Free Republic

Pardon the vanity, but I have a question that I can not seem to determine the answer to. Did the Air Force, in choosing the Airbus A330 as the new refuelling tanker platform, violate the "Buy American Act" originally signed into law in 1933?

SEATTLE -- A problem in Canada's hospitals is sending scores of pregnant women south of the border to have their babies. Carri Ash of Chilliwack, B.C. was sent to the U.S. to have her baby after her water broke on Sunday, ten weeks ahead of schedule. "And they came in and said 'you're going to Seattle,'" she said. Ash's hospital couldn't handle the high-risk pregnancy. Doctors searched for another hospital bed, but even hospitals in Vancouver, B.C. didn't have a neo-natal bed. "So two provinces didn't have enough room, so I have to go to another country," said Ash. Ash...

PORTLAND -- An Oregon outdoors enthusiast is suing the federal government for not posting a danger warning next to a cliff in the Mount Hood National Forest. Twenty-three-year-old Jerry Mersersau says he suffered mental anguish after trekking out in the dark to relieve himself and falling off a cliff in the national forest. According to his lawsuit, Mersersau, who was not carrying a flashlight, fell about 20 to 30 feet onto a creek bed. Mersersau charges that the government should have known that the cliff posed a danger to campers.

Resumption of tests absurd I shake my head in stunned disbelief that the U.S. is so determined to test every limit of absurdity and insanity with the resumption of above-ground testing at the Nevada Test Site on June 2. Is there nothing that the U.S. military considers grotesque any more? Is humanity so numbed by the incessant spread of death and destruction that nothing is considered outrageous any more? Surely, if the United States is so morally and spiritually bankrupt, then we have nothing to care for or to value or to hold dear. We are so far into...

KENT - "Philip has been a kid who tinkers with things ever since he was little," a grieving Claudia Quinn told KOMO 4 News Monday night after her son's bizarre and tragic death. Sunday, 24-year-old Philip Quinn was tinkering with a lava lamp at his home in Kent. His girlfriend and his parents became worried when they couldn't find him and couldn't get him to answer his phone. Claudia and Bill Quinn drove from their home in Auburn to check on their youngest son. They thought maybe he'd just overslept. They were devastated by what they found. "I looked around...

SEATTLE - A suspected carjacker jumped onto Interstate 5 Saturday morning in an attempt to escape the police. It was a deadly move. Police suspected the man of an armed carjacking about a mile and half away from where he jumped to his death. The King County Medical Examiner's office identified the man as Sophaly Plenh, 20, of Seattle. A car chase began soon after police spotted the car near the Swift Albro overpass. Officers rammed the car with a police cruiser. "There was a short struggle and the individual jumped off the bridge to elude the officers," said Assistant...

I need some FReeper help with some research on the North Hollywood Shooutout (Bank Robbery). Does anyone know just where the perptrators obtainrd full auto AK47's. They surely didn't get them at a local sporting goods store.

A shoplifter caused a buzz in a department store restroom and made off with about $60 worth of CDs, perfume, batteries and scissors. The man released a swarm of honeybees in a Kmart restroom, creating a diversion that allowed him to escape, authorities said. Store security spotted the man shoplifting Monday and followed him to the restroom to confront him. When the worker opened the door, about 100 bees buzzed out."He probably started yelling 'Bees! Bees!' or whatever the case may be, then created that big diversion, then got out," said police Cmdr. John DeGonia. Store employees pulled cans of...

<p>HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- An airport screener who is a registered sex offender faces life in prison after a weekend rampage in which he fired shots throughout his apartment complex and then set fire to one of the buildings, officials said.</p>

KING COUNTY - Seattle police say a suicidal man was shot to death early Tuesday after he lunged at officers with a knife. Officer Duane Fish says the 23-year-old man was shot three times in the abdomen after being confronted in a Lake City-area home. The man died soon afterward at Harborview Medical Center. Fish says four officers were sent to the home after a woman reported that a man was threatening to commit suicide. Two of the officers had special weapons and tactics training but were assigned to regular duty. Fish says police fired a Taser stun gun when ...

"13 REASONS WHY A HANDGUN IS BETTER THAN A WOMAN" 1.You can buy a silencer for a handgun. 2.You can trade a .44 for two .22's. 3.You can have a handgun at home and another for the road. 4.If you admire a friend's handgun and tell him so, he will be impressed and let you try a few rounds with it. 5.Your primary handgun doesn't mind if you have a backup. 6.Your handgun will stay with you even if you are out of ammo. 7.A handgun doesn't take up a lot of closet space. 8.Handguns function normally every day ...

