Free Republic

A new report says wealthy Maryland residents may be moving out due to recent tax hikes – a finding that is sure to escalate the battle over taxing the American rich. The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland, says that a net 31,000 residents left the state between 2007 and 2010, the tenure of a "millionaire's tax" pushed through by Gov. Martin O'Malley. The tax, which expired in 2010, in imposed a rate of 6.25 percent on incomes of more than $1 million a year. The Change Maryland study found that the tax cost Maryland $1.7 billion in lost...

LITCHFIELD -- An official with the state Attorney General's Office has confirmed that a police officer was involved in a deadly shooting in Litchfield Monday afternoon. State police and members of the state's Attorney General's Office are at 31 Page Road. Several neighbors say a man in his early 30s, a resident of the park at No. 23, died of a gunshot wound around 2 p.m. on Monday. Read the rest of the article here ...

The week had been difficult enough for the Weinberger family after a rare derecho storm knocked out power to their Bethesda home for four nights and an enormous oak tree had been toppled by the wind into their roof. And that was before a heavy duty crane tipped over in their yard. “We had a lovely driveway, a beautiful lawn you could host Wimbledon on,” said Lauren Weinberger with a laugh, as she chatted by phone on Sunday.

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Some Minnesota hunters are upgrading their deer stands, trading the traditional nailed-together hunks of wood for what one official calls "mansions" in trees on public property. St. Louis County officials are seeing deer stands — platforms perched in trees to help hunters more easily spot deer — with stairways, decks, shingled roofs, commercial windows, insulation, propane heaters, carpeting, lounge chairs, tables and even the occasional generator, the Duluth News Tribune reported Sunday (http://bit.ly/Lzie7J). Some hunters have even planted crops near their stands in hopes of attracting deer, said St. Louis County Land Commissioner Bob Krepps. He...

A North Texas science teacher is accused of having a sex with a student at various hotels near her home, police say. Rachelle Nicole Heenan has been accused of having a relationship with an 18-year-old male student, police say. Science teacher Rachelle Nicole Heenan, a married mother of two, was arrested at her home in Haslet on July 5 after being accused of the inappropriate relationship, NBCDFW.com reported.

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Lawmakers on Thursday were hopeful that a City Council vote to eliminate a business tax on sales of new cars would lure in more revenue for the city. KNX 1070′s Claudia Peschiutta reports officials have long blamed the tax for driving potential new dealerships out of the city. The number of dealerships citywide has fallen sharply in recent years, with an estimated 52 new lots down from 147 back in 1986. City Council members voted unanimously earlier this week to eliminate the gross receipts tax, which is required to be paid regardless of revenue and can...

A video showing the public execution of a 22-year-old woman accused of adultery in Afghanistan has been condemned by the government as un-Islamic and inhuman. The video shows her being shot repeatedly in the back in front of a crowd of men in Qol village in Parwan province just north of the capital Kabul. The woman, named as Najiba, was married to a member of a Taliban militant group and was accused of adultery with a Taliban commander, said Roshna Khalid, a Parwan provincial spokeswoman, yesterday. "Within one hour they decided that she was guilty and sentenced her to death....

Kuwait police called a man and asked him to come to the station to receive his teen age gay son who was arrested within a security drive in the capital. But they were shocked when the father told them to keep him with him. “Keep my son with you…I don’t want him and I will not come to get him,” the man told the police, according to Alanba newspaper. It said the 19-year-old boy wore women’s dress and had make up on his face, adding that police would keep him until relatives come and claim him.

..In 2010 17 states elected Republican governors ... every one of those states saw a drop in their unemployment rates since January of 2011. Furthermore, the average drop in the unemployment rate in these states was 1.35%, compared to the national decline of .9%, which means, according to the analysis, that the job market in these Republican states is improving 50% faster than the national rate... Kansas - 6.9% to 6.1% = a decline of 0.8% Maine - 8.0% to 7.4% = a decline of 0.6% Michigan - 10.9% to 8.5% = a decline of 2.4% New Mexico - 7.7%...

Police took one woman into custody tonight after they said she walked into the Monroeville Chuck E. Cheese's with a brick and a knife and started a fight. Sources said a man was having a birthday party for his son inside the restaurant on Route 22 when his ex-girlfriend walked into the building about 7:30 p.m. and attacked his new girlfriend. The new girlfriend was taken to UPMC Mercy to be treated for a non-life-threatening wound to the back of her head, officials said. Another woman who tried to intervene in the fight was bitten in the chest. Her wound...

To the rest of the country, red beans and rice is a New Orleans tradition. In New Orleans, it is a Monday tradition. Growing up in Louisiana, I remember seeing Monday specials for red beans and hearing people say they wanted the dish solely because it was Monday. Red beans on Monday was a generally accepted fact. It wasn’t until recently that I stopped and thought, “Why Monday?” The answer came out in the wash. Before washing machines, women in New Orleans would do laundry by hand — using a crank and wringer, sometimes boiling the clothes. And on laundry...

