Free Republic

A father and son are under arrest on suspicion of starting the Caldor Fire, which decimated over 220,000 acres of land in Northern California and burned for over two months. The fire caused widespread evacuations, which included the city of South Lake Tahoe, and destroyed 1,003 structures. According to a statement from the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office posted on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, David Scott Smith, 66, and Travis Shane Smith, 32, were arrested Wednesday for their alleged connection to the fire. The two men are accused of "reckless arson" in connection with the fire, but officials did...

MONTEBELLO, Quebec – Leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico have begun their discussions of the Security and Prosperity Partnership behind closed doors here at the five-star Fairmont Le Chateau resort in Montebello, Quebec. President Bush arrived at mid-afternoon yesterday, with the presidential helicopter landing on the club's golf course, as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was waiting to greet him. As the two met, Harper commented that Bush appeared to travel with his own security army of Secret Service. Mexico's President Felipe Calderon arrived later, and could be the first to depart as forecasters estimated Hurricane Dean is...

MEXICO CITY - Electoral officials said Tuesday that they will burn the ballots from the disputed presidential election despite calls from both candidates to spare them. Luis Carlos Ugalde, chairman of the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, said in a letter to President-elect Felipe Calderon that a 1990 law clearly called for the burning of the ballots from the July 2 election. "The IFE is obliged to destroy electoral documentation once the electoral process is concluded," Ugalde wrote. No date was set for the burning. Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had asked that the ballots be saved, claiming fraud...