Free Republic

Meeting with the Twelve at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked, “Whom say ye that I am?” Simon Peter, the chief Apostle answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:15–16). Peter later testified that Jesus “was foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20). He was “in the beginning with the Father, and [is] the Firstborn” (D&C 93:21). When the Father’s plan—the plan of salvation and happiness (see Alma 34:9)—was presented (see Alma 42:5, 8), one was required to atone to provide redemption and mercy to all those who accepted the plan (see Alma 34:16;...

<p>Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.</p>

WASHINGTON - A government safety agency is pushing to require all home furnishings sold in the U.S. to be nonflammable. The Consumer Product Safety Commission advanced a proposal Friday that would require consumer upholstered furniture to be smolder- and flame-resistant, which is not required now, said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the agency. The agency has been trying to advance the measure for more than 10 years, she said.(snip) Russell Long, vice president of environmental group Friends of the Earth, called the proposal "a tremendous victory for both fire safety as well as the protection of public health."

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world body on Thursday to create a single agency to empower women and girls and fight for their rights. In an address to mark International Women's Day, Ban said the 192-member United Nations should take the lead in the global battle with a fully funded new agency that combines the work currently done by three different U.N. bodies. "Such a new body should be able to call on all of the U.N. system's resources in the work to empower women and realize gender equality worldwide," Ban said. "It should mobilize...

California's stem cell agency on Friday doled out nearly $45 million in research grants to about 20 state universities and nonprofit research laboratories, far exceeding the federal government's annual outlays for the controversial work. In issuing the first significant research grants in its two-year history, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine became the biggest financial backer of human embryonic stem cell research. Two lawsuits challenging the state agency's constitutionality have prevented it from borrowing $3 billion from Wall Street bond markets. The first research grants came from a $150 million loan from the state and another $31 million in loans...

SAN DIEGO ---- Regional planners are polling San Diego County residents to see if they would support a special "quality of life" tax to fund beach-sand replenishment, open-space purchases, habitat restoration and water-quality programs, an agency official said Thursday. The funding source could come in the form of a sales, property, hotel or rental-car tax, and could appear on the county ballot in 2008, said Rob Rundle, principal planner for the San Diego Association of Governments, the county's regional planning agency. Rundle said results of the telephone poll of 2,000 county registered voters will be reported to the association board...

It's time for the United States to have a national climate service - an interagency partnership led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and charged with understanding climate dynamics, forecasts and impacts - say six members of the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group. Their views appear online this week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Unlike the National Weather Service, which forecasts weather up to a week in advance and sometimes two weeks in advance, a national climate service ideally would help with forecasts of climate fluctuations that might be expected...

PARIS (Reuters) - A satellite has detected record losses of ozone over Antarctica this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Monday, further damaging the shield that protects the Earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. In the past decade, the level of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere has fallen by about 0.3 percent, increasing the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and harm to marine life, ESA added. The presence of a hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic was first recognized in 1985. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said earlier this month that the hole was nearing its record...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service employees were offered financial incentives to push immigration applications through the system quickly and eliminate a backlog of nearly 4 million such applications in time to meet a presidential deadline, the Daily Bulletin has learned. Employees and internal documents also reveal that the backlog is not actually gone, but that millions of applications in process have been reclassified to fall outside the backlog definition and help the agency meet an October deadline set by President Bush in 2003. The pressure to reduce the backlog, combined with the promise of bonuses for faster work, led to...

SACRAMENTO A day after President Bush vetoed a measure that would have expanded federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday authorized a $150 million loan to fund the state's moribund stem cell institute, which has been stalled by lawsuits. The move has distinct political benefits for the governor who is seeking to put as much distance as possible between himself and the deeply unpopular president as he seeks re-election this year. Schwarzenegger said the state cannot afford to wait to fund the critical science associated with stem cells. "I remain committed to advancing stem...

WASHINGTON - The Homeland Security Department is studying whether legal immigrants seeking citizenship and other benefits should pay higher application fees. The fees now charged don't reflect the full cost of doing business, Emilio Gonzalez, director of the department's Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday. Applying for citizenship now costs $330. Applying for a green card conveying legal residency costs $325. Applicants also now pay a $70 fingerprinting fee in each case. "American citizenship is priceless," said Gonzalez, a naturalized citizen. "I think people will pay." The study will review costs of facility improvements, training, equipment and technology and determine...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday named a former aide to Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Steve Westly as head of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Linda Adams, 57, a Democrat from Sacramento with a long history in state government, will come out of retirement to lead the agency at a time when the Schwarzenegger administration is advancing its initiative to reduce greenhouse gases in the state. "This was an opportunity I could not pass up," Adams said in an interview with The Associated Press. "There is so much going on in the area of climate change and global warming." Adams worked in...

