Free Republic

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea prepared to test-fire missiles at launch pads on both of its coasts, reports and experts said Tuesday, as South Korea beefed up its naval defenses. The moves further heightened soaring tensions in the region following North Korea's underground nuclear test last week, and came as speculation grows that leader Kim Jong Il has selected his third son to inherit rule of the secretive communist country.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—Dale Earnhardt Jr. will have a new crew chief starting with this weekend’s race at Dover because of a slump that has dragged deep into the season. Tony Eury Jr. was removed as crew chief of Earnhardt’s No. 88 team Thursday. The two are cousins and have worked together during Earnhardt’s entire career.

ABOUT THE SHOW: The artist that electrified audiences in A&E's hit series Inked is in a new tattoo series that takes us beyond the shop. Tattoo Highway follows artist Thomas Pendelton as he travels the country in a mobile tattoo parlor of his own design, a converted 1970s Silver Eagle Tour Bus. On the outside, it's a moving metal canvas of Thomas' art; on the inside, it's a fully functional tattoo parlor. Whether he's tattooing a Crown Dancer for an Apache Elder in New Mexico or a bat-winged heart on a mortician's chest in Sacramento, Thomas is on the road...

Even for relatively diehard fans, it might have been possible to get through the last couple seasons knowing Mark Herzlich only as "the guy with the crazy facepaint," but that would be missing the lead: The 6'4", 240-pound Boston College linebacker was the defensive player of the year in a conference that had six defenders picked in the first two rounds of this year's draft, and might have joined teammate B.J. Raji in the top-10 if he hadn't decided to come back for his senior season at B.C. Pray today, then, that the football chapter of Herzlich's story isn't closed...

Sacramento, Calif. – California lawmakers just got a Henry Paulson-like ultimatum from state officials: If they don't act, the state could be forced to suspend road, bridge, and other public-works projects as early as next week. Come March, California will be out of cash for even day-to-day operations. A confluence of the national recession and years of legislative budget games is squeezing the Golden State as never before. Although it's not the largest budget gap the state has ever faced, this time it will be harder for California to get help from private lenders. Standard & Poor's now ranks it...

<p>FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP)—New York Jets defensive end Shaun Ellis was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana, speeding and driving without insurance after being pulled over by police last weekend.</p> <p>Ellis, the Jets’ longest-tenured player, was stopped last Saturday in Hanover, N.J., a few miles from the team’s training facility after speeding, the Daily Record of Morris County reported on its Web site Thursday.</p>

A fuming Mayor Bloomberg said Monday he wants Giants player Plaxico Burress prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law" for accidentally shooting himself in his leg with an illegal handgun. The mayor also called on prosecutors to throw the book at officials of the Giants and New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell for reportedly not alerting police about the shooting immediately, as required by law. The incident reportedly occurred early Saturday inside the crowded LQ nightclub in midtown. Sources said the loaded gun Burress was packing slipped down his pants leg and went off as he fumbled to grab it....

IRVING, TEXAS (TICKER) —Tony Romo evidently will not be around to help the Dallas Cowboys recover from a painful loss. According to multiple reports, Romo has a broken pinkie finger - an injury that will sideline the Pro Bowl quarterback for four weeks. The injury first was reported Monday morning by ESPN, which cited an anonymous team source. The NFL Network reported that Romo currently is being examined by team doctors. The Cowboys could not be reached for comment. Romo suffered the injury during Sunday’s 30-24 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals and originally was diagnosed with a sprained pinkie....

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP)—The Oakland Raiders fired Lane Kiffin on Tuesday just four games into his second season, bringing finality to a situation that had been simmering for eight months. Kiffin had a 5-15 record since being hired last year, losing his final game 28-18 on Sunday to San Diego. The decision on Kiffin was as much about his frequent criticisms of owner Al Davis’ franchise as it was the team’s performance on the field. Those critiques reached a peak when Kiffin distanced himself from the defense after a blowout loss in the season opener, saying that was under coordinator Rob...

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Super Bowl star Plaxico Burress was suspended for one game by the New York Giants on Wednesday for an undisclosed violation of team rules. General manager Jerry Reese and coach Tom Coughlin informed Burress of the suspension Wednesday morning before the team held a bye-week practice. The suspension takes effect immediately, meaning Burress will miss the Giants' game against the Seattle Seahawks on Oct. 5. The Giants have a bye week, so Burress will lose two paychecks under the suspension. He will not be with the team during the bye week, and won't be allowed to...

