Free Republic

ORANGE – Parents in Orange Unified received a letter at the beginning of the school year asking them to donate $40 for each day their child misses class to help offset the $5.5 million in attendance funding the district loses annually. Five months later, the district has netted $920.

New Playgrounds Are Safe—and That's Why Nobody Uses Them The problem with safety guidelines is that they make most playgrounds so uninteresting as to contribute to reduced physical activity. Playgrounds don't look like they used to. Steep metal slides and wooden towers have given way to slow, plastic slides and carefully penned-in climbing contraptions. And forget about seesaws -- they're a thing of the past. When kids are bored by unimaginative (read: safe) playground equipment, they're less active as a result, and with childhood obesity at epidemic proportions, that's a danger, too. An interesting new investigation looks into this phenomenon....

Proposition 103, the only statewide tax increase on the November ballot across the country, is going down tonight, according to number-crunchers in my home state of Colorado. If the results of this massive tax hike referendum had gone the big government/big labor lobby’s way, it would be front-page news tomorrow and Debbie Blabberman-Schultz would be crowing about it non-stop on MSNBC. Instead, crickets will chirp. White House, pay attention: Colorado voters have rejected an attempt to raise state income and sales taxes to fund education, The Denver Post has declared. Colorado voters were saying no to a major tax increase...

An Illinois judge ruled Thursday that the state can stop working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster care placements — something the state decided to do in July after the not-for-profit agency refused to recognize Illinois' new civil unions law. In his ruling, Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Schmidt said that no one, including Catholic Charities, has a legal right to a contract with the state government. He did not address the more sensitive issue of whether a state contractor that refuses to serve gays and lesbians is violating the state's new civil unions law. The state Department of...

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed into law a measure ... addressing controversy over an anti-abortion demonstration. Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) said he wrote the measure in response to a March 2003 incident in which graphic images of an aborted fetus were mounted on a vehicle and driven past a middle school in Rancho Palos Verdes. "Because of the disturbing nature of the photographs, some students at the scene became angry, some began to cry...’’ Mendoza said. The bill was signed three years after a federal court found that the 1st Amendment rights of anti-abortion activists were violated when they...

Boing-boing notices that “yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 19-10 for H.R. 1981, a data-retention bill that will require your ISP to spy on everything you do online and save records of it for 12 months. California Rep Zoe Lofgren, one of the Democrats who opposed the bill, called it a ‘data bank of every digital act by every American’ that would ‘let us find out where every single American visited Web sites.’” The databank is “for the children”. HR 1981 is actually titled “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″. Its sponsors say “the Protecting Children from Internet...

Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers' activities for one year--in case police want to review them in the future--under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today. The 19 to 10 vote represents a victory for conservative Republicans, who made data retention their first major technology initiative after last fall's elections, and the Justice Department officials who have quietly lobbied for the sweeping new requirements, a development first reported by CNET. A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers' names, addresses,...

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday refused to let California regulate the sale or rental of violent video games to children, saying governments do not have the power to "restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed" despite complaints about graphic violence. On a 7-2 vote, the high court upheld a federal appeals court decision to throw out the state's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento had ruled that the law violated minors' rights under the First Amendment, and the high court agreed....

Ramesh, as an antidote to Maureen Dowd’s take, here’s Weiner’s former girlfriend Kirsten Powers. When the Twit hit the fan, Kirsten received certain assurances from him about his innocence and, based on those, went out on Fox and elsewhere and defended him. Unlike too many my-Democrat-right-or-wrong types, she’s done with him: As I have recovered from the shock of seeing an old friend’s life unravel and have had time to get my mind around the extensive and sociopathic lying in which he engaged, there seems to be no other choice than for him to step aside and stop hurting his family, friends, and...

The other day, Tommy Christopher published an interesting article regarding two underage girls who had claimed to have incriminating DMs from Anthony Weiner. Christopher called the girls “Betty” and “Veronica” and said that they had admitted to him that they had lied. That may be . . . but there are some aspects of their claims (and those of their parents) that I think merit some examination. (...)

