Free Republic

From the start of the Clinton Administration, the job of thwarting terror had fallen to Clarke. A bureaucratic survivor who now leads the Bush Administration's office on cyberterrorism, he has served four Presidents from both parties-staff members joke that the framed photos in his office have two sides, one for a Republican President to admire, the other for a Democrat. Aggressive and legendarily abrasive, Clarke was desperate to persuade skeptics to take the terror threat as seriously as he did. "Clarke is unbelievably determined, high-energy, focused and imaginative," says a senior Clinton Administration official. "But he's totally insensitive to rolling...

WEST PALM BEACH - A judge threw out a jury's verdict today in what had been considered a landmark case against the distributor of a gun used in the shooting death of middle school teacher Barry Grunow

DELRAY BEACH -- Making his boldest statement yet about a possible presidential campaign, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham told reporters Saturday, "I am going to be president of the United States."

A friend of mine, an older lady was brutal beaten tonight by an intruder in her home. She has severe head and face injuries, was hit with a baseball bat. The police told me she is very seriously injured. Please pray for her and her family.

The problem was a flashback to Palm Beach County's infamous Election 2000: Voters failed to follow instructions. Some forgot to sign their ballots. Rejected. Others failed to get a witness' signature. Rejected. Still others had a witness but the witness didn't write down an address. Rejected. Rejected. Rejected. There was another problem, too -- fishy signatures. Workers review every signature against the voter's registration card, which can date back decades. One 97-year-old man signed his ballot with a signature that didn't look anything like the one on his registration card of 30 years ago. It was much clearer this time....

Democrat Carol Roberts, who famously declared she'd go to jail to ensure a recount of Palm Beach County's 2000 presidential ballots, is encouraging seniors to flout prescription drug laws as she tries to unseat U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale.....Such purchases are illegal, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says. Roberts didn't know about the law, her campaign said Thursday. But she's continuing with her hot line anyway. check link for more

Possible clorine gas, no injuries-unsure of what it is and if it is coming from train or tanks near by.

<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bankrupt telephone company WorldCom Inc. has discovered about $2 billion in additional accounting discrepancies, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.</p> <p>A spokeswoman for Clinton, Mississippi-based WorldCom declined requests for comment on the report. The reported errors come on top of $3.85 billion in expenses WorldCom said it improperly booked, and whose discovery in June led to its bankruptcy filing.</p>

So far, parents of 532 of the about 3,500 eligible Palm Beach County students say they want to move their children to a different school, said Mary Helen Arbogast, director of the district's school choice office. Of those, 412 plan to go to a public school and 120 to a private school. State officials estimate fewer than 700 students out of the 8,900 eligible will attend a private school on the state's tab, and about double that amount will switch to a higher-rated public school, said J.C. Bowman, acting director of Florida's school choice office.

WEST PALM BEACH -- Wearing a white apron, Janet Reno served meals at a cafe for the homeless, took it off to wave signs on Military Trail, met with senior citizens and shook hands at CityPlace Friday. At each of her stops, Reno said the only way she will defeat Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in November is if Democrats go to the polls in huge numbers. "Don't leave any Democratic behind," she told seniors at Century Village.... More...Reno waved at rush hour traffic from 5 to 6 p.m. Many drivers honked their horns and waved. Some stopped their cars and...

Palm Beach County Democrats are getting ready to invest big bucks in "robo-phoning." The party will spend about $50,000 in start-up costs for a high-tech system that tracks voter information and uses a computer to place phone calls to voters

<p>GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — President Bush's call for changes in the Palestinian leadership appears to have intensified an internal debate about the performance of Yasser Arafat and emboldened dissenters to air their views in public.</p> <p>Critics of the move maintained that the American intervention would result in a surge of support for the veteran leader.</p>

AUSABLE FORKS — Churches and small businesses deserve more federal support after disasters, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday, touring damage from the April 20 earthquake. She stopped in AuSable Forks for an earthquake-damage update as part of her North Country visit. While meeting with Essex County town supervisors and emergency-services directors, Clinton said she would like to change the Federal Emergency Management Agency to include more financial relief for churches and small businesses. Churches are a vital part of any community and should be repaired with government help, she said.

Alarmed refugees try to enter before agreement is signed; shelter lined up in Clinton CountyPLATTSBURGH — The Salvation Army may soon become a temporary shelter for refugees rushing to seek asylum in Canada. Capt. Dennis Cregan of the Salvation Army said the South Catherine Street branch is prepared to house 25 refugees in about a month. Ronald Blanchet, director of the Canadian Immigration Center in LaColle, Quebec, said that since May there has been a significant increase in refugees wanting to enter Canada. In June 2001, Canadian Immigration saw 366 refugees. The number has doubled so far this June. "I...

Right now Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle has at least 50 bills sitting on top of his desk. These bills have already passed through the House of Representatives and need only to be voted on in the Senate to become law. It's partisan politics at its worst. Sen. Daschle is refusing votes on cloning, the economic stimulus package, faith-based initiatives, oil embargo protection, a bill to make our tax cuts permanent, and many more. Tom Daschle is blocking the agenda of the American people. That's why the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is launching a national petition drive "Free the...

JUPITER -- Former Marine George Andres got air support Friday from Gov. Jeb Bush, who flew in to give Andres $100 toward his legal fight and help him raise a new American flag on the white flag pole he has been ordered to take down. Outside of the Indian Creek Phase IIIB Homeowners Association, the ongoing battle over Andres' 12 foot flag pole may seem a little silly, but for Bush, in the middle of a reelection campaign, it was a photo opportunity not to be missed. Wearing a green tie adorned with American flags and bombs bursting in air,...

<p>Democratic fund-raising groups are getting ready to reap the unlimited soft-money donations that their party will be unable to accept when the new campaign finance reforms take effect after the November elections.</p> <p>These groups, along with those on the Republican side, will become what campaign analysts call "the new miniparties" that will take over the party-building and issue-promotion activities that the parties have long financed with big soft money contributions from business, labor unions and other wealthy campaign donors.</p>

MIAMI -- State House member Lois Frankel would be Congresswoman Lois Frankel if newly drawn district lines and election rules had been in place a decade ago, a voting patterns expert testified Tuesday in a trial over Florida's new district maps. That Frankel, who is white, would have prevailed in a district created to elect a black candidate is proof that the new lines drawn by Florida's Republican leadership illegally "retrogress" minority seats, testified Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University in Washington, D.C. Lichtman, the first of two expert witnesses for the Democratic critics of the plans, said...

Thanks for serving your country. Now get a job. Across the nation, hundreds of National Guardsmen are making the difficult transition from the mandates of military life back to the mayhem of the job market, where soldiers like Cpl. Moss Waldock have found themselves searching the want ads. Waldock, a two-year employee at BellSouth, was laid off Monday after his two-month stint guarding Palm Beach International Airport. The 31-year-old career military man from Lake Worth was infuriated by his discharge. "Here I am, doing my duty for our country and then BellSouth comes along and says I'm out of work,"...

News item: Palm Beach County will have a mock election on July 13 so voters can become familiar with touch-screen voting machines before the cycle of fall elections. Most of the voting booths for the mock election will be at local Publix supermarkets. Dear Voter/Shopper: Thank you choosing Publix, "Where Voting is a Pleasure." Please do not try to insert your Lotto picks into the slot in this Sequoia voting machine. THIS IS NOT A LOTTERY AREA. If you try playing the Lotto in this machine, you will likely cause a malfunction, or possibly create an unexplained vote in the...