Free Republic

Gov. Richard J. Codey is working on a plan to bolster the state's Transportation Trust Fund with a temporary increase in the gasoline tax and additional money generated by privatizing the New Jersey Turnpike or Garden State Parkway, according to a published report. The Record of Bergen County, citing an unnamed administration source, reported in Thursday's editions that the plan calls for a small gas tax increase to be pushed through shortly after the Nov. 8 election. The increase would be rescinded or phased out after the lease deal is signed and begins to generate cash. The Transportation Trust Fund...

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most striking. Blogger Miguel Octavio in Caracas, Venezuela, has suggested the best way for Venezuela to draw some earnings from its Citgo refineries here in the U.S. is to sell shares. Houston-based Citgo has been in the news lately, with Hugo Chavez "threatening" to sell its eight U.S.-based refineries. Chavez says he doesn't get enough money out of them, and the U.S. markets suspect he'd like to sell to more easily cut off oil to the U.S. There are a lot of horse laughs in Houston, of course, given how much money he'd lose...

Ms Anderson, who hails from Hobart, Indiana, said the unexpected attention generated by her whimsical eBay sale had "left her a nervous wreck" and that she had cancelled some of the more "outrageous bids". She reiterated that the purpose of the exercise was simply to reassure her five year-old-son who was uneasy about living in a house that he felt was haunted by his "mean" grandfather.

If you consider yourself even remotely taken by capitalism, you've got to love online auction house eBay. It's a free market proponent's dream, placing every possible sort of item, from the ridiculous (like a vintage 1996 McDonald's Happy Meal Rapunzel Barbie) to the sublime (Waterford crystal toasting flutes), in the hands of the person (or should I say bidder) who values it most. I've always thought the Left must dislike eBay because it collapses so many of their myths. For example, the Left's (and particularly the Ralph Nader Left's) favorite chorus is that we need more laws to protect consumers...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT - news) will sell its midtown Manhattan headquarters building to a partnership led by Tishman Speyer Properties for $175 million, the companies said. The sale is expected to close before the end of the year, although N.Y. Times Co. will remain in the building as a tenant until its new headquarters are ready in 2007, according to the announcement made on Monday. After the N.Y. Times Co. moves out, Tishman Speyer said it plans to convert the facility into an office building. N.Y. Times Co., publisher of the flagship New York...

<p>Looking for your copy of "Unfit for Command"? Having paranoid thoughts that Bookstore employees are hiding, damaging, or flat-out lying to you about the availability of the book?</p> <p>Ah, quickly, dear readers! Before it goes away or crashes, let us visit that Shangri-La of Tolerance, the Border's Bookstore Employees Union Forum. There we shall find all manner of reasons for you to dust the tinfoil off your beanie, and place it proudly on your head...</p>

YOUR PAPERS, PLEASE ... Paying for drinks with wave of the hand Club-goers in Spain get implanted chips for ID, payment purposes Posted: April 14, 2004 5:00 p.m. Eastern By Sherrie Gossett © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Being recognized has never been easier for VIP patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, Spain. Like a scene out of a science-fiction movie, all it takes is a syringe-injected microchip implant for the beautiful men and women of the nightclub scene to breeze past a "reader" that recognizes their identity, credit balance and even automatically opens doors to exclusive areas of the club...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A man was convicted of child endangerment and drug trafficking after his 12-year-old son testified that he forced him to deal drugs at an abandoned house, even making him carry a gun. Edward Sheed Sr., 38, was also convicted by a judge Monday of corrupting the morals of a minor and firearms violations. He faces at least 30 years in prison when he is sentenced next month. Edward Sheed Jr. testified Monday that in the summer of 2002, when he was 11, his father took him to help sell crack cocaine almost every day. He said he...

Russia Sells Iran AVLIS System for Advanced Uranium Enrichment [Russians Help the Mullahs Obtain Nuclear Weapons] DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 28, 2003, 9:31 AM (GMT+02:00) The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA – put out a disturbing report this week confirming earlier DEBKAfile revelations that traces of uranium enrichment activity were found in samples at Natanz nuclear facility in Iran, 290 km south of Tehran, evidence that Iran was in the process of building a nuclear arsenal. Agency officials admit that Tehran is in clear non-compliance with its nuclear safeguard obligations and may even have laid itself open to...

Dynegy is shopping around one of its three main units, its Illinois utility. The Houston-based energy company is talking to a handful of potential buyers about its Illinois Power unit, according to people familiar with the process. Dynegy's move follows the company's recent completion of a series of key refinancing and restructuring deals that stabilized its balance sheet and pushed significant debt maturities into 2010. After completing that work, officials at Dynegy turned their attention to strategic planning, reviewing which businesses they thought offered the best competitive advantages and potential for growth, the people said. Dynegy spokesman John Sousa declined...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It may be illegal, immoral and certainly ill-advised, but selling every usable part of your body could fetch upward of $45 million, according to a survey in the August issue of Wired magazine. Even an overweight, out-of-shape body could bring millions when broken down to its valuable fluids, tissues and germ-fighting antibodies. There is, of course, a major catch: Many of the valuable human body parts are those a person could not live without. But it does lay to rest the old concept that the human body, when broken down to its basic elements, is only...

LAS VEGAS — A tax protester may not sell his book that contends paying income tax is voluntary, a federal judge ruled June 16. U.S. District Judge Lloyd D. George wrote in an order banning the book that Irwin Schiff is not protected by the First Amendment because he has encouraged people not to pay taxes. "There is no protection ... for speech or advocacy that is directed toward producing imminent lawless action," George wrote in support of the preliminary injunction on the book, The Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes. The Internal Revenue Service...

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCERhttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/96968_babysell23.shtml Mother accused of selling babyPolice say former boyfriend's ex was buyer; $2,000 used to buy clothes, PlaystationsSaturday, November 23, 2002By CANDACE HECKMANSEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERKENT -- The 3-month-old baby was crying all of the time, trying her patience. So, his 28-year-old mother told police, she took him down to a local Fred Meyer and gave him to a stranger for $2,000 in cash.And it turned out the stranger was really her former boyfriend's ex-wife.The mother used the money to pay off a traffic ticket, then buy groceries, clothes, two Sony PlayStations and a VCR -- before she went out...