TSA strip searches young boy.

‘Why (would) we would be taking steps to open casinos in every home, dorm room, library, iPod, Blackberry, iPad and computer in America?’ Nearly 67 percent of Americans are opposed to decriminalizing Internet gambling. Yet, Rep. Barney Frank, D – Mass., – chairman of the powerful House Financial Services committee – is persistent in his effort to repeal the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Rep. James McDermott, D-Wash., has a companion bill to tax the proceeds — conveniently creating yet another revenue stream for the growing government. Their bills gained little favor two months ago when considered by...

To add to the list of outrageous earmarks in Obama's fiscal 2011 budget, ACORN, the embezzlement-prone, voter-registration-fraud-plagued, leftist community organizing group, is slated to receive nearly $4 billion from a taxpayer-funded slush fund. The money will come from the Community Development Block Grant, one of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's longest-running programs. The HUD Web site cryptically defines the grant's purpose as providing "communities with resources to address a wide range of unique community development needs," not a reassuring description given the group's recent past history of aiding the community through gratuitous missappropriation of funds. Has Congress already...

Al Franken has become the voice of the progressive left in the Senate. Yup, Stuart Smiley himself. Franken this week led the Democrat charge against the Obama Administration. Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats. Sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn’t the only angry Democrat in the room, although he certainly seems to be the leader.

School Lunches = Pet Food? Many of you may be quite picky about what you feed your children. So many parents these days, in a hissy fit of Whole Foods-fueled hippie-ness, boycott the likes of a Happy Meal. State governments, much like our own here in California, rail against ye olde fashioned childhood snack time staples like candy bars and sodas, banning schools from vending all things that aren't dried fruit and Nutri-Grain bars. And parents these days, in their infinite laziness and longing to be "one of the kids," push their children toward video games in lieu of real...

After World War II, the U.S. government invested an enormous amount of money in medicine; medical research, medical procedures and medical technologies. This investment made contemporary scientific medicine into American medicine, characterized by a continuing flow of new treatment possibilities. These advances raised all kinds of ethical questions. Some were personal and individual, others were social and political. Both type questions are addressed by a new academic discipline called bioethics. The first attempt to develop a scientific medicine took place in Greece in the 5th century B.C. It was called Hippocratic medicine. Closely linked with this first scientific medicine was...

Vote for Proposition 1D, kill a baby. That's the message of a new campaign backed by the Child Abuse Prevention Center. Prop. 1D asks voters to take more than $1.6 billion in taxes away from programs designed for children ages 5 and younger and use the money to help lower the overall state deficit for the next 5 years. The Child Abuse Prevention Center, a statewide organization, says that because some of the cuts will affect child abuse prevention programs, "Children will be hurt. Some will die." A campaign poster screams "Baby Killer" in large type and a child's feet...

It’s hard to believe, but true: under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute. Merchants, thrift stores, and booksellers may be at risk if they sell older volumes, or even give them away, without first subjecting them to testing—at prohibitive expense. Many used-book sellers, consignment stores, Goodwill outlets, and the like have accordingly begun to refuse new donations of pre-1985 volumes, yank existing ones off their...

When Governor Deval Patrick proposed a 5 percent premium on sugary treats this week, his administration presented it as a sin tax with a bonus: Imposing such a levy, a briefing paper pledged, "is a critical first step in discouraging the consumption of these empty calories." But there is little evidence that an extra nickel or two for a bottle of soda or a bar of chocolate would significantly dampen demand for products blamed for fueling the nation's obesity epidemic. -snip- States big and small, from California to Rhode Island, tack a surcharge onto soft drinks and candy. In all,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – In an open letter to his young daughters, US president-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he entered the race for the White House "because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation." "When I was a young man, I thought life was all about me -- about how I'd make my way in the world, become successful, and get the things I want. But then the two of you came into my world," Obama said in the letter published in Parade magazine, a weekend newspaper color supplement. "I realized that my own...

