Free Republic

When the public votes down a school tax levy, the protocol is for the school superintendent to threaten to eliminate sports and shutter schools. Then the school boards hold levy elections until the public finally passes one. Then the school board and its superintendent go on their merry way and back to ignoring the public. Where do you think Mel Brooks came up with the idea of Sheriff Bart holding himself hostage in Blazing Saddles? The Sheriff Bart model applies to higher education, which faces cutbacks as fewer young Americans are enrolling in college because people with degrees have flooded...

Many, probably most, Texans hadn’t heard of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas until this week. Then a historic winter storm froze up the place and “electric reliability” turned into an unfunny joke for far too many. Their electricity was reliably unavailable. Texans are getting to know the 50-year-old council and are not liking what they’re learning. For one thing, about a third of its members don’t even live in Texas. Well, now that the glare has turned on ERCOT, it has removed the board members’ names from its website. They’re gone. They were all there earlier in the week....

Last October, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case regarding Louisiana’s admitting privileges law. The case, June Medical Services v. Gee, takes aim at The Unsafe Abortion Act, and thanks to a recent brief filed by over 200 Congressional lawmakers, has gotten attention from the abortion industry, which is now panicking. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise led 166 House Republicans and 39 Senate Republicans, as well as two Democrats, in filing an amicus brief in support of the pro-life law, arguing that the court must not only uphold the law, but also to “provide clarity regarding the bounds of...

The Supreme Court of the United States announced Friday that it would take up its first abortion case since Justice Brett Kavanaugh was added to the bench. According to a court order, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of June Medical Services v. Gee, which comes out of Louisiana and deals with a state requirement that abortion providers have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles. Proponents of the admitting privileges requirement say that the measure is a safety precaution for women undergoing the procedures. “Abortion activists are more than willing to lower the bar on...

Shy of her first anniversary on the federal bench, an Obama-appointed judge known for promoting “racial tolerance” has ordered U.S. taxpayers to provide criminally convicted immigrants with “diminished mental capacities” lawyers to fight deportation. The ruling is believed to be the first ordering government-financed legal representation in an immigration case. Foreign nationals embroiled in deportation proceedings must pay for their own attorney, unlike criminal defendants who get court-appointed lawyers—financed by American taxpayers—as part of due process when they can’t afford it. In this case a southern California federal judge, Dolly Gee, ruled that two area immigrants who are “mentally disabled”...

LINCOLN, Ill. — The former son-in-law of Beason resident Raymond "Rick" Gee was arrested Thursday afternoon in the deaths of Gee and four other members of his family. Christopher J. Harris, 30, of McLean County, was arrested and is being held at the Logan County jail. Gee, 46, his wife, Ruth Gee, 39, and their children, Justina Constant, 16, Dillen Constant, 14, and Austin Gee, 11, were found dead in their home on Sept. 21. Harris was formerly married to Nicole Gee, Rick's daughter, who did not live at the home. Nicole Gee was granted a divorce in March of...

<p>With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Obama had 59 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent. Both candidates campaigned in the state ahead of the caucuses, but the onus was on Obama to regain his momentum after Clinton disrupted his winning streak Tuesday, scoring wins in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island.</p>

This is a 22 page report based on a comprehensive survey of American religious and other values. It is not possible to excerpt it. The Report begins by classifying values groups into: (1)Orthodox; (2)Progressive; (3) And, Independent. Orthodox represents about a third of the population. These individuals have a basic, religious outlook on life and they overwhelmingly believe in God. They wish to see government policies mirror religious values. They are strong believers in right and wrong and see most social issues in black and white terms. Progressives represent one sixth of the populationand are uniformly opposed to religious values...

SEATTLE- In bizarre series of events that have led to multiple arrests, Seattle police say a group of employees at a car dealership in West Seattle stole more than $100,000 from a disabled man. Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said the bizarre series of events began when the victim, a 60-year-old man with a diminished mental capacity, went to the Huling Brothers dealership in late July. The man was covered in his own urine and feces and asked a salesman about buying a truck. "I think that anyone would look at that individual and at least pause - and think...

The earnings of many top university presidents are spiraling up toward $1 million a year, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, rising far more quickly than faculty salaries. Forty-two presidents of private universities were paid $500,000 or more in the 2003 fiscal year, the most recent for which figures are available, compared with 27 presidents the previous year. Just two earned half a million in 1994. The highest-paid private university president, William R. Brody of Johns Hopkins University, earned $897,786 in university compensation, not counting at least $100,000 in annual pay for membership on several...

John Kerry's financial fortunes may be linked to a ketchup empire, but in his political notebook, what's sauce for the goose isn't sauce for the gander. The Democratic Presidential nominee, who has been railing against outsourcing, is walking on a sticky wicket on the issue. There are outsourcing footprints all over Kerry's pristine all H J Heinz & Co, the family business of Kerry and his wife Teresa, has spread its ketchup operations across the world. Of the 79 factories that the food processor owns, 57 are overseas. Heinz makes ketchup, pizza crust, baby cereal and other edibles in such...