KENT {Washington} -- After arguing with a girlfriend, a man killed himself yesterday by lighting a package of bottle rockets and holding them against his neck and upper chest as the fireworks exploded. The death of the 34-year-old man was ruled a suicide, said an investigator for the King County Medical Examiner's Office. The couple was arguing in the man's home near South 240th Street and Pacific Highway South. About 12:20 a.m., the man apparently ignited one or more of the 12 rockets in a package of ``Air Traveler'' brand bottle rockets, the investigator said. The subsequent blast ruptured ...

REDMOND {Washington} -- A Redmond man thwarted an armed carjacker early yesterday morning and ended up holding on for dear life to the outside of his car as it sped around a grocery store parking lot. Mohamed Kazaal was loading groceries into his Honda Accord outside QFC at 15800 Redmond Way, near the Ben Franklin store, about 2:15 a.m., when a man came up behind him and demanded his keys, said Redmond police spokesman Brian Coats. When Kazaal turned around, he saw the robber was pointing a handgun at him. The carjacker threatened to shoot Kazaal if he didn't ...

KING COUNTY - About 300 local employees of Kozmo.com have been given a choice: Sign consent forms that authorize the Internet delivery service to perform criminal background, credit and debt checks -- or be fired. New York-based Kozmo announced the new policy several days ago. The company told employees they would be terminated if they didn't sign by 6 p.m., Monday. Kozmo.com says it's a fast-growing company trying to catch up with the times. Kozmo says it wants to ensure that the couriers who deliver products to people's homes are safe. The broad forms allow the company to check ...

(Seattle-AP) -- Guardian One, the helicopter flown by the King County sheriff's department, was grounded briefly when the pilot and observer were injured by a high-powered laser. The incident occurred Friday as the chopper flew over West Seattle. Both deputies were briefly blinded by a bright flash of light from the ground. Though they could see, the helicopter landed immediately and both were taken to Harborview Medical Center for examination. No serious damage was detected but both complained of headache and "scratchy" eyes Saturday. The two deputies were able to direct Seattle police to the house where the laser ...

PIERCE COUNTY - A Puyallup area man is in critical condition following a shooting at a gas station in Tacoma {Washington} over the weekend. But this particular shooting isn't your ordinary crime. For one thing, the entire incident was caught on the gas station's surveillance video tape system. Police are using that tape to try to find the two suspects in the shooting. The other strange aspect of this case is that the fight and shooting apparently was over a pack of cigarettes. Witnesses tell police one of the suspects walked into the gas station and demanded a man ...

BOISE - Police are still trying to find three men and a woman who savagely attacked a Port Townsend {Washington} woman in an area of central Idaho. 52-year-old Linda Welsh Lebrane was beaten with a baseball bat and stabbed repeatedly in the highway attack. She was hospitalized Thursday in serious but stable condition. Lebrane was stabbed 13 times in the neck, chest and back after being forced off Interstate 84 while driving early Thursday morning, authorities said. She underwent surgery at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Authorities said Lebrane told them a man forced his way into the driver's ...

I am appalled at the thought that in the 21st century there are still women, much less mothers, who are less concerned with their children's safety than they are with their right to a long forgotten way of life. Don't they know that every two hours another mother loses her child to gun violence? Maybe it takes being that mother to wise up. Is that the only difference between the two groups, those who have lost and those who might still lose? I wish the Second Amendment Sisters could tell the women on the other side what, if anything, ...

January 10, 2000 is a date that will never be forgotten by emergency personnel in Yourtown, USA. At 7:14 a.m., the frantic calls began pouring in to the 911 center. "There's dead kids everywhere," cried one caller. "Send every ambulance you've got," blurted another. Police and EMS responders arriving on the scene were greeted with carnage the likes of which had never before been seen in Yourtown. The broken and mangled bodies of elementary students lay scattered like so many rag dolls. Five children were already dead with five more critically injured. What had caused this "massacre"? Johnny "Redneck" ...

Psychologists tell us that we need to "get in touch with our feelings." Men are told that they need to get in touch with their feminine side. Funny, but I never hear women advised to get in touch with their masculine side. Feelings are a very important part of our emotional makeup and mental health, but there is a very real danger in letting feelings overcome common sense and reason. Take a look , for example, at our current educational system. Instead of teaching our children how to think, they are taught what to think. Emphasis is placed on ...