Free Republic

The city of Kannapolis is taking its "Dale Trail" banners down at the request of Castle & Cooke, the developers of the N.C. Research Center — and they won't be going back up. According to e-mails, California billionaire David Murdock, owner of Castle & Cook, is coming to town Saturday with a very important guest and wants to put the "best face on the city." The banners along with a statue in Cannon Village honor the town's most famous native, Dale Earnhardt, who died in a last lap wreck in the Daytona 500 in 2001. And according to the e-mails,...

Here's an interesting dilemma for Obama. Assume, as appears likely, that he will NOT choose Hillary as his running mate, then he has another tough problem on his hands. How many Clintons will get to speak at the DNC, and more importantly, in what time slots? Can he afford to allow both Hillary AND Bill ( How many times will Bubba use the word "I" in his address) prime-time exposure? And who's more important, a former President who until recently was the darling of the party faithful, or the candidate whom he narrowly beat, and has been making his life...

DAYTONA, FL - When you visit Orange Grove Baptist Church, the first thing you see is a lot of the number three. The number is on the cars, on the trucks, in the nursery, and even in the worship center. You may think, "Wow, they really like the Trinity here." They may, but that is not the reason for the ubiquitous 3. "We really like Dale Earnhardt, and we know he is part of 'Heaven's Racing Team,'" said deacon Frank Drake. This type of obsession is probably harmless in most places, but not in Daytona, a hotbed of NASCAR. However,...

Treasury, Citing Progress Against Budget Deficit, Says It Is Dropping the 3-Year Note WASHINGTON (AP) -- With budget deficits improving, the government said Wednesday it is discontinuing sales of three-year Treasury notes. The Treasury Department said the last auction of three-year notes will occur next week as part of the regular series of quarterly debt auctions used to help finance the $8.8 trillion federal government debt. The government's borrowing needs peaked in the 2004 budget year, when the federal deficit hit an all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion. Since that time, the deficit has declined for three straight...

Amputee Found Fit to Be Firefighter for New Jersey City After Doctor Turned Him Down PATERSON, N.J. Mar 14, 2007 (AP)— Nearly a year after a city doctor said an amputated leg was the only reason Isaac Feliciano wasn't fit to become a firefighter, he got clearance to pursue his boyhood dream. A state panel on Wednesday ordered that Feliciano be allowed to enter training as a Paterson firefighter despite losing his left leg below the knee as a young child. Feliciano, who wears a prosthetic leg, said he was excited and relieved at the ruling from the state Merit...

Saddam Hussein could be hanged within days after the rejection of his appeal by Iraq's highest court yesterday. The former Iraqi dictator was sentenced to death in November over the killing of 148 Shia Muslims from the town of Dujail in 1982. He is facing another trial accused of genocide against the Kurds - but that may now never be completed. The death sentence from the first trial must be implemented within 30 days, the chief judge, Aref Shahin, said yesterday, hinting that it could come even sooner: "From tomorrow, any day could be the day of implementation." Iraq's prime...

BISBEE — A Mexican man pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges he stole a pickup truck and dragged a Sheriff’s deputy during a March traffic stop in Huachuca City, breaking the deputy’s ankle in the process. Hugo Rodr’guez Pelagio, 24, of Tangancicuaro, Michoacan state, will serve three years in prison and pay up to $200 in restitution as part of a plea agreement with the state. According to an arrest report from the Sheriff’s Department, Rodr’guez Pelagio was stopped at about 2:38 a.m. on March 21 as he was driving with an unidentified passenger along Highway 90 northbound in a...

