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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington is starting to dig deep in a $2.6 billion underground solution aimed at helping clean up the polluted Potomac River and the ailing Chesapeake Bay, the biggest U.S. estuary. In the U.S. capital's biggest public works project in more than 40 years, work started this fall to cut about 16 miles of tunnels to keep overflow sewage and stormwater from running into the Potomac. The project, designed to be finished in 2025, is seen by environmentalists as part of resolving the next great water pollution challenge facing the United States -- keeping fouled runoff out of...

George Soros’s latest attempt in new media is about two years behind the conservative trailblazers who changed the face of elections and political blogging. At 27, he is a full-time “tracker” for American Bridge 21st Century, a new Democratic organization that aims to record every handshake, every utterance by Republican candidates in 2011 and 2012, looking for gotcha moments that could derail political ambitions or provide fodder for television advertisements by liberal groups next year. [...] While the Democratic National Committee and Democratic candidates also have trackers, federal campaign laws prohibit the outside organizations from coordinating closely

CBS television network anchor Lesley Stahl is up in arms over Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood – known to Jews as Shiloach, and home to the City of David archaeological excavations. The reporter from the long-running Sunday evening “60 Minutes” program narrated a segment this week on the City of David, produced by Shachar Bar-On. During the segment, Stahl worked hard to cast aspersions on the validity of the archaeological findings in the City of David excavations and the unity of the city, and to delegitimize the presence of Jewish families in the area. The Jewish families are in houses bought by...

But Republican lawmakers portray the anticipated drama as foreshadowing the far bigger brawl of the 2012 presidential elections and a clash of visions with President Obama. A vote in the House to repeal the health-care overhaul would be among the GOP's top priorities. Republican leaders are also devising legislative maneuvers that might have a bigger impact, using appropriations bills and other tactics to try to undermine the administration's overhaul of health care and financial regulations and its plans to regulate greenhouse gases. GOP leaders also hope to trim spending, return unspent stimulus funds and restore sweeping tax cuts. Business groups...

RUSH: ...What I'm really focusing on here is that we have to understand we face a crossroads in the country. There are a lot of people who think we are on our last legs as a representative republic and that there has never been a greater opportunity than right now to contrast conservatism and what really works and what's gonna roll back this government and make it smaller and less intrusive. And we don't need to play around with RINOs and just get the Republicans in power, 'cause look where that got us in 2006. You need conservatives, people genuinely...

Is Arizona’s AIMS-TerraNova exam tricking parents and policymakers into thinking Arizona students are learning more than they are, or treating them to a pleasant surprise? We invite you to be the judge by reading more about the exam here: http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/AboutUs/ArticleView.aspx?id=1615

In June, the Goldwater Institute released A Test of Credibility. The essence of the argument: Arizona's Terra Nova exam produces unrealistically high scores (above the national average in every subject and grade level), when national tests show Arizona consistently below the national average. Both results can not be true. ADE recently issued a response filled with misconceptions. The Goldwater Institute will soon post a response to the ADE's critique on its website. If you'd like to get to the bottom of this issue in a hurry, however, simply look at Figure 1 below. Figure 1 compares Arizona's performance on the...

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2007 – The intentions of radical Islamic cleric Muqtada al-Sadr largely remain cloudy amid the shifting sands of power politics in the new Iraq, the commander of U.S. Central Command testified at a Congressional hearing today. “This is a guy that’s pretty difficult to understand for us,” Navy Adm. William J. Fallon told House Armed Services Committee members. “He holds, clearly, a large amount of influence within segments of the Iraqi population, but of late he has been absent.” Sadr is a Baghdad-based Shiite religious leader who commands the Mahdi Army militia, which has fought U.S....

Immigrant rights groups have a message for unsympathetic politicians around the country: Change your stand or risk getting voted out of office. A coalition of unions, Hispanic activists and religious groups is trying to convert the massive street protests of recent months into long-term political power by launching nationwide citizenship and voter registration drives Saturday in at least 19 states. The effort known as "Democracy Summer" aims to register a million new voters and convince many of the 8 million legal residents in this country to apply for citizenship. Such applications are already up nearly 20 percent over past year...

