Free Republic

Some systems creating summer programs to ease assimilation The number of Hispanic students in Alabama public schools increased by 11 percent during the recently ended school year, state enrollment figures show. During the 2005-2006 school year, 20,386 Hispanic students were enrolled in the state's school districts. During 2006-2007, the total rose to 23,219. Overall, the state's K-12 enrollment was 739,760 and the Hispanic share was slightly more than 3 percent. In some state school systems and individual schools, primarily in north Alabama, the Hispanic percentages were far higher, and officials at some said they expected their numbers of Hispanic students...

As a staff member at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, I am frequently asked questions that require me to go where "angels fear to tread." Questions about displaying national flags in the church's sanctuary take us into that treacherous terrain. Many United Methodist churches maintain a tradition of placing the United States flag in the sanctuary, by the altar, within the chancel, or at another prominent location on the church grounds. I heard of one case in which the U.S. flag actually covered the altar itself. So we must ask: Is this an appropriate use of the...

BALTIMORE – Bob Knight, full-time coach, part-time philosopher, once surmised that the pure beauty of collegiate competition, as opposed to the pro ranks, is that the focus is on the name on the front of your jersey, not the back. But as Duke's last-second shot slipped just wide of the net Monday, giving Johns Hopkins a 12-11 victory and the men's lacrosse national championship, the Blue Devils' Matt Danowski sprawled face first on the turf here and cried for the exact opposite reason. The resurrection of Duke lacrosse following 15 months of accusations and allegations, sins and sensationalism, indictments and...

As Barry Bonds nears his record 756th home run, he's stockpiling quite a collection of souvenirs — bats, balls, helmets and spikes, pieces of baseball history perfectly suited for the Hall of Fame. Whether he'll donate any of them to Cooperstown, however, is in doubt. "I'm not worried about the Hall," the San Francisco slugger said during a recent homer drought. "I take care of me." Bonds is careful with personal items related to his home run pursuit. He makes certain that hats, jerseys and other things he wears are authenticated, and he keeps them in a warehouse. He marks...

WASHINGTON - The last time anyone from Alabama saw the flag of the 1st Alabama Infantry was when its own Confederate troops woke up for morning muster on a Mississippi River island off the Missouri shore on April 8, 1862. In that day's surrender, Brig. Gen. Elazer Arthur Paine confiscated the 7-foot, red, white and blue banner as a trophy, and decades later, a Civil War historian would speculate only that the flag was still somewhere up North. On Wednesday, Alabama got it back. In an outdoor deaccession ceremony with the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop, two Nebraska congressmen and...

NASHVILLE - The first man to walk on the moon told an audience of nearly 3,000 Intergraph customers and employees Tuesday that although a mission to Mars would be difficult, it can be done. Neil Armstrong, the commander of Apollo 11, spoke for nearly an hour on stage at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center, reflecting on the space age that began 50 years ago.

MySpace is partnering with reality television guru Mark Burnett on "Independent," a TV show focused on discovering a politician viewers feel best represents the voice of young Americans. Prominent national politicians will also be invited to participate in the series as mentors while candidates struggle with community and constituent relations, campaign crises and the election process. MySpace and TV producer Mark Burnett announced Friday that they are working on a new reality TV show focused on finding the next great American politician. The new, interactive series, called "Independent," will use online, offline and on-air tactics to find the politician viewers...

Americans may be using less toilet paper, if Sheryl Crow has her way. The singer, who is crossing the country on a biodiesel bus with producer Laurie David, proposes limiting toilet paper use as one solution to global warming, according to a Washington Post report. "I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming," she wrote April 19 on the Biodiesel Bus blog, according to a report by the Washington Post. "Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of...

A 1,063-pound mako shark hooked close to shore in the Gulf of Mexico is being investigated as a possible world fishing record. The Sea Ya Later II was cobia fishing when its crew spotted the 12-foot 6-inch shark Wednesday afternoon between Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach. The Mother Lode, a 45-foot charter boat, helped bring the shark in to Destin. The registered weight of 1,063 pounds makes the catch eligible for the world record in the 30-pound line class for a short-fin mako. The class record is a 997-pound, 11-ounce shark caught in Sydney, Australia, in 1995.

Legal efforts to further restrict access to abortion will depend, in the short term, on whether Justice Anthony Kennedy is willing to go along. The majority opinion he wrote upholding the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act offers hope both for those who think the impact of Wednesday's decision will be limited and for those who think it will be profound. While Kennedy adopted some language favored by abortion opponents — "life of the unborn,""abortion doctor,""respect for life" — he also carefully distinguished the controversial procedure that was the focus of the Supreme Court case from a more common abortion method...

