Free Republic

Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk." As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies. Huckabee said Saturday that his comments came at a time when the public was still learning about HIV and AIDS and promised to do "everything possible to transform...

Figures from program's first 6 months show drop in accidents, tickets By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News Dallas officials believe the city's electronic red-light spies are causing motorists to hit the brakes. Preliminary statistics show that accidents and citations are drastically down at intersections with red-light cameras during the first six months of the program, according to a report presented to the City Council's public safety committee Monday. "Police can't be at intersections at all times, but technology can," said Zaida Basora, an assistant director of the city's Public Works and Transportation Department. In Dallas, nearly 30 percent...

Homeland Security: A bill to protect citizens who report terror threats became law only Friday, yet it's already working to back down terror-supporting bullies. The so-called "Flying Imams" dropped passengers as defendants in their bogus case just days after Congress reached a deal to shield terror tipsters from race-bias suits. The Muslim clerics were kicked off a US Airways flight in November after passengers warned crew members the clerics were behaving like the 9/11 hijackers. Democrats shamefully tried to strip the provision out of homeland security legislation President Bush just signed. It took a former Democrat — Independent Sen. Joe...

A few weeks ago, David Bennett turned off Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades and pulled into a nearly vacant parking lot at Temescal Gateway Park to use his cellphone. When he was finished, he passed a stop sign at Temescal Canyon Road and continued back to Sunset. Then he heard from the state authority that runs the park and other open spaces along the Santa Monica Mountains. "They sent me a letter telling me I didn't really stop," said the Malibu contractor. "They said it was a 'courtesy' letter because they weren't collecting the fine yet." That will change next...

Plane flies despite safety problem Reuters | Tuesday, 12 June 2007 A pilot told nervous passengers travelling with a low-cost Spanish airline that nearly half the seats on their plane were out of use due to a safety problem but it was nothing to worry about, a Spanish newspaper reported. As passengers took their seats on the Lisbon to Madrid flight operated by Vueling Airlines on Sunday they noticed that all but three of the 32 rows on one side of the plane were taped off, according to an El Mundo reporter among the travellers. The captain told them on...

Today, the United States is expected to formally approve a new "open skies" aviation trade deal with the European Union (EU). The Bush administration has failed to satisfy congressional critics who question the pact's impact on long-standing law and policy limiting foreign control of our airlines. And aviation workers are deeply concerned that this agreement is a down payment on a broader Bush administration strategy to allow foreign control of our airlines and decision making that threatens thousands of American jobs. This is not hyperbole. Led by Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar, key House members in both parties wrote...

Sunday, February 25, 2007I yield to no man in my devotion to multitasking or my aversion to government poking its nanny-state snout into my business, OK? So if I could do something to keep the butt-inski state out of my life, I'd be right there -- especially if I could accomplish another task or two at the same time. But this conservative favors the proposed ban now before the Legislature on using cell phones while driving. I have come to understand the wisdom in Petrula Betsis' definition of multitasking: "screwing up a lot of things all at once." Silly me,...

A man fleeing police at speeds in excess of 120 mph was arrested after crashing into two other cars in separate incidents during a midafternoon chase on northbound state Route 163. The 25-year-old suffered injuries in the second collision near Kearny Villa Road and was taken to a hospital. Two other drivers injured in the crashes also were hospitalized. The incident began about 2:30 p.m. in Hillcrest on Vermont Street, where a woman called 911 to report that her boyfriend had threatened to commit suicide by crashing his blue BMW convertible on a freeway. Police spotted him driving away from...

Scores of criminals might have eluded immediate capture had a controversial new plan to limit Houston police vehicle chases been in effect in the past 18 months, department records show. Police Chief Harold Hurtt's proposal, set for a hearing Monday at City Hall, would restrict his officers from engaging in lengthy pursuits when a fleeing motorist's only known crime is a Class C misdemeanor, such as a traffic violation. That was the reason officers gave for almost half the chases recorded in the past year and a half. Yet when those chases ended and suspects were questioned, 40 percent said...

It was the fourth night after Hurricane Katrina, and something like a thousand patients, doctors and staff were trapped at Medical Center Louisiana in downtown New Orleans, surrounded by floodwaters. Outside, reports were grim. People were drowning in their attics. Inside the hospital, there was no running water, no power, no phones and no Internet. Cell phones didn’t work. Each day the authorities said evacuations were about to begin, but nothing happened. The staff thought they’d seen everything the disaster could bring. Then, in the middle of the night, a pregnant woman dragged herself out of the foul, dark water...

Did you know that in California, child molesters and rapists are a protected class? It's true. Not only are California landlords banned from using the state's Megan's Law database to decline renting their properties to sex offenders, they're not even allowed to warn other tenants that these paroled criminals are now their neighbors. If they do the first, they can be fined $25,000 for housing discrimination. But if they don't do the second, they can be sued for failing to protect tenants against a known danger. Landlords are caught between a rock, a hard place and the California State Assembly's...

