Free Republic

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2008 – Chad Hennings has been known by many titles in his life: U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, A-10 pilot, Gulf War veteran, Dallas Cowboy. U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and Gulf War veteran Chad Hennings went from flying A-10s to playing professional football. Now he is an advocate for veterans and small businesses. U.S. Air Force photo by Joel Martinez  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The three-time Super Bowl champion now can go by one more title: small-business advocate. “Small business is the lifeblood of America,” Hennings said. “The importance of this nation is...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2007 – NATO aims to render the Taliban and other extremists in Afghanistan irrelevant by establishing a security landscape that allows the creation of news jobs and bolsters faith in national institutions, the commander of NATO forces said in a news conference today. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, said NATO is helping to drive a wedge between extremist leaders and what he referred to as “day soldiers,” Afghan guns-for-hire who are persuaded to join insurgencies as a means of subsistence. “The whole key here is...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2007 – Servicemembers who lose limbs should be enabled to resume active duty, the administrator of Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Amputee Care Center said yesterday. “When you get severely injured, and you look down and you're missing your foot or your leg or your arm, you think that your life is going to be very different,” Army Maj. David Rozelle told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call. “You can't let that slow you down.” On June 21, 2003, Rozelle was preparing to train a group of Iraqi police recruits in the city of...

BAGHDAD — The deputy commander of Multi-National Division-West and the governor of Al-Anbar province held a press conference at the Combined Press Information Center Tuesday. U.S.Marine Corps Brig. Gen. John Allen, deputy commander of MND-W, and Mamoun Sami Rashid Al-Awani, the governor of Al-Anbar province, discussed the progression of security and stability in Al-Anbar province. “The Al-Anbar province is in transition,” said Allen. “The recent improvement in the security situation across the province has created significant political and economic opportunities.” Recently, Al-Anbar citizens have made several big steps engaging al-Qaeda in the province and have grown politically and economically closer...

Mayor Ray Nagin blames Red Tape and Racism. Other Democrats have blamed cronyism, corruption, and mismanagement in the Federal beuracracy. Allen Breed of AP summed up the MSM take on the Katrina rebuilding effort in his weekend piece: In many ways, New Orleans is a huge crime scene, with bodies and victims and fingerprints -- many, many sets of fingerprints. But who did it? Who is responsible for this mess, for a barely functioning city with large swaths still uninhabited -- or uninhabitable -- a year after Hurricane Katrina? An anonymous critic, posting his verdict at the edge of the...

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - For workers like Jose Fernando Pedraza, the closure of the day labor center has created hardship. "I've only had one job since it closed,'' Pedraza said in Spanish on Thursday. The center, which had been set up near the corner of Grove Avenue and Arrow Route, closed June 30. This week, workers have waited along the east side of Grove, north of Arrow, for employers seeking short-term workers for jobs in trades such as landscaping, construction and general labor. Without the center, workers said, getting jobs has become difficult. Gilberto Ruiz, 68, of Ontario, does masonry work...

Online learning will continue to grow for several reasons. The first reason is because of the advent of high-speed Internet. Anybody with a home PC can now take a course online. If you have a laptop, you can take your course online and take it with you to the coffice (coffee house/office). That is where I am writing this. PCs and Macs are also becoming more affordable. For the price of one credit hour at some schools, a student can now buy a good desktop Dell or Gateway PC. There is no more driving to school, finding a parking place,...

Former Toyota President Shoichiro Toyoda has founded Kaiyo Academy, a $175-million school that he modeled after Britain's Eton Academy -- a school that boasts 19 British Prime Ministers among her alumni and the second-in-line to the throne, Prince William. In Japan there is dissatisfaction with the 'dumbing-down' of its curriculum. Four years ago, the government cut 30% of the workload off the elementary and junior high school curriculum. Toyota's Kaiyo academy is attractive for many reasons. 1. It is backed by Toyota. 2. It is focusing on developing kids who can do more than just pass exams. 3. It is...

Berkery, Noyes & Co. LLC is a leading independent investment bank that provides M & A services to the global information, publishing, and IT sectors. The group has been involved as an advisor for most major transactions, buying and/or selling, related to the education market in recent years. 1. National Geographic Society bought Hampton-Brown Co. 2. ProQuest bought Voyager Expanded Learning. 3. Touchstone Applied Science Associates just purchased Questar Educational Systems. I reckon Berkery, Noyes figures it better get someone on board who knows something about post-secondary schools and other forms of higher-ed, including the fopros. So, they have hired...

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2006 – An act signed into law May 29 by President Bush solves a conflict in the tax code by allowing servicemembers who serve in a combat zone to still contribute to their individual retirement accounts, a Defense Department official said here today. The Heroes Earned Retirement Opportunities Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow servicemembers to include tax-exempt combat zone pay in determining the allowable income tax deduction for contributions to retirement savings plans, said Army Lt. Col. Janet Fenton, executive director of the Armed Forces Tax Council. The tax code requires a certain amount...

