Free Republic

This is what particulary disturbs me: "What if my children are at school during an emergency?In an emergency, your children may be sheltered in place or evacuated from school. If protective actions are being taken at your children's school, do not go to the school. School personnel are trained to handle emergencies. Do not call your child's school. You could tie up a phone line that is needed for emergency communications. For further information, listen to local emergency radio and TV stations to learn when and where you can pick up your children." (UNACCEPTABLE!)You can download a PDF file of...

Residents Warned Not To Use It For Drinking Or Bathing - Water May Be Contaminated BY JEANNE MILES, Staff Writer Thursday May 16, 2002 LYNDON VT - Lyndonville firefighters and members of the Lyndon Rescue squad went door to door last night warning people not to drink their water. Scott Townsend, operator of the Lyndonville water system, said Wednesday afternoon the water may be a potential risk to health because the system had been tampered with. "This is serious," Townsend said. "It is nothing to fool around with." The fire department and rescue squad finished alerting people around 8 p.m.,...

05/08/2002 11:17 AM EDT By JEANNINE AVERSA WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress needs to extend the government's authority to borrow or risk an unprecedented default on the national debt, something that would cast a cloud over U.S. securities, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill warned Wednesday. O'Neill made his latest pitch for swift congressional action on raising the debt ceiling in a speech to Republicans gathered at the Capitol Hill Club. He has repeatedly asked Congress to boost the debt ceiling by $750 billion, but the request has become stuck in a political fight over the budget. The limit now stands at $5.95...

ST. LOUIS -- The budget deficit is huge. Tax collection has been unexpectedly skimpy. And the treasury is all but tapped out. So the state of Missouri has stopped sending out income tax refunds. And there are no plans to put the checks in the mail any time soon. Here is the balance of the article

DALEY SUED APRIL 29, 2002 It's been a long road but Christopher K. Morley with your help and under the legal counsel of Mr. Walter Maksym has filed suit against the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. The objectives of the suit are: 1. To restore the rights of peaceful law-abiding citizens to both keep and BEAR arms. 2. To overturn the de facto handgun ban in Chicago and restore the people's right to be secure in their homes. DETAILS: Filed 2:34pm, April 29, 2002, Case Number: 02CH08462, Judge Aaron Jaffe, Rm. 2405, Cook County Circuit Court, Chancery...

Treasury Seeks Borrowing Authority Wed May 1, 1:05 PM ET By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer The United States will once again face an unprecedented default on the national debt — this time in mid-May_ unless Congress extends the government's authority to borrow, a request that has been mired in a political fight. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill dodged a default in April by moving federal retirement funds into a non-interest-bearing account, freeing room for more borrowing. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department (news - web sites) said the debt limit is expected to be hit in mid-May, earlier than the latter-June...

Osama 'makes nuclear bomb' By MICHAEL BEACH 28apr02 A SENIOR al-Qaida lieutenant has told American interrogators Osama bin Laden is close to making a crude nuclear bomb. He has also said terrorists are planning to attack US banks and shopping centres. Pakistani forces captured al-Qaida strategist Abu Zubaydah and seized his personal diary a month ago. After recovering from gunshot wounds to his leg, he has been undergoing interrogation by the CIA and slowly releasing information about al-Qaida activities. "Some of what he says is hard to confirm or deny, but other information is proving to have some accuracy," a...

April 24, 2002 By Liza Porteus , National Journal's Technology Daily White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge on Tuesday said the high-tech sector is making instrumental contributions to the Bush administration as it cultivates a national homeland security strategy. Homeland security efforts will depend on technologies such as biometrics, next-generation detection devices designed to find traces of chemical or biological agents, dashboard electronics to ensure efficient border crossing for trucks and other vehicles, simulation software, and advanced encryption-standard codes, Ridge said during a dinner speech at the Electronic Industries Alliance's annual conference. Such advances are "more proof that the...

Posted on Sun, Apr. 21, 2002 BY JENNIFER BABSON jbabson@herald.com BOCA CHICA KEY - They worry about allergies and immune system difficulties and ailments yet to be diagnosed. A few bolted for points north; others shuttered windows and stayed inside. Word that the U.S. Army was conducting biological and chemical detection tests off Key West last week -- using a crop duster to spray what it says are benign substances over a small swath of the Gulf -- set alarm bells ringing for some on this island chain. ''Monday I had my house closed up all day and the air...

The furor last month following the issuance of student visas to suicide hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi is wholly misplaced. As was the furor last October over the proposal by software magnate Larry Ellison that the United States begin issuing national identification cards. As at least Ellison should know, visas, passports and ID cards are wholly unnecessary. You are an identification card. A living, breathing one that is exponentially harder to forge than a laminated card, an application form or a pocket-size brochure of any kind. Matching the geometry of a hand is successful 999 times out of 1,000....

