for Congress for the first time. Blunt won his own election, as did 20 of the recipients of his largesse. When he arrived in Washington, he already knew and had...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After 85 days in jail for refusing to name her source, New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified on Friday about conversations with a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney to a grand jury investigating who leaked the name of a CIA operative. Legal sources close to the case said Miller, who was freed on Thursday, gave the federal grand jury in Washington a detailed account of two conversations she had in July 2003 with Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Miller said she agreed to testify about the conversations only after receiving what she...

WASHINGTON -- The money that led to the indictment this week of two Las Vegas pastors and the wife of one of them came from federal grants arranged by Sen. Harry Reid in September 2001, a Reid spokeswoman said Wednesday. Moving to distance Reid from a possible scandal, aide Tessa Hafen said the senator sought the money on behalf of a nonprofit social services agency and not for the churches or persons who have been accused of mishandling the money. "The money was administered by the Department of Justice, and it went to the agency in Nevada (Alliance Collegiums Association...

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Big Whew blew over Texas, leaving Port Arthur underwater and whole lot of stress across the state. It is highly stressful to be in a car with two adults, three children, the dog and the cat for a 12- to 20-hour trip from Houston to Austin, Dallas or San Antonio. It is also stressful to have two adults, three children, their dog and their cat move into your 1,200-square-foot house with you, especially if your sister-in-law thinks anyone who criticizes George W. Bush is a tool of Satan. Stress-sensitive groups like Alcoholics Anonymous were doing land-office...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Thursday to provide $4 billion to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stockpile anti-flu medicine to protect people against bird flu and prepare for a potential outbreak. By voice vote, senators agreed to tack the proposal onto next year's $440 billion defense spending bill. The Senate still must approve the overall defense bill, and a vote is expected next week. Then, the Senate must work out a final version with the House, which did not include money for bird flu preparedness in its defense bill. In recent weeks, the United States has stepped...