Free Republic

A Cook County jury has delivered the biggest verdict ever in a "popcorn lung" case: $30.4 million. Factory worker Gerardo Solis, 45, of South Elgin, won the award after alleging his lung disease was caused by exposure to diacetyl, a chemical used in the making of butter-flavored microwave popcorn and other foods. It has been linked to health problems by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. » Click to enlarge image Gerardo Solis Solis has bronchiolitis obliterans, which makes it difficult to breathe. He is awaiting a lung transplant, said his lawyer, Ken McClain. Last month's verdict is against BASF...

Harrisburg, PA (LifeNews.com) -- In a ruling involving a mentally disabled man whose legal guardians sought the power to end his medical care, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has determined that state law requires life-preserving treatment for people who are not near death and have not refused treatment. The Alliance Defense Fund and allied pro-life attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 53-year-old David Hockenberry, who has had acute mental disabilities since birth, arguing that his legal guardians should not be allowed to deny him life-preserving treatment while he is not terminal or unconscious.Hockenberry’s guardians unsuccessfully attempted to deny him...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York believes the fierce opposition is closely linked to the U.S. elections in November, according to comments published Monday. "There is no doubt that the election season has had a major impact upon the nature of the discourse," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was quoted by the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National in an interview as part of his State Department-funded trip in the Gulf. Rauf did not cite any particular political race possibly tied to the protests, but...

Welcome to the newly designed AmericanMajority.org. Please take advantage of our free resources, including podcasts, guides, and presentations. We hope you will sign up for email alerts under our Join tab so that we can include you in upcoming trainings and announcements. Thank you for all you do.What if you owned a small business? What if you owned a small business and your customers came to your store or office? What if you owned a small business where your customers came to your store or office, and parked in your parking lot? What if you owned a small business where...

Here is another great joke (I sort of use the word loosely here...you'll see why) that was sent to me via email thats too good to not share: One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut. After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied,'I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The florist was pleased and left the shop. When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door. Later, a...

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid desperately seeks a way to force a cap-and-trade energy bill through the Senate, folks in 10 northeastern states are getting a bitter taste of what such a program really means. In the case of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that includes New Jersey New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware and Maryland, greed and secrecy appear to be the most dominant considerations. RGGI describes itself on its web site as “the first mandatory, market-based effort in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states...

A report by the LA Times sparked a protest at last night’s council meeting when it was learned that the Bell, California city manager makes nearly $800,000 dollars annually. That’s not all, the police chief of the 38,000 resident Town makes over $450,000 per year and each city council member rakes in $100,000 for their part time gig. Good work if you can get it. Bell is a mostly Hispanic town of just under 40,000 people about 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles. At the City Council meeting last night it was like the final scene of Frankenstein, pitchforks and...

Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, who spent six years as a rebel hostage before being rescued, has sued the Andean nation over her kidnapping, sparking outrage from the government that freed her. The suit seeks $6.8 million (4.5 million pounds) in damages from the state for emotional stress and loss of earnings while she was being held in secret jungle camps by Marxist guerrillas.

California’s state legislature approved a $20 million settlement for kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard Thursday, The Sacramento Bee reported. Dugard was kidnapped as an 11-year-old near her home in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., in 1991 and held captive for 18 years by Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy. She was kept in a secret backyard prison and bore two of Garrido’s children before being discovered in August 2009. Dugard, now 29, and her family filed claims against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in February alleging it failed to monitor Garrido, a convicted sex offender.

Afghanistan just got its worst news since the Soviet invasion three decades ago: American geologists have charted as much as a trillion dollars' worth of mineral deposits in that tormented landscape. Up to now, Afghanistan's internal factions and neighbors have been fighting over worthless dirt, Allah and opium. Assigning the battlefield a trillion-dollar value is not a prescription for reconciliation. Expect "The Beverly Hillbillies" scripted by Satan. Even were Afghanistan at peace, its endemic corruption would generate a grabocracy -- a Nigeria, not a Norway. Throw in inherited hatreds and the appetites of its neighbors, and Afghanistan may end up...

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott says Texas has turned down an invitation to leave the Big 12 and join his conference.

