Free Republic

By KATU Web Staff BEAVERTON, Ore. - A transformer caught fire at a PGE substation in Beaverton, causing more than 50,000 customers to lose power Saturday night. The fire started at a substation at Southwest 158th Avenue and Southwest Jenkins Road about 7:45 p.m., PGE officials said. The blaze caused PGE to "de-energize" the substation, which serves more than 50,000 customers in Hillsboro, Aloha, Beaverton, Banks and Gaston. Fire officials said several explosions accompanied the fire. About 25 firefighters were pulled back from the blaze due to safety concerns on the scene, said Karen Eubanks, a spokeswoman for Tualatin Valley...

Training Academy Gets 36 New Motorcycles Vehicles will give Afghan National Police more mobility to track down insurgents. By Army Sgt. Mayra Kennedy 345th Mobile Public Affairs Detachmen KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Aug. 11, 2006 -- The Afghan National Police in Regional Command South received 36 new motorcycles here Aug. 8 to support local authorities. Regional Command South police commander, Gen. Esmatullah Dawlatzai, accepted the motorcycles, knowing the new equipment will improve the efficiency of the police in the south. “The motorcycles will help us follow insurgents and Taliban, and it will be good for our men to do their...

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...

In his first political firestorm since taking office in January, Gov. Jon S. Corzine said Wednesday that he provided $5,000 in bail money to a lobbyist accused of stalking a state assemblyman. "I reacted as a human being responding to someone in need," the multimillionaire Democrat said. "However, in light of my position as governor, I realize this was a mistake." Karen Golding, a government relations manager for insurance giant Prudential Financial, is accused of breaking into the government-issued car of Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, a Democrat, and of writing threatening letters and making threatening calls to Cryan and others. Authorities...

With regard to the initiative to alter the way Presidential Electors are selected in Colorado, the idea of voting on a measure to change the way an election is conducted for that very same election is patently absurd. One does not change the rules once the process is already underway. On a more substantive note, the proposal in question would essentially eliminate the Electoral College without a U.S. Constitutional Amendment. Presidents are elected by the States, not a general national plebiscite. The purpose is to maintain the integrity of our republic. Without the Electoral College process, states with lesser populations...

Conjoining Storms Overview If the United States now finds itself in a new an unacceptably high domestic, economic, and geo-political risk position then "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America," (NSS) formulates a strategy to mitigate these risks. http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html Conjoining Storms Highly probable scenarios can be constructed to illustrate the unusually high level of risk exposure present in the world and relevant to the security interests of United States. Rogue Nations and Proliferation Inherent Vulnerability of an Integrated and Global Economic Systems Regional Conflict Flash-Points Including Unresolved Historic Or Artificial Boarder Conflict Points Theocracy and Diametrically Opposed...