Free Republic

WASHINGTON - President Bush, closing in on another nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, has completed his consultations with the Senate about who should fill the seat of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a White House spokesman said Friday. Bush was expected to announce his choice in the next few days. White House press secretary Scott McClellan ruled out an announcement Friday but otherwise indicated the nomination could come anytime. The president, leaving the White House Friday afternoon for a weekend at Camp David, offered reporters only a slight grin and a shrug when asked if he had made...

MIAMI - Federal prosecutors are seeking bank fraud charges against lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in investigations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, The Associated Press learned Thursday. The charges stem from the 2000 purchase by Abramoff and his partners of SunCruz Casinos and the alleged use of a fake wire transfer of $23 million aimed at influencing lenders to provide millions of dollars for the deal. Exact details of the charges were not immediately available. A grand jury, meeting in Miami, could hand up indictments against Abramoff as early as Thursday, federal law enforcement sources said. They spoke...

Official IDF sources predict that the withdrawal from Gaza will lead to Palestinian terrorism and violence worse than the previous intifadas, writes Yediot Acharonot's senior military correspondent. IDF sources predict that immediately after the disengagement, the ceasefire is expected to end with terrorist attacks in and from Judea and Samaria. Among the threats are mortar and Kassam rockets on Israel's new toll-way Highway 6, as well as other areas in the coastal plain and the Afula area. The "regular" ambush attacks on roads, as well as attacks on army bases and towns in Judea and Samaria, are also expected. The...

A new initiative seeks to provide housing for the hundreds of individuals and families who want to move to Gush Katif to strengthen veteran Jewish residents in the face of expulsion. In recent months the communities of Gush Katif have been inundated with requests by people who want to move there. This despite the fact that according to the expulsion/compensation legislation they would not be compensated for the destruction of their property if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan is implemented. While aides to Prime Minister Sharon have confided that the plan largely relies on inducing the willful evacuation by...

SAN FRANCISCO – Zach W. Hall, a veteran neuroscientist and associate dean of medical research at the University of Southern California's medical school, was recommended Monday to become interim president of California's new $3 billion stem cell research institute. The recommendation by a subcommittee was passed on to the full 29-member committee appointed to oversee the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was widely expected to approve it Tuesday during its monthly meeting at Stanford University is widely expected. Hall would take over the interim president slot from Robert N. Klein, who would remain as the committee's chairman. Hall, 67,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iraq (news - web sites) war that might have been President Bush (news - web sites)'s defining glory may instead turn out to be his Achilles heel -- or Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s complex inheritance. No matter who wins the White House, the next U.S. leader will be dogged by Iraq and its repercussions for years to come. "I think all the trends that we see in the insurgency are that it's not going to be defeated or perhaps not even contained in the coming one or two years regardless of...

N.J. to pay McGreevey legal bills More than $64,000 has been billed, and more is expected. Republicans blasted the expense. By Mitch Lipka Inquirer Trenton Bureau Posted on Sun, Sep. 19, 2004 TRENTON - More than $64,000 in legal bills racked up by Gov. McGreevey between March and June in a federal extortion case are being picked up by taxpayers, according to records released Friday. Additional bills are expected for work done on McGreevey's behalf in that matter, as well as another that led to his announced resignation in August. The governor's chief counsel hired former federal prosecutor William E....

SEATTLE – President Bush is coming to Western Washington on Friday. He is expected to get a lot of support during a fundraiser, but he will also get a lot of grief from protestors. A lot of energy is being generated by critics of the president, who is paying his first visit to Washington state since he became president. Environmentalists, peace activists and Democrats are gearing up for a mighty protest. Protests are planned for midday Friday in Bellevue and Seattle. State Democrats and the machinists and metal trades unions will rally at Bellevue's Crossroads Park. Then they plan to...

<p>Mother Ruby Muhammad had hoped to get her watermelons and summer annuals into her Sacramento County garden before a trip to Chicago. But there hadn't been enough time.</p> <p>And she'd like to write another poem.</p> <p>At 106, Mother Ruby is downright vivacious. She was sad for a friend who confided to her that she was just waiting for the Lord to take her to heaven.</p>

<p>Nearly four years ago, Gov. Gray Davis signed a little-noticed piece of legislation that allowed state agencies, cities and counties to boost the retirement benefits of their employees, particularly peace officers and firefighters.</p> <p>Now that law, debated for only a few minutes in the frenetic closing days of the 1999 legislative session, has come back to haunt California. Those greatly improved retirement benefits -- and a stock market in the tank -- are about to devour billions of dollars that could otherwise be used for education, police and fire protection and road improvements.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - More bad news is expected to roll out of the governor's office about noon on Wednesday, as the administration releases its revised budget proposal.</p> <p>Insisting most of the big decisions were still being debated until a Friday deadline, Gov. Gray Davis declined late last week to share any details about the new spending plan. The only thing for certain, staff members say, is that a lot more money needs to be trimmed from the near-$100 billion state budget.</p>