BETHESDA, Md., May 18, 2006 – It might not be a household name, like, say, the CIA, but the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is an integral part of the U.S. intelligence community. Satellite Image of Islamabad, Pakistan. Courtesy of National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency   Geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, is the collecting and analysis of satellite imagery of the earth's surface. The mission of the agency, headquartered here, is to provide that type of intelligence to support national security objectives. "If it's something manmade or natural on the face of the earth and it has national security implications, then we map it, chart...

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a New York-based wire service that serves Jewish newspapers worldwide, launched a scorching four-part series on the Ford Foundation. Written by investigative reporter Edwin Black, the series, "Funding Hate," alleged that Ford had provided financial support to several Palestinian nongovernmental organizations accused of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic behavior at the United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, in late summer 2001. A Ford spokesman denied the thrust of Black's allegations: "We have seen no indication that our grantees in Durban or elsewhere engaged in anti-Semitic speech or activities." One month later, after a political...

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 – Every day, officials at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency track the status of efforts to find 20 Americans believed to still be alive but "isolated" outside the United States. In personnel recovery terminology, isolated personnel are U.S. servicemembers, Defense Department civilians, or contractors separated from their unit who are or may be in a situation where they must survive, evade, resist or escape, a specialist in these "SERE" techniques said here yesterday. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Shawn E. Cross, a SERE specialist at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va., described his unit's...

In the leak scandal that led to five indictments for a top-level White House official, reports this week cite that former US Central Intelligence Agency employee Valerie Plame was allegedly following Iran's nuclear activities before her identity was revealed. Democrat Party Senator Frank Lautenberg, in a letter to CIA Director Porter Goss, asked for an evaluation of the harm outing Plame has caused. In the letter, the Senator reminds Director Goss of recent news stories which report that before Plame was outed, she participated in intelligence works on the Iranian nuclear dossier, and her subsequent outing gravely jeopardized the US’...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 226 pounds of marijuana, 112 pounds of cocaine and 70 pounds of methamphetamines this weekend along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. On Friday night at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, officers arrested a 54-year-old man from Cajeme, Mexico after he attempted to smuggle almost 70 pounds of methamphetamines hidden in a 2005 Chevy Tahoe, according to an agency press release. After further investigation by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Drug Enforcement Agency, officers arrested three more people and seized $236,432 and 36 ounces of cocaine. On Sunday night at...

SAN FRANCISCO - California's $3 billion stem cell research institute won an important victory with a court ruling rejecting challenges to its constitutionality, but the agency's finances remain in limbo while the expected appeals block much of its funding. A state judge ruled Friday that the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is a legitimate state agency and that two lawsuits challenging it have no merit. The ruling came a month after a four-day trial in which lawyers with connections to anti-abortion groups claimed the country's most ambitious stem cell research agency violated California law because it wasn't a true state...

SACRAMENTO — Concerned about threats that include a flu pandemic and bioterrorist attacks, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his support Tuesday for a new state Department of Public Health. The governor is embracing legislation by Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento) to establish a California office focused on concerns such as outbreaks of disease and food poisoning, and overseeing care of 100,000 people living in nursing homes. "The governor is focused on getting ahead of the game and being visionary," Margita Thompson, a Schwarzenegger press secretary, said Tuesday. Ortiz's legislation would also restructure California's Department of Health Services, which focuses much of its...

WEST OF NACO, Sonora, Mexico — Grupo Beta agent Waldo Montiel had just finished a brief off-road spin through a gully known to be a waiting area for migrants when the red Chevy Suburban roared past, headed west along the dusty border road. “Do you recognize that truck?” asked fellow agent Bertha Alicia De la Rosa from her seat beside Montiel. “No,” he said. “It’s not from one of the ranches around here?” “I don’t think so,” he answered as he pulled the bright orange Dodge Ram truck back on to the road and took up pursuit of the Suburban....

