Free Republic

An online fundraiser for Tyre Nichols’ family has raised more than $1 million in just two days. Nichols’ mom, RowVaughn Wells, started the GoFundMe with the modest goal of getting $10,000 for mental health treatment and to create a memorial skateboard park for her 29-year-old son who died after being brutally beaten by Memphis cops. By early Monday, it was the site’s top fundraiser — having already raised more than $1.1 million with donations from more than 30,000 people. “My husband and I have had our entire world turned upside down by what happened to our son,” Wells said of...

The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance alerted colleges and universities Thursday that they were stopping TOPS payments immediately because of uncertainty related to the state budget. "Due to the possibility of state budget cuts, all TOPS payments are being suspended until further notice," said an email that went out to all TOPS eligible institutions at 3 p.m. "More details will be provided as information becomes available." What that means for students and parents is that every student who is currently receiving a TOPS scholarship could end up owing the remainder of the semester's tuition that's not already paid.

We are Robyn and Michelle Lytle–a Chicago-based couple on a mission. Michelle came up with the idea for The TaTa Top in response to a story Robyn told her about an incident at a Chicago beach. Robyn had been hosting two Dutch women as a cultural exchange, and they were not familiar with the topless laws in the U.S. When they went to visit one of Chicago’s beaches, they didn’t think twice about running into the lake topless for a quick swim on a hot summer day. Chaos ensued, and a male lifeguard told them they had to leave unless...

The European debt crisis is raising the odds of a U.S. recession, with economic contraction more likely than not by early 2012, according to research from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. While it is difficult to gauge the odds precisely, an analysis of leading U.S. economic indicators suggests a rising chance of a recession through the end of the year and into early next year, researchers at the regional Fed bank wrote on Monday. The risk of recession recedes after the second half of 2012, they found. New governments in Greece and Italy, with fresh promises to tackle fiscal...

Moenchengladbach, Germany - The United States is in the World Cup final for the first time since it last won the title in 1999, and once again Abby Wambach came up big for these Americans, scoring in a 3-1 victory over France on Wednesday. Wambach broke a tense tie with a monstrous header

Promising “transparency like you’ve never seen before,” The White House released its visitor log this evening under a new voluntary disclosure policy. The log chronicles 481 visits to the White House from individuals ranging from Jay-Z to Bill Gates from January through July. The list includes William Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Moore, Robert Kelly (R. Kelly), Malik Shabazz, and Michael Jordan.

Apple has won every category it participated in as part of a new study of service and reliablity. The reader-driven PCMag rankings saw it lead the cellphone, desktop, notebook and portable media categories, in some cases with particularly wide margins compared to rivals. Apple's best success was in the notebook category, where MacBooks earned an overall score of 9.2 out of 10 and a very high 9.4 out of 10 "would recommend" score. The win was a narrow one as Taiwan's ASUS made a relatively large gain to claim second place with 8.8 overall and 9.0 in recommendations. Its general...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2007 – President Bush’s fiscal 2008 budget request seeks to pump more money into the development of future capabilities that will support America’s warfighters. Strategic modernization of the force accounts for 38 percent, or $176.8 billion, of the $481.4 billion defense budget request the president submitted to Congress today. The budget request reflects an overall $49 billion increase over fiscal 2007, and developing future capabilities accounts for 18 percent, or $8.8 billion, of that increase. Within the strategic modernization arena, procurement accounts for roughly $101.7 billion and research, development, testing and evaluation takes the rest, at...

NEW YORK - Editing changes made by ABC to the first part of its miniseries "The Path to 9/11" were cosmetic and didn't change the meaning of scenes that had angered several former Clinton administration officials, a spokesman for the former president said Monday. As for Clinton, he didn't bother watching the movie that angered so many people who once worked for him. "He made the choice that most Americans made," said Jay Carson, Clinton Foundation spokesman. "Of a fictionalized drama version of Sept. 11 or the Manning brothers playing football against one another, he chose the latter." The movie...

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2006 – The National Guard has exceeded its troop requirement along the southwestern U.S. border by almost 200 servicemembers and is assisting U.S. Border Patrol activities there, a senior Defense Department official said here today. “We were obligated, by Aug. 1, to have 6,000 National Guardsmen deployed to the four-state southwest border region. And, in fact, as of close of business yesterday, we had 6,199 soldiers,” Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said in an interview. “We kept our commitment to the secretary of defense, Lieutenant General (H Steven) Blum (chief of the National...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 27, 2006) - The 2006 Gallup poll results on public confidence are in and the military is again at the top of the list. Seventy-three percent of Americans polled from June 1-4, 2006, said they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the military, according to Gallup poll writer Lydia Saad. After the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, military confidence soared 13 percent above the previous year. In that 2002 poll, 79 percent of respondents said they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the military. The...