Sweet meat: Uncle Barry’s Bar beermeister Matt Volner shows off the bar’s specialty item — a Twix bar wrapped in prosciutto.A Park Slope bar is serving up an appetizer that combines the sweetness of dessert with the saltiness of Italian deli meat. Uncle Barry’s Bar on Fifth Avenue has forged new culinary ground by wrapping the chewy, crispy caramel-chocolate goodness of a Twix bar with a zesty slice of prosciutto — wowing hungry barflies and sparking dietary dialogue, according to beer curator Matt Volner. “It’s a conversation piece,” he said. “The delicate textures of the caramel and chocolate and the...

Also known as the Hopkinsville Goblin is leaving footprints in rural Kentucky mining country. The claim is that an extra terrestrial is living in an abandoned mine. It has always bothered me that sightings of ETs so often describe them as seeming naked, and that in this case we have bare footprints. But hey, I go barefoot in warm weather. My thanks to Greg NewKirk over at Who Forted for his kind permission to bring you this story. Mysteries, Strange Creatures, The Daily Weird, UFOs Purported Extraterrestrial Footprints Discovered in Rural Kentucky Greg Newkirk Editor’s Note: Apparently I need to...

Jewish-Indian comedian Samson Koletkar jokes about third-rail subjects in his set.Jewish-Indian comedian Samson Koletkar’s web site may be the clever and jokey Mahatma-Moses dot com, but he has abandoned the set-up-joke format in his own stand-up. Instead, Koletkar waxes on religion and other hot-button issues, sometimes raising the ire of the audience, during his monthly Minorities Standup shows with Chinese-American comic Edwin Li and in his (hopefully returning) weekly shows, Comedy Off Broadway Oakland. In fact, he said half of his stand-up is presenting a unique take on Judaism, Hinduism, etc., and the other half of it is the audience’s...

A Houston Police Department spokesperson said Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson was arrested early Saturday morning for resisting arrest, according to CBS-affiliate KHOU. Peterson was arrested at 2:30 a.m. Saturday after being at a nightclub in downtown Houston, police say. Peterson, who is from Palestine, Texas, remains in a Houston jail on a $1,000 bond, according to information on the Houston Police Department website. Team spokesman Bob Hagan said Saturday that the Vikings “are aware of the situation and are gathering more information.” Check back with WCCO.com for more on this developing story.

In the rolling meadow below Mohawk Mountain in the northwest corner of Connecticut, a white buffalo baby trots alongside his massive mother, his whiteness highlighted against her dark brown winter fur that is still molting in the summer heat. The white buffalo or bison—Tatanka Ska in the Sioux language—was born June 16, at 1 p.m. on Peter Fay’s Mohawk Bison ranch in Goshen, Connecticut. Although Fay is not a Native and was only vaguely familiar with the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman and the white buffalo as a spiritual symbol of sacred life and abundance to the Lakota...

In the rolling meadow below Mohawk Mountain in the northwest corner of Connecticut, a white buffalo baby trots alongside his massive mother, his whiteness highlighted against her dark brown winter fur that is still molting in the summer heat. The white buffalo or bison—Tatanka Ska in the Sioux language—was born June 16, at 1 p.m. on Peter Fay’s Mohawk Bison ranch in Goshen, Connecticut. Although Fay is not a Native and was only vaguely familiar with the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman and the white buffalo as a spiritual symbol of sacred life and abundance to the Lakota...

The city’s first known Trayvon Martin mural is going up on a wall of an East New York laundromat - adding to a brewing campaign to make sure history doesn’t snub the slain teen’s image. Teenage boys will start painting the 100-foot picture July 16 on New Lots Laundromat’s wall underneath the elevated tracks of the IRT No. 3 train. The East New York mural will join a growing list of similar street art popping up in black neighborhoods across the country. “We want him to become a martyr, and it’s sad that we even have to say that,” said...

He says it became an obsession, but a 35-year-old dream became a reality for a Milford man as he paid off his mortgage with pennies. “It started out as a joke,” says Thomas Daigle. “I said I’m going to pay the last mortgage payment off on this place in pennies.” Thomas Daigle says he was looking for a hobby during those long rainy and snowy afternoons in Milford. So he started counting his change and rolling his pennies. … On his 35th wedding anniversary, Daigle and his wife Sandra walked into Milford Federal Savings and Loan and paid off their...

<p>Can you just vision the 2012 DNC headed by the likes of Debbie Wasserman,Stuart Smalley,Sheila Jackson,Baba Boxer,Barney Frank,Sherrod The Hun,Nancy Pelosi,and the lovable Elizabeth Warren? No wonder most intelligent Democrats are jumping shit.Who wants to be seen on the same stage with any of these "Disgraces To The USA"? Although the remaining Rats will show up. at least us conservatives will have something to keep us laughing throughout Labor Day Weekend.And who can't wait to see Pelosi and her Mini-Mee(Wasserman)on the stage together praising O'Bozo for all the formidable accomplishments of the last 4 years!!!</p>