Two reports suggest that state and federal public assistance programs may be overwhelmed by the growing ranks of families seeking help during the recession. "The safety net is under severe strain," said Jean Ross, director of the California Budget Project, a liberal group in Sacramento. "Because of the severity of the economic downturn, increasing numbers of Californians are losing jobs or having their hours cut back." Margaret Simms, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., looked at how state governments from coast to coast are facing declining revenue at a time of rising need. "We've made some...

Gov. Sarah Palin is calling for more state spending on children's health insurance, preschool and other programs, even as Alaska oil prices and state revenues plunge. Cash flow into the state is shrinking as oil prices drop below $40 a barrel, the lowest level in nearly four years. Most state general fund money comes from taxes and royalties the state makes from oil. But Palin said the state can afford more than $5 million in new spending on areas like Head Start, obesity prevention, a test program of half-day preschool, and expanded Denali KidCare insurance.

question from the 7 year old

With jobs like mortgage broker, investment banker, stock analyst and others that once looked solid - and profitable - suddenly looking not so good in the wake of America's looming financial difficulties, a Daily News Special Report revealed what most of us already know despite heavy doses of conventional wisdom to the contrary: Teachers and other school employees do pretty darn well. Especially if they work for the Los Angeles Unified School District. According to information provided to the Daily News by the LAUSD, the average salary for teachers is $63,000 - not too shabby that. But more than 8,500...

Bitter Half Alert: Here she goes again. But don’t you dare breathe a negative word about what she says on the campaign trail, because she’s just a “civilian” whom you should lay off of–and if you don’t you’re a racist, wife-beating brute! MichelleO, MichelleO, MichelleO: Michelle Obama mixed a story about how her husband, the Democratic presidential candidate asked her out, with a solemn assessment of U.S. economic and social conditions during a visit to the Denver area Wednesday. Obama spoke before a crowd of about 150 that paid from $1,000 to $10,000 apiece at a private fundraising dinner at...

<p>A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents had told him to shut up, authorities said yesterday. German Talis, 22, was shouting obscenities at the Bushes...Wendy and John Lovetro and their daughter Maureen, 18, who has cerebral palsy.</p>

If you are a parent (or grandparent) of a young child, you are a target for manipulation by activists (some with scientific degrees) who claim we are surrounded by a sea of chemical "toxins" and "carcinogens." You are easy prey — because you care so deeply about the health and welfare of your babies and children. Purveyors of unfounded health scares know that. The fearmongers have just about everything going for them. And unless you recognize their manipulative tactics, you will be among their millions of terrified victims. Here's how they work: They know what psychiatrists have known for many...

A state lawmaker wants to tax in-room adult movies ordered at hotels to help fund child sex-abuse investigations. The current version of House Bill 1086, sponsored by Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, would impose a 99-cent fee on all in-room movies ordered at hotels. Stephens, though, said she plans to narrow her proposal to apply to just adult movies. The money would go into a fund for children's advocacy centers, which counsel sexually abused children and help police and prosecutors interview young victims. There are 14 such centers in Colorado and more than 600 nationally. Stephens said imposing the fee on...

Gov. Tim Kaine yesterday announced a plan to expand health care coverage to thousands of uninsured, low-income Virginians as the state faces a projected $641 million budget shortfall. "One in seven Virginians still lack health insurance because their employers don"t provide it or because they cannot afford it," Mr. Kaine said. "As more citizens rely on our health care safety net for their most basic health needs, we must strengthen that system." Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, said the two-year budget that he plans to present to the General Assembly on Monday will include about $25.5 million in new health care...

New Iowa Leader Criticized by for Indecision on Federal Student Aid. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who backed in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, hedged Sunday on whether illegal immigrants who have gone to school in the United States should become eligible for federal student aid such as Pell grants and subsidized federal student loans. "I'm not sure that I would support that," Huckabee told ABC News, "it was a different program in Arkansas." Huckabee's failure to take a clear position on federal student aid while appearing on ABC News' "This Week with George...

