Free Republic

A little less than two years ago, Gregory D. Wasson, the chief executive of Walgreen, sought a series of tax breaks from Illinois, where his company is based. “We are proud of our Illinois heritage,” he said at the time. “Just as our stores and pharmacies are health and daily living anchors for the communities we serve, we as a company are now recommitted to serving as an economic anchor for northeastern Illinois.” The state gave Walgreen $46 million in corporate income tax credits over 10 years in exchange for a pledge to create 500 jobs and invest in upgrading...

The president slowly discovers what the rest of us knew since we were teenagers. “We have a great sense this week again of the [Obama administration] making it up as they go along, as kind of government by teenagers,” George Will said yesterday on the Fox News All-Star Panel, but actually, that’s an insult to teenagers. All of us learn by age 17 that government is a non-functioning Leviathan mess, during our first visit to the local branch of the DMV, as Charles Krauthammer writes in his latest column. All of us, that is, except the president. Krauthammer notes that...

Gay Pride weekend festivities are rarely understated, but after the Supreme Court’s decisions last week, marches and rallies all over the country were expected to be especially celebratory this year. Pride weekend generally occurs at the end of June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, in which the gay community exploded against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, in New York City on June 28, 1969. After the Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday to overturn DOMA, granting legally married same-sex couples the same federal benefits as their heterosexual counterparts, and to let "Prop. 8" die, resuming the legalization of gay...

From The Orlando Sentinel: That has prompted NASA to advertise a long list of KSC facilities and equipment as available for use, lease or, in some cases, outright purchase by the right business. Among them: Launch Pad 39A, where shuttles were launched; space in the Vehicle Assembly Building, the iconic 526-foot-tall structure first used to assemble Saturn V-Apollo rockets; the Orbiter Processing Facilities, essentially huge garages where the shuttles were maintained; Hangar N and its high-tech test equipment; the launch-control center; and various other buildings and chunks of undeveloped property. A lot of the stuff needs to be transferred by...

The PBS broadcast of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize on Oct. 30 was a festival of tributes to Ellen DeGeneres — which is fine, since she is quite talented comically. But it wasn't so much a tribute for the comedy as it was for her pioneering work promoting homosexuality. For laughs, consult top producer Cappy McGarr, who insisted Ellen wasn't picked for political reasons: "The Kennedy Center is apolitical. We have had so many people who have their own brand and type of humor. We don't pick winners because of any advocacy they do. It is all about funny...

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- A back-to-school campaign is drawing criticism for encouraging graffiti among school-aged children. The campaign, dubbed by the art-retailer Aaron Brothers as "Artrageous," is hosting free events and giving out free "graffiti starter kits" to participants. But city council members are calling the move outrageous by promoting an act of vandalism as art. Councilman Dennis Zine introduced a resolution this week trying to stop the company from hosting the event, claiming kids may be tempted use the tools for illegal reasons. Zine is seeking a seek and desist order to legally prevent the store from holding the...

A Muslim group has announced plans to cover the Statue of Liberty with a burqa and then replace her with a minaret. But there's no reason at all to take such plans seriously. Lady Liberty being treated the way the Muslim world treats women in general, is as unlikely as a massive mosque being built just downwind of Ground Zero. Or Queen Elizabeth donning a hijab on a visit to Abu Dhabi. It's one of those things that we're told not to worry about until it happens and then objecting to it becomes a crime against tolerance. The tolerance of...

President Obama secured another major legislative victory Wednesday with the Senate ratification of a nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Vice President Biden presided over the Senate's 71-26 vote with Secretary Hillary Clinton in attendance.

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that some illegal immigrants are entitled to the same tuition breaks offered to in-state high school students to attend public colleges and universities.

He killed for cable. A Bronx teenager, enraged that his mother's live-in boyfriend turned off the cable in their apartment, plunged a kitchen knife into the man's chest, police and relatives said Saturday. Adruis Ovalles, 15, jabbed the blade into 26-year-old Albert (Matthew) Hartzog's chest three times, ignoring his mother's cries to stop. Blood splattered throughout the tiny but well-kept Walton Ave. apartment as the life seeped out of Hartzog on Friday. "The kid was mad he couldn't watch TV," said a tearful Amy Hartzog, the victim's aunt. "I talked to [Hartzog] just before he got stabbed," she said. "He...

