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Alongside U.S. 59, several miles north of the Loop, sits the appropriately named 59 Gun Range. Run-down homes, vacant lots and a fireworks emporium line its block. Immediately adjacent is Pancho's Mobile Homes, a makeshift sales lot marked by a hand-painted sign, where dented trailers teeter on cinder blocks like derailed train cars. In the smoky gun shop, which forms the lobby of the range, a wispy teenager with long, oily hair and a dimwitted but lively gaze drawls about the thrills of gun recoil. His sidekick affirms with a crooked smile. At one of the shadowy shooting lanes, Marie...

COLUMBUS, OHIO - A man opened fire in an Ohio nightclub Wednesday night, killing a heavy metal guitarist and three others before a police officer shot him to death. The unidentified man climbed onto the stage at the Alrosa Villa just as the band Damageplan was opening its show, firing several shots at guitarist Dimebag Darrel Abbott. Abbott was killed, witnesses said. The gunman also killed a club bouncer and two other people before a police officer arriving at the scene shot and killed him. Two other people were wounded as the man fired into the crowd before police arrived....

During halftime of the Dallas vs. Seattle game tonight on ABC's Monday Night Football there was an interview of Tiger Woods to promote his upcoming Target World Challenge golf tournament also broadcast on ABC this coming weekend.

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Here are some .jpg scans that Korean War and Vietnam War Vets & their families can save and use....

As a private citizen, the Senate candidate joined a club accused of discrimination to spur change, he says. TALLAHASSEE - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez spent about five years in the 1990s as a member of an exclusive country club that was criticized for discriminating against women, blacks and Jews. Martinez said he quit the Country Club of Orlando before he ran for Orange County chairman in 1998 because the club was too slow to admit minorities. His membership would have been a major liability in a political campaign in which he pledged to be an inclusive leader. "I...

Rapper Combs settles with club shooting witness Sean "P Diddy" Combs has settled a £1.7 million lawsuit filed by his former driver, who said he suffered emotional damage after a nightclub shooting four years ago. US Supreme Court Justice Harold Beeler announced the settlement and dismissed the Manhattan jury which had been hearing the lawsuit filed by Wardell "Woody" Fenderson. Lawyers for both sides, having agreed to keep the settlement terms secret, refused to disclose details. They would say only that "the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties". Fenderson's lawsuit arose after three people were wounded...

During 14 years in the Michigan Legislature and 11 years in Congress, Rep. Nick Smith had never experienced anything like it. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, in the wee hours last Saturday morning, pressed him to vote for the Medicare bill. But Smith refused. Then things got personal. Smith, self term-limited, is leaving Congress. His lawyer son Brad is one of five Republicans seeking to replace him from a GOP district in Michigan's southern tier. On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island -- Six months after a nightclub fire that killed 100 people, the U.S. federal agency that regulates workplace safety has fined the club's owners and the band Great White more than $90,000 US. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Derco LLC, which operated The Station club, $85,200 for one "wilful" violation and six serious ones. OSHA said the wilful violation was the installation of an exit door that swung the wrong way. The others involved the use of highly flammable foam in the club, inadequate safety planning and an exit door that was concealed by foam,...

SEATTLE - A small trip of land in the back of a Lake City strip club ignited a firestorm of controversy. A couple of months ago, the Seattle City Council approved rezoning the land so Rick's Nightclub could add eight parking spaces. But on Monday, in a rare move, the council rescinded its own vote and took back the rezoning in what has become one of the most embarrassing controversies at City Hall. "The integrity and reputation of this council has been called into question," said Peter Steinbrueck, Seattle City Council. It turns out that three council members - Judy...

DANBURY — For several area shooters, the chance to make the National Olympic Developmental Team begins Saturday at the National Junior Olympic Trap and Skeet Shooting Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo. In all, nine shooters from the Brazoria County 4-H shooting sports club will compete alongside 46 to 48 other participants for a chance to make the team. Competing for the Brazoria County team are Kelsey Williams, 15, Lauren Kulcak, 19, Jennifer Smith, 18, Jimmy Tillman, 15, Cory Williams, 17, Vincent Griffing, 16, Logan Kulcak, 16, Chris Minter, 17, and Calvin Smiley, 14. “We probably have the highest number of...

