Free Republic

High levels of natural gas are escaping from the aging pipes beneath the streets of the nation’s capital, creating potentially harmful concentrations in some locations, a new study has found. Natural gas leaks pose explosion risks, health concerns, and contribute to climate change. The paper, which appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, also provides information that could help companies justify additional financial incentives for fixing leaks quickly. Robert Jackson and colleagues note that natural gas leakage is a serious problem on multiple levels, including impacts on the economy and climate. Property damage is estimated at $133 million...

Nellie Gray, a steadfast opponent of abortion who for almost 40 years led a yearly protest march in Washington that drew tens of thousands of supporters, and whose battle cry was “No exception! No compromise!,” was found dead on Monday at her home in Washington. She was 88.

Washington, they say, is Hollywood for ugly people. It’s also debate club for the logically impaired. The past year included its share of fallacies, sophistries, oversimplifications and utter absurdities. But a few prominent arguments committed the worst offenses against rational thought. Below are the three worst arguments made in Washington in 2013. These weren’t illogical brain freezes or odd beliefs spouted by backbenchers. These arguments were deliberately devised, promulgated and repeated by prominent politicians, which makes them all the more embarrassing. 1. “If we can save only one life…” The demagoguery started early in 2013, as Democrats tried to push...

Here in Washington DC a national prayer service was originally scheduled for the National Cathedral (which is still closed due to the earthquake damage – see photo, right). It is now slated for the Kennedy Center. Yet, the “national” quality of the service is disputed by some, including Washington Examiner columnist Ken Klukowski who writes the following commentary. His remarks are bold, black italic text. My remarks are normal text red. The article here is excerpted the full text can be read here: Washington Examiner The National Cathedral is an Episcopal church, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion...

St. Cecilia I went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of The Immaculate Conception here in Washington DC  last week to celebrate Mass the TV Mass. Afterward I went to the crypt church and took a series of pictures of the beautiful mosaics of the women of the Scriptures and early Church. Among them are Agatha, Agnes, Anastasia, Anne, Brigid, Catherine, Cecilia, Lucy, Margarita, Perpetua, Felicity, and Susanna.At the right is a mosaic of St. CeciliaThe Mosaics date to 1927 and were designed and installed by Ravenna Mosaic Co, of St. Louis. They are  the backdrops for the...

ABC This Week viewers were treated to a classic conservative versus liberal debate Sunday. When former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich tried to blame the increase in poverty in the past five years on Republicans, former Speaker of the House and current CNN host Newt Gingrich called it "baloney" firing back, "Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary): Gingrich Schools Reich: 'Every Major City Which Is a Poverty Center Is Run By Democrats' JONATHAN KARL, SUBSTITUTE HOST: And let me ask you, Mr....

Amid a number of scandals that have made national headlines, the elected officials running Washington D.C.’s perpetually corrupt local government have come up with another winner—a bill to allow non U.S. citizens vote in elections. It’s simply business as usual for local government in the District of Columbia, still renowned for the appearance of Mayor Marion Barry in an FBI surveillance video smoking crack. Since being convicted—and serving time—for cocaine possession Barry has been elected to the D.C. Council multiple times and has been embroiled in a number of scandals, including taking cash payments from city contractors, failing to pay...

Federal law enforcement authorities have charged nearly 50 past or present Russian diplomats and their spouses in a $1.5 million Medicaid fraud scheme, an unusual twist in what has become a familiar criminal story line in New York. An F.B.I. investigation revealed “the systemic fraudulent submission of falsified applications for Medicaid benefits” by the diplomats and their spouses, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday in United States District Court in Manhattan. The diplomats and their spouses obtained the benefits for pregnancies, births and first-year-of-life medical needs, generally applying at the same New York hospital, which was not identified,...

DCRTV hears that Laurel's WILC, 900 AM, will be flipping to conservative English language talk on January 1st. Taking many of the shows now heard on Northern Virginia's WTNT, 730 AM/102.9 FM, which flips to Spanish contemporary on December 1st. More soon.....