The FBI missed many opportunities to identify a suspected Chinese spy and her FBI lover, including a tip that she "was in bed with" the bureau's Los Angeles office, a Justice Department internal review said Wednesday. Katrina Leung, a Chinese-American paid informant for the FBI, and her handler, former counterintelligence agent James J. Smith, were able to deceive the FBI about their romantic relationship for nearly 20 years, Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine said. In all, the FBI paid Leung $1.7 million over 18 years, Fine said. FBI supervisors failed to act on two serious incidents just 10...

Some 14 years after pressing for the United Nations to impose sanctions on Belgrade, the United States has become Serbia and Montenegro's biggest foreign investor. The World Bank says American firms accounted for roughly one-third of the US$3.5 billion of foreign money invested from 2002, when the sanctions were eventually lifted, to the end of 2004. Although one or two million people of Serbian descent live in the US, émigré ties to the homeland have played little role in driving this investment. The US-based Serbian Unity Congress and Serbian American Chamber of Commerce periodically organize conferences and inform investors of...

For Immediate ReleaseApril 1, 2006 President's Radio Address       Audio      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. As tax day approaches later this month, many American families are now finishing their tax returns. And as you do, an important debate is taking place in Washington that will affect the amount you will pay in the years ahead. I believe our economy grows when you're allowed to keep more of your hard-earned money and make your own decisions about how to save, spend, and invest. So, working with Congress, we've provided tax relief for all Americans who pay income taxes. We lowered tax...

I just wanted to remind a few people that may have forgotten,about this wonderful land we call America.Most that read this will have no idea of what some people will go through to come here.I was only a kid, but I know that it took my Mother 7 years for our papers to be approved to come from Rome,Italy back in 1954.I was ten at the time and I was very fortunate to come here as a ten year old kid gazing at the Statue of Liberty at 9AM on Dec 9th,1954.The feeling of setting foot on America soil and...

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (NNS) -- A new trial program to expand opportunity within the Navy’s officer and enlisted ranks is being implemented as part of Adm. Mike Mullen’s, Chief of Naval Operations, “Strategy for Our People.” According to Vice Adm. John C. Harvey's naval message in January, the new program is called the Flying Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Pilot program and is “designed to harness the strengths of our Sailors today and shape the Navy of tomorrow.” The Flying CWO Pilot program will select 30 highly-qualified E-5 through E-7 Sailors over the next two years, commission them as CWO2 prior...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 23, 2006 — Iraq is a nation overcoming the fear of terror that gripped them for decades under Saddam's dictatorship and challenges their ability to become a free and democratic people today. Through indiscriminate acts of violence terrorists attempt to cause fear and doubt in the minds of Iraqis and the world on what otherwise is a bright future. Much has been accomplished in the past 18 months that should allow Iraqis to confront their fears-and give hope for the future: Iraq established an interim government, mobilized Iraqi Security Forces, increased the pace of economic development, created...

Dr. Azhar Al-Shakhly (left), of the Iraqi State Ministry for Woman Affairs, and Azza Humadi, Gulf Region Division Women’s Issue Coordinator, work closely to build a stable foundation for Iraqi females. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Denise Calabria Iraqi Women Work to Increase Opportunities From business opportunities to educational issues, two Iraqi women strive to improve the lives of Iraqi women. By Denise Calabria Gulf Region Division U.S. Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 25, 2006 — While dirt-covered construction workers toil to rebuild Iraq’s decimated infrastructure, two Iraqi-born women more accustomed to “basic black with...

In 2005 California increased the education budget by $3 billion and poured $50 billion into schools at the rate of more than $10,000 per pupil. Yet there is little to show for these efforts. Student achievement remains low and the dropout rate is high. Teacher quality varies widely from school to school and the state lacks an accurate way to measure student progress. Throughout this past year, California missed crucial opportunities to enhance accountability and boost achievement. Not giving more choice to parents and students trapped at low-performing schools. Federal legislation gives parents whose children are in failing schools the...

WASHINGTON - Strains between President Bush and his conservative supporters are giving John McCain an opening - albeit a narrow one - to make inroads among those activists as he eyes his prospects for a 2008 presidential run. --snip-- In the past few weeks, McCain, 69, a decorated former prisoner of war and critic of pork-barrel spending, has: * Called on members of Congress to give up billions of dollars' worth of pet projects adopted earlier this year in a massive transportation spending bill, saying the money should instead go to hurricane relief. * Proposed delaying or altogether canceling the...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 12, 2005 – The Afghan National Army's first military medical education center opened recently here with the help of the ANA Surgeon General's office and the Office of Security Cooperation Afghanistan. Located on the National Military Hospital campus here, the center will consolidate medical training for ANA combat medics, nurses, medical faculty and medical officers. The facility can accommodate, house and feed up to 500 students and has 27 classrooms. Before the new facility, medical training was conducted in various locations around Kabul such as the Kabul Military Training Center, the military hospital and the Pol-e-Charkhi garrison....