Free Republic

Busch Stadium's final bow came under a cool October sky, with class and grace and the tiny, brilliant flashes of drugstore cameras sparkling deep into the night. It ended Wednesday with two of St. Louis' finest, capless and balding in their blue police shirts, standing in the left field grass and tossing a baseball back and forth as if they were still schoolboys. It ended with Emma Ganske, who had driven from her home in Collinsville without a ticket but who had talked herself into the old park at game's end, reaching over a low wall and scooping a handful...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It could be just what the world needs now -- Burt Bacharach writing lyrics. The legendary, 77-year-old composer has found his voice in a politically charged album "At This Time" that features his first lyrics ever in a nearly 50-year career creating some of pop music's best-known love songs. "You could say, 'How does a guy who has written love songs his entire life suddenly decide to rock the boat?"' Bacharach says about the album that will be released internationally on October 24, with a U.S. release on November 1. "I had to do it. This...

Three years ago, Frederick S. Rhine fought the uphill battle of running for Cook County judge against someone with a strong Irish name. He failed miserably. Last week, Rhine admitted he knows he can't beat them. So he's joining them. Documents recently filed in Cook County Circuit Court show Rhine, a Chicago attorney, has changed his name to Patrick Michael O'Brien -- the same last name as the candidate who defeated him in 2002. And while surprised to learn the Chicago Sun-Times discovered his name-change application, Rhine admitted he did it solely in the hopes of winning a judicial seat...

MONTREAL - Canada's foreign affairs minister said Thursday that the country badly needed more immigrants to replace aging workers who are headed for retirement. Pierre Pettigrew said that increasing the population to 40 million by welcoming more immigrants would help foot the bill for new infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. "This is a vast country, the infrastructure is expensive and it's a bigger country than the United States is," Pettigrew said. "I am saying that if we were 40 million Canadians, that infrastructure would not be necessarily a lot more expensive, but we would be more (people) to foot...

If Harriet Miers is confirmed, evangelicals can finally claim one of their own on the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet the spiritual journey that led her to be born again and spend 25 years affiliated with a conservative church has not eased concerns among Christians about her views on abortion, gay rights and other key social issues. "Our lack of knowledge about Harriet Miers, and the absence of a record on the bench, give us insufficient information," said Tony Perkins, of the conservative Family Research Council. But members of her longtime congregation, Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, say the White...

CHICAGO - On the heels of the decision by former Governor Jim Edgar not to run for Governor in 2006, State Senator Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin), a 13-year lawmaker, has emerged as perhaps the GOP's best chance to defeat incumbent Governor Rod Blagojevich, according to a poll released by Zogby International. The poll, conducted from September 16-21, shows Rauschenberger with a slim 1-point margin over incumbent Governor Rod Blagojevich, 41.3-40.4%. The poll also seemingly indicates that Rauschenberger provides the best head-to-head match-up with Blagojevich for the Republican party now that Edgar has decided he will not be a candidate. The Zogby...

WASHINGTON - President Bush, increasingly concerned about a possible avian flu pandemic, revealed Tuesday that any part of the country where the virus breaks out could likely be quarantined and that he is considering using the military to enforce it. "The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins," he said during a wide-ranging Rose Garden news conference. The president was asked if his recent talk of giving the military the lead in responding to large natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and other catastrophes was...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - An organizer of a planned memorial to honor Confederate soldiers who died at an Illinois prison camp says the rebel flag will be displayed at the memorial's dedication, despite opposition. "We consider this an honorable flag. This is a soldier's flag," said Ron Casteel, national chief of staff for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, one of the memorial's planners. "There will be no substitute." Camp Butler, just east of Springfield, was a training facility for Union troops during the Civil War and a prison camp for more than 3,500 captured Confederates. More than 800 of the prisoners...

LAJAS, Puerto Rico - People in this sleepy hamlet are so sure they have been receiving other-worldly visitors, they want to build a UFO landing strip to welcome them. A bright green sign along a lonely country road in southwestern Puerto Rico proudly displays a silhouette of a flying saucer and two words: "Extraterrestrial Route." Most Puerto Ricans laughed when a horse farmer installed the sign on his property at the request of Reynaldo Rios, a local elementary school teacher who says he's been communicating with alien visitors to this U.S. territory since he was a child. Rios, a 39-year-old...

JEREZ, Mexico - Andres Bermudez, a migrant who went from field hand to millionaire to mayor of this impoverished village, had grand plans to create jobs and improve his hometown. But now he's had enough of Mexican politics and can't wait to return to California. Bermudez, who completes one year in office Thursday, told The Associated Press he knew his job would be difficult. Still, he wasn't prepared to deal with the red tape and partisan mudslinging. "First, I left my hometown because I wanted a better life for my children," he said, referring to crossing into the United States...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fashion isn't as frivolous as it may seem in these troubled times, experts say. In fact, the gentle, comforting colors showing up in the newest collections may be just what we need. The colors in clothes for next spring, being paraded down the runways in nearly 200 fashion shows this week in New York, are soft and muted. Nothing is terribly bright, nor is anything terribly dark, note industry experts and insiders. "I think spring is trying to be cheerful in a low-key way," said David Wolfe, creative director of The Doneger Group, a fashion and...

