Free Republic

The Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday laid off 21 employees throughout the company as it joined other U.S. newspapers struggling to cope with declining circulation and rising costs. In addition to the layoffs, 33 vacant positions won't be filled. Tribune Co. owns the Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Newspapers owned by the New York Times Co. and Knight Ridder Inc. also have announced plans to cut jobs. "We have tried to make changes that will allow us to cut costs," Orlando Sentinel Publisher Kathleen Waltz said. "We simply need to reset our cost structure going forward." Before the layoffs,...

Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Inquirer and Daily News, said today it plans to eliminate 16 percent of newsroom jobs through buyouts or layoffs, blaming falling advertising revenues and circulation. The job cuts, similar to actions taken by other major newspapers in recent years, will reduce the number of Inquirer reporters and other newsroom employees by about 75, to 425, roughly its level in the early 1980s, according to union officials at the Newspaper Guild. The Daily News aims to cut about 25 positions, reducing its newsroom to 105 people, less than half the size at its peak in...

FOXBOROUGH -- Green Day played a long set when it headlined in front of 40,000-plus fans at Gillette Stadium last Saturday. Last night, the group did just one song and it was a safe choice: ''Boulevard of Broken Dreams," though it wasn't perhaps the most cheerful track to spice a pre-game show featuring the unveiling of another championship banner for the New England Patriots. It also was curious to see Green Day wedged into a small, hideaway end-zone stage (Elton John was put on the same stage at last year's pre-game show but at least was allowed to do two...

The National Football League is refusing to punt Kanye West, despite the rapper's controversial trashing of President Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina. The NFL stood by the hip-hop star Tuesday at a Los Angeles press conference announcing the talent lineup for the upcoming Opening Kickoff special this Thursday. The roster still includes the Chicago-based rapper, who made waves Friday when he ignored the TelePrompTer and lashed out at the White House response to hurricane victims during NBC's live telethon, saying " George Bush doesn't care about black people." The network edited out West's remark from the West Coast rebroadcast and...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A judge tentatively ruled Thursday that a Newport Beach parish that left the Episcopal Diocese in a dispute over a gay bishop's ordination is the rightful owner of its building and property. Superior Court Judge David Velasquez delayed a final decision until Monday, when he will hear more arguments. His initial ruling sided with attorneys for St. James Church in Newport Beach who argued that a lawsuit in which the Episcopal Diocese is seeking control of the property interfered with St. James parishioners' freedom of speech. The judge said the church had initially demonstrated that "they...

History affords many unfortunate examples of groups that failed to propagate their cultural beliefs and adapt their behaviors to changing circumstances and environments. Some of these groups were absorbed or otherwise eclipsed by larger groups that came to dominate them, while others suffered complete cultural extinction. A prime example of the latter is the Shoshonian Sheep-Eaters of the American West, who, in the 1700s, numbered in the thousands and lived the good life. Their traditional lifestyle limited family size to only one or two children, putting them at a distinct disadvantage when tens of thousands of aggressive foreign tribes moved...

HELENA -- House lawmakers will once again have to decide whether to support a law banning open containers in vehicles. The House Judiciary Committee voted 11-7 Friday to send a Senate version of the open-container ban to the House floor. Senate Bill 80 by Sen. Gary Perry, R-Manhattan, makes it a crime to have an open beer or other alcoholic beverage in a vehicle, but masks violations of the law from drivers' records. The House has already approved an open-container law once this session. That ban would have required violations show up on driver's records, as preferred by groups fighting...

Med : Supreme Court case could severely limit cities Eminent domain. It is the ultimate exercise in government power over individual property owners. A city can forcibly buy out a homeowner and take over his land, with the argument that the public would benefit more from a shopping mall than a private house. But that power could be significantly curbed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision this spring. The ruling has a potentially significant impact on how local cities do business. From the construction of Pasadena car dealerships to an ongoing lawsuit over a Temple City office building, eminent domain...

The House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary will convene a series of eight hearings on the USA Patriot Act starting in about a week. The Patriot Act contains many provisions that are due to sunset at the end of 2005 if they are not reenacted. I sincerely hope that changes are made to the Act, as it stands now it is in opposition to many of the freedoms and rights we treasure. I believe that many of the Patriot Act's provisions are in direct contradiction to the Constitution and a serious threat to American Liberty. If you think the Act...

To: National Desk Contact: Ken Boehm of the National Legal and Policy Center, 703-237-1970, Web: http://www.nlpc.org WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 /U.S. Newswire/-- Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), today announced that the group has been notified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that its Complaint against billionaire George Soros will be reviewed. The case has been assigned Matter Under Review number 5642. The Complaint, filed on Jan. 18, alleges extensive apparent violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act. The FEC's notification letter of Jan. 26 is posted at http://www.nlpc.org along with a pdf of the 41-page...

NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton has joined PETA in calling for a boycott of fast-food chain KFC, in a new TV and radio campaign. Sharpton is urging the black community to join the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' boycott of the franchise, the animal protection group announced Thursday. "If KFC wants to take our money and use it to pay for sloppy practices that hurt animals, I say we send them a message that this is not going to happen," Sharpton says in the ad. Sharpton and PETA are seeking improvements to KFC's practices regarding the...

A pub darts team in Brighton has been banned for life for alleged homophobic behaviour towards an opposing gay and lesbian side. Players from the Bevendean Hotel are alleged to have insulted gay players based at the Stag pub, in December. The team, banned from the Sussex United Darts League, is said to have refused to shake hands or eat at the pub. But the Bevendean players deny the claims and say they were not given a chance to tell their version of events. The Stag players say the other team refused to shake hands or eat food "in case...

"We are talking about theology, we are talking about scripture." A weeklong meeting of Anglican conservatives held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi concluded that the U.S. Episcopal Church have failed to repent for the consecration of a homosexual bishop. Ending on Friday 28th January, the gathering drew more than 30 conservative Anglican archbishops and bishops from Africa, Asia and Latin America. At the meeting they discussed their reactions towards the recommendations made by a commission for resolving the current rift between conservatives and liberals over homosexuality. The Lambeth Commission published the Windsor Report in October 2004, which aims to find...

Gay Anglican bishop gets fervid reception Robinson has been on roller coaster ride since election Three days after the Rev. V. Gene Robinson won confirmation as the first openly gay bishop in the global Anglican Communion, he received a note from an 18-year-old inmate at New Hampshire State Prison for Women. "I'm neither gay nor Christian, particularly," she wrote. "But your election makes me believe that there might be a community out there who can love me." Robinson has been repeating that story during his first trip to California since he was consecrated bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, reflecting...

Anglican prelates warn rift with U.S. church remains The Episcopal Church's apology for consecrating a gay bishop isn't enough, conservative clerics said. NAIROBI, Kenya - Anglican archbishops from Africa, Asia and Latin America said yesterday that an apology from the U.S. Episcopal Church did not go far enough to heal the rift among Anglicans over the consecration of the denomination's first openly gay bishop. The Anglican Communion - the international association of churches that trace their roots back to the Church of England - fears its unity is threatened by deep disagreements over homosexuality. Conservative clerics from Africa, Asia and...

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's foreign policy may jeopardize the economic health of American multinational companies abroad, an international consumer survey released Monday said. According to an international survey of 8,000 consumers taken by Global Marketing Insite World Poll on Dec. 10 through 12, fifty percent of foreign consumers distrust American companies as a result of the U.S. decision to invade Iraq and the war on terror. Additionally, 79 percent said they distrusted the American government, while 39 percent said they distrusted Americans. "American companies' livelihoods depend on trust. It's extremely important. You almost never get a second chance once...

She calls herself "Satanta." And she's on a mission this holiday season to urge people to turn a blind eye to those glittering mall windows, to forget about making a wish list, to just say no to Hallmark and above all, to resist Christmas. While some people may think she's a Grinch, 36-year-old cartoonist and animator Nina Paley, mother of the Christmas Resistance Movement, says she actually used to be a devotee of the holiday. That is, until it let her down repeatedly. "I love the idea of Christmas," Paley said, speaking from her home in Brooklyn, New York, where...

PARIS - In Woody Allen's America, Bordeaux or Burgundy wine and other things French are always in vogue. But he admits his European sensibility makes his films less popular back home. Even with trans-Atlantic ties at a low ebb, the French are still seen as standard-bearers of class, elegance and, well, romance among Americans, he said, and the U.S. filmgoing public knows it. "If you were doing a scene of seduction, and the man gets the woman in a candlelit restaurant, he would never order a California wine - because then everyone would laugh," Allen told reporters in Paris. "It...

PARIS (AP) - Wine is less a beverage than an elixir of life in France, but the country's vintners say they're vexed by a problem that threatens their livelihood - too much of a good thing and not enough people drinking it. Pinched by overproduction, shrinking exports, advertising restrictions, an aggressive campaign against alcohol abuse and changing drinking habits, at least 6,000 growers and winemakers staged spirited demonstrations nationwide Wednesday to press the government for help. ``We are a sector in crisis,'' said Jean-Michel Lemetayer, the head of France's main farmer union, urging the state to bail out an industry...

To: National Desk Contact: John Carlisle of the National Legal and Policy Center, 703-237-1970; Web: http://www.nlpc.org FALLS CHURCH, Va., Nov. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The National Legal and Policy Center announces the release of "The Case Against Slave Reparations," a comprehensive study critiquing demands that the government and private-sector institutions pay African Americans billions of dollars as compensation for slavery. The study contains innumerable facts and figures that render reparations advocates' arguments as nonsensical. Following is a sampling of such facts: -- There were many white slaves in America, who came here as indentured servants. They had to provide forced,...