Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Demand for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged in August by the largest amount in seven months, with widespread weakness signaling a slowdown in the nation's industrial sector. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that orders for durable goods, everything from commercial jetliners to home appliances, fell by 4.9 percent in August, the biggest decline since a 6.1 percent fall in January. It was far larger than the 3.5 percent drop that economists had been expecting and resulted from across-the-board decreases in a number of categories. The concern is that the steep downturn in housing and turbulence in financial markets...

NASHVILLE - Tennessee has executed only one death row inmate since the Supreme Court decided to allow states to reinstate the death penalty in 1976. But that could change Wednesday with inmates Paul Dennis Reid and Sedley Alley scheduled to be executed by lethal injection within hours of each other. With appeals pending, it still is possible that both men could get a stay, but correction officials are getting ready for a double-execution just in case. "We're going forward as if both executions will happen that day," said Correction Department spokeswoman Dorinda Carter. Even though the death penalty remains politically...

84 in Gitmo hunger strike From: Reuters From correspondents in Washington DC December 30, 2005 THE number of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a nearly five-month-long hunger strike has surged to 84 since Christmas Day, the US military said today. Forty-six detainees at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, joined the protest on the key Christian holiday last Sunday, said Army Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman. Australian detainee David Hicks is not believed to be part of the hunger strike. The prisoner population, which the Pentagon says numbers...