The Duchess of York has held secret talks with Princess Diana's lawyers about renegotiating her 'paltry' divorce settlement with Prince Andrew. Sarah Ferguson consulted Anthony Julius at Mishcon de Reya, who famously negotiated a £17million pay off for Princess Diana when she divorced Prince Charles. The figure is in stark contrast to the £15,000 a year which the duchess receives from Prince Andrew after their marriage ended after ten years in 1996.

Senator Reid says that greed is to blame for the 11 deaths and massive oil spill in the gulf. (see video) I just find it funny (and sad) that this is said just a day after Obama demanded that the finger pointing needed to stop. I guess that did not include them.

Gov. Paterson has granted stunning pay raises of up to 29 percent to several key aides — even as he slaps furloughs on 100,000 state workers, and his lieutenant governor threatens layoffs. The shocking move by the lame-duck governor involves five members of his embattled press office, whose two top-ranking members abruptly resigned earlier this year amid what they privately called misleading statements made by the governor. The double-digit pay hikes, granted within the past 10 days, were first disclosed by Albany TV station CBS6 late yesterday -- just hours after public employee unions went to federal court seeking a...

Liberals have railed since time immemorial about “corporate greed.” If you grant for the sake of argument that something as impersonal as a corporation can feel the very human urge to acquire inordinate wealth, there is surely such a thing as “government greed.” [...] Nowhere has liberalism gone further than in San Francisco. And few, if any, other cities can boast such a well-heeled work force. Is this what “spreading the wealth” is all about? We have seen the future and it works — for certain people. Take San Francisco municipal workers. The San Francisco Chronicle recently detailed just how...

In defending his administration's efforts at putative financial reform, President Obama suggested a ceiling, perhaps government-imposed, for Wall Street executives. Although he did not begrudge them income that is "fairly earned," he added ominously, "I do think that at a certain point, you've made enough money." The president may be projecting guilt from his own excellent adventures in greed. A surprising 2006 article for the American Century Foundation by liberal publisher Peter Osnos sheds useful light on this subject. As Osnos relates, a 1990 New York Times profile on The Harvard Law Review's first black president caught the eye of...

The public employee unions do not realize the forces they have unleashed with their greed. Openly boasting of their relationship with Obama as they are protected from the recession as no other Americans, recipients of lavish benefits unthinkable in the private sector, they have stirred deep resentment among the American public, a phenomenon which can only grow as taxes rise. It has gotten to the point where even Saturday Night Live mocks the overpaid, underperforming public employee stereotype. To be sure there are dedicated, brave, and hard-working employees of government. But slackers don't get culled out, and instead are indulged...

WHEN Goldman Sachs went public in 1999 its prospectus began: “Our clients’ interests always come first. Our experience shows that if we serve our clients well, our own success will follow. Our assets are our people, capital and reputation. If any of these is ever diminished, the last is the most difficult to restore.” Only the most naive investor read that as a commitment to do-goodery rather than calculated self-interest. And only the most priggish today would argue that financial institutions are obliged to be fluffy. That nuance matters, now that Goldman is embroiled in a scandal about mortgage securities...

JULY 17--If you're looking to book Al Gore for a 75-minute "Environmental Multimedia Lecture," the former vice president will cost you $100,000, plus travel, hotel, security, and per diem expenses. Gore's standard speaker's contract, a copy of which you'll find below, also stipulates that the Democrat's ground transportation be "a sedan, NOT an SUV." Additionally, Gore requests that speech sponsors make every effort to use a hybrid vehicle for his transport. The Gore contract, which is more restrained than the one used by Rudolph Giuliani, stipulates that no press be permitted at the event and that the Democrat receive approval...

These aren’t your grandfather’s financial markets anymore. They’re far from "free," and have been so for quite some time. That's not sour grapes as much as an honest assessment. It’s now crystallized that our financial fate was deemed a matter of national security during the first phase of the crisis -- perhaps for good reason. We were thisclose to the abyss and most folks can’t fathom the other side of that trade. I'm reminded of what I said in December 2007, however, with regard to what worried me most. "We're trading at all-time highs in the DJIA, but nobody really...