Free Republic

RALEIGH, N.C. - The North Carolina Senate apologized Thursday for the Legislature's role in promoting slavery and Jim Crow laws that denied basic human rights to the state's black citizens. Following the lead of lawmakers in neighboring Virginia, the Senate unanimously backed a resolution acknowledging its "profound contrition for the official acts that sanctioned and perpetuated the denial of basic human rights and dignity to fellow humans." "This is a way to reflect upon this and express our understanding and our regret for official actions of our state," said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Democrat and the bill's primary...

Unions' Approval at Lowest Point Since 1981, Poll Finds By Randy Hall CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor September 01, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - A new Zogby poll has some unwelcome Labor Day news for union officials: Approval of unions is at its lowest point since 1981, and almost three-quarters of workers in the U.S. say they don't want to belong to a labor union. "These results help explain the continued decline of union membership and do not bode well for the future of unions," said David Denholm, president of the conservative Public Service Research Foundation (PSRF), which studies labor unions and union influence...

WASHINGTON - Under election-year pressure to reduce surging gasoline prices, President Bush on Tuesday halted filling of the nation's emergency oil reserve, urged the waiver of clean air rules to ease local gas shortages and called for the repeal of $2 billion in tax breaks for profit-heavy oil companies. Still, experts said Bush's actions wouldn't have much impact on prices at the pump. The president warned that motorists would have to dig deep into their pockets all summer long. Bush urged lawmakers to expand tax breaks for the purchase of fuel-efficient hybrid automobiles, a politically popular measure that's also supported...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants broke into two schools in a mainly Shiite district of Baghdad and "slaughtered" two teachers in front of their pupils, the Iraqi government said Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The attack occurred at the Amna and Shaheed Hamdi elementary schools in Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood, the Ministry for National Security said. The statement did not specify when the attacks occurred but residents said they happened Wednesday. One teacher was killed at each school. No further details were released. Pupils at elementary schools in Iraq range in age from 6 to 12.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council ran into new obstacles on Tuesday in trying to issue a statement on reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions after Russia insisted on deleting key parts of the text. A closed-door meeting among all 15 council members scheduled for Tuesday was delayed until later in the week while diplomats talk in small groups, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. Members last week thought a deal was close. "The impact on the negotiations which we are trying to do here was not as positive as we would have wished," British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said....

Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal, on a tour of the Gulf, said he stood by the Palestinian Islamist militant movement's refusal to recognise Israel despite international calls to seek peace. . "It is so easy to be complacent ... We are asked to recognise Israel. We can do so but we will not, because that would lead to a double loss and would achieve nothing," Meshaal said after his arrival in Manama late Monday. . "Those who believe that negotiations and accepting the proposed conditions would lead us to get our rights are deluded," he told an Islamist gathering in...

Students To Protest UNC's Reluctance To Label Pit Incident Terrorism 'I Don't Know What Was Going Through His Head,' Suspect's Friend Says POSTED: 7:01 pm EST March 5, 2006 UPDATED: 8:00 am EST March 6, 2006 CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Protests are planned for Monday in the same area of campus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where, authorities said, a former student plowed a sport utility vehicle into nine people Friday afternoon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Video: Protest Planned Against UNC's Reluctance To Label Pit Incident Terrorism -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The College Republicans, Americans for an Informed Democracy and the Foundation...