LOS ANGELES - Ronald Isley has been sentenced to three years and one month in prison for tax evasion. The 65-year-old R&B singer was also ordered to pay $3.1 million in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Conte. Isley was convicted last year of five counts of tax evasion and one count of willful failure to file a tax return. During Friday's hearing, defense attorney Anthony Alexander argued that Isley should receive probation instead of prison time because of complications from a stroke and a recent bout with kidney cancer. Alexander also pleaded for...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2006 – Three coalition force soldiers were injured in a weapons accident at Camp Echo, Iraq, yesterday. Meanwhile, a hostage was released based on a tip and nine suspected insurgents were detained in three separate incidents on Aug 23, according to officials in Iraq. One American and two Polish soldiers wounded in the Camp Echo incident early yesterday morning were treated immediately at the base military hospital. The American soldier and one of the Polish soldiers were transported to the military hospital in Baghdad for further treatment, and their status was listed as stable yesterday, officials said....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Iraqi army forces captured three death squad leaders during raids in Baghdad Aug. 18. The captured leaders allegedly participated in a massacre of Iraqi families last month, U.S. military officials reported. Coalition advisers provided support during the raids, and all three suspects were captured without incident. The men allegedly participated in a July 9 ambush of Iraqi families at a checkpoint in the al Jihad area, officials said. One of the captured leaders is a senior-level insurgent believed to be the overall organizer of the massacre. Another is a senior-level insurgent leader whose cell allegedly...

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Nearly 3,500 Sailors and Marines of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 3 returned to San Diego Aug. 16 following a six-month deployment to the western Pacific and the Persian Gulf. ESG 3 participated in maritime security operations, protected Iraqi oil platforms in the Persian Gulf and participated in various multinational exercises. Numerous family members, friends and other supporters eagerly gathered at the base for the group’s long-awaited come back. “I can’t wait to see my husband,” said Anita Elevado, as she held their four-month-old son while waiting for Boatswain’s Mate 3rd Class Francis Mark Elevado assigned to...

U.S. Army Spc. Lindaann Galeai, who mans the computer help desk for Task Force 3, practices grenade throwing in mobilization training at Fort McCoy, Wis. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Sam McClarty Task Force 3 Trains to Deploy Medical personnel undergo training to prepare them for combat duty in Iraq. By U.S. Army Maj. Bob Hart 3rd MEDCOM Public Affairs Officer FORT MCCOY, Wis., July 19, 2006 -- Medical care in Operation Iraqi Freedom has progressed to the point that soldiers who are injured there are now surviving at the highest rate in U.S. military history. One of...

LYMAN, S.C. - A couple was jailed on felony charges after police discovered their three adopted sons were severely malnourished, including a 5-year-old boy who weighed less than 20 pounds. An 8-year-old brother weighed less than 40 pounds and a 7-year-old brother weighed about 32 pounds when police found them Thursday. The boys also were treated for bruises, scratches, burns and head lice. Two of the boys told officers they were tied up to be kept from food in the mobile home. Dennis McCurry, 30, and Molly McCurry, 29, were each charged with three counts of intentional infliction of great...

(IsraelNN.com) Three Hamas terrorists were shot dead in the Dahaniyeh area of Gaza on Sunday night, thereby preventing a suicide bombing attack against soldiers. The three were detected moving towards soldiers when troops fired at them, killing all three. It was learned that two of them were carrying bomb belts on their bodies, reportedly intended to blow themselves up near soldiers

TUALATIN, Ore. - They may not be soft and cuddly, but James "Bugs" Brown said his three alligators are beloved pets. He said the gators _ Chomper, Hisser and Snapper _ are like family. And he'd rather move than cave to the pressure from the city to get rid of them. Brown has lived in the city for 26 years and his oldest alligator has been with him since 1985. But recent concerns from a neighbor prompted the City of Tualatin to push Brown to say "see ya later" to his pets. The neighbor runs a daycare out of her...

Next month Rebecca Scheible will say goodbye to her mom, husband and five kids and embark on a journey it seems she’s been destined for since she became a nurse and joined the Army. Tending to the sick and wounded during wartime is what her family does. “It’s always felt like something I was born to do. I feel very prepared to go and do it. I really don’t know any other job,” said Scheible, who comes from three generations of Army nurses. “I feel ready and very proud and humbled, like I have great shoes to fill.”

