Free Republic

Here's my latest update with respect to the keepers of state ping lists.Alabama Alaska Jet Jaguar Arizona Arkansas mosaicwolf California Colorado george76 Connecticut RaceBannon Delaware imardmd1 District of Columbia BillF; Angelwood Florida Joe Brower Georgia FreedomPoster Hawaii Idaho GOP_Raider Illinois 1010RD Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky SLB; RonPaulLives Louisiana cajunconservative Maine Maryland Tolerance Sucks Rocks Massachusetts Michigan cripplecreek Minnesota MplsSteve Mississippi WKB; Islander7 Missouri JustAnotherJoe Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico CedarDave New York neverdem; The Mayor North Carolina Constitution Day; TaxRelief North Dakota Ohio Las Vegas Dave Oklahoma 2Jedismom Oregon Salvation Pennsylvania P.O.E. Rhode Island South Carolina...

San Diego Fire and Rescue crews were called to the San Ysidro border crossing for nearly 160 childbirth emergencies in 2012 — one almost every other day. Such calls continued in 2013, with 15 childbirth emergency calls to the gateway into Tijuana in January, eight in February and 17 in March, according to city records obtained by U-T Watchdog. There are no statistics on how many of the moms being rushed by emergency crews to local hospitals are U.S. citizens, as federal laws prohibit emergency crews and hospital teams from asking. Babies born under the circumstances are U.S. citizens as...

NORTH COUNTY — A motorcyclist was seriously injured Wednesday night while escorting a funeral procession on westbound state Route 78 east of Mar Vista Drive, the California Highway Patrol said. About 6:40 p.m., witnesses said the rider slumped over the handlebars of his 2008 Harley-Davidson, which veered right and struck an asphalt curb on the shoulder, CHP Officer Chris Parent said. He was traveling about 65 mph at the time.

Making a list of those who keep the various state ping lists was suggested to me by FreedomPoster. I like good ideas.I started this project wanting to ping every state to stories that were more jaw dropping than usual, e.g.A sensitive matter (The Economist is stepping back from anthropogenic global warming!)Why Are the Feds Trying to Identify All Gun Owners in Missouri? (Just concealed carry!) The basis of this list was cgk's UPDATED MASTER List of FReeper PING LISTS; Vol. VIII - SPRING Edition! REGIONAL / FR CHAPTERS.Here's my latest update with respect to the states. Alabama Alaska Jet Jaguar...

Funny... for the kids not being star-struck, they finally think we're cool after meeting Willie at the NRA speech...

About 30 minutes into my job as a picker, the strawberry fairy left her first gift. On one of the beds of berries that seemed to stretch forever into the Santa Maria marine layer, Elvia Lopez had laid a little bundle of picked fruit. She and the other three dozen Mexican immigrants in the field were bent at an almost 90-degree angle, using two hands to pack strawberries into plastic containers that they pushed along on ungainly one-wheeled carts. They moved forward, relentlessly, ever bent, following a hulking machine with a conveyor belt that spirited away their fruit. But Lopez,...

The following was posted at the Daily Currant yesterday: Bloomberg Refused Second Slice of Pizza at Local Restaurant New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was denied a second slice of pizza today at an Italian eatery in Brooklyn. The owners of Collegno’s Pizzeria say they refused to serve him more than one piece to protest Bloomberg’s proposed soda ban, which would limit the portions of soda sold in the city… “Hey, could I get another pepperoni over here?” Bloomberg asked owner Antonio Benito. “I’m sorry sir,” he replied, “we can’t do that. You’ve reached your personal slice limit.” Get it? They...