America today is The Happy Land of Make-Believe. We’ve become exquisitely adept at ignoring reality when it offends the prevailing cultural ethos. But reality always reasserts itself in the end – often with deadly consequences. Take gender differences. In the Happy Land of Make-Believe, we like to pretend that men and women are interchangeable – physically as well as psychologically. According to feminist dogma, women can be tough and aggressive – men sensitive and nurturing. Hence women firefighters, female soldiers and 5’ 2” cops. In Atlanta, on Friday, reality had the last word. Brian Nichols, a former college football player...

It's not every day that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revokes a visa issued to a Swiss-national scholar scheduled to teach at one of America's premier universities. But this has just happened, and it's a good thing too. The Swiss scholar is Tariq Ramadan. He is Islamist royalty – his maternal grandfather, Hasan al-Banna, founded the Muslim Brotherhood, probably the single most powerful Islamist institution of the twentieth century, in Egypt in 1928. Tariq is a Swiss citizen because his father, Sa‘id Ramadan, also a leading Islamist, fled from Egypt in 1954 following a crackdown on the brotherhood. Sa‘id...

THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE From Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Democratic group crucial to Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign has paid felons — some convicted of sex offenses, assault and burglary — to conduct door-to-door voter registration drives in at least three election swing states. America Coming Together, contending that convicted criminals deserve a second chance in society, employs felons as voter canvassers in major metropolitan areas in Missouri, Florida, Ohio and perhaps in other states among the 17 it is targeting in its drive. Some of the felons lived in halfway houses, and at...

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California governor who made his name playing movie tough guys, is under attack for freeing a record number of "lifers" from prison. The governor has granted parole to 34 convicted murderers and kidnappers in his first seven months of office, an astonishing record compared with his predecessor. Democrat Gray Davis, the former governor, freed only eight life sentence prisoners in his four-and-a-half years in office. The Terminator star turned Republican politician believes, however, that "people can reform and be reformed". But his approach has brought criticism from victim support groups. Harriet Salarno, president of Crime Victims United...

After witnessing a weekend of self-congratulatory festivities marking the January 1st debut of Houston’s MetroRail transit system, the hometown newspaper’s editorial board could hardly contain its exuberance. “Viewed from any angle,” opined the Houston Chronicle, the kickoff celebrations were a sure “sign of good things to come.” To the board, itself a merciless campaigner for rail, the roughly 15,000 people in attendance suggested that a “large helping of crow” was in order for transit critics. Reports from Houston spread quickly causing the Arizona Republic’s editorial page to gloat “critics rail at light rail to no avail.” After all, what...

<p>Gov. Gray Davis may be a lame duck, serving the final weeks before Gov.- elect Arnold Schwarzenegger takes over, but he is still signing laws that will challenge the state's economy for years to come.</p> <p>In a last-minute payback to the public-safety unions that have pumped his campaigns full of cash, Gov. Davis signed two "bust the bank" laws that will lavish pay increases on police and firefighters, and could even threaten the solvency of California cities.</p>

Unified public safety academy launches after one-year in developmentby Pfc. Chris JonesMOSUL, Iraq (Sept. 27, 2003) – A new academy designed to combine training facilities for all public safety agencies throughout Mosul opened Saturday.The Mosul Public Safety Academy will house the training for all public safety occupations in Mosul, including law enforcement, fire fighting, emergency medical assistance, traffic violations, investigations and traffic investigations. Before this academy, public safety training sites were scattered around the city. A unified school ensures all students receive similar, equal training.One year and more than $100,000 was spent building the academy.A host of leaders of...

<p>FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) A police officer who was fired for violating an obscure state law banning smoking among public safety workers plans to fight his dismissal, which was based on an anonymous letter.</p> <p>Wayne Jeffrey, a seven-year veteran of the Fall River force, was fired May 29 after an internal investigation, prompted by an unsigned letter that claimed he smoked tobacco at a party.</p>

<p>Pittsburgh, like other cities, has gotten good at preventing fires. Improved building codes, new sprinkler systems and wide use of smoke detectors have all combined to cut the number of structural blazes. Credit is also due to a well-trained and well-equipped fire department.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In Arizona and Los Angeles, police are replacing law enforcement mainstays such as mugshots and lineups of suspects with technology some call Mr. Potato Head. The photographic database and facial recognition systems, called Crime Capture and CrimeWeb, allow investigators to pick different types of facial features to search databases for criminals. It's not unlike the toy famous for allowing kids to change body parts on a potato, police said. "We've named it Mr. Potato Head in Arizona," said Cyndy Pellien, administrative services officer for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. "You can pick different types of...

KFWB news reporter Erin Kotecki met me yesterday at the Ontario International Airport (ONT) and spoke with SSAF USA LLC president Nick Ashton on the phone. She had been to the airport but really didn't pay that much attention to the amount of glass in the terminal. She acted almost astounded. KFWB news 980 in Los Angeles is running a series today about what would happen if a bomb blast went off in the short-term parking lot, which is only 150 feet from the terminal. The company with which I am associated, SSAF USA LLC, has been raising the issue...

<p>The federal agency set up to oversee airline safety is allowing the Lee County Port Authority to bend a 300-foot security rule by building a parking garage 225 feet from the new Midfield Terminal.</p> <p>The decision by the Transportation Safety Administration has raised concern about public safety.</p>