Free Republic

In the spice of life that makes up Wayne Township, Mitch Hazelbaker's family has been among the salt of the earth. He and his wife Shaleen live on part of the 120-acre homestead that has been in the Hazelbaker family since 1836. "My grandfather started farming it with his dad when he came here," he said. During the Depression in the 1930s, when times were hard, both Walter and his wife Velma Hazelbaker worked at Guide Lamp in Anderson to make ends meet. "It was real hard conditions," Mitch said. "He'd work during the day in that paint environment, then...

A high ranking Kremlin official emphasized Wednesday, "Iran's right to take advantage of nuclear power for peaceful purposes must be internationally recognized," the official Iranian news agency reported today. Speaking to his country's official Itar-Tass news agency, the Russian official who spoke on condition of anonymity added, "Russia believes it is appropriate for the international community to recognize Iran's right to continue its nuclear programs, since that would solve the current crisis and save unnecessary problems." Meantime, IRNA reported that: senior Iranian officials warned the European Union Wednesday to stop pressuring the Islamic republic to limit its nuclear activities and...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Federal guidelines released Thursday for protecting seasonal wetlands favor development over species protection in a handful of fast-growing California counties. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that protecting all areas containing the so-called vernal pools would be too costly to the state's economy. The agency's revised guidelines are the latest version of a federal critical habitat plan that an environmental group has successfully challenged in court. They could lead to additional housing developments in a state where the median home price is about $450,000, 2 1/2 times the national median. The wildlife agency says it...

Out in the undulating green farmland of Westmoreland County, Route 819 and Forbes Trail Road form a lonely crossroads in Hempfield. This rural junction is watched over by a few faded barns, and is easily missed in a blink through the windshields of speeding motorists. But if developers have their way, this piece of great wide open space soon will be the seed of a new community, the main street of a 700-acre "traditional neighborhood development" called Northpointe. The intersecting streets would be lined with up to one million square feet of retail stores, galleries, office space and restaurants topped...

WE'RE rich because they're poor. No proposition is more central to the left-wing view of the world than the idea that the rich West survives in its comfort because it exploits the poor in the Third World. A variation on this lies at the heart even of much Islamist terrorist ideology. The utterly ridiculous Peter Singer even wrote a book purporting to work out how many dollars the rich world should pay to the poor to make it rich too.

AMONG THE MANY unresolved issues of the former Iraqi regime's support for terrorism, few are more potentially important than the activities throughout the mid to late 1990s of Iraqi military officials and chemical weapons specialists in Sudan. The Clinton Administration, along with a host of Sudanese opposition groups and nonproliferation experts, alleged that Iraqi chemical weapons experts were advising Sudanese military and intelligence officials on the development and production of chemical weapons. This is significant for two reasons, one obvious and one less obvious. First, any Iraqi activity on chemical weapons development inside or outside of Iraq would have constituted...

June 29, 2005 U.S. Private International Giving to Developing World Exceeds $62 Billion Hudson study shows American generosity to poor nations over 3 1/2 times U.S. Government aid by Carol Adelman Hudson Institute released new private international giving numbers today in a white paper, "America's Total Economic Engagement with the Developing World," by Dr. Carol Adelman, Mr. Jeremiah Norris and Ms. Jeanne Weicher. Updating their research on American generosity, the authors found at least $62.1 billion in U.S. private donations to developing countries in 2003, the last year numbers are available. This philanthropy, from U.S. foundations, corporations, non-profits and volunteerism,...

Green TheologyAustin Ruse, President of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, the only Catholic lobbying group at the United Nations in New York, reports that there are a number of troubling groups circling around the UN. One such group is fairly new and as yet little-reported movement called the United Religious Initiative (URI), now active in 58 countries and 33 states in the U.S. It has been described as "an exclusive, decentralized organization, a spiritual partner of the United Nations." URI positions support population control, environmental extremism, and are radical on sexual matters. A new document signed by URI's...

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) on March 17 signed into law Senate Bill 184, effectively preventing the exercise of eminent domain authority by redevelopment agencies, which otherwise had the power to transfer land from one private entity to another. Local governments may still use eminent domain for more traditionally defined and understood "public purposes." First State Legislature to Act Utah appears to be the first state to take legislative action to curb the use of eminent domain by local governments. The use of eminent domain by local governments has grown over the past 30 years as cities have taken...

text source: http://www.chosun.com/economy/news/200506/200506230067.htmlphoto source:http://photo.donga.com/usr/photopro/phnview.php?cgubun=&cpage=1&photo_idxno=35478 /begin my summaryS. Korea: WIG Ship, 'the Flying Ship'  [Seoul, Yonhap News]posted : 2005.06.23 05:41       the S. Korean WIG Ship to be developed S. Korean government plans to develop, by 2010, a (commercial) WIG ship. A WIG ship is a flying ship which is basically a airplane flying 1~5 m above the sea level. It is a cutting-edge high-speed ship. It exploits so-called 'Wing-In-Ground' effect, high lift power obtained when flying just above the water,  to stay afloat and fly in a high speed. They plan to use it as a next-generation cargo ship to reach neighboring countries or islands...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The population of the Sierra Nevada could more than triple in the next 35 years, threatening many of the mountain range's Gold Rush-era towns with sprawl, gridlock and pollution, according to a report released Tuesday. Much of the 400-mile-long range is designated as national forest, park land or wilderness. It also holds plenty of private land where development could change the face and feel of the mountains, warns the Sierra Nevada Alliance, a 12-year-old coalition of more than 60 environmental organizations. About 600,000 people live in the 20 California and three Nevada counties that divide the...

