Free Republic

Federal judge punts, sends Democrats' suit to 3-judge panel Kazen critical of both sides in redistricting standoff By R.G. RATCLIFFE Aug. 27, 2003, 2:57PM LAREDO -- A federal judge told lawyers for runaway Democratic senators today that he believes their lawsuit seeking voting rights and free speech protections is all but totally frivolous, but he agreed to leave the final decision to a three-judge panel. U.S. District Judge George P. Kazen said he believes Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's push for mid-decade congressional redistricting is wrong and a waste of taxpayer money. However, Kazen also criticized the...

Dems get little salve from judge Frustrated Whitmire almost bolts for home By RACHEL GRAVES, ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA and R.G. RATCLIFFE Aug. 28, 2003, 12:06AM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- After getting little comfort from a judge they hoped would advance their cause, 11 Democrats boycotting the Texas Senate in a partisan standoff vowed Wednesday to stay away even as one of them acknowledged he had been on the verge of heading home. The senators took Sen. John Whitmire of Houston to task at a closed-door meeting Wednesday evening, after he expressed impatience with the continuing impasse and indicated his bags were packed...

Judges dampen Democrats' legal hopes Panel of 3 will hear voting rights lawsuit By R.G. RATCLIFFE Aug. 29, 2003, 12:53AM AUSTIN -- Democrats' hopes of winning court relief in their congressional redistricting battle dimmed further Thursday after a judicial panel of two Republicans and a Democrat was named to hear their voting rights lawsuit. U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King named fellow appellate Judge Patrick Higginbotham and U.S. District Judges George P. Kazen and Lee Rosenthal to the panel to hear the Democrats' case. Kazen, during a hearing Wednesday in Laredo, made clear to Democratic...

Senators not coming home anytime soon Denying reports of travel, fugitives say they fear arrest By ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA Aug. 30, 2003, 12:04AM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Texas Democrats holed up in Albuquerque for more than a month denied a report Friday that some of them were coming home, saying their opponents in a redistricting battle easily could maneuver to arrest them if they did. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and one of the 11 Democratic senators who fled Texas a month ago, said several senators have left Albuquerque for the Labor Day...

Demos resist desire to return home By Guillermo X. Garcia Express-News Austin Bureau Web Posted : 08/31/2003 12:00 AM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Thirty-five days after defiantly leaving the state, and five days after successfully killing a second special session on redistricting, the Texas 11 are no closer to home this holiday weekend. Although some of the AWOL Democratic state senators had hoped to spend the long weekend with friends and family back in Texas — one member even made tentative reservations to return to Houston — they remain holed up in a high-rise hotel here with no clear exit strategy....

Low on options, Senate Democrats realizing there's no easy way home By R.G. RATCLIFFE Aug. 31, 2003, 11:19PM AUSTIN -- The Albuquerque Democrats might as well learn the Ballad of the Alamo, because no reinforcements are coming and they're running out of ammunition. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, Democratic Caucus chair, completed the picture last week by drawing a figurative line in the sand to keep Sen. John Whitmire of Houston inside the senators' out-of-state fortress. "We work on consensus, no matter what you've heard," said Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston. "Even Travis and Bowie had a big...

Standoff may crumble Whitmire returns; Perry weighs 3rd special session By RACHEL GRAVES and ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA Sept. 2, 2003, 10:25PM State Sen. John Whitmire came home to Houston late Tuesday, possibly ending the long holdout by Texas Democratic senators who fled the state to prevent a vote on congressional redistricting. Whitmire, who revealed earlier Tuesday that he had sneaked home over the Labor Day weekend, returned to Albuquerque, N.M., to meet with his colleagues but did not even unpack his bags before catching a flight back to Houston Tuesday night. He said he remains opposed to redistricting, but he would...

Democrats' walkout stumbles By Guillermo X. Garcia Express-News Austin Bureau Web Posted : 09/03/2003 12:00 AM ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 37-day walkout by Texas Senate Democrats to stop redistricting started to unravel Tuesday when Sen. John Whitmire of Houston returned to Texas, saying he'd continue the fight there, not in New Mexico. Whitmire, the dean of the Senate, spent the weekend in Houston, rejoined his colleagues here for several hours Tuesday, then flew back in the evening. In an interview before conferring with the 10 other senators who fled the state July 28 to stop a GOP effort to redraw...

Whitmire says redistricting will be debated in Austin By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Sept. 3, 2003, 3:12PM The first Democratic senator to break ranks with the boycotting legislators who fled to New Mexico said today that ultimately congressional redistricting will have to be debated on the Texas Senate floor. Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, said if Republican Gov. Rick Perry decides to continue calling special legislative sessions on the issue, the governor can outlast the 10 Senate Democrats who remain in Albuquerque, N.M. "We cannot remain in New Mexico indefinitely. At some point in time, unless you're prepared...

'We failed,' Whitmire says, but vows to continue fight By RACHEL GRAVES Sept. 4, 2003, 1:38PM John Whitmire had already spent weeks pacing the halls of the Albuquerque Marriott like a caged tiger when reality set in. A federal court would likely rule against him and 10 other Texas state senators on the lam in New Mexico, and the U.S. Justice Department would probably work against their attempts to stall a Republican redistricting effort, the Houston Democrat thought. As the hotel walls grew more confining, the options of returning to Texas to deliberately get arrested or persuading 51 House members...

