Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) -- An upcoming New York City auction will feature the belongings of movie cowboy Roy Rogers - including the preserved remains of his famous horse, Trigger. Christie's in Manhattan held a preview Friday for next week's auction. The items are from the now-closed Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Mo.

Roy Rogers and his trusty steed Trigger may have come to the end of their "Happy Trails" - television's most famous horse is going on the auction block, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively. The beloved golden palomino's home, the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum, has closed - doomed by bitter family feuding, greed, mounting debts and IRS demands. Trigger - stuffed in a familiar pose, rearing majestically on hind legs - will join Dale Evans' horse Buttermilk, their beloved German shepherd Bullet and other Rogers memorabilia in bidding that's expected to reach into the multimillions of dollars. Fans around the...

Democratic senators continued to remain bullish on the chances of creating a government-run public option as part of healthcare reform. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted Sunday that last week's Medicare doc fix vote was a sign of trouble to come for Democrats in trying to rally enough votes to push through a government-run health insurance option. Senate Democratic Caucus chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is very close to getting the 60 votes needed to move forward with a healthcare reform bill in the Senate. Schumer echoed the calls of...

A key swing vote on healthcare reform said Sunday she would not support a public option "trigger" -- a series of benchmarks that, if not met by a certain time, would authorize the creation of a government insurance program.

Here is video of GOP Sen. Susan Collins saying she will NOT support a Health Care Bill with a "Public Option," or a "Trigger" for a "Public Option." She made the statement to CNN's John King. Collins is one Republican Democrats have thought they could convince to support ObamaCare, but she said flatly in this video she will not support the "Public Option." Collins rightly said that a "trigger" only delays implementation of a "Public Option." To vote for a "trigger" when it is the Government who will decide if the "trigger" needs to be used, is to guarantee an...

Predictions for what Obama may propose tomorrow night? It think it’s fairly clear that he will not be insisting upon a public option. There is the possibility of something along the lines of the bill that democratic Senator Max Baucus is working on, which would involve “public cooperatives” (whatever precisely that really means) rather than a public option, plus a requirement that all citizens obtain health insurance. But I think that’s improbable. Instead, I think what we’re probably going to hear from Obama is a proposal for the so-called “trigger.” The “trigger” means that the public option is only “triggered”...

President Obama has decided that another oration will rejuvenate his health-care agenda—despite having given 27 speeches entirely on health care, and another 92 in which it figured prominently. We'll see how tomorrow night's Congressional appeal works out, but the important maneuvers are taking place in the cloak rooms, as the White House tries to staple together a majority. The latest political gimmick is the notion of a "trigger" for the public option: A new government program for the middle class would only come on line if private insurance companies fail to meet certain benchmarks, such as lowering overall health spending...

Government Insurance 'Trigger' Draws Bipartisan Criticism in Health Care DebateFOXNews.com Sunday, September 06, 2009 Conservatives and liberals alike are puncturing the latest trial balloon in the health care reform debate, finding flaws with a proposal that would keep a government-run health insurance plan on reserve in case private insurance companies don't meet certain benchmarks. The so-called "trigger" has been floated by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a member of the "gang of six" Senate negotiators who are trying to broker a bipartisan compromise. Under such an option, if agreed-upon goals are not met by the insurance industry, then that would pull...

Obama and friends are taking a play from the Hillary Clinton playbook....proposing a "trigger" Socialist takeover of health care instead of a single payer system from the start: My colleague Dana Bash and I have learned from a source, each one of us, that this White House right now is very quietly in serious conversations with Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, a key moderate. She is basically the last Republican out of those gang of six senators who have been negotiating, really the last Republican that has an open line to this White House right now. What we're hearing that she's...

An unnamed expert believes that a nuclear explosion caused the recent 8.0 magnitude Sichuan earthquake in China, where three weeks after the catastrophe the death toll has reached 69,000 plus. Overseas Chinese website Boxun News reported that the expert confirmed there was a nuclear explosion near the epicenter, based on witness reports and the discovery of concrete rubble believed to have come from an underground military installation.

