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Illinois politics seems to be everywhere this year -- and now it may be headed to the Supreme Court in the form of a lawsuit brought against the state. The case, which has ties to impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, could have an important impact on the definition of a "taking" under the Fifth Amendment -- as well as implications for the state's power of taxation. In Empress Casino v. Giannoulias, the question involves the passage of a state law that took money from four riverboat casinos and gave it to five horse-racing tracks to use as purse money, among...

WASHINGTON – Democratic leaders suffered an embarrassing defeat Wednesday as the House failed to pass a public lands bill. The 1,248-page bill, which included provisions ranging from new Pacific Northwest scenic trails to Everglades National Park additions, secured a solid House majority. The 282-144 vote, though, fell just short of the two-thirds margin needed under the special rules in play. "They were trying to be too cute by half," said bill opponent Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare. "This was a completely ridiculous process." The House vote does not permanently kill the public lands bill. Before it returns, though, the House leaders...

Something like the purges of the Kulaks during the Russian Bolshevik Revolution is about to happen to many of California's Central Valley farmers. Only in a Capitalist society like ours the government just adjudicates the de facto taking of your property only without additionally hanging you like Lenin did the Kulaks. But why are California's coastal cities not joining with agricultural water districts to appeal the court order which has blocked 85% of water deliveries through the California Aqueduct to both farmers and Southern California? Don't they both have something to lose? For those who haven't been following what is...

As expected, the Fresno Unified School District board room was jammed last Thursday as the State Water Resources Control Board conducted a workshop/hearing on proposed septic and well system regulations. The room holds 149 people and the crowd was so big, folks were sitting in the aisles and standing against the wall. Speaker after speaker -- including three Madera County officials -- criticized either the proposals or the process. The crowd was at times hostile to the Water Board representatives, who did a good job of keeping their cool. At other times, speakers elicited roars of laughter or shouts of...

It's believed that he earned upwards of £24,000 through his scam.Abdul Musa, a garage owner from Blackburn, Lancashire, today begins a 16 month stretch in jail after police discovered he was getting paid to take the blame for other people’s speeding offences. According to reports he charged customers £200 a time for his ‘services’, admitting to authorities that he had been driving a car when it got caught on camera. With his service proving particularly popular with local taxi drivers it is believed that he made upwards of £24,000. It is though that he falsely accepted responsibility for at least...

The Half Moon Bay City Council was poised late Tuesday to hire a team of appellate lawyers and a financial adviser to help it address a potentially ruinous federal court order that the city pay $36.8 million to a developer in a property dispute. The council planned to hire Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a San Francisco law firm that specializes in public finance and corporate law, and Piper Jaffray, a financial firm that has worked with cities across the state. They will work with the council on what to do about a court judgment that is more than three times...

Half Moon Bay is wrestling with unpleasant options for responding to a court ruling that officials say threatens the "very existence of our city government" - a $36.8 million judgment against the city for turning a proposed housing development site into wetlands. Under the worst-case scenario, officials say, Half Moon Bay would become the first Bay Area city forced to dissolve, and the coastal town's land would become an unincorporated part of San Mateo County. Members of the City Council say that's unlikely, and they plan to vote at a public meeting tonight to retain an appellate law firm and...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007, (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.) The image shooting was carried out by the onboard high definition television (HDTV) of the KAGUYA, and it is the world's first high definition image data acquisition of the Moon from an altitude about 100 kilometers away from the Moon. The image taking was performed twice...

Today a Louisiana Federal Jury found Attorney Tommy Cryer NOT GUILTY of 2 counts of willful failure to file an income tax return. Earlier on Monday July 9th the Government had on its own motion dismissed 2 counts of tax evasion charges that it had charged Tommy Cryer with.

1st Lt. Larry Rubal (kneeling), of Old Forge, Pa., a platoon leader with Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, watches as Lt. Col. Ahmed Abdullah, the local police commander, asks an Iraqi woman some questions during a joint patrol May 18, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Mike Pryor Iraqis Taking the Security Lead U.S. soldiers maintain a quieter role at Al Suleikh Joint Security Station By Sgt. Mike Pryor Multi-National Division – Baghdad Public Affairs BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 30, 2007 — Capt. James Peay was starting to feel like a third wheel. Peay, a battery...

Taking sides in the battle of the 'hobbit' 05:00 09 October 2006 Jeff Hecht The battle among paleaoanthropologists over Homo Floresiensis, popularly known as "the hobbit", threatens to become an epic of Lord of the Rings proportions. The debate rages on over whether the fossil, found on the Indonesian island of Flores, is a separate species or simply a modern human with stunted development. Now Robert Martin at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, US, claims the controversial fossil, discovered in 2004 was really a Stone Age Homo sapiens (modern human) with a mild form of the condition...