Chad Cross was hunting for turkey in the woods in Alabama when a venomous pit viper rattlesnake bit him in the lower left leg. Nervous and scared, the Montgomery resident attempted to calm himself and slow his heart rate so as to prevent the quick spreading of the deadly venom throughout his body. He then made a move that saved his life. He pulled out his $10 snake-bite kit. WSFA has the incredible story:

SANTA MONICA (CNS) - President Barack Obama will speak at a luncheon fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in Santa Monica June 7. Tickets for the event at the home of Peter Chernin begin at $10,000, according to an invitation posted on the website, PoliticalPartyTime.org, which tracks political fundraisers. The price is $16,200 for the luncheon and the opportunity to have a photo taken with Obama, and $32,400 -- the maximum allowable contribution to a national party committee in a calendar year -- to be a luncheon co-chair, which also allows the donor to attend what is described as a...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says he shares colleagues’ concerns that the Affordable Care Act could become a “train wreck” if it’s not implemented properly. Reid warned that people will not be able to choose health insurance plans on government health exchanges if federal authorities lack the resources to set them up and educate the public.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is in the process of honoring each of its members by placing a plaque at each Hall of Famer's high school.The Hall of Fame's project made a stop at Superior (WI) High School on Wednesday to honor legendary Vikings Head Coach Bud Grant as well as fellow Hall of Fame members Alphonse "Tuffy" Leemans and Ernie Nevers.Grant is the most revered figure in Vikings lore. He was head coach of the Vikings for 18 seasons (1967-83, 1985) and in that time compiled a regular season record of 158-96-5 while guiding the Vikings to...

A proposed law introduced in the California State legislature would allow public school children to use bathrooms designated for members of the opposite sex, if that students' "gender identity" differed from the students biological sex.

BOSTON (AP) — In photos of her as a younger woman, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva wears a low-cut blouse and has her hair teased like a 1980s rock star. After she arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 2002, she went to beauty school and did facials at a suburban day spa. But in recent years, people noticed a change. She began wearing a hijab and cited conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a plot against Muslims. Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tsarnaeva is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted...

(CNN) - Scientists in Uruguay announced Wednesday the birth of the first genetically-modified phosphorescent sheep. Nine sheep were born in October 2012 at Uruguay's Institute of Animal Reproduction, in an experiment done in partnership with the Institut Pasteur. According to the scientists, the sheep developed normally, without showing any difference with their non-modified counterparts. Uruguayan scientists used a gene from a jellyfish which is responsible for production of a green fluorescent protein.

The F-35 Lighting was the first choice of the Australian air force. But several thunderbolts have struck the stealth aircraft, including the arrival of new generation Sukhois that are skewing the odds against the Australians. Sometime by the middle of this year, Australia will have to make a stark choice. Its defences vulnerable and budget in tatters, the country will announce whether it will buy another squadron of 24 F-18 Super Hornets, or that Australia will stick with the original plan to buy 100 units of the F-35 Lightning – America’s joint strike fighter. Trouble is neither option adds to...

The chief of the FAA told Congress today that Washington-area airports will largely escape the effects of the air traffic controller furloughs — a blessing for lawmakers who fly out of the nation’s capitol. Michael Huerta, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, told a congressional panel that the Washington region’s airports are spaced out enough and have enough spare capacity that furloughs to air traffic controllers won’t hurt as much here. -He also said Atlanta should escape major problems because the big airfield there has five runways, which makes it easier to space flights out. That’s not the case in...

He grew to hate Americans, but that didn't stop him from living off them. Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and other family members received state welfare benefits until last year, Massachusetts officials confirmed to the Boston Herald on Tuesday night. The 26-year-old Tsarnaev was killed in a bloody gun battle with authorities early Friday morning, and his younger brother and accomplice Dzhokhar was captured alive later that evening. Dzhokhar, 19, was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction and could face the death penalty.

New York (MYFOXNY) An electronic fork that vibrates when you eat to quickly has hit the marketplace. It's called the HAPlfork. Its makers say it allows the consumer to quickly monitor and reduce the speed at which they eat.

WASHINGTON - A senior Democratic senator who helped write President Barack Obama's health care law stunned administration officials Wednesday, saying openly he thinks it's headed for a "train wreck" because of bumbling implementation. "I just see a huge train wreck coming down," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told Obama's health care chief during a routine budget hearing that suddenly turned tense. Baucus is the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured people through a mix of government programs and tax...

