Free Republic

Barack Obama's campaign changed the rules of a highly publicized fundraiser Tuesday, after gambling regulators said the contest — a chance at one of 10 trips to the Democratic National Convention — was an illegal lottery. "We are happy to have resolved this issue working closely with state officials," said Nick Kimball, spokesman for the Obama campaign ... A spokesman for the Colorado Secretary of State said Democrats would have to get a license if they were conducting "a standard raffle where they're buying tickets" in order to win. But under the new rules, supporters don't have to donate money...

There have been many sites crop up recently that claim to predict what will happen in November. My favorite since 2004 - and I think the most accurate - has been Election Projection. They predicted the 2004 race between Bush and Kerry to within 3 EVs of the actual result and got every Senate race right in 2006. Anyone out there agree? Disagree? Discuss...

A family owned commercial fishing business in Virginia and two of its owners paid $6.8 million in fines and forfeitures after pleading guilty to hiring 126 illegal aliens to work on their boats. The charge is a misdemeanor and federal prosecutors had recommended home confinement in addition to the monetary penalties, but U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson sentenced Yvonne Michelle Peabody, the company’s vice president, to three months in prison. At the sentencing hearing last month, the judge said he was making an example out of Peabody, who had served on the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Council’s law enforcement subcommittee at...

California is facing a cash crisis this summer, putting pressure on elected officials to submit an on-time state budget or risk asking taxpayers to pay a premium on loans. In the past, the state has been able to pay its bills despite projected deficits by borrowing money internally from some state special funds and by selling short-term notes on Wall Street. But a lack of cash reserves this year combined with lagging revenues has led officials to predict that the state will run out of cash as early as August, giving lawmakers a smaller-than-expected window to strike a budget deal....

SAN LORENZO -- Alameda County sheriff's investigators raided suspected houses of prostitution and "flipped" one of them - taking over the business to solicit customers - during a multicity operation that resulted in 32 arrests, authorities said today. Sheriff's deputies searched eight businesses and five homes in Castro Valley, Hayward, San Leandro and Fremont on Thursday, sheriff's Sgt. J.D. Nelson said. Investigators took over one business on Lewelling Boulevard in San Lorenzo and arrested nine men. "We raided it and then we just assumed the operation," Nelson said. Authorities seized $50,000 in cash, froze another $200,000 in assets and seized...

TEL AVIV – Israel arrested a suspected Syrian militant operating on Israeli soil accused of preparing attacks against the Jewish state, WND has learned. The militant was arrested July 29, weeks before Israel's Sept. 6 air raid on a remote site in Syria that has been described by independent analysts and some U.S. politicians as a potential Syrian nuclear reactor. Security officials would not say whether the arrest was tied to the air strike. According to security sources, his activities were known to Israeli intelligence agencies for at least one year prior to his arrest

ARLINGTON, Va. - A high school teacher has been arrested for soliciting sex with a minor on the Internet, according to Arlington County Police. Matthew McGuire, 29, of Alexandria was arrested Wednesday night at his home on West Myrtle Street. John Lisle, spokesman for the Arlington County Police Department, says McGuire "made contact with someone who he believed was a young girl on the Internet, and during the course of this contact, he engaged in sexually explicit communications." McGuire, a teacher and coach at Chantilly High School in Fairfax County, is being held without bond on charges of using a...

MIL-IRAQ-MNF-OPERATIONS MNF fighter jets raid Al-Qaeda hideout BAGHDAD, Jan 9 (KUNA) -- US warplanes destroyed one of Al-Qaeda hideouts and Kazakh forces found a weapons depot in separate operations in Iraq. US F-16 fighter jets dropped two 500-pound bombs, destroying a house used by al-Qaeda to make and store improvised explosive devices in Busayefi, near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the MNF said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the statement, the operation, conducted on Sunday, was executed by the MNF Center soldiers. The house-turned-hideout was destroyed and explosive making materials were found and confiscated. Another MNF statement said members...

A three-pound Chihuahua mix named Tink is being praised for helping police catch a Christmas Day fugitive. The dog's adventure began when four suspects who were fleeing police crashed a stolen minivan into a hillside. Auburn homeowner Wendy Anderson said Tink, her son's Pomeranian and Chihuahua mix, found a suspect hiding under a neighbor's motorhome and chased him into the woods. Her son and husband directed a law enforcement helicopter to where 20-year-old Marvin Gonzales was hiding. "The Chihuahua gave him up," California Highway Patrol officer Jeff Herbert told The Associated Press. The three other suspects, including the driver, were...