Analysis: Taking on al-Sadr Carries Risk Wednesday August 30, 2006 6:46 PM By ROBERT H. REID Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - This week's intense clashes between the Iraqi army and a Shiite militia are part of a strategy to whittle away the power of a radical cleric. But the high-risk gambit could trigger more fighting across the Shiite south - at a time when the cleric's stronghold in the capital is virtually off-limits. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised to disband militias, including the Mahdi Army of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, as a way to curb the sectarian...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2006 – Two engagements with Taliban extremists in Afghanistan yesterday demonstrate that the U.S. continues to take the fight to the enemy, a U.S. military spokesman said today. In the first engagement, three U.S. soldiers died and three others were wounded when a coalition combat patrol engaged a group of Taliban extremists with small-arms and artillery fire after being struck by a makeshift bomb yesterday. Elsewhere, U.S. forces engaged about 150 extremists in a firefight that lasted nearly four hours in Uruzgan province. A U.S. airman died in this fight. Early reports indicate that the enemy suffered...

WASHINGTON — President Bush declared Friday that the federal government can only seize private property for a public use such as a hospital or road. The president signed an executive order in response to a Supreme Court decision granting local governments broad power to bulldoze people's homes to make way for private development. It was the one-year anniversary of the controversial Supreme Court decision in a case involving New London, Conn., homeowners. The majority opinion from the divided court limited homeowners rights, by saying that local governments could take private property for purely economic development-related projects because the motive was...

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2006 – More and more Iraqi national police are working alongside U.S. soldiers in securing southern Baghdad, a U.S. Army colonel working there said today. Terrorists would like the American public to believe violent groups are winning the fight in Baghdad, Army Col. Michael Beech, commander of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said from Forward Operating Base Prosperity in central Baghdad. "But, of course, that's not what's happening here," he said. Beech's brigade includes 4,400 U.S. troops, a battalion of soldiers from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and about 2,000 Iraq soldiers and police....

Jefferson's CurseThe Nation Thu May 25, 11:58 AM ET AP - Mon May 15, 5:25 PM ET U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, speaks to the media at a news conference in New Orleans on Monday May 15, 2006. Congressman Jefferson declared his innocence in light of a federal bribery probe. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) The Nation -- As John wrote a few days back, William Jefferson was one of the worst Democrats in the House even before he started hiding bribes in the freezer. Now he's a drag on his party and a disgrace to his district--which happens to represent...

BAQUBAH, Iraq, May 12, 2006 – Sending the Iraqi army forth to take care of security operations is the key to the safety of the Iraqi people and the groundwork for the establishment of a free government, many senior military officials have said. Iraqi army soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, are independently conducting operations in their area of Diyala province. They are performing gathering their own intelligence, patrolling their streets and hunting for insurgents and terrorists. A brigade-sized operation conducted recently throughout the village of Tahrir yielded a handful of suspected insurgents who were...

Taking out a killer asteroid – with a tame one 17:38 26 April 2006 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee It sounds like a Hollywood blockbuster. A potentially deadly asteroid is heading for Earth, and scientists mount a mission to intercept it – using another asteroid. But that is exactly what two French researchers propose in a plan to capture and "park" a small asteroid near the Earth for just such emergencies. But a second group of researchers says shooting a spacecraft into the asteroid would be simpler and more effective. Other experts warn that both plans risk having fragments of...

Today the Supreme Court hears two challenges to federal wetlands regulations. In each case, landowners are challenging the federal government’s authority to prevent them from developing wetlands under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Federal regulators claim such regulation is clearly authorized by the CWA and is necessary to safeguard the nation’s waters. The landowners, for their part, assert that the federal government lacks the legal authority to regulate private land that lacks a substantial connection to navigable waters. Depending on how the Court resolves these disputes, control over millions of acres of private land may hang in the balance. Depends...

-snip- Last fall Mr. Peterson told a Senate subcommittee that when the government threatens to condemn people's property because it thinks someone else can make better use of it, "a majority of the time, most people agree to sell." Interesting. Given the choice between selling and fighting an expensive legal battle they will almost certainly lose, after which they will have to give up their land anyway, probably on less advantageous terms, most people "agree" to sell. -snip-

