Free Republic

Half Moon Bay is wrestling with unpleasant options for responding to a court ruling that officials say threatens the "very existence of our city government" - a $36.8 million judgment against the city for turning a proposed housing development site into wetlands. Under the worst-case scenario, officials say, Half Moon Bay would become the first Bay Area city forced to dissolve, and the coastal town's land would become an unincorporated part of San Mateo County. Members of the City Council say that's unlikely, and they plan to vote at a public meeting tonight to retain an appellate law firm and...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007, (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.) The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon. The image taking was performed twice...

Today a Louisiana Federal Jury found Attorney Tommy Cryer NOT GUILTY of 2 counts of willful failure to file an income tax return. Earlier on Monday July 9th the Government had on its own motion dismissed 2 counts of tax evasion charges that it had charged Tommy Cryer with.

1st Lt. Larry Rubal (kneeling), of Old Forge, Pa., a platoon leader with Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, watches as Lt. Col. Ahmed Abdullah, the local police commander, asks an Iraqi woman some questions during a joint patrol May 18, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Mike Pryor Iraqis Taking the Security Lead U.S. soldiers maintain a quieter role at Al Suleikh Joint Security Station By Sgt. Mike Pryor Multi-National Division – Baghdad Public Affairs BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 30, 2007 — Capt. James Peay was starting to feel like a third wheel. Peay, a battery...

Taking sides in the battle of the 'hobbit' 05:00 09 October 2006 Jeff Hecht The battle among paleaoanthropologists over Homo Floresiensis, popularly known as "the hobbit", threatens to become an epic of Lord of the Rings proportions. The debate rages on over whether the fossil, found on the Indonesian island of Flores, is a separate species or simply a modern human with stunted development. Now Robert Martin at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, US, claims the controversial fossil, discovered in 2004 was really a Stone Age Homo sapiens (modern human) with a mild form of the condition...

Analysis: Taking on al-Sadr Carries Risk Wednesday August 30, 2006 6:46 PM By ROBERT H. REID Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - This week's intense clashes between the Iraqi army and a Shiite militia are part of a strategy to whittle away the power of a radical cleric. But the high-risk gambit could trigger more fighting across the Shiite south - at a time when the cleric's stronghold in the capital is virtually off-limits. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised to disband militias, including the Mahdi Army of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, as a way to curb the sectarian...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Two engagements with Taliban extremists in Afghanistan yesterday demonstrate that the U.S. continues to take the fight to the enemy, a U.S. military spokesman said today. In the first engagement, three U.S. soldiers died and three others were wounded when a coalition combat patrol engaged a group of Taliban extremists with small-arms and artillery fire after being struck by a makeshift bomb yesterday. Elsewhere, U.S. forces engaged about 150 extremists in a firefight that lasted nearly four hours in Uruzgan province. A U.S. airman died in this fight. Early reports indicate that the enemy suffered...

WASHINGTON — President Bush declared Friday that the federal government can only seize private property for a public use such as a hospital or road. The president signed an executive order in response to a Supreme Court decision granting local governments broad power to bulldoze people's homes to make way for private development. It was the one-year anniversary of the controversial Supreme Court decision in a case involving New London, Conn., homeowners. The majority opinion from the divided court limited homeowners rights, by saying that local governments could take private property for purely economic development-related projects because the motive was...

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2006 – More and more Iraqi national police are working alongside U.S. soldiers in securing southern Baghdad, a U.S. Army colonel working there said today. Terrorists would like the American public to believe violent groups are winning the fight in Baghdad, Army Col. Michael Beech, commander of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said from Forward Operating Base Prosperity in central Baghdad. "But, of course, that's not what's happening here," he said. Beech's brigade includes 4,400 U.S. troops, a battalion of soldiers from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and about 2,000 Iraq soldiers and police....

Jefferson's CurseThe Nation Thu May 25, 11:58 AM ET AP - Mon May 15, 5:25 PM ET U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, speaks to the media at a news conference in New Orleans on Monday May 15, 2006. Congressman Jefferson declared his innocence in light of a federal bribery probe. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) The Nation -- As John wrote a few days back, William Jefferson was one of the worst Democrats in the House even before he started hiding bribes in the freezer. Now he's a drag on his party and a disgrace to his district--which happens to represent...

