Free Republic

Navistar International Corp. (NAV) plans to close its Garland, Texas, assembly plant, as the embattled truck maker shrinks it manufacturing capacity in response to falling demand for commercial trucks. The plant near Dallas employs about 900 workers and has been Navistar's primary site for assembling heavy-duty trucks in recent years. The company intends to cease operations at Garland during first half of next year. Closing Garland is expected to lower Navistar's costs by increasing the utilization of other plants. SNIP Navistar, which also makes military trucks and school buses, has lost $241 million during the first nine months of its...

Who Is Bolat Bersebayev and Why Is He Monitoring Our Elections? The New American 02 November 2012 Who are Bolat Bersebayev of Kazakhstan, Elchin Musaeyev of Azerbaijan, and their OSCE teammates who are "monitoring" the U.S. elections? ... As reported previously by The New American, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot has warned the OSCE monitors that they will risk criminal prosecution if they interfere in the state’s election procedures. Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz has also warned OSCE that its monitors must obey Iowa election laws or face arrest (see here and here). Janez Lenarcic, the director of the...

A lot can change in just four years. For former Florida Governor Jeb Bush a four-year timetable is enough for a significant shift for the Republican party. He tells Joe Hagan of New York magazine: “It’s a math question. Four years from now, Texas is going to be a so-called blue state. Imagine Texas as a blue state, how hard it would be to carry the presidency or gain control of the Senate.” Hagan starts the article for New York magazine with this idea that Texas’ rapidly changing demographic will unfavorably affect the Republican party. He writes: “Sitting down across...

With Election Day only four days off, the Justice Department is planning to send 780 observers to polls in 23 states including Texas, California and New York. DOJ lawyers and other employees will monitor voting in Harris, Fort Bend, Dallas and Jefferson Counties in Texas; Alameda and Riverside Counties in California; and Orange County in New York. The Justice Department observers will join a growing throng of lawyers and poll watchers sent by the presidential candidates as well as state and local candidates. In addition, Houston-based True the Vote, self-proclaimed poll integrity organization, has pledged to deploy a virtual army...

LA JOYA, TEXAS (AP) -- The Texas Department of Public Safety has released the name of the state trooper who fired on a fleeing pickup truck near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing two illegal immigrants who were hiding under a blanket in the bed.

A woman was blocked from early voting near Austin, Texas, last week after wearing a T-shirt that said "Vote the Bible." A pro-family group called Texas Values said election workers told resisdent Kay Hill at the Taylor City Hall polling place in Williamson County her shirt was quote "offensive." She was told to turn the shirt inside out, go home and change, or cover up the words "Vote the Bible." Hill tried to disagree but was eventually forced to cover up her Bible message. Poll workers reportedly provided a jacket for her to wear over the shirt. "It's outrageous that...

I and a small group of conservative friends would like to be around like-minded conservatives in some public venue to (hopefully) CELEBRATE the GOP victory.

Vestas Wind Systems said late Wednesday it will shut down its research and development offices in Louisville and in two other states, rather than consolidate them in Brighton as it announced less than a month ago... The Danish wind-turbine maker ... Vestas will close its three R&D offices in the United States by the end of the second quarter in 2013.” The other two offices are in Houston and Marlborough, Mass. ... Vestas repeatedly has blamed the pending expiration of a U.S. wind-power production tax credit for weakening demand for its products, leading to job cutbacks. That tax credit, which...

Here’s something to think about the next time you toss a plastic milk carton in the recycling bin: You’re part of the natural gas revolution, and a $15 billion expansion at chemical plants along the Texas Gulf Coast will bring it closer to home than ever. “We started watching a few years ago,” said Mark Lashier, executive vice president of olefins and polyolefins at Chevron Phillips Chemical. “We went from, ‘Gosh, is this something real?’ to convincing ourselves this is here to stay.” “This” is not only low natural gas prices but also the huge reserves of shale gas released...

The teams start rolling out before daybreak, a rumbling cacophony orchestrated under floodlights and black skies. They fan out, men carrying hardhats walking past trucks on the move, busloads of workers, and trailers carrying four-wheel-drive carts and heavy machinery. About 700 workers building TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline in Texas move out from a Mount Pleasant lot every morning in a mobilization fit for a war zone. The size of the effort, for just one segment of Keystone XL, is part of TransCanada’s sophisticated, 4,000-person operation to dig through nearly 500 miles of land and install a 36-inch diameter oil pipeline...

