Free Republic

Does anyone recall seeing a thread here a few days after Hurrican Katrina, that linked to a website created by someone who lived in N.O., was a photojournalism student and was here on a student visa? His photos and detailed captions were awesome! They were the quality one would see in Time Life books or NatGeo. The most important part of it all, however, was that he told of out right lies the media were showing to the American public. He was disgusted because he was watching members of the news media who he had idolized up until that point,...

NORTH CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game. "I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets," Schneider said. This time, her advice was no joke. The single mother -- with nine maxed-out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate's degree -- bought what turned out to a $1 million winning ticket with a $10 bill she found in the...

MIDDLE RIVER, Md. — A 2-year-old boy was severely burned Saturday after he went down the slide at an elementary school playground. Someone had broken into the school, stolen several bottles of industrial-strength drain cleaner and splashed it all over the playground equipment, authorities said. Peyton Duschl was scheduled for surgery Sunday morning and likely will be hospitalized for several weeks, said Carol Duschl, the boy's mother. "I just don't understand what would draw somebody to do something like that," Duschl told WMAR-TV. "What kind of sick joke is that?" Peyton suffered second- and third-degree burns, mostly on his legs,...

It's not easy being green. Just ask former Vice President Al Gore. While the newly anointed Oscar winner has made what Katie Couric called a "triumphant return" to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Gore was tripped up by a simple question from Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe. Late into the hearing, Inhofe showed Gore a clip from his film, "An Inconvenient Truth." The clip challenged the audience with this question: "Are you ready to change the way you live?" Simple enough. But Inhofe took this question a step further, by placing it right at the foot of the former vice president. Correctly...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — An American senior citizen killed an alleged mugger with his bare hands, and his traveling companions aboard a tour bus fended of two other assailants in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said. A retired member of the U.S. military aged about 70 put suspect Warner Segura in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus, Luis Hernandez, the police chief of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose, said Thursday. Segura was later declared dead, apparently...

Two brothers who admitted torturing and killing a small puppy by baking it to death inside a gas oven will serve 10 years in prison. Justin and Joshua Moulder, who essentially threw themselves on the mercy of the court last month with guilty pleas to nine felony counts, found little sympathy from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore at Friday's three-hour sentencing. She described the acts the boys pleaded guilty to — taking the puppy and smearing paint on it, trying to set it on fire, hog tying its feet with duct tape and binding its snout...

DEAR ABBY: My life is a wreck. I have two kids, and I'm only 20. We live with our friends because my fiance's father kicked us out for telling him to get a job and help pay the bills. There are 11 people living in this three-bedroom trailer. God bless them for taking us in. My fiance lost his job the same week. I am so depressed, all I do is cry. I don't know what to do with myself. I need help. Do you have any advice? -- DISTRAUGHT IN OHIO DEAR DISTRAUGHT: Only this. Dry your tears and...

State's exhibit no. 109 recoiled, and bit to defend herself, as Fulton County prosecutors staged a mild re-enactment of a puppy's final moments before being killed in a gas oven. Rita, a 3-month-old shepherd mix serving as a stand-in, didn't have to fear she would be hog-tied with duct tape and her snout wrapped like the puppy killed at an Atlanta apartment complex. And she wasn't covered with paint or stuffed into a searing hot oven. Still, the cute brown puppy with a black muzzle never let forensic veterinarian Melinda Merck subdue her completely. And, Rita was only playing with...

White lies? Since when is it OK for a president to lie to reporters? Wasn’t it just last week that the president told reporters that both Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were staying on their jobs for the next two years? It was an important question. The president didn’t duck. He didn’t give one of those mealy mouthed, we’ll see answers. He said yes, they’re both staying. And even as he said it, they were getting ready to get rid of Rumsfeld. He must have known that. He hadn’t talked to Gates yet, but Gates was being vetted for the...

I've always done everything on my own time-table, including waiting until after age 30 to get married. My husband and I remained childless and planned to never be parents, but now in my early 40's I'm feeling differently. I also am blessed in that I would be able to stay at home with the baby. For every story I've heard about age-related fertility issues, I've also heard of yet another couple who thought they couldn't get pregnant, didn't worry about birth control, and got a nice little surprise. I would like to hear from Freepers who have become parents either...

How much do you think Osama bin Laden would pay to know exactly when and where the President was traveling, and who was with him? Turns out, he wouldn't have had to pay a dime. All he had to do was go through the trash early Tuesday morning. It appears to be a White House staff schedule for the President's trip to Florida Tuesday. And a sanitation worker was alarmed to find in the trash long hours before Mr. Bush left for his trip. It's the kind of thing you would expect would be shredded or burned, not thrown in...

