Free Republic

Turns out not everyone’s afraid of the big bad wolves in the teachers union. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his education chief last week launched a tag-team assault on seniority-based teacher layoffs, a holy heifer for organized labor. The “last in, first out” rules are “bad for kids, bad for parents, and bad for the teaching profession,” said Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf. Too bad New York is being left in the LIFO lurch. While Cerf and Christie spoke, New York Education Commissioner David Steiner and Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch were still neck-deep in a kowtow they made to the...

The freedom snatching socialists have gone too far so here’s the plan: STEP 1: All Americans for a government that abides by the Constitution change their local laws to allow the keeping of chickens by any taxpaying American. STEP 2: Once taxpayers are allowed to keep chickens, we amend the law to allow all taxpayers to keep hogs. (After all, we wouldn’t want to discriminate now, would we?) STEP 3: Hogs proliferate from sea to shining sea. STEP 4: Government workers begin to disappear. STEP 5: Missing government workers are replaced with new government workers. STEP 6: The new government...

Rising productivity is usually one of the best things you can hope for in an economy. It means people are producing more for each hour they work. That's the path to higher living standards. But the huge burst in productivity that the U.S. economy experienced in the third quarter is not entirely good. In fact, it's a sign that the U.S. economy is still in a sickly condition—a conclusion that is likely to be driven home by the latest job-loss figures release on Nov. 6. Economists who cheered the productivity number are ignoring the dark side of its sudden growth....

Regardless of how lively an election season might be, a new study shows that more 3.3 million voters on current registration rolls across the country are dead. Another 12.9 million remain on voter registration lists in an area where they no longer live. The analysis was conducted by the Aristotle International Inc., a technology company specializing in political campaigns, developing software and databases for politicians. In total that means about 8.9 percent of all registered voters fall under the category of “deadwood” voters on the rolls, the term for voters who should no longer be eligible to vote in a...

A mountain lion was killed within the Deadwood city limits Wednesday morning after the big cat, and possibly another, apparently killed a deer in a backyard in town. A South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department trapper killed one lion Wednesday, but the hunt wasn't over, because police reports early in the day indicated that two lions were in the area. GF&P placed four baited live traps in town in hopes that the other cat could be caught overnight Wednesday. "Our trapper did euthanize one lion, and we're trying to determine what else we have out there," said John Kanta,...

DEADWOOD -- Despite sitting in a hot, bubbling Jacuzzi on her deck Thursday morning, Marlene Todd froze. She had just eased into in the hot tub a little after 7 a.m. on the deck of her Spring Street home when she heard some rustling beside her. There was a mountain lion, crouching less than a foot away. The lion must have been equally surprised. It was cornered somewhat because the deck stairs blocked its retreat. It would have to go up and over the hot tub.

On This Day In History August 2, 1876 : Wild Bill Hickok is murdered "Wild Bill" Hickok, one of the greatest gunfighters of the American West, is murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota. Born in Illinois in 1837, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok first gained notoriety as a gunfighter in 1861 when he coolly shot three men who were trying to kill him. A highly sensationalized account of the gunfight appeared six years later in the popular periodical Harper's New Monthly Magazine, sparking Hickok's rise to national fame. Other articles and books followed, and though his prowess was often exaggerated, Hickok...

Two HBO TV series. Both soap opera formats based on historical events. One is extremely interesting and the other has become sordidly dull. I am, of course, referring to Rome and Deadwood. Rome is extremely watchable. I just can't get enough of it and anxiously await each new episode of the series. It beautifully blends the lives of ordinary Romans with the aristocracy of that time. The writing is superb to the extent that it has gotten me back to rereading Durant's Caesar and Christ again with emphasis on the civil wars following the assassination of Julius Caesar. OTOH, Deadwood...

