Free Republic

PHOTOS VIDEO Click image to enlarge STORIES •GAO: FEMA Overpaid for Katrina Victim Hotel Rooms•FEMA to Stop Paying for Katrina Evacuees' Hotel Privileges•Thousands of Katrina Evacuees Booted From Hotels•Katrina Evacuees Face Hotel Deadline•More Than 3,200 Still Missing After Katrina•Many on Mississippi's Coast Feeling Neglected•Congressional Panel Probes Delay in Getting Trailers to Katrina Victims•Congress Criticizes FEMA for Lack of Hurricane Housing•New Orleans Residents Angry Over Rebuilding Plans•Bush Praises Recovery in Gulf Coast•'Katrina' Students Head Back to New Orleans Colleges•New Orleans Hotel Evicts 100 Katrina Victims•Bush Administration Gives $250 Million for Hurricane Relief•Program Employs Returning Soldiers in Hurricane Relief•New Orleans Delays Katrina...

ATLANTA - Down syndrome in the United States is more common than previously thought, at one case for every 733 live births, according to a new government report containing what are regarded as the most reliable estimates yet on the prevalence of 18 types of birth defects. Previously, Down syndrome, a type of retardation caused by a genetic mutation, was estimated to occur in a range of one in every 800 live births to one in every 1,000. The report, released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also found that cleft lip occurs in about one in...

Wal-Mart apologized yesterday after its retail Web site directed potential buyers of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Planet of the Apes" DVDs to also consider purchasing DVDs with African American themes. The world's largest retailer said in a statement that it was "heartsick" over the racially offensive grouping and that the site was linking "seemingly random combinations of titles." "It's just simply not working correctly," said Mona Williams, vice president of corporate communications for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia (CNN) -- The 27-year-old lone survivor of an explosion in a coal mine is suffering from severe dehydration and has a collapsed lung after his 41-hour ordeal, the doctor treating him said Wednesday. Dr. Larry Roberts of Ruby Memorial Hospital said that Randal McCloy was brought to the facility around 3 a.m., after being initially treated at a hospital close to the Sago Mine. "He is still critically ill and is in intensive care," the doctor said. "He suffered some collapse of one of his lungs, and we're trying to reopen that and there's good progress there."...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Zanele Mazibuko has always hated the violin. And the flute? Forget it. For a child growing up in the black township of Soweto, she said, those instruments represented a distant world of white privilege, beyond a seemingly uncrossable racial divide. But last week, something began to change her mind. It was a live performance by Freshlyground, one of South Africa's hottest bands, which features both a violin and a flute -- not to mention five white members out of seven. The music, a fusion of rock, jazz and Afro-pop, sounded "black," Mazibuko said, delighted and...

The debate comes down to this: Was Stonewall-Flanders Elementary School named for the legendary Confederate general Stonewall Jackson or for stone fences that adorned front yards in the neighborhood? Express-News file photo Stonewall-Flanders Elementary Harlandale Independent School District trustees will consider the question as they decide whether to grant a former district administrator's request to rename the school after César Chávez, the late social activist. "We don't have any historical evidence that it was, indeed, named for Stonewall Jackson," district spokesman David Ochoa said Monday, when the Board of Trustees heard the proposal. Nick Calzoncit thinks otherwise, though he can...

<p>NEW YORK (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier on leave from the Army was arrested Thursday for allegedly firing into the air and killing a young mother as she looked out her fifth floor apartment window, authorities said.</p> <p>U.S. Army Pvt. Danny Carpio, 23, is accused of randomly firing a gun in Queens late Wednesday. One bullet struck 28-year-old Selina Akthel in the head, killing her instantly, said Kevin Ryan, the spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.</p>

Mob pulled man who honked horn from car and beat him Thursday, December 29, 2005; Posted: 10:28 p.m. EST (03:28 GMT) Samuel McClain, before the beating. His wife says people will be shocked to see what he looks like now. Image: More Useful Links • Baby Registry • Online Shopping • Sporting Goods YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS milwaukee or Create Your Own Manage Alerts | What Is This? MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Three juveniles suspected in the brutal mob beating of a motorist appeared in court Thursday and were ordered held in custody while authorities investigate the attack. None of the...

Beating the "Bad Rapp" of racism in the South This is very important. In recent online discussions I have been twice accused of being a racist when the person arguing with me found out I live in Houston Texas. There seems to be this bigoted stereotype that those of us in the southern United States are just a bunch of unenlightened inbred racist bastards. It was very unsettling to me to be accused of this living as I do in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the USA, and one which has a very good record of race...

Click to view larger picture Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News Patricia Potts is angry about the surcharge her 12-employee company will have to pay in February. There will be a little extra something for businesses in New York early next year - an extra tax. Because of past economic downturns, the state's unemployment insurance system is in hock to the federal government, forcing a make-up payment of about $42 per worker. The bite isn't new, having begun a year ago, and should be eliminated next year as the state's borrowing is repaid. But this year's bill will be double the one that...