PHOENIX — The federal government charged three men Friday with smuggling people for financial gain after a deadly wreck near Sonoita. They are charged with bringing 21 illegal immigrants into the United States, according to the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona. Fernando Montes-Carrillo and David Ezquiel Tellez-Gutierrez, both Mexican citizens born in 1974, and Juan Carols Pineda-Navvaro, a U.S. citizen born in 1986, are charged with being co-conspirators involved with transporting illegal immigrants for private financial gain. Two were allegedly drivers of trucks carrying illegal immigrants, one of which crashed in Santa Cruz County on Thursday, killing...

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job...

Among those gathered Saturday to listen to Sen. John McCain in Iraq were Arizonans Maj. Cecil MacPherson, 34, and Sgt. Glenn Hawkins, 32, of the U.S. Army, who are serving there. Army Sgt. Brad Owensby of Dudleyville — northeast of Tucson near Winkelman — also managed to squeeze in a few moments of face time with McCain afterward. "I was surprised that he knew of the town where I was from," Owensby said in a telephone interview Saturday from Baghdad. Each of the men had their personal reasons for going to see McCain, though Hawkins joked he was decidedly less...

Just heard on the radio......

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Thousands of fans surged through security barriers Saturday at an autograph session for a wildly popular Mexican band, leaving three people crushed to death and 38 injured, mostly teenagers. The incident came only weeks after police in New Jersey and Texas also struggled to contain unexpectedly large turnouts of fans for the RBD band, which stars in the television show "Rebelde." The show has made RBD one of the most popular groups in Latin America and among Spanish-speaking communities in the United States. Between 10,000 and 15,000 fans gathered outside a shopping center in Sao Paulo...

Remember Cooter the New Orleans Looter? He became an Internet phenom after everyone photoshopped his image. See here: [url=http://www.cooterthelooter.com]Cooter the New Orleans Looter [/url] Imagine a website for a photoshop contest of Mohamed? I'd bet word of it would spread like wildfire and soon Drudge, James Toronto, Little Green Football would spread the word all over the Internet. Nothing would piss Muslims off more if the creativity is anywhere near what Cooter the Looter has attained. What do you think about it?

TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 12, 2006) – Two kidnapped Iraqi men were freed, three weapons caches discovered and 21 anti-Iraqi suspects were detained in northern Iraq Jan. 11. Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division were patrolling Wednesday afternoon in Khadasia when they surprised a group of men gathered around two vehicles. The vehicles raced away as the patrol approached. One vehicle escaped, but the Iraqi troops were able to stop the second. The Soldiers quickly disarmed the two suspects and searched the vehicle. The victims were found bound and gagged in the car’s...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 18, 2005) -- While growing up in the countryside, three cousins from Colfax, La., were inseparable; eventually these boys would grow closer as Marines. Staff Sergeants Marcus L. Allen, 35, Derrick D. Eddie, 32, and Adrian C. Bowie, 35, all on their first deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, share a brotherhood deeper than the typical combat zone camaraderie. The three brothers-in-arms grew up only minutes from each other surrounded by their close-knit family. “We did everything together,” said Allen, security manager, II Marine Expeditionary Force , Headquarters Group, II MEF (FWD). “We played basketball,...

The day before terrorists attacked New York and Washington, a fifth-grader in a Dallas suburb told his teacher World War III would begin the next day, school officials have told the FBI. The boy was absent from school the day of the attacks, Sept. 11, and the following day, but has been at school since then, said Rhonda Lucich, a director of elementary education for the Garland Independent School District. Lucich said the boy approached his teacher on the afternoon of Sept. 10 and casually told her: "Tomorrow, World War III will begin. It will begin in the United States,...

