Free Republic

The television reporters covering the fires have been effusive about the capacities of the converted DC-10 airliner that has been dropping fire retardant on the fires in the vicinity of Lake Arrowhead, and the enthusiasm is warranted. Sometimes called the Tanker 910, and sometimes the 10 Tanker Air Carrier, the plane can carry 12,000 gallons of fire retardant or water in tanks attached under its belly. That's 10 times as much liquid as the other available California air tankers, and four times the capacity of the largest-available tankers operated by the federal government. It can create a fire line three-quarters...

Darrie Eason, a 35-year-old single mother from Long Island, N.Y., underwent a double mastectomy after she was told she had breast cancer. But after the surgery, she learned the unthinkable -- she never had cancer at all. "I remember the words, 'You don't have breast cancer, you never did,'" Eason said today on "Good Morning America." The news was stunning. "I have a philosophy that you have to laugh to keep from crying, so I try to laugh as much as I can," Eason said. A state report blames Eason's mix-up on a former technician at CBLPath lab who mislabeled...

Airline manufacturer Boeing Co. (BA), major airlines and several airport operators sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday in a bid to question current and former agency employees in connection with negligence litigation over the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. In separate lawsuits, the airlines and others are challenging decisions by the FBI and the CIA that prevent them from conducting depositions of those employees. The airlines include AMR Corp.'s (AMR) American Airlines, UAL Corp.'s (UAUA) United Airlines, US Airways Group Inc. (LCC), Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) and AirTran Holdings...

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Detailed schematics of a military detainee holding facility in southern Iraq. Geographical surveys and aerial photographs of two military airfields outside Baghdad. Plans for a new fuel farm at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The military calls it "need-to-know" information that would pose a direct threat to U.S. troops if it were to fall into the hands of terrorists. It's material so sensitive that officials refused to release the documents when asked. But it's already out there, posted carelessly to file servers by government agencies and contractors, accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. In a survey...

Ohio does not have unified standards for protecting Social Security numbers and other sensitive information, making the state vulnerable to data theft. Sound like an assessment of the recent theft of a backup computer storage tape that has dominated state government news since last Friday? Guess again. That viewpoint was expressed nearly six months ago, in a report prepared as part of Gov. Ted Strickland's transition team before he took office Jan. 8. Strickland had asked for teams of experts to evaluate several key areas of state government and submit their findings and recommendations in reports. The team studying the...

The author of The Path to 9/11 is going to be LIVE, in-studio on The John Ziegler Show at 8pm Pacific. You can listen live ONLINE or if you're in Southern CA, tune in to KFI at 640AM. From John Ziegler.Com: If you want to tell ABC to not cave to Clinton's demands in the editing of "The Path to 9/11," call 818-460-7477. If you want to complain about the movies lessons plans being dropped by "Scholastic," go to this link for contact information. http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/offices/index.htm

ABC toned down a scene that involved Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, declining to give the order to kill bin Laden, according to a person involved with the film who declined to be identified. "That sequence has been the focus of attention," the source said. The network also decided that the credits would say the film is based "in part" on the 9/11 panel report, rather than "based on" the report, as the producers originally intended.

I remember him coming rushing in from the garden that afternoon, in tears and covered in blood. After running his finger under the tap and seeing how deep the gash was, I decided to take him to our local A&E department at the King George hospital in Goodmayes, Essex. Tony cried all the way there but soon perked up at the sight of the hospital and the doctors. Because his wound was bleeding so heavily, we were rushed straight through to see a doctor and Tony was given a painkilling injection. When the doctors said they wanted to transfer Tony...

HARRISBURG - The man charged with homicide in his girlfriend's fatal fall from the window of his 23d-floor apartment was released after posting bail yesterday, and he apologized to her family. "I'm so, so sorry for what happened," Kevin P. Eckenrode, 25, said after a judge set bail at $200,000. Eckenrode is a press aide with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, although he has been suspended without pay. He has told police he was dangling Rachel M. Kozlusky, 23, from the window Feb. 25 during drunken horseplay when he lost his grip. Fran Chardo, Dauphin County first assistant district attorney,...

“The charges of racism-inspired foot-dragging isn’t just nonsense. It’s pernicious nonsense.” This is how the New York Daily News called it regarding charges, from the usual circle of black leaders, that the rescue efforts in New Orleans were slow because the victims were black. The Daily News is right. Except it’s even worse than the paper appreciates. What we are witnessing is a well-honed black political public-relations operation geared to obfuscation, stoking hatred and fear, and nurturing helplessness and dependence among black citizens. Such efforts keep black politicians powerful, diversity businesses prosperous and blacks poor. The fact that the handling...

