Free Republic

She's a Hockey Mom who's supports the National Hockey League's Hockey Fights Cancer campaign. She's lives on an island far removed in values from the American Heartland. She has been criticised for wearing her skirts too short, and the subject of many commentaries and Web sites about her legs. Her interviews have been criticised as being too cute and sophmorish. She has been roundly criticized for not writing her own material, but merely reading off the teleprompter. She has also been criticised for plagarism. She has been made fun of, laughed at on TV and talk shows, and told she...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida woman preparing for her wedding over the weekend is instead mourning the death of her 4-year-old son after she left him in a hot SUV for three hours Saturday, reported WPBF, Newsnet5's sister station. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Mirlande Jean-Baptiste, 29, may not have known that her son Gregory Cesar was in her Ford Expedition while she was inside a nail salon Saturday. Family members said that Jean-Baptiste had dropped off several children at a relative's house before going to the salon with her sister. Police told WPBF News 25...

French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been compared to Marie Antoinette by one of the country's most influential political journals. According to Marianne, the country is sick and tired of the 40-year-old's repeated preening and showing off for the world's media, which has intensified in recent weeks as the former model-turned-pop-star prepares to release her third album of songs. This is followed by everything from nude pictures of Bruni - released by Christie's auction house on the eve of her state visit to Britain - to intimate interviews in which she talks about her chequered love life and her Left-wing...

TV Reporters’ Lovers Quarrel Blows-up in Baghdad According to reports circulating at CBS HQ and the network assignment desk in NY, the Always Lovely Laura Logan and her boyfriend, Michael Ware of CNN, had a huge blowup last week in Baghdad. It seems that just when the fighting outside the Green Zone is dying down, a huge lovers’ spat there made things a bit more spicy and dicey inside the Zone. According to reports, Ms Logan was “entertaining” a male US embassy employee in CBS’s rented residence when Ware arrived unexpectedly. Reportedly the State Department employee was doing to Ms...

It's Being from Arizona, I have to pass these along (they can apply to other "hot" states as well)...It's so hot in Arizona that... the birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground. the potatoes cook underground, and all you have to do to have lunch is to pull one out and add butter, salt and pepper. farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs. the cows are giving evaporated milk. the trees are whistling for the dogs. you no longer associate bridges (or rivers) with water. you can say...

Gulf Stream's secret is a load of hot air 18:21 12 March 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic A wall of warm air rises up from the Gulf Stream, shown here as it moves along the North American coastline (Image: F Araki and S Kawahara, ESC JAMSTEC) It could be the end of preparing for a balmy European summer only to be met with rain and freezing temperatures. After years of mystery surrounding the Gulf Stream, researchers have finally worked out how it affects European weather. The key, they say, is a corridor of warm air that rises up from...

RICHMOND (AP) — After years of planning, construction will begin next spring on the new express toll lanes on the Capital Beltway, state transportation officials said yesterday.M The public-private project will cost about $1.7 billion — nearly double the projected cost two years ago — and will be completed in 2013, the Virginia Department of Transportation said. VDOT Commissioner David S. Ekern said the agency has reached an agreement in principle with two private contractors — Transurban DRIVe and Fluor Enterprises — for design, construction, operation and maintenance of the high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. The project is intended to...

PHOENIX - A suburban police officer is accused of leaving a police dog in a patrol car for more than 12 hours on a 109-degree day, killing the animal. Chandler police Sgt. Tom Lovejoy was booked into the Maricopa County jail on a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty after a two-week investigation into the death of a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois named Bandit. He was released later Wednesday, said Capt. Paul Chagolla, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's investigation showed Bandit was in Lovejoy's patrol car from about 9 a.m. to shortly after 10 p.m. Aug. 11....

Each Parent Thought The Other Was Taking Daughter To Child Care ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI-myFOXstl.com) -- A 7 month old baby girl died after police say she was left in a locked car for 4 hours in the sweltering summer heat.

Clinton's Golden Voice Bill Clinton earned $31 million in speaking fees between 2001 and 2005, as disclosed in his wife's Senate ethics reports. This page lists information about each speech and the amount the former president earned. Related: See the map of speeches and read the Post story

H.O.T or Heart of Texas Freepers. We are overdue for a gathering of our fine group. Basil has opened up her home again for us to gather and share our stories from the past few months. DATE: July 8, 2007 - Sunday TIME: 4:00 PM Bring yourselves, your stories, jokes, and something to share that is edible. We'll have a very short meeting + Basil will treat us to a movie called "The Gang" - a DVD produced by Aaron Zelman of the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO.org) The documentary gives the history of the BATF(E) from...

