Free Republic

A horse slashed in April was cut again over the weekend.Lucinda suffered non-life-threatening injuries sometime between 8 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m. Sunday, according to a news release from Fairfax County police.She was in a paddock at 2625 Centreville Road, property next to Frying Pan Farm Park.The first attack happened between April 25 and April 26, when three horses at a private barn adjacent to the park were injured.The horses are part of Spirit Equestrian, a non-profit therapeutic riding program operating at the popular park off Centreville Road. The program serves children with disabilities and special needs, along with veterans...

A fast-moving line of dangerous storms knocked out power to more than 1.5 million customers in the D.C. area Friday night. A day of record-shattering heat ended with severe thunderstorms that rushed through the metro area with strong winds and an impressive lightning display. The storms produced hurricane-force winds in excess of 80 mph. Gusts of 82 mph were reported in the Reston area. On Saturday morning, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management confirmed that four people had died due to the storm in the Commonwealth. The National Weather Service reported a tree fell on a car in the area...

Every time a Bilderberg Meeting takes place, important things happen. The last time they met in the US was an election year, 2008 – and the world got Obama. This year they’re back in the US: will they decide who the next president will be? ­When in 2008 they gathered from June 5 to 8 in Chantilly, Virginia – just a stone’s throw from the Washington DC – Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were neck-in-neck in the battle for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidacy. On June 5 of that year, Barack and Hillary mysteriously “disappeared” for some hours “somewhere in...

I suppose it can said of a Virginia elementary school teacher who allegedly told her students “Republicans are stupid” that she at least spoke her mind. Her actions are more defensible than those of a fellow Old Dominion State colleague who deviously tasked her students with finding flaws in the GOP presidential candidates but not in the lone Democratic candidate. The Daily Caller reports that “as Republican voters were filing into the halls of [Colin] Powell Elementary School in Fairfax County to vote on Super Tuesday,” teacher Kristin Martin told her sixth-grade class that “Republicans are stupid” and “they don’t...

We’re so stupid that we find it abhorrent when a teacher pushes liberal propaganda on unsuspecting students. Via Daily Caller: A Virginia elementary school teacher told her students that “Republicans are stupid” and “they don’t care about anyone but wealthy people and businesses.” Kristin Martin said this to her 6th grade class as Republican voters were filing into the halls of Powell Elementary School in Fairfax County to vote on Super Tuesday. “It all started when this disabled kid came in and named all the Republicans candidates for Super Tuesday,” one student told The Daily Caller. “She [Martin] said to...

Va. school teacher thinks ‘Republicans are stupid’ By Kalyn McMackin - The Daily Caller 12:05 AM 04/05/2012 A Virginia elementary school teacher told her students that “Republicans are stupid” and “they don’t care about anyone but wealthy people and businesses.” Kristin Martin said this to her 6th grade class as Republican voters were filing into the halls of Powell Elementary School in Fairfax County to vote on Super Tuesday. “It all started when this disabled kid came in and named all the Republicans candidates for Super Tuesday,” one student told The Daily Caller. “She [Martin] said to him, ‘I don’t...

Breaking News: Former Vice President Dick Cheney received a heart transplant on Saturday, his office announced. A statement from the former vice president's office said Cheney is now recovering in the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., outside of Washington.

The bad news: This is a brazen bit of political indoctrination. The good news: The class is now more or less qualified for work in America's mainstream media. If you';re going to push your politics on kids, at least teach them a trade.He may or may not have also told them to send their research to Obama's campaign. Another useful journalistic skill --- learning to coordinate with Democrats for professional gain and the advancement of the cause. In a world of high Hopenchange unemployment, shouldn't we congratulate this guy for looking out for his students' bottom line? “This assignment was...

Megyn Kelly reported on new controversy coming out of a Virginia middle school politics class today, in which an 8th grade teacher assigned students to do opposition research on the four Republican presidential candidates. The students’ research included looking into the backgrounds of the GOP candidates and finding weaknesses in their positions. Now, this kind of research wouldn’t be out of the norm for a typical politics class if it weren’t for the teacher requiring the students submit their findings to the Obama campaign! Trace Gallagher added that not only did the students do research to find weaknesses in the...

Virginia middle school teacher is under fire after making his students do "opposition research" on Republican presidential candidates, according to a report. Eighth-graders at Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County were assigned to research the backgrounds and positions of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul and find any “weaknesses,” according to The Daily Caller. The students were then required to draft a strategy paper, mapping out how to exploit those weaknesses and then research how to forward it to the Obama campaign.