I’ve said it all along: The Democrats’ massive S-CHIP expansion is a Trojan Horse for Hillarycare. Now, we get it straight from the horse’s mouth. A Hill source sends an audio clip of former Iowa Dem. Governor Tom Vilsack at Drake University on Nov. 16 describing how S-CHIP will help achieve those universal entitlement ends: Click here for audio. Transcript: “I think there is going to be a commitment to universal coverage. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be a sector by sector process. I think you either need to go in whole hog or not. We tried to...

The growth in human population and rising consumption have exceeded the planet's ability to support us, argues John Feeney. In this week's Green Room, he says it is time to ring the alarm bells and take radical action in order to avert unspeakable consequences. We humans face two problems of desperate importance. The first is our global ecological plight. The second is our difficulty acknowledging the first. Despite increasing climate change coverage, environmental writers remain reluctant to discuss the full scope and severity of the global dilemma we've created. Many fear sounding alarmist, but there is an alarm to sound...

Firings are urged over misuse of foster kids' money L.A. County supervisors also want child welfare workers to return funds spent on lunches, musical events. By Jack Leonard Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 8, 2007 Los Angeles County child welfare workers who misused thousands of dollars meant for foster children should be fired and forced to return the money, county supervisors said Wednesday. Supervisor Gloria Molina described the practices highlighted in a county audit released a day earlier as a "new version of taking candy from children." The audit showed some employees bought themselves lunches and attended musical events...

L.A. workers use gift cards meant for foster children Audit shows that child welfare employees spent thousands on meals and tickets to musical events. By Jack Leonard Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 7, 2007 Los Angeles County's child welfare workers spent thousands of dollars in gift cards and entertainment tickets earmarked for foster children to buy themselves meals and attend musical events, according to an audit released Tuesday. Among the most serious problems cited by auditors, county workers bought 160 tickets in July to see the hit musical "Wicked." County officials said the purchase was part of a gala...

The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 7 in 10 Americans support the new bill to increase the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by $35 billion, which President Bush vetoed Wednesday. Of course most Americans support the bill. It's for the children, and the way supporters push it, it's practically free. If Bush seems so clearly out of touch with the voters (as well as moderate and conservative elected Republicans) on the politics, then on a policy level he had reason to veto the bill. The Senate and House have found the worst mechanism to fund the SCHIP...

Smokers have already been banned from New York bars and restaurants, and soon they could be prohibited from lighting up in cars carrying minors, an idea giving added fuel to critics who say the city has become a nanny state. A City Council member of Queens who is chairman of the council's Environmental Protection Committee, James Gennaro, said he is planning to introduce the smoking bill next week. "I am just seeking every opportunity I can to denormalize smoking and to try to put it out of the reach of kids," Mr. Gennaro said. "I've lost family members to lung...

RUSH: Jerry in Scottsdale, Arizona, hello, sir. CALLER: Morning, Rush. How are you doing? RUSH: I'm fine. CALLER: Let's get straight to it. The source of the controversy in the Democrat Congress was proposing to raise a tax on cigars to $10 per cigar -- RUSH: Yes? CALLER: -- to raise $35 to $50 billion for state children's health insurance. RUSH: Right. CALLER: It's "for the children." RUSH: It's for the children. In the name of saving the children, big government has targeted yet another industry to destroy. CALLER: So the Winston Churchill that I just started smoking cigars with...

The defeat of amnesty for illegal aliens is a good moment. Against widespread expectations, a 53 to 46 majority voted against it. The conservative grass roots did an outstanding job of framing the issue with honesty and well-informed candor. The American people saw it for what it was and wouldn't stand for it. However, this isn't the end of it. In fact, the worst thing that could be done is for opponents to declare victory and lose focus. The key is to read between the lines. The fact is, the majority of the U.S. Senate supports some form of amnesty...

Uh-oh. Don’t look now, but somebody who wants to be President forgot to take their medicine. It remains uncertain as to whether the failure to follow the prescription will be politically costly. But the Senator formerly known as Hillary Rodham Clinton seems to be caught in another little conflict, and this one could be a problem with, shall we say, “the faithful.” By “the faithful,” I mean the left-wing contingency within the Democratic Party that long ago abandoned any historic, western understanding of the relationship between the human person and the earth (an understanding that is so commonplace for most...