Iowa has joined Texas in warning international election observers of possible criminal prosecution if they violate state laws and get near polling places on Election Day. Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz — like Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last week — on Tuesday threatened Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe election observers with arrest if they came within 300 feet of a polling place’s entrance, in violation of state law. (In Texas, it’s 100 feet.)

Texas Values Assists Intimidated Voter Forced to Cover Up Her Religious T-Shirt Before Voting Austin, TX, October 31, 2012–During early voting last week, a Texas voter in Williamson County was banned from wearing a t-shirt with the words “Vote the Bible” printed on the front. On October 24, Williamson County election workers at the Taylor City Hall polling place told Kay Hill that before she would be allowed to vote she had to turn her shirt inside out, go home and change, or cover up the words “Vote the Bible” because they “may be offensive to some people.” After voicing...

Observers who follow such things know how important the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial has been in uncovering the spread of both violent and civilizational jihad in the USA. For those who may not be familiar with the Holy Land Foundation trial, here is a very brief synopsis: The Holy Land Foundation was the largest Islamic charity in the United States. It was headquartered in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. In 2007, federal prosecutors brought charges against the organization for funding Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organizations. The Holy Land Foundation’s assets were frozen by the European Union...

Authorities say a North Texas pastor died after a man drove his car into the church and attacked the pastor with an electric guitar. Forest Hill Police Chief Dan Dennis said officers arrived at the Greater Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church on Monday to find an assault in progress. …

The national scandal over United Nations-linked "elections monitors" continues to grow after Texas threatened potential prosecutions. Obama Backs UN-linked Election Monitors, but Texas Stands Firm The New American 28 October 2012 Related articles:Texas Warns UN Affiliates Monitoring U.S. Election of Prosecution Risk Concerned About Conservatives, UN Affiliate to Monitor U.S. Election Leftists Call on United Nations to Monitor U.S. Election ACORN: Disenfranchising Voters Illegal Aliens Fraudulently Cast Ballots in New Mexico Hidden Camera Reveals How Easy It Is for Phantom Voters to Vote Democrats to State Secretaries: Keep Voting Requirements Loose Eric Holder Likens Texas Voter ID Law to "Poll...

Quinton Picone, 23, harvested this nine-point buck Oct. 12 at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant during a Wounded Warriors in Action hunt. Picone is undergoing rehabilitation after losing both lower legs in 2011 while serving in the Army in Afghanistan. His buck set a new base record for the heaviest deer taken on the property. I'm sharing the following release from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation verbatim. A great hunt for one of our nation's best. --- For Quinton Picone, 23, a native of nearby Panola, first times seem to be the charm. At least first-time hunting trips, that...

Red alert, local Democrats: One week into early voting, Republicans are beating you in turnout. This analysis comes courtesy of fourth-day data from early voting sites across Bexar County, comparing turnout in 2008 to this year's numbers. Democrats, of course, swept elections in 2008, when Barack Obama won the presidency and, incidentally, beat John McCain in Bexar County by more than five percentage points. In predicting the political loyalties of voters at early voting sites, local geography plays a role, according to consultants. “Typically, Bexar County's North Side are the heaviest Republican-voting precincts,” says Christian Anderson, who runs campaigns for...

October 26, 2012 Court: Texas Has the Right to De-Fund Planned Parenthood Steven Ertelt The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to grant an additional hearing to Planned Parenthood regarding Texas’ legislation to end taxpayer funding of abortion companies, including Planned Parenthood.The decision effectively ends the legal controversy surrounding the law and affirms Texas’ right to stop taxpayer dollars from flowing to abortion providers.Texas Gov. Rick Perry applauded the decision, saying, “Today’s ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women’s Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In...

Our local radio station is running ads from the local Democrat Party reminding people of the Medicare benefits, etc. and telling people they would "be on their own" with the coupons proposed by Republicans. The ad urges them to vote Democrat and does not mention Obama.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has warned a group of UN-affiliated “international election observers” that they could be subject to criminal prosecution if they breach state laws by being within 100 feet of polling place entrances.The US State Department issued a warning as well. No, not to the election observers — to Texas:International election observers planning to visit Texas polling places have “full immunity” from being arrested in the United States, the State Department said when discussing a letter from the Texas Attorney General.“I’m not going to get into any kind of hypothetical situations or predict where this is going...

