Free Republic

There is a new peace coalition in town called Peace of the Action. Peace of the Action is the brainchild of Peace Mom, Cindy Sheehan, who has been striving to make the concept of peace a reality since her son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in April 2004. “Peace of the Action will be setting up Camp Out Now on the lawn of the Washington Monument beginning March 13th and this new peace camp will be the launching pad for daily direct actions against the seat of our government; A government that is involved in so many wars, invasions, bombings...

The wife of the most senior Republican in the Senate was arrested Wednesday night after her vehicle struck a parked car. Police said Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar's wife, Charlene, drove her car into the parked vehicle just after 6:15 p.m. Wednesday in their McLean, Va., neighborhood. No injuries were reported.

When Republican supporters of candidate Robert McDonnell are asked why they voted, a surprising number refer to "he" or "him." The folks at the Chesterbrook polling place in McLean are not talking about McDonnell or his rival, Creigh Deeds, but President Barack Obama. McDonnell voter Christina Hoag, who owns a catering business with about 25 employees, said that she hopes a Republican victory would slow the growth of government and send the message to Democrats that they don't have the mandate in Washington they think they do to remake the economy. "There's anger right now within ourselves, and I think...

The driver who witnessed a schizophrenic behead a fellow Greyhound bus passenger last summer has been gripped with panic attacks, while those who mourn the victim say they can’t sleep and have developed a deep sense that justice hasn’t been done, a review board heard Monday.

General Growth Properties, owner of premier malls such as Tysons Galleria in McLean, filed the largest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday, but analysts say the move is not a sign of retail Armageddon. General Growth, like many homeowners, paid top dollar in a rush to buy properties earlier in the decade and now finds itself awash in debt with its asset values shrinking.

By James A. Barnes, National Journal © National Journal Group Inc. Monday, March 31, 2008 If potential presidents can be judged by how they run their campaigns, then how they staff those efforts may provide important clues to the kinds of talent they would recruit for their administrations. Because Democratic front-runner Barack Obama is a relative newcomer to national politics, an examination of his inner circle of political and policy advisers offers new windows into his thinking, leadership style, and sources of expertise. The Democratic front-runner's team has a relatively shallow bench, but its political achievements thus far are quite...

A Knox County judge today ordered Erin McLean jailed for 95 days for what he contended were 17 acts of contempt - more time behind bars than her husband received in the March 2007 shooting death of her 18-year-old lover. Fourth Circuit Court Judge Bill Swann imposed a 10-day sentence for each of the violations, stacking one on top of the other for a total of 170 days. He suspended 75 of those days, however. "Court orders have to be followed," Swann told Erin McLean. "That has to have consequences." Swann faulted McLean for repeatedly invoking her Fifth Amendment right...

Kirlins say they will only have to cede 15 percent of south Boulder lot. Two Boulder neighbors have settled an adverse-possession case that made national headlines last year and prompted changes to the state's law, according to a joint statement released Tuesday. Don and Susie Kirlin, who originally lost 34 percent of one of their vacant south Boulder lots to their neighbors Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, said they had settled a lawsuit and will only cede 15 percent of the lot. "This settlement allows the parties to put this longstanding and difficult dispute behind them," the couples wrote in...

A Knoxville man was sentenced to four years in prison today, with 47 days jail time and then probation in the love-triangle slaying of his student-teacher wife’s teenage lