Free Republic

During a raucous meeting that stretched nearly six hours last week, the Berkeley City Council unanimously voted to adopt an ordinance that would effectively end single-family zoning in most of the city. The measure legalizes “middle housing” — duplexes, townhomes, courtyard apartments and other small multifamily dwellings — in areas previously limited to single-family homes. While the move was celebrated by some housing advocates as an overdue step toward equity, it drew hours of divided public comments. Keep Watching 5 Watch More The ordinance sets a density cap of 70 units per acre across residential zones, preserves current height limits...

ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- A St. Cloud man, and self-proclaimed John McCain hater, was arrested Wednesday for putting bags of dog poop in the bed of a pickup truck with McCain-Palin stickers. SNIP The owner of the truck said he put McCain-Palin campaign stickers on his truck about two weeks ago. Shortly after, he started finding small bags of dog poop in the back of the truck. Wednesday morning, the owner’s mother saw a neighbor putting bags of poop in the truck and called police. David Vandelinden, 45, of St. Cloud was identified as the suspect, and admitted to placing...

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely."

Members of the Stop CAFTA Coalition denounced the approval of the US-Dominican Republic Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) which passed by a vote of 217 to 215 in the House of Representatives early Thursday morning. "This is a tragedy for people in the United States, and even more so for the people of Central America and the Dominican Republic," said Tom Ricker of the Quixote Center. "For three years, we have worked with our brothers and sisters in the region to build a broad-based cross-border movement against this agreement, only to see the Bush Administration and the Republican leadership...

US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice did not have the compassion needed to be secretary of state, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said. Senator Brown criticised Dr Rice, who has been nominated by US President George W Bush to take over from outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell. "Condoleezza Rice is not a warm human being," Senator Brown told reporters. "She's George W Bush's echo. "But she's lacking the compassion we need to see in the office of secretary of state for the most powerful nation on the planet." Senator Brown said there was a ruthlessness about Dr Rice...

Rising Democratic star” Markos “Screw Them” Zuniga sponsored 15 Democratic candidates for Congress, raising a total of more than half a million dollars for their campaigns from his gullible followers. And every single one of those candidates lost. Good call, Kos!

A reader of this column e-mailed an interesting question a few months ago: "We hear all about Richard Mellon Scaife," he wrote, "but we never hear about who funds the left. Who's bankrolling the vast left-wing conspiracy?" It's an interesting question, and you'll probably be surprised at the answer. The oddest source of the left's money comes from the rich. The really rich. The Washington Times recently reported that the richest 1 percent of Americans give disproportionately more to Democrats than to Republicans. Republicans, on the other hand, get more money from the richest fifth of income earners. That makes...

I was watching a little of FNC this evening, and there was a segment on a homeless man, protesting against a city government (I didn't catch the name), demanding that the city build a campground for homeless people. He was up in a tree, and would not come down from the platform he had built. It dawned on me that liberals will expend more time, energy, and resources, asking for a handout, than they would to go out and get a job.