Free Republic

With Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby safe at home with their families, authorities on Sunday turned to their next most pressing task — getting some answers. Exactly how did the two teens end up in the Kirkwood apartment of pizzeria manager Michael J. Devlin? What were his intentions for them? Did he harm them? And why did Shawn stay with him for 4 1/2 years, apparently posing as his son, while his real family pleaded for his return? Investigators interviewed both boys Saturday, but the public will have to wait for any insight into the ordeals they faced. Franklin County...

'There was no inkling that something like this would ever be linked with him,' a funeral chapel co-worker says. He was a private man who kept to himself. He paid the rent on time. He stayed out of trouble. He won his employer's respect, even getting a referral for a second job. Michael J. Devlin, 41, was never a suspect in the disappearance of Shawn Hornbeck four years ago, even though the boy lived in his Kirkwood apartment in full view of neighbors. And yet, it appeared Friday that the unassuming Devlin had pulled an unbelievable con — hiding in...

Neither Shawn Hornbeck or William "Ben" Ownby were allowed Saturday to publicly discuss the ordeal that ended with their recovery Friday and the arrest of the 41-year-old pizza parlor manager charged with holding them in a Kirkwood apartment. But the relief expressed by the families of both boys at separate press conferences Saturday morning let the world know that the future is now and that they are willing to let the past take care of itself. "I feel like I'm in a dream," said Shawn's mother, Pam Akers, who until Friday last saw her son on Oct. 6, 2002 when...

A former congressional page said he had sex with disgraced former US lawmaker Mark Foley, according to a newspaper report, as an explosive Washington political scandal continued to unfold. The unidentified former page told the Los Angeles Times Sunday that he was 21 when he and the Florida Republican congressman had sex... [emphasis mine -VA] Rest of article

The Upper West Side of Manhattan may be half a world away from the Middle East, but a bitter war of words has turned the narrow campus of Columbia University into a miniature Gaza Strip, riven by divisions between supporters of the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Jewish students charge that three professors in the university's Middle East & Jewish Studies department have ridiculed and intimidated them for making pro-Israel remarks, violating their rights as students to express opinions contrary to those of their professors. The allegations reflect the growing scrutiny that Middle East studies departments across the country are facing...

The next time you consider the purchase of a family car that matches satisfying heft with infinitesimal mileage per gallon, you might want to think about where some of that gas money will ultimately be going. Part of the price of every extra gallon helps, albeit indirectly, to finance mosques and religious schools all over the world that spread a fanatical variant of Islam that sees legitimacy in terrorist attacks. This financing, amounting to billions of dollars a year, comes from the government and private charities of Saudi Arabia, a country that is now taking in roughly $80 billion a...

LYNCHBURG, Va. — What Debra Meador read disturbed her. It didn't seem right that schoolchildren were once barred from holding prayer groups after class. Or that the Ten Commandments couldn't be displayed in a government building. So at 34, the human relations specialist from Lynchburg made good on a longtime interest by enrolling in law school. But unlike most prospective lawyers, she applied to only one place. "I wanted to take it in a Christian setting," said Meador, a member of the inaugural law class at Liberty University, a Baptist college founded here in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell....

Say goodbye to the American software programmer. Once the symbols of hope as the nation shifted from manufacturing to service jobs, programmers today are an endangered species. They face a challenge similar to that which shrank the ranks of steelworkers and autoworkers a quarter century ago: competition from foreigners. Some experts think they'll become extinct within the next few years, forced into unemployment or new careers by a combination of offshoring of their work to India and other low-wage countries and the arrival of skilled immigrants taking their jobs. Not everybody agrees programmers will disappear completely. But even the optimists...

Arlene Thomas grew suspicious when two men with out-of-state drivers licenses and a large wad of cash came into her Sauget helicopter hangar Wednesday morning and said they wanted to see St. Louis landmarks from the sky. The men, whom Thomas described to police as of "Middle Eastern descent," were carrying a duffel bag and a backpack and drove up in a rental car with Texas license plates. The signs pointed to terrorism - that's exactly the impression the two men, an NBC News producer and cameraman, were trying to create.

FW Diocese banned him from ministry after learning of abuse link 07:44 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 By SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH / The Dallas Morning News A Catholic priest removed from ministry in Pennsylvania because of sexual abuse allegations has been living in Dallas and leading Mass at an Arlington parish for at least a year. Officials at the Diocese of Fort Worth, which encompasses Arlington, said they didn't know about the Rev. Christopher Clay's activities at St. Mary the Virgin Catholic Church until contacted this week by The Dallas Morning News. On Tuesday the diocese's chancellor, the Rev....