FORT BELVOIR, Va., April 3, 2006 – The United States is aggressively pursuing ways to lessen the threat from weapons of mass destruction, the director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency said here last week. "Our goal is to combat weapons of mass destruction and protect Americans and U.S. forces, military infrastructure, bases and facilities against their use," Dr. James A. Tegnelia told American Forces Press Service March 31. "The United States has, in my view, a very aggressive program to secure fissile and WMD material." The threat reduction agency's mission is to safeguard America and its allies from all...

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2006 – Coalition forces killed 32 insurgents and destroyed two Taliban headquarters buildings in Afghanistan's Helmand province today, officials at Bagram Air Base said. The early-morning engagement continued into daylight hours as coalition forces defeated a large enemy element that was attempting to retreat into sanctuaries. Coalition forces also discovered large caches of munitions as they overran the Taliban compound and the enemy fled. Coalition forces destroyed the munitions, which included weapons and bomb-making materials, causing multiple secondary explosions and destroying the compound and all enemy military equipment inside. "The capturing of these two compounds with boots...

The fate of the nation's most ambitious stem cell research agency will soon rest in the hands of a California judge as the weeklong trial challenging the institute's legality neared conclusion Wednesday. Three taxpayer groups have alleged in two lawsuits that the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine lacks the proper state government oversight to dole out $3 billion in stem cell grants over the next 10 years. They also accused the board that oversees the agency as being rife with conflict of interests and wrongly exempting itself from the state's open-meeting law. The trial was expected to end Thursday after...

HAYWARD — On the second day of the trial challenging the constitutionality of California's $3 billion stem cell institute, attorneys for the state defended the agency's track record through a key witness. Robert Klein, chairman of the board overseeing the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, took the stand for most of the day, answering questions from both sides about the structure and content of the agency. Klein was the chief architect of Proposition 71, the ballot initiative approved by 59 percent of voters in November 2004 establishing the stem cell agency and authorizing the state to issue $300 million in...

HAYWARD — California's $3 billion, voter-approved stem cell institute went on trial Monday as opponents sought to invalidate the program on grounds that it operates outside state control. The institute violates conflict of interest rules governing state agencies and its officials are not acting in the best interest of taxpayers, attorneys representing taxpayer groups said in opening statements in Alameda County Superior Court. "This agency as it is currently created is not responsive to the people," said David Llewellyn, attorney for the California Family Bioethics Council, one of the groups bringing the suit. Voters in November 2004 approved Proposition 71,...

SAN FRANCISCO - The future of embryonic stem cell research could be shaped in a suburban courtroom where two taxpayer groups are challenging the legality of California's new agency dedicated to the controversial field. Opening statements were scheduled for Monday in a pair of lawsuits seeking to invalidate the law that created the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which is authorized to hand out $3 billion in research grants. The lawsuits allege — among other things — that it violates a state constitutional mandate that the spending of taxpayer dollars be under state control. "The act delegates the disbursal of...

/13/2006 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- The Air Force Manpower Agency activated four new manpower squadrons to more effectively meet the needs of today’s expeditionary Air Force and to better position itself to support future capabilities. The 5th Manpower Requirements Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and the 4th MRS at Buckley Annex, Colo., held formal activation ceremonies in January. The 2nd MRS at NASA-Langley Research Center, Va., and the 3rd MRS at Scott AFB, Ill., will have formal activation ceremonies later this spring. “These new squadrons have a clear mission: to determine Air Force manpower...

FORT BELVOIR, Va., Jan. 26, 2006 – The agency charged with reducing threats against American forces celebrated the opening of its new headquarters building, the Defense Threat Reduction Center, here today. The new center consolidates five separate locations and more than 1,400 people assigned to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in the Washington metropolitan area into a single, secure facility. James A. Tegnelia, agency director and host of the ceremony, introduced Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, chief of U.S. Strategic Command, as "part-owner" of the facility in his position as the operational commander responsible for combating weapons of mass destruction....

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is opening a campaign to push back against criticism of its domestic spying program, ahead of congressional hearings into whether President Bush has the legal authority to eavesdrop on Americans. President Bush will visit the ultra-secret National Security Agency on Wednesday, underscoring his claim that he has the constitutional authority to let intelligence officials listen in on international phone calls of Americans with suspected ties to terrorists. "We are stepping up our efforts to educate the American people," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "This is a critical tool that helps us save lives...

