Free Republic

LINCOLN — An association representing cities and towns across Nebraska has made another contribution — for a total of $25,000 — to fight the proposed illegal immigration ordinance on the ballot Monday in Fremont.

Al-Qa'ida is struggling to launch frequent suicide attacks in Iraq for the first time because of a shortage of foreign volunteers travelling to the country to carry them out. Interrogation of prisoners and intercepted messages revealed that local al-Qa'ida commanders are complaining about the lack of foreigners to carry out suicide missions as they had done to devastating effect in the past, Iraq's Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said in an interview with The Independent.

The U.S. Army, in what could signal a direction in combat missions, has launched mortars from unmanned aerial vehicles. The U.S. Army and General Dynamics (GD) have conducted tests of a so-called Air-Dropped Guided Mortar from UAVs in what could transform reconnaissance aircraft into attack platforms. The tests were meant to determine whether mortars fired from tactical UAV platforms could strike moving ground targets. In a test in early 2010, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems was said to have struck a stationary ground target with an 81mm UAV-launched mortar. The mortar, launched at the army's test grounds at Ft....

"The melting pot" analogy for immigration has taken on new meaning in this city of 25,000. It could be said that the heat has been turned up here and that the bubbling contents of the pot are coming apart rather than coming together. Behind is a summer unity picnic in which Kristin Ostrom, Gabriela "Gabby" Ayala and other members of a group called Nebraska Is Home tried to ease the tension between the white population and Hispanics and other relatively new immigrant faces. Ahead, as early as November, is a court confrontation in Lincoln for which other Fremont citizens have...

HAMTRAMCK - Residents and civil rights advocates are appalled that Asm Kamal Rahman, a leading voice in the successful ballot initiative to overturn a local anti-discrimination ordinance last year, is now sitting on the boards of civil rights groups in southeast Michigan.

Large groups of bears are creating a nuisance for residents in Bethlehem, and the problem has gotten so bad the town is considering an ordinance. Officials said bears are rummaging through trash bins, eating and attacking farm animals and in some cases coming dangerously close to family pets. "I've been here for 15 years and never saw them until this year," said resident Bob Kimmerle. Kimmerle said he had to fire a gun in the air to scare a bear away after it ate two roosters near his fence. "He put his arm through and pulled them through,"

Israel Rains Fire on Gaza, Vows No Let-Up in Assault

WARSAW: Police say 2,000 people have been evacuated after a huge, unexploded World War II bomb was found in the centre of the southwest Polish city of Wroclaw. Wroclaw police spokesman Krzysztof Zaporowski says downtown residents, kindergarten students and town hall employees have been evacuated to allow explosive experts to dig out the 1-ton bomb and take it to a testing range to be detonated. Zaporowski says workers found the bomb on Wednesday during road work. Unexploded bombs from World War II are still found frequently in Poland more than 60 years after the conflict ended.

Council members caved in to demands from an angry crowd and delayed approving a neatness ordinance until officials explain every word of the 26-page document to Kenneth City residents. In what was estimated to be the largest crowd to ever attend a Kenneth City Council meeting, an outraged group of residents railed at the proposal that would regulate the upkeep of both the exterior and interior of all property in the town. The proposal basically sets standards for upkeep and appearance and gives town officials the right to enter homes. If the owner refuses to allow the official to enter,...

The City Council unanimously agreed in principle Wednesday to track costs, staff time and the results of a proposed ban on renting to illegal immigrants, though several members disagreed on what information should be included in such reports.

HAZLETON, Pa. - The City Council gave tentative approval Friday to an overhaul of an anti-illegal-immigration law considered to be one of the nation's toughest, hoping to put the measure on sounder legal footing. Like the version it will replace if granted final approval Tuesday, the new ordinance punishes businesses that employ illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. The revisions, however, remove much of the burden that had been placed on businesses. They soften penalties, give landlords and businesses time to correct violations and leaving it to city officials to verify workers' immigration status with the federal government....

RIVERSIDE, N.J. - Hundreds of protesters and counter-protesters assembled in this small Philadelphia suburb Sunday in response to the community's new attempt to crack down on illegal immigration. About 200 protesters argued against a township ordinance adopted last month that bans the hiring and housing of people who cannot verify they are legal residents. A larger group massed across the street to support the new law. People on both sides of the street waved American flags, but traded hostile remarks. "This can only lead to more separation, more hostility, more hatred, more anger," Marlene Lao-Collins, associate director of the New...

