Free Republic

Linda the Mandolin (with Twichard Marmorstein) provide a lullaby for sleep-deprived Freepers.

HARTFORD — Capping months of secretive talks, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and state-employee union leaders reached a deal Friday to save $1.6 billion over the next two years in exchange for a promise not to lay off unionized workers for the next four years. Malloy came up short of his goal of $2 billion in concessions and savings over two years, but the $400 million shortfall would be covered by spending cuts and better-than-expected tax collections. Malloy, his staff, and the unions all declined to provide details until the unionized workers are notified of the deal — a process that...

In February 2009 I wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal entitled “Reaganomics v Obamanomics,” which argued that the emerging outlines of President Obama’s economic policies were following in close detail exactly the opposite of President Reagan’s economic policies. As a result, I predicted that Obamanomics would have the opposite results of Reaganomics. That prediction seems to be on track. When President Reagan entered office in 1981, he faced actually much worse economic problems than President Obama faced in 2009. Three worsening recessions starting in 1969 were about to culminate in the worst of all in 1981-1982, with unemployment...

HARTFORD —— The drive to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana appears to be coming up short in the legislature this year. Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, conceded Friday that a bill to soften the penalty for possession of a half-ounce of pot or less does not currently have enough support in the chamber. "We did have a caucus last week and we were somewhat short of the number to pass it with purely Democratic votes,'' Looney said. "We may circle back around to that issue again.''

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - A decorated Marine's family cannot believe their loved one, who served two tours of duty overseas, is gone; never expecting him to die here at home at the hands of law enforcement. A Pima County Sheriff's Department SWAT team shot and killed Jose Guerena eight days ago; it was executing a search warrant. Four days ago, in a news conference, a sheriff's deputy said the department makes it clear when SWAT is about to enter a home. Lt. Michael O'Connor says SWAT says it never wants to be mistaken for other people, "We had our large...

Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker on Friday defended her decision to leave the agency for a lobbying job with cable provider Comcast and pushed back against critics who questioned her impartiality. Baker, who voted to allow Comcast to merge with NBC Universal last January, attracted considerable criticism this week when she said she was going to work for the newly merged company. Baker denied that she was compromised by any discussion with Comcast. “Not once in my entire tenure as a Commissioner had anyone at Comcast or NBC/Universal approached me about potential employment,” she said in a statement....

Secret tapes of former IRA members that could implicate Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, in dozens of murders in the 1970s have been demanded by American prosecutors acting on behalf of the British authorities. A subpoena has been received by Boston College for the tapes of interviews with Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, both one-time senior IRA figures, carried out by researchers for an oral history project. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams Hughes, a convicted IRA man who was once arrested with Mr Adams, died in 2008. A book “Voices from the Grave” by Ed Moloney, based on the...

WASILLA — When members of Wasilla High School’s symphonic jazz choir heard Friday it wouldn’t be singing the popular Queen hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” at this year’s graduation ceremony after working on it all year, the students couldn’t get their heads around it. WHS Principal Dwight Probasco reportedly had received complaints from at least one parent that the 1975 hit written by Freddie Mercury wasn’t appropriate for the ceremony simply because Mercury was gay. “The whole thing was just ridiculous,” senior Rachel Clark said Monday. “They’d played the song on the school intercom and we played it at prom.” Choir member...

A new law in Oklahoma that allows penalties of up to life in prison for converting marijuana into hashish has created an unintended byproduct: accusations of an unduly harsh, unnecessary law that will further clog the state's already-overcrowded prison system. "It makes little sense. I've never heard anything like it," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based advocacy organization. "It's just pure hysteria. Where did this idea even come from?" The law -- which was overwhelmingly approved by the Oklahoma Senate last month and later signed by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin on April 29...

May 13, 2011 Libyan rebels visit White House - ask for money Rick Moran The battlefield is a stalemate but that hasn't stopped the Libyan Transitional National Council from coming to Washington with its hand out. We're already supporting them to the tune of $53 million in humanitarian aid and another $25 million in "non-lethal" military support. But rebel spokesman Mahmoud Jebril has bigger plans; he wants up to $180 million of the billions in Gaddafi's assets that have been frozen by US banks. Fox News: Though the rebels still suffer deep divisions over their leadership and purpose and seem...

