Free Republic

Russia’s military will hold fire and open humanitarian corridors in several Ukrainian cities on Monday (7 March), the Defence Ministry said, after fighting halted weekend evacuation efforts and civilian casualties from Russia’s invasion mounted. The corridors will opened at 10 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT) from the capital Kyiv as well as the cities of Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy and are being set up at the personal request of French President Emmanuel Macron, the ministry said. According to maps published by the RIA news agency, the corridor from Kyiv will lead to Russian ally Belarus, and civilians from Kharkiv will...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is delisting and relinquishing management of their imported Canadian gray wolves back to state wildlife officials while simultaneously proposing “new rules”1 to “save” the Mexican gray wolf. These proposals include: Keeping the Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) on the endangered list as a subspecies. A conundrum. The Mexican wolf is a gray wolf that breeds with other gray wolves and is not a subspecies. A grizzly and a black bear are subspecies. Issuing permits to private landowners to kill wolves killing livestock on their property based on the number of Mexican gray...

The Texas Department of Transportation made an announcement Tuesday that sounded like bad news for South Texas, but isn’t — its multibillion-dollar state infrastructure plan known as the Trans-Texas Corridor is dead. The key part of the plan for South Texas, known as I-69, is not. The state’s $180 billion plan, announced seven years ago, called for thousands of miles of 1,200-foot-wide traffic facilities to include toll roads for vehicles, rail for passengers and freight, and technology and power infrastructure such as fiber optic lines. Tuesday’s announcement by Texas Department of Transportation executive director Amadeo Saenz was a reaction to...

WASHINGTON -- Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced on Tuesday a White House initiative to relieve highway, aviation and freight congestion, largely with the help of private fees and tolls. "Congestion is not a fact of life. We need a new approach and we need it now," he said. The plan includes fast-tracking a modernized air traffic control system and building extra-wide interstate highways that could serve as "corridors of the future," he said. Because of "trucks stalled in traffic, cargo sitting on the dock at overwhelmed seaports (and) airplanes circling over crowded airports, congestion is costing America an estimated $200...

Corridors of Power / O what a lovely warUzi Benziman1. A new Middle East The Israeli government is vying with the American administration in its eagerness to see the war plan put into action. And if President Bush seems to be acting out of a sense of religious mission - as if God has charged him with the task of uprooting the axis of evil, starting with Saddam Hussein - Ariel Sharon is awaiting the American operation in the desperate hope that salvation will follow in its wake. Sharon isn't alone; the entire ruling establishment - the political echelon and...