Before her death, friends visiting Baroness Thatcher at her grand house in Chester Square, Belgravia, would find the living room dominated by a large portrait of Thatcher herself, below which sat a silver bowl marking her 10th anniversary as prime minister. On either side on the mantelpiece, next to a photograph of her late husband Denis, pride of place was taken by framed portraits of her two American-born grandchildren, Michael and Amanda. Lady Thatcher's "greatest delight", she told an interviewer in the late 90s, was "when my daughter-in-law sends me photographs of the grandchildren. Apart from seeing them in the...

More than half a day after the explosions in Boston, police still have few answers. That hasn't quieted the speculation Law enforcement officials don't have any official suspects in Monday's twin bombings at the finish line of the Boston marathon. And President Obama specifically urged people not to speculate on who's behind the attack, which killed at least three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and wounded more than 100 others, including several amputations. "We still don't know who did this or why," Obama said Monday night. "People should not jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. But make...

The woman’s eyes stared vacantly into the sky. The runners had been bounding in, beaming with relief. On both sides of Boylston Street, hundreds of spectators still had packed the area, many cheering with hoarse voices for the late finishers surging in, scores of them every minute. An elderly volunteer greeting runners kept repeating this mantra: “You’re all winners.” When the first boom shattered the bliss and the haze of white smoke washed over the finish line, I could see in the eyes of the woman what had happened. She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t moving. Her eyes appeared lifeless as...

Click on the link to read the winners.

We are less than a week away from the tax-filing deadline. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to submit anything, your taxes were done for you -- for free -- and you just had to make sure nothing was wrong with them? It's not a dream. That's the idea behind "return-free filings," where the IRS would prepare your tax filing for you. While not everyone would qualify, those with simple taxes wouldn't have go through all the hassles that come about every tax season. One of the groups leading the charge against "return-free filings" is Intuit (NASDAQ:

The District of Columbia’s Obamacare czars — the board that sets rules for the phony insurance marketplace, or “exchange,” that the law creates — have decided that henceforth insurers shall be forbidden by law to charge smokers higher rates than non-smokers. Smoking, as it turns out, “is a preexisting medical condition,” according to Dr. Mohammad Akhter, the chairman of the D.C. Health Exchange Board. Two liberal states, California and Connecticut, have decided likewise, while Colorado and Alaska have rejected the idea.

A few more details have been released about the apparent suicide of Matthew Warren, the 27-year-old son of Pastor Rick Warren, the popular evangelical leader of the Saddleback Valley Community mega-church in Southern California. The Orange County Sheriff-Coroner's Department has announced Matthew Warren was found dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his home in Mission Viejo, Calif. ((snip)) The 59-year-old pastor is the author of "The Purpose Driven Life," which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, the church's website says --- making the book the bestselling hardback non-fiction book of all time and...

A man who was found dead hanging by a rope off an 18-story Sacramento high-rise appears to have been a graffiti tagger, Sacramento police said Monday. Fire Battalion Chief Marc Bentovoja said the man appears to have died accidentally of asphyxiation when he created a harness from the rope and lowered himself down the east side of the office building. "From everything we can tell, he didn't have any special rope rappelling equipment on, climbing equipment or anything like that," he said. "He appeared to be looped into the rope." A police department dispatch supervisor said Monday afternoon that investigators...

These DJs are in hot water after telling their listeners on April 1st that 'dihydrogen monoxide' was coming out of their taps. Dihydrogen monoxide is water, but listeners who didn't know that grew very concerned

HOUSTON -- Jack Pardee, one of Bear Bryant's "Junction Boys" at Texas A&M who went on to become an All-Pro linebacker and an NFL coach, died Monday. He was 76. In November, Pardee's family announced that he had gall bladder cancer that had spread to other organs and that he had six to nine months to live. The family has established a memorial scholarship fund in Pardee's name at the University of Houston, where Pardee coached from 1987-89. "Today, we mourn the passing of a great man who dedicated his life to the game of football and was a true...

He could play the piano by ear in the first grade. His artistic and creative bent set him apart from the other boys, and this sense of being different grew steadily over time. “I could hear a song on the radio and sit down and play it,” says Dennis Jernigan, acclaimed Christian songwriter and musician. His life is the subject of the forthcoming feature film “Sing Over Me” that will focus on his deliverance from homosexuality, when God made him a new creature in Christ. Jernigan grew up in Boynton, Oklahoma, a prairie town of only 400 people about 50...

