Free Republic

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” — The Declaration of Independence Thanks to Senator Dennis Kruse, Indiana educators may soon have the same freedom to express their beliefs about the origin of man as Thomas Jefferson did when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. This week the state Senate passed SB-89, which states, “The governing body of a school corporation may offer instruction on various theories of the origin of life....

William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain recently hired by BP as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, Ala., died Wednesday morning before 7:30 a.m. of a gunshot to the head, likely self-inflicted, authorities said. "He had been quite despondent about the oil crisis," said Stan Vinson, coroner for Baldwin County, which includes Gulf Shores. Kruse, who lived with his family in nearby Foley, Ala., reported to work Wednesday morning as usual at the Gulf Shores Marina on Fort Morgan Road in Gulf Shores, Vinson said. He met up with his two deckhands at his boat, The...

Oil was again gushing uncontrollably from the BP spill site on Wednesday after the company was forced to remove the containment cap when a robotic submarine hit a vent. The news came as officials also reported two deaths in the response effort. BP hoped to reinstall the cap later Wednesday after fixing the vent and checking for safety. Earlier Wednesday, BP said that Bob Dudley was appointed to head the new Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, which is in charge of cleaning up the oil spill.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two Indiana men filed a lawsuit claiming that President-elect Barack Obama is not eligible to serve as president. The suit questions whether Obama meets the constitutional requirement that the president must be a "natural born citizen." Obama's birth certificate says he was born in Hawaii, but his father was not a U.S. citizen and some have claimed the document is a fake. The U.S. Supreme Court this month refused without comment to hear a challenge to Obama's citizenship. The Indianapolis Star reports the Indiana suit was filed in Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis by Steve Ankeny, New Castle,...