Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure may be unprecedented in size and ambition, but it mimics a controversial scheme championed by Vice President Mike Pence when he was the governor of Indiana. That’s why Pence is the public face of the Trump initiative, and executives from financial firms that helped privatize Indiana’s toll road are in the White House, busily sculpting Trump’s national plan. Pence and his allies like to boast about how Indiana sold control of major roads to private firms, claiming the move prompted corporations to invest money in infrastructure that would otherwise have...

With the recent impact of two hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, on the United States, there is going to be a lot of ammunition that was submerged for some time.To prevent damage, many people keep ammunition in waterproof ammo cans. They tend to work very well, if the can is not submerged more than a few feet. Not everyone stores ammunition in ammo cans, and the cans can be damaged or leak.The two storms flooded tens of thousands of houses. A recent survey showed that about half of the homes in the United States have a gun owner living in...

Dive Brief: The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has announced the completion of the state's first-ever diverging diamond interchange (DDI), located on Interstate 70, according to Equipment World. The DDI design eliminates left turns across oncoming traffic, improving vehicle flow and decreasing the chance of accidents. The agency also chose the DDI configuration because it could use the former interchange's cloverleaf footprint, reducing the impact of construction on the area. PennDOT said it modified the traditional DDI design slightly. Dive Insight: Design is one way transportation agencies are combating gridlock resulting from increased traffic. Other tools in DOT arsenals are...

A government watchdog is raising new concerns about the safety and readiness of US ships in the Pacific region following a series of collisions that led to the deaths of US sailors. More than a third of warfare training certifications for the Navy's Japan-based destroyers and cruisers had expired in June -- a five-fold increase from two years prior, the Government Accountability Office has found. In testimony to be delivered Thursday, the GAO found that 37% of the Navy's destroyers and cruisers in Japan had expired -- up from 7% in January 2015 -- and over two-thirds had been expired...

Jack Webb, the co-franchisee of a Carl's Jr. in Alberta, Canada, was discovered to have committed multiple food safety violations while being filmed by in-store security cameras, CBC reported. The first clip of 10 shared with CBC shows Webb almost elbow-deep in barbecue sauce. Webb is mixing the sauce with his bare hands, a clear violation of food safety measures, going so far as to refuse a spoon when a worker offers it to him. Other clips show Webb mixing sauces and scooping them from one container to another with his bare hands. In one case, he uses a spatula...

The theme for 2017 is “Together for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All.” (September 21 2017)

A leftist Wisconsin group, Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE) is opposing teaching children gun safety in schools. They prefer that children not be taught about gun safety, because if they learn about guns, they may decide that guns can be fun and useful.From wrn.com: A group dedicated to preventing gun violence has concerns, over a bill that could have Wisconsin high schools teaching kids how to safely handle guns. The legislation from Republican lawmakers requires the Departments of Public Instruction, and Natural Resources to develop the curriculum. “Our concern is that it’s not actually firearms safety, it’s really about teaching...

A Cabinet split over whether to allow the import of controversial “chlorine washed” chicken could cause a major stumbling block in Liam Fox’s trade talks with the US today. It is more than one-fifth cheaper than British chicken, and has been deemed safe by the European Food Safety Authority, despite the EU ban.

America's doctors are warning that the use of sparklers on the Fourth of July is just too darn dangerous for your children. To avoid the risk of injury, you should give your kids bubbles, glow sticks and pom-poms to play with this Independence Day. Those things are safer and almost just as fun. Sparkler injuries lead to 1,900 emergency visits each year in the United States (pop.: 321.4 million), according to Providence, Rhode Island NBC affiliate WJAR. "They're actually not so benign," Dina Burstein of the Injury Prevention Center at Rhode Island Hospital told WJAR. "And I think what people...

Blue flames are products of extreme heat but “green” flames are products of extreme environmentalism, as we saw last week when fire engulfed London’s Grenfell Tower. From London to California’s Sun Valley, so-called green policies that disregard basic principles of fire safety are sparking deadly infernos. This issue deserves our immediate attention far more than Russian hacking myths and fairytales.The odor of burning plastic filled the air as 250 firefighters rushed to the scene of Grenfell Tower on June 14. But the flames spread too quickly and intensely for even this army of professional flame-stoppers. At least 30 people died,...

