Free Republic

MOLINE -- Building the new Interstate 74 bridge will take years, but certification to bid on the jobs building it should only take about 90 days. The Illinois Department of Transportation held a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise certification and supportive services workshop Monday evening at the Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St. At the workshop, officials from IDOT shared information on how those who are in presumed disadvantaged groups can bid on contracts associated with the project. To qualify for DBE certification, the business owner must have a personal net worth of less than $1.32 million. Engineering consulting businesses must average...

Tens of thousands of patients with terminal illnesses are placed on a “death pathway” to help end their lives every year. However, in a letter to The Daily Telegraph, six doctors warn that hospitals may be using the controversial scheme to reduce strain on hospital resources. Supporters of the Liverpool Care Pathway, which allows medical staff to withhold fluid and drugs in a patient’s final days, claim it is the kindest way of letting them slip away. But the experts say in their letter that natural deaths are often freer of pain and distress. Informed consent is not

Remember the Big Bad Wolf? He dressed up as Grandma, hoping to fool Little Red Riding Hood long enough to eat her. Well, that's the same tactic some liberal groups and Democrats are using these days in Washington, D.C., to get government control over the Internet: Dress up a bad idea in familiar and comforting words and hope the American public will be fooled. This very bad scheme is dressed up in the oh-so-sweet sounding notion of "net neutrality." Those who coined the "net neutrality" term are hoping the words will make the public, and especially lawmakers, believe it's a...

McALLEN, Texas - A senior U.S. Customs inspector pleaded guilty Tuesday to money laundering and conspiring to smuggle drugs from Mexico, federal prosecutors said. Lizandro Martinez, 44, was paid to let a series of trucks containing thousands of pounds of marijuana pass over the Progreso International Bridge without inspection for more than 2 1/2 years beginning in 2002, according to court documents. As part of a plea agreement, Martinez will resign and forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicles and real estate bought with the laundered money. Roberto Dominguez, 44, of Hildalgo, was also convicted Tuesday of similar charges...

AIR ENRON: NO LETTING UP By Michelle Malkin · August 10, 2005 01:49 PM Al Franken is laughing it off and the elite media is still blowing it off, but the Air America/Air Enron financial fiasco continues to unfold. Ed Morrissey and his legal consultant/reader Eric Costello shine renewed light on the Piquant buyout shell game here and here, previously explored by Leon H. at Macho Nachos. The Washington Times pounds the MSM and race hustlers' blackout in a new editorial today, "Air Scamerica." And in a fascinating little side development, a former Clear Channel official has been hired by...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday called for a national debate on changing the U.S. Constitution in a way that would allow him to run for president. "I think that it is, you know, a debate that ought to go on, just to see where everyone stands in this country," Schwarzenegger said in a nationally broadcast radio interview with syndicated talk show host Tony Snow. The Austrian-born Republican taped the interview hours before heading to a private fund-raiser in Santa Monica for President Bush, who lags behind Democrat John Kerry in California and is locked in a tight national race. Snow...

It's that time of year again... Ashura, the Shiite Blood Letting.