Free Republic

ATHENS - Georgia poultry farmers are waiting to see whether they will have any chickens to raise at the end of the year. Chicken producers are reeling from last summer's spike in corn prices up to $7.50 a bushel. The University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development says record prices for diesel fuel aren't helping and consumers aren't eating out as much. As a result, many producers are cutting back. Pilgrim's Pride, out of Pittsburg, Texas, will end nightshift chicken production in Athens starting Feb. 9, resulting in the layoff of nearly 100 workers. The company is also...

Teen Sues NYC High School; Others Allege 'Separate Room' Where Agents Hand Out Fistful Of Discipline NEW YORK (CBS) ― A high school in Queens is under fire after students said they were abused by school safety agents. Now a teenager is suing. Rojan Morgan is suing Hillcrest High School after he says several school safety agents assaulted him after he brought a cell phone to school. "They took me to a back room, inside of the school and started to beat me," Morgan said. "When I came to the school I was ignored and shut out and that's how...

GAINESVILLE - A Hall County jury has awarded a woman $150,000 after she sued her former fiance for calling off their wedding. RoseMary Shell said she left a high-paying job in Florida to be with her ex-fiance, Wayne Gibbs, and she said she has suffered emotionally since their breakup. "This has been the most difficult thing I've ever had to do and I think justice has been served," Shell said. Gibbs testified that he paid $30,000 of Shell's debt while they were engaged, then canceled the wedding after finding out she had even more debt. Juror Delitha Smith told Channel...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse were responsible for a teenager's death because they repeatedly hit him and failed to get him help, a prosecutor said Wednesday as their manslaughter trial began. Prosecutor Pam Bondi described parts of a video of the guards striking Martin Lee Anderson with their fists and knees at the military-style boot camp in January 2006, as the 14-year-old lay limp for most of the time and the nurse watched. She also said the guards held their hands over the boy's mouth and shoved ammonia capsules up his nose....

Every penny counts. But 10 of them didn’t one recent night in the Bronx, and that’s how the trouble started. It was about 11:30 p.m. on April 23 when Wayne Jones stopped at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant in the Soundview section. Mr. Jones, 47, a lieutenant with the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Service, ordered four fried chicken wings to go. The total was $2.75. Mr. Jones placed his money on the counter: two $1 bills, two quarters, one dime, one nickel — and 10 pennies. “The lady behind the counter started yelling, ‘No pennies, no pennies,’ ” Mr. Jones...

INDIANAPOLIS - A hospital that gave lethal doses of a drug to three premature babies has made another medication mistake, giving a new mother a painkiller 10 times faster than intended and making her temporarily unable to walk. Amber Baise, 18, of Indianapolis, who received the painkiller during childbirth, has regained some movement in her legs as she recovers from what Methodist Hospital on Friday called a doctor's mistake. "We remain hopeful that she will receive a full recovery. That is our hope. That is our commitment," said Bill Stephan, a spokesman for Clarian Health Partners, which operates Methodist and...

CHICAGO - State regulators have suspended the license of a dentist whose 5-year-old patient fell into a coma in his office and later died. Dr. Hicham Riba's practices posed an "imminent danger to the public," the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said Friday. It said Riba failed to properly monitor Diamond Brownridge's blood pressure, pulse and respiration during her treatment Sept. 23 at his storefront clinic. The complaint said Riba recorded that Diamond was "alert and responsive" on discharge, although her mother claims to have found her comatose in the dental chair. Diamond died Wednesday at Children's Memorial...

NASHOBA — A peaceful Sunday morning breakfast erupted into a hellish inferno at the Erwin family cabin near Nashoba Sunday morning. Randall Erwin, former State Representative and current Executive Director of Little Dixie Community Action Agency, was cooking breakfast for his family when two explosions rocked the relatively new cabin. Erwin, his wife Dianne and daughter Brittany suffered substantial burns and were taken to Pushmataha County Hospital by private vehicle by Erwin’s daughter Terra. Not injured in the blast was Brittany’s son Brodie, who was outside playing when the explosions occurred. Erwin was airlifted around noon Sunday to Hillcrest Medical...

KEENESBURG, Co. (KUSA) - "I don’t know what made me do it. The devil I guess," she said. Flora’s sister, Rose, found the hot dog when she opened the suitcase back up in Idaho, where she lived at the time. "She mailed it back to me telling me to keep my garbage at home," said Flora. The game was on. In the years that followed, Flora would find a way to sneak the hot dog back into Rose’s life. And Rose would find another way to sneak it back to Flora. "I found it under my pillow once, I found...

WOODSIDE, Del. -- State fire officials say a Woodside-area man was seriously burned last night in an explosion after he poured gunpowder into a charcoal grill and ignited it. Michael Chionchio of the state Fire Marshal's Office says the 50-year-old man suffered first-degree burns to his face and third-degree burns to the hand he used to light the black powder. The man, whose name is not being released pending an investigation, was taken to the Kent General Hospital, where he is being treated. Chionchio says the man was alone in the back yard of a home in the 100 block...