When EU expansion eastwards hits the brick wall of Russia, the EU intends to head upwards into outer space. They have begun preparing at the European Centre for Space Law for their take-over of Mars.

“Out of The Corner” A matter of I.D. A continuing conversation. EDITOR'S NOTE: What follows is the inauguration of an occasional blog-extension series. Over the weekend, there was a bit of a little bit of a pile-on in The Corner about Tom Bethell's book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. Here, Tom Bethell responds to a John Derbyshire post. It goes on a little longer than a regular blog post, as sometimes happens, so we're taking this discussion "Out of The Corner" for the moment. If this turns into more of a debate, we'll add any subsequent posts in this...

TRENTON, N.J. - About 20 state Treasury Department officials accepted golf outings, cigars, gourmet chocolates and other gifts from a contractor, then looked the other way as the company overcharged New Jersey hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, a watchdog agency said Tuesday. The state Commission of Investigation referred its findings to the state attorney general's office and the U.S. attorney's office, both of which have opened investigations, said Lee Seglem, assistant director of the board. Senior and midlevel managers in the taxation and revenue divisions accepted more than $65,000 in gifts, meals, alcohol and entertainment from OSI Collection...

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- "Pack it well" and "mail it early" are two tips a military postal official offered regarding holiday mailings to service members overseas Nov. 3. The Defense Department announced recommended holiday mail dates Oct. 31. The first deadlines occur Nov. 12 for Parcel Post items headed overseas to APO and FPO ZIP codes. Deadlines for other mail classes continue with Nov. 26 for Space Available Mail; Dec. 3, Parcel Airlift Mail; Dec. 10, Priority Mail; and Dec. 19, Express Mail. Mark J. DeDomenic, assistant deputy director of the Military Postal Service Agency, covered a variety of military mail...

FORT HUACHUCA -- A family on the post was recently affected by a scam via the mail -- a lottery check scam. "All they need is a couple (of victims) to do it, then they're good to go," said Tanja Linton, a spokeswoman for the fort. "There is at least one family that was affected by this, which is of course one family too many." Most people these days don't faltl for these kinds of fraudulent solicitations, she said, but the criminals target victims who may be more naive about modern fraud, Linton said. Such schemes, she said, "get very...

VIENNA, Austria - The European Union submitted a motion Friday to the U.N. atomic watchdog agency that sets Iran up for referral to the Security Council later this year unless Tehran halts some of its nuclear activities. Diplomats earlier said a watered-down text was likely to get Russia's support, but the motion contained a direct reference to the Security Council and held out the likelihood of referral in the coming months. Iran increased the pressure against referral to the Security Council, diplomats told The Associated Press, threatening to restart uranium enrichment — a possible pathway to nuclear arms. The diplomats,...

PLANET-DISSOLVING DUST CLOUD IS HEADED TOWARD EARTH!Monday September 12, 2005 By MIKE FOSTER CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Scared-stiff astronomers have detected a mysterious mass they've dubbed a "chaos cloud" that dissolves everything in its path, including comets, asteroids, planets and entire stars -- and it's headed directly toward Earth! Discovered April 6 by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the swirling, 10 million-mile- wide cosmic dust cloud has been likened to an "acid nebula" and is hurtling toward us at close to the speed of light -- making its estimated time of arrival 9:15 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2014. "The good news...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Federal guidelines released Thursday for protecting seasonal wetlands favor development over species protection in a handful of fast-growing California counties. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that protecting all areas containing the so-called vernal pools would be too costly to the state's economy. The agency's revised guidelines are the latest version of a federal critical habitat plan that an environmental group has successfully challenged in court. They could lead to additional housing developments in a state where the median home price is about $450,000, 2 1/2 times the national median. The wildlife agency says it...

Contents IntroductionWhat is the PSM/ISM?ISM Rewriting History ACT NOW! - OPPOSE GOOGLE'S PLAN Automatically send emails opposing Google's planSign a petition Introduction According to Lee Kaplan, writing for FrontPageMagazine.com: The Internet giant Google will give news agency status to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), according to an anonymous source at Google. If true, the ISM—an affiliate of the anarchist/communist wing of the PLO—would be on par with professional news services such as CNN, Fox, and Associated Press. … The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM) are related and interconnected organizations that have one goal: the...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A state official on leave amid an investigation into a half-million-dollar contract awarded to his brother-in-law also recently changed an agency overtime rule in a way that benefits his new wife. Robert Millette, director of finance and administration for the Illinois Department of Transportation, decreed in January that any employee who serves as a "technical manager V" would be eligible for time off in exchange for working overtime, a perk not previously offered, a department spokesman said. Millette's wife, Angela Korbar, is in the "technical manager V" category as a personnel manager in the Transportation Department's...