April 22, 2002 Developing Short And Long Term Antiterrorist Approach Networked sensors to detect the movement of hostile forces and materials -- and longer-term approaches for changing the environment in which terrorism breeds -- are being developed at Sandia National Laboratories. Long-term fixes also include new ideas for monitoring borders, materials and agents. In the near term, dozens of Sandia researchers over the next few months will develop sensor systems that identify and track large objects such as missile launchers in a desert environment. The ultimate intent over the next few years is to link hundreds of sensors that will...

We have been beating the war drum on Iraq since last November. That is 6 months What I don't understand is that there have been reports of Iraqi cells in this country and the reports that Iraq has not forgotten the Persian Gulf War and desires to see millions of Americans destroyed. Why is it then that we have been openly saying that he is next (Iraq), thus giving "him" time to organize a terrorist strike against us? I don't believe this makes sense whatsoever. Franklin

Drought Approaching National Disaster Here is a collection of a handful of articles...If the drought situation does not improve, it is becoming painfully obvious according to these reports that Disaster & Emergency level measures will be taken by summer. Here are the article links with a short description of each article: U.S. East Coast suffering 'most severe drought on record' HANCOCK, N.Y. - U.S. trout fishermen converged on East Coast mountain streams for the new season last week only to discover a drought that water authorities fear could become a national disaster this summer.Article Link Drought forces water cuts in...

U.S. Moves to Dodge Debt Default Tue Apr 2, 4:26 PM ET By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill on Tuesday put into motion a plan to avert an unprecedented default on the national debt, two weeks after a deadlocked Congress avoided an election-year vote on extending the government's authority to borrow... To dodge a default for now, O'Neill was moving federal retirement funds into a non-interest-bearing account, freeing room for more borrowing... [Original Story, see source above or click here Has anyone heard any follow up to this? I was told that there is...

ROME, March 27 — The United States warned its citizens Wednesday that they could be targeted by extremist groups in four Italian cities on Easter Sunday, March 31. THE U.S. EMBASSY in Italy said the cities at risk were Venice, Florence, Milan and Verona. THE U.S. EMBASSY in Italy said the cities at risk were Venice, Florence, Milan and Verona. The embassy said in a statement that the U.S. government had received “credible reports” that extremists were planning “terrorist actions.” “These (extremist) groups do not distinguish between official and civilian targets,” the embassy said. Among possible targets mentioned were places...

<p>3/26/02 - Gilmore Opposes Extreme Anti-Terror Laws - Fox News - WASHINGTON — Cyber-policy guru and Congress' chief anti-terror cop said Tuesday he fully expects another terrorist attack on the homeland, but added he opposes knee-jerk security measures that do little real good while infringing greatly on civil liberties.</p>

Unbelievable! Download the bullet points of the Markey Nuclear Reactor Security Report...includes: The Report Indicates: 1.) The NRC does not know how many foreign nationals are employed at nuclear reactors... 2.) 21 US nuclear reactors are located within 5 miles of an airport, but 96% of all US reactors were designed without regard for the potential for impact from even a small aircraft 3.) Spent nuclear fuel in significant quantities exists at reactors all across the US and is stored in buildings that are not hardened structures, some of which reportedly have sheet metal roofs 4.) It took the NRC...

Terrorism Fears Push Md. Toward Wider Police Power Washington Post - Maryland's House of Delegates is preparing to pass anti-terrorism legislation today that would dramatically expand the ability of police to tap phones and eavesdrop on the e-mail and Internet activity of suspected criminals -- part of a deluge of terror-busting measures under consideration in nearly every state capital. The Maryland bill, like those in dozens of other states, has inspired a heated clash between civil libertarians and those who believe that some rights must be compromised to prevent another attack on U.S. soil. Each time that conflict surfaced last...

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge stood firm Sunday in his refusal to testify before Congress about the White House's anti-terrorism budget, saying his appearance would violate the constitution's separation of powers. Ridge said he will continue to meet informally with lawmakers, but he has no intention of testifying because he is an adviser to the president, not a Cabinet member obliged to appear on Capitol Hill. "I don't think you can compromise the principle of separation of powers," Ridge said on ABC's "This Week." "I do think that we should continue our discussions to determine whether or not...

Moscow utility Mosenergo is threatening to cut electricity to a scientific research center that has not paid its bill in more than three years. The problem for Mosenergo, and the research center's trump card, is that it stores strains of the most deadly diseases known to mankind. Located in Obolensk some 90 kilometers to the south of Moscow, the State Center for Applied Microbiology has not paid the utility since October 1998 and now owes 43.5 million rubles ($1.4 million), Mosenergo spokes-woman Yulia Shagelman said Thursday. But the center's head, Nikolai Urakov, said he cannot pay the energy bill because...