China's big-plane dream fraught with difficulties Sun Jun 19, 1:19 AM ETBEIJING (AFP) - China's ambition of building a large passenger jet by 2020 could be fraught with difficulties, not least competition from global giants Airbus and Boeing, experts said. Aviation officials said last week that China should act now to build a 150-200 seat 'trunk liner' to cater for booming domestic demand, as Boeing and Airbus were busy developing bigger planes. "If China does not roll out its own trunk liner by 2020, then the country will not succeed in 2030 or 2040. So it is really a rush,"...

Save Some Salamanders Wednesday, June 15, 2005: Lawrence, Kansas - CNAH - NEWS RELEASE The Center for North American Herpetology Lawrence, Kansas http://www.cnah.org 16 June 2005 SOS FIGHTS FOR A NEW SALAMANDERAustin environmentalists want federal officials to put the Tonkawa Springs Salamander on endangered list Modified from an article by Stephen Scheibal American-Statesman Staff 14 June 2005 An Austin environmental group has asked federal officials to add the Tonkawa Springs Salamander (Eurycea tonkawae) to the list of endangered species, potentially creating new development controversies along the Travis-Williamson county line. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the Endangered Species...

Has anyone heard about the CAO law that passed in King county? It says that 65% of your land must be undeveloped in rural King county. You still pay taxes on it, but you cannot build on it. I just don't understand how these libs push this stuff through without a public vote. I have been looking at houses, and it takes a quarter million to buy an average house, (not big, just average), so if I want to build a shop in the future, I will have to buy an acre of land just so there is enough grass....

Billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros has joined Washington entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky's bid to purchase the Washington Nationals, Ledecky said in an interview yesterday. "The Soros family shares my belief that the Washington Nationals are a community trust that can serve as a positive platform for the economic development of the inner city," Ledecky said. Soros spokesman Michael Vachon declined to comment. The Soros announcement is the latest in a flurry of activity in recent days as at least seven groups have filed initial bids for the Nationals with Major League Baseball, according to baseball sources. Several groups have added...

One of the most radical anti-growth, anti-housing, anti-road, anti-everything proposals possible is now winding its way through the California Assembly, being pushed ahead by environmental activists looking for the silver bullet to stop any project they don't like. AB 528 would "authorize any person with a beneficial interest in the outcome to commence a civil action to enforce specified laws, including regulations ... that provide for the protection or enhancement of public health or the environment." It is sponsored by Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, and co-sponsored by Assemblyman Mike Gordon, D-El Segundo. In simple terms, if you or any...

Tejon Ranch and its conservation partner, The Trust for Public Land, have figured out which 100,000 acres of the ranch's 270,000 acres will be carved out into a preserve. If the deal goes through, some of Tejon's majestic peaks and canyons in the Tehachapi Mountains could forever be saved from development. A step is being taken in that direction today, though an actual deal is much further away. The majority of the land is in the southeastern portion of the Tehachapis. There's also a swath next to Interstate 5 intended to connect the future preserve with the Wind Wolves Preserve...

Soaring property taxes are a top worry in state legislatures across the country, where lawmakers are trying to appease disgruntled homeowners and, in some cases, courts that are demanding change in the system so schools are more equitably funded. Some states are weighing plans to lower taxes. Others just want to keep them from rising too fast. Still others are aiming to substantially change the tax system and find another way to help pay for schools that closes the quality gap between wealthy and poor communities. "People are facing being taxed out of their homes," said Ted Harris, a 69-year-old...

Wolfowitz says economy is the key weapon in war on tyranny Fri May 20,12:33 AM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - Paul Wolfowitz, a US administration hawk and architect of the Iraq war set to become World Bank president, has said peaceful revolutions have been the most effective ways in ending tyrannies over the past three decades. In one of his final appearances as deputy defence secretary, Wolfowitz said economic and social pressures have been more successful than the use of arms since the ending of military dictatorships in Spain and Portugal in the 1970s. Wolfowitz, who will take over as World...

WEST POINT, Va. - With gasoline prices soaring, President Bush urged Congress on Monday to encourage development of alternate fuels like biodiesel and ethanol to make the United States less dependent on foreign oil. "Our dependence on foreign oil is like a foreign tax on the American dream, and that tax is growing every year," Bush said at the Virginia BioDiesel Refinery about 140 miles south of Washington. Bush flew here, about 30 miles from Richmond, to visit a production facility for biodiesel, an alternative fuel made from soybeans that is cleaner-burning and American-made, but carries a higher price tag...