Cornyn: Openly gay SCOTUS nominee might be acceptable By J. Taylor Rushing - 04/12/10 06:59 PM ET An openly gay nominee to the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court might be acceptable, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Monday. Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on President Barack Obama to make a measured choice in filling the pending Supreme Court vacancy, hesitating slightly when asked if he would support an openly gay nominee. Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, was initially reluctant when asked if he would support an openly gay nominee — as Sen. Jeff Sessions...

LIBERTYVILLE -- Two Republicans, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran and secretary of state candidate Robert Enriquez, held a press conference Thursday to urge national leaders to address immigration reform. "Nobody says deport all these people," said Curran. "That's not going to happen. If you think that's going to happen, you're not living in the real world. "We need to create a situation where they (illegal immigrants) have an opportunity to go through the process," the sheriff added. "Learn the language, take an exam, pay fines and back taxes and get into line. "We have a serious problem," he said, stressing...

El Universo (Guayaquil,Ecuador) 2/15/10 Open Western Hemisphere borders proposed The Ecuadorian government will ask the Organization of American States (OAS) to promote the free movement of people within the continent in order to curb the deportation of immigrants who are in an “irregular condition” [Read: illegal]. Hernan Holguin, sub-secretary of the Ecuadorian national department that oversees migrant issues, indicated that the matter will be presented before the OAS as “a matter of human rights” and to stop the deportation of “irregular immigrants.” Holguin expressed the opinion that humanity is advancing toward a “universal citizenship” and that world globalization is not...

Granting citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants would expand the "progressive" electorate and help ensure a "progressive" governing coalition for the long term, declared a recent adviser to President Obama whose union group is among the most frequent visitors to the White House.

On June 8, 2009 Lori Donohue and her daughter Kayla were walking through the parking lot at the Seven Stars School of Performing Arts, in Brewster, NY where 8-year-old Kayla had just finished a dance class, when they were killed by a drunk-driving illegal alien...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama proposed sweeping new "rules of the road" for the nation's financial system Wednesday, casting the changes as a critically important response to the economic crisis and the greatest regulatory transformation since the Great Depression. Obama blamed the financial crisis on "a culture of irresponsibility" that he said had taken root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street, and he said regulations crafted to deal with the depression of the 1930s had been "overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy." The Obama plan would give new powers to the...

Harry Reid Vows Action on ‘Comprehensive’ Immigration Bill That Includes Amnesty Wednesday, June 17, 2009 By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief (CNSNews.com) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) vowed Monday that the Senate would consider a “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that would include giving amnesty to illegal aliens—an item he referred to as “bringing the 11 million people out of the shadows.” Reid said that Senate consideration of a massive new immigration bill would come after the Senate dealt with the health-care issue and energy. The Senate is now looking at a national health-care plan being promoted by President Obama...

A profound shift away from California's more transient and migrant-dependent past will soon produce the state's first generation of adults whose majority will be native-born, researchers at USC said in a study released Monday. More than 70% of Californians ages 15 to 24 were born and raised in the state, according to the report, "The New Homegrown Majority in California." By contrast, nearly two-thirds of state residents 45 to 54 years old were born out of state. SNIP Significantly -- and in contrast to the past -- the emerging homegrown majority will have been shaped entirely by their life experience...

On Sunday, April 19, 2009, Secretary Napolitano went on CNN’s “State of the Union” and proclaimed that crossing the border illegally is not a crime. This statement left a lot of folks scratching their heads given that U.S. law—the law Napolitano is sworn to uphold—says quite the opposite. Section 8, Title 1325 of the U.S. code clearly states that those who enter the U.S. illegally are committing a crime. This ‘interpretation’ of the law by Secretary Napolitano seems to be the latest in an effort by the Obama Administration to scale back interior immigration enforcement efforts in the United States....

Stocks fall as investors dump financial shares Investors worry that banks’ recovery could be endangered by bad debt NEW YORK - Investors are back to worrying about banks. Long-present unease about soured loans bubbled over on Monday after Bank of America Corp. said it set aside $13.4 billion to cover lending losses even as it posted earnings that beat expectations. Other big banks have also increased loss provisions in the past two weeks. Major market indicators tumbled more than 3 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which fell 250 points. Traders had been looking for some pullback after the...