Free Republic

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pledging up to $250,000 to Planned Parenthood to offset funds that were cut by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation. The billionaire mayor has promised to match future donations to Planned Parenthood up to $250,000, mayoral spokeswoman Samantha Levine said Thursday. The health services organization uses the money for breast cancer screenings. Bloomberg, a Democrat turned Republican turned independent, said politics "have no place" in health care. "Breast cancer screening saves lives, and hundreds of thousands of women rely on Planned Parenthood for access to care," he said in a...

The creator of Soul Train would wish viewers love, peace, and soul at the end of each episode, and now he's left us for good. Don Cornelius, who hosted the nationally syndicated music show from its inception in 1971 until 1993, was found dead early this morning at his Sherman Oaks, California, home, according to the Los Angeles Times. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, sources told the newspaper on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing. Cornelius was 75. In the 1970s and 1980s, Soul Train helped draw attention to music by African-American artists, with memorable performances...

Online auction junkies could tear a page out of Ferris Bueller’s playbook with a unique eBay opportunity this week: Pony up a million bucks and you’ll hold the reins of all the horsepower of the Chrysler Saloon President Barack Obama used to lease. The joyride to rival Bueller’s could cost you more before the auction ends Wednesday, as the $1 million is just the starting bid. On the other hand, nobody had bitten by Monday afternoon, so maybe the price could come down. According to the seller, Obama leased the gas-guzzler from 2004 through 2007 before trading up to a...

Associates of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are stepping forward to rebut accusations from Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney that he resigned in “disgrace” and paid an ethics “fine.” Gingrich insisted during a candidates debate Monday that reports he was fined $300,000 for House ethics violations are inaccurate and records back up his claim the payment was not a fine. A Newsmax examination of the House Ethics Committee report, and the record of the House debate in January 1997 as recorded in the Congressional Record, supports Gingrich’s contention that the $300,000 he paid was a “reimbursement” or “sanction” related to...

I live in Norway and as most of you know the handgun laws here are insane but I discovered that .177 cal. pellet guns are exempt from the avalanche of paperwork and most other rules. With the increasing criminality in Oslo I was thinking of getting one to at least act as a deterent or precieved equalization of the situation. It is better than having nothing. Prefer CO2 powered. Thanks in advance.

The biggest opponent of the state's new voter ID law just may be an 84-year-old woman who stands less than 5 feet tall, has lived in the same house nearly her entire life and has served on her Village Board since 1996. Ruthelle Frank doesn't have a driver's license, doesn't have a birth certificate and hasn't been able to get a state identification card, which means that she could be out of luck the next time she tries to vote. "The whole thing upsets me," Frank said Wednesday. "You could live in the U.S. of A., live in the same...

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the State of Wisconsin on Tuesday over a new law requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification, charging that the measure violates the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit says that the state is infringing on some citizens' right to vote and to be treated equally under the law and amounts to a kind of poll tax on voters who lack the documents needed to get an approved ID. Republican lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker, who is named in the lawsuit along with a long list of other state officials, have said they believe the measure...

At a time when economists say U.S. manufacturing policy is in "disarray," the Obama administration on Monday said it has created a new Office of Manufacturing Policy to be co-chaired by the Commerce Department Secretary and the director of the White House National Economic Council. "At this make or break time for the middle class and our economy, we need a strong manufacturing sector that will put Americans back to work making products stamped with three proud words: Made in America," President Barack Obama said in a statement. Wisconsin leads the nation with the highest share of its workforce employed...

Less than a week after being elected governor, Scott Walker and his wife met privately with one of the most powerful philanthropic forces behind America's conservative movement. It wasn't the Koch brothers - the bogeymen for the American left. On Nov. 8, 2010, the Walkers broke bread at the upscale Bacchus restaurant in the Cudahy Tower with the board and senior staff of the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. With more than $600 million in assets, the Bradley Foundation provides a cornerstone for the conservative movement in Wisconsin and across America. It has been the financial backer behind public...

