Free Republic

After 33 years in Minneapolis, Kris Wyrobek thought he could rely on the city to protect his manufacturing business. In the wake of the city’s paralysis in the rioting — which the Star Tribune helpfully notes “sometimes overshadowed peaceful protests” — Wyrobek has had enough. He’s packing up his 7-Sigma plant to rebuild elsewhere after the city let it burn down, and he’s taking 50 jobs with him: A Minneapolis manufacturing company has decided to leave the city, with the company’s owner saying he can’t trust public officials who allowed his plant to burn during the recent riots. The...

Citizens of Montenegro, the mountainous, sparsely populated former Yugoslav territory, will vote Sunday in a referendum on severing its remaining links with Serbia. The pro-independence camp is confident of victory. The referendum will determine whether the state of Serbia and Montenegro continues to exist. That loose federation - replacing the rump Yugoslavia - was created three years at the strong urging of the European Union, which at the time opposed the Montenegrin government's desire to break with Serbia. Since both Serbia and Montenegro wish to join the EU, Brussels has been deeply involved in the May 21 referendum. Under its...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Maintaining his innocence, a convicted killer was executed Wednesday for a 1991 triple slaying in which one victims was a 10-year-old girl pregnant with his child. "I just want to say I am not sad or bitter with anybody," Edward Lagrone said in a brief final statement. "Like I've said from Day One, I didn't kill them. But I'm no better than the people that did." He concluded by saying: "Jesus is Lord. That's all I have to say." After the lethal injection, Lagrone, 46, sputtered and gasped before he was pronounced dead seven minutes later....

Yesenia Sanchez didn't worry about her noncitizen status -- until she turned 16 and couldn't get a driver's license. Now 20 and attending college, Sanchez fears she won't find a job when she graduates. She doesn't have a Social Security number. Like other young people nationwide, she's pinned her hopes on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act -- also called the DREAM Act. The proposal before Congress would give undocumented youth an opportunity to become legal U.S. residents. Sanchez is one of thousands of young people who've come out of the shadows to lobby for the bill...