Texas Can Ban Planned Parenthood From Health Program After Court Decision Tina Burnside October 26 (CNN) -- Texas won another battle against Planned Parenthood this week. A federal appeals court, on Thursday, refused to grant another hearing to the organization, a decision that stops the organization's fight against Texas' effort to ban state funding for Planned Parenthood affiliates. Texas Gov. Rick Perry applauded the decision, by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. "Today's ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women's Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In...

International election observers planning to visit Texas polling places have “full immunity” from being arrested in the United States, the State Department said when discussing a letter from the Texas Attorney General. “I’m not going to get into any kind of hypothetical situations or predict where this is going to go other than to say we have every expectation that this will be worked out and to state the fact, which is that under U.S. law they are eligible for immunities,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Reporters tried to get her to state explicitly that Texas could not arrest...

Planned Parenthood won a temporary restraining order on Friday, preventing the state of Texas from excluding the group from participating in the Women's Health Program. Austin state District Judge Amy Clark Meachum set a Nov. 8 trial date on Planned Parenthood's claim that Texas' effort to bar the group from the Women's Health Program is invalid under Texas law. Rochelle Tafolla, a Planned Parenthood vice president in Houston, called the lawsuit important "because nearly 50,000 women rely on Planned Parenthood for this basic health care through the Women's Health Program, and the lawsuit today is to preserve their access to...

LEAGUE CITY, TX (KTRK) -- A woman waiting for her husband to get off of work almost had her baby snatched from her, and now the woman accused of trying to kidnap the baby is in jail. The incident happened around 4:45pm in the parking lot of a grocery store in the 200 block of South Egret Bay Boulevard. The woman was waiting for her husband to finish his shift. She had her one-year-old son sitting on her lap in the front seat of the car when another woman approached and tried to pull the baby out of her lap....

NOTE The following text is a quote: fbi.gov/sanantonio/press-releases/2012/taiwanese-citizen-sentenced-to-prison-for-illegally-exporting-military-sensitive-items-from-the-united-states-to-iran Taiwanese Citizen Sentenced to Prison for Illegally Exporting Military-Sensitive Items from the United States to Iran U.S. Attorney’s Office October 24, 2012 Western District of Texas SAN ANTONIO—This afternoon in San Antonio, 35-year-old Susan Yip, aka Susan Yeh, a citizen of Taiwan, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for helping to obtain military sensitive parts for Iran in violation of the Iranian trade embargo. The sentence was announced by Robert Pitman, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas; Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio Office Special Agent in Charge...

AUSTIN (AP) — It turns out there will be another day for Scarlett O'Hara's green curtain dress. Many of them. The iconic dress and Scarlett's burgundy ball gown from the 1939 film "Gone With the Wind" have been saved from deterioration by a $30,000 conservation effort by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. The dresses worn by actress Vivien Leigh are now on display for the first time in nearly 30 years at London's Victoria and Albert Museum as part of a Hollywood costume exhibit. Ransom Center officials announced the project in 2010, noting the dresses were...

Headline and link only http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/26/us-usa-health-texas-idUSBRE89P00A20121026?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=574655

AUSTIN – State Attorney General Greg Abbott's admonition that international election observers – part of what the Texas Secretary of State's office called a long-standing exchange program to promote learning – could be criminally prosecuted if they overstep Texas law was deemed "unacceptable" by the group's director. The flap was prompted when Abbott wrote a letter to Ambassador Daan Everts at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The Republican attorney general, in a press release announcing the letter, noted the group is "a United Nations partner." Some conservatives and...

NEAR LA JOYA — A Texas Department of Public Safety sharpshooter opened fire on an evading vehicle loaded with suspected illegal immigrants, leaving at least two people dead. A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game warden attempted to pull over a vehicle suspected of smuggling immigrants Thursday afternoon along Farm-to-Market Road 2221. A DPS helicopter was called in to assist in the pursuit and a sharpshooter opened fire on the evading vehicle — a policy permitted by the agency. Once the smuggler's vehicle stopped along FM 2221 near Mile 7 Road, troopers found three people shot inside, DPS spokeswoman Katherine...

Student Senate will vote Wednesday on a bill that calls on the Texas A&M University and the Texas State Legislature to allow anyone with a valid concealed handgun license to carry a handgun on the Texas A&M campus and within buildings. The Texas A&M Legislative Affairs Committee finalized wording of the bill Wednesday night and sent it to Student Senate for a final vote. The Texas government currently allows universities to create their own concealed carry policies. Texas A&M policy says a concealed handgun is permitted on campus, but not inside buildings. During the meeting, students expressed their concern that...

