Free Republic

Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants to build a big highway through the Lone Star State. No, make that a really big highway, as in a monstrously big highway. The exact route hasn't been determined. The mega-highway would run roughly from Laredo on the Rio Grande River through the Hill Country and the Piney Woods and then through Texarkana in that tiny portion of the state that borders Arkansas. Imagine for a moment if that thoroughfare would be pointed in the other direction - from the Valley, through the South Plains and then through the heart of the Panhandle, right past...

Judge allows Ten Commandments monument By JEFF LATZKE, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago A federal judge on Friday said a Ten Commandments monument outside a courthouse can stay, rejecting arguments that it promotes Christianity at the expense of other religions. U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White in Muskogee ruled that Haskell County did not violate the Constitution by erecting the monument. The county did not "overstep the constitutional line demarcating government neutrality toward religion," he wrote. The county argued that the monument outside the Stigler courthouse was part of a historical display that included other monuments recognizing war veterans,...

STIGLER, Okla. - The 8-foot granite slab planted in the Haskell County courthouse lawn makes the Ten Commandments easy to read and hard to miss from the state highway that doubles as this town's main thoroughfare. The monument, erected with private money in 2004 with the county's approval, doesn't stop traffic and courthouse visitors on a recent morning barely gave it a glance.

Woman from African nation faces deportation Asylum appeals have failed; Togo native says she faces death at home05/10/2003 By FRANK TREJO / The Dallas Morning News Ablavi Haden, a 53-year-old woman from Togo who says she faces death in her home country in Africa, is again in the custody of immigration authorities and faces imminent deportation. Mrs. Haden, featured in articles in The Dallas Morning News in 1999 because she had been jailed for several months even though she had never been charged with a crime, has been seeking political asylum in the United States since 1996. But her appeals...