Free Republic

On January, 26,1950, Robert Espe, a master seargant in the U.S. Air Force, waved goodbye to his wife Joyce and two-year-old son Victor on a remote air field outside Anchorage, Alaska. It was a snowy day, a month out from the winter solstice. The sun rose not long before 10 a.m. and by 5 p.m. everything was black again. Joyce Espe was seven months pregnant at the time. A native of Hapur, India, she was struggling with the Alaskan winter. Along with her son and 42 others, all U.S. servicemen, she was flying from the military base in Anchorage, south...

One of the biggest mysteries of the Iran nuclear deal has been solved — but the answer may complicate the efforts of the US and its allies to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. On the same day that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between Iran and a US-led group of six countries, Iran reached a "roadmap" agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that would resolve the agency's longstanding concerns over Tehran's nuclear-weaponization program. Under the agreement, the IAEA would investigate Iran's past weaponization work and any possible continuation of those activities prior...

They had bin Laden living nearby for all that time in Rawalpindi, but dancers with cameras clearly face a zero-tolerance policy. An update on this story. "US hip-hop diplomacy hits speed bump in Pakistan," by Sebastian Abbot for the Associated Press, November 16: ISLAMABAD (AP) — A U.S. attempt to smooth relations with Pakistan using a bit of hip-hop diplomacy hit a speed bump Wednesday when the Pakistani military briefly detained an American music group accused of taking photographs of sensitive installations. The F.E.W. Collective, a hip-hop group from Chicago on a U.S.-sponsored tour of Pakistan, was traveling in embassy...

Population: The vice president gives a thumbs up to Beijing's policy of sustainable growth through forced population control. This is no gaffe. The White House endorses this policy. Just ask the president's science adviser. We are used to the "mouth that roared" putting his foot in it. But Vice President Joe Biden's remarks at Sichuan University in China clearly embrace the progressive belief that people are a plague on the Earth — not its greatest resource. "Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I'm not second-guessing — of one child per family. The result being that you're...

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's effort to limit vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming hit a snag Friday when a federal appeals court ruled that the state and environmental groups acted too early when they sued the Bush administration in January for blocking the law. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California, 15 other states and five environmental groups over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas fumes from new cars and trucks. The court said the Jan. 2 suit was...

WASHINGTON - Mexican trucks could have to wait longer than anticipated to haul freight deep into the United States. The Bush administration in February announced that it would soon allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to travel beyond the current 20-mile limit for a one-year pilot project. But a Senate panel on Thursday voted to delay the plan by requiring the administration to publish details about it and giving the public time to comment on it. The action came as part of a supplemental spending bill to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "The administration is rushing to open the...

Laura Murphy planned on attending her prom at Villa Maria Academy. She paid the $100 deposit, scheduled a limousine rental and asked her date. She ran into a snag, however, and it has nothing to do with what shoes to wear. Administrators of the private, all-girls Catholic high school school don't like Murphy's choice of companion, and they've told her to find someone else or come alone. Murphy, a senior who is openly lesbian, wants to bring her girlfriend of six months, Lindsey Shelton, and believes school administrators are discriminating against them. "They said, "We want it to be traditional....

Is marriage, as a social institution, doomed? As recently as 50 years ago, it was the norm for people to get married and have children. But now, at least in the west, we are seeing record numbers of people divorcing, leaving marriage until later in life or not getting married at all. In Britain, I was amazed to learn the other day, the proportion of children born outside marriage has shot up from 9 per cent to 42 per cent since 1976. In France, the proportion is 44 per cent, in Sweden, it is 56 per cent and even in...

<p>John Fraser's one-man Mac clone business has been put on hold after a key parts supplier became the target of Apple Computer's legal team.</p> <p>As previously reported, the 21-year-old Fraser runs his Mac clone business, CoreComputers, out of his home in Chanhassen, Minn.</p>

<p>The Legislature's lawyers have issued a legal opinion that could unravel the centerpiece of Gov. Gray Davis' plan to bridge the state's massive budget gap.</p> <p>The Legislative Counsel's Office, in a privately circulated opinion obtained by The Bee, concluded that California would be legally required to divert billions of dollars in revenues from Davis' proposed tax increases to schools rather than local governments.</p>

it seemed only a few weeks ago that Pete Rose was hustling back into baseball's good graces, he now appears to be running in place. A baseball official said yesterday that recent revelations about tax and gambling matters involving Rose had slowed the process by which Commissioner Bud Selig would determine whether to remove Rose from the permanently ineligible list. "It has slowed down to nothing," the official said. "Rose keeps shooting himself in the foot, no, the heart. There's so much stuff coming out. Everything is being thoroughly reviewed." Even if Rose is able to withstand the recent revelations,...