Lorena Solorio remembers her younger brother teasing her as a child, telling her he was better than she was. Born in the United States, he was a citizen. Brought to the country in the trunk of a car, she was not. ``I couldn't understand why we had to sneak in,'' she said Sunday. Now an employee of Catholic Charities of San Jose and a U.S. citizen, Solorio works with many children who are in the country illegally. As the national debate over illegal immigration continues to swirl, she said, she sees in those children the same confusion she felt as...

PAULSBORO, N.J. - It's bedtime and your toddler is having a meltdown, insisting on just one more episode of "Bob the Builder." Well, parents, now TV might help. Melanie the baby sitter, Star the puppet and Hush the goldfish are the stars of a new bedtime show on PBS KIDS Sprout. Since mid-April, the cast of "The Good Night Show" has been taping the second season in a Paulsboro studio, just outside Philadelphia. The show returns in July on KIDS Sprout, a cable and satellite network owned jointly by Comcast Corp., PBS, Sesame Workshop and HIT Entertainment. The network features...

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2006 – Raymond Harris hopes to do something no other performer is doing. The country music singer plans to spend five years on a tour to every possible military installation to support America's troops. America Supports You member Raymond Harris (center) poses with Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore and Army Col. Angela Manos-Sittnick at Fort Gillem, Ga., Dec. 14. A country music entertainer, Harris is in the midst of a five-year tour of military installations to support America's troops. Photo by Sherrye Ehrenberg   In the past 13 months, Harris has played to crowds at 70 military...

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2006 – Iraqi and coalition forces have boosted their presence in Baghdad in response to a surge in attacks against Iraqis that officials link to today's seating of the country's new parliament, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman told reporters. "Operation Scales of Justice" was launched to enhance security in Iraq's capital city as the parliament begins selecting the country's new government, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said today in Baghdad. The 275-member body met briefly today to begin the difficult process of electing a president, two vice presidents and a prime minister. Lynch called the seating of...

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (Army News Service, Jan. 26, 2006) – A new training device is being developed by Coalition Forces Land Component Command in Kuwait to reduce or eliminate injury or death suffered by troops involved in Humvee rollovers in theater. The device evolved from a comment by then-commander of U.S. Forces Command, Gen. Larry Ellis, following the deaths of three Soldiers Dec. 8, 2003, when their Stryker overturned into a canal, said Chief Warrant Officer Rik Cox, FORSCOM safety officer. HEAT based on `Dunker’ “The aviators train on the Dilbert Dunker, why can’t we do something like that for...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States formally introduced the final version of a draft Security Council resolution Thursday that would toughen U.N. sanctions against al-Qaida and the Taliban. U.S. mission spokesman Ben Chang said Washington hopes for a vote Friday on the resolution, which better defines groups and individuals who should fall under the sanctions regime. U.N. sanctions currently require all 191 U.N. member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against those "associated with" Osama bin Laden's terror network and the former Afghan rulers and to freeze their financial assets. Among other things, the draft would...

Terrorists win by just being there. It's the kind of sound-bite interviewers love. Short. Pithy. Seemingly profound. And, best of all, arresting: It paints terrorism as a frightening, irresistible force. There's no shortage of freshly minted "terrorism experts" spouting lines like this on the talk shows, but there's a problem. This view of terrorism is rubbish. Fact is, terrorists rarely win. True, they succeed at killing people -- murdering innocents, destroying property and creating misery -- but that's not their intended goal. Terrorism by definition is violence with a political purpose. And terrorists are terrorists not by choice, but by...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - With the spin of a numbered wheel, an Afghan child might land in an ambush by turbaned gunmen. Another turn could lead a young player to the safety of a health clinic or classroom. They are all scenarios 10- to 14-year-olds must confront in The Road to Peace, a colorful new board game unveiled Thursday by the United Nations in an effort to educate local youngsters about Afghanistan's troubled past and its hopes for the future. Some 10,000 copies of the game are being handed out nationwide to war-affected children, former child soldiers and refugee families,...

