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'Independent Action' tests abilities to plan, schedule and execute missions. By U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Herb PhillipsCoalition Military Assistance and Training Team Air Cell BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 25, 2005 — With the lift-off of two fully-loaded C-130E Hercules aircraft from Ali Base in southern Iraq Oct. 12, the Iraqi Air Force's 23rd Squadron (Transport) began its move to its new home at Al Muthana Air Base at Baghdad International Airport. The move is part of "Independent Action," the first in a series of exercises aimed at developing the C-130 squadron. The intent of this exercise was to deploy...

ANSBACH, Germany -- Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade held a departure ceremony Sept. 30 at Katterbach Kaserne for 22 Soldiers from the Special Police Training Teams. The SPTTs are a group of officers and noncommissioned officers from 4th Brigade handpicked to deploy to Iraq in order to strengthen the Iraqi Security Forces by organizing, training, equipping and mentoring the Iraqi forces.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday set the stage for an atheist and three Sacramento-area school districts to take their dispute over the Pledge of Allegiance to an appeals court. U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton said he will stay a ruling made last month, meaning the schools can continue having children recite the pledge. In his previous finding, Karlton said he was bound by a 2002 ruling of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools because it contains the words "under God." That lawsuit was...

Richmond wants the U.S. National Slavery Museum to move here. The White House of the Confederacy needs a home. State Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III says he may have the solution: Put both side by side behind the Science Museum of Virginia. “I met the other day with the people at the Confederate museum,” says Lambert, referring to The Museum of the Confederacy at 1201 E. Clay St. “I had suggested that land up there [behind the Science Museum] so that everyone can be one big happy family. I think it will work.” Lambert says his proposal is just “an...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - United Nations delegates, welcome to ... Brooklyn? U.N. planners have found commercial space across the East River in Brooklyn that could serve as a temporary home while the United Nations' iconic glass-and-steel headquarters in Manhattan gets a long-overdue renovation, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Tuesday. The report assessed where things stand with plans to renovate the U.N. secretariat building, which was considered modern when it was constructed 50 years ago but now violates most New York City fire and safety codes. The 38-story tower has no sprinkler system, is packed with asbestos, and loses...

Twenty years ago this Friday, Philadelphia became "The City That Bombed Itself." On the evening of May 13, 1985, in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia, police dropped explosives onto the headquarters of the radical group MOVE. The explosion started a fire that city officials allowed to burn. When the blaze was out, 61 homes were gone and 11 people, five of them children, were dead inside MOVE headquarters.

My wife and I are looking to move to the South, where should we go? We were born and raised in the streets of NYC, but have come to apprecaite the kind of living the South affords. We love the South's history, culture, and way of life. We're thinking about LA, AL, MS, FL and/or TX. We want to be in a coastal area where we can enjoy the water. We want to live near a city that has good eating, fun, and lots of things to do. We don't want to get caught up in too much backwoods mentality...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The head of the Los Angeles County health department was ordered to move his office into troubled Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center by supervisors frustrated by continuing reports of deaths and poor patient care. "Park yourself there," Supervisor Gloria Molina directed Dr. Thomas Garthwaite during a contentious supervisors' meeting Tuesday. "Take your schedule. Tear it up and spend every moment that you're working for us working on solving the crisis," she said. Garthwaite said his department had taken disciplinary actions against hundreds of King/Drew employees. Supervisors also ordered the Department of Health Services to hire...

From the heavyweight Southern California Water Authority to the scrappy little County Council in Moab, Utah, a determined chorus is rising to urge the U.S. Department of Energy to move a 10-million-ton pile of radioactive waste away from the banks of the Colorado River. "This water supply and the health of millions of people are too important to leave to chance," a letter from the San Diego County Water Authority urges the Energy Department. "Moving the pile would lessen these risks significantly." Three of the four largest water agencies in the region have insisted that the waste pile be moved...

Information needed on moving to Memphis area. My husband may be taking a job in Memphis Tennessee late summer/early fall. We would like to hear from Freepers who can tell us the ups/downs of living there. Also, anyone who lives outside Memphis but commutes etc. What TN towns are close enough to drive from on a daily basis? We are looking to buy a house and would appreciate suggestions on where to look. Any info on property taxes, state income tax, and is it cheaper if you work in downtown Memphis to live in Missippi etc.

