Free Republic

Louis Barletta, the Mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, has thrown down the gauntlet to those who think America belongs to anyone who can walk across the border. The ACLU and a Puerto Rican group have taken up the challenge. And the Mayor has upped the ante by hiring as defense counsel the former head of immigration in the Department of Justice. Step one in this legal clash, likely to go to the US Supreme Court, was a series of three ordinances passed in Hazleton. Propelled by several local crimes apparently committed by illegal aliens, and inspired by the Mayor, the City...

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should withhold federal funds from a California college given the failure of the college to ensure the safe presence of military recruiters on campus, the Secretary was advised by a public interest law firm in a letter released today. According to news reports, military recruiters were forced to flee yesterday from a University of California Santa Cruz job fair because of a raucous mob. Mountain States Legal Foundation advised Rumsfeld that the college’s actions violate the Solomon Amendment, which requires that colleges permit military recruiters on campus or lose all federal funds. UC Santa Cruz...

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Small-town politician Dan English is carrying around signs this fall as he campaigns for re-election. On them, a cryptic slogan: "Save the Last One." He means the last Democrat. Him. English is the only Democrat to hold elected office in a region of northern Idaho that his party once dominated. He's the county clerk in Kootenai County, a booming retirement and resort area 25 miles east of Spokane, Wash. A decade ago, 13 of the county's 18 elected officials were Democrats. Region's population swelling The mountain states are the nation's fastest-growing region. Population increases are the...