BLACKSBURG, VA. - The shocked family of America's worst mass murderer broke their silence yesterday to say they never imagined Seung-Hui Cho was capable of his rampage and were sorry that "he has made the world weep." The statement came on a day of mourning for the 32 students and professors Cho killed Monday at Virginia Tech, where 1,000 people gathered near the scene of the massacre to cry, grieve and remember. "Our family is so very sorry for my brother's unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for us all," said the statement from Cho's sister Sun-Kyung Cho, a...

To the surprise of probably none of the 1,800 Democrats packed into a Birmingham ballroom Friday night, former President Clinton said he's decided women should run everything. "I think it's a real hoot you elected the first woman chief justice," Clinton told state Democrats at their annual Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner. He was referring to Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, the first woman to hold that office in state history. "You know, I've about decided women ought to run everything," a grinning Clinton said as the crowd yelped and clapped. The quip was an obvious plug for his wife, Sen....

When the old spymaster thought he was dying, his eldest son came to visit him at his home in Miami. The scourges had been constant and terrible recently: lupus, pneumonia, cancers of the jaw and prostate, gangrene, the amputation of his left leg. Long past were his years of heroic service to his country. In the CIA, he had helped to mastermind the violent removal of a duly elected leftist president in Guatemala and assisted in subterfuges that led to the murder of Che Guevara. But no longer could you see in him the suave, pipe-smoking, cocktail-party-loving clandestine operative whose...

Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943) Romance continues to surround his name, not least in Japan, where he is a cult figure, and not exclusively on the political right. His distaste for a war with the Western allies has always rung a bell with postwar liberals aware that, if the enemy had been as pitiless as the Japanese High Command, the defeat could have been more disastrous, the occupation more humiliating, and the subsequent resurgence of both the culture and the economy much less impressive. The Yamamoto romance benefits from his artistic tastes. Like America's General Patton, Yamamoto wrote accomplished poetry. Again like...

ST. LOUIS | When the National Rifle Association finds somebody to love, the relationship can lead to the White House. At least that happened with George W. Bush in 2000. But as the organization on Sunday wrapped up its 136th annual convention, it left a big question unanswered — to the delight, no doubt, of those who battle the NRA: Who’s there to love now? All of the top candidates for president in 2008, Republican and Democratic, have gun-control stains on their records, in the eyes of purists of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

AUSTIN — For thousands of Texans, the right to own and carry a gun is no less an essential ingredient of life than the right to own a house, a business or other piece of property. The Second Amendment and private property rights may even edge out football and give motherhood a run for its money among the values that define the Lone Star State. And in a Legislature dominated by conservative Republicans, guns and private-property rights have peacefully coexisted in a common political base — at least until now. This session, business owners — who are among the biggest...

ECHTERDINGEN, Germany -- Benjamin Gelhorn had two parents, five siblings and many relatives, but most died in the Holocaust. Only three family members survived the imprisonments and killings. More than 60 years later, Gelhorn, aka “142906,” the number burned onto his forearm, helped some of the victims receive a proper funeral. They weren’t his actual family members, but they were close enough. Gelhorn, 86, was one of about 200 people who gathered Sunday at Stuttgart Army Airfield to mark the placing of gravestones for 34 Holocaust victims. The victims’ remains, mostly bones, were found in September 2005 near the main...

MONTGOMERY -- The cars and trucks of those who have been convicted of sexual offenses involving children under 12 would soon bear special license plates if the Legislature passes a bill introduced by a southwest Alabama lawmaker. "I think any crimes relating to children that young, I just think those crimes can be separated from any other sexual offense," said state Rep. Marc Keahey, D-Grove Hill. "I just think it is a totally different intent that goes through the person's mind whenever you have a victim that is under the age of 12." Keahey's bill would allow a municipal or...

One day next month, workers at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens will start a chain reaction in the Unit 1 reactor and begin making enough electricity to power 650,000 homes. It will be the first reactor to come online in America in more than a decade. The Tennessee Valley Authority's decision to restart the reactor it shut down 22 years ago puts Alabama at the forefront of a nuclear-power resurgence in the United States. It's a big turnaround. Beginning in the 1970s, a fire at Browns Ferry Unit 1, a partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and...

Imus is the softest of soft targets. The same can't be said for the black rap shock-jocks. They made Imus possible. They gave him the rapper's bad-housekeeping seal of approval to bash and trash black women. In many ways, their artistic degradation has had even more damaging consequences for young black women. Homicide now ranks as one of the leading causes of death of young black females. A black woman is far more likely to be raped than a white woman and slightly more likely to be the victim of domestic violence than a white woman. Who are the assailants?...