Free Republic

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday abandoned a 96-year-old ban on manufacturers and retailers setting price floors for products. In a 5-4 decision, the court said that agreements on minimum prices are legal if they promote competition. The ruling means that accusations of minimum pricing pacts will be evaluated case by case.............. "The only safe predictions to make about today's decision are that it will likely raise the price of goods at retail," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in dissent......... Joining Kennedy in the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. With...

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 The biggest question in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination is whether or not former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson can sustain his warm-up act once he becomes an actual candidate. The actor once did what many politicians could never imagine by walking away from a career in the Senate. Now he is on the verge of doing what few politicians can even dream of by entering a race for the White House on top of the polls for his party’s nomination. Thompson, preparing to formally announce his candidacy, leads the pack in the latest Rasmussen...

USE LINK TO WATCH VIDEO: Hunter discussing tradeKeeping American Industry and Jobs in the U.S. “American workers are the most productive and innovative labor force in the world. Ominously, China is cheating on trade and using billions of American trade dollars to build ships, planes and missiles at an alarming rate while, at the same time, taking millions of American jobs. I will reverse this “one-way street” with a new policy of fair trade for the American worker.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Lithium-ion batteries are the most promising electricity source for environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles, with the potential to eclipse now dominant nickel technology, French battery maker Saft said...... "This seems to be happening a little bit quicker than we thought," she said on the sidelines of a conference on battery recycling late on Wednesday. Saft had won a contract to supply lithium-ion batteries for a vehicle which will go to market at the end of 2008, the first such commercial vehicle in the world, she said.... "There is plenty of lithium in the world," she said. "It's just...

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Just 20% of American voters want Congress to try and pass the immigration reform bill that failed in the Senate last week. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 51% would like their legislators to “take smaller steps towards reform” while 16% believe they should wait until next year. The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday night as the President was publicly attempting to rally support for the legislation. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters would favor an approach that focuses exclusively on “exclusively on securing the border and reducing illegal immigration.” Support for the...

House conservatives are ready to stop the Senate immigration bill in its tracks with a potent procedural weapon should the contentious measure win passage in the upper chamber. The trump card conservatives may hold is a constitutional rule that revenue-related bills must originate in the House. The Senate immigration measure requires that illegal immigrants pay back taxes before becoming citizens, opening the door to a House protest, dubbed a “blue slip” for the color of its paper....... “If we get an opportunity to do it, believe me, we’ll do it,” the aide said. “I think it’s going to be a...

AeroVironment (AV) (NASDAQ:AVAV), a leader in unmanned aircraft systems and efficient electric energy systems, today announced that it performed a fast charge demonstration of a lithium chemistry electric vehicle battery pack for representatives of the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The 35kWh (kilowatt-hour) battery pack, developed by Altair Nanotechnologies, (NASDAQ: ALTI) is designed for use in the Phoenix Motorcar Sport Utility Truck. This battery pack is designed to allow the truck to travel more than 100 miles on a single charge. The test, conducted by engineers at AV’s Monrovia, California Energy Technology Center, was a milestone in battery fast charging,...

BISMARCK, N.D. — A proposal for a North Dakota plant to convert coal into diesel and jet fuel has more than tripled in size, and the three companies behind it have formed a single company to oversee the project....... The three companies initially had talked about a plant that could produce up to 10,000 barrels of fuel daily. Ward said that figure has been increased to 32,000 barrels daily, and the estimated cost of a plant has risen from $750 million to $2 billion.

Lithium Technology Corporation on May 23 hosted an exposition in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., of the company’s breadth of power solutions and unveiled a retrofitted Toyota Prius, with plug-in capabilities allowing for 125-plus miles per gallon fuel efficiency, which is powered by the company’s unique battery technology. The battery for the Prius utilizes LTC’s new product line of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells, the largest cells of their kind in the world, which are considered to be the technology of choice for the American car manufacturers. “We are delighted to demonstrate and deliver the technology that the automotive industry has been...

TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. expects to cut costs for hybrid cars enough to be able to make as much money on them as it does on conventional gasoline cars by around 2010, a top executive said on Thursday....... But Masatami Takimoto, executive vice president in charge of powertrain development, said cost-cutting efforts on the system's motor, battery and inverter were bearing fruit, and the cost structure would improve drastically by the time Toyota reaches its sales goal of one million hybrids annually in 2010 or soon after. "By then, we expect margins to be equal to...

