Free Republic

DURHAM - A Durham County Democratic Party official was charged Wednesday as an accessory in a sexual assault case that includes allegations that a couple held a man captive in a dog cage. Since the allegations broke last week, Durham Democrats have been agape. Party leaders used to debating the economy, the Iraq war and other issues of the 2008 elections have been pushed back on their heels.

Allegations that a local Democratic official and her husband were involved in Satanic rituals that included shackling people to beds, caging them and depriving them of food and water have horrified county party leaders.

A drill instructor in the National Guard has been convicted in a Wisconsin federal court of illegally transferring a machine gun after a rifle he loaned to a student malfunctioned, setting off three shots before jamming. The verdict of guilty on one count in the case against David Olofson was confirmed yesterday by the clerk's office in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. That means now that anyone whose weapon malfunctions is subject to charges of having or handling a banned gun, according to an expert witness who reports that the particular problem is a well-known...