Free Republic

CULPEPER, Va. — A bomb threat shut down an entire Virginia school district Thursday, canceling classes for more than 7,200 students in eight public schools, as well as hundreds more in area religious schools and child care centers. Culpeper County Schools spokeswoman Marla McKenna said she couldn't discuss the content of the threat, which came on the heels of three deadly U.S. school attacks in the span of a week. "You simply can't be too cautious," said Superintendent David A. Cox. "The safety of our students and our employees is our number one concern." Police teams planned to sweep all...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Justice Department official denied a report on Wednesday that the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI in connection with a corruption probe. ABC News, citing unnamed Justice Department sources, reported that information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists now cooperating with the government. But a Justice Department official told Reuters: "The story is wrong. Hastert is not under investigation."

"Perhaps no issue before the Senate in recent history has elicited more emotion from both sides of the debate than the issue of illegal immigration. My job as a U.S. senator is to see through the cloud of emotional rhetoric blurring the debate and act in the best interests of the United States and the citizens of Colorado. The principle upon which I rely to guide me through this debate is simple: the rule of law. While America is a nation of immigrants, it is also a nation of laws. The rule of law is the foundation of our society...

Visual Studio 2005 Express Announcements! Dear Visual Studio Express community, We are incredibly excited to announce that effective April 19th, 2006, all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express will be free permanently! Prior to this pricing announcement, Visual Studio Express Editions were promotionally discounted to be free for one year, starting on November 7th, 2005. With this announcement, the promotional discount for Visual Studio Express is now permanent and Express will continue to be free. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Amid the threat of possible U.N. economic sanctions, Iran announced Friday it is transferring its foreign exchange accounts out of U.S. and European banks, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. Ibrahim Sheibani, the head of Iran's Central Bank, said the Islamic state will transfer all of its foreign accounts related to its oil income to Southeast Asian banks, according to the conservative news agency.

Every time people tell me there's no media bias, I use stories such as mine on Jimmy Carter to illustrate just the opposite. The official media loves Carter and some have dumped on me for not sharing that love. That's fine. But here's what isn't: Pretending you're serving your readers or viewers by saying you're giving both sides. Take this issue of tons of explosives now missing in Iraq. Why no reporting on this NBC News item these weapons might have disappeared "before" American troops even arrived on the scene? And why suddenly this new-found concern for explosives at all...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - There was no big stir on Wall Street, but a San Francisco-based Internet company marked a cultural milestone Thursday by becoming the first gay-directed business to trade its stock on a major exchange. PlanetOut Inc., which operates several gay and lesbian-themed Web sites, made an initial public stock offering of 4.65 million shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares gained 16 percent on the first day of trading, closing at $10.40. In a nod to both its mission and as a statement of gay pride, PlanetOut adopted "LGBT" - an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual...

Bremer: Bush Is Still Right About Iraq Apparently tired of how the media establishment and its pet John Kerry have distorted his recent remarks on Iraq, former administrator L. Paul Bremer III has a column today in the worst offender, the New York Times. Among his points: # "The press has been curiously reluctant to report my constant public support for the president's strategy in Iraq. "I have been involved in the war on terrorism for two decades, and in my view no world leader has better understood the stakes in this global war than President Bush.” # "The president...

EILAT, Israel (AP) - An explosion tore through a resort hotel in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where Israelis were vacationing at the end of a Jewish holiday Thursday night, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 160, officials said. Two smaller blasts were reported later at other tourist sites in the Sinai, and witnesses gave reports that car bombs caused all three explosions. Egyptian officials said they had no evidence of terrorism but that it was unlikely the three blasts could be coincidence. Israel's Army Radio quoted Israeli security officials as saying they were convinced the first explosion was...

Endorsement: George W. Bush for president It's about national security. That's the key issue on the minds of Americans planning to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election. They must decide whether Republican President George W. Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry, a Democrat, can provide the leadership to safeguard America from foreign terrorism. Americans aren't fools. They know that without safe cities and towns, America will lose its greatness. Our cherished freedoms and sacred liberties will be diminished, along with our opportunities for economic prosperity and our basic pursuit of happiness. Our children and their children will live vastly...

President Bush on Monday received the endorsement of New York's Conservative Party. "With Bush having the momentum, closing the gap even here in New York, it's not impossible, never has been impossible, I never believed it was impossible, that he could ultimately take this state," state Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long said. "I think our endorsement helps put New York in play." Such a move allowed Ronald Reagan to carry the state in 1980. Two statewide independent polls released last week showed Democrat John Kerry's once hefty double-digit leads over Republican Bush in heavily Democratic New York had slipped into...