Free Republic

<p>While about 6,000 people attended President George W. Bush's speech in Kalamazoo on Monday, four Battle Creek residents took turns warming his chair in the flying Oval Office on the other side of the state.</p> <p>Sally Everett, her 11-year-old daughter, Ashley, 12-year-old Zach Davis and 12-year-old Melody Warner took a 11/2-hour private tour of Air Force One while it was at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, north of Detroit.</p>

Minister launches King Party By Eric J. Greene The Enquirer Frustrated with the Republican and Democratic parties, the Rev. William Stein of Battle Creek is launching the King Party, a new political organization targeting minorities, women and "disenfranchised" Americans. In a press conference in his home Wednesday, Stein said he wants the King Party to spread across the United States and promote peace, unity and prosperity through sound policies. Stein and a few other Battle Creek residents are the founding members. "It is clear that these folks are not satisfied with the shenanigans that are going on in the Republican...

A teenage girl from my Church ran away from home yesterday afternoon. It was a planned thing - she left school in the middle of the day.The police are now involved, have interviewed her friends, all of whom say they don't know where she is. Her father lives in another state, and has not heard from her either.According to her mother, she is computer-challenged, so the chances of having met someone on the internet are remote. It's extremely cold her in MI, and she didn't take many clothes.Please pray for her safe return. I'm not posting her name, as it...

Charging into heaven's gates By Lucy Lazarony Move over wicker baskets and collection plates, there's a new way to give in God's house. The age of electronic donations is here. More and more churches are letting members charge weekly and monthly offerings via credit cards and through automatic withdrawals from checking and savings accounts. No last-minute stops at the ATM before church. No rustling around with cash or a checkbook at collection time. And because your gift is sent electronically, you can even give when you're traveling or home in bed sick. "It makes people think a little more about...

<p>Former President Bush on Saddam Hussein: "His word is no good and he's a brute."</p> <p>NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former President George Bush says he has "nothing but hatred" for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, but he has "no regrets" the coalition forces during the 1991 Gulf War did not go to Baghdad to get him.</p>

<p>Fulfilling a promise he made last fall, U.S. Sen. John McCain returned to Michigan on Monday to give state Sen. John Schwarz a boost in his campaign for governor. During campaign stops in lower Michigan, McCain said Schwarz is in a position similar to the one he was in two years ago in the presidential campaign.</p>

Martha probes widen Prosecutors look into possible obstruction of justice and false statements, reports say. June 26, 2002: 8:43 AM EDT NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Prosecutors have widened their investigation into Martha Stewart's sale of ImClone Systems stock to include possible obstruction of justice and making false statements in addition to insider trading allegations, newspapers reported Wednesday. Douglas Faneuil, the sales assistant to Stewart's broker, also has changed his account of what occurred with the sale of the stock, according to the Wall Street Journal. Faneuil initially backed up the explanation Stewart and Merrill Lynch broker Peter Bacanovic gave for...

<p>By Dennis Cook, AP file FBI Director Robert Mueller is developing a plan to make the bureau one that prevents terrorism.</p> <p>WASHINGTON — Two weeks ago, Congress' nascent probe into whether the U.S. government could have done more to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was focused on the FBI, the CIA and the White House.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- A week before the Sept. 11 attack, investigators told the Federal Aviation Administration that student-pilot Zacarias Moussaoui had been arrested and was under investigation as a potential terrorist with a particular interest in flying Boeing 747s. But the agency decided against warning U.S. airlines to increase security.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- A month before the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush received a page-and-a-half intelligence report summarizing al Qaeda's tactics and history, including warnings that terrorists might hijack U.S. airliners to win the release of prisoners here.</p> <p>The White House disclosed some details of the report Thursday in an effort to quell anger among lawmakers who asked why it wasn't made public before Sept. 11 and why the administration waited so long since then to inform Congress.</p>

