Free Republic

Entercom news/talk WWL/New Orleans host Vince Marinello, who was arrested and charged with the murder of his estranged wife last week, was released from jail on Monday (Sept. 11) after posting $250,000 bail. Marinello, 69, surrendered himself to authorities last Thursday (Sept. 7) and was booked into a Jefferson Parish, La., jail on second-degree murder charges in the death of 45-year-old Mary Elizabeth Marinello, with whom he had reportedly been embroiled in a contentious divorce. She died Sept. 1, just one day after being shot twice in the face in a parking lot. During initial questioning last week Marinello told...

A federal program paying rent for an estimated 330 "Katrina" families in Austin ends today, after being extended several times since February. The program, run locally by the City of Austin, has foot the bill for almost 2,000 families over the past year. "The deadlines have continued to be extended, and we have not been notified of an extension of the deadline for the "403" program for another month, so we're anticipating that the program actually ends today," the city's Paul Hilgers says. Hilgers says FEMA has contacted those families to tell them the free rent program is ending and...

The problem with the Bush administration is that not enough of its officials have read the U.S. Constitution. Take, for example, Section 2 of Article 2. When dealing with foreign nations, it says that the President “shall have the power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur….” So, why is President Bush and his administration seeking to establish a North American Union that would, in effect, abolish the borders between Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America? Moreover, it would involve our government in so...

NEW ORLEANS - Five people ranging in age from 16 to 19 were killed in a street shooting early Saturday, the most violent crime reported in this slowly repopulating city since Hurricane Katrina hit last August. All were believed to have been gunned down while inside a sport utility vehicle that was found rammed against a utility pole in the Central City neighborhood just outside the central business district. Authorities said they were looking for one or more suspects but did not elaborate. Capt. John Bryson said police think the shootings were either drug-related or some type of retaliation attack....

A bill requiring students to learn about the contributions homosexuals have made to society and that would remove sex-specific terms such as "mom" and "dad" from textbooks has passed another hurdle on the way to becoming the law of the land in California. Having already been approved by the state's Senate Judiciary Committee, SB 1437, which would mandate grades 1-12 buy books "accurately" portraying "the sexual diversity of our society," got the nod yesterday of the Senate Education Committee. The bill also requires students hear history lessons on "the contributions of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- In a lecture hall on Yale's storied Old Campus, not long after an afternoon astronomy class has cleared out, a middle-aged sex toy saleswoman demonstrates her technique and hands out free products to an eager crowd. "I want you to close your eyes," Patty Brisben playfully instructs a young man as she rubs scented lotion into his forearm and, to raucous laughter, reaches for an electric toy and a glove. "Fantasize about having an all-over body massage." Welcome to Sex Week at Yale, a biennial celebration that has become one of the most provocative campus...

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - As the tropical sun set over Mexico's Pacific coast, tourists drifted away from the pool, waiters shook the evening's first cocktails and three men sat murdered in a car, their brains splattered over the seats. Just inland from Acapulco's busy beach and luxury hotels, five killers toting assault rifles had stepped up to the brand new Volkswagen Jetta and pumped it with dozens of bullets. The driver was still wearing his seat belt but half of his head was blown off. There was no doubt of the motive. "It's the drug trade," Acapulco Mayor Felix Salgado...

NUEVO LAREDO It must be the vicious drug cartel turf battles. Mexican citizens safety in Texas. The U.S. Consulate closes for a week. And a much-touted federal program, known as "Mexico Seguro," either works or doesnt work, depending to whom one speaks. Mayor Daniel Peña Treviño said "Mexico Seguro," or "Safe Mexico," is a program that is being applied in steps and should not be considered a "magic wand" that would halt cartel violence in its tracks. "We not saying the program is a success and that there will be no more deaths, but we have made advances," Peña Treviño...

SACRAMENTO -- A new Legislature, rattled by a federal corruption probe centered in the East Bay, returns in about a week to a highly unpopular "partisan cesspool" that voters worsened and should help fix very soon, says a new report from an independent, nonpartisan think-tank. Term limits have largely backfired, spurring rather than squelching political-ladder climbing and behind-the-scenes games, analysts said. In recent weeks, the investigation swirling around Senate leader-elect Don Perata, D-Oakland, has only worsened the crisis in the face of weighty issues such as the state's persistent, multibillion-dollar budget deficit. "Legislators are learning more quickly than in the...

Clean Up Airwaves Years ago, a guy who ran a pornography shop came to see me. He had been busted by the cops. He wanted me to write a story defending his free-speech rights. "If they can arrest me, they can arrest somebody for selling Shakespeare," he said, dragging out the old slippery-slope argument. "Well, if you start selling Shakespeare and somebody arrests you for selling Shakespeare, come see me," I said. "In the meantime, get out of my office." The First Amendment was not written, designed or intended to protect obscenity, vulgarity, pornography and indecency — or dancing nude...

One of Zimbabwe's few hundred remaining commercial farmers has been beaten to death after being warned to leave, according to sources at the Commercial Farmers Union. The dead farmer, Peeter Siverton, was planning to leave the farm for his own safety. The 71-year-old Peeter Siverton lived on his own and grew his last crop in April 2003. His children said he was under continuing threat from new neighbors and government officials who have taken over all the farms in the area known as Sherwood Block in central Zimbabwe. They said Mr. Siverton was preparing to leave his home for the...

It was just reported on the Al Rantel show in Los Angeles by an associate at KGO in San Francisco that a peace protestor actually defecated in the street by a federal building. In addition, they are apparently drinking sour milk and forcing themselves to puke in the street. Yep, these peace pukes are really a class act.

<p>His appointees raise funds for the governor, sometimes from those who are being regulated.</p> <p>Gov. Gray Davis' record-breaking effort to secure campaign cash has been aided by a network of people he has appointed to state boards and commissions, some of whom raise money from businesses and individuals they regulate.</p>