Free Republic

What would you do if your child came home from school with bedbugs? Freak out? Well, one south-central Kentucky school is trying to avoid that problem by temporarily banning backpacks, lunchboxes and other items after finding bedbugs in a school building. A half-dozen of the bloodsucking pests were spotted recently at Salem Elementary School in Russell County. WKYT-TV reports they were found on the floor of a classroom and on one student's backpack. Though the bugs can cause itchy bites, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says bedbugs are not known to transmit or spread diseases. The bugs hide in dark...

CAMP LIBERTY – U.S. Soldiers here recently delivered nearly 2,400 backpacks full of school supplies to needy Iraqi children at learning centers located throughout their area of operations. “It’s good to get out here and help the kids out,” said 1st Lt. Matt Sawdy, 1st platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. “As a father, it makes you feel good.” Sawdy and his men met their Iraqi counterparts in one school’s courtyard, where they examined piles of bright pink backpacks. Before long, teachers from the school led their eager students into...

“FBI raids Denver home in suspect Al-Qaeda plot: ABC” (AFP) – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON — SNIPPET: “About a dozen agents arrived at the home of Najibullah Zazi, 24, and one confirmed to ABC a search warrant was being executed. “Zazi’s travels to New York last weekend triggered a round of highly publicized raids in the New York area,” the ABC report said adding that “authorities told members of Congress the raids had helped to disrupt a plot to carry out a major attack on New York.” Authorities said they found 14 new black backpacks in the New York raids,...

Fearful of a Madrid-style subway train bombing, authorities are poised to make more raids to seize bomb-making materials at locations in Queens, sources said Wednesday. The FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team arrived in New York in anticipation of the offensive to thwart a Denver-based terror cell with ties to Al Qaeda, police sources told the Daily News. Another source said an earlier raid uncovered nine backpacks and cell phones, raising memories of the March 2004 bombings in Madrid. A series of terrorist bombs detonated aboard commuter trains killed 191 people. The source said authorities feared a potential attack on the...

It’s back-to-school time so load up with those pencils, notebooks, rulers and, of course, a bullet-deflecting backpack, if you buy the pitch of the security accessory’s Danvers inventors. Dads Mike Pelonzi, 43, and Joe Curran, 42, dreamed up the bullet-proof backpack, which also blunts knife attacks, to protect their own children after witnessing the Columbine massacre in 1999. “It was after seeing what happened in Columbine that we started thinking about this. I’m a parent and so is Joe and we wanted a way of keeping kids safe at school and this is what we came up with,” said Pelonzi,...

Wissahickon High will join other institutions this fall in permitting only clear or mesh bags in the hallways. It has come to this in the quest for safe schools: Cloth backpacks, for decades a fixture in the lives of most high school students, will be banned from the hallways of Montgomery County's Wissahickon High School starting this fall. If students walking between classes want to use a backpack, it must be made of clear plastic or mesh so its contents can be seen at a glance. Cloth backpacks can be carried into the school in the morning but must be...

Montgomery County school officials announced yesterday that they are temporarily banning outside groups such as parent-teacher associations and the Boy Scouts from distributing fliers about activities and events in student backpacks. The decision comes less than a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the school system's policy for flier distribution was unconstitutional because it gave educators unlimited power to approve or reject materials. The case is the outgrowth of a dispute between the school system and Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maryland. The group filed suit in 2001 after the school system denied its request to distribute fliers about...

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Sept. 8, 2005 – Military families received free back-to-school supplies at Mary Fay Pendleton Elementary School here Aug. 24, thanks to a donation from a local business. The donation came just in time - five days before students returned to Camp Pendleton’s schools for the 2005-2006 school year. Camp Pendleton’s Office Depot donated 725 backpacks filled with school supplies to Mary Fay Camp Pendleton Elementary students. In addition to the backpacks, the school received office chairs, two pallets of paper, four pallets of cardboard tubes, 10 cases of toilet paper and 10 cases of facial tissue. Office...

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2005 – Two American soldiers in Iraq were killed by improvised explosive devices July 16. Another two soldiers were wounded. In the first incident, a soldier assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died July 16 of wounds received July 15 from a car-bomb attack. The incident reportedly occurred during combat operations near Iskandariyah. Also on July 16, at about 4:00 p.m. in the Kirkuk province, an IED killed one Task Force Liberty soldier and wounded two other soldiers. The two wounded soldiers were taken to a coalition forces medical treatment facility....

LET'S REVISIT BESLAN FOR A MOMENT Please ... tell me you remember Beslan. It was in Beslan just about a month ago that some Islamic terrorists took hundreds of children and adults hostage in a school. These brave warriors of Islam rigged the school with explosives. You remember how it ended, don't you? As school children tried to escape after the explosions began these mighty followers of Mohammed started shooting them in the back. Shooting children in the back! Why bring this up again? Hell ... it ought to be brought up every single hour of every single day right...

Bush-bashing finds its way into bags 10:31 PM PDT on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 By ELISA HAHN / KING 5 News SEATTLE – How often do you read the washing instructions inside your bag or backpack? A local bag manufacturer has learned to read them more often after finding an apparent anti-President-Bush message in fine print. The cat's out of the bag at Tom Bihn Portable Culture, a Seattle retailer. The owners said the company found out Monday. Inside their laptop bags and backpacks was a dirty, little secret printed on the washing instructions. How fitting that it's in French....

<p>BOSTON -- A Sharon lawmaker has proposed limiting the weight of books used in public schools amid concerns about the health risks of overloaded backpacks.</p> <p>State Rep. Louis Kafka's bill received its first reading on Thursday before the Legislature's joint committee on education.</p>