Free Republic

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee has decided how it will respond to a nationwide scarcity of lethal injection drugs for death-row inmates: with the electric chair. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law Thursday allowing the state to electrocute death row inmates in the event prisons are unable to obtain the drugs, which have become more and more scarce following a European-led boycott of drug sales for executions. Tennessee lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the electric chair legislation in April, with the Senate voting 23-3 and the House 68-13 in favor of the bill. Tennessee is the first state to...

Don't get too excited about the record sales number just posted by General Motors Chevy Volt in March, as the sales charge for the electric car may have been brought to life by a big corporate buyer. The Volt rebound - a month after GM temporarily shuttered production of the car - needs to be set against the likely influence played by GE in driving up the Volt sales number. Volt sales in March of 2,289 were 50% higher than December 2011, which had been the vehicle's best month since launch. It's no coincidence, though, that GE began last month...

Who would have thought it? Given the flack the Chevy Volt has received at Republican hands over the last few months, former Republican president George H. W. Bush dealt the Volt attackers a serious blow, deciding to purchase one of GM’s extended range electric cars. The Volt, which has become a symbol of all that’s wrong with the Obama administration according to a number of conservatives, might finally be getting a break. In addition to Bush Sr.’s purchase of a Volt (for his son Neil), there’s growing sentiment among the right that the car might not be that bad after...

With February now in the history books, US sales of the two most popular electrified vehicles have been tallied. Nissan reports that sales of the electric LEAF checked in at only 478 units in February 2012. That's below the 676 LEAFs that Nissan reported selling in January 2012, but still seven times more than the 67 LEAFs sold in February 2011, when the market was just getting started. Sales of the Chevy Volt picked up significantly with General Motors reporting it sold 1,203 units in February 2012. That's nearly double the 603 Volts sold in January 2012, but still a...

I discovered an interesting fact while reviewing the 2011 IRS form 8936 used for the $7500 EV tax credit. While under most circumstances it is the wealthy purchasers of Chevy Volts and other high priced plug-in vehicles that get the taxpayer-funded handout, it appears that General Motors' dealerships that sell the vehicles to government entities are benefiting by being able to claim the credits. These dealers are able to double-dip into the seemingly endless pool of taxpayer funds designated for cronies of the Obama Administration under the guise of green initiatives. Not only do taxpayers pay for Chevy Volts purchased...

Sixteen months ago, General Electric announced it would place the "largest order in history" for electric cars, to be used by its employees who are issued company cars. Now, those cars are starting to arrive and be placed with employees. A person inside GE recently forwarded a memo to us that covers some of the nuts and bolts of using the 2012 Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car. It's from the fleet operations manager for GE Healthcare. Among the interesting points: * All sedans ordered in 2012 will be the Chevrolet Volt * Crossovers and minivans will be replaced by electric-vehicle...

Despite their small share of total vehicle sales, the Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius garner a lot of attention from new-car shoppers, according to J.D. Power and Associates' 2012 Avoider Study. For people who like the Volt, the most cited reason is its impact on a person's image; that's a good shout-out to Chevrolet's successful marketing campaign. Consumers think the Volt costs too much and that's why a lot of shoppers avoid the plug-in hybrid, according to the study. When people decide to skip over the Leaf or Prius, the most cited reason is the styling is unattractive....

On Thursday, General Motors announced an alert system under development that would instruct the Chevy Volt to charge only when a relatively high percentage of renewable energy was available. Being plugged in at those times would further minimize the carbon footprint of the plug-in hybrid. When a substantial percentage of the energy transmitted to the grid came from a renewable source like wind power, OnStar would receive a signal from P.J.M. Interconnection, a company that manages the electric-power transmission grid for numerous utility companies. The telematics system would then cue the vehicle to begin charging. “This demonstration shows that in...

(CNNMoney) -- Now that the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin station has closed its investigation into vehicle fires in the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors is left to clean up the public relations damage. The media counter-attack started Wednesday with newspaper and television advertisements. In a TV ad, which was also broadcast Wednesday, Chevrolet Volts are shown being built on an assembly down the middle of a suburban American street. Since Volt sales are so small, to begin with, and GM executives have admitted that the car isn't profitable, the automaker's ad campaign will cost it more than it will ever...