I'm just curious. I know they can be impeached, but are they protected by the decisions they make as executives from criminal prosecution for example in negligence, etc? Are there any cases you are aware of?

CHALMETTE, La., Sept. 6 - They nailed a table against one window, ran a heavy electric wheelchair with a table on top against another and pushed a couch against a door. These failed defenses are still in St. Rita's nursing home, as are at least 14 swollen, unrecognizable bodies. St. Bernard Parish officials say that 32 of the home's roughly 60 residents died on Aug. 29, more than a week ago. It is a measure of the enormity of the disaster that has struck southern Louisiana that no one has removed many of the bodies, and local officials say there...

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- A 3-year-old boy died after being left in a day-care van for hours while the temperature was in the 90s, and the driver was charged with manslaughter, police said Tuesday.

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=linkoreaLiNK Protest Wrap-upPermanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations - New York CityFriday, April 22, 2005 LiNK representatives from nearly 20 area universities and friends gathered at the Republic of Korea's Permanent Mission to the United Nations yesterday to protest South Korea's official policy of negligence for refugees and silence on the issue of North Korean human rights. Despite competition from nearby protests against Japan's Security Council candidacy, they stood outside chanting "Free North Korea, Accept Refugees!" and other slogans for nearly three hours as it began to rain, asking to meet with any Mission or...

London 23.02.05 | Shocked by the Carter Center's imprimatur of last August I managed to engage in an e-conversation with Jennifer McCoy vis-à-vis the sheer negligence that characterized their 'electoral observation mission' in Venezuela. As admitted by her, the Carter Center (CC) never had any control over the scrutiny processes that ensued the recall referendum but it did have the nerve to endorse the results of the election. Furthermore, the CC's validation of results was vox populi in international circles, as I was made aware of by BBC journalists prior to Jimmy Carter / Cesar Gaviria press conference in Caracas...

Lawsuits filed over the crash of a commuter plane en route from St. Louis to Kirksville, Mo., last October claim two airline companies failed to provide the plane with proper safety equipment. The wife of Paul Tilley, one of 11 passengers who died in the crash along with both pilots, filed a suit in Texas claiming Corporate Airlines and American Airlines acted negligently by operating the craft without an enhanced device to warn pilots how close the ground was. Tilley's wife, Alicia Tilley, also claims that members of the flight crew had been on duty for nearly 15 hours at...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Aleksander Boyd, the courageous anti-Chavez Venezuelan blogger, operates his site Vcrisis from London. He writes to us in response to James Lewis's article today, Is BBC News a figment of the imagination?Please allow me to rephrase that; BBC News is not a figment of the imagination, rather the credibility, integrity and impartiality that once characterized it, is indeed a figment of the imagination. It's reach is neither some hallucination; news provided by the Beeb have the power to convert masses and sway opinion, ever to the left.In my particular case I can affirm that much of the contempt that the...

PALMDALE -- A toddler died in a flooded desert wash after she fell into the fast-moving water as a helicopter was plucking her family from their partly submerged sedan. Two-year-old Jamaia Davis' mother had driven around barricades trying to get home Sunday night to Lake Los Angeles and drove into what firefighters said was water 3 or 4 feet deep where normally dry Little Rock Wash crosses Avenue N.

LONDON (IRNA) -- Former National Security Adviser to the Carter Administration, Zbigniew Brzezinski, suggested Saturday that the U.S. should finally come to terms with the takeover of the American Embassy in Iran after 25 years. It is time to start closing that chapter of "humiliation" that Americans felt so strongly about instead of remaining haunted by the memories, Brzezinski said. In an interview with the Financial Times, he believed that there must eventually be "some accommodation" and that the west may even have to learn to live with Iran as a nuclear power as it did with China and later...

Tragedy strikes a Kanawha County family this morning. A young girl was struck and killed by a train just after midnight Friday morning in Marmet. Marmet Police Chief Paris Workman says 6 year-old Cierra Saunders had wanted to give her dad a kiss and hug before she went to bed. As a result, Cierra and her mother, Joyce, went out looking for him. Workman says Cierra was clinging to her mother's jacket as the two were crossing the railroad tracks. He says Joyce initially didn't hear the train but once she did, she urged Cierra to hurry up. Workman says...