McALLEN — Asked Wednesday about the Second Amendment, longtime U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa fumbled for an answer. “There are so many people in Washington who come and talk to us about the Constitution and the rights that they want kept sacred and that not do anything about them. (sic) That we not change them. That we not amend them,” said Hinojosa. “And I can tell you that — I’m drawing a blank on the Second Amendment, but I think it’s the weapons, isn’t it? The NRA?” Hinojosa recovered after a brief pause, recalling how the 1999 Columbine High School massacre...

McALLEN — Asked Wednesday about the Second Amendment, longtime U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa fumbled for an answer. “There are so many people in Washington who come and talk to us about the Constitution and the rights that they want kept sacred and that not do anything about them. (sic) That we not change them. That we not amend them,” said Hinojosa. “And I can tell you that — I’m drawing a blank on the Second Amendment, but I think it’s the weapons, isn’t it? The NRA?” Hinojosa recovered after a brief pause, recalling how the 1999 Columbine High School massacre...

(CNN) -- A toxic cloud that formed after 300 gallons of hydrochloric acid leaked at a southeast Texas storage facility sent nine people to hospitals and forced thousands of residents indoors, an emergency management official said Thursday. Four firefighters were among those who were hospitalized for exposure after a tank ruptured at a storage facility near the Port of Texas City, Bruce Clawson of the local emergency management office said. More than 45,000 residents of Texas City were ordered by emergency management officials to remain indoors, turn off air conditioning units and make sure all windows and doors were closed...

International election monitors took a dim view on Wednesday of Texas' threat to prosecute them if they observe voting in the state a bit too closely on November 6.

Texas Warns UN Affiliates Monitoring U.S. Election of Prosecution Risk Written by Alex Newman Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a strongly worded letter warning United Nations-affiliated “elections monitors” that if they fail to obey state law by going in or even near a polling place, the UN-linked observers risk criminal prosecution and serious penalties. The international observers, he added, have absolutely no jurisdiction to interfere with voting in the Lone Star State. The UN partner known as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) came under fierce criticism across the country in recent days after it announced...

One man was killed and another was at large Wednesday after a woman put her father’s lesson in firearms to use during a burglary in southeast Oak Cliff. “I just hate that she didn’t get both of them,” said Charles Brown, the homeowner. Dallas police say Brown’s daughter was upstairs about 11:30 a.m. when the two men kicked down the front door of the family’s home on Concordia Lane, southwest of Camp Wisdom and Houston School roads. The woman, alerted by a home alarm, fired several shots at the men, striking at least one of them as they charged up...

My wife and I just returned from early voting in the Northwest Dallas (Farmer's Branch / Coppell) area. Lines were out the door ... more than one hour wait to vote. The election judge said that about 1,200 people had cast ballots there each day during the first two days of early voting. Today's total was expected to exceed 1,500. The judge also said that only about 500 people (total ... not per day) voted early there in 2008. About 300 in 2010. The precinct is in the 24th Texas congressional district. It is strongly conservative with Kenny Marchant...

SNIPPET: "Actually, two have been convicted by a jury for using their nightclubs to launder the proceeds of drug and weapons deals, one was acquitted of money laundering but has pled guilty to a drug trafficking charge, and one of those convicted of money laundering has now been charged with tax evasion. And that's not to mention the failure to pay state liquor taxes and fees, the unsolved murder of a one-time business partner, and various immigration-related issues. Money was transferred in to a relative and known Hizballah operative in Lebanon, and there are strong ties to the Lebanese expat...

San Antonio and Corpus Christi don’t sit in the Eagle Ford Shale play, but you wouldn’t know it based on the jobs numbers. The two cities are in line to see some of the biggest jobs gains due to increasing oil and gas production in South Texas. The shale play supported 4,290 jobs in Bexar County in last year, and that number should grow to 11,627 jobs by 2021, according to a report released Tuesday by the University of Texas at San Antonio. Nueces County is poised to end up with the greatest number of jobs from the Eagle Ford,...

The loaded .45-caliber Glock handgun left in a crowded Denver International Airport bathroom belonged to a Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in Houston, according to records obtained on Tuesday. The gun, with one round in the chamber and 10 in the magazine, was found by a traveler last week on the back of a toilet seat beyond Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, according to a Denver police report. It was later returned to the agent, who was traveling on Southwest Airlines from Denver to Houston. The DEA has stayed mum on the gun, declining to confirm the agency's ties to the...