ELIZABETH, NJ – A 50-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant went online Feb. 10 with plans to eventually use algae as a feedstock. Fuel:Bio is currently using soy and palm oil to produce ASTM D6751 B100 biodiesel. “At present, Fuel:Bio is the largest commercial producer of biodiesel in the northeast, as determined by production volume,” according to John Borruso, government affairs liaison for Fuel:Bio. Borruso said that Fuel:Bio Holdings, LLC, headquartered in Elizabeth, NJ, plans to eventually have 10 production facilities located along the east coast of the United States. The company is privately-owned by a consortium of individual investors, Borruso said. He...

TOKYO, April 30 (UPI) -- Japanese researchers have developed a flexible plastic sheet that can wirelessly transmit power to electronic devices. Takao Someya and colleagues at the University of Tokyo said their wireless transmission system utilizes printing techniques that are already in use for the large-scale manufacture of organic electronic circuits and so can cover entire floors, walls or desks. The power-transmission sheets use small position-sensing coils that are able to detect similar coils attached to the targeted electronic device. Once a target device is brought near the transmission sheet, the sheet senses the receiver coils and tiny switches activate...

In a pointed dissent from decisions overturning death sentences for two Texas inmates, Roberts accused Stevens of engaging in revisionist history......... Roberts concluded his 16-page dissent on a sarcastic note, at odds with his amiable image. "Still, perhaps there is no reason to be unduly glum," Roberts said, taking direct aim at Stevens. "After all, today the author of a dissent issued in 1988 writes two majority opinions concluding that the views established in that dissent actually represented 'clearly established' federal law at that time. So there is hope yet for the views expressed in this dissent." "Encouraged by the...

A third GOP senator expressed support Thursday for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq under certain conditions. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe announced she would sponsor a bill to require American commanders to plan a withdrawal within 120 days of the bill's enactment, unless the Iraqi government meets a series of benchmarks. -Los Angeles Times

PRINCETON, N.J. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG) and GreenFuel Technologies Corporation (GreenFuel) announced today the commencement of field testing GreenFuel’s proprietary Emissions-to-Biofuels™ technology at NRG’s Big Cajun II – a 1,489 net megawatt coal-fueled power plant in New Roads, Louisiana. GreenFuel’s Emissions-to-Biofuels™ process uses naturally occurring algae to capture and reduce flue gas carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere. The energy-rich algae are harvested daily and can be converted into a broad range of biofuels or high-value animal feed supplements. Power generators can choose to dry and store the carbon-rich algae biomass for use as renewable fuel...

WASHINGTON - The GOP presidential race can be summed up this way: three strong contenders and a hunger for someone else. "There's no question that there's a very open field," said Ken Mehlman, a former Republican National Committee chairman. Unlike in 1980, 1988, 1996 and 2000, "there's not a presumptive front-runner," he added. For now, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has the lead in national popularity polls. Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has the most money. Arizona Sen. John McCain may have the superior national political operation. But none has a clear advantage in all three areas — polling,...

29 March 2007 Air powered car provides cost savings A car with an air-compressed engine will be able to drive around 124 miles or eight hours for just under $2. The OneCAT, created by Moteur Development International (MDI) Founder Guy Nègre, can reach a speed of 68 mph and can cover about 124 miles, or eight hours of travel, which is more than double the road coverage of an electric car. When recharging the tank, the car needs to connect to an outlet for three to four hours or attach to an air pump at a gas station for two minutes....

LAS VEGAS -- Because you did not want to spend your Saturday sitting in a room for three hours listening to Democratic presidential candidates tell you how they are going to provide universal health care for America, Politico did it for you. The candidates appeared in a forum sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. It was moderated by Karen Tumulty of Time magazine. ------------------- Go to article for all their positions

Look at website for other states... From website (just for California): If you see that your bank accepts the Matricula Consular Card, we suggest you do the following: Contact them and let them know you are changing banks and why.When you change banks, tell your new bank you are joining them because they do not accept the Matricula Consular Card and aide illegal aliensAlways check with the new bank before opening an account, if our information is wrong, please notify us with the bank's contact information so we can verify it.​​​​​ Banks Marked with the US Flag Do Not Accept...

Federal appeals court allows RICO suit alleging company hired, aided illegal aliens James M Yoch Jr at 11:01 AM ET [JURIST] The US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] in Atlanta has ruled [opinion, PDF] ruled that a plaintiff is permitted to bring a class-action lawsuit against a carpet manufacturer under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO) [text]. The plaintiff claims that Mohawk Industries [corporate website] knowingly hired illegal aliens and assisted them in evading immigration officials and law enforcement, allowing it to reduce labor costs and to discourage workers' compensation claims in violation of...