Free Republic

January 28, 2006Patrick runs right over doubts about women racersBy KEN WILLISSports Columnist DAYTONA BEACH --It's not that there haven't been any women racers before, including some who made their way to a Victory Lane here and there at various levels of motorsports. Problem is, the list is hardly a scroll. Therefore, Danica Patrick, who can appear so steely, so self-assured, so focused, gives an honest and somewhat surprising admission. "I cannot blame people for wondering if a girl can drive," she said Friday, the day before her debut in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, which begins today at...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska Jan 27, 2006 — Ridges of Arctic Ocean sea ice were shoved onto a Barrow road in quantities not seen in nearly three decades. Two ice surges, known to Alaska Natives as ivus, stunned residents who had never seen large blocks of ice rammed ashore. "It just looked like a big old mountain of ice," said L.A. Leavitt, 19, who left his nightshift job at the city early Tuesday to check out the ridges. Ivus are like frozen tsunamis and crash ashore violently. They have killed hunters and are among the Arctic's most feared natural phenomena. Residents said...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui, the French Al-Qaeda member who confessed his role in the September 11 attacks, plan to argue their client is mentally ill and the product of a troubled family in a bid to spare him the death penalty, according to court papers. Moussaoui, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced next month in a US federal court when a jury must decide if he should be executed or imprisoned for life without parole. His defense lawyers submitted to the court on Tuesday a list of expert witnesses prepared to testify about Moussaoui's upbringing in France...

KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) -- A small, military-style jet crashed into a mobile home park Wednesday, killing the pilot, who was found strapped to his seat 100 yards from the site, authorities said. The plane hit one trailer, triggering a fire. No one was home at the time and all residents had been accounted for, said Alaska State Troopers spokesman Greg Wilkinson. But at least five people on the ground were treated for minor injuries from flying debris. The aircraft was a Czech-made Albatros L39 two-seat training jet owned by a Las Vegas company, Wilkinson said. The plane left Sitka and...

NEW YORK - New York Knicks team president Isiah Thomas is accused of sexual harassment and discrimination by one of the team’s former front-office employees in a federal lawsuit. Anucha Browne Sanders claims Thomas made unwanted sexual advances toward her and refused to stop, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan. Thomas and Madison Square Garden are listed as the defendants in the lawsuit, which charges them with sex discrimination and retaliation. Browne Sanders, who had been with the team since 2000, claims she was fired as the Knicks’ senior vice president of marketing and business...

DAYTONA BEACH – As expected, NASCAR announced Toyota will compete in the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series. Toyota will be the first foreign car manufacturer to participate in NASCAR racing since Jaguar in the 1960s."We are excited they would consider NASCAR because they have such a worldwide brand, a worldwide competitive structure, as the best opportunity to build their presence in North America," NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said Monday. France made the announcement at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., during the NASCAR Media Tour. Toyota will reveal the race teams that will...

DAYTONA BEACH -- Adult dancers may be clear to take it all off after a federal judge Friday struck down the city's anti-nudity laws. City ordinances prohibiting public nudity and nudity in places that sell alcohol violate the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, U.S. District Judge John Antoon concluded in his ruling. "We won on every single issue," said Daniel Aaronson, a Fort Lauderdale attorney representing Lollipops Gentleman's Club on Grandview Avenue. The victory entitles Aaronson to press for the city to pay attorney fees for Lollipops, which he said exceed $100,000. Daytona Beach failed to prove...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida's unemployment rate dropped to 3.3 percent in December, the lowest in 30 years, and it posted the fastest job growth among the nation's 10 most populous states last year, the state's labor agency announced today. The December jobless rate, down from 3.6 percent in November, also is lowest among those states. It is 1.6 percentage points below the national rate of 4.9 percent, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation reported. "I wouldn't trade our economy for any other state's," said Rick McAllister, president of the Florida Retail Federation. "We seem to be the steady Eddie."...

Anybody who's ever worked on a car knows how easy it is to get really irritated, but a new medical study shows NASCAR mechanics and drivers may have more reason than most -- the lead in their racing fuel. That's one reason NASCAR will use unleaded fuel for its racecars and trucks beginning in 2008, making the switch from the high-octane leaded fuel that it has used for decades, according to a report in The New York Times. The fuel, Sunoco 260 GTX, will be used in NASCAR's three main racing series -- Nextel Cup, Busch, and Craftsman Truck. It...