A Commerce woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Publix, claiming the grocery chain was at fault when her husband fell into a deep fryer, leading to his 2015 death. Mansur Blount was a vent hood technician. Part of his job was to clean vent hoods at client businesses, including a Publix location in Dacula, where he was doing that work on June 25, 2015, according to the lawsuit. A Publix spokeswoman said it is the company’s policy not to comment on open lawsuits.

Safe Boating Tips No matter how much experience you have, it’s always a good idea for everyone to review boating safety rules before departures. Below you will find 10 basic boating safety tips to help you stay safe: 1.Be Weather-Wise Always check local weather conditions before departure; TV and radio forecasts can be a good source of information. If you notice darkening clouds, volatile and rough changing winds or sudden drops in temperature, play it safe by getting off the water. 2.Follow a Pre-Departure Checklist Proper boating safety includes being prepared for any possibility on the water. Following a pre-departure...

Please stop, I silently beg the three drivers heading down the on ramp to Interstate 70 from Washington Avenue. I’m driving parallel to them at 55 mph with a line of traffic behind me. I have my turn signal on signifying that I’m getting off at the exit just west of that on ramp. I cannot slam on my brakes and stop on the highway to allow these drivers to merge into my lane. Yet they keep coming down the ramp toward me. Fear has crept into my throat and I cannot scream if I wanted to. Don’t they understand...

Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Yale Lary passed away in the early hours on Friday at the age of 86. The Texas A&M product was a fixture in the Detroit Lions secondary during an 11-year career (1952-53, 1956-1964) that was interrupted by his service in the U.S. Army.

(CNN) - A California homeowner exercised his right to bear arms -- and take pictures -- after a group of people tried to break into his home. Yan Zhang of Chino Hills was at home with his wife and children when five people tried to enter the house through a balcony in the back. Zhang grabbed his gun, told his wife to hide the kids and then went to work.

Drug smugglers are being helped by the Democratic leaders in Congress who are trying to block funding for a border wall, says President Donald Trump. He is using Twitter to hit the Democrats as enablers for the criminal gangs that are smuggling deadly drugs into American cities and towns around the nation, and which are sending murderous MS-13 gang members into Americans’ neighborhoods. Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump The Wall is a very important tool in stopping drugs from pouring into our country and poisoning our youth (and many others)! If Donald J. Trump ✔ ‎@realDonaldTrump ....the wall is not...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A proposed bill to ban express lanes in Florida died Thursday in the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee. Despite causing an increase in crashes and confusion, express lanes, according to the Florida Department of Transportation, help move people faster, and that if they were eliminated the state would lose $1.5 billion over 10 years. All of that money is used to improve and fix roads. Sen. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, filed SB 250 in January. It that would have allowed the express lanes to remain in operation only until tolls are collected to pay off the bonds that...

The person who filmed the video of a man being forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight over the weekend says security is not to blame for the situation. "It's clearly the man's fault that security had to drag him off. He was resisting. I don't blame the security guards at all," Tyler Bridges, who captured the moment on his cellphone, told Fox Business on Tuesday.

Imagine a dust storm, driven by monsoon downbursts, building near the Maricopa-Pinal county line. There are thousands of Interstate 10 motorists and hundreds of thousands of Phoenix exurb residents who would probably want to know about such a storm before the stinging, blinding wall of sand arrives. But does all of metro Phoenix need to get the alert? Likely not, but the National Weather Service’s Ken Waters told the dozens of attendees at the annual dust-storm workshop in Coolidge last week that that’s exactly what would happen with the existing cellphone warning system in place for dust events. “If I’m...

FABENS, Texas (KFOX14) — The family of a construction worker killed on the job makes a plea to the public and extends forgiveness to the driver who hit him. It's a sight you see often in El Paso, construction work on the side of the road. On Monday, a crash on Interstate 10 near Van Horn killed two workers and injured two others. Juan Madrid, 21, from Fabens and Christopher Guerra, 38, from Clint, were killed. Madrid's family said he grew up in Fabens, and worked hard to help them and his mother, who lives in Mexico. "He had a...