Robyn E. Blumner is one of those feminist writers who specializes in reducing complex issues to lectures on Mars and Venus. Blumner bestows her wisdom in the St. Petersburg Times. The title of a recent offering ("U.S. could use more girlie men") caught my eye. Use them for what – objects of ridicule? But, no, Ms. Blumner is serious. She wants to feminize national security – to take decisions of survival out of the hands of "macho" males and substitute weeping for weapons, sentimentality for strategy and negotiations for no-nonsense. To illustrate her point, Blumner uses the HBO drama series...

Deadwood is one of my favorite programs. Set in a South Dakota gold mining camp in the 1870s, it grittily explores the way human beings organize themselves when consigned to a lawless territory that attracts miscreants, varmints and vultures. A recent episode had an especially insightful moment when all the leaders of the camp were called to an important meeting without an invitation proffered to the female owner of the camp's only bank. Alma Garret could have all the money in the world, but because she has two X chromosomes (a distinction more graphically described in the show), she wasn't...

At first I thought it must be a joke, some TV critic geekoid friend's idea of leg-pulling in the highest order. But who would pretend to be Deadwood creator David Milch? For those of us who follow TV, Milch is a famously flawed legend. A writer on the legendary cop drama Hill Street Blues, he co-created NYPD Blue and let his demons grow to the point that he wasn't even writing out scripts but telling the Blue actors what lines they should say on the set just before filming scenes. Most recently, Milch has developed HBO's super-real western drama Deadwood,...

HBO thinks it may have found a series that — in some ways — can replace the mighty (and soon to depart) "Sopranos" as its centerpiece drama. The show is "Deadwood," the gritty, foul-mouthed Western. The news on "Deadwood," HBO's latest drama series, has been highly favorable on two fronts. It drew the second-highest rating for any new drama in HBO's history, and it was also greeted with some of the best reviews that the network has seen at least since the start of "Six Feet Under" three years ago.

The critically acclaimed HBO "Deadwood" prominently features SOL STAR, a likeable Jewish shopkeeper character. Star, who really lived, was one of the many Jewish pioneers in the frontier town. There's even a large Deadwood "Hebrew cemetery" dating back more than a century. Sol Star was born in Bavaria, Germany in 1840. He moved to the States in 1850 and quickly settled in Montana, where he went into the hardware business with his friend, Seth Bullock. South Dakota's gold rush drew the pair to Deadwood and they ended up as prosperous hardware merchants. Star, who died in 1917, was a Republican...

Voter rolls in Broward and Miami-Dade counties are bloated with nearly half a million people who have never cast a ballot, a Herald investigation has found. They comprise 25 percent of the rolls, a troubling proportion that invites fraud and inflates election costs, possibly by millions of dollars. Election officials blame the ''motor-voter'' law, which made voter registration easier and purging the rolls more difficult. New legislation aims to clean up the rolls with better technology, but Florida lags two years behind a 2004 deadline. And in Broward, the elections office does not aggressively pursue voters who leave town but...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON (AP) — Today's Man Inc. said Friday it has temporarily laid off Chairman David Feld, President and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Weitz and Vice President of Real Estate Larry Feld. The mens clothing retailer said the move was made to allow them to develop independently and pursue possible investments in the company, according to a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today's Man also said its board has formed an independent committee of directors to consider possible third-party investments or other transactions with the company. Executive Vice...

12.12.02 Bush moves with plan to thin forests By GARY HARMON The Daily Sentinel The Bush administration moved Wednesday on plans to reduce the fire hazards in the nation's forests before summer. Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman met with President Bush before announcing a series of actions aimed at trimming the amount of time it takes to approve logging projects. U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., chairman of the subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, said this step, in what Bush has dubbed his Healthy Forests Initiative, can go only so far and that Congress eventually must...