California’s property owners, incensed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Kelo decision, are going on the offensive with a ballot initiative that aims to limit the government’s sweeping eminent domain powers. But powerful developers who benefit from the status quo are sure to put up a fight. The California Property Owners Protection Act would eliminate the state and local governments’ ability to take personal property for non-public uses. Public uses would be strictly defined as the building of roads, parks, and public edifices. Non-public uses include the transferring of an individual’s land to another person or private entity. The initiative,...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 13, 2005 – Iraqi security units are taking the lead in preparing for the Dec. 15 national elections. This is the third election this year, and each time the amount of support coalition forces provide has been less, military officials said. The plan builds on experiences gained in the Jan. 30 National Assembly election and the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. Iraqi police will provide close-in protection at the polling stations. Iraqi public order battalions and Iraqi army soldiers will provide the next level of protection. This second ring of police and soldiers will search for suicide bombers and...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Nov. 3, 2005) -- When Marines departed Camp Lejeune, N.C. to continue the war on terrorism here, many said farewell to families knowing their next visit would have to wait until after the deployment. However, some married spouses never had to say goodbye. For married couple 1st Lt.’s Donald and Heather Traves, saying goodbye was more of a, “see you soon,” since they would be relatively close to each other deploying together. Although they are stationed on separate bases, this has not deterred the couple from keeping in touch, according to Donald, who is the officer in...

On July 1, Oakland took possession of two properties that housed two viable businesses -- Revelli Tires and Autohouse, which provided the livelihoods of John Revelli and Tony Fung -- by eminent domain so that a private developer can build apartments in the redevelopment zone. On Aug. 1, Oakland took possession of a parking lot about one block away -- on which owner Alex Hahn says he wants to build housing -- so that Sears can relocate its Auto Center on that lot. If you had to re-read the above paragraph, it is because this story makes no sense. Oakland,...

Millionaire charged with taking kickbacks from teachers' pension fund By Andy Shaw Stuart Levine August 3, 2005 — A politically connected businessman has been indicted for a second time on federal fraud charges. Stuart Levine is linked to a scam involving the Illinois Teachers Pension Fund along with one of the Democratic party's biggest fund raisers, Joseph Cari. The message from the feds Wednesday is crystal clear: Chicago City Hall is only one of the fronts in the war on government corruption. It also appears to be rampant at the boards and commissions that oversee billions of dollars in state...

Luck of the Draw or Theft of One's Neighbors Property? "Luck of draw for shelter seekers" (Pasadena Star News, July 1) depicts the luck of 160 people in a lottery for affordable units in the new upscale Trio Apartments under the City of Pasadena's Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~22097~2948469,00.html However, the burden of paying this invisible and unjust excise tax for these affordable units will be born by only a few of Pasadena landowners, not all the city's taxpayers or even the developers. A misconception is that it is "greedy" developers who pay for inclusionary housing programs. Nothing could be further...

High Court Rules Hawaii May Impose Rent Caps on Gas StationsBy Hope Yen Associated Press Writer Published: May 23, 2005 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Hawaii did not overstep its authority when it moved to keep gasoline prices in line by imposing caps on the rent paid by dealer-run stations. The unanimous decision was a defeat for Chevron USA, which argued that Hawaii's law was an unconstitutional "taking" of private property. The ruling means that state legislatures preserve their authority to set local economic regulations without extensive second-guessing by federal courts. Ruling otherwise would "require courts...

US soldiers just miss taking Iraq's al-Qa'eda leader By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 27/04/2005) American troops seized the computer of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qa'eda's leader in Iraq, when they came tantalisingly close to capturing the terrorist after chasing a truck in which he was travelling, it was disclosed yesterday. A senior military official described finding the laptop as "a seminal event" which would help to run to ground the Jordanian-born militant and unravel his network, responsible for many of Iraq's worst outrages, including the beheading of the British contractor, Ken Bigley. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Details of the computer's discovery...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political team is moving to take over his special election campaign after last week's court ruling that allows politicians to raise unlimited money for ballot measure efforts at the same time they fully control them. Before a Sacramento court judge ruled in Schwarzenegger's favor, his political committee was limited to how much it could raise from individual donors. A business committee with close ties to the Republican governor could raise unlimited funds as long as Schwarzenegger didn't direct its activities. "Any advantage the Democrats thought they'd have because of the bifurcated nature of the campaign has evaporated,"...

Davenport’s battered barn to stay just that Sierra Club court victory ends plan for wine and cheese shopBy GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTERSENTINEL STAFF WRITERDAVENPORT — David Luers had a dream: Buy the dilapidated barn off Highway 1, demolish it and build a wine and cheese shop he’d run with his wife. Santa Cruz County officials approved the plan, as did the state Coastal Commission.But nine years after buying the abandoned structure at Highway 1, Old Coast Road and Davenport Avenue, Luers is living in Idaho, where he’s running a gift shop and wondering how he can unload the property.Earlier this month, a...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former Carson mayor was sentenced Monday to nearly six years in prison for orchestrating a kickback scheme in which he and other government officials pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to steer city business to contractors. In imposing the 71-month sentence, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson said former Carson Mayor Daryl Sweeney and his conspirators on the City Council had a single goal - greed. "I don't think this was about losing your way or taking a wrong turn. You're really nothing more than a thief - a petty thief," the judge told...