China aims spy network at trade secrets in Europe By Damien McElroy (Filed: 03/07/2005) 'Defector' reveals Beijing's plan to use espionage to achieve its objective of commercial dominance A network of Chinese industrial spies has been established across Europe as the Communist government's intelligence agencies shift their resources and attention from traditional Cold War espionage towards new forms of subterfuge aimed at achieving global commercial dominance. The extent of the spying was laid bare after a leading Chinese agent "defected" in Belgium. The agent, who has worked in European universities and companies for more than 10 years, has given the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The 3,300-year-old world of King Tut has returned to the United States in an exhibition that hopes to rival the 1970s tour of ancient Egyptian artifacts that became a cultural phenomenon. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" opens to the public Thursday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and advance ticket sales to see the Boy King's exhibit hit 250,000. "This town loves youth," said Terry Garcia, executive vice president at the National Geographic Society, a co-sponsor of the exhibit. "It also loves a comeback. This is the greatest comeback tour in...

I constantly hear liberals decry the policies of George W. Bush, using catch phrases like “out of the mainstream” and “dangerously irresponsible” to describe them. Apparently, if you repeat something often enough, using the same carefully crafted terminology, and applying to it with the same condescending tone each time, it magically becomes the truth... at least in the minds of leftists. And, of course, the primary policy target of left-wingers in Congress remains the war in Iraq, even though nearly all of them supported it initially. As recent polls show support for the war waning, liberals all over the country...

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - By giving pedophiles and at-risk offenders a phone-in resource center, Stop It Now! is trying to change the public perception and approach to dealing with child sexual abuse. It's a mission the group has been on since it was started 13 years ago — trying to shift the focus of child sexual abuse from solely a criminal justice matter to a public health problem. The group's tactics are gaining a growing audience. Stop It Now! will be part of a child abuse prevention advisory committee being organized by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, according...

This past week, the charlatans in the Senate of the United States managed to once again delay the confirmation of John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations. President Bush needs to listen to these imprudent senators and learn from his past mistakes. The Senate led by socialist Democrats and grandstanding Republicans who want attention, is only trying to help the president set the ship of state on a proper course to "follow" for the future. Your Democrat Party firmly believes that the United States needs to stop its aimless and reckless wondering and let others lead the way. The...

New York's junior senator yesterday was sharper in her criticism of the Palestinian Authority than Israel's Likud prime minister at the annual policy conference for America's largest pro-Israel lobby. Before thousands of activists of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Senator Clinton, a Democrat of New York, criticized Palestinian textbooks and other materials that "infect" young minds with anti-Semitism. "Using children as pawns in a political process is tantamount to child abuse," she said to cheers from activists. "And we must say it has to end now." By contrast, the main speaker at the conclusion of the Aipac conference, Prime...

Today, rioting broke out throughout Washington DC as enraged Americans protested the alleged desecration of the holy Bible by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen Muslims. The unsubstantiated report of the Bible desecration, was initially aired by Al Jazeera two days ago, then quickly disseminated by the American MSM. Anti-Middle East protests are spreading throughout the city and government officials fear that the rioting will soon extend to other American cities. Thousands of fanatical Americans descended on Middle East embassies where flags were burned and Molotov cocktails were hurled. Major damage was done to virtually every Middle East embassy. Capital City police...

A statement posted by the purported deputy of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Abdel-Rahman al-Iraqi, very possibly may have completely redefined the War on Terror. It was such a slip of the tongue that one has to wonder whether or not Abu will be allowed to keep his after Abu Musab al Zarqawi gets his hands on him. Unintentional or not, the statement revealed the underlying motives of the Islamic terrorists’ full-blown jihad today. Al Iraqi’s statement, which was posted on a website sympathetic to radical Islamic terrorists, was intended as a public statement of support for Zarqawi and his...

I find it hard to say this as a conservative, but the current Republican position on judicial filibusters is not in the long-term best interest of either the party, or our nation. And, unfortunately, our conservative leaders and pundits are demonstrating an almost incomprehensible myopia by advocating a procedural change that would prevent such a practice in the future. With those sentiments out of the closet, I can foresee e-mail messages flooding my inbox in much the same way as Obi-Wan Kenobi felt a shift in the force when Princess Leia’s home planet of Alderaan was destroyed by the Empire’s...