Kerry fumbled, Bush picked up the Ball! Nancy Salvato September 11, 2004 In light of John Kerry spouting off about how he would have handled the minutes after the Twin Tower attacks differently than President George Bush, I think its time to look at just how ineffective Kerry truly is when it comes to fighting terror. It’s too bad there wasn’t a 9/11 commission set up to investigate Kerry’s actions before the travesty of New York. I would contest that the wrong people have been investigated for failure to prevent the largest act of terror on our soil –to date!...

"After less than a year of campaigning, John Kerry has already given the American public a chilling preview of the misguided choices he would make in the unlikely event he is elected president."...."Two of the four planes that attacked our nation on September 11 took off from Logan Airport and 80 of Kerry’s constituents died. Yet Kerry, who held evidence in his hands of Logan’s vulnerabilities, has yet to explain his failure to take meaningful action – action that well may have prevented the horrors of that fateful day.".......... This one really is a follow-up on Joan Swirsky's investigative report...

The Washington Times published a very interesting three-part series on illegal immigration.(1) This series should be required reading for those in many states who wonder why their local taxes are so high. According to The Times, there are an estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal aliens living and working in the United States. Worse yet, they have little or no real fear of ever being detained or deported. Because, the federal government only has a total of 2,300 federal agents assigned to apprehend them. As reported, if the current roster of 2,300 agents dedicated to pursuing illegal aliens now...

Dear President Bush, This URGENT message is being sent (in increments of 25, the maximum copies allowed by AOL) to over 2500 of your supporters, numerous simpatico print and electronic journalists, selected 9/11 Commission members and Republican officials (including those who require individual e-mails and faxes). In over 30 years as a journalist (NY Times, etc.), I have never undertaken this kind of initiative. But Kerry's aspirations to take command of our nation and our national security are, by any measure, horrific. Since 2000, the Democrats ~ abetted by an overwhelmingly leftist media ~ have been abusive in their criticism...

FRESNO — All through the night, the howls kept coming from the cell of inmate Ronald Herrera. More than one guard at Corcoran State Prison thought something was terribly amiss. Herrera wouldn't stop screaming late Sunday, and he had covered his cell window in a curtain of toilet paper soaked in blood. One guard had seen Herrera, a dialysis patient suffering from hepatitis, pull out the medical shunt from his arm, corrections officials said. But when the guard later tried to check on the inmate, his sergeant told him not to bother, they said. "He's not dead," the sergeant was...

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- A couple whose adopted teenage sons weighed less than 50 pounds have been arrested on charges of starving four boys they adopted through the state Division of Youth and Family Services, New Jersey's troubled child welfare agency. Vanessa Jackson, 48, and Raymond Jackson, 50, were arrested Friday and charged with four counts each of aggravated assault and 14 counts of child endangerment, Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said. Each was jailed Saturday on $100,000 bail. An investigation into the family began Oct. 10 after neighbors in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood called police to report...

As family and friends continue to grieve for the six lives lost (We still do not know all their names) in Friday's fire at the Cook County Administration Building, city and county officials debate where to lay blame for the tragedy, how to go about investigating what went wrong and what, if anything, to do to prevent such future catastrophes. Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have focused on light fixtures in a 12th-floor storage room as a possible initial cause of the blaze. But critics are calling upon state and local agencies to examine...

A patch issued last month for a critical vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser leaves any user surfing the Web open to a wide variety of attacks, a security analyst said Monday. The problem stems from August 20 when Microsoft released patches for Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, 6.0, and version 6.0 for Windows Server 2003 that it said would fix an Object Type vulnerability, which could allow an attacker to run malicious code on a PC if the user navigated to the attacker's Web site. The original patch can be downloaded using Microsoft's WindowUpdate Service, or from the...

Half of the 39 buildings belonging to Philip Pappas, owner of the Lincoln Park porch that collapsed, have serious code violations--including his own Lake View coach house, where the deck is pulling away from the house--city officials said Friday. City attorneys announced Friday they are preparing Housing Court lawsuits against Pappas that will cite nearly 200 violations on 19 properties, most of them involving porches that were built without permits or are oversized or have loose and rotting boards. Building inspectors posted signs at what they determined were the most unstable structures, warning residents that "this porch is in a...

