Free Republic

WASHINGTON A bill to crank up penalties for the nation's most polluted air regions both in California was introduced Thursday in the Senate by Congress' biggest skeptic of global warming. A week after reacting angrily to California's passage of landmark anti-global warming legislation, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., produced a bill to more than double fines on polluters who don't meet cleanup deadlines for soot and smog. States that don't require them to clean up could be denied federal highway funds. Democrats and environmental activists accused Inhofe, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, of retaliating against California. Inhofe has...

WASHINGTON - Presidential adviser Karl Rove took aim at four of the Bush administration's Democratic opponents in the Senate and received a standing ovation from a conservative legal group, defying his critics as he awaits his fate in the CIA leak investigation. Rove has kept a low public profile since his grand jury testimony a month ago, but he stepped into the limelight Thursday night. He spoke out on behalf of the administration's judicial selections, including Harriet Miers, whose Supreme Court nomination was withdrawn after opposition from the president's conservative base. "If you like every one of the 200 judges...

The phone rang shortly after 6 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2002, at Superior Judge Ernest B. Murphy's home in Dover, Mass., southwest of Boston. His wife, Mary Keenan, answered. "Have you turned on the news this morning?" a friend asked her. "Do you know what's in the Herald?" The friend told her that a large photo of her husband was on the front page of the Boston Herald under the headline "Murphy's law: Lenient judge frees dangerous criminals." The story said Murphy "heartlessly demeaned victims" and had dismissed the trauma of a 14-year-old rape victim by saying, "Tell her to...

SACRAMENTO -- While pundits are all but calling the presidential and U.S. Senate races in California, the potentially far-reach- ing effects of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity -- spurred by the GOP convention -- are fueling fierce election battles. Schwarzenegger may score weighty victories in the Nov. 2 general election on propositions he backs or opposes, analysts say, but probably even more importantly, additional Republicans could ride his political coattails into a Legislature he says has far too many "girlie-men" Democrats. Pollsters say the governor's popularity has soared while the Legislature's has sunk. "Schwarzenegger is a unique phenomenon in a...

Ted Costa, one of the orchestrators of California's successful recall election last fall, now wants to ask voters to knock the state Legislature down to part-time status. It is a notion that has circulated around the Capitol a lot lately and even has been mentioned by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the throes of his frustration with lawmakers during the state budget impasse. Costa is proposing a constitutional change to cut the legislative year by half, with lawmakers meeting for 90 days between January and the end of June. "The legislators (would) have more time to spend in their districts, and...