Left-wing groups have gone to international organizations in the run up to this election, seeking to apply global governance to the United States. The results of this is that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, not the UN as is often reported) has announced it will send election observers, with the implication that Voter ID laws are a problem.Now, the reason they’re only investigating Republican-run areas is that Republicans would never run to the OSCE or anyone else to interfere with American elections. But that said, we must not let the OSCE observers think they are above...

LOS EBANOS — Five men from Mexico face federal drug charges after U.S. Border Patrol agents were fired upon from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The shooting took place Friday evening along the river near Los Ebanos after agents saw a dark Ford Expedition that approached the river and then was loaded with bundles of marijuana by several men who had used rafts to move the bundles from Mexico to the U.S. side, court records show. The agents requested backup and moved in to intercept the vehicle as it was leaving the river, heading northbound. Upon spotting the...

Will Gov. Mitt Romney reverse the decision of President Barack Hussein Obama and issue the Purple Heart to the victims of the jihad attack on Fort Hood in 2009? The day before the general election, Nov 5, is the third anniversary of the jihad attack by Maj. Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas. Thirteen of our service members, as well as one unborn baby, died under Hasan’s gunfire. None of our service personnel was armed, making them easy targets as Hasan screamed “Allah Akbar!” and began shooting. President Barack Hussein Obama refuses to designate Hasan’s assault on Fort Hood as...

Three years after Major Nidal Hassan opened fire in a personnel center on Fort Hood, Texas, the Obama regime has yet to declare the incident is what it obviously is: an act of terrorism. Rather, according, to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta: “the department is dealing with the threat of violent Islamist extremism in the context of a broader threat of workplace violence.” Unfortunately, this is not trivial. Because the incident is not considered an act of terrorism, the victims do not get combat-related special compensation that provides disability pay for medically retired servicemembers. Manning, who was shot six times,...

Victims of the Nov. 2009 Ft. Hood shooting are being denied benefits commensurate with combat injuries because the Obama administration refuses to label the attack an act of terrorism. Instead, the shooting Maj. Nidal Hasan carried out after screaming "Allahu Akbar" it is still being labeled "workplace violence." The difference between labeling the incident "workplace violence" and "terrorism" is not only the rightful recognition 13 of our troops deserve for being killed in service to their country on Nov. 5, 2009, but also ongoing benefits that would help survivors pay for the physical therapy, and other medical and psychological treatments...

The Chronicle's backing of Barack Obama in 2008 broke a 44-year string of endorsing Republican candidates for president. Like so many others, we were captivated by the Illinois senator's soaring rhetoric and energized by his promise to move American politics beyond partisan gridlock and into an era of hope and change. It hasn't happened. Four years later, President Obama's deeds have failed to match his words, much less his specific vows to cut the national debt by half and bring the nation's unemployment rate to 6 percent. As Texans, it is a particular vexation that this president's attitude toward the...

The cheering midst of a rally featuring President Barack Obama and a largely college-age crowd of 15,000 on the Oval at Ohio State University would not seem a likely place to encounter those not in the presidentÂ’s corner. Yet, the first five students approached at random by a Dispatch reporter on Oct. 9 turned out to support Republican Mitt Romney and his aspirations of replacing Obama in the White House. The must-vote adoration and enthusiasm for Obama isnÂ’t what it once was among 18- to 29-year-old Millennials in central Ohio, a must-win area in a must-win state for presidential hopefuls....

Henry and Mary Alice Cisneros want the 45 mostly immigrant families served by American Sunrise, the nonprofit they founded, to take a pledge — a 10-point promise to become American. They'll pledge to learn English, and to know American customs. They'll vow to become “learning” households that meet their financial needs and make college graduation a family tradition. Most importantly, they'll agree to “carry our home country in our heart but commit to our obligations in the United States.”

WESLACO - Illegal entry into the United States is the only option for many who seek to escape poverty and violence, experts said. Immigrants put their money, trust and ultimately their lives in the hands of human smugglers. Some of those smugglers are not old enough to hold a driver's license. One of those smugglers is accused of crashing a van loaded with 17 illegal immigrants near Palmview. Life ended for nine of those immigrants. "These smugglers are ruthless people," Border Patrol Spokesman Henry Mendiola said. Mendiola is familiar with the carnage left behind by some of the human smugglers....

Robbie Middleton was doused in gasoline and set on fire on his eighth birthday in 1998He died 13 years later from cancer caused by the burns covering his bodyIn a video recorded on his deathbed he accused his alleged attacker Don Collins of raping him two weeks before he was set on fireDon Collins, now 27, is to be charged with felony murder