Firefighters battle winds By Tim Paluch and Tim Velder, Journal Staff Writers DEADWOOD -- Fire officials said that Wednesday was a critical day for firefighters battling Grizzly Gulch Fire south and east of Deadwood. High winds from the southeast ripped through the area throughout the day and weren't expected to stop until today. The fire was on the move in some areas Wednesday. By midafternoon, Pillar Peak, near Dome Mountain and Bear Den Mountain, was burning about four miles east of Deadwood. Scores of residents in homes from the Shonley Addition to Deadwood on the north side of Highway 14A...

Firefighters could face rough day By Journal Staff DEADWOOD - The Grizzly Gulch Fire grew overnight to 9,000 acres Wednesday, and residents of Boulder Canyon who had been allowed to return home Tuesday evening were re-evacuated during the middle of the night. Residents on the south side of Radio Tower Road were given a mandatory evacuation order at 3 a.m. Wednesday due to unexpected increased fire activity in the area. At the same time, residents along the south side of U.S. Highway 14A in Boulder Canyon were asked to voluntarily evacuate, according to a press release from the South Dakota...

Deadwood reopens; fire keeps Lead residents out By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer DEADWOOD -- The historic city of Deadwood reopened at 8 p.m. Monday after a wildfire forced its total evacuation Saturday afternoon. Residents of Lead, many of whom evacuated Sunday afternoon, were not allowed to go home due to concerns that the Grizzly Gulch Fire could once again threaten neighbors in the south part of town. "We really just need room to move," Lead Mayor Tom Nelson said, explaining that firefighters were more worried about their ability to respond quickly than about structures burning. "If the winds shift,...

Grizzly Gulch Fire grows to 6,200 acres By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer LEAD-- A combined 684 federal, state and local personnel continued to fight the two-day-old Grizzly Gulch Fire Monday, as a federal Type 1 Interagency Management Team took command of the fire. Federal fire information officer Maj. Mark Johnston said the fire grew to 6,200 acres overnight and was 10 percent contained by mid-day Monday. The fire remains the Rocky Mountain Region's number one priority, Johnston said. Three homes have been destroyed by the fire but the occupants were not injured, Lawrence County Sheriff Rick Mowell told the...

Lead flees flare ups By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer Residents in a broad swath of Lead were asked to voluntarily evacuate their homes late Sunday when the Grizzly Gulch Fire flared up along its western edge. The new evacuation involved areas south of Lead's Main Street and the areas north of Main Street that are east of Washington Street, Brenda Bower, information officer with the U.S. Forest Service, said. That's about two-thirds of the city. Gov. Bill Janklow ordered the evacuation Sunday afternoon. The new evacuees joined thousands of people from Deadwood and rural areas east and south who...

Grizzly Gulch Fire surges to 4,500 acresBy Journal staff and AP staffThe 4,500-acre Grizzly Gulch Fire that burned Saturday on the edges of Deadwood was 30 percent contained Sunday, as the relatively small crew of about 200 firefighters managed to save the northern Black Hills gambling town. "When I first drove in here, I thought we were going to lose a lot of Deadwood, and it's because of you, we didn't," South Dakota Wildland Fire Coordinator Joe Lowe told firefighters Sunday morning. Officials ordered residents, casino guests and others to evacuate Saturday afternoon. However, not every one complied in what...

Growing fire hits 700 acres, threatens DeadwoodBy Journal Staff and APDEADWOOD -- A ridge-running forest fire burned Saturday on the edges of Deadwood, threatening but not entering the northern Black Hills gambling town.Officials ordered residents, casino guests and others to evacuate Saturday afternoon. However, not every one complied in what residents said was chaos amid smoke and slurry bombers overhead.There were no reports of injuries.The timber fire was burning over more than 1,000 acres. An accurate size estimate was not available at 8:30 p.m., Beth Adam of the state Wildlands Fire Suppression Division said.The fire's cause was not immediately known,...

Tuesday's New York Post Page Six.comWE HEAR..ColumnTHAT CNN has set up a secret panel to evaluate all on-air talent with an eye toward axing the deadwood.Continue reading Page Six..