Free Republic

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare for the District of Columbia and other major cities that public transit was a lifeline for essential workers and that even modest fares could be a burden to them. So the nation’s capital is introducing a groundbreaking plan: It will begin offering free bus fares to residents next summer. Other cities, including Los Angeles and Kansas City, Missouri, suspended fare collection during the height of the pandemic to minimize human contact and ensure that residents with no other travel options could reach jobs and services at hospitals, grocery stores and offices. But D.C.‘s permanent free...

Saudi princes arrested for sit-in against having to pay utilities AFP | Jan 07, 2018, 06.26 PM IST RIYADH: Eleven Saudi princes face trial after their arrest at a sit-in protesting having to pay their utility bills, authorities said today, as the monarchy pursues reforms amid hefty debt and high unemployment. Saudi Arabia's attorney general said "no one is above the law" after the princes were detained outside a palace in Riyadh, where they had gathered last week to demonstrate against a government decision to stop paying the water and electricity bills of royals. They also demanded compensation for a...

California is to hold a referendum on whether to abolish the death penalty and spare the lives of 723 death row inmates, nearly one quarter of all those facing execution in America. The vote will take place alongside political elections in November after more than 500,000 people in the state signed a petition asking for the issue to be added to the ballot. California is the state with the highest number of prisoners awaiting execution, and its San Quentin prison houses the largest death row facility in the US. Under the proposal being voted on, those currently sentenced to death...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann is telling college students in politically important Iowa that all Americans should pay taxes since they all benefit from services such as roads and bridges, national defense and the courts. Her position, which she was outlining today at Iowa State University in Ames, is a direct challenge to rivals Rick Perry and Herman Cain, who are advocating plans that would allow low-wage earners to continue paying no taxes while implementing a form of a flat tax on all other workers. The Tax Policy Center estimates that some 46 percent of households...

Here is Nancy Pelosi a few months ago telling a group of musicians and artists that because of ObamaCare they can now leech off of the rest of us saps who have to work for a living: [VIDEO AT SITE] We see it as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care. I'm thinking a lot of doctors will want to escape the grind and become...

A law school opening next fall in Southern California is offering a big incentive to top students who might be thinking twice about the cost of a legal education during the recession: free tuition for three years. The offer is part of a strategy by Erwin Chemerinsky, a renowned constitutional law scholar and dean of the new school at the University of California, Irvine, to attract Ivy League-caliber students to the first new public law school in the state in 40 years. The law school hopes to offer full scholarships to all 60 members of its inaugural class in 2009....

INDIANAPOLIS – The private operator of the Indiana Toll Road has sent devices to numerous lawmakers in Indiana giving them a free ride on the highway, and all legislators can get the same deal if they choose. But several lawmakers who have received the “non-revenue” I-Zoom transponders are not using them, saying it is only fair that they pay the same amount as other motorists. “When I got it, I was in a state of disbelief,” said Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City. “I can’t describe it as anything other than a perk. Mine is in the possession of solid-waste authorities.”...

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...

By MIKE KELLY VICTOR MANUEL CABALLERO says he only wanted a decent job when he sneaked across the border from Mexico five years ago. Thanks to a ruling last week by the state Supreme Court, he has achieved a special American status even though he still lives here illegally: He can collect damages for being hurt in an auto accident. We hear much these days about illegal immigrants -- how desperate they are for good jobs here, how many risk their lives to slip across the border, how so many now hope to pursue their lives in America with some...

For nearly two years, a single employee at the state Air Resources Board stole 2,092 gallons of gas, often using his state-issued fuel credit card to pay for fill-ups of his personal vehicle. Some gas also went into his state-assigned vehicle, which he then routinely drove for nonwork purposes, violating state regulations as he racked up 2,000 miles on the taxpayers' tab, state auditors found. These allegations - and they don't end here - illustrate the potential for abuse of the state fuel card system. Concerned about weak oversight in the system, state Auditor Elizabeth M. Howle has asked the...

INVASION USA Homeland Security bill lets illegals go free Without more detention facilities, 'other-than-Mexicans' must be released Posted: May 22, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com The president of a labor organization representing Border Patrol employees and a Texas congressman are criticizing the House's recently passed Homeland Security bill for failing to fund construction of new detention facilities to hold illegal border-crossers from countries other than Mexico, resulting in their automatic release pending a later hearing date. HR 1817, the Department of Homeland Security authorization bill passed last Wednesday by the House, approved adding 2,000 new Border Patrol agents,...

WASHINGTON, May 9 - The Bush administration announced on Monday that it would start paying hospitals and doctors for providing emergency care to illegal immigrants. The money, totaling $1 billion, will be available for services provided from Tuesday through September 2008. Congress provided the money as part of the 2003 law that expanded Medicare to cover prescription drugs, but the new payments have nothing to do with the Medicare program. Members of Congress from border states, like Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, had sought the money. They said the treatment of illegal immigrants imposed a huge financial burden on...

Officials told Canadian media that Mr Martin would make a formal announcement later this week, when he returns from the Nato summit in Belgium. He had previously backed participation in the system, designed to detect missiles fired at North America. A majority of Canadians are opposed to the programme, opinion polls suggest.

<p>Up until last night, people had been very cooperative with this effort, and for that I was grateful. Last night, I think there must have been a full moon or something, but we'll get that straightened out.</p> <p>The president has been silent on the immigration issue for two years, but advocacy groups are being invited to the White House on Wednesday to hear details of a proposal to match willing foreign workers, mostly from Mexico, with receptive U.S. employers.</p>

New York (dpa) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has sued four foreign governments for failing to pay an estimated 100 million dollars in back taxes on their diplomatic properties, the New York Daily News reported Thursday. Topping the four governments is Turkey, which has a mission to the United Nations and is said to owe to the city back taxes and interests amounting to 70 million dollars. Next is the Philippines, which maintains a consulate on Fifth Avenue and owes 17.7 million dollars; India's mission to the U.N. owes 16.4 million dollars and Mongolia's mission owes 2 million...

Family upset over 'field trip' of convicted sex offender 01/04/2003 By MARY ANN RAZZUK / WFAA-TV The mother of a Texas prison inmate is speaking out about an unscheduled trip home her son made - a trip which has sparked a statewide investigation. Jeffrey Paul Hale is serving a life sentence for the sexual assault of a child. And now, the family of one of Hale's victims is demanding some answers. An area parent felt a rush of emotions as she read an article about a field trip authorities said Hale got to take recently while in law enforcement...