Free Republic

The family that had wanted to build the world’s tallest flagpole in rural eastern Maine has agreed to pay a $250,000 penalty under a consent agreement following construction of more than 50 cabins without obtaining environmental permits from the state. The Board of Environmental Protection signed off Wednesday on the consent agreement signed late last month by Morrill Worcester, patriarch of the family whose company owns the land. The Flagpole View Cabins were built from 2019 to 2022 in sparsely populated Columbia Falls near the site where the family wanted to build a flagpole taller than the Empire State Building....

A tiny town in Maine has been divided by a plan to build the world's tallest flagpole, with an American flag the size of a football field and an accompanying museum and theme park. The scheme is the brain child of a local businessman, Morrill Worcester. Worcester's family-owned business, Worcester Wreaths, cultivates thousands of acres of balsam forest used to make wreaths for Christmas. Since 1992 he has also been donating wreaths for the tombs of American veterans, and in 2007 the charity Wreaths Across America was formed. Worcester came up with the plan for a gigantic patriotic gesture in...

Ex-NYPD officer sentenced to record 10 years for Jan. 6 riot Retired New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. Webster was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) 1 of 7 Retired New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. Webster was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in...

You’re hanging around a flagpole with your pals in the freezing cold, and one of them triple-dog-dares you to put your tongue on the pole to see if it sticks. Well, lo and behold, it did stick, so now how do you get it unstuck? I’ve thought about this scenario ever since I was a kid and first saw the cinematic classic A Christmas Story. For some reason I decided that this could happen to me one day and if it did, I needed to know how to get my tongue unstuck from a frozen flagpole without having to call...

Two local doctors were arrested Tuesday after deputies say they stole a Trump 2020 flag from their neighbor. Geoffrey Michael Fraiche, 41, Laura Ann Webb-Fraiche, 38, were arrested and charged with criminal mischief, trespassing, larceny and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Fraiche and Webb-Fraiche are accused of stealing the man’s flag on April 7, according to a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report. Ring surveillance video shows the two driving up to the man’s house on a golf cart with at least two children with them, according to deputies. The report says Fraiche and Webb-Fraiche used a...

On August 12, a driver drove his vehicle into a crowd of “anti-racist” protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 other individuals. The suspect has been identified as James Alex Fields, Jr. Department of Memes reported that police officers in Charlottesville believed the driver was not acting maliciously, suggesting he was scared by the protesters on every side of his vehicle and he did not know what to do.

A mentally ill man who spent nearly four hours dangling from a Gallier Hall flagpole on Saturday (July 1), shutting down a downtown section of St. Charles Avenue, finally ended his disturbance around 1 p.m. and was arrested by New Orleans police. The unidentified man had snarled holiday weekend traffic on one of the city's most well-known streets, after harnessing himself about 25-30 feet above the hall's marble base around 9:15 a.m. and threatening to hang himself or jump. New Orleans police closed St. Charles Avenue between Poydras and Julia streets to all auto, pedestrian and streetcar traffic during the...

Standing 400 feet tall, the new Acuity Insurance Flagpole is the tallest flagpole in North America (#tallestUSflag). Located on the Acuity Insurance headquarters campus in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, along Interstate 43 between Milwaukee and Green Bay, the pole supports a 60-foot-wide by 120-foot-long American flag. Located at the base of the flagpole is a brick paver patio featuring the names of Sheboygan County residents killed in active duty.

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Hours before a large Tea Party protest at the State Capitol, North Carolina officials suspended a rule that would have kept flagpoles and banner supports to a maximum length of 12 inches. "The Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and the Department of Administration are concerned that Rule 16 poses potential legal questions. As a result, State Capitol Police has suspended enforcement of the rule until a review can be completed," said Crime Control and Public Safety Secretary Reuben Young in a statement. < snip > Article here

Retired Army Col. Van Barfoot was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for attacking three German machine gun nests and then three German tanks. He now will be allowed to continue raising Old Glory without having to face a lawsuit from thye Sussex Square homeowners' association near Richmond, Va.

No Prayer in School? Millions of Students Will Pray at "See You At The Pole" Gatherings ORLANDO, FL - Wednesday, September 27, is the official day for the 17th annual "See You At The Pole" prayer rallies. The rallies are student-initiated, student-led events where students gather before school to pray for their classmates, teachers, schools, families, communities, states and nations. Each year approximately three million students from all fifty states and more than twenty countries gathered around school flagpoles to pray. Students in the United States have often met with resistance from school officials who are not educated about constitutional...

FORT PAYNE, Ala. — A Valley Head man was arrested for walking naked along a highway while waving an American flag. The DeKalb County Sheriff's Department arrested Gerald Lynn Kelley, 52, and charged him with public lewdness in connection with the incident, the Fort Payne Times-Journal reported Tuesday. DeKalb Deputy Mike James said deputies were sent to Hammondville about 3 p.m. Sunday after receiving calls about two men walking nude along U.S. 11, just inside the town limits. James said Kelley, who was allegedly drunk, was wearing only a cowboy hat and boots. <---SNIP---->

http://www.wayy790.com This pole needs some serious FREEPING!! (right side of page) Vote early and often......

Plan raises lofty tribute to veterans By PLOTT BRICE The Atlanta Journal-Constitution LEXINGTON -- An Alabama-based non-profit group has ambitious plans to honor American veterans with a memorial park in Oglethorpe County including a 550-foot flagpole which promoters say would be the tallest in the world. The U.S. Armed Forces Tribute Foundation has a contract to buy about 1,400 acres near U.S. 78 and the Oglethorpe-Wilkes county line. The flagpole, to cost around $1.2 million, would rise 250 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty and be only five feet shorter than the Washington monument, promoters say. The pole would...

The tallest freestanding flagpole in the world currently stands in Amman, Jordan, but if all goes as planned by the U.S. Armed Forces Tribute Foundation, the new tallest flagpole in the world will rise in Oglethorpe County. According to Sam Hurst, the foundation's public relations director, a 550-foot flagpole with an American flag will stand on almost 1,400 acres of land in eastern Oglethorpe County near Centerville Road at a proposed veterans' memorial park called ''America's Tribute.'' Oglethorpe County Commission Chairman Robert Johnson said the commission has been aware of the park plans for a few months, but did not...

The flap surrounding George Andres, his flagpole and his crusade to fly Old Glory on that flagpole played across the country on Friday. Rush Limbaugh weighed in on the controversy, and Andres also did a segment on Lou Dobbs Tonight on CNN. Andres said his phone began ringing shortly after 6 a.m. Friday.

A former U.S. Marine in danger of losing his home in a neighborhood feud over flying an American flag will not lose his property – at least not this Memorial Day. Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush celebrates Flag Day with former Marine George Andres George Andres of Jupiter, Fla., has been warring with his homeowners association for the past four years, as the flagpole in his yard turned into a national lightning rod of controversy. According to local news reports, a Palm Beach County judge halted the foreclosure of Andres' home, which was slated to be sold at a courthouse auction...

JUPITER -- Former Marine George Andres got air support Friday from Gov. Jeb Bush, who flew in to give Andres $100 toward his legal fight and help him raise a new American flag on the white flag pole he has been ordered to take down. Outside of the Indian Creek Phase IIIB Homeowners Association, the ongoing battle over Andres' 12 foot flag pole may seem a little silly, but for Bush, in the middle of a reelection campaign, it was a photo opportunity not to be missed. Wearing a green tie adorned with American flags and bombs bursting in air,...