Free Republic

Stunned dog owners and residents of a Severn neighborhood are shocked that authorities won't be charging a federal police officer who shot and killed a Siberian husky Monday night at a community dog park. Bear-Bear, a brown and white husky that was about 3 years old, was playing in the Quail Run dog park at about 6:30 p.m., running off leash inside the fenced-in area, when the officer and his wife arrived with a German shepherd, who was kept on a leash. When the dogs began to play roughly, the federal officer asked Bear-Bear's guardian, his owner's brother, to call...

A retired Air Force colonel with decades of experience as a flight instructor gave one of his students a hands-on lesson in a key principle of flying: Don't run out of gas. Al Uhalt of Colorado Springs made a bumpy but safe landing in a field Thursday when the single-engine Aviat Husky he and a student were flying ran out of fuel near the end of a 45-minute lesson. Neither Uhalt nor the student, 16-year-old Kyle Sundman, was injured and the plane was undamaged.

From 1977 to 1979, the retired Air Force colonel commanded the 46th Aerospace Defense Wing at Peterson Air Force Base. For decades he has been a flight instructor, owning his own school and even serving on the city's airport advisory board. Perhaps this kind of history makes Thursday's incident just a little embarrassing. His plane ran out of gas.

BAGHDAD, Feb. 20, 2009 – The U.S. military fielded its 10,000th mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle in Iraq today during a ceremony on Camp Liberty, just 22 months after it was introduced into the theater of operations. Mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles sit in a row on the Camp Liberty, Iraq, fielding site, Feb. 20, 2009. The day marked the introduction of the 10,000th vehicle into Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Christopher Gaylord  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Servicemembers and civilians from across Victory Base Complex gathered among rows of MRAPs at the largest fielding site in Iraq to acknowledge the...

Mystery solved, suspect in custody! We finally know who pulled off a canine caper that generated news stories, and laughter, around the globe. The "shoplifting dog" has finally come forward and faced up to the crime. Returning to the scene of the crime in a Hummer, Akira took it easy this time, riding instead of walking. The 11-year-old Siberian Husky seemed eager for a return visit to the Smith's grocery store. Just before Christmas, surveillance video captured a mysterious dog making a clean getaway with a stolen rawhide bone. The Stirling family suspected Akira was the bad guy and brought...

In 1998, then-Gov. John G. Rowland boosted his re-election prospects by creating the Healthcare for UninSured Kids and Youth program. HUSKY was intended to provide no more than 90,000 impoverished children with the same access to medical care as state employees. But the issue was never about access, but who pays; ultimately, this "conservative Republican" chose the government solution. At HUSKY's inception, 6.7 percent of Connecticut's children were uninsured. Today, HUSKY enrollment is a robust 323,000, even though the services it provides have never come close to matching the political rhetoric. And despite the infusion of hundreds of millions in...

Click on the link below for a short sideshow of what appears to be a Polar Bear and Husky engaged in play fighting in Hudson Bay, Canada. Duration about 2:16.

A Crest Hill man and his daughter admitted in court Monday that they starved their dog to death in plea deals that sent the father to prison and led to probation for the young woman. Mark Obidowicz, 44, pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty, a felony that carried a maximum 3-year sentence. He was sentenced to a year in prison. Nicole Obidowicz, 19, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor animal cruelty. She was sentenced to 24 months of conditional discharge, a type of probation, during which she cannot own an animal. She also was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service....

St. Cloud police arrested SCSU professor Robert Weisman, 45, for alleged criminal sexual assault Tuesday after receiving reports he was inappropriately touching a minor while sitting in the waiting area of a St. Cloud office building. The incident, which allegedly occurred between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Monday, was first reported to Sherburne County's Department of Human Services by an unidentified individual, and St. Cloud Police arrived at the scene a short time later. Police took Weisman, a long-time weather forecaster and SCSU professor, into custody Tuesday -- finding probable cause to arrest him for second degree criminal sexual assault, according...

Chippewa Falls, WIS. (AP) -- Jeremy Majorowicz thought something was wrong when he saw a dog sitting on railroad tracks for at least two hours. But he didn't realize how wrong until he and several other men determined that the gray and white husky had been literally frozen to the ties in below zero weather. The construction worker first saw the dog on the tracks before his crew called off work for the day Monday because of the cold, and headed to a restaurant. But the dog was still there when they returned 1 1/2 hours later. "I like animals,...

Police: Girl, 2, dies after apparent dog mauling 5/6/2005, 2:01 p.m. ET The Associated Press WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A 2-year-old girl appears to have been mauled to death Friday by her family's two Huskies, police said. Police in this Oakland County community said the dogs were taken into the custody of animal control after the attack shortly before 9:30 a.m. EDT. The child's mother and grandparents were in the house at the time, police said, and her mother called 911 after the child was found in the backyard. The parents were interviewed, police said, and had not been...