The Chevrolet Volt ended 2011 on a high note, charting its best month of sales to date. Chevy moved 1,529 of the plug-in hybrids in December, despite the specter of a possible recall to address the potential for battery pack fires. Full year sales checked in at 7,671, well short of the company’s stated goal of 10,000, but enough to outsell one of its top rivals, the Toyota Prius. Not in 2011, Toyota sold 136,463 Prii over the last 12 months, once again cementing its position as best-selling hybrid in America, by far. But, go back to the turn of...

No serious constitutional argument can be made against the death penalty. The endless campaigns to ban it cost taxpayers millions to defend. By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew Grossman On the September night that the state of Georgia put Troy Davis to death, a crowd of several hundred gathered at the Supreme Court in Washington to protest America's continued practice of capital punishment. But they were in the wrong place. The protesters should have assembled 600 miles southeast, in Atlanta.

Baseball Hall of Fame Manager Sparky Anderson Has Died at Age 76

BREAKING NEWS: Hall of Fame baseball manager Sparky Anderson has died, AP reports

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Governor Tim Kaine says the electric chair should not be an option for executions in Virginia. Kaine was asked Tuesday in his monthly program on Washington Post Radio about last week's electrocution of Brandon Hedrick, the first person to die in the electric chair in two years. Hedrick chose electrocution over lethal injection. Kaine said Tuesday ... quote ... "I think it should be lethal injection, period." He calls it ... quote ... "an odd quirk" that inmates get to choose the electric chair as an option.

A convicted killer who chose the electric chair because he was apparently unnerved by the prospect of lethal injection awaited execution Thursday. Brandon Hedrick, 27, was set to become the first person executed in the electric chair in the United States in more than two years. He was condemned to die for the 1997 murder of 23-year-old Lisa Crider, who was abducted, robbed, raped and killed with a shotgun blast to the face. Virginia's Death Row inmates are given the option of dying by injection or electrocution. Three other Virginia inmates have opted for the electric chair over injection since...

Jarratt, Va. (AP) -- A man convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman was executed Thursday, becoming the first person in the United States to die in the electric chair in more than two years. Meanwhile, a child sex offender was executed in Texas for abducting and killing a 5-year-old girl. In Virginia, Brandon Hedrick, 27, was pronounced dead at the Greensville Correctional Center at 9:12 p.m. after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeals and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine denied his request for clemency. "I pray for the people that are unsaved," Hedrick said in his final words....

RICHMOND, Va. -- A killer scheduled to be electrocuted Thursday may have chosen to die in the electric chair because he feared lethal injection, his attorney said.

RICHMOND, Va. - A convicted killer who chose the electric chair because he was apparently unnerved by the prospect of lethal injection awaited execution Thursday. Brandon Hedrick, 27, was set to become the first person executed in the electric chair in the United States in more than two years. He was condemned to die for the 1997 murder of 23-year-old Lisa Crider, who was abducted, robbed, raped and killed with a shotgun blast to the face. Virginia's death row inmates are given the option of dying by injection or electrocution. Three other Virginia inmates have opted for the electric chair...

lets try to get all consumer fireworks legalised in all 50 states in the USA write to you law makers in you capital in your state tell them whay you want fireworks legalised in your states

After a decade of being paralyzed, Hong Cheng-chin and his wife Hsieh Mei-yun almost gave up hope of having children. Last year, however, with the help of reproduction technology offered at National Taiwan University Hospital, the couple -- who are both paralyzed and confined to wheelchairs -- had a baby girl and became the nation's first paralyzed couple to rear a child. Doctors at the National Taiwan University Hospital employed in vitro fertilization as an alternative to Hong's fertility problems. The major hurdle, doctors said, was collecting sperm from the paraplegia-inflicted husband. The couple is able to have intercourse but...