Free Republic

Media helos overhead, LAPD asking for traffic control....fans and papparazzi overrunning streets.

On Clemens' stance regarding claims in Mitchell Report that he used and was injected with banned performance-enhancing drugs from 1998-2001: ``Roger Clemens adamantly, vehemently and whatever other adjectives can be used, denies that he has ever used steroids or whatever the word is for improper substances. ``He is really concerned and upset that he has been named in this report based on the allegations of apparently, reading the report, based on a trainer (Brian McNamee) that he has had in the past. ``That's not a standard somebody should be held out in public to have done something as serious as...

Hollywood film-maker Oliver Stone shocked the audience at the British Comedy Awards with a bad-taste gag about the Suffolk murders. The director of 'Platoon' and 'Born On The Fourth Of July' was attending the ceremony to present the best comedy film prize to Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park. Taking the stage, he quipped: "It's great to be back in England. I feel like Jack The Ripper days are back. Nothing ever changes here." But his attempt at comedy was met with jeers and gasps of horror from the celebrity audience. Realising his joke had bombed, Stone sneered: "You're a...

CERES, Calif. -- A Ceres toddler accidentally shot herself to death Wednesday using a handgun she found in her home, police say. Authorities said they received a call at 7:42 a.m. reporting a shooting at a home on Ninth Street. The 2-year-old girl, who was not immediately identified, was pronounced dead at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto. Police said the girl's parents were being questioned by investigators. "There's really nothing to make us believe at this point that they're not telling us the true story, but we certainly have an obligation to either substantiate that or not support it by...

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) - Al Gore's son was arrested early Wednesday on suspicion of possessing marijuana and prescription drugs after deputies pulled him over for speeding, authorities said. Al Gore III, 24, was driving a blue Toyota Prius about 100 mph on the San Diego Freeway when he was pulled over at about 2:15 a.m., Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said. The deputies said they smelled marijuana and searched the car, Amormino said. They found less than an ounce of marijuana along with Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall, which is used for attention deficit disorder, he said.

LONDON - Keith Richards was joking when he claimed to have snorted his father’s ashes along with cocaine, a spokesman said Wednesday. “It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool’s joke,” said Bernard Doherty of LD Communications, which represents the Rolling Stones. Doherty declined to say any more about why Richards made the statement in an interview with NME, a pop music magazine. “The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” the 63-year-old guitarist was quoted as saying. “He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him...

Peggy cites the pop-culture glitterai who are ga-ga over Obama; opines on his book; and concludes he's a narcissist. Caveat Emptor.

Should Sen. Barack Obama run for president? It will be a tough call for the senator and for those who admire and respect him personally. If he runs, he has a good chance of winning because he represents what Americans want in their president at this very troubled time in their history, a man of firm principles but not an ideologue, a moderate who can sympathize with his opponent's position, a modest man with self-deprecating wit, a politician who tries to bring people together instead of polarizing them against one another. A candidate who does not swagger or shout and...

Wisconsin is squarely in the eye of Obamamania this week with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama crossing the border to campaign for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, attorney general candidate Kathleen Falk and Congresswoman Gwen Moore. Two years ago, when Obama showed up at Milwaukee's Martin Luther King Park to campaign for Moore and Sen. Russ Feingold, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel didn't even bother to run a story the next day. With every magazine and talk show in the nation now promoting the possibility of Obama becoming America's first black president, even the most oblivious local media have taken notice. That's why...

CHICAGO --Responding to a newspaper report, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday that arrangements he had with a political fundraiser accused of shaking down companies might have raised the appearance of impropriety. Antoin "Tony" Rezko, whom Gov. Rod Blagojevich has described as a friend and a fundraiser, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to squeeze millions of dollars in kickbacks out of investment firms seeking state business. He also has pleaded not guilty to obtaining a $10.5 million loan from General Electric Capital Corp. through fraud and swindling a group of investors. Photo/Tony Dejak

Officials: Family of 5 Shot Dead in Iowa BONAPARTE, Iowa — Three high school girls and their parents were found dead Saturday morning at their home in eastern Iowa, and the couple's son was arrested in Illinois and considered a suspect, officials said. The victims were found shot at about 4 a.m. near Bonaparte, according to the Van Buren County sheriff's office. It was not immediately clear what prompted the slayings. Shawn Bentler, 22, was arrested Saturday in Quincy, Ill., on an unrelated charge of possession of drug paraphernalia, the Van Buren County sheriff's office said. The Iowa Department of...

If we all go out and vote for peace candidates and get our friends to vote, and if our votes are really counted, it's no contest. There'll be a change in the Congress, and then we'll just have to keep building so we can get a president who won't send our soldiers to fight a war based on lies. We should have thrown the bastards out years ago. Let's do it now! Give Peace A VOTE!