The following is based on observations accepted by the global-warming consensus, and does not attempt to refute or even provide contradictory evidence. Is the Earth warming? Yes. With extremely advanced statistical techniques, scientists have been able to cut through all the background noise of weather patterns and cyclical fluctuations to detect a tiny increase in temperature over the past 100 years. To be precise, there have been two warmings in the past century, each about three decades long, and each of about one third of one degree, separated by a pause of about three decades. These increases are by no...

Britain is likely to have a scorching summer this year, with a high probability that temperatures will soar above average. The Met Office has also said there is a one in eight chance the UK will swelter in record-breaking heat - as it did in 2006 and 2003. Last year's summer was the warmest extended period on record, while the heatwave in 2003 set a new British high of 38.5C.

Source of hot European summers determined PALAISEAU, France, March 22 (UPI) -- French-led research suggests shortages of winter rainfall over southern Europe precede hot summers further north on the European continent. Robert Vautard of the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute in Palaiseau, France, and colleagues analyzed meteorological records of the past 58 years and determine dry conditions around the northern Mediterranean create a mass of anomalously warm, dry air that spreads northward during early summer. The researchers detected the pattern while searching for previously undiscovered weather scenarios that explain heat waves, such as the one experienced by Europe in the summer of...

Source: American Chemical Society Date: March 5, 2007 Red Pepper: Hot Stuff For Fighting Fat? Science Daily — Food scientists in Taiwan are reporting new evidence from laboratory experiments that capsaicin — the natural compound that gives red pepper that spicy hot kick — can reduce the growth of fat cells. The study is scheduled for the March 21 issue of the ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. In the report, Gow-Chin Yen and Chin-Lin Hsu cite previous research suggesting that obesity can be reduced by preventing immature fat cells (adipocytes) from developing into mature cells....

Commuters who want to take proposed high occupancy toll lanes may pay high cost Commuters using planned high occupancy toll lanes on Interstates 95 and 395 could pay as much as $1 per mile to drive on certain segments. The prices are in a project proposal from the Virginia Department of Transportation and the private companies that want to build the lanes, according to The Washington Post. The document was submitted Friday to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. It was unknown what the prices would be for motorists using Interstate 95 HOT lanes south of Prince William County. The...

Warfighters to Get Hot Traditional Holiday Meals More than 6,000 meals are on their way to troops serving in remote areas of Iraq and Afghanistan. By U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center-Natick NATICK, Mass., Nov. 17, 2006 -- The holidays are going to be a little bit tastier for warfighters serving in Iraq and Afghanistan thanks to a team of scientists at Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. More than 6,000 meals, consisting of turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, cranberry jelly, snacks, desserts and beverage mixes, are on their way to provide a Thanksgiving meal for forces...

The HOT Chapter of FreeRepublic invites you to join us on Saturday, December 2nd at 3:30 p.m. for a social get-together. We will meet at the Mesa Rosa restaurant off of F.M. 620 in North North Austin/Round Rock.The phone number for Mesa Rosa is 733-6622. The address is 15515 N. F.M. 620. It is halfway between 183 and I-35. Look for the big parrot sign on the south side of the road. If you want you can try out one of the new toll roads on your way, while they are still "free". SH45 exits just West of the restaurant...

DALLAS - A 62-year-old retired accountant from Nevada swallowed 247 peppers in eight minutes to win the Jalapeno Eating World Championship at the State Fair of Texas. Richard LeFevre won $2,000 for prevailing in Sunday's contest, which was sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. "I love to eat, and I love to compete, so the two go pretty well together," said LeFevre, the world's eighth-ranked eater according to the federation. LeFevre, who has also won the fair's World Corny Dog Eating Contest three times, said his winning strategy was to mix three or four peppers in his mouth...

Sept. 25, 2006 — In about 45 years, temperatures on Earth will be hotter than at anytime during the past one million years, says the U.S. government's top climatologist in a new report released today. According to the report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the planet is just two degrees shy of an average temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit, which is what they believe the temperature was about a million years ago. NASA's James Hansen, along with colleagues from the University of California and Columbia University, are for the first time, marking a calendar signaling...

A gruesome end for a Mississippi man, who authorities say died when his wife dumped hot cooking oil on him while he slept. Sherman Sanders actually was alive for a week before succumbing to the burns over more than half his body. The search is now on for Edna May Sanders, who grabbed the couple's two kids and hightailed it out of their home. The FBI is helping look for Sanders, who faces a murder charge. She's thought to have let about two quarts of cooking oil come to a simmer, before pouring it over her husband's head, chest and...