ESCONDIDO, Calif. - City leaders voted Wednesday night to draw up an ordinance that would punish people who provide jobs and housing to illegal immigrants. The 3-2 vote followed more than two hours of heated debate from residents. Councilman Ed Gallo said he hoped the ordinance would help improve the quality of life in this north San Diego suburb by limiting illegal immigration. ``Our charge is to provide for the health and safety of the residents of Escondido,'' Gallo said. ``Is it wrong then to ask them to be here legally?'' But Councilman Ron Newman called the proposal a political...

Things most guys can have around the house: baseballs, basketballs, footballs, softballs. Things guys most definitely shouldn't have around the house: cannonballs. A collector in McKinney, Texas, kept an antique cannonball that he'd bought from the trunk of a man's car at a gun show in his apartment as a decoration, according to The Dallas Morning News. Responding to an anonymous tip, police seized the man's 45-pound, cast-iron cannonball on Monday and the weapons collector allowed officials to detonate it in a field close by behind McKinney High School. "It was a live cannonball," Plano police Detective Bryan Wood, a...

Gun enthusiasts were handed a legal victory this week when a federal judge ruled they can argue that their free-speech rights are violated by an Alameda County ordinance that bans guns on county property. In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins cleared the way for a new First Amendment challenge to the 1999 ordinance. County attorneys had asked the judge to dismiss the challenge, arguing that the gun ban is a public safety issue rather than a constitutional one, but Jenkins said the plaintiffs had sufficient grounds to continue with their lawsuit. "Plaintiffs have articulated...

"Peace at any price" purveyors are going gaga over the new FX Channel series "depicting" the Iraq war, "Over There," produced by Steven Bochco of Hill Street Blues fame. "Wow! Anybody else watch Over There last night?" gushed a writer for the heavily-read antiwar blogsite, Daily Kos. "Within a few minutes . . . it was obvious that Iraq was Vietnam all over again." How a fictional show shot in La La Land could make anything about Iraq policy "obvious" is hard to fathom. But the series does tout its realism, as have some reviewers who've never gotten closer to...

Critical Areas Ordinance foes register name, taking it from less vocal property rights group Just who is the ``real'' Rural Majority?Ron Ewart of Fall City and Preston Drew of Carnation think it's rural folks like them. Foes of government, they oppose any regulation they figure tramples on their property rights. On their side are roughly 18,000 residents who signed petitions to do away with the county's controversial Critical Areas Ordinance and two other pieces of environmental regulation.What they didn't have was a catchy name that, as a bonus, carried great symbolic weight.They've got one now -- at the expense of...

People were going to the doghouses in San Francisco on Thursday, and the doghouses were ready. Doghouses, in fact, are 20 percent off. It's the big Board of Supervisors doghouse sale. "We're ready,'' said Susan Fry, manager of the Pet Food Express store at Stonestown, which has taken the proposed city doghouse ordinance most seriously, as befits an establishment that sells $300 doghouses.

West Anchorage Assemblyman Dan Sullivan has introduced his second anti-panhandling ordinance, saying he wants the city to curb “aggressive” panhandling and put the kibosh on, in his words, “people who won't take no for an answer.” People who watch the government will remember Sullivan's 2003 anti-panhandling ordinance that generated much discussion about curbside panhandling before the assembly passed it. The law is now in effect, making it illegal for panhandlers to leave the curb and step into traffic. The law has also introduced a violation-type ticket for any driver who lures a panhandler into the road. Sullivan doesn't think the...

Opera-fan judge makes guilty face the music Noise violators earful in Miami Beach By Amie Parnes, Globe Correspondent | April 22, 2004 MIAMI BEACH - Ricky Libutti stood up, faced the judge, and pleaded guilty to cranking up a hip-hop beat after midnight as he cruised down Washington Avenue in his Acura Integra. Judge Jeffrey Swartz offered what must have seemed a Hobson's choice to the 19-year-old with a crew cut and a love for what he called "conscious hip hop." "You can either pay a fine," the judge told Libutti, "or you can spend a leisurely 2 1/2 hours...