Free Republic

In Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper, the total downtown office vacancy rate has jumped to 25.1%, a new record high, according to data from real estate firm CBRE. The rate has climbed steadily since the end of 2018, when it stood at 13.4%. “We just don’t have the same number of people working in the Loop as before,” said Dan McMillen, a real estate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. Now, the city says it is investing in its real estate. Just like a mortgage, interest rates on billion-dollar loans used to build skyscrapers are rising. Those high...

Nabil Sha'ath, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and a close confidant of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, says the PA wants to renew peace talks. Speaking on Thursday at a conference of the far-left Meretz party in Tel Aviv, Sha'ath claimed "we are interested in renewing the talks." Sha'ath clarified "there are topics that are open for negotiations, and they are the core issues, while on the other hand there are topics that are not up for negotiations: the Palestinians' right of self-definition in the 1967 borders, and the right of unity in the Palestinian...

Few things renew American patriotism better than a trip to New England. My wife and I had the opportunity to do that recently when we visited our daughter, who is working on a film project there for a couple of months. Although we had been to Boston before, we were reminded of the city’s realities even before reaching the bag claim area at the airport. This is the place where the notion took flight that simple colonists could recover their birthright of freedom by tearing themselves away from the oppressive rule of the British king and launching an experiment in...

One of the most important things people overlook in dealing with sickness is what they speak out of their mouth. You can't just speak anything because your words have an effect on your body. In the book of James he says, if you offend not in word, you are able to bridle your whole body. He also goes on to say your tongue is like the rudder of a ship, so if you want to go from sickness to healing then you are going to have to set your tongue to healing and not sickness. In 1Peter 3:10 he says,...

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday released a video greeting to the Jewish people in honor of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Obama suggested that the New Year was a time to repair his country's relationship with Israel, at the end of a week in which he and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been at odds over Iran's nuclear program. video “As we look forward to the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays Sunday night, I want to extend my warmest wishes to all those celebrating the New Year,” Obama said. “This is a joyful time for millions of...

The bipartisan panel investigating allegations that the Justice Department wrongly abandoned a case against the New Black Panther Party plans to issue a new round of subpoenas and call for a separate federal probe following explosive testimony from an ex-Justice official, a commissioner said. As the case heats up, members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights may even travel to South Carolina to track down one witness.

Just a sample - but they are funny;) *Brolin, James, American actor - birth name: James Bruderlin *Bronson, Charles, American actor - birth name: Charles Buchinsky *Brooks, Albert, American actor - birth name: Albert Lawrence Einstein *Brooks, Donnie, American singer - birth name: John Dee Abohosh *Brooks, Mel, American film director - birth name: Melvin Kaminsky *Bruce, Lenny, American comedian - birth name: Leonard Alfred Schneider *Burns, George, American actor/comedian - birth name: Nathan Birnbaum *Burstyn, Ellen, American actress - birth name: Edna Rae Gillooly *Burton, Richard, Welsh actor - birth name: Richard Walter Jenkins, Jr.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama sought to rally Americans behind the war in Afghanistan on the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States as opinion polls show faltering public support for the conflict. "Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and plot against us still," Obama said on Friday at a somber ceremony attended by about 500 people under rain-filled skies at the Pentagon. "In pursuit of al Qaeda and its extremist allies we will never falter," he said, before laying a wreath at a memorial for those killed at...

GAZA (Reuters) - Islamic militant group Hamas called off a 16-month-old truce with Israel on Friday after Palestinians said Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip killed 10 people, including three children. Hamas, which has run the Palestinian government since March, spearheaded a suicide bombing campaign during a Palestinian uprising that broke out in 2000. There was no immediate comment from Israel or from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in a power struggle with Hamas since the Islamist group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January. "The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle and that means the earthquake in...

Renew: I cringe whenever the library calls. Overdue. Your books are overdue. To avoid overdues, I avoid the library. We have enough books at home as it is. A better solution? Renew. All I have to do is call before the book is due and the library renews it. But do I take advantage of book renewal? Almost never. I, too, am renewable. But I forget. Restore: For years, my grandmother's bed and dressing table deteriorated in the basement and gathered cobwebs. I dreamed that someday we'd hire someone who could repair them. Then, one astonishing day, a strong, chemical...

KIRKUK, Iraq (Army News Service, Feb. 14, 2006) – Married Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division gathered at the Bastogne Chapel on Forward Operating Base Warrior on Valentines Day to rededicate their love for their spouses back home. “The ceremony was informal,” said Capt. Jerry Sherbourne, the 426th Brigade Support Battalion chaplain, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. “But it was an opportunity for us who are deployed and separated and far away to show we meant our vows and we still do.” More than 30 BSB Soldiers found time between missions to remember their spouses and rededicate their marriage vows in...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The leader of Hamas said Wednesday that his Palestinian militant group will not renew a truce with Israel when it expires at the end of the year and accused the Jewish state of violating the agreement that has greatly reduced violence. Khaled Mashaal, whose group has carried out dozens of deadly suicide attacks on Israelis over the years, also restated Hamas' rejection of U.S. and Israeli demands to disarm. "All circumstances on the ground, the regional political atmosphere and the Palestinian situation are not encouraging to renew the truce," Mashaal told The Associated Press in a...

(IsraelNN.com) The Arab struggle against Israel will renew itself next month, according to analysts of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. It noted that Hamas spokesmen have stated that it will continue its strategy of terror. The Israel-based research center also noted repeated Hamas statements that the expulsion was a result of Kassam rocket and mortar fire. Hams leader Sayid Tziem called on Arabs to use the "Gaza model" of terrorism in Judea and Samaria to force further Israeli concessions.

MEXICO CITY (AP) - U.S. activists called on the Mexican government to withdraw a postage stamp depicting an exaggerated black cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin, saying the offense was worse than recent remarks about blacks made by President Vicente Fox. Mexico defended the series of five stamps released Wednesday, which depicts a child character from a comic book started in the 1940s that is still published in Mexico. But the Rev. Jesse Jackson said President Bush should pressure Mexico to withdraw the stamps from the market, saying they "insult people around the world." "The impact of this is worse...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican-backed bills that would clear away environmental constraints for building new U.S. oil refineries and drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge were expected to win approval in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. But both measures were largely symbolic with virtually no chance of approval this year by the U.S. Senate, according to lobbyists and congressional aides. Faced with voter concern about record-high gasoline prices in recent weeks, House Republicans also sought to blame Senate Democrats for blocking a broad energy bill that would be the first major overhaul of U.S. energy policy in a decade....

<p>SAN BERNARDINO -- The images are nearly as searing as the flames: Neighborhoods obliterated. An area larger than Sacramento County left charred and scarred. A former fireman who helped save his family's home. A fireman who gave his life for others.</p>