Free Republic

Record numbers of people ended their lives in California last year in America's biggest doctor-assisted suicide program, after lawmakers made it easier for residents to get their hands on lethal drugs. Last year, 1,270 people got fatal prescriptions under the state's End of Life Option Act (ELOA), and 853 people used them to end their lives, the California Department of Public Health said in its annual report. That's a jump from 863 scripts and 522 deaths the previous year. The data come amid growing concerns that California, Oregon, and other US states are liberalizing their assisted-suicide programs too quickly and...

1. Warning: Hillary Can Win the Presidency A new report from a top financial services company has a warning for those who dismiss Hillary Clinton's chances of gaining the White House: Underestimate her at your own peril. "We're not making a flat prediction, but a plausible case can be made that she will become president on Jan. 20, 2009," writes Greg Valliere, chief political strategist with the Stanford Group Company, a research group. Here's Valliere's year-by-year scenario. Her 2005 plan: Keep moving toward the center on national security and social issues. A litmus test will be the senator's vote on the...