Heat Waves Follow Hottest Six Months on Record With record-breaking heat around the country, fish--and the people that love to catch them--are suffering. Not only is the fun of sitting out in the summer sun on a boat, on the shore or standing in a river beginning to lose some of its appeal, but these high temperatures are also stressing out fish, prompting midday fishing bans (in Montana), bass that won't bite (in Florida), and potentially later and smaller salmon runs (in Oregon and Washington). This summer's heat is coming on the heels of an announcement in July from the...

Record-breaking heat and oppressive humidity made people across the eastern half of the country miserable Wednesday and sent tourists in the nation's capital scrambling for relief in the cool marble halls of Capitol Hill.

7/26/2006 - TARIN KOWT, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- When people deployed to Afghanistan say a location is "hot," it could mean one of two things. Either it feels like the sun is closer than the moon, or the enemy is lurking about. Here, both meanings apply. For pilots, that equates to making quick pit stops here so they can get in and out of this danger zone as quickly as possible. For Tech. Sgt. Philip Lester, deployed from Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., that means enduring a 140-degree heat blast from behind C-130 Hercules engines as he unloads cargo and passengers...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Triple digit temperatures smashed records across California Saturday, straining thermometers and air conditioners and prompting dozens of scattered electricity outages that left residents sizzling. A major Northern California power plant tripped off line as temperatures climbed, reducing electricity reserves below acceptable levels and prompting the state's grid manager to declare a "stage one emergency" while calling for conservation. No relief was expected until at least midweek from a weather front that sent temperatures soaring even along the normally cool California coast and brought Midwest-style humidity into the usually arid Central Valley. Heat records were set throughout the...

Excuse the (properly posted) vanity but dang it is hot! And tomorrow it get really hot with temps at 118 F and humidity at about 48 percent. Today they say it was 120 outside. It has its advantages.... 1. If you don't finish all your coffee on your morning drive, it is still hot when you come out for lunch. 2. If you like to drive with no hands that is not a problem - the steering wheel is too hot to touch anyhow. 3. No need to take you food into work to cook it. Just leave it on...

What's Hot, What's Not: IT Skills You'll Need in 2010 The IT worker of 2010 won't be a technology guru but rather a 'versatilist.' Stacy Collett July 17, 2006 (Computerworld) -- The most sought-after corporate IT workers in 2010 may be those with no deep-seated technical skills at all. The nuts-and-bolts programming and easy-to-document support jobs will have all gone to third-party providers in the U.S. or abroad. Instead, IT departments will be populated with "versatilists" -- those with a technology background who also know the business sector inside and out, can architect and carry out IT plans that will...

Tank tops, flip-flops, bare flesh and cleavage. It's the unofficial uniform of the summer interns, gaggles of college-age women and recent graduates who invade buttoned-down conservative Washington every summer, bringing a large dose of hotitude to offices from Capitol Hill to K Street. They're known as "skinterns." Those who think "belly shirts" are career wear. If the devil wears Prada, the skinterns wear nada. As if Washington wasn't sweltering enough. "All the guys I worked with here, they would love it when the weather got warm for that very reason. 'Ooohhh, the interns are coming,' " said Elizabeth Conatser, a...

ANGIER, N.C. -- Cold Sweat ice cream is hot. In fact, it's so hot customers at Sunni Sky's ice cream shop in Angier, N.C., have to sign a waiver stating that they’ve been warned. Sunni Sky's makes its Cold Sweat-flavor treats with milk, sugar, three kinds of pepper and two kinds of hot sauce. It's so spicy that just touching it makes your fingers feel hot, according to the News and Observer. The waiver for the fiery mixture has dozens of signatures. Pregnant women and people with health problems are not supposed to eat it. Anyone younger than 18 needs...

SAN DIEGO – A San Diego-based Coast Guard petty officer is one of the 50 hottest bachelors named by People magazine in its issue released Friday. Petty Officer 2nd Class Josh Miramontez, 25, is one of just five non-celebrities on the list, Coast Guard public affairs officer Anastasia Devlin said. “They did a celebrity thing, but five of the 50 were rescuers nationwide,” Devlin said. “They took in a lot of pictures and his was selected.” Miramontez is deserving of the honor, Devlin said. “Oh, yes. He looks a little Italian. The tall, dark and handsome type,” she said. While...