FOXSports.com has learned that the New Orleans Saints have agreed in principle to a deal to make Dallas offensive coordinator Sean Payton their new head coach. The two sides are trying to iron out a final contract, which has not yet been signed.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- It will be the fastest spacecraft ever launched, zooming past the moon in nine hours and reaching Jupiter in just over a year at a speed nearly 100 times that of a jetliner. Its target is Pluto -- the solar system's last unexplored planet, 3 billion miles from Earth. And the New Horizons spacecraft, set for liftoff on Tuesday, could reach it within nine years. Pluto, a tiny, icy misfit of a planet -- some say it's not a planet at all -- neither resembles the rocky bodies of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, nor the giant...

WASHINGTON—The National Security Agency fired a high level intelligence official just days after he publicly urged Congress to pass stronger protections for federal whistleblowers facing retaliation.Russ Tice, 43, who was once nominated for an award by the agency for his intelligence work on Iraq, was informed Tuesday that his security clearances had been permanently revoked and that he could no longer work at the secretive intelligence agency known for its eavesdropping and code-breaking capabilities.Tice has been at the odds with the agency since he reported suspicions that a female co-worker at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), was a spy for...

HAVANA - Bolivia's socialist president-elect got a greeting reserved for heads of state when he arrived in communist Cuba on Friday: a red carpet, a military band and a smiling Fidel Castro. Stepping off the Cuban plane sent to pick him up in Bolivia, Evo Morales said his trip to the Caribbean island was "a gesture of friendship to the Cuban people." Castro embraced Morales, who has visited the island in the past as one of Latin America's leading protest organizers. The Cuban government has welcomed the election of the nationalist Indian activist as an important triumph over U.S. influence...

PORT ORANGE -- A man who woke up this morning bleeding from a bullet wound to his forehead later drove himself to work, and then to a hospital, where he was in stable condition this afternoon after undergoing brain surgery, Port Orange police said. Glen Betterley, 53, of 5267 Orange Ave., told police he woke up about 4:30 a.m. and noticed blood on his face but didn't know know where it came from. He asked his girlfriend, Emma Lorene Larsen, 65, if she was responsible but she could not explain it. So he washed his face and went back to...

The Greatest Civil Liberties Violation In America This week the Democrats have scored another huge point; sadly that point is a Democratic point, which is to say it is stupid at best; and dangerous at worst. It seems President Bush, with thorough oversight from the Democrats, authorized the NSA to spy on Al Qaeda members inside the United States. This, they have pointed out, is very bad. And, the Democrats scored again by holding up the renewal of the Patriot Act primarily because it allowed the gov't access to one's ( Al-Qaeda's) library records. So what is the real reason...

Dec 15, 9:36 AM EST Elections supervisor: Some Diebold voting machines can be hacked TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Some Diebold-made voting machines, which are used in Florida and elsewhere throughout the country, can be hacked to change the results of an election, according to tests conducted for Leon County's elections supervisor and a monitoring group.Ion Sancho said tests by two computer experts showed an insider could secretly change election results and the number of ballots cast on Diebold's optical-scan machines. The tests caused Sancho this week to scrap Leon's Diebold machines for a system made by Election Systems and Software,...

I have it from good sources that Harriet Miers' housekeepers step sisters second cousin once removed from her brothers aunts half sisters side by marriage to her sisters third cousin on her dads side once removed from his yougest nephews oldest step uncle who was divorced but remarried ate at a Ben And Jerry's in 1992. Bush is crazy.

Live conference...

PALM COAST -- In classrooms across the state, students with a palm pressed to their chests pledge allegiance to the American flag. It's a practice void of controversy, that is, until a student chooses not to participate or to protest. How these students can be treated is an issue one outspoken Palm Coast resident, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, is pressing the Flagler County School District to change. They call the district's policy "unconstitutional," contending it takes away a student's right to free speech. School board members are expected to discuss the issue tonight at 7....

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Two out of three children who beat cancer go on to develop other chronic health problems, ranging from heart disease to blindness, because of radiation and other treatments that saved their lives, new research finds.Cancer treatments have vastly improved in recent years, so today's patients shouldn't suffer as many future problems, specialists say.Nevertheless, the research shows the tremendous medical, financial and emotional burdens that those treated in the 1970s and 1980s are now facing. One study found that 1 in 10 survivors are saddled with $25,000 in cancer-related debt."We've concentrated so much on our 5- and...