A reputed Mexican drug lord who tops the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Most Wanted List has been captured in an offshore operation in the Pacific Ocean, federal law enforcement sources said. The DEA lists rewards of $5 million each for the capture of Javier Arellano-Felix and his brother, Eduardo, who allegedly head the cartel that bears their name

MODEL Michelle Leslie wore a burqa during her stay in a Balinese prison on drugs charges to avoid being raped... Leslie said she awoke in the Kerobokan prison one night to find a man sitting on the end of her mattress, laughing and singing: "Jiggyjig Missa Leslie. Bali holiday. Jiggyjig". "I knew jiggyjig translated into having sex," Leslie told the magazine. "He was saying Australian model and stroking my leg. I screamed: `Get out of here!'." Leslie said she was aware another woman was being taken from her cell regularly for sex, and realised her fate would be the same...

Investigation Continues as Congressman Enters Mayo Clinic May 5, 2006 — Capitol Police have taken disciplinary action against a watch commander for the handling of Rep. Patrick Kennedy's car accident, acting Capitol Police Chief Christopher McGaffin said. Lou Cannon of of the Fraternal Order of Police for the District of Columbia said there are questions about whether Rep. Patrick Kennedy received special treatment. (ABC News) McGaffin said the incident was improperly delayed due to "poor judgment" on the part of police managers and that a field sobriety test should have been administered to Kennedy after his car hit a barrier...

What a wimp. Even by the exceedingly high standards of scandal pioneered by the House of Kennedy, Rep. Patrick is no JFK. When he played bumper cars in our nation's capital at 3 in the morning, appearing intoxicated - but later insisting he was just on pills - the shnook was alone. That is, except for his pathetic bag of excuses and his famous name, which still holds the power to get a guy out of a jam without a Breathalyzer or a body-cavity search. Let's recap. Kennedys, you see, never pay for their criminal recklessness. Now that Patrick has...

via Drudge

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- An agent for Randy Moss was charged with possession of crack cocaine after police were called to a hotel to investigate a disturbance, authorities said Wednesday. Dante DiTrapano and his wife, Teri, of Charleston, W.Va., were arrested Tuesday at a hotel in St. Petersburg, police said. The hotel's management called police to report a disturbance in couple's room. When officers entered the room they found the drugs, police said. Three other people were also arrested and charged with possession of crack cocaine, police said. "Dante has been battling depression over two tragedies that occurred this past...

Concord police arrested a 25-year-old woman Saturday after she allegedly took an undercover police car and led officers on a high-speed pursuit. About 6:24 a.m. Concord police received a report that someone had taken an unmarked police car from a driveway in the Clayton Valley area, said Sgt. Matt Morrissey. About 15 minutes later, a Concord officer spotted the vehicle on Treat Boulevard and Clayton Road and attempted to pull the driver over. "She did not want to be stopped," Morrissey said. She then led police on a pursuit through Pleasant Hill and then onto Highway 242 with speeds reaching...

DENVER - Kobe Bryant's attorneys have identified about 125 potential witnesses to testify in the civil lawsuit filed against him by the woman who accused him of sexual assault, attorneys told a judge Wednesday. Attorneys for Bryant and the 20-year-old woman met in Denver federal court for the first time to map out a preliminary schedule for the case. They agreed on a tentative May deadline to complete the required exchange of evidence. No trial date is being contemplated for now, L. Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney representing the woman, said after the brief hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard...

A Staten Island teacher who pleaded guilty to felony drug possession can return to the classroom if he completes a drug treatment program, an arbitrator has ruled. Michael Campbell, a dean and eighth-grade teacher at Intermediate School 72, can keep his job even though he was arrested in April 2002 for cocaine and marijuana possession, according to a decision made public yesterday. A spokesman for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said the system would fight to keep Campbell out of the classroom. "This is another example of arbitrators blocking the department's efforts to remove people who are not fit to be...

A press release from David Lee Roth says he used a shotgun to stop an intruder at his California home over the weekend. There's only one problem with the story--the police say it really didn't happen that way. According to Roth's release, at about 3 a.m. PT on Saturday (April 26) he "was awakened by the sounds of breaking branches to discover a man had scaled his manor's 10 foot high wall. Roth grabbed his shotgun and went onto the grounds where he encountered the man who was carrying a knife. Roth cornered the man and held him until the...

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 31 — A federal jury today found the author of marijuana books and advice columns, Ed Rosenthal, guilty of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy. Under mandatory sentencing laws, Mr. Rosenthal faces a minimum of five years in prison. Mr. Rosenthal, 58, who admitted to growing the plants for distribution under California's medicinal marijuana law, known as Proposition 215, called the verdict a "terrible decision" and vowed to fight it. His lawyers said they would prepare motions for a new trial immediately. "What the federal government is trying to do is destroy Prop 215 and eliminate medical marijuana from...

Heroin will kill Winona Drugs claims ... Winona with her lawyer yesterdayFrom EVA SIMPSONin Los Angeles MOVIE star Winona Ryder is a heroin user who could overdose and die, a shock police report claimed last night. A detective warned the judge at Winona’s shoplifting hearing that if the actress didn’t get help she could be found dead “with a needle in her arm”. The file was released as Winona, 31, appeared for sentence. She was let off jail, but was given probation and community service. She was also ordered to undergo drug and psychological counselling. The 28-page probation report...