A group of nearly 200 soldiers from CFB Kingston, Ont., has started the journey to Afghanistan's Kandahar region. The troops are part of a team whose job is to provide ongoing support for the Afghan government and work on reconstruction projects. The full reconstruction team that will ultimately be based in Afghanistan, is made up of soldiers, Mounties, Foreign Affairs personnel and members of the Canadian International Development Agency. Members of the commando unit known as Joint Task Force 2 are reported to be providing protection for the team. In addition, soldiers from CFB Petawawa will be heading for Camp...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to reform his ineffectual security apparatus, on Tuesday named a new head of the powerful agency in charge of reining in militants, officials said. The new chief of the Preventive Security Service is Rashid Abu Shbak, who ran the Gaza branch of that agency for two years. Abu Shbak is one of the young generation of leaders in Abbas' ruling Fatah movement, and his appointment is in keeping with Abbas' recent efforts to sweep out members of the old guard associated with his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. Israel...

Since my wife and I adopted two beautiful girls several years ago into our family, I know something about being an adoptive parent. As a Christian, I know something about being an adopted child. Put the two together, and I know something about love.What does that have to do with pure and faultless religion?Think about the greatest command there is, to love. From the perspective of an adoptive parent, it is exciting to equate the love I have for my children (both my biological and adopted kids, of course) to the love God has for his children. I know the...

WASHINGTON, March 24 - The Bush administration is considering a major restructuring of the Justice Department that would create a powerful new national security division in an effort to consolidate and coordinate terrorism and espionage investigations better, officials say. The concept, still at a preliminary stage, reflects concerns among some administration officials that national security cases handled by Justice Department lawyers and investigators remain fragmented at times because of bureaucratic divisions, despite structural changes made since the Sept. 11 attacks.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A defunct state agency that distributed federal crime grants was so plagued with accounting problems that it was impossible to audit and tens of millions of dollars in future funds could be in jeopardy, state auditors said Wednesday. Auditors looking into the Office of Criminal Justice Planning found incomplete and inaccurate paperwork a year after the agency was abolished because of leadership problems and poor business practices. "In my 30 years experience, this is the worst thing I've ever seen," said Samuel Hull, chief of state audits. "When we got into there and started looking at things...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Complaints are mounting that a newly created California stem cell agency has failed to keep the public informed of its actions as it begins doling out $3 billion in taxpayer-provided grants. Still others complain the agency hasn't developed rules to prevent its managers from unjustly enriching themselves and their employers. Many of the 29 board members, appointed by the governor and other elected officials to run the agency, represent research universities and the biotechnology industry, both of which are expected to win millions of dollars worth of grants. The criticism picked up this week as the...

Ever since I was a student in the early 1950s, I have been told that world government is a dream of starry-eyed idealists. But a form of world government is coming into being, although not the one that Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell or the United World Federalists envisioned. It is not the vast web of rules and norms embodied by the United Nations and the European Union. It is not based on shared ideology, race or religion. And it is not a byproduct of the Wilsonian daydream of a world rapidly democratized by the application of American power. It is...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

The CIA and its coterie of leak-recipient journalists have seriously damaged the public’s understanding of the terror dangers we face. Now that the public’s attention finally has turned to the threat of Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, it is vital that everyone understand how a clever misdirection of focus has seriously understated the ability of the mullahs to produce atomic weapons. Since Porter Goss embarked on the much-needed shake-up of the CIA, we’ve been treated to agency leaks to the legacy media from the proverbial “unnamed sources” in an attempt to persuade the American people that Goss will single handedly render...

A talent scout for a hip-hop modeling agency was arrested yesterday for raping a 14-year-old girl in his fly-by-night Manhattan office as her parents waited in another room, police said. Charles (Maurice) Green, 35, allegedly promised the teen he could help her singing and modeling career through his two companies - Hip Hop Models Inc. and Urban Talent Network. But cops said he attacked her instead.