Free Republic

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- An immigration crackdown has led to the arrests of several illegal aliens working for subcontractors at Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford. Seven suspects, five men and two women, were brought into U.S. District Court shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday, charged with misusing Social Security numbers and having false alien registration cards. ... the seven were turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The seven work for subcontractors ... All had obtained security clearance badges by allegedly using false information, authorities said. As a result, they had access to classified areas and possibly sensitive materials. However, none...

WASHINGTON -- There's a veneer of serenity to Joe Lieberman in these final days before he makes his White House bid official. But beneath the calm is a man still framing, still wrestling with, how to explain and market the biggest decision of his life. Though the Connecticut Democrat talks expansively about why he wants to be president, his syntax and his logic are often labored. He is still developing his rationale for running. He is still trying to prepare for critics who will say he's on too many sides of too many issues, that he's too thin-skinned and unwilling...

The folding stock on the MP7 permits shoulder firing for better accuracy. The handgun is also ambidextrous, with all controls, including the M16- style cocking handle, safety/selector lever, magazine release, and bolt-catch release accessible by the user’s right and left hand. A new handgun has reignited the debate over which type of bullet is best: small and fast, or big, heavy, and therefore, slower. The MP7 personal defense weapon (PDW) seems to embody the small and fast paradigm. De-vised by Heckler & Koch Inc., (www.heck-lerkoch- usa.com), it fires a 4.6 30-mm round (equivalent to .18 caliber) weighing about 26 grains....

British troops are poised to go to war in Iraq. But after 30 years of development, £470m of taxpayers' money and countless modifications, soldiers still don't trust their standard issue rifle - the SA80. How did the military get something so simple so spectacularly wrong? James Meek unravels a shameful saga of arrogance, incompetence and indecision In 1985, in the United States, a firm called Microsoft came up with a gimmicky piece of software called Windows, said to be easier to use for non-specialists, as if the masses were going to start keeping computers at home. In Finland - Finland!...

Picture a typical Republican. Perhaps you see images of George Bush, John Ashcroft, Ronald Reagan, or maybe even Alex P. Keaton. Basically, many people think Republicans are a bunch of stodgy white guys with money. Times are changing. The Republican A-list now includes Colin Powell, Christie Whitman, J.C. Watts, and Condoleeza Rice. Women and minorities have been making great strides in the party, but they generally dress, talk, and act like their predecessors. You are more likely to find them at a formal reception than a rock concert. If Republicans are so different from mainstream America, then who voted for...

(8/27/02) — A navy recruiter reportedly took the law into his own hands when he shot a suspect being chased by police. The incident began Monday night when sheriff's deputy began chasing a suspect on Uvalde in east Harris County. The chase ended when the suspect crashed into another vehicle. The officer got out of the car with his weapon drawn. That's when police say a navy recruiter who knew the officer drove up and shot the suspect twice. The navy recruiter says the suspect was charging at him, but the suspect was shot in the back. The shooting is...

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT-August 22, 2002 — A man has been charged with using a jury summons as toilet paper – then sending it in to court officials. Click Here for More WPVI.com Bizarre News State police say Christopher Gurahian smeared excrement on the document, wrote the words "stop wasting paper" on it, and mailed it back. Gurahian turned himself in to face misdemeanor charges of harassment and breach of peace. Officials say the summons was not tested to determine if the excrement was from a human or an animal. Gurahian is free on bail, awaiting a September court appearance

NEW BRITAIN -- City police Wednesday continued to investigate a shootout at a Corbin Avenue carwash Monday night that ended with one man dead and another seriously wounded. Police said they are still seeking one suspect, and have not made any further arrests. Norman Moore, 24, Rashad Williams, 27, and the unidentified suspect drove into the carwash about 8:30 p.m. Monday intending to rob two men who were standing by an Oldsmobile, police said. But one of the men pulled a gun, and Moore was killed in the gunfire that erupted. During the gunfire, one of the intended robbery victims...

CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO http://playlist.broadcast.com/makestream.asp?ID=3282731 HOUSTON (KHOU) -- Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford has launched an investigation into a controversial weekend crackdown in a K-Mart parking lot. Hundreds were arrested for trespassing. And at least one parent is threatening a lawsuit. The bust occurred in a shopping center at Westheimer and Dunvale in West Houston. Monday was quiet at the shopping center. Merchants were moving ahead with the business of business, a typically slow Monday night. It was a far cry from the scene Sunday morning when several hundred young people were arrested for trespassing and curfew violations. Angry teenagers...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Katherine Harris' opponent in the Republican primary for a Florida congressional seat sued Thursday to have the former secretary of state kicked off the ballot. The lawsuit argues Harris should be removed from the ballot because she violated a state law that required her to file a letter of intent to resign as secretary of state when she qualified to run for Congress. If Harris were disqualified from the Sept. 10 primary, John Hill, the former television anchor who filed the suit, would automatically win the GOP nomination. Harris called the lawsuit frivolous. "It is a...

