Free Republic

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine topped 1,000 COVID-19 deaths as the Delta variant continues to fill the state’s hospital beds, and Gov. Janet Mills used the “grim and unwelcome milestone” to press Tuesday for residents to get vaccinated. An additional 18 deaths recorded in the state since Saturday pushed the total to 1,002 since the pandemic began nearly 19 months ago, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Behind the numbers are “parents, grandparents, siblings, children, loved ones and friends, all valued members of our Maine community,” Mills said.

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Nov. 18, 2005) -- After a worried college student found his mother was in harm's way during a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, he contemplates the situation he chose to ignore and focuses his thoughts on joining the Marine Corps. Pvt. Phillip M. Oesterblad, Platoon 2130, Company E, grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and never had any thoughts of joining the military while in high school. After attending college in Alaska and Arizona, he realized that he did not know enough about America's role in the situation in Iraq. "While I was in...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A week after announcing his resignation, embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley quietly named a Sacramento area attorney to a four-year term on the state board that regulates California's political campaigns. Shelley appointed A. Eugene Huguenin, a former staff lawyer for the California Teachers Association, to succeed Thomas Knox on the Fair Political Practices Commission. Knox's term expired Jan. 31. Shelley, facing allegations that he mishandled federal election funds, accepted tainted campaign contributions and sexually harassed employees, announced Feb. 4 that he would leave office March 1. According to news reports, the FPPC is one of the...

SACRAMENTO — Faced with the possibility that he could lose his office, Gov. Gray Davis has rushed to fill vacancies that have languished for months and even years, giving seats on boards and commissions to large campaign donors and positioning members of his inner circle for prestigious judgeships. In recent months Davis has made 359 selections for posts ranging from positions on the UC Board of Regents and the California Parks and Recreation Commission to those on less visible boards dealing with police officer training and workplace regulation. Judicial nominations have also shot up. In the last 10 weeks, Davis...