Free Republic

Here she won't be -- Miss America. The case against at least one -- and probably more -- of the 11 men arrested in Suffolk with the help of the beauty queen and the television show "America's Most Wanted" is in jeopardy because representatives for Miss America 2007 Lauren Nelson have told prosecutors she won't return to Long Island to testify, said Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota. Without Nelson available as a star witness, every case she actively participated in during the undercover police sex sting may be up in the air, said Spota. He called the police operation well-intended...

Greetings, and a quick tip: Anyone in favor of censorship and internet taxes can skip the rest of this column. OK. For those still with me, who probably agree it is not a good idea to have Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe editing your blog and then charging you for it, it’s time to talk about the great UN internet grab. Thanks to the U.S. just saying no, the UN bid to get its hands on our keyboards failed this month at the United Nations Internet conclave in Tunis. But don’t drop your guard. The UN will be back. The pickings are...

Every once in a while an idea so goofy comes along one is inclined to dismiss it as just absurd rumor. More often than not, it seems, such ideas involve the United Nations and the ambitions of some of its staff and member nations to convert the "world body" into a world government. However hare-brained the scheme, if the United Nations is involved, it is wise to prepare for the worst. A case in point is the idea the United Nations should be able to fund its operations by collecting international taxes ("globotaxes"), starting with international airline tickets. This notion...

CHICAGO, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- During the late 1990s and into 2000, every Internet entrepreneur had the same dream: Start an online company and launch an Initial Public Offering on Wall Street a year or two later, becoming fabulously wealthy in the process. Fast-forward five years and though the dream remains, parts have changed, experts told UPI's The Web. Venture-capital spending remains flat, expected to be $21 billion this year, the same as last year, according to a joint survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association, and IPOs have not yet returned to their past...