12:16 AM CDT on Thursday, July 1, 2004 By ROD DREHER / The Dallas Morning News Troublemaking whistleblower or peacekeeping hypocrite – which would you rather be? I made my choice earlier this week when I helped reveal troubling information about Father Christopher Clay, an accused sexual abuser ministering in the Roman Catholic parish I was attending. Here's what happened. A few weeks back, my friend Rachel Dillard told me she wanted to be received into the Catholic Church. I suggested that she ask Father Clay, a dynamic orthodox priest at the marvelous St. Mary the Virgin parish in Arlington,...

Government moves to deport fugitive priest 02:11 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 By REESE DUNKLIN / The Dallas Morning News The Samoan government, prompted by a Dallas Morning News investigation, is moving to deport a fugitive Catholic priest because he failed to disclose his conviction in a previous child molestation case when entering the country. The priest's superiors in the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order also face an immigration inquiry because they, too, failed to make the same disclosures, said Auseuga Poloma Komiti, the senior adviser to Samoa's prime minister and cabinet. Samoan authorities will serve the...

U.S. Companies Not Fleeing Saudi Arabia By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - If the recent past is any guide, the beheading of American Paul M. Johnson Jr. is unlikely to trigger a mass exodus from Saudi Arabia. Most Americans in the kingdom have not heeded repeated State Department warnings that they get out, security consultants and analysts said. "We haven't seen the panicking or the departure of foreigners from Saudi Arabia," Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, said Saturday. "This is a difficult time for Saudi Arabia. We are going...

<p>Ankara, Turkey, March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey's army supports the deployment of U.S. troops in the country for a possible invasion of Iraq, said Hilmi Ozkok, the chairman of Turkey's joint chiefs of staff.</p> <p>A government motion asking parliament to approve the deployment failed to win a majority on Saturday. The U.S. had planned to open a northern front against Iraq from Turkey in the event of war, a move analysts say would shorten the conflict and reduce U.S. casualties.</p>

Like many women, Kelly Barclay used to dread what would happen to her every four weeks, when she'd suffer through intense cramps and sudden outbursts of emotion. "The pain could get quite intense, and that was no fun," said Barclay, 23, a bartender and part-time accountant from Clifton, Va. "And I had some pretty bad mood swings. I'd cry watching sitcoms." Barclay doesn't worry about that anymore. In fact, she doesn't worry about anything concerning her monthly cycle. That's because instead of having her period every four weeks or so, she now has it only once every three months. This...

<p>HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - Veteran Boeing engineers say their company falsely led NASA to conclude that the space shuttle Columbia was safe to land because top managers assigned the task of assessing damage to employees who had never done that type of analysis for NASA before.</p>

Talking with a conservative friend the other day, I mentioned that my wife and I were having a friend over to dinner, and were going to serve him all kinds of delicious vegetables from the organic food co-op to which we belong. "Ewgh, That sounds so lefty," she said. And she's right. We're probably the only Republicans who subscribe to this service, which delivers fresh vegetables once weekly to our neighborhood from farms out on Long Island, and at a good price. But so what? Are lefties the only ones allowed to consume quality produce? We made fun of our...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - On Monday, Elizabeth Smart played "Silent Night" on the harp at her grandfather's funeral. It was his favorite tune, and Christmas his favorite time because it brought together his entire family. Trying as the death was, Elizabeth's mother, Lois Smart, had prepared her children for it, taking them to visit her ailing father every day for three months. But what happened two nights after the funeral has tested the family's strong Mormon faith as nothing else could. A gunman broke into their home and abducted Elizabeth, telling her sister not to tell anyone he had...

<p>KABUL, Afghanistan - The child sits in a dim and crowded hospital room, staring far into the distance. At first glance it is hard to tell whether the child is a boy or a girl, but the clue lies in the tiny newborn cradled in her arms.</p>

OSWEGO, N.Y.- A teen-ager was sentenced to three to nine years in prison Friday for burning down a Sikh temple in anger over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Joshua Centrone, 18, is the second of four teen-agers to plead guilty in connection with the Nov. 18 fire at the Gobind Sadan USA Temple in Palermo, 30 miles north of Syracuse. The teen-agers told authorities they set fire to the temple because they thought it was called Go Bin Laden. Numerous hate crimes have been committed against Sikhs since Sept. 11. Sikhs have been mistaken for Arabs or Muslims because of...