A federal judge ordered Boyd County High School yesterday to let a student gay-rights group meet and use school facilities. Kaye King, a Boyd County High teacher and the adviser of the gay-straight alliance, was one of the suit's plaintiffs. A federal judge ruled that the group has a right to meet. Boyd County superintendent Bill Capehart and the other defendants in the gay-straight alliance's case have been asked to respond to the judge's ruling within 20 days. In a 47-page ruling, U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning found that the gay-straight alliance at the high school has ''a strong...

ICONOCLAST DAILY NOTEBOOK.... Adios, U.N! Time to go.... March 12, 2003: Elsewhere on this site today, our resident genius and geopolitical pundit, William Grim, suggests it's time for the United States to leave the United Nations. We heartily concur, and suggest the very same course of action for Canada and other Western democracies (not that this course of action is even going to be considered by UN-obsessed Canada or continental Europe). Of course, for most North Americans, the United Nations is akin to motherhood and apple pie. So what if its haughty bureaucrats draw $150,000 US salaries and dine on...

R.I. Club's Wall Covering Went Unreported Mon Mar 3, 9:16 PM ET By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press Writer WEST WARWICK, R.I. - Inspectors never reported seeing the highly flammable and possibly illegal foam covering the walls of a nightclub where 98 people were killed in a fast-moving fire last month, according to documents released Monday that raise the possibility the inspections were botched. The documents — more than 60 pages covering three years of inspections at The Station by town building and fire officials — do not mention the egg-crate packaging material employees say was installed as soundproofing in 2000....

Band Arrives to Testify on R.I. Club Fire PROVIDENCE, R.I. Feb. 26 — Grief-stricken friends and relatives gathered Wednesday to say goodbye to loved ones who perished in the Station nightclub, while members of the rock band Great White arrived to testify before a grand jury. About 500 people went to a West Warwick funeral Mass for Carlos L. Pimental, 38, but the priest said that relatives asked that the media not report any details of the service. A grand jury was to begin hearing testimony Wednesday into the blaze that killed 97 people at the West Warwick club last...

Here is a quote from the above URL: Owners of the Rhode Island nightclub where a fast-moving fire killed at least 86 people said they did not authorize the band's use of pyrotechnics, which ignited the blaze. A statement released by the attorney for brothers Michael and Jeffrey Derderian read: "At no time did either owner have prior knowledge that pyrotechnics were going to be used by the band Great White." Now check this out from the Providence Journal, the newspaper in the capital city of Rhode Island: Some new faces at Channel 12. News director Gary Brown announced the...

Four years after masked sheriff's deputies exposed Broward County's salacious swinging subculture to a national audience, the men and women in the clubs are suing the raiders of the private clubs. ''They were subject to numerous newspaper articles. They were subject to notoriety that they didn't bring to themselves,'' said Daniel Aaronson, part of a legal team representing two couples arrested in the raids. ``They believe they were wrongly arrested and their lives were put in disarray for no reason.'' Lawyers have filed a total of five lawsuits, on behalf of 10 people, against the Broward Sheriff's Office or individual...

Conservative Book Discussion Group starting in New York City (Manhattan). Advertising in National Review. If interested, please contact Ray Agostini at r.agostini@att.net, or call (212) 627-8633.

Voluntary Alternatives to Taxation Stuart K. Hayashi Most Americans believe paying taxes is a patriotic duty. Yet this very nation was founded upon people evading taxes in 1776. When individuals don’t pay taxes, the government goes after them with guns, even though they haven’t used force on anyone else. Thus, taxation is an initiation of physical force against the individual’s right to life, liberty and property. Because taxation is forcible extortion, it violates your right to property. If you don’t pay taxes, you can be jailed, hence depriving you the right to liberty. And if tax “evaders” fight tax...

the jaws of a skunk Wednesday night was forced to kill the wild animal in the effort. Police began receiving phone calls concerning a “menacing skunk” in a neighborhood directly behind Greeley Park shortly after 6 p.m.After responding to the home of Ann Kimball at 21 Tufts Drive, police Sgt. Peter Bouchard said he found an adult-size skunk attached to the hind leg of an elderly golden retriever in the woman’s yard.“She said the skunk attacked the dog as soon as she let it out to go to the bathroom and she had been trying to beat the skunk off...