Free Republic

Trucks hauling everything from cars to produce use Southeast Texas roads to deliver their goods, and when a proposed Interstate 69/Trans Texas Corridor is completed, local drivers could see even more of them, local transportation officials said. The proposed I-69 corridor stretches from Michigan down to Texas. Once in Texas, the corridor goes about 650 miles from Texarkana to Brownsville and Laredo and includes separate lanes for cars and semis and areas for trains and utilities. It doesn't cut through Beaumont, but local arteries like U.S. 69 and Interstate 10 would connect to it. Travelers and truckers just need to...

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) - A police survey says panhandlers outside a Wal-Mart here can make $300 a day. Inside, it takes a clerk a week to make that much. Police say people who have a problem with that needn't look to the law--asking for money is considered protected free speech. "We are not going to target panhandlers," said Coos Bay Police Capt. Rodger Craddock, who spoke a recent gathering of business owners about panhandling. "We can't do that. But if they aren't getting money from us, they aren't going to stand on that corner." He said most panhandlers are...

BELLVILLE — In what is becoming a regular occurrence in Southeast Texas, more than 1,000 Austin County residents and interested outsiders jammed a county fairgrounds exhibit hall Monday night to let a panel of state transportation officials know that the Trans-Texas Corridor was not welcome here. State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, opened the public remarks to thunderous applause when she told the panel, "You all thought I was crazy in Austin when I said my people don't want it and I don't want it." The panel, which included Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Amadeo Saenz and Deputy Executive Director...

Gov. Rick Perry's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor plan, and his advocacy of toll funding for future roads, hit the skids in a skeptical Legislature last spring. The road shows no signs of getting any smoother as state transportation officials try to sell the plan to Houston-area audiences. "This will wipe me out," Dee Bond told a panel of corridor advocates at a town hall meeting in Rosenberg last week. The panel, which included Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston and Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, was there to explain and gather comment on a...

Cardinal Denounces Proposal to Legalize Abortion in the Dominican Republic Says Supporters of the Measure Are Either "Sick", "Hypocritical", or "Comedians" By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, September 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)--The Cardinal Archbishop of Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, lashed out last week at politicians and groups agitating to legalize abortion in the country. When asked  about a recent proposal to legalize abortion for "therapeutic" purposes, he shot back: "No, no abortion, there is nothing more to say." "No one has the right to kill anyone and some of us are sick, some are hypocrites, some comedians who are...

Merchants say higher fees are forcing them to hike prices. Congress may take up the issue. WASHINGTON — Credit card companies have always taken their cut when a customer uses plastic, part of the cost of doing business electronically. But a surge in the fees has sparked an intense dispute, with small merchants complaining that the higher charges are forcing them to raise prices and, in some cases, threatening to drive them out of business. With the two sides at loggerheads, Congress is preparing to step in on behalf of merchants and consumers.

Russia of 16-17th centuries could be called a trading country, as trade of that time flourished. Despite the fact that Russia remained first of all agrarian, some changes in production occurred, manufacturers mastered new technologies. The main occupation of working people in Russia in the 16th - the first half of 17th centuries was agriculture with cattle-breeding playing the key role. Livestock products turned to be the second after bread kind of goods going on sale to the domestic market. Apiculture, fishing and hunt were in favour among the crafts connected with agriculture. The craft requiring a considerable level of...

/begin my translationK-6 Merchants Pummel anti-U.S. base activists Tension between owners of stores at Anjung-ri in front of K-6 (Camp Humphreys), who are in favor of U.S. base expansion, and Nationwide Response Committee Against Expansion OF U.S. Base Expansion(NRC) came to a boil, finally resulting in violence. Around 9pm, July 8th, at Won-jung Intersection, which is the entrance to Daechu-ri, Paeng-sung Town, Pyong-taek City, a site scheduled for U.S. base expansion, an NRC member Mr. Kwak(age:33, Daechu-ri, Paeng-sung Town) and two of his colleagues rode a van into Daechu-ri, when he was battered by Anjung-ri merchants, according to NRC. Mr. Kwak...

When a currency loses the confidence of its people, its fall becomes exponential, as has happened to the Zimbabwe $, where in 1982 one U.S.$ equalled 1 Zimbabwe $. Today around Z$200,000 buys one U.S. $ if you can find someone idiot enough to sell one for the Z$. In day-to-day terms, the smallest note in Zimbabwe a Z$500 is the size of a U.S.$. The price of a single-ply sheet of toilet paper is more expensive at around Z$867. The U.S.$ is nowhere near there, but clearly the U.S. Administration has no plan or even desire to rectify the...

SEATTLE -- In an effort to protect kids from violent imagery and the rest of us from violent kids, the state of Washington is prepared to make it illegal for stores to give youngsters access to interactive images of mayhem. A bill that restricts the sale or rental of some violent video and computer games to adults-only customers passed unanimously in both the state House and Senate. Gov. Gary Locke is expected to sign the measure this week. If he does, legal experts who are debating the law's constitutionality say it will mark the first time a state has made...