BAQUBAH, Iraq, May 12, 2006 – Sending the Iraqi army forth to take care of security operations is the key to the safety of the Iraqi people and the groundwork for the establishment of a free government, many senior military officials have said. Iraqi army soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, are independently conducting operations in their area of Diyala province. They are performing gathering their own intelligence, patrolling their streets and hunting for insurgents and terrorists. A brigade-sized operation conducted recently throughout the village of Tahrir yielded a handful of suspected insurgents who were...

Taking out a killer asteroid – with a tame one 17:38 26 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster. A potentially deadly asteroid is heading for Earth, and scientists mount a mission to intercept it – using another asteroid. But that is exactly what two French researchers propose in a plan to capture and "park" a small asteroid near the Earth for just such emergencies. But a second group of researchers says shooting a spacecraft into the asteroid would be simpler and more effective. Other experts warn that both plans risk having fragments of...

Today the Supreme Court hears two challenges to federal wetlands regulations. In each case, landowners are challenging the federal government’s authority to prevent them from developing wetlands under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Federal regulators claim such regulation is clearly authorized by the CWA and is necessary to safeguard the nation’s waters. The landowners, for their part, assert that the federal government lacks the legal authority to regulate private land that lacks a substantial connection to navigable waters. Depending on how the Court resolves these disputes, control over millions of acres of private land may hang in the balance. Depends...

-snip- Last fall Mr. Peterson told a Senate subcommittee that when the government threatens to condemn people's property because it thinks someone else can make better use of it, "a majority of the time, most people agree to sell." Interesting. Given the choice between selling and fighting an expensive legal battle they will almost certainly lose, after which they will have to give up their land anyway, probably on less advantageous terms, most people "agree" to sell. -snip-

California’s property owners, incensed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Kelo decision, are going on the offensive with a ballot initiative that aims to limit the government’s sweeping eminent domain powers. But powerful developers who benefit from the status quo are sure to put up a fight. The California Property Owners Protection Act would eliminate the state and local governments’ ability to take personal property for non-public uses. Public uses would be strictly defined as the building of roads, parks, and public edifices. Non-public uses include the transferring of an individual’s land to another person or private entity. The initiative,...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 13, 2005 – Iraqi security units are taking the lead in preparing for the Dec. 15 national elections. This is the third election this year, and each time the amount of support coalition forces provide has been less, military officials said. The plan builds on experiences gained in the Jan. 30 National Assembly election and the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. Iraqi police will provide close-in protection at the polling stations. Iraqi public order battalions and Iraqi army soldiers will provide the next level of protection. This second ring of police and soldiers will search for suicide bombers and...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Nov. 3, 2005) -- When Marines departed Camp Lejeune, N.C. to continue the war on terrorism here, many said farewell to families knowing their next visit would have to wait until after the deployment. However, some married spouses never had to say goodbye. For married couple 1st Lt.’s Donald and Heather Traves, saying goodbye was more of a, “see you soon,” since they would be relatively close to each other deploying together. Although they are stationed on separate bases, this has not deterred the couple from keeping in touch, according to Donald, who is the officer in...

On July 1, Oakland took possession of two properties that housed two viable businesses -- Revelli Tires and Autohouse, which provided the livelihoods of John Revelli and Tony Fung -- by eminent domain so that a private developer can build apartments in the redevelopment zone. On Aug. 1, Oakland took possession of a parking lot about one block away -- on which owner Alex Hahn says he wants to build housing -- so that Sears can relocate its Auto Center on that lot. If you had to re-read the above paragraph, it is because this story makes no sense. Oakland,...

Millionaire charged with taking kickbacks from teachers' pension fund By Andy Shaw Stuart Levine August 3, 2005 — A politically connected businessman has been indicted for a second time on federal fraud charges. Stuart Levine is linked to a scam involving the Illinois Teachers Pension Fund along with one of the Democratic party's biggest fund raisers, Joseph Cari. The message from the feds Wednesday is crystal clear: Chicago City Hall is only one of the fronts in the war on government corruption. It also appears to be rampant at the boards and commissions that oversee billions of dollars in state...

Luck of the Draw or Theft of One's Neighbors Property? "Luck of draw for shelter seekers" (Pasadena Star News, July 1) depicts the luck of 160 people in a lottery for affordable units in the new upscale Trio Apartments under the City of Pasadena's Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~22097~2948469,00.html However, the burden of paying this invisible and unjust excise tax for these affordable units will be born by only a few of Pasadena landowners, not all the city's taxpayers or even the developers. A misconception is that it is "greedy" developers who pay for inclusionary housing programs. Nothing could be further...