Rick Santorum built his presidential candidacy on the premise that he is very different than wealthy, establishment front-runner Mitt Romney, that he is someone who has faced the plights of the average American. Among the hardships Santorum claims to share is an underwater mortgage, the kind that's forcing millions from their homes. "The value of my house is a fraction of what it was when I bought it," the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania recently told Michigan supporters. But the Republican presidential contender's housing situation is quite unlike the one so many other Americans actually face, according to experts and...

Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith is an obvious centerpiece of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, and it is rare for him to speak without referencing his religious beliefs. It is also rare, however, to hear him speak about his particular church, St. Catherine of Siena, which he and his family have belonged to for at least a decade. Even his 2005 manifesto on his personal faith and politics, It Takes a Family, did not mention the church. I was curious to learn more about it, so last Friday morning, I attended a 9 a.m. Mass there. St. Catherine is...

First Lady Michelle Obama received a warm welcome from the students and teachers at an elementary school Wednesday where she promoted new tougher nutrition standards for school meals. The students clapped and cheered as Mrs. Obama entered the cafeteria at Parklawn Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. The first lady, who was was joined by celebrity chef Rachael Ray and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, picked up food from the lunch line before sitting with the kids and teachers. Obama and Vilsack unveiled the updated nutrition standards for school meals required by the 2010 school nutrition bill.

How many children can say they have had lunch with the First Lady? Parklawn Elementary School students were joined Wednesday by First Lady Michelle Obama, who visited the school during lunchtime to unveil new national health standards for school cafeteria meals. “When we send our kids to school, we expect that they won’t be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” Obama said during a meeting with parents and press in Parklawn’s library before having a turkey-taco lunch with second- and fourth-grade students in the cafeteria. The school’s menu...

Girl Scouts will no longer be able to meet at a local church because of a connection with Planned Parenthood. Several Girl Scout troops in Chantilly, Virginia have been banned from meeting at a local Catholic church and a neighboring school.St. Timothy Catholic Church says that scouts won’t be allowed to meet or wear their uniforms on church property. The edict also applies to the adjacent St. Timothy School, which enrolls students from preschool to eighth grade.The decision stems from what the church calls an affiliation with Planned Parenthood by the Girl Scouts parent organization, The World Association of...

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) plans to join Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney at an event in Virginia next week, according to the governor's office. Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling will also attend what the governor's weekly schedule called a "grassroots event" at the Fairfax County Republican Committee Headquarters in Northern Virginia. Romney's campaign will swing through Virginia next week, starting with a fundraising event in McLean on Tuesday evening. Virginia is a likely swing state in 2012. Bolling has already indicated his support of Romney, but McDonnell said earlier this week that he won't endorse a Republican candidate until...

A zoning board in Fairfax County, Va., is standing firm in its decision to order a war veteran to destroy a tree house he built for his two young sons. County officials determined Mark Grapin, an Army aviation specialist, violated zoning regulations when he built a tree house in his backyard. “The boys wanted a tree house,” Grapin told Fox News Radio, explaining it was a promise he made to his 8-year-old and 10-year-old sons before he left for Iraq. “It was a commitment I made to the boys and, frankly, we should do our best to keep our commitments...

<p>The first phase of the Dulles rail project — extending Metrorail service to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County — is scheduled for completion in December 2013. An important part of the project is underway in the Tysons Corner area.</p> <p>The Metrorail extension through Tysons Corner has burned through more than 70 percent of its contingency fund. With two years of construction remaining, the jurisdictions paying for the line — and Dulles Toll Road drivers — could be on the hook for millions in possible cost overruns, transportation experts say.</p>

Fairfax County Police are investigating after a 34-year-old man with a gun was shot and killed in front of his Centreville, Va., home. The incident happened shortly after 1:30 a.m. in the 6100 block of Kendra Way. Fairfax County Police were called to the home for a disturbance Once at the scene, Fairfax County Police said the suspect approached them from his ground level garage armed with a gun. They say they told him to drop the weapon, but he refused and shots were fired.

FAIRFAX, Va. -- Resort-style swimming pools with fountains and heated spas, billiards rooms, granite counter tops, ceramic tile, indoor basketball courts, stainless steel appliances -- many Fairfax County taxpayers cannot afford such luxuries. But they are paying for these amenities for use by low-income residents who live in subsidized housing in affluent neighborhoods. "They're a part of our rental program where we subsidize the rents for the individuals in the units, and we end up having to pick up the condo fees," supervisor Pat Herrity told 630 WMAL News. Herrity does not advocate putting low-income residents in "ghetto-style" housing but...