Operators of Web sites with racy content must label their sites and register in a national directory or be fined, according to a new U.S. Senate proposal that represents the latest effort among politicians to crack down on Internet sex. The requirements appear in legislation announced Thursday by two Senate Democrats, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Max Baucus of Montana, that they say will "clean up the Internet for children." The proposal, which the senators describe as a discussion draft, relies on the idea of embedding a new tag--such as --in all Web pages that the government deems unsuitable for...

A controversial new bill would slap smokers with a fine if they light up in cars with kids, an incendiary idea that’s outraged puffers and civil libertarians while gaining speed nationwide. “They are going to come into your home next,” said Gary Nolan, national spokesman for The Smokers Club, Inc. “Will we have the food police issuing tickets if your child’s (weight) is out of wack and you are heading into a Burger King?” Added Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University tobacco policy analyst: “This is a disrespect for parental autonomy. We allow parents to let their children play hockey...

Textbooks used in Iran's schools are instilling students with hatred toward the West, especially the United States, and urging them to become "martyrs" in a global holy war against countries perceived to be enemies of Islam, a new study says. An Iranian human rights activist, Ghazal Omid, praised the findings, saying they prove hard-liners in Iran are using the books to turn children into "ticking bombs." However, a U.S. academic who specializes in Iran and Islam, and a former Iranian teacher said they believe the textbooks are a reflection of Iran's history and its deep suspicions of the West, not...

Clinton wants all U.S. troops out of Iraq when Bush leaves office The Associated PressPublished: January 28, 2007 DAVENPORT, Iowa: U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that U.S. President George W. Bush should withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq before he leaves office, saying it would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war along to the next commander in chief. "This was his decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy," the Democratic senator said her in first presidential campaign tour through the early-voting state of Iowa. "We expect him...

<p>Hillary's first conversation will be begin tonight at 7 PM. You need to register at the linked site to participate.</p> <p>Hillary's website asks people to "help make these webcasts a true national conversation by spreading the word."</p> <p>I'm doing my part.</p>

Hillary is doing a live chat now via her website.

Speaker Pelosi Delivers Victory for the Right to Breathe Clean, Smoke-Free Air Says Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by William V. Corr, Executive Director, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: By declaring the Speaker's Lobby of the U.S. Capitol to be smoke-free, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today sent a powerful message to the nation about the serious dangers of secondhand smoke and the need to protect everyone's right to breathe clean, smoke-free air. From office buildings to restaurants and bars to the Capitol of the United States, all workers and the public should...

Nairobi, Kenya – A new United Nations children’s book promoting fears of catastrophic manmade global warming is being promoted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Kenya. The book's main character, a young boy, is featured getting so worried about a coming manmade climate disaster that he yells “I don’t want to hear anymore!” The new children’s book, entitled “Tore and the Town on Thin Ice” ((http://www.unep.org/PDF/TORE.pdf)) is published by the United Nations Environment Programme and blames “rich countries” for creating a climate catastrophe and urges children to join environmental groups. The book is about a young boy named Tore...

The text is white against a black screen. The sound is the electronic warbling of a video game. But in this political ad, the message is in the faceless voices of cheerful children engaged in mayhem. "Hit the hooker with the tire iron!""Steal the old lady's car.""Shoot her first!" The ad accuses a Democratic candidate of voting against banning the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to children. Another ad, in Connecticut, says a Democrat voted to permit convicted sex offenders in public housing. Yet another, in Arizona, linked a candidate's work as a lawyer for the American...

EDITORIAL: Internet gambling 'ban' Americans are playing poker online? Oh, the humanity! Of the myriad policy crises churning on the horizon -- entitlement insolvency, illegal immigration and runaway federal spending among them -- congressional Republicans chose to spend the little political capital they have left on an Internet gambling ban. With brick-and-mortar casinos in nearly every state and card games breaking into network television, millions of moralists found it unbearable that Americans were wagering about $6 billion per year on the Web. That their neighbors might be playing poker or placing sports bets from the comfort of their desk chairs...