Free Republic

Arizona sheriff introduces all female chaing gang A dozen women clad in black and white striped uniforms trudge across the barren earth of Arizona, their ankles clanking as they move in heavy iron chains. By Nick Allen, Arizona 9:00PM GMT 02 Jan 2011 Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who oversees the police force in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes the city of Phoenix, has re-introduced chain gangs for women prisoners after an earlier experiment with men. The female chain gang performs tasks including burying the dead in paupers’ graves and clearing wasteland in scorching heat over 100F (38C). At night the women...

Is there nothing sadder than the loss of innocence? Some of us lose it upon learning there is no Santa Claus. For others it accompanies the death of a close friend or forlorn love. For 43-year-old Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., aka "Senate Candidate 5", loss of innocence came earlier this week when he discovered that there is something called "pay-to-play" politics going on in Illinois. Watching his press conference on Wednesday was difficult. Something in me died that day as I watched a plucky, young, silly heart thrust in front of the callous media glare that had served him so...

GASTONIA, N.C. -- Police in Gaston County say an illegal immigrant kidnapped and tried to sexually assault two little girls Saturday. They say Ramon Zamora-Solano, 41, told the girls to come into his apartment in Gastonia. The 6- and 5-year-old girls were playing outside at a birthday party on Duhart Avenue. Police say the girls said no, and Zamora-Solano hit them and dragged them into the apartment by their hair before locking the door.

Convicts were forced to march to a new top-security jail — wearing just pink underpants and flip-flops to deter escape bids. Prison bosses reckoned the 700 hardmen would be too embarrassed to go on the run in gay-style garb. Muscle-bound, tattooed thugs were linked with pink handcuffs for the two-mile hike. And when they reached the new clink in Phoenix, Arizona, one con had to cut a pink ribbon to open it. Tough Sheriff Joe Arpaio said: “I put them on the street so everybody could see them. They can see this is what happens to people who break the...

DENVER, March 3 — As migrant laborers flee Colorado because of tough new immigration restrictions, worried farmers are looking to prisoners to fill their places in the fields. In a pilot program run by the state Corrections Department, supervised teams of low-risk inmates beginning this month will be available to harvest the swaths of sweet corn, peppers and melons that sweep the southeastern portion of the state.

Friction rises in Nigerian governmentJefferson case contributing to the tension Thursday, October 05, 2006 By Bruce Alpert WASHINGTON -- Imagine that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were accusing each other of improprieties so bad that they called for impeachment proceedings. That bizarre scenario is akin to what is playing out in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, as President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar engage in a monumental political battle that got its impetus, at least in part, from the lengthy U.S. Justice Department probe of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans. There is concern within Nigeria...