Free Republic

A South St. Paul woman who beat her 8-year-old daughter in front of her St. Paul classmates on the last day of school was sentenced Wednesday to 15 days in jail. Socorro Eaton, 27, must report to the Ramsey County workhouse Dec. 27, Judge Margaret Marrinan ordered. A jury convicted her Oct. 27 of gross misdemeanor malicious punishment of a child. The case arose from an incident on June 14, the last day of school at Bruce Vento Elementary in St. Paul. The girl had told her mother that she needed to bring a bag of art supplies to class....

After listening to six days of testimony and deliberating for less than a day, 12 jurors found a Tonto Basin man acted in self-defense when he shot his neighbor in the back of the head more than a year ago. Defendant Ronald Johns, 70, was found not guilty of attempted murder, aggravated assault and cruelty to animals. He will be sentenced, however, July 23 for three counts of misconduct involving weapons, which he pleaded guilty to two days before trial. While Gila County Attorney Daisy Flores said she appreciated the service of the jurors, she was extremely disappointed with the...

An interesting phenomenon has been occuring in various newspaper "Letters to the Editor" pages. A woman with the same name has had letters published in no fewer than 9 newspapers praising Obama while using various city and location residences. Now it's one thing if the person(s) name was something like John Brown, Steve Smith, Amy Jones or any other number of common name combination. However the name being used is Ellie Light. This may seem like much about nothing except for one small thing. The only Ellie Light that FReepers were able to locate by Lexis-Nexis or internet searches were...

Washington, D.C. - June 21, 2006) Your normal UPS delivery truck will not be the same as EPA unveils the world's most fuel-efficient and cost-effective delivery vehicle. The first of its kind, EPA and UPS partnered to develop a UPS truck that uses EPA-patented hydraulic hybrid technology that can achieve fuel efficiency by 60-70 percent in urban driving and lower greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent. "EPA and our partners are not just delivering packages with this UPS truck – we are delivering environmental benefits to the American people," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "President Bush is moving technology...

WASHINGTON – Crusty and unapologetic, Donald H. Rumsfeld is the public face of an unpopular war and a target of unrelenting criticism. A growing number of commanders who served under him say he has botched the Iraq operation, ignored the advice of his generals and should be replaced. The White House insists the defense secretary retains President Bush's confidence. Few close to the administration expect him to be shown the door. “The president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a very fine job during a challenging period in our nation's history,” Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday as the administration circled...

The article follows... Hi everybody. Have been following the Commercial art=Bad art thread for a couple of days and wanted to throw in my two cents. On the topic of 'commercial illustration=bad art' and Rockwell, Parrish, and N. C. Wyeth, et al. be damned: I can't say I agree. If one has to say that the damning detail of the art was the fact that Rockwell had to accept guidelines as to what he was to paint (i.e. paint Santa having milk and cookies for our December issue of The Saturday Evening Post) so then his art isn't art, but...

Barbary Glory, Barbary Shame By Barr Seitz Two hundred years ago, seven U.S. Marines at the head of a ragtag army of European and Arab mercenaries set out on an extraordinary mission to free 300 U.S. hostages and end America's first foreign war. To do that, they first had to march almost 600 miles across the Barbary deserts of North Africa to what is the eastern part of modern-day Libya. Those were long odds for an untested Christian-Muslim army whose soldiers were as likely to kill each other as the enemy. Tripolitan War The desert expedition was a quixotic chapter...

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST -- A man was arrested Tuesday after deputies caught him setting a fire in a steep, remote canyon filled with dry brush and large trees in the Angeles National Forest, according to sheriff detectives. Hikers in a remote trail about a half-mile north of the Eaton Canyon Bridge in Altadena saw a man making a fire there and alerted authorities, sheriff's Detective Ed Nordskog said. Los Angeles County Parks officials and deputies arrived about 10 a.m. as the man was standing next to a fire about four feet in diameter. He warned the deputies to stay away...