Syracuse University associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine was fired Sunday in the wake of an investigation of child molestation allegations against him. In statement released Sunday night, Kevin Quinn, the school's senior vice president for public affairs, says Fine has been "terminated, effective immediately. The move came at the direction of Chancellor Nancy Cantor. The 65-year-old Fine was in his 36th season at his alma mater. He had the longest active streak of consecutive seasons at one school among assistant coaches in Division I. Fine's firing comes in the wake of new revelations Sunday, including a third accuser. Two...

Former Penn State student disciplinarian Vicky Triponey tells The Wall Street Journal that football players were treated "more favorably than other students accused of violating the community standards as defined by the student code of conduct." Triponey, who resigned her post as the university's standards and conduct officer in 2007, spoke to the newspaper after it obtained a 2005 email from her to then-president Graham Spanier and others in which Triponey expressed her concerns about the disciplinary process as it pertained to football players. Coach Joe Paterno "is insistent he knows best how to discipline his players ... and their...

States of mind On its own, where you live isn't enough to make you depressed. Personal circumstances and genes also play an important role in mental health, so an area that feels like a downer to one person may be home sweet home to another. That said, mental distress is unusually and persistently common in some states, whether due to economic troubles, lack of access to health care, or other factors. Using data from federal health agencies, Health.com has identified the 10 states with the highest rates of depression, psychological distress, and other indicators of poor mental health. Here they...

Joe Paterno could face civil lawsuits as a result of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal, and if that happens, one attorney said his legal representatives may try to work around what he considers a flaw in Pennsylvania state law. Plaintiffs currently over the age of 20 can pursue lawsuits only in cases of sexual abuse that involved "forcible compulsion." That definition includes rape, but may not involve acts such as inappropriate touching. Shanin Specter, a litigator in Philadelphia who has been contacted by the family of one of the alleged victims, also said the loophole could potentially eliminate some...

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who caused jaws to drop in Pennsylvania and throughout college sports last week when he was charged with molesting eight boys, could end up with legal woes in San Antonio as well. District Attorney Susan Reed and San Antonio Police Chief William McManus have discussed the possibility of building a criminal case against Sandusky stemming from his visit to San Antonio with the Penn State team in 1999 for the Alamo Bowl, authorities confirmed Thursday. “We are investigating the possibility that an offense may have happened while here in San Antonio,” Sgt....

Link Only

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Joe Paterno’s tenure as coach of the Penn State football team will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks, in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal that has implicated university officials, according to two people briefed on conversations among the university’s top officials. The board of trustees has yet to determine the precise timing of Paterno’s exit, but it is clear that the man who has more victories than any other coach at college football’s top level and who made Penn State a prestigious national brand will not survive to coach another season. Discussions about...

On Sept. 11, 2001, Penn State graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary burst into Joe Paterno's office to tell him the World Trade Center had been attacked by terrorists. Paterno told him to stop horsing around and shooed him away. It wasn't until moments later that Paterno realized the horrible truth. I'm wondering if Paterno did the same thing when McQueary came to him in 2002 and told him he witnessed an alleged heinous, criminal sexual act the day before between former longtime Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky and a young boy in the showers at Penn State's Lasch Football...

In a couple years we’ll be alumni, driving back to State College for football Saturdays. Before kickoff, we’ll stand with the other 100,000-plus Nittany Lion faithful at Beaver Stadium and sing our alma mater. We’ll recite the lyrics, which are about respect, integrity and success with honor — the foundations Penn State prides itself on. But I can’t help but wonder what those words will mean in two years, or beyond. I can’t help but fear that everything we once proudly believed is now tainted because of one man’s alleged disgustingly reprehensible actions and others apparently concealing the crimes for...

On the first day of Wisconsin's concealed carry law, more than 80,000 application forms have been downloaded and the Department of Justice's website has gotten hundreds of thousands of hits. The state expects to start issuing concealed carry permits later Tuesday afternoon, according to Department of Justice spokeswoman Dana Brueck. Since the permits will be mailed, it will take a few days for applicants to receive them. Also, people can pick up and drop off applications at the Department of Justice's office at the Capitol. Staff members are reporting the numbers of people doing that Tuesday morning are coming in...