Click to view larger picture Associated Press A police officer on horseback directs pedestrians around the scene of one of Monday's shootings in downtown Toronto. TORONTO - A city that prides itself as one of the safest in North America is bewildered by a surge in violence that has produced a record number of shooting deaths this year, the latest a 15-year-old girl on a street filled with holiday shoppers. Canada's prime minister and Toronto's mayor blame illegal weapons smuggled from the United States, but others point to a growing gang problem. Whatever the cause, Canadians recoiled Tuesday after a...

Programs and agencies geared at stamping out homelessness in Erie County will get $9.4 million in 2006 from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grants, to be announced locally Thursday, include nearly $3.7 million for new projects and services. In 2005, programs in Erie County received no new funds through HUD's annual competitive grant-making process. But local advocates for the homeless said the latest round of grants was smoothing over the disappointment from the 2005 grant announcements. "For the first time in a long time, we got everything we asked for from HUD," said William T. O'Connell,...

MILWAUKEE — Several people were being questioned by detectives in the beating of a motorist who was dragged from his car and severely injured, police said Wednesday. The 50-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition with head trauma after the beating late Monday on Milwaukee's north side, according to police. His condition had improved by Wednesday morning, police Lt. Scott Lange said. He gave no further details on the victim's condition or on the people he said were being questioned, except to say there had been no arrests. City officials asked for the public's help in finding the assailants, believed...

NEW YORK - U.S. mortgage applications fell to a more than 3-1/2-year low last week amid a sharp drop in demand for loan refinancing even as interest rates held steady, an industry trade group said Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications for the week ended Dec. 23 decreased 6.8 percent to 554.1 from the previous week’s 594.6. Volume was at its lowest level since the week ended May 24, 2002, when the index hit 516.9. The group’s seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications dropped 11.2 percent to 1,259.1, compared with 1,418.1 the previous...

What do you get for the person - actually, 535 of them - who has everything? Try a letter, phone call or an e-mail. It doesn't cost much, requires no last-minute dash to the mall and might eventually have a big impact. After all, it's not the gift, it's the thought that counts. After Wednesday's debacle, members of Congress need to know what the public - the real public, not the lobbyists - thinks about the budgets it puts together while promising more big tax cuts to come. Critics of this legislative sausage-making can take some comfort in the fact...

By Lorraine Ali Newsweek Dec. 26, 2005 - Jan 2, 2006 issue - Saigon is hip-hop's great new hope—and one of its most unlikely. He's unimpressed by bling, actually likes women and cringes at the idea of becoming a video thug. "If I hear one more person say 'I'm a hustler,' I think I'm gonna die," says Saigon (a.k.a. Brian Carenard), 28, who adopted his moniker after reading about black soldiers in Vietnam. "There's only so many ways you can rap about killing someone or having a million girlfriends or being a pimp. Boooring That doesn't mean he can't hold...

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 DAVE HOGAN SALEM -- Former state Sen. Neil Bryant has withdrawn his name from consideration for a state board appointment after apologizing for writing "white/male" on a form asking if he had a disability. Bryant said Tuesday that he told Gov. Ted Kulongoski last week that he had made the notation in an attempt to be humorous, but he wound up kicking himself. "I sincerely and profoundly apologize for any discomfort I have caused," the Bend attorney wrote in a letter Thursday withdrawing his name. "No one is to blame but me." Kulongoski had nominated Bryant...

More than 11 years after Allen Wheatley Jr. was killed in a gang-related shooting, jurors in the third murder trial of his accused killer are facing questions about whether they made racially offensive comments about the defendant before convicting him this year. Two black jurors, one male and one female, testified Friday that at least two other jury members had referred to Alonzo Ferguson, 29, as "boy" during deliberations. "I thought it had racial connotations," the woman testified. She also said one juror said he knew Ferguson was guilty when he first looked at him. The black male juror said...

By GRETCHEN WENNER, Californian staff writer, e-mail: gwenner@bakersfield.com Posted: Tuesday December 20th, 2005, 6:01 PM Last Updated: Tuesday December 20th, 2005, 6:01 PM Brian Parnell: social worker, county employee, white man. Parnell, 45, is so far making little headway after filing a federal civil rights complaint against a black professional organization. But he’s not giving up. Here’s the back story: In April, Parnell flew to New Orleans with five black co-workers from the county’s Human Services Department. On the taxpayers’ dime, they’d signed on for professional training offered by the National Association of Black Social Workers. But association officials wouldn’t...

<p>RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- Home for Christmas after nearly a year in the Middle East, Navy Reservist Paul Berkley was making up for lost time with his family.</p> <p>He arrived Wednesday, in time to hear his 18-year-old son, Zeke, sing the national anthem with his high school chorus. On Friday, he and 16-year-old stepdaughter Becky ate pizza, watched movies and danced.</p>