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan - He has outlawed opera and ballet and railed against long hair and gold teeth, but now Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov is determined to wipe out another perceived scourge: lip synching. Niyazov has ordered a ban on lip synching performances across the tightly controlled Central Asian nation, citing "a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art," the president's office said Tuesday. "Unfortunately, one can see on television old voiceless singers lip-synching their old songs," Niyazov told a Cabinet meeting in comments broadcast on state TV on Tuesday. "Don't kill talents by using lip synching... Create...

LYNDEN, Wash. - Federal agents have shut down an elaborate, 360-foot drug-smuggling tunnel dug underneath the U.S.-Canadian border — the first such passageway discovered along the nation's northern edge, officials said Thursday. Five people were arrested on marijuana trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney John McKay said in this border town about 90 miles north of Seattle. The tunnel ran from a quonset hut on the Canadian side and ended under the living room of a home on the U.S. side, 300 feet from the border. Built with lumber, concrete and metal reinforcing bars, it was equipped with lights and ventilation, and...

LONDON - Mark McGowan went into the tiny backroom kitchen of a south London gallery three weeks ago and flipped on the cold water. He didn't turn it off, and doesn't plan to for an entire year. "The Running Tap," as it's called, is McGowan's effort to protest against wasted water in London by blatantly letting it go down the drain. "When you've got the tap on at home, you don't think about it. That's why this is art, because it makes people consider it," the environmentalist said. The gushing faucet is an expensive exhibition that could waste about 3.9...

On his deathbed, Pope Gregory VII (1020-1085) is reported to have said, "I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile." Gregory's words might just as well be attributed to his fellow countryman Oriana Fallaci. Wanted for a speech crime in her native Italy, Europe's most celebrated journalist now passes her days in exile in an upper Manhattan townhouse. In May, Fallaci was indicted under a provision of the Italian penal code that criminalizes the "vilification of any religion admitted by the state." Specifically it is charged that her latest book The Force of Reason (due out...

CHICAGO - City Hall is shaking from a series of corruption scandals, and Mayor Richard Daley's approval ratings are at historic lows. Add to that a possible mayoral hopeful — congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. — who won't let those scandals die, and the city that has been ruled by a Daley for 37 of the past 50 years has the potential for picking another name come 2007. So Daley has brought out the ax at City Hall, forcing out four department heads and accepting the retirement of a fifth connected to the scandals in the last six weeks. Political strategists...

One of my worst passions is irritation and one of my worst irritations is church billboard slogans. I don’t know why these things bother me so much, but they do. Between the Piggly Wiggly grocery store on the Maybank Highway, some ten miles north of here, and the Rockville, S.C., “yacht club” the same distance south, there are about twenty-five churches. Most, I suspect, have been incorporated to avoid land taxes; you almost never see a car parked out front, not even on Sunday mornings. Some of them, though, are thriving congregations whose parking lots are crammed full half the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Islamic leaders and peace groups are criticizing the California National Guard for a flier posted in its headquarters suggesting the United States execute Islamic terrorists with bullets dipped in pig's blood to deny them entry to heaven. The flier attributed the practice to World War I General John J. Pershing. "Maybe it is time for this segment of history to repeat itself, maybe in Iraq?" the flier stated. It was posted outside a cubicle in the Guard's Civil Support Division. A second flier showed the wings and tail of a bomber forming a peace sign with the...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - When it comes to smuggling animals across the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Wildlife Inspector Ed Marshall has seen it all. Exotic birds given Valium or tequila so they stay quiet through Customs inspections. Sleeves moving with hidden reptiles. Wildcats stashed in trunks. Last week, the Border Patrol seized two white tigers on their way to Mexico. And in 2001, an African elephant was smuggled across the Gateway International Bridge on a truck. "They call it the 'Dumbo Case,'" Marshall said, shaking his head. The contraband is part of a global trade in endangered wildlife estimated by the U.S....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp. will begin selling skateboards and bikes bearing the fast-food company's brand in a new effort to get kids to burn off burgers and fries with exercise. The McKids branded outdoor play equipment will be rolled out internationally later this year and in 2006. A few McKids items are already sold at retailers like Amazon.com Inc and Target Corp. McDonald's Global Chief Marketing Officer Larry Light said in a statement earlier this week that the skateboards and bikes will be a great value and are "designed to help make fitness fun." McDonald's, the world's largest...