In removing Jewish residents from their legitimate homes in Gaza, Judea and Samaria (a.k.a. “West Bank”), the Sharon government of Israel is guilty of egregious human rights violations against its own Jewish citizens who are also innocent targets of Arab terrorism. The Bush Administration is guilty of complicity in this human rights crime. The effect of this is to weaken both Israel and America ideologically and morally in their efforts to combat Islamo-fascism and the global terrorism that it spawns. As such this undermines the security interests of the American people. At the core of our strength in the current...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The NBC correspondent who filmed the fatal shooting by a Marine of an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi by a U.S. Marine inside a Fallujah (search) mosque has written on his Web site that the wounded man made no sudden movements before the Marine opened fire on him.Before the opening of the Nov. 8 assault on the rebel-held city, Marine commanders told infantrymen that the rules of engagement allowed for use of deadly force against men of military age deemed holding hostile intent, even if the enemy didn't fire on the Marines first.In a posting on his Web blog...

SACRAMENTO — Watchdog groups Tuesday threatened to place on the ballot a measure to downsize state government if the Legislature does not adopt recommendations from Gov. Schwarze-negger's 2,600-page California Performance Review report. Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation, said the report — a sweeping plan to revamp state government — might fare better with an up-or-down vote at the polls than with legislators. "It would pass in a heartbeat," Coupal said. The comments came as the Jarvis group and the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Against Government Waste released the 2004 California Piglet Book showcasing billions of dollars of...

First post folks in the number of years I've been on FreeRepublic (Hi to those folks back in WA, I'm in Reno, NV now!!). Now, over the past several weeks many liberals have threatened once again that they would move out of the United States if Bush wins (remember the 2000 election??). Today, the day that a Bush win is official, I see NOTHING from these folks about their impending move. Why isn't the media reporting on this, hmm?? Seems to me that many libs are due to move, and I'd be happy to buy their one-way ticket out of...

Clintonistas move in for the kill — of Kerry The Democratic convention failed to give Sen. John Kerry the bounce that he needed and anticipated because, at the end, after Clinton, Obama, and Edwards had oriented the convention to a domestic agenda, he tacked the wrong way and emphasized foreign policy and war to the exclusion of healthcare and the economy. The Republican convention, by contrast, was carefully aimed at promoting the saliency of President Bush’s anti-terror agenda and emphasizing the dangerous threat under which we all live. Now comes the third convention: the anniversary of the attacks of Sept....

Flooding may be a side effect of Venus' move June 20 2004 at 10:33AM Beijing - The recent spectacular transit of Venus across the face of the sun may lead to disastrous flooding along China's Yellow River, a leading scientist warned in the local media on Sunday. While millions were marvelling at the celestial show earlier this month, Geng Guoqing, an expert on natural calamities, was more worried about the consequences for China's second-longest river, the Xinhua news agency reported. He compared historical records reaching 2 187 years back and found a clear correllation between Venus transits and serious floods...

Controversy Over National Referendum on Capital Move Controversy over the national referendum to determine the relocation of the nation's capital is spreading throughout the Korean political world. The Grand National Party (GNP) insisted that President Roh carry out his pledge in promising a nationwide referendum on the relocation of the country's administrative capital. Roh held a press conference Friday and argued that, “The GNP should fairly discuss [the controversy over the national referendum] in the National Assembly after unifying the GNP’s opinion on whether to abolish the special law on the relocation of a new capital.” The GNP refuted this....

Assembly salute to Wen Ho Lee put offAsian caucus cites patriotic group's 'inflammatory remarks' By Steve Geissinger, SACRAMENTO BUREAU SACRAMENTO -- An Oakland Tribune report triggered such an uproar throughout the state that the Asian legislative caucus -- and its Bay Area members -- announced Saturday it was "regretfully" canceling an Assembly ceremony honoring former accused spy Wen Ho Lee. The Asian caucus said it was "outraged" by a patriotic group's "inflammatory remarks in Friday's Oakland Tribune" story on the event, and the resulting plans by the Assembly Republican Caucus to fight the ceremony. The six-member Asian caucus, which...

Asian caucus to fete former accused spy New patriotic group upset with lawmakers honoring Wen Ho Lee By Steve Geissinger, SACRAMENTO BUREAU SACRAMENTO -- Asian lawmakers from the Bay Area and Southern California said Thursday their small caucus in the Legislature will honor former accused spy Wen Ho Lee with a "profile in courage" award -- a move that infuriated a new group formed in California to support the war on terrorism and U.S. military. Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, an Oakland Democrat, said the event -- to be emceed by actor Lou Diamond Phillips -- will appropriately honor Lee for...