More than 760,000 California homeowners who buy earthquake insurance through a state-run authority could see their premiums rise under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the measure's supporters say that without the legislation homeowners could be hit with even bigger rate increases. The measure by Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, creates a new $1.3 billion underwriting requirement for insurance companies participating in the California Earthquake Authority program. That $1.3 billion requirement will replace a $2.2 billion insurance industry commitment that's scheduled to expire on Dec. 1, 2008. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer opposed the legislation, predicting it would force...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police broke into a darkened flat fearing they would find a dead body after neighbours complained of a nasty smell seeping out onto the staircase. The shutters of the apartment had been closed for more than a week and the post-box was filled with uncollected mail. But instead of a corpse police found a tenant with badly smelling feet asleep in bed next to a pile of foul-smelling laundry, police in the south-western town of Kaiserslautern said on Sunday.

A star that survived a massive explosion – only to be destroyed in a second blast just two years later – has piqued the curiosity of astronomers. Its bizarre death might be due to the production of antimatter in its core towards the end of its life. The star that exploded appears to have been a massive type called a Wolf-Rayet star, which begin their lives with more than 40 times the mass of the Sun. It exploded in a galaxy 77 million light years from Earth, with the first blast occurring on 20 October 2004. It was so bright...

'Trigger happy' US worries Putin By Our Foreign Staff Last Updated: 1:44am GMT 27/02/2007 The president of Russia expressed concern yesterday about a "trigger happy" America as speculation mounted about the Bush administration's plans to attack Iran's nuclear sites. In a televised exchange during a cabinet meeting, Vladimir Putin was told by his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, that "predictions that strikes will be conducted against Iran have become more common, and this causes concern". "Those who are discussing this topic include the US vice president [Dick Cheney] who said that he did not exclude such an option," he added. In...

Bird Flu Mutations Likely to Trigger Pandemic Identified Thursday, November 16, 2006 By Daniel J. DeNoon Either of two simple bird flu virus mutations could trigger a deadly pandemic, Japanese scientists warn. Both mutations already have popped up in humans infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. They've been seen in bird flu viruses isolated from two people in Azerbaijan and from one person in Iraq, according to the Japanese scientists. Neither mutation has been seen among the more than 600 H5N1 viruses isolated from birds. The two human mutations give the bird flu virus the ability to attach to...

Did residents of this idyllic wine country town illegally plant an endangered flower to sabotage a proposed housing development? That's the question at the heart of a quarrel folks here have dubbed "Foamgate." Bob Evans, a 72-year-old retired elementary school principal, says he was walking with his dog last year when he came upon the tiny white flowers of Sebastopol meadowfoam poking from shallow pools of water in a grassy field. The former bean farm happens to be the chosen site of the 20-acre Laguna Vista housing development. Evans and other opponents seized on the discovery of the federally protected...

'Jews are our enemy. I will pull the trigger whenever required' Jane Flanagan in Gaza City (Filed: 23/04/2006) Jamal Abu Samhadana had just been appointed chief of the Palestinian security services, but his supporters saw no reason to celebrate. Instead of driving around the potholed streets firing their AK47s in the air, his advisers gathered in a tin-roofed hut in a remote part of the Gaza territory, safe - they hoped - from prying ears. Jamal Abu Samhadana For now is a dangerous time to be the Palestinians' security supremo, and Abu Samhadana's allies know that even if the Israelis...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A spectacular series of thunderstorms rolled through Southern California, bringing walnut-sized hail and bursts of heavy rain that triggered mudslides and shut down the main highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Parts of the region remained under a severe weather watch early Tuesday. Interstate 5 was closed for about five hours Monday in both directions about 65 miles north of Los Angeles, because of mudslides and up to four feet of standing water on the road, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Johnny Fisher. "There's a few feet of mud all over the roadway," Fisher said....

Trigger-happy US troops 'will keep us in Iraq for years' By Sean Rayment (Filed: 15/05/2005) British defence chiefs have warned United States military commanders in Iraq to change their rules for opening fire or face becoming bogged down in a terrorist war for a decade or more. The Telegraph has learnt that the warning was issued last month in response to a series of incidents that led to the deaths of Iraqi civilians, mainly at checkpoints, after soldiers opened fire in the mistaken belief that they were being attacked by suicide bombers. US soldiers secure the site of an explosion...

Cannabis use as a teenager increases the risk of developing schizophrenia in later life, a study using research on New Zealand youths has revealed. A report in the British Medical Journal showed those who used cannabis as a teenager had a 10 per cent chance of developing psychosis by the age of 26. The general public have a 3 per cent risk. The conclusions were based on a study by the Institute of Psychiatry in London of 759 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between 1972 and 1973. That report was used and supported by Dutch researcher Dr Jim van...