Former President Bill Clinton answers a question from a reporter upon arrival for a book-signing appearance for his latest book, "Giving." 11/2/07 San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) REDMOND, Wash. (AP) - Former President Clinton said Friday that a letter he wrote to the National Archives was to expedite release of his papers, not slow the process or hide anything as rivals are suggesting in criticism of his wife. Hillary Rodham Clinton was quizzed during this week's Democratic presidential debate as to why correspondence between her and her husband from their White House years remained bottled up at the National...

ADL Responds To Open Letter From CAIR; Releases Photo Of Group's Leader Speaking Next To Hezbollah Flag http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Teror_92/5122_92.htm ADL Responds To Open Letter From CAIR; Releases Photo Of Group's Leader Speaking Next To Hezbollah Flag New York, NY, August 30, 2007 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in response to an "open letter" from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) suggesting that their organization has "acted numerous times … to condemn terrorism," today released a photograph of CAIR's executive director speaking at a podium next to a known anti-Semite and the flag of the terrorist group Hezbollah. Glen S. Lewy, ADL...

I did not see this posted anywhere.. Listen to this.. and judge for youself... I think Sen. Craig is TOAST.. IMHO

GLOUCESTER Gloucester County's sheriff and several deputies helped pull a Newport News man out of the York River on Monday before arresting him in connection with a lunchtime bank robbery on U.S. 17. Mario Anthony Orlikoff was arrested shortly after noon by Sheriff Robin P. Stanaway and several deputies, according to information released by the Gloucester County Sheriff's Office. He is a former assistant sports editor of the Daily Press.Employees of Chesapeake Bank in the Wicomico community called police at about 12:15 p.m. to report a robbery. The callers said the robber handed a teller a note demanding money. The...

It's in a subscribers only link at the Wall Street Journal. The Congressman wants $8,000,000.00 to pay for marketing of wild American shrimp and $2.3 million to fund research into shrimp-fishing. These are but two of the Congressman's 65 earmarks sought thus far this year to the tune of $400,000,000.00. HIs chief spokesman pulled a Tom DeLay and said "Reducing earmarks does not reduce government spending, and it does not prohibit spending upon those things that are earmarked," the spokesman said. "What people who push earmark reform are doing is they are particularly misleading the public -- and I have...

Jhannet Sejas and her boyfriend were celebrating her 19th birthday by taking in a matinee showing of the hit movie "Transformers" at the theater at Ballston Common mall. Sejas was enjoying the movie so much that she decided to film a short clip of the sci-fi adventure's climax to get her little brother hyped to go see it. Minutes later, two Arlington County police officers were pointing their flashlights at the young couple in the darkened theater and ordering them out. They confiscated the digital camera as evidence and charged Sejas, a Marymount University sophomore and Annandale resident, with a...

In a story of betrayal worthy of an episode of Dateline NBC, undercover producer Michelle Madigan was exposed and forced out of the conference on Friday Dateline NBC Producer Michelle Madigan was publicly outed at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas Friday after show organizers were tipped off that she was trying to film show attendees with a hidden camera. ... Madigan ran from the show after organizers publicly threatened to escort her from the event at the beginning of a 4 p.m. conference session by noted hacker HD Moore. "She literally kicked the door open," said "Priest," a...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former Vice President Al Gore said he has "fallen out of love with politics" and has no intentions of running for office again. When asked why he wouldn't run for president again -- when presumably a president could shape an agenda to fight global warming -- Gore said those in power must have the support of the people to make it work. "The key players are the American people," he said. "When the American people have the awareness of what this means for their children, and for their grandchildren, that all of civilization is at risk...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A state trooper accused of letting a drug charge slide in exchange for oral sex from a porn star has been fired, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said Thursday. The state also is considering criminal charges against James Randy Moss related to her claims that he threw away her bottle of prescription pills before their alleged encounter, Department of Safety spokesman Mike Browning said. Moss has not indicated whether he would contest his firing and did not immediately return a message left at his home Thursday evening. Moss was suspended earlier this week while the THP investigated the...

<p>A porn star claims a state trooper who stopped her on a highway let drug charges slide in exchange for oral sex. And she says she's got proof — the trooper's own video images of the roadside tryst.</p> <p>The allegations have led to a Tennessee Highway Patrol investigation and the trooper's suspension.</p>