Hurricane-Felled Timber Worth Billions United Press International U.S. timber companies are scrambling to harvest tons of timber felled by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The companies are moving as quickly as possible to recover the millions of trees before they rot, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Industry analysts estimate that more than 20 billion board feet are down, enough to build 1 million houses. Timber down in Louisiana is worth $900 million; in Mississippi, the felled timber is worth $2.4 billion, experts estimate.

Orleans council meets for first time since storm By JOE GYAN JR. jgyan@theadvocate.com New Orleans bureau KENNER -- Several New Orleans levees that failed during Hurricane Katrina and caused catastrophic flooding in parts of the city will be back to their pre-Katrina heights by the start of next year's hurricane season, a top U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official promised City Council members who met as a group Tuesday for the first time since the hurricane. But several council members who lost their homes in the storm said having the same level of levee protection as before -- capacity to...

Police searched Saturday for three suspects involved in a robbery that erupted in gunfire at a medical marijuana dispensary, leaving one of the gunmen fatally injured The shootout occurred shortly after 11:30 a.m. Friday as employees and the store owner were preparing to open Natural Source and were met by five gunmen armed with semiautomatic rifles. The robbers forced the employees inside, then began taking marijuana and cash, said Lt. Dale Amaral of the Alameda County Sheriff's Department

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New York Times Urges: Forget 9/11 By Isaiah Z. Sterrett Oct 21, 2004 Forget about 9/11. It’s no longer important. In fact, it never even happened. Just ask Tom Friedman. In a truly revolting column entitled “Addicted to 9/11,” Friedman recently argued that Americans should forget about the slaughter of 3,000 of our fellow countrymen. “[M]any Americans,” he wrote, “are worried…that terrorism is transforming us and our society, when it was supposed to be about uprooting the terrorists and transforming their societies.” (By “many Americans” Friedman means “me and Al Gore.”) Yes, terrorism is transforming our society. Whereas four years...

After talking with some left-wing friends this weekend, I realized now more than ever that the question of whether to vote for Bush or Kerry truly boils down to another question, “A war for our lives, or a nuisance to our lifestyle?” The later question was asked on Friday by eminent historian Victor David Hanson. He answers it with honesty and erudition, but leaves out a very important point: the fear factor. Hanson correctly identifies Kerry et al’s penchant for wanting to solve our foreign policy disputes through diplomatic bureaucracy ad nauseum -- e.g., the United Nations. He hints at...

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/9895402.htm?1c

The expansive agenda President Bush laid out at the Republican National Convention was missing a price tag, but administration figures show the total is likely to be well in excess of $3 trillion over a decade. A staple of Bush's stump speech is his claim that his Democratic challenger, John F. Kerry, has proposed $2 trillion in long-term spending, a figure the Massachusetts senator's campaign calls exaggerated. But the cost of the new tax breaks and spending outlined by Bush at the GOP convention far eclipses that of the Kerry plan. Bush's pledge to make permanent his tax cuts, which...

"I know it when I see it" was the famous response by a U.S. Supreme Court justice to the vexed problem of defining pornography. Terrorism may be no less difficult to define, but the wanton killing of schoolchildren, of mourners at a funeral, or workers at their desks in skyscrapers surely fits the know-it-when-I-see-it definition.The press, however, generally shies away from the word terrorist, preferring euphemisms. Take the assault that led to the deaths of some 400 people, many of them children, in Beslan, Russia, on September 3. Journalists have delved deep into their thesauruses, finding at least twenty euphemisms...

The Bronx Bombers and their big spending boss, George Steinbrenner, are closin in on a deal with city and state officials to build a gleaming new Yankee Stadium in a park next to the House that Ruth Built. The team is in the final sages of planning for a new $700 million "state of the art" stadium, a source close to the Yankees said yesterday. But the team denied a story in Crain's New york Business that an announcement can be expected in the next two weeks.

