Free Republic

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines and American Eagle's parent companies are filing for bankruptcy protection. AMR Corp. and AMR Eagle Holding Corp. said Tuesday that they filed voluntary petitions to reorganize, saying it's in the best interest of the companies and its shareholders.

Sixteen Detroit police officers failed to finish their scheduled shifts on Friday. The unannounced work-stoppage was an apparent protest against the Detroit mayor's planned reductions in pay for police, one part of a larger package intended to address the city's financial crisis. The apparent protest was a "concerted effort isolated to one shift at one district," Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. explained in a statement. The police officers left during their 4-8 pm shift on Friday, according to the Detroit News. Earlier in the week, Mayor Dave Bing warned police officers to expect a 10 percent pay cut in...

Jubilation about the German deal to save the euro could prove short-lived if fresh news of Greek tax evasion gains wider currency. There are more Porsche Cayennes registered in Greece than taxpayers declaring an income of 50,000 euros (£43,800) or more, according to research by Professor Herakles Polemarchakis, former head of the Greek prime minister’s economic department. While German car workers may take pride in this evidence of their export success, German taxpayers may be less keen to bail out a nation whose population appears to take such a cavalier approach to paying its fiscal dues. Never mind all that...

Occupy DC has cost taxpayers nearly $1 million over the past two months, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) told WJLA-TV last week. These numbers don’t include the cost of a three-hour standoff protesters engaged in with police Saturday night. Officers ultimately arrested 13 protesters who had entered an abandoned historic building in downtown Washington. (Gray said Monday that the building’s redevelopment is a “tier one priority,” according to the Post’s Mike DeBonis.) But Thursday’s Key Bridge protest, which resulted in no arrests, cost the Department of Transportation $4,000. Before the weekend, police staffing had amounted to $870,000 — $22,000 per...

See the video at the link. Skip to the 6 minute mark. The leader of the occupiers tell the police to leave with their weapons and that the occupiers in exchange will "give them a moment of peace". This is when the police chillingly group and start to back away slowly. The protesters then taunt and cheer their victory. Am I the only one that is outraged by the implication of violence from the protesters against armed policemen? Do you get a chill up your spine like I do when you see the police slowly back away as if they...

he president of the University of California system said he was "appalled" at images of protesters being doused with pepper spray and plans an assessment of law enforcement procedures on all 10 campuses, as two police officers and the police chief were placed on administrative leave. "Free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history," UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a statement Sunday in response to the spraying of students sitting passively at UC Davis. "It is a value we must protect with vigilance." Yudof said it...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Among the well-placed Washington crowd feting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Wednesday is a former lobbyist for Solyndra, the now-defunct solar energy...</p>

Watching football with about every player trimmed out in pink, from their shoe laces to their chin guards, I wonder, "Does prostate cancer have a month?" They do. It's September, but I don't recall any baby blue ribbons or TV adds with celebrities alerting me to that fact. Please don't misunderstand me, I do not mean to take anything away from the commendable efforts by the NFL, other organizations, and common people in their pursuit to rid the world of this devastating disease. However, I did some research and discovered that there didn't appear to be any statistical significance to...

Sarah Palin has announced she will not run for President of the Unitd States. She announced this a few minutes ago on the Mark Levin show. Listening to the show, I've transcribed Sarah Palin own words regarding her role in this upcoming election: Levin: ...I just want to reassure them. You're not going anywhere and you're going to be a voice out there for them. Correct? Palin: That's true, Mark. I'm gonna join you in this mission to help wake up America to what's going on in our country. I believe I can be more effective and I can be...

It sounds like an easy way to stimulate the economy: The government, working through mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, could refinance millions of American homeowners’ loans at today’s rock-bottom interest rates and put more money in Americans’ pockets at a time when the economy is staggering. But doing so is more complicated than it sounds. Some economists have argued that the Obama administration should launch a massive refinance program, benefiting even those who aren’t actually applying. But that option appears to be impractical, analysts say, partly because investors in mortgage-backed securities could challenge the government’s right to...