Redistricting fight turns into attack on Bush Associated Press Sept. 4, 2003, 5:25PM WASHINGTON -- Texas state Democrats turned their redistricting fight into an attack on President Bush today, accusing him of trampling on minority voting rights and being part of a Republican national power grab. Three of the remaining 10 Democratic state senators who fled Texas over the redistricting dispute were in Washington to promote new radio and TV ads that will run in swing presidential states including Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Arizona, New York, Nevada and Texas, along with the District of Columbia. The ads, which will begin...

Democrats await next session on redistricting By JOHN W. GONZALEZ and ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA Sept. 10, 2003, 11:09PM LAREDO -- Ten Democratic state senators ended their quorum-busting, six-week sojourn in New Mexico on Wednesday with a vow to resume their redistricting fight in Austin if a former ally from Houston helps make a Senate quorum when lawmakers convene in special session Monday. The senators came here first because three federal judges will hold a hearing in Laredo today on the Democrats' bid to derail the Republican-backed effort to redraw Texas' congressional district boundaries. Although the senators' absence precluded Senate action in...

4-year scandal of the 9/11 billions How massive fed aid got eaten by waste & lax rules This series was reported and written by the Daily News Investigative Team: RUSS BUETTNER, HEIDI EVANS, ROBERT GEARTY, BRIAN KATES, GREG B. SMITH and Assistant Managing Editor RICHARD T. PIENCIAK President Bush stands with Firefighter Bob Beckwith at Ground Zero on Sept. 14, 2001, the day after promising massive aid to the city. No science behind number Just two days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, with the nation still in deep collective shock, President Bush met in the Oval...

Signs point to a strong economy By LARRY KUDLOW Columnist Posted on Thu, Dec. 01, 2005 Here are a few things IÂ’ve learned recently: â–  The boat-building business is booming, with big backlogs for orders in the $80,000 to $300,000 price range. Why is this important? Prosperity. People buy luxury items when theyÂ’ve got the money to do so. This is a very positive economic-growth indicator. â–  A midsized U.S. insurance company has been issuing a record number of group employee-benefit packages for disability, accident and other coverage to small companies. This is a sign of new- and small-business formation,...

Reporter's Notebook: The Making of "Winning Iraq" By Greg Palkot FNC's Greg Palkot It was one of those good news/bad news offers. The good news is you get to go to Iraq to do something more than the typical schedule of live shots. The bad news is you get to go to Iraq and do more than the typical schedule of live shots. Meaning: You put yourself in as much harm's way as nearly possible to find out how people not trying to cause harm are living. You see the point is, we, out of necessity in the business,...

Man dies in tractor-trailer wreck From Staff Reports Thursday, December 1, 2005 Guilford County EMS personnel and a firefighter work at a wreck involving an 18-wheeler on West Market Street in Greensboro. GREENSBORO - A middle-age man was killed in an early-morning wreck Thursday on West Market Street after he pulled his car into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer, police said. The wreck occurred at the intersection West Market and Landmark Drive. The impact pushed both vehicles about 50 yards east of the collision, where they came to a rest on the side of the westbound lanes of West...

News Tip: Upcoming Supreme Court Case 'Huge' for Abortion Rights, Law Professor Says “The question in this case isn’t whether Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned, but whether it is going to be severely undermined,’’ says Neil Siegel Monday, November 28, 2005 Durham, N.C. -- On Nov. 30, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider a challenge to a New Hampshire law that could significantly affect abortion rights, a Duke University law professor says. In Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Court will consider, among other things, how courts should analyze abortion restrictions and whether a...

Politically connected consultant gets 12 months The Associated Press November 29. 2005 4:52PM Raymond Reggie, a media consultant and son of a politically prominent former Louisiana judge, was sentenced Tuesday to 12 months in prison for bank fraud. Reggie pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of bank fraud and one count of bank fraud conspiracy involving a scheme to cheat banks in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier gave Reggie 12 months on each charge, and ordered the sentences to be served at the same time. Reggies also was ordered to serve three years...

New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Goldman Sachs Chairman & CEO Henry Paulson; New York Gov. George Pataki; Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY; James Gill, Chairman of the Battery Park City Authority; and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, left to right, toss ceremonial shovels of dirt at the ground breaking of the $2.4 billion Goldman Sachs world headquarters, in lower Manhattan, Tuesday Nov. 29, 2005. Goldman Sachs' decision in August to build its world headquarters across from the World Trade Center site, hinged on agreements by state and city leaders to finance the project with...

Hurricane season finally ending, but next year could be bad, too By JOHN PAIN Associated Press Writer November 29. 2005 4:27PM The busiest and costliest Atlantic hurricane season on record officially - and mercifully - draws to a close Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of Americans still dealing with the devastation wrought by Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Despite the end of the June 1-to-Nov. 30 season, hurricanes could still form over the next few months. In fact, a tropical storm took shape in the Atlantic on Tuesday. But no hurricane has been known to hit the United States between December...