WASHINGTON (June 28, 2002 6:11 p.m. EDT) - Less than half of the major U.S. airlines sought government-backed loans under a program created to help the industry recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Of the country's 11 largest passenger airlines, only four - America West, American Trans Air, United Airlines and US Airways - asked the Air Transportation Stabilization Board to lend them money to keep flying. The loan program required airlines to provide detailed information and let the government buy stock in their companies, a provision modeled after the Chrysler bailout. "Once they actually looked at what the...

AN INSTAPUNDIT SPECIAL FEATURE!THE DROPPED BALL AWARDS: Presented in memory of September 11, to the pundits and political figures who got it wrongest in the past three months.RICHARD COHEN, Washington Post, 11/6/01: "Whatever the case, this war appears to be behind schedule. The administration, of course, will not say so. But this administration is already operating from a credibility deficit. . . . At the Pentagon, the briefings more and more resemble the ones conducted daily during the Vietnam War."JACOB HEILBRUNN, Los Angeles Times, 11/4/01:A young and inexperienced president from a dynasty surrounds himself with experts. Early in his ...

NEW ORLEANS -- In this big party town, it's a little like a coming-out soiree for United Airlines' mysterious new business-jet subsidiary, which had been keeping a somewhat low profile as it gears up to start operations early next spring. At the annual convention here of the National Business Aviation Association — the trade group representing the corporate aircraft business — the United subsidiary, Avolar, is strolling the floor with a partner, Airbus Industrie of Europe, and they're not being coy about their intentions. In what will be one aspect of Avolar's business plan, they say they are planning ...

START AT the beginning. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." So far, so good, on the right to peaceably assemble. The rest of the freedoms grow envious. The government is considering relaxing generation-old prohibitions that keep the FBI and CIA from spying on religious organizations. Current rules, a legacy of J. Edgar Hoover's excess, allow such pursuit only if the ...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 — Federal agents are planning to fan out across the country this week in an effort to recruit American businesses in the war on terror, urging companies to notify the government of suspicious customers. Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of the Customs Service, said he had developed a list of about 100 items that the authorities believed terrorists wanted to buy in this country. Starting Monday, Mr. Bonner said, federal agents will visit the manufacturers, emphasize the need for vigilance and encourage them to inform the Customs Service at once if they are approached by anyone trying ...

Fear of more crime with more gun permits appears unfounded. One side has argued the new concealed weapons law would turn Michigan into the Old West, where sidearms are everywhere and disputes that normally employ insults or blows instead erupt in gunfire. The other side championed deterrence; law-abiding citizens would be safer, and criminals may be less inclined to strike if their victims might return fire. But the data for weapons permits and violent crime don't support either view. In fact, one may not affect the other at all. "It's partly a concern with the proliferation of all guns," said ...

Small Government Act to End the Income Tax Qualifies for Ballot 57,100 Signatures Required 75,516 Certified Signatures Filed On Tuesday, December 4th at 11am, Carla Howell filed 75,516 certified petition signatures and held a News Conference at the Secretary of State's Election Division Office in the McCormack Building. The Small Government Act to End the Income Tax Summary (as appeared on petition sheets circulated Fall 2001): The proposed law would provide that no income or other gain realized on or after July 1, 2003, would be subject to the state personal income tax. That tax applies to income received or ...

To the Editor: Re "As Shooting Spate Persists, 15 Police Leaders Face Transfers" (news article, Dec. 5): A major cause of the increase in shootings is the spike in gun sales after Sept. 11. Nationwide, sales increased by 21 percent, and reports indicate that the increase may have been greater in New York. Under increasing economic and psychological pressure (prescriptions for antidepressants increased by 22 percent in New York at the end of September), arguments once defined by angry words can escalate when guns are available. Guns kept in the home for self-protection are used 22 times more often ...

<p>In a move that could damage, but not derail, the case against five teenagers charged with conspiring to blow up New Bedford High School and kill classmates and teachers, police threw out an incomplete homemade bomb seized in late October.</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that laws making it easier for regular citizens to carry concealed firearms undermine public safety, the results of a recent survey reveal.According to the report, Americans do not agree that ''regular'' citizens--people who are not law enforcement officers--should be allowed to bring guns into public places such as restaurants, stadiums, bars and government buildings by a margin of nine to one.The survey results, reported in the December issue of Injury Prevention, contradict arguments that gun ownership increases feelings of safety and suggest that state laws passed over the ...