Free Republic

SEATTLE — Only 10 active Houston Texans players stood for the national anthem with the rest of the team kneeling down. The Texans had indicated there would be some type of protest following comments by owner Bob McNair. McNair has issued two apologies and is attempting to explain his comments after a story in ESPN The Magazine this week revealed that he said "we can't have the inmates running the prison" during a meeting of NFL owners about players who protest by kneeling during the national anthem. There were reports the Texans would consider staying in the locker room for...

Labor - A mechanical grape harvester could be the answer to a shortage of farmworkers in Oregon's vineyards Surrounded by shiny new tractors, Carl Capps spends most days talking about horsepower, hydraulics and transmissions. He paid little attention to anti- and pro-immigrant-legalization activists who marched at the state Capitol. Then the immigration debate came to him last fall, after he sold a quarter-million-dollar machine that harvests wine grapes -- the first in the Willamette Valley. The New Holland Braud grape harvester can do the work of 40 handpickers in a fraction of the time. Suddenly, vineyard owners were calling Capps...

Harvesting Those Fetal Body Parts By Kelly Patricia O'Meara Scientists depend on human body parts for research they believe may yield breakthroughs in a number of diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, that affect millions of people. But the public largely is unaware of the way the laundry list of body parts for scientific research is filled. Those who oppose using human flesh for research wonder if knowing the gruesome details would make a difference to those who support the practice. Actual requests for body parts such as a "whole intact leg, including the entire hip joint," come with special...