New York state tops the country in taxes collected by the state and local governments, siphoning off $5,260 per person a year, a business group said Thursday. New York's combined local and state tax burden was 53 percent above the national average and $339 more than the second-most taxed state, Connecticut, said Robert Ward of The Public Policy Institute of The Business Council of New York State. The study was based on 2004 U.S. Census data. In 2002, the combined tax burden was $4,684 per state resident. Total state and local taxes collected in New York topped $100 billion for...

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 – All four services exceeded their active-duty recruiting goals in April for the 11th consecutive month and remain ahead of their year-to-date goals, defense officials announced today. And although four of the six reserve components slipped below their April recruiting goals, their year-to-date progress, particularly for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve, shows promise, Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told American Forces Press Service. During what has historically been a slow recruiting period, the active Army recruited almost 5,700 members, 105 percent of its goal, for April. The Air Force signed...

Iran tops Merkel's agenda in US By Ray Furlong BBC correspondent in Berlin The German Chancellor Angela Merkel is visiting the US for a two-day trip set to be dominated by the confrontation over Iran's nuclear programme. Officials in Berlin said the visit would be used to show unity with the US in increasing the pressure on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. They said the discussion of sanctions was a possibility, but that Germany remained opposed to the use of force. This is Mrs Merkel's second visit to Washington since taking office. The imposition of sanctions would not come immediately:...

Study: New York Tops In Taxes Thanks to its sky-high personal income, sales and business taxes New York state has the least business-friendly climate in the nation. According to a study by the tax foundation, the State Business Tax Climate Index (SBTCI): "Taxes matter to business. Taxes affect business decisions, job creation and retention, plant location, competitiveness and the long-term health of a state’s economy. "Most importantly, taxes diminish profits. If taxes take a larger portion of profits, that cost is passed along to either consumers (through higher prices), workers (through lower wages or fewer jobs), or shareholders (through lower...

Pink Panther tops US box office A new version of The Pink Panther starring Steve Martin has topped the North American box office chart. The comedy made $21.7m (£12.4m) in its opening weekend, with Martin reprising Peter Sellers' 1963 role as the bungling Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Horror film Final Destination 3 was second with $20.1m (£11.5m), box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said. It was followed by two more new films - animated movie Curious George at three and Harrison Ford thriller Firewall. The Pink Panther, which co-stars singer Beyonce Knowles, topped the US chart despite poor reviews. NORTH AMERICA...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Campaign committees battling over the eight propositions on last November's special election ballot spent a record $303.9 million, according to campaign reports filed this week. All eight of the initiatives, including four promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, went down to defeat despite, or perhaps because of, the spending barrage. "It shows that if you have enough money you certainly can have your issue presented to voters," said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based campaign think tank. "But it also shows if you have enough money you can defeat almost any issue."...

MEXICALI – The whole menu of hot-button California immigration issues intruded yesterday on a long-awaited meeting between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Baja California counterpart. Schwarzenegger and Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy discussed cross-border cooperation on transportation, trade, education, environmental issues and immigration during a two-hour private meeting in the state government headquarters here. The two issued a joint statement with immigration couched in delicate diplomatic language: "Undocumented immigration is perhaps one of the most challenging and controversial issues that we face, but that does not mean that workable solutions cannot be found. Our dialogue with respect to this issue...

More people were executed in 2004 than any year since 1996, according to Amnesty International. At least 3,797 people were executed in 25 countries in 2004 - the vast majority in China. The charity, which is calling for the abolition of the death penalty, found executions had peaked at the second highest level for 25 years. Only four countries accounted for 97% of all deaths. China executed at least 3,400 people, Iran executed at least 159, Vietnam at least 64 and the USA 59. China refuses to give official figures for executions, but in March 2004 a delegate at the...

President Bush and some of his advisers received worst-acting nominations for their appearances in news and archival footage in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which assails Bush for his actions surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks. Bush was nominated for worst actor, while Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice got a nomination for worst supporting actress and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for worst supporting actor. Wilson said that while "Fahrenheit 9/11" was a piece of anti-Bush propaganda, the president and his associates earned their Razzie nominations on their own. "It wasn't Mr. Moore's editing," Wilson said. "It's the raw footage of these people...