A 10-year-old girl was placed in handcuffs and taken to a police station because she took a pair of scissors to her elementary school. School district officials said the fourth-grade student did not threaten anyone with the 8-inch shears, but violated a rule that considers scissors to be potential weapons. Administrators said they were following state law when they called police Thursday, and police said they were following department rules when they handcuffed Porsche Brown and took her away in a patrol wagon. "My daughter cried and cried," said her mother, Rose Jackson. "She had no idea what she did...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Others may have sympathized on learning that Hamid Dabashi, a professor of Middle East studies at Columbia University, felt threatened by a graduate student at his own university, but not me. The incident began late on Sept. 27, 2004, when Victor Luria, a Ph.D. candidate in genetics and a former soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, wrote Dabashi an e-mail taking strong exception to what Dabashi had written about the IDF in an article, "For a Fistful of Dust: A Passage to Palestine," he published in the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram. In response, Luria wrote to Dabashi: I have rarely seen...

Ukraine judges stop president taking office and launch election inquiry By Julius Strauss in Kiev and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Hague (Filed: 26/11/2004) Ukraine's supreme court last night blocked the inauguration as head of state of Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Moscow presidential candidate. The decision appeared to turn the tide in favour of the opposition challenging the validity of the presidential election last weekend. Viktor Yushchenko: 'This is only the beginning' The country's most senior judges also announced that they would review allegations that the results that gave Mr Yanukovich victory were falsified. The court will begin hearing the case on...

Clerics order end to Iraq hostage-taking By Adrian Blomfield in Baghdad (Filed: 06/09/2004) Iraq's most senior Sunni religious body said yesterday it would issue a fatwa outlawing the abduction and execution of any foreigner in the country. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot are still being held While there have been demands from across the Muslim world for the release of two French reporters who have been held captive since August 20, the edict, due to be signed today, is the most significant so far in the six-month hostage crisis. At least 102 foreigners have been abducted since April. Twenty-eight have...

Fox News is reporting that US troops are in downtown Karbala "taking it to'em". Them is al-Sadr's militia. Steve Harrington is reporting a lot of tanks, Bradley's, apaches, C-130's, etc. A large operation. Please post further news as it comes in. Thanks

RE: FREELANCE BUSH AD [Jonah Goldberg ] So many readers liked this I figured I'd post it again. Seriously, the Bushies could do a lot worse. Yes, there were many complaints about the Canadian-anti-work song by BTO. But still, good stuff. Posted at 09:22 AM

Sound advice, when you consider that about 30 percent of the adult population is inactive, federal officials say, despite a constant bombardment of public health messages about the value of physical activity. But sometimes the exercise gurus must turn their attention to those Americans who've taken the physical fitness gospel too far. They are the committed exercisers who overtrain to the point of burnout — even injury. Or well-intentioned couch potatoes who embrace a workout program too aggressively, only to fall victim to injury. While burnout is difficult to describe, experts know it when they see it, says Cedric X....

<p>Collier County commissioners Tuesday will consider approving a crucial part to the overall mammoth $4 billion state and federal Everglades Restoration project.</p> <p>The county’s part in helping restore water levels and water flow through what is known as the River of Grass, which takes up most of Florida south of Lake Okeechobee, centers on what is called South Golden Gate Estates.</p>

Dream turns soggy for couple They fear losing house that DNR says was built on wetlands By DAN BENSONdbenson@journalsentinel.com Last Updated: June 23, 2003 Town of Cedarburg - Jim and Connie Helnore thought they did everything right in pursuit of their dream of building a home for themselves and one for their daughter and grandchildren. Wetlands Dispute Photo/Laura El-Tantawy "It's terrible," said Connie Helnore, with her husband, Jim, of the Town of Cedarburg. They say they bought the land after being told they could build there; the DNR says the site has long been labeled wetlands. Quotable I'd like to...

<p>Phil Reynolds carries a sign protesting a recall campaign against Gov. Gray Davis during a political rally in Sacramento.</p> <p>SACRAMENTO - California, the land of movie sequels and second chances, is moving toward a remake of last November's election -- with a new nail-biting twist.</p>

'They're never there and yet they still want it locked up. But it ain't your back yard, buddy' A great wave is poised to crash ashore along the beaches where Hollywood's rich and beautiful stroll and sun themselves - an invasion not of seawater but of the common people. The plebeian threat is to Malibu's exclusive colony of film stars, rock idols and moguls of the entertainment business. And it is led by the state of California, now seeking to implement a long-thwarted law that stipulates the sand below high tide along the entire coastline belongs to the citizens...

The state is helping the environuts seize farmland in WV. During the 2001 legislative session, lawmakers, environmentalists, industry representatives, landowners, and state government agencies worked together to develop West Virginia's anti-degradation rule. Through months of negotiations and compromises, the group successfully mapped out further protections for state streams beyond current rules and regulations....