Billionaire Bill Gates is a vegetarian who has become a vocal advocate for a plant-based diet. Gates says a vegetarian diet is healthier and more environmentally friendly than a meat-based diet, and notes that the production of meat is responsible for over half the greenhouse gas emissions in the world. "[Moving toward a vegetarian diet is] important too in light of the environmental impacts of large-scale meat and dairy production, with livestock estimated to produce nearly 51% of the world’s greenhouse gases," Gates blogged on Mashable March 21. "The global population is on track to reach nine billion by 2050....

VIDEO Berlin police helicopter collision caught on film Two helicopters operated by the German federal police collide in snowy conditions while conducting a training exercise close to Berlin's Olympic stadium, leaving at least one person dead. 1:41PM GMT 21 Mar 2013 German authorities said two helicopters crashed near Berlin's Olympic Stadium during a federal police exercise on Thursday. One of the helicopter pilots died at the scene, fire service spokesman Stephan Fleischer said. Five people were injured, four of them seriously, he said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the injured people were in the helicopters, Mr Fleischer said. He didn't...

On his verified Twitter account, CNN contributor Roland Martin seems to be telling some of his followers that, as of April 6, he will no longer be with the network. When asked by one of his Twitter followers why he was leaving, Martin explained, "new boss wants his own peeps."

PHOENIX, March 10 (UPI) -- Mr. Stubbs, an Arizona alligator who had his tail bitten off more than eight years ago, now has a prosthetic tail, his keepers say. The 11-year-old, 7-foot-long alligator at the Phoenix Herpetological Society may be the first alligator to be fitted with an artificial tail, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday. The Phoenix newspaper said it may take Mr. Stubbs months to learn to properly use his 3-foot rubber tail, which is attached with nylon straps. "The fact he doesn't try to bite it (the tail) is a good sign," society President Russ Johnson said. "Learning...

Tom Templeton, of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said unions there want schools to close during strikes. That way, teachers can make up the lost pay and families will notice the strike more. "If teachers strike and districts continue to move on, then that waters down the effects of the strike," he said. Neither of the nation's two largest national teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, would discuss the impact of strikes on students. The AFT declined because Strongsville teachers are affiliated with the NEA. State test scores do not give a clear picture...

The most heated part of the fight between the Obama administration and religious groups over new rules that require most health plans to cover contraception actually has nothing to do with birth control. It has to do with abortion. Specifically, do emergency contraceptives interfere with a fertilized egg and cause what some consider to be abortion? "The Health and Human Services preventive services mandate forces businesses to provide the morning-after and the week-after pills in our health insurance plans," said David Green, founder and CEO of the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, one of the firms suing over the...

It's always a tricky thing to try and pinpoint the first of anything. The first working automobile, the first powered flight, the first beer of the night — all these things are usually surrounded by an impenetrable haze of uncertainty and occasionally, vomit. Often we can make some pretty decent guesses, but this time I feel pretty confident in making an out-and-out statement of what I think is fact: The first vehicles with on-board electrical communication systems were Civil War Telegraph Wagons. That means those battery-crammed wooden wagons are the direct ancestor of cars with radios, radiophones, car phones, all...

A group of professors has debunked the research of a sociologist, finding that children with heterosexual parents do better in school than those raised by homosexuals. ... According to Allen, every time a study that claims no harm to children raised by same-gender couples is released, it has been successfully disputed when put under a microscope.

News hit the Net yesterday afternoon that lightning had struck The Vatican twice, just hours after Pope after Pope Benedict XVI's sudden resignation. As a lightning photographer and weather photo hoax buster, I investigated to see if the photo was real. #PHOTO: Lightning strikes St Peter's dome at #Vatican on day the #Pope announced resignation, by Filippo Monteforte twitter.com/AFP/status/301...— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) February 11, 2013 When the picture first started circulating on Facebook, Meteonetwork Puglia e Basilicata ONLUS (a division of Associazione MeteoNetwork Onlus) and commenting members of the Facebook page thought that the photo might be faked (loose internet...