I believe it will dip under 11,000, but I don't see it going much farther down than 10,500 next week. I expect it to bounce around a lot while margin calls and shorts covering add some turbulence. If you are on the sidelines, there should be some attractive bargains presenting themselves. If you are holding (as I am) trying to weather the storm may be difficult to do but may be better than letting your shares go too cheap.

House Speaker John Boehner boasted this week that he got 98 percent of what he wanted out of the debt and deficit negotiations with the White House and Senate Democrats. But Boehner’s apparent victory may be a Pyrrhic one. A new national poll not only finds record low approval ratings for Congress overall, but it also shows the American public disapproving of how congressional Republicans and the tea party handled the debt talks. Fifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove of the way Boehner is handling his job, according to a New York Times/CBS News survey released Thursday evening. The speaker’s disapproval...

<p>A Eastern European mayor frustrated over people illegally parking their luxury vehicles in his city's designated bike lanes boarded a tank to make sure his message would be heard "loud and clear."</p> <p>Arturas Zuokas, mayor of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, released a video featuring himself at the controls of an eight-wheeled, camouflaged tank running over and crushing an illegally parked Mercedes Benz.</p>

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has blocked a federal lawsuit by states and conservation groups trying to force cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The court said Monday that the authority to seek reductions in emissions rests with the Environmental Protection Agency, not the courts. The ruling was 8-0. EPA says it will decide by next year whether to order utilities to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. The lawsuit targeted the five largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the United States, four private companies and the federal Tennessee Valley Authority. The Obama administration sided with...

(CNN) -- Was the killing of Osama bin Laden legal under international law? The administration says yes, absolutely. Experts are unsure. Attorney General Eric Holder told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the U.S. raid on bin Laden's compound was lawful "as an act of national self-defense." "He was the head of al Qaeda, an organization that had conducted the attacks of September the 11th," Holder said. "It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field." The raid on Obama's compound "was conducted in a manner fully consistent with the laws of war," White House Press...

A majority of voters still believe President Obama is more ideologically liberal than they are. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that just 24% think the president's ideological views are about the same as theirs. Sixty-one percent (61%) believe the president is more liberal than they are, up four points from 57% in August. Only 11% see him as more conservative. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Among Democrats, 45% say Obama's views generally match their own, while 29% say he is more liberal than they are and 19% say he's more conservative....

A WIFE told yesterday how she became the world's youngest gran - at just 23. Mum-of-two Rifca Stanescu was 12 when she had her first child Maria. She urged the girl not to follow her example - but Maria gave birth to son Ion while only 11. Rifca had married jewellery seller Ionel Stanescu when she was 11 and he was 13. They eloped because Rifca feared her father wanted her to marry another village lad in Investi, Romania. She was forgiven when she had her daughter - making her mum, also Maria, a great-gran at 40. Son Nicolae was...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Anti-piracy officials say U.S. commandos have captured four suspected pirates who boarded a Japanese-owned oil tanker off the coast of Oman. A statement by the international anti-piracy task force says the 24 crew members on the MV Guanabara took refuge in a protected part of the vessel after reporting they were under attack Saturday. A special unit from the destroyer USS Bulkeley boarded the tanker Sunday and detained the suspected pirates about 328 nautical miles southeast of Duqm in southern Oman. The statement said no shots were fired and the merchant crew was not harmed....

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- A rocket that blasted off early Friday carrying an Earth-observation satellite has failed to reach orbit, NASA said. The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off about 2:10 a.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base, officials said . But NASA said in a brief statement that a protective shell or fairing atop the rocket did not separate from the satellite as it should have about three minutes after the launch. That left the Glory spacecraft without the velocity to reach orbit, NASA launch commentator George Diller said. "The flight was going...

Peruse Chevrolet's February sales release, and you'll notice one number that's blatantly missing: the number of Chevy Volts sold. The number – a very modest 281 – is available in the company's detailed data (PDF), but it certainly isn't something that GM wants to highlight, apparently. Keeping the number quiet is a bit understandable, since it's lower than the 321 that Chevy sold in January. Nissan doesn't have anything to brag about here, either (and it didn't avoiding any mention of the Leaf sales in its press release). Why? Well, back in January, the company sold 87 Leafs. In February?...