Free Republic

CHINO, Calif. -- A California panel recommended parole Thursday for former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten more than four decades after she went to prison for the notorious killings of a wealthy grocer and his wife. The decision will now undergo administrative review by the Board of Parole Hearings. If upheld it goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has the final word on whether the now-66-year-old Van Houten is released from the California Institution for Women in Chino. Brown previously blocked the parole of former Manson follower Bruce Davis, citing the gravity of his offenses and his refusal to...

Showing once again the bankruptcy of ideas in the Democratic Party, Party Chairman, Howard Dean, said that he thinks the U.S. is about to return to the era of the 1960's. "We're about to enter the '60s again," he wistfully told a religious conference in Washington D.C. on June 27th. Of course, he tried to back track almost as soon as he said it warning that, as he weakly tried to explain it, he didn't mean a return to the race riots and anti-war demonstrations that typified the era. No, he said he meant that we are moving toward an...