A Cuyahoga County judge threw out the charge against a man accused of raping a girl six years ago when the prosecutor in the case was 45 minutes late to trial. Prosecutors have filed an appeal and said, if necessary, they will refile the charge against Norman Allen Craig, 22, of North Ridgeville. The mother of the now 16-year-old Rocky River girl said her daughter feels victimized by the judge’s decision. Common Pleas Judge Eileen Gallagher dismissed the case when Assistant County Prosecutor Mark Schneider had not shown up by 1:45 p.m. Monday, after she told both sides to be...

Sibling rivalry sunk to a new low for two sisters from Wood Dale, Illinois. Pamela Majdan, 23, and Joyce Majdan, 31, exchanged blows over who caught the most pieces of Twizzlers during a Memorial Day parade. According to Wood Dale Deputy Police Chief Greg Vesta, the sisters and other family members were gathered in front of their apartment complex observing the parade when an argument broke out between the two women over who had the most candy from the collection that parade organizers were tossing into the crowd. One sister accused the other of having caught more Twizzlers, Vesta said,...

SHARPSBURG, Md. - Members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups rallied Saturday at the Antietam National Battlefield, believed to be the first time a group was given permission to demonstrate at the site of the bloodiest day of the Civil War. About 30 people, some in white robes and others in the military-style clothing and swastika armbands of the National Socialist Movement of America, stood next to a farmhouse on the battlefield. Some delivered speeches attacking immigrants, blacks and other minority groups. About 200 federal, state and local officers watched to ensure peace and to act...

STERLING, Ohio — A first-time skydiver slipped from her harness during a jump Saturday and fell to her death, authorities said. The 44-year-old woman from West Chester, Pa., was participating in a tandem jump, her first with the AerOhio Skydiving school near Sterling, about 40 miles south of Cleveland, according to the Wayne County Sheriff's office. The victim's name was withheld pending notification of her family. During tandem jumps, a novice skydiver is harnessed to the chest of an experienced jumper. When the parachute is deployed, the experienced skydiver guides the team to the ground. A preliminary investigation by the...

I'm sure a lot of you received this email, but thought it would be good to post it in case some haven't. It's a survey wherin you can let the RNC know what's important to you. Multiple choice w/ comment box. If you're not signed up already, the link should get you to the sign up page. Below is the text of the email and questionaire.Dear kenth,You've heard from us. Now, we want to hear from you.As we formulate our strategy to win in November, we need your opinion. Enclosed in this e-mail is your official Republican Grassroots Voices Survey....

HILO, Hawaii - A Circuit Court jury on Monday awarded $5.6 million to the family of a man who had the shaft of a screwdriver implanted into his spine by an orthopedic surgeon, the family's attorney announced. Dr. Robert Ricketson had contended he acted properly when he operated on Arturo Iturralde in 2001 because two titanium rods he planned to attach to Iturralde's spine were discovered missing during the operation at Hilo Medical Center. The stainless steel screwdriver snapped days later, and the then-73-year-old Iturralde had to have three more back surgeries as a result. He died two years later....

WASHINGTON - The White House has rejected hurricane disaster-recovery loans at a higher rate than any other administration in the last 15 years, according to a congressional study by Democrats. The report, expected to be released Wednesday, said business and home loan approval rates averaged about 60 percent after Hurricane Andrew devastated much of south Florida in 1992. The trend continued through the rest of President George H.W. Bush's administration and into the Clinton administration, according to Democratic members of the House Small Business Committee. After Hurricane Wilma surged ashore in south Florida last year, the approval rate for low-interest,...

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. - President Bush campaigned Tuesday to boost the troubled new Medicare drug program that is the subject of a fierce election-year debate between Democrats and Republicans. Bush pleaded with older Americans — a key voting block, particularly in midterm congressional elections — to look positively on the new benefit. Under the program, the government subsidizes medication costs for the elderly and disabled through plans created by private insurers. In effect since January, it has been under fire from Democrats as too confusing for seniors with its numerous plans and coverage gaps — and from some conservative Republicans as...

TAMPA, Fla. - A second autopsy indicates that a 14-year-old boy who was punched and kicked by guards at a juvenile boot camp may not have died of natural causes as a medical examiner initially ruled, prosecutors said Tuesday. Martin Lee Anderson was sent to the Bay County Sheriff's Office boot camp on Jan. 5 for a probation violation. A surveillance video showed guards kicking and punching him after he collapsed while exercising on his first day at the camp, and he died at a hospital early the next day. The second autopsy was ordered after his parents questioned the...

SEDALIA, Mo. - Severe storms across the Midwest packed winds that knocked over airplanes, ripped roofs off homes and spawned tornadoes that killed three people. A twister, which roared up to a half mile wide, killed a woman seeking shelter in her mobile home and displaced about 150 residents in western Missouri on Sunday night, officials said. Six people were injured and two were missing after the tornado cut a path more than 16 miles long through the town of Sedalia, said Rusty Kahrs, Pettis County presiding commissioner. Bobby Ritcheson, 23, said he watched his neighbor die when her mobile...