SAN BERNARDINO - In the immigration battle being waged at the border, a local network of largely Latino activists is taking a new tack to counter volunteers who are monitoring the border for illegal crossings. On May 1, the National Alliance for Human Rights will try to "close the border' by persuading those intending to cross over legally from Agua Prieta, Mexico, to Douglas, Ariz., not to do so for several hours. The strategy "is a notice' to Minuteman project volunteers, who have recently announced their plans to extend their Arizona-border monitoring project for several additional months and to other...

By Daniel Scarpinato ARIZONA DAILY STAR The state's high-stakes AIMS test has been criticized for many reasons - its format, its execution, its grading scale. But a trio of prominent locals is arguing the test's real problem is a violation of human rights, a notion state education officials aren't taking seriously. The Tucsonans say AIMS breaks a rule in the United Nations' Declaration of Human Rights, which reads: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." In a letter to state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne last month, the...

Spring Breakers are not easily offended, but even they will admit some behavior crosses the line. "We saw two people actually having sex in the sand," said Nat Gale from Hartford, Conn. "Their friends were all around them. Everyone was trying not to look but they were looking." Because nobody complained to authorities, it's questionable whether the couple could have been convicted of committing a lewd and lascivious act. Florida courts have ruled that an unsuspecting member of the public must be offended before somebody can be convicted of the crime. State Sen. Mike Fasano and State Rep. John Legg,...

LAS VEGAS -- The maker of Tasers is launching a major high-stakes campaign to market its new model to consumers despite scores of fatalities and injuries linked to the police Taser, including the death of a man in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood last week. Taser International, which has made its name in law enforcement and the military, envisions a future in which millions of average citizens protect their homes and communities with the stun guns instead of firearms. Tasers fire two wires tipped with electric barbs, delivering a shock that painfully and briefly paralyzes a person. The new consumer model has...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The campaign committee that spent $35 million last year backing California's novel $3 billion stem cell initiative plans to use its considerable fund-raising prowess to fight a federal bill seeking to ban all forms of human cloning. Robert Klein II, the wealthy Palo Alto housing developer who chaired the campaign, said the organization intends to raise $1 million to fight Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and his anti-cloning allies in the Senate. A Brownback spokesman declined comment. Brownback is sponsoring legislation that would ban the cloning of human embryos for any reason, including medical research. Such a...

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!

WASHINGTON - While pledging to help President Bush (news - web sites) promote anti-abortion judges to the federal bench, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) is struggling to maintain his proudly cultivated image as an independent thinker and sometime maverick. To salvage the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) chairmanship he's in line to get in January, the Pennsylvania Republican has been promising to support anti-abortion nominees even though he favors abortion rights. Specter's elevation to the panel's chairmanship after 24 years in the Senate was put in doubt two weeks ago when he told reporters that judges who...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) wants to increase American energy production and reduce American reliance on foreign oil with a $20 billion fund to finance research and development of alternative and renewable fuels. "That's what I want to talk about today — how to make our country stronger and safer by working together to build an energy-independent America," Kerry said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday. The fund would promote energy sources like natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energy generated from corn, soybeans and other crops, the campaign said. "America will...

<p>State budgets could be passed more easily, with only a 55% vote. But so could tax increases.</p> <p>SACRAMENTO – Every summer, it's the singular drama that consumes the state Capitol: For weeks and even months, lawmakers haggle, dicker and struggle toward a two-thirds majority needed to pass a budget.</p>

Black lawyer's book aims to counter bias in courts By LOU MICHEL News Staff Reporter 1/11/2004 John V. Elmore has had a front-row seat in the criminal justice system since the late 1970s - first as a state trooper, then as a prosecutor in Manhattan and Buffalo, and for the last 15 years as a defense lawyer. Those experiences have taught him that African-Americans need to take certain precautions to receive fair treatment in court. "There are lots of trials where African-Americans are tried in front of all-white juries, and they don't get a fair shake," said Elmore, a 47-year-old...

<p>Many archaeologists say this fourth century synagogue in Capernaum, a fishing village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, stands on the site of a synagogue where Jesus worshipped and preached.</p> <p>Many Christians were upset when Israeli antiquities experts recently declared a first century inscription bearing Jesus’s name a fake, seemingly depriving them of the earliest archaeological proof of Jesus’s existence.</p>