ABOARD AL BASRAH OIL TERMINAL, Iraq-- Culinary specialists assigned to the amphibious transport dock USS Ogden (LPD 5) are cooking four daily meals aboard Iraq 's Al Basrah (ABOT) and Khawr Al Amaya (KAAOT) Oil Terminals for the Sailors assigned to Mobile Security Detachment (MSD) 71. While serving as an afloat forward staging base (AFSB) for Commander, Task Group (CTG) 158.1 in the Northern Arabian Gulf, Ogden sent the cooks to live aboard the oil terminals to supplement MSD 71's previous daily routine of “meals on keels.” Previously, nearby coalition ships in CTG 158.1 would cook food aboard ship and...

LONDON (Reuters) - British actress Keira Knightley was voted the world's sexiest woman in a magazine poll on Thursday, beating model Keeley Hazel and Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson into second and third place respectively. The poll, which British magazine FHM said was based on two million votes, saw homegrown model and TV presenter Kelly Brook slip to 5th from first last year, while Angelina Jolie, expecting a baby in mid-May, came fourth. Beyonce Knowles was the sexiest pop star at number seven and Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova the top sportswoman at number 56. FHM said the poll was the...

We had our first meeting for 2006 at Kruez's BBQ in Lockhart, Texas. Hopefully someone will be able to post some pictures of the eat and greet and Earth Day flag burning soon!

The Heart of Texas Chapter of FreeRepublic.com is looking to have a meeting this month. Saturday Evening, April 22nd or Sunday, 23rd look like the most promising times. The location is a bit more up in the air.Possibilities include: Walburg(north of Georgetown - Exit 268) Saltlick(SW of Austin in Driftwood) Lockhart BBQ(20-30 miles SE of Austin) Elgin Sausage/BBQ(East of Austin) Spaghetti Warehouse(downtown Austin) Ironworks(downtown Austin?) Texas Roadhouse(I35 south of Austin/Slaughter) (Insert you idea here) Anyway, instead of me forcing a decision on everybody, I thought that I would open it up to local FReepers for their input on time and...

3/27/2006 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- In the world of sports, there have been some incredible streaks. Cal Ripken Jr. played in 2,632 consecutive major league baseball games. Lance Armstrong was victorious in seven Tour de France races. Football great Johnny Unitas threw at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games. But none of these streaks compare to the impact that one unit is having on the war on terrorism. The 99th Aircraft Maintenance Unit is working on a streak of more than 155 consecutive launches without a maintenance-related cancel to meet the air tasking order for the U-2...

The red-hot power of chillies can kill cancer By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 16/03/2006) The substance in chillies that causes the tongue to burn also drives prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, according to research that could pave the way for new treatments. The pepper component capsaicin makes the cells undergo programmed cell death or apoptosis, says a study published in the journal Cancer Research. High intake of hot chillis has been linked to stomach cancer Tests found that it induced approximately 80 per cent of cancer cells growing in mice to follow the molecular pathways leading to apoptosis....

What Tech Skills Are Hot for 2006? Developers, security experts and project managers will be in demand News Analysis by Thomas Hoffman DECEMBER 27, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Whether you're looking for a job or looking to fill one, expect hiring to heat up this year, driven by small but consistent gains in IT budgets. And if you're a job seeker with the right skills, 2006 could be your big year. Despite the notion that hordes of U.S. IT jobs are being sent offshore, in reality, less than 5% of the 10 million people who make up the U.S. IT job...

Jessica Simpson is the latest name on James Bond producers' wish list after both Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie pulled out of a Bond babe role in new 007 adventure Casino Royale. Theron and Jolie refused Bond bosses, according to IGN FilmForce, and now they're courting newly-single Simpson to play female lead Vesper Lynd in the new film. Scarlett Johansson has also been linked to star alongside the legendary superspy. British actor Daniel Craig will take over from Pierce Brosnan to make his Bond debut in the film, which is set to start shooting next

A woman is suing the Pizza Hut in Lehighton, Pa., because the hot poppers she ordered as an appetizer were, well, hot and popped when she bit into them. Sorana Georgescu-Hassanin claims she may be permanently impaired because the ''excessively hot'' oil in the deep-fried, cheese-stuffed hot pepper severely burned her chin. Her husband, Hatem Hassanin, is suing for the loss of companionship and comfort of his wife. They are suing Pizza Hut for at least $25,000! each. The suit names the Dallas corporation and Richard Whitso n, who owns the Lehighton franchise and his company, QSM, LLC. It says...

NOVEMBER 22--In a sweetheart plea deal, a former Florida middle school teacher who had sex with a 14-year-old male student escaped a jail term today. Debra Lafave, 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and was sentenced to three years of community control, or house arrest, and ordered to register as a sex offender. Lafave's plea came on the eve of trial and was approved by the teen victim and his family (in a court affidavit filed today, the boy's mother wrote that a trial would "negatively affect my son's emotional and psychological well-being"). Lafave, who...