The Smithsonian's Alain Touwaide studies ancient books to identify medicines used thousands of years ago In 2002, Alain Touwaide came across an article about the discovery, some years before, of a medical kit salvaged from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Tuscany. Divers had brought up a copper bleeding cup, a surgical hook, a mortar, vials and tin containers. Miraculously, inside one of the tins, still dry and intact, were several tablets, gray-green in color and about the size of a quarter. Touwaide, a science historian in the botany department at the National Museum of Natural History, recognized that...

Divine Mercy Diary Exerpts   Jesus's words are in italics.  St. Faustina's words are in regular print.   "Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me." (1693)     "Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy." (300)     

Last week we asked our readers to vote for their favorite ballad or slow jam of all time. Votes were all over the place – from tracks by Pearl Jam to Elvis Presley to Lionel Richie. In the end it was very close, and there was a tie so we had to expand our standard top 10 to a top 12. If this survey has reinforced anything, it's that our readers really, really love Led Zeppelin.

Thirty years ago today, prior to the General Audience on this feast of Our Lady of Fatima, four shots failed to kill the Pope, but shook the world nonetheless.... YouTube Video of ShootingAs a friend who happened to be at the edge of the Square that day recently recalled the moment, "It sounded like firecrackers. And nobody knew what happened -- I thought 'They wouldn't have fireworks at the audience'.... "Then the car sped away, and word just spread. And nobody left." And as the crowd stayed, a picture of the "Black Madonna," Our Lady of Czestochowa -- the patroness...

Some media commentary on Sarah Palin continues to amuse me quite a bit. There are those who love to talk about how irrelevant she is — usually in the midst of a lengthy blog post or column that obsesses about something Palin recently said or tweeted. There are those who continue to distort her record, despite the surplus her policies afforded Alaska and a list of accomplishments that includes substantial spending reductions, incentivizing and expanding drilling for oil and natural gas, investing in state savings, and a commitment to transparency, ethics reform, and tackling corruption. And there are an array...

The story of Afshin Javid, a former member of Hezbollah who had a powerful encounter with Jesus in prison that shifted his whole life. Today he is a pastor and powerful speaker who uses his story to help others reach out to their neighbor.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has arrested three girls and is searching for two boys they say attacked a mother and her daughter near Terrytown playground in October for "fun." Robin Thomas, 17, Deshante Thomas, 12, and Jameel Lacour, 14, all of Gretna, were booked with aggravated battery and simple battery. The two Thomas girls were arrested in April, while Lacour was arrested on Wednesday, said Col. John Fortunato, a JPSO spokesman. Investigators are still searching for Bryson Henry, 16, of Gretna and Clyde Henry, 18, of Harvey in connection with the incident.Fortunato said that on Oct. 27, a 36-year...

The World Turned Upside Down — AgainWill the strains in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe resolve themselves — or are we on the brink of epochal change? Every once in a while, the world is turned upside down in just a few years, whether by ideological ferment or force of arms. We may be entering such a phase now — unsure whether the unrest in the Middle East, the rise of China, and the crisis in the EU will sputter and dissipate like the upheavals of 1848 or make the world unrecognizable in the way that Alexander the Great’s...

While states across the country are considering and passing bills to reject or nullify what many see as federal overreach in areas like health care, gun rights, medical marijuana, and more, the Texas State House struck a resounding blow tonight by becoming the nation’s first legislative body to pass a TSA nullification bill.House Bill 1937, introduced by Representative David Simpson, seeks to ban searches by TSA (and other) agents “without probable cause” as the 4th amendment requires. It states, in part:

A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that the Chicago Fire Department must hire 111 African Americans who passed a firefighters entrance exam 16 years ago and pay millions of dollars to thousands more who took and passed the same test. *** An attorney for the black firefighter candidates said that the 111 jobs would be filled from the applicants who passed the 1995 test and their pensions would be adjusted as if they'd been firefighters since 1995. And, said Joshua Karsh, 6,000 others who also passed the test will divide “tens of millions of dollars” that would have been...