Matt Millen is reportedly out as Lions president and general manager. WDFN-AM in Detroit is reporting that Millen was informed of the decision late Tuesday night. The move comes just days after Bill Ford Jr., the son of Lions owner William Clay Ford, stated publicly he would have fired Millen if the decision were his. Millen had been in charge of the Lions since 2001. The team has produced an NFL-worst record of just 31-84 in that time, including 0-3 this season. The Lions were in postseason contention last year after opening the campaign with a record of 6-2, but...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Richard Collier was shot while waiting for some women outside an apartment early Tuesday and sustained life-threatening injuries, authorities said. Collier, 26, and former Jaguars defensive end Kenneth Pettway were waiting in a car when a gunman fired into the vehicle, said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson. Collier was shot several times, but it wasn't clear where he was hit. Collier was in critical condition at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, a hospital official said. The motive behind the attack was unclear, and the sheriff's office was investigating. Pettway, who was released in...

NEW YORK (TICKER) —NFL.com is reporting that Gene Upshaw, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and executive director of the NFL’s Players Association, died early Thursday morning after a bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 63. Upshaw, a former left guard for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, was named an All-Pro 11 times in his 16-year career. He also was selected to seven Pro Bowls between 1967 and 1981 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987 - his first year of eligibility. Upshaw was a member of the Oakland team that won the...

A Washington woman was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison and five years of supervised release for her role in an Internet counterfeit check scheme. Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty in March to attempting to defraud U.S. citizens in a scheme known as a Nigerian check scam. Fiedler helped her accomplices in Nigeria send fake checks to people who had agreed to cash the checks on behalf of the sender, keeping some of the proceeds and sending the rest back. The Nigerians found people willing to cash the fake checks via e-mail. They would send their names as well...

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military regime has forced cyclone survivors to do menial labor in exchange for food and stepped up a campaign to evict displaced citizens from aid shelters, an international human rights group said Thursday. London-based Amnesty International also said authorities in several cyclone-hit areas continue to divert aid despite the junta's pledge to crack down on the problem weeks ago. "Unless human rights safeguards are observed, tens of thousands of people remain at risk," Amnesty said in a report released Thursday. "Respect for human rights must be at the center of the relief effort." More than a...

WASHINGTON (AP)—Sen. Arlen Specter wants an independent investigation of the Patriots’ taping of opposing coaches’ signals similar to the Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Specter again criticized the league’s handling of the investigation and threatened the possibility of revoking the NFL’s antitrust exemption during a news conference Wednesday. The senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee met with former New England video assistant Matt Walsh a day earlier. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell indicated he considered the investigation over after meeting with Walsh on Tuesday. “Everybody pooh-poohs it,” Specter said. “It’s ridiculous to make that kind of contention.”...

PARIS - Police detained a suspected pedophile in New Jersey Thursday, just two days after Interpol made a rare appeal for public help in the international manhunt to catch him, the police agency said. Wayne Nelson Corliss, 58, was detained in Union City, N.J., Interpol said. He is suspected of sexually abusing at least three boys from Southeast Asia thought to have been as young as 6 to 10 years old, the international police agency said. Interpol had asked for the public's help because two years of police investigations had failed to determine the man's identity, nationality and whereabouts. It...

GLENDALE, Ariz. – If it comes to it, the oft-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff" says he has a pair of pink underwear, a bologna sandwich and a spot in a dirty old prison tent for Tom Brady, Eli Manning or, most certainly, Paris Hilton. Maricopa County – which includes much of metropolitan Phoenix – is host to the Super Bowl, one of the nation's most decadent party weekends where, sometimes, celebrities and even athletes find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Around here the law means Joe Arpaio, the tough talking, tougher-ruling sheriff who would like nothing better than...

The first body parts turned up Tuesday morning in a trash bag a state highway crew found while spreading salt on Interstate 380 as an ice storm loomed in the Poconos. In the hours that followed, state troopers found a woman's neatly severed head along the same road -- and bags of body parts at six other sites along I-380 and Interstate 80. They were scattered over 15 miles in Monroe and Lackawanna counties. ''There's quite a bit missing,'' said state police Lt. Robert Bartal of the Hazleton barracks. ''We believe it's all the remains of one person,'' a light-skinned...

SOUTHWORTH, Kitsap County — A man trying to loosen a stubborn lug nut blasted the wheel with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring himself badly in both legs, Kitsap County sheriff's deputies said. The 66-year-old man had been repairing a Lincoln Continental for two weeks at his home northwest of Southworth and east of Port Orchard and had gotten all but one of the lug nuts off the right rear wheel before getting frustrated Saturday afternoon, Deputy Scott Wilson said. "He's bound and determined to get that lug nut off," Wilson said. From about arm's length, the man fired the shotgun at...