Tampa, Florida - A Riverview woman is upset not only because her boyfriend dumped her for another woman, but because of who that woman is and the time she may spend around her child. That woman is Debra Lafave. Lafave is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student. It is a confusing story that involves the ex-girlfriend of Lafave's current boyfriend, Andrew Beck. We learn about the triangle from court documents. In a motion for protection, the ex-girlfriend says Lafave came to the restaurant she works at and told her, 'I’m Andrew's first love and he would do anything...

This one-stoplight town of 700 residents near President Bush's ranch braced for thousands of visitors Saturday, most in a cross-country caravan for a pro-Bush rally and others to support Cindy Sheehan's anti-war demonstration. More than 3,000 people were expected at the school football stadium for the culmination of the "You don't speak for me, Cindy!" tour that started last week in California. It would be the largest counter-protest since Sheehan started camping out off the road leading to Bush's ranch Aug. 6. She vowed to remain unless he talked to her about the war with Iraq that claimed the life...

MOUNT PLEASANT, IA - A 1-year-old baby found dead in a car Thursday afternoon appears to have died of heat stroke, authorities said. The infant was found in a car seat in a parked car around 2:30 p.m., Police Chief Terry Sammons said. Authorities said Saturday that the baby's name and other details had not been released. Henry County medical examiner Dr. Kent Metcalf said it appeared the child had been in the car all day and died of apparent heat stroke.

The Heart of Texas Chapter of FreeRepublic.com is holding a rally in Crawford, Texas today to show America's support for our troops, President Bush and the war on terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world.The rally will be held at noon at the Crawford Civic Center at 1000 4th Street.Freepers are coming from near and far to join the H.O.T. Chapter in Crawford. If you live within four hours drive of Crawford, it's not too late to hit the road and get on down there.Folks in attendance will be calling in to me, Brad's Gramma and Jeff Head...

MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A former physical education teacher charged with having sex with a 13-year-old boy who attended the school where she worked agreed to a nine-month jail sentence in a plea deal Thursday and was immediately locked up. Pamela Rogers Turner, 28, entered a no contest plea that allowed her to avoid a scheduled November trial on multiple charges of having sexual intercourse and oral sex with the teenager during a three-month relationship that started in November. A court clerk said the nine months in jail is part of an eight-year sentence for the former homecoming queen previously...

I'm Hot. That's what Kristen Maddox's tank top declares, in bold red letters. MOLLY CORFMAN / Knight Ridder News Service Madeleine Maddox (above) holds a T-shirt that promotes Helping Our Troops, a group founded by her daughter, Kristen. The group sends personalized care packages to U.S. soldiers stationed overseas. She's gotten marriage proposals from admiring visitors to her Web site. Maddox may be 21 and she may be attractive, but she isn't trolling for dates. Her heart belongs to U.S. troops. "I want them to understand that my generation cares," Maddox said. The "Hot" stands for "Helping Our Troops," a...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2005 – According to many servicemembers stationed overseas, it's a great feeling to receive a care package, and it's especially nice when the package contains items that you personally requested. Kristen Maddox, the 21-year-old founder of the nonprofit organization "Helping Our Troops," which sends specialized care packages to troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Courtesy photo In March, Kristen Maddox, a 21-year-old college student from Santa Ana, Calif., launched the nonprofit organization "Helping Our Troops" with that in mind. Her goal is to ship care packages that contain items based solely on troop requests. "We don't send...

The NJ governor's race exploded into a firestorm yesterday, with the revelation that super-rich Sen. Jon Corzine gave $470,000 to a former flame who runs one of the biggest state-employee unions. The value of the donation ballooned to as much as $615,600, because Corzine also paid the gift tax. The Democrat stonewalled questions about whether he gave any other money to sultry Carla Katz, who represents 9,000 NJ state employees as head of Local 1034 of the Communications Workers of America. Corzine refused to say if he made any other gifts to Katz and her family, declaring, "I'm a public...

It's absurd when smart, talented people want to be victims more than victors. The most obvious example comes from this past academic year, when feminist hysterics followed Harvard president Larry Summers hypothesizing about "innate differences" between men and women and how these differences might explain the lower number of women in science. One Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, Nancy Hopkins, walked out of his lecture — she couldn't even listen. She would have "either blacked out or thrown up" had she stayed. So professional. There will be no smelling salts needed on the racetrack, however. Danica Patrick is no Nancy...