Texas Alliance for Life Legislative Alert May 21, 2003 WOMEN’S RIGHT TO KNOW ACT Today the Texas Senate gave its final approval to the pro-life Women’s Right to Know Act, HB 15. This is a major victory as for the first time the new law will ensure that women will have more information about abortion and compassionate alternatives to abortion 24 hours before the procedure. The next step for this bill is for the Texas House to approve a minor change. After that, pro-life Governor Rick Perry is expected to sign the bill into law. LAST CHANCE FOR PRENATAL PROTECTION...

Slain girl's mom files $30 million lawsuit Claiming federal agents had no reason to use deadly force against her daughter, the mother of a slain 14-year-old girl filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the two agents who she claims fired at Ashley Villarreal. The complaint seeks $30 million and potentially offers the most public review of the Feb. 9 encounter between the teenager and agents who were waiting to arrest her father, cocaine-trafficking suspect Joey Villarreal. The case was filed in federal court a day after authorities asserted that Joey Villarreal knew about the stakeout and that his daughter was acting...

<p>It’s the kind of pride that comes wrapped in hard heartache, watching a boy go off to become a man. Matthew Draughon left his parents’ house that summer of 1998, following a Navy path already worn by his father and again by his older brother. This younger son wanted to catch the ocean, too. He wanted the best underwater training the world offers. He wanted to be a Navy diver.</p>

By TOM MOONEY Journal staff writer Updated 1:36 p.m. / The owner of American Foam Corp. in Johnston says The Station nightclub in June 2000 purchased $575 worth of common egg-crate packing foam for soundproofing, but it was not fire retardant. The fire retardant foam would have cost twice as much, according to Aram DerManouelian, who said the club wanted "the lowest grade, the cheapest stuff." "They had a choice, and they bought general purpose egg-crate foam," said DerManouelian. "It kept the noise down, but whoever figured they'd put flame on it? Jesus. For a $575 invoice, here we are."...

WEST WARWICK, R.I. (Reuters) - Finger-pointing over blame for the blaze that killed 97 people here intensified on Monday with a lawyer for the band whose pyrotechnics ignited the nightclub fire saying one club owner was there when the display was being set up. As pathologists labor to identify some of the remains taken from the blackened ruins of the wood-framed club, a lawyer for the heavy metal band Great White said club co-owner Jeffrey Derderian was at the club when the band set up. "We don't want to point fingers, but I think that it's very important to assist...

JUSTICE FOR ANNA GUO SYNPOSIS 14 year-old Anna Guo was attempting to committ suicide using a steak knife when five Ventura police officers arrived at the home of her foster parents. But instead of calming, disarming or even attempting to physically subdue the distraught girl, officers fired two shots into Anna's stomach, the last shot into her side, after she'd already crumpled to the floor. In order to cover-up their negligent misconduct, the District Attorney's Office has charged Anna with felony Assault with a Deadly Weapon. The sad irony: Anna had never threatened anyone but herself, and those sworn to...

Bug bomb causes devastating explosion Failure to follow directions blamed for blastBy The Associated Press(7/23/02 - BROWNSVILLE, Texas) — An insect fogger _ and the failure to follow directions on the container _ has been blamed for an explosion that rocked the residence of a Brownsville couple. Mariano Gonzales, 67, and his wife, Sara, 65, barely made it through their kitchen door before an explosion Sunday night shattered windows in three rooms, demolished kitchen cabinets and moved the kitchen sink eight inches from the wall. "In the back part of the house where the kitchen is at, the roof...

The current joint Senate-House committee hearings on the intelligence failings leading up to the tragic events of 9/11 appear to be continuing a typical political tradition on Capital Hill -- spinning political wheels in the service of appearing to do something, while accomplishing absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. To this observer anyway, that's seems to be the best description of all the manufactured sound and fury emanating from these current joint congressional hearings into pre-9/11 intelligence failures. The biggest problem is that the hearings aren't "hearing" from the appropriate sources. Everyone from the current lame-duck FBI director to the current...

Four men who say they were molested by a priest in the largest US Catholic community sued Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony for allegedly covering up sexual abuse by clergymen for years. The lawsuits claim the cardinal and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles effectively conspired to protect priests through racketeering, negligence and fraud. The alleged victims filed two lawsuits with the Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming they were misled about the fate of priest who allegedly molested them in the 1960s while he was allowed to continue ministering. "We would not be here today if I was not lied to...