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Police have arrested two people after a woman returned home to find her home burglarized and her dog burned to death in the oven. Angela DeLettre returned home Thursday afternoon to find her back door open, items missing and kitchen sink overflowing with water. She was able to find one of her dogs, a 6-year-old shi tzu named Pepper. But she was unable to find her other dog, a 1-year-old rat terrier. Police later found the dog burned to death in the oven, which had been set to 400 degrees. Alexander Davis, 19 and Evelyn Jeanette Williams,...

Things got ugly after Daryl R. Cook's neighbors turned against him. Really ugly. Cook spray-painted his Dunwoody ranch house bright orange and blue. After all, he's a University of Florida graduate. But he wasn't done. Next came the farm animals, some named after famous UF athletes and coaches. Three pigs — Spottie, Dottie and Sausage Patty — root through the dirt in the shade of the house. A trio of goats, known as Donovan and the Gatorettes, keep them company. Spurrier the rooster struts around crowing at all hours. Blue-and-orange concrete alligators, Cook's version of lawn ornaments, dot the landscape....

SPACE CENTER, Houston - Astronauts on Sunday loaded up supplies and hauled out mounds of trash that have accumulated on the international space station since shuttles were grounded after the 2003 Columbia tragedy. "It is kind of just like working in your closets and your garage," station flight director Mark Ferring said. "It's a lot of work." Discovery, which docked at the orbiting outpost Thursday, became the first shuttle to return to orbit last week. Among the mission's goals: Resupply the station and take out the trash.

Newborn baby dies in toilet Associated Press COLLEGE PARK, Ga. - Police are investigating the death of an infant who was delivered in an apartment bathroom. The case comes about two years after authorities investigated a similar case at the same apartment. The incident began Sunday afternoon when police answered a 911 call from the mother of Vanessa Ballard, 39, who said her daughter was having a baby and needed help. Police found the newborn in the toilet. Paramedics cut the umbilical cord and tried to revive the child but were not successful. The woman delivered a baby the same...

Suicide Victim's Mom Sues Wal-Mart for Gun Sale Tuesday, DALLAS — Near the end of her short life, Shayla Stewart (search), a diagnosed manic-depressive and schizophrenic, assaulted police officers and was arrested for attacking a fellow customer at a Denton Wal-Mart (search) where she had a prescription for anti-psychotic medication. Given all those signs, her parents say, another Wal-Mart just seven miles away should have never sold her the shotgun she used to kill herself at age 24 in 2003. Her mother, Lavern Bracy, is suing the world's biggest store

NBC Defends Couric's Anti-Christian Rant by Gary Schneeberger, editor Network refuses to apologize for the "Today" host's 1998 intimation that groups like Focus on the Family incited the murder of Matthew Shepard. NBC News has refused to apologize to Christians maligned by "Today" show host Katie Couric's insinuation that biblical teachings on homosexuality in part prompted the 1998 murder of gay teenager Matthew Shepard. In a Dec. 8 letter to Focus on the Family, a network executive rejected the ministry's call for an apology, made in light of a recent news report on ABC's "20/20" that debunked the longstanding notion...

An SUV jumped a curb and struck a mother as she pushed her baby boy in a jogging stroller at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Lullwater Road Monday, police said. The impact threw the woman into a nearby ravine, but left the toddler crying in the stroller where it remained on the sidewalk. Both victims are expected to be okay. Atlanta police said the accident happened just before 10 a.m. as the woman walked eastbound on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The driver, identified as 32-year-old

Alleged assault took place in front of fourth-grade class at Bibb school A Bibb County elementary school teacher is in jail, charged with beating a student's mother in front of 19 fourth-grade students. Katrina Ann Rucker, 30, is charged with battery and cruelty to children after the assault at Bruce-Weir Elementary School about 8:50 a.m. Thursday. Rucker was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, school officials said. The parent, Lurella Amica, suffered a fractured nose, a possible broken bone near her eye and numerous bruises, Macon police spokeswoman Melanie Hofmann said. Amica was in stable condition in the emergency...

Raw fruit and vegetables — or else the pigs get it. That's what a Gallatin, Tenn., woman read in a ransom note after a pair of concrete swine were swiped from her front yard two weekends ago, reports the News-Examiner of Gallatin.