Free Republic

In case you missed it, the President signed the new Pension Protection Act on August 17th. Most of the 400 pages of the Act deal with the under funding of pensions. However, if you keep paging through to page 301, you will see a section titled: Modification of Recordkeeping Requirements for Certain Charitable Contributions. Yes, that has nothing to do with pensions but it does affect the charitable contributions that you deduct on your tax return. Do you drop some cash into the church basket every week? And keep a logbook of the amount given each week? Then at tax...

From recycling electronics to shredding sensitive documents, now recycling old tires can become easily maintained sidewalks. Sixty-five cities are reducing the number of old tires dumped in landfills. Companies shred them, bake the fine particles and the use the material for sidewalks. These interlocking panels have cracks between them to allow water and air to reach tree roots, which delays the upward thrust of the roots. When the roots do rise, the panels will not break, making repair easier. The cost of the rubber sidewalks is three times more than concrete, but in the long run it is less expensive...

HOUSTON An illegal immigrant who survived the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt says he was told a lie about how he would be transported. Jose Juan Roldan Castro testified today in Houston during the trial of the driver that hauled him and other immigrants in a stifling tractor-trailer. Roldan says he was never told he'd be stuffed in the back of the vehicle. He was told he would be in the cabin of the trailer. Roldan is the first survivor to testify in the retrial of Tyrone Williams. The 35-year-old Williams is a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, New...

For reasons of safety and ease of maintenance, Washington and dozens of other communities are installing rubber sidewalks made of ground-up tires. The rubber squares are up to three times more expensive than concrete slabs but last longer, because tree roots and freezing weather won't crack them. That, in turn, could reduce the number of slip-and-fall lawsuits filed over uneven pavement. And the rubber sidewalks are considered more environmentally friendly: They offer a way to recycle some of the estimated 290 million tires thrown out each year in the United States, and they do not constrict tree roots the way...