Dispatchers are saying a suspect has traded gunfire with Fish & Game officials after a woman was found tied up and someone fled the scene; information will be updated as it comes in

"Chris P. Bacon" was born without hind legs, so his creative owner created a wheelchair out of K'Nex for him.

My dear friends with the Nemo Blizzard dropping about 2 to 3 feet at my house I was thinking again today about the wonders of... snow. Yes snow! Something one either hates or loves but whether you despise it or enjoy it, snow in it's self is an absolute wonder of Almighty God's ETERNAL creative genius (Job 38:22-23, Psalm 104:24, Prov. 3:19). As I was thinking of snow... the Bible verse from Isaiah 1:18 came to mind. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;...

BACKGROUND: Several complaints went viral over the past month when employees reported to the Command that AAFES was not cleaning and inspecting its soda machines properly leading to an infestation of maggots. Finally, some employees took pictures and posted. This prompted the Command to do an impromptu inspection and shut the doors. Here is their official statement earlier in the day: "Regarding the recent post about the AAFES Burger King: I met with AAFES Manager Jonathan Bright this morning. Mr. Bright assured me the area has been cleaned and that Veterinarian Services inspected and cleared the facility. Additionally, Command Sgt....

Google’s infrastructure spending continued its upward trend during the fourth quarter, hitting a two-year high of $1.02 billion. Excluding the fourth quarter of 2010, though — in which Google plunked down $2 billion for a massive data center/office location at 111 8th Avenue in New York — the company’s last quarter represents the biggest infrastructure investment in its history.

Original Iwo Jima monument, which used to be housed at the Intrepid Sea-Air- Space Museum, to hit the auction block. The 10-ton piece, inspired by the iconic photo taken at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 and the model for the flag-raising Marine Corps War Memorial statue in Arlington, Va., will be up for sale at Bonhams auction house on Feb. 22. It is listed for sale for $1.3 million to $1.8 million.

A t-shirt emblazoned with one of the most memorable lines from the classic adventure film The Princess Bride caused a furore on a Qantas flight last week. Wynand Mullins boarded a plane bound for Auckland on Sunday with “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die” printed on the front of his top. While some fellow fliers recognised that the line was from the swashbuckling 1987 film The Princess Bride, it went over the heads of other passengers, who told cabin crew they felt threatened by the t-shirt’s message. Mr Mullins told Fairfax New Zealand: "The...

Three days into President Barack Obama's second term and it's clear he's not the man he was in his first term. Just ask the fly. A pesky Musca domestica (per pooler Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo) landed on the president's face during a press conference Thursday to announce his picks to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obama swatted at the fly a couple of times, and the official White House transcript records, "This guy is bothering me here—(swatting at a fly.)" The insect eventually left the commander in chief alone.

Liberal icon Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "You're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts." But that was decades ago, and today more leftists than ever have graduated from confusion to delusion and believe they're entitled to their own fiction. A good example is naturalist David Attenborough, who recently complained that man is a plague upon our planet. He warns that our burgeoning population will ensure that we consume the world's resources like a sun-occluding swarm of high-tech locusts. Writes The Telegraph: "We are a plague on the Earth. It's coming home to roost...

Since retiring and leaving Law Enforcement, I have been active in Risk Management consulting, a field that has grown rapidly throughout every industry over the past 20 years. Some of the companies I have consulted to for risk management include IBM, Gates Lear jet, National Semiconductor, and Pinkerton International Protection Services.

President Barack Obama is featuring eight Americans as "citizen co-chairs" of his inauguration, a new role created to highlight his first-term accomplishments with examples of lives that have either been improved by his actions or inspired his presidency. Inaugural planners say the honorees include a woman with a brain tumor who no longer is denied health care for a pre-existing condition; an autoworker who got her job back after the General Motors bailout; and a gay pilot-in-training kicked out of the Air Force before the president repealed the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Inauguration officials said Wednesday that the...