Free Republic

<p>A man and woman are in custody for allegedly beating a 59-year female crossing guard and stealing her stop sign and whistle in front of nearly two dozen school children and adults Monday afternoon in the Florence-Firestone area.</p> <p>Sheriff's investigators said the two suspects drove up to the intersection in a black Ford Expedition at about 2 p.m. and began to turn east on Firestone Boulevard from northbound Hooper Avenue. The crossing guard raised her stop sign higher in the air and told the suspects, "You have to stop, the children come first."</p>

Describing his 1976 challenge to incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan wrote, "It was time to scale back the size of the federal government, reduce taxes and government intrusion in our lives, balance the budget, and return to the people the freedoms usurped from them by the bureaucrats." Reagan helped define the mission of the Republican Party. By re-establishing limited government as the central principle of the GOP, he laid the groundwork for the political revolution that bears his name. Almost 30 years later, the Republican Party is at a similar defining moment. Once again, challengers to certain Republican...