Free Republic

The state has identified $2.26 million in questionable expenses at the western Pennsylvania juvenile detention center involved in Luzerne County’s public corruption investigation, according to a draft audit obtained Wednesday. Those expenses include limousine rides to the King of Prussia Mall and NCAA basketball tournament, a fishing trip on Butler Township attorney Robert Powell’s yacht and a $3,500 custom-made suit for former Hazleton Mayor Mike Marsicano, the audit said. The state Department of Public Welfare launched the audit to determine if Western Pa. Child Care’s costs were accurate and “reasonable” because those costs drive the amount of state reimbursement given...

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - Hundreds of candlelight vigils calling for an end to the war in Iraq lit up the night Wednesday, part of a national effort spurred by one mother's anti-war demonstration near President Bush's ranch. The vigils were urged by Cindy Sheehan, who has become the icon of the anti-war movement since she started a protest Aug. 6 in memory of her son Casey, who died in Iraq last year. Sheehan says she will remain outside the president's ranch until he meets with her and other grieving families, or until his monthlong vacation there ends. Bush has said...

New York, August 16, 2005 – The General Secretary of the National Council of Churches is urging President Bush to join with Gold Star families and religious leaders in an interfaith prayer service outside the Bush ranch at noon (CDT) Friday,  The prayer service has been called by Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan “as an opportunity for Americans and others across the world to pray for our soldiers in Iraq, their families and in particular the mothers of our fallen.”   Sheehan, along with United Methodist laywoman Celeste Zappala and other Gold Star mothers, has been waiting outside the...

WASHINGTON — Pentagon police on Wednesday turned away family members of troops killed in Iraq who wanted to confront Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the reasons for the war in Iraq. The group of about 20 was stopped before entering Pentagon property by about a dozen officers, who told the protesters they did not have the proper permission to enter the building. Organizers said they have been petitioning for the meeting for weeks, but department officials are ignoring their requests. “The man who was too busy to personally sign the Killed in Action letters these families received is apparently...