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NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge said he is troubled by government delays in deciding whether a Muslim scholar can enter the United States and may order authorities to make a decision. A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union accuses the government of manipulating the Patriot Act to try to silence Tariq Ramadan, who has been invited to speak in the United States later this month and twice later this year. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty said the State Department seemed to be taking a long time to act on a request by Ramadan last August...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (March 15, 2006) -- Grunts with 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment walk without fear thanks to a helping hand from tankers and a seldom used tool in their inventory. Marines with D Company, 2nd Tank Battalion, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, recently deployed their M-60A1 Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge to help the infantry living north of Gharmah. It was the first time the tankers could recall the bridge being used since the initial thrust toward Baghdad in 2003. The need for a reliable bridge arose after an existing bridge leading to an observation post began to...

January 5, 2006 Troubled Times Ahead for the New York Times? By Ed Koch Are troubled times ahead for The New York Times? I believe so. President Bush warned the Times that publishing a story on the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program would do great harm to American security. After holding the story for a year, the Times went ahead and published it anyway. In the past the President has not hesitated to go after those whom he has charged with violating national security laws. When the media demanded the administration find within its own circle those who violated...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2005 – A unique center here is helping troubled veterans turn their lives around by providing a military-style program designed to help them beat addictions, develop career skills, land jobs, find homes, and become productive citizens. The Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training, MCVET for short, offers an ambitious array of programs aimed at getting veterans back on their feet and into the mainstream sober, drug-free and self-sufficient. Military service provides the common thread behind the program. All "students," as participants are called, are veterans, as well as 75 percent of the staff. The result is...

Re-focus Halloween! If your school insists on having some kind of Halloween celebration, recommend that they steer away from the ghoulish and occult and, instead, focus on the event as a fall festival. ... "When you turn evil into a game, it trivializes it and numbs children to its darkness." (excerpt from email) GREAT RESOURCE SITE for Teachers, Parents & Students.

SANTA PAULA, Calif. (AP) - Former Superior Court Judge Robert Bradley, whose highly publicized battle with alcoholism and drunken driving arrests led to his downfall, choked to death on food at his home. He was 64. The ex-Ventura County judge was taken from his Santa Paula residence Monday night to the emergency room at Ventura County Medical Center after a housekeeper found him collapsed in the kitchen, authorities said. He was declared dead at 9:30 p.m. Senior Deputy Medical Examiner Craig Stevens said an autopsy Tuesday showed Bradley died from asphyxiation. After his drunken driving arrest in Ojai in 1997,...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Lawmakers grilled state transportation officials Wednesday over efforts to replace the seismically unsound eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, a multibillion-dollar project that has been plagued by delays, cost overruns and political infighting. Sunne Wright McPeak, secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, and Will Kempton, director of the California Department of Transportation, faced intense questioning about why costs for the Bay Bridge project have nearly doubled and why Caltrans officials waited so long to notify lawmakers. "People expect accountability," Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, said at the Senate Transportation Committee hearing. "We're not...

SACRAMENTO -- Assemblywoman Nicole Parra on Tuesday gave beleaguered Secretary of State Kevin Shelley two more days to decide whether to testify voluntarily before her audit committee about his handling of federal election funds. At the conclusion of a committee hearing late Monday night, Parra said she would seek a subpoena if Shelley had not agreed by noon Tuesday to appear before the committee's next hearing. Tuesday afternoon, she released an exchange of letters between herself and Shelley in which the secretary of state asked for more time to consult with his attorneys before responding. "As you might imagine, your...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge has allowed the county to continue with its plans to close the trauma center at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center by denying a temporary restraining order sought by doctors and residents. The motion by Friends of King/Drew argued that the court needed to intervene immediately so community members would not be deprived of emergency medical services. The court filing rejected Thursday is part of a civil rights lawsuit alleging that closing the trauma unit would have a disproportionate affect South Los Angeles residents. Health department officials have said they need to close...

Hillary Clinton urged to take on troubled Bush in 2004 contest By Toby Harnden in Washington (Filed: 30/08/2003) Hillary Clinton, the darling of the Democratic Party, is under growing pressure to make a late bid for the White House in 2004 from supporters who believe that only she can defeat George W Bush. Hillary Clinton: 'star quality' Democrats, who have been in the doldrums since the September 11 attacks sent Mr Bush's poll ratings soaring into territory that made him seem impregnable in 2004, have recently begun to believe that the President could be in trouble.But senior party figures worry...

Troubled waters for Bangladesh as India presses on with plan to divert major rivers UN urged to act amid warnings of social and ecological disaster John Vidal in Dhaka Thursday July 24, 2003 The Guardian (UK) Indian plans to divert vast quantities of water from major rivers, including the Ganges and Brahmaputra, threaten the livelihoods of more than 100 million people downstream in Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi government fears. Ministers are so concerned that they are considering appealing to the United Nations to redraft international law on water sharing. The ambitious Indian plans to link major rivers flowing from the Himalayas...

What's the meaning of the odd, even ironic, look on Daschle's face while Leahy is speaking? It also looks like Biden may be about to whisper in Daschle's ear.Yahoo Caption: Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, center, listens as Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, left, speaks during the introduction of the Africa Famine Relief Act in Washington Thursday, Jan. 16, 2003. The bill authorizes $900 million for emergency humanitarian assistance to sub-Saharan Africa. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., looks on at right. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)