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A bartender at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colo., said early Monday that he believes the gunman who committed a mass shooting there over the weekend was targeting the LGBTQ community. During an appearance on “CNN This Morning,” Michael Anderson noted that the gunman came to one of only two gay clubs in the city. “I don’t know what was wrong with this man,” Anderson said. “I don’t know why he needed to act in this way, but he obviously had some some feelings towards — I don’t know if it was transgender people, gays, lesbians, I don’t know —...

It hasn't attracted much notice, but recently some prominent advocates of Obamacare have spoken more frankly than ever before about why they supported a national health care makeover. It wasn't just about making insurance more affordable. It wasn't just about bending the cost curve. It wasn't just about cutting the federal deficit. It was about redistributing wealth. Health reform is "an income shift," Democratic Sen. Max Baucus said on March 25. "It is a shift, a leveling, to help lower income, middle income Americans."

"I'm working closely with my economic advisors to explore any and all additional options and measures that we might take to promote job creation," Obama said after the Labor Department reported that 263,000 Americans lost jobs in September and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent. Embedded in those numbers was this sobering statistic. The number of Americans unemployed for 27 weeks increased by 450,000 and now totals 5.4 million. The White House may soon ask Congress to extend three parts of the original $787 billion stimulus law signed in mid-February. * Extend the current $8,000 first-time home buyer tax...

A massive gamma-ray burst detected last March, believed to be the brightest ever seen, turns out to have been aimed directly at the Earth. A narrow jet that drove material toward us at 99.99995 of the speed of light is revealed in the data, itself wrapped within a somewhat slower and wider jet. The best estimates are that an alignment like this occurs only once every ten years. Says Paul O’Brien (University of Leicester, and a member of the team working on the Swift satellite): “We normally detect only the wide jet of a GRB as the inner jet is...

WAYCROSS, Ga. - A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday. The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said. "We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been...

Democrats have introduced resolutions in the House and Senate that would censure President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., introduced the censure resolutions in the Senate on Aug. 4; New York Democrat Maurice D. Hinchey introduced them in the House a day later. One resolution (S Res 302, H Res. 625), would censure Bush and Cheney for “misleading the American people” about the need to invade and occupy Iraq, as well as for poor planning and conduct of the war. The other measure (S Res 303, H Res. 626) would censure Bush and...

University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau is creating a top-level post to focus on keeping the campus fair and welcoming. Birgeneau said he wants to make sure there is equal opportunity for students, faculty and staff regardless of religion, sexual orientation, race, gender or whether someone has a disability or not. "I very strongly believe that every single person (should) feel that this is a place where they belong, where they are respected for their individuality, for what they represent and their background," Birgeneau said Wednesday in announcing the new position at a back-to-school briefing. A national search is...

In California politics, Silicon Valley executives used to be considered newbies, nerds or simply multimillionaires with too much time and money on their hands. No longer. Emboldened over the past decade by some success passing ballot propositions, a handful of the valley's most influential power brokers are once again aiming to use the initiative process to put their stamp on public policy in California. Two of the boldest electoral initiatives yet to emerge from valley interests will be on November's ballot: NetFlix founder Reed Hastings and Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr are backing Proposition 88, an unprecedented statewide real...

CHAPEL HILL - A man charged with trying to kill students at the University of North Carolina by driving through a popular campus gathering spot says in a series of letters he does not deserve punishment. He also talks about his youth in Charlotte, referring at one point to a school fight he said he started at Myers Park Traditional Elementary School. And he refers to Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, aqs "one of my role models." Mohammed Taheri-azar is accused of driving a Jeep Cherokee into a crowd of students gathered at...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger again blasted President Bush's Cabinet as ``dangerously wrong'' about the condition of California's waterlogged levees Thursday -- a move political analysts say could be a calculated attempt to curry favor with the state's left-leaning voters while stopping just short of alienating the president. The election-year maneuver has set up a pivotal moment today for Schwarzenegger as the two embattled Republican leaders prepare to meet in San Jose. If Schwarzenegger fails to persuade Bush to pay for levees, it could be the governor's most high-profile defeat of a campaign promise to act as the ``Collectinator,'' and...

Publisher says Bible textbook respects both facts and faith NEW VOLUME IS AIMED AT PUBLIC SCHOOLS By Richard N. Ostling Associated Press Posted on Fri, Sep. 23, 2005 An interfaith group released a new textbook Thursday aimed at teaching public high school students about the Bible while avoiding legal and religious disputes. The non-profit Bible Literacy Project of Fairfax, Va., spent five years and $2 million developing ``The Bible and Its Influence.'' The textbook, introduced at a Washington news conference, won initial endorsements from experts in literature, religion and church-state law. American Jewish Congress attorney Marc Stern, an adviser on...

If the Oklahoma City bombers refused to participate in a U.S. election, would the final results be considered “illegitimate?” What if the Nation of Islam, the Black Panthers, the Communist Party USA, or the Southern Indiana Regional Militia refused to vote in American elections? Would it matter and, really, who gives a damn? The Left-Wing, e.g. the New York Times, has been trying to hold the Iraqi elections to this type of ridiculous standard regarding Sunni participation. Granted: Sunnis make up 32-37% of Iraq’s population. While their representation is important, the majority of terrorist attacks aimed at destabilizing Iraq have...

SACRAMENTO — Exploiting a political tool that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has used with relish, liberal groups and Democratic lawmakers are planning to place on the ballot some long-favored policies and programs that the governor has so far blocked. Advocates hope the tactic could provide leverage for a series of labor and consumer causes defeated through vetoes and ballot measures this year. But the approach could also increase the Capitol's partisan rancor, and even Democratic leaders say it could provide voters with a fresh signal that the Legislature is becoming irrelevant. Possible ballot initiatives under discussion by an assortment of liberal...

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!

San Jose Councilman Terry Gregory's former chief of staff alleges in a wrongful termination claim filed against the city on Tuesday that his former boss strong-armed local businesses for free meals and donations to his district and threatened an employee to ``leave quietly, or else.'' Mayor Ron Gonzales immediately announced he was launching an independent investigation into the allegations by Craig Mann, who served as Gregory's chief of staff from January to December 2003, when he was dismissed. If the city rejects the claim, Mann is free to file a wrongful termination suit. Mann contends he was fired because he...

An explosion near a coalition forces base in central Basra was the result of a local dispute, not a targeted attack on international forces, the Ministry of Defence said. A blast from a car damaged two other vehicles, but was no one was seriously injured. Major Niall Greenwood, who is based at Basra International Airport, confirmed that British and American soldiers had not been targeted. "It was not an attack against coalition forces. Indications are that the incident was the result of a dispute between four men over drinking in public," Maj Greenwood said. "Following the dispute a vehicle returned...