The 1,800 or so criminals who have killed, robbed or assaulted innocent people with guns in the District of Columbia so far this year were hauled into the police station to be fingerprinted, photographed and to undergo a criminal-background check. Now, legal gun owners who have committed no crime are getting the exact same treatment. That is neither constitutional, nor fair. The latest gun-control scheme that starts on Jan. 1 will force every legal firearm owner in the nation’s capital to go in person to police headquarters to renew their registration certificates. The Metropolitan Police Department filed proposed rules last...

Regular readers know I complain about the army of overpaid bureaucrats in Washington, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The larger problem is that Washington also is filled with hundreds of thousands of other people who get rich thanks to big government. And these politicians, lobbyists, crony capitalists, interest groups, contractors, and influence peddlers almost surely are a bigger net drain on the economy’s productive sector. When you combine the official bureaucracy with these other over-compensated beneficiaries of big government, it’s easy to understand why Washington, DC, is now the richest region of America, with 10 of the...

Martha Rigsby collapsed to the ground for the first time in 1977. The spells continued, and she began calling 911 for help. She hasn’t stopped. In the past year alone, she’s accounted for 226 calls to 911 and been whisked by an ambulance to a hospital 117 times. Among firefighters in the District, she’s a dreaded legend. They can recite her date of birth and Social Security number from memory. Over 30 years, Rigsby has become the most frequent 911 user in D.C. history, totaling thousands of emergency calls and trips to the hospital after falling down, court papers say....

Members of the Allied Forces Foundation Pipe and Drum Corps play bagpipes in Union Station in Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com/James Beattie) (CNSNews.com) - An organization that serves British and American soldiers and its families was told by Union Station security in Washington, D.C., Saturday that it could not play its bagpipes, because it did not have a permit. The Allied Forces Foundation (AFF), which helps wounded soldiers and their families in the United Kingdom as well as the United States, had a luncheon at Pizzeria Uno’s on Saturday for their families and supporters in the buildup to the Marine Corps...

The pots and pans are clanging for the ouster of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as the Obamacare website rollout takes on the aspect of that of the Edsel. Yet, though it is a website that has America laughing, Obama's legacy legislation itself could, in its entirety, be in peril. As ex-pilot George W. Bush used to say, this thing looks like a five-spiral crash. Republicans are clamoring for Sebelius's firing. Herewith, a dissent. Why not leave her right where she is? After all, Sebelius's continuance testifies more eloquently than any attack ad just how far Obama's beliefs...

<p>Mark Witaschek, a successful financial adviser with no criminal record, is facing two years in prison for possession of unregistered ammunition after D.C. police raided his house looking for guns. Mr. Witaschek has never had a firearm in the city, but he is being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The trial starts on Nov. 4.</p>

In June 2013, the DC City Council passed legislation requiring carriers to sell all individual and small group products through DC Health Link, effectively dissolving the non-Marketplace individual and small group markets. Individual plans may only be offered through the Marketplace beginning on January 1, 2014, while small group plans have until January 1, 2015 to transition to DC Health Link.6 In addition, the SHOP and individual markets will be merged into a single risk pool.7

"If a dry run is occurring, the attack will shortly follow." That's according to Wolf Koch, a Boeing 767 pilot for Delta Airlines and an official at the Air Line Pilots Association International, who was discussing common terrorist tactics in the run-up to devastating attacks like those on 9/11. That is an extremely worrying thought given a memo leaked this week from the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, which warns of "several cases recently…of what appear to be probes, or dry runs" of such attacks.

Nothing seems to have angered the public quite so much as the Obama administration's needless closure of our national war monuments and the forcible denial of access to those sites to the warriors whom they were erected to honor. In an absolutely shameful move, the administration has selected for particular abuse those who have given the most to preserve the democratic survival of this nation. The outrage this churlishness has provoked is so widespread and deep that even Democrats should realize it as petty spitefulness coming from a petulant president and counterproductive to their cause. Sadly, none has thus far...

a man who set himself on fire at the National Mall in the nations capital has died from his injuries, District of Columbia police said Saturday.

In shutting down the government, members of Congress have turned their own U.S. Capitol complex into a ghost town running on a skeleton crew. There aren't any tourists milling through the Capitol rotunda. Fewer police officers are working, so many entrances are closed. Up to two-thirds of each office's staff is at home, forced to shut off their BlackBerries. And many of the usual comforts of a lawmaker's day job have vanished.