<p>A group of area funeral directors endorsed state Sen. John Schwarz, R-Battle Creek, in his campaign to become Michigan's next governor.</p> <p>"Joe Schwarz is clearly the best candidate in the field and has been the Legislature's strongest supporter of funeral service since coming to the Senate in 1986," said T.R. Shaw of Shaw Funeral Homes in Battle Creek.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON -- In a boost for scientists and patient groups who support research cloning and want it to remain legal in the U.S., an influential antiabortion Republican is expected to announce Tuesday his support for a bill that would ban only cloning to produce a baby.</p>

<p>CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- On the political stage, President Bush increasingly seems to be imitating the maestro himself, Bill Clinton.</p> <p>While the White House certainly intends no flattery, and in fact labors to avoid any parallels with the president's Democratic predecessor, Mr. Bush's recent fund-raising and political rounds have put him on a pace to shatter Mr. Clinton's record as fund-raiser-in-chief. And Monday's trip to Iowa fits the pattern of commingling politics and policy: Mr. Bush flew here to give a public speech about taxes, but perhaps the main event was later: a private fund-raiser for Republican Rep. Greg Ganske's Senate campaign.</p>

Daschle Looks for Way to Get Senators to Show Up to Vote By SHAILAGH MURRAY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- Tom Daschle has a lot of headaches as Senate majority leader of a closely divided chamber: The White House is painting him as an obstructionist, legislation is tied up on everything from boosting energy to banning cloning, and his bare majority is in danger in November's election. But often his biggest problem is getting everyone to show up. On Mondays and Fridays, the Senate floor is empty as usual; now there is growing pressure to keep...

<p>"Republican voters do not need the state party to hold their hand and instruct them for whom to vote ... People are not being given a choice."</p> <p>Schwarz added that the GOP is giving Democrats ammunition with the appearance that the party is closed and controlled by conservative groups such as Right to Life of Michigan and the National Rifle Association.</p>

Faith, Trust and War Place Bush Firmly on Israel's Side By ROBERT S. GREENBERGER and JEANNE CUMMINGS Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- At their first White House meeting, months before Sept. 11, President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon forged a personal bond based on their shared antipathy toward terrorism. Mr. Sharon told the president in March 2001 that he would have to "remove from our society" Palestinian radicals involved in terrorist attacks, according to a person who was in the room. The Israeli leader also promised he would try to do what was necessary...

<p>Cameras are the hot new law-enforcement tool. I got caught two weeks ago by one that photographs cars entering the intersection as the light turns red. (My ticket just came in the mail.) Washington is setting up hundreds of cameras monitoring streets, federal buildings, Metro stations, and other locations. Police used cameras with face recognition technology at last year's Super Bowl to catch known fugitives.</p>

<p>Imagine breaking up families and sentencing thousands of kids to perpetual foster care. Yet, under the guise of family values, that's exactly what some social conservatives would do.</p> <p>Groups like the Family Research Council, and the Traditional Values Coalition, headed by renowned hate monger Lou Sheldon, want to deny gays and lesbians the right to adopt children. Unfortunately this put-these-kids-last posture has the backing of both President Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.</p>

Waiters Reveal Tricks of the Trade To Raise the Bottled-Water Pressure By SHELLY BRANCH Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL One trick is the table plant, where alluring bottles are placed on the table in advance to encourage a "visual sell." Then there's the fast-pour, which borrows from an old sommelier's ruse of replenishing glasses sip by sip in order to turn more bottles. In the quest to sell diners expensive designer water, waiters have moved well beyond the simple query, "regular or bottled?" Now they are honing their water rituals down to a ruthlessly manipulative science. Consider ...

China Stem-Cell Research Surges As Western Nations Ponder Ethics By KARBY LEGGETT and ANTONIO REGALADO Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL CHANGSHA, China -- Last fall, a U.S. company said it had accomplished a remarkable feat: producing the first-ever cloned human embryo. But here in this tree-lined central Chinese city, that didn't sound like such an impressive milestone. Scientists at the Xiangya Medical College here claim to have cloned dozens of human embryos over the past two years for medical-research purposes. Moreover, say U.S. and Chinese scientists familiar with the field, there are at least three other teams ...