Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday asked the White House to declare disaster areas in eight Southern California counties ravaged earlier this month by a spate of deadly storms. If the request is approved, the move should help municipalities fund repairs to roads, bridges and other structures damaged by flooding and mudslides triggered by days of heavy rain in the counties of Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura. Twenty-eight deaths were linked to the effects of the storms that began Jan. 7. "I have determined that this incident is of...

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!

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - The Bush administration Tuesday proposed large cuts in federally designated areas in the Northwest and California meant to aid the recovery of threatened or endangered salmon. Protection would focus instead on rivers where the fish now thrive. The critical habitat designation originally included rivers accessible to salmon, even if no fish occupied them, and covered most of Washington, Oregon and California and parts of Idaho. Under the federal plan, critical habitats would be cut by more than 80 percent in the Northwest and 50 percent in California — and more cuts might be ordered based on...

<p>SAN DIEGO (AP) - Fire codes should be made uniform in the state's highest-risk wildfire regions, overriding a patchwork of local regulations, a state report says.</p> <p>The proposal is one of 69 recommendations developed by the Gov.'s Blue Ribbon Fire Commission staff in response to last October's firestorms, many of which call for more funding. A draft summary obtained by The Associated Press also calls for more coordination among local, state and federal officials, including quicker use of military aircraft in emergencies.</p>

Rural areas questioning incentives Thursday, December 11, 2003 5:58AM EST By AMY GARDNER AND CHRIS SERRES, Staff Writers Robert Neal, a laid-off textile worker from Cabarrus County, traveled to Raleigh this week looking for good news for his community and others that have lost thousands of manufacturing jobs. He came away disappointed. In a special session called by Gov. Mike Easley, lawmakers passed a $240 million package that provides tax breaks for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., other cigarette makers and pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Most of the immediate benefits will go to companies doing business in two of the...