Caribbean floods left 3,300 dead, missing Jun. 5, 2004. 08:51 AM PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - The toll of dead and missing from floods that ravaged parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic was set at more than 3,300 on Friday as aid workers reached the most remote areas. In Haiti, the official death toll was at 1,191 and the number of missing at 1,484. The figures on the Dominican side of the border were 395 dead and 274 missing. That brought the overall toll to at least 3,344 from flooding caused by days of rains that unleashed torrents of water...

Woman shot during dispute over $3 By Keri Kirby / kerikirby@gannett.com We can no longer post full articles from the Shreveport Times. One can check their website, shreveporttimes.com for this unusual human-interest story about out-of-control passion.

52 mins 40 secs 3-day listing Ends Feb-21-04 21:14:35 PST This 1983 RUSSIAN MIG 29 is very rare and this owner has two MINT CONDITION ONES, here in the United States This current RUSSIAN FIGHTER JET IS COMPLETE. CALL...it has only 40hours Since New (TTSN)Total Airframe hours. The 2 Engines Jet Engines have 0 Zero time. Call with any questions, this aircraft is registered in the US and has an FAA N registration number. It has an N number.Call 360-474-8993 for Pre-approval before placing a bid. PLEASE IF YOU ARE NOT A SERIOUS BUYER, PLEASE DO NOT WASTE OUR TIME......

New Afghan army hit by 3,000 deserters (Filed: 12/01/2004) Thousands of soldiers have deserted the fledgling Afghan National Army after completing training by instructors from the United States, Britain and France, the defence ministry in Kabul said yesterday. "Some 3,000 ANA soldiers have fled the army," said the ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi. He said that unless they returned, the recruits would have to pay for their training. The desertions are a serious blow to the nascent ANA, which the ministry says numbers around 10,000 troops but international observers say is closer to 7,000-strong. Even though it is forecast...

'Expect al-Qaeda to attack every 3 months' January 07 2004 at 01:27PM Singapore - Al-Qaeda is expected to launch attacks every three months in 2004, with growing threats from a number of smaller terrorist organisations, an international terrorist expert warned on Wednesday. "As the memory of September 11 recedes, the West is likely to witness another mass casualty attack on Western soil," Rohan Gunaratna told a south-east Asian outlook forum in Singapore. Before September 11, the network launched an attack every two years, but since then, there has been one al-Qaeda-linked attack every three months, he said. Singapore-based Gunaratna, the...

Maybe you’ve cruised past the church marquee in the middle of a sweltering summer afternoon that read: YOU THINK IT’S HOT HERE? For some reason, making light of such a heavy topic just doesn’t seem right to me — though of course I know what they’re trying to accomplish. Hell. It’s not a popular subject these days. No one wants to talk about it, much less go there. I have a friend who actually wrote a full-blown, hardback book on hell. Needless to say, it wasn’t a bestseller! Part of me wants to forget I ever heard the word. I...

<p>North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley brushed a NASCAR race car against a track wall while driving about 165 mph Friday but said he was not hurt, only "a little embarrassed."</p> <p>Easley was driving one of Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 car at Lowe's Motor Speedway to practice for pace laps in next week's Winston race when the car hit the so-called soft inside retaining wall at Turn 2.</p>

Here I go again with something that came by email. I don't know if y'all have seen it somewhere else - it's worth sharing and looking at again and again and again. http://www.mwarrior.com/Utah%20flag%20Memorial.htm ... and yes the website works.

The Supreme Court delivered a cruel ruling this week when it threw out the appeals of two men sentenced under California's "three strikes and you're out" law. One of the men received 25 years without parole for stealing golf clubs, and the other 50 years for stealing children's videotapes. Such wildly disproportionate sentencing clearly violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But in a 5-to-4 decision, the court said it did not. Gary Ewing, who shoplifted three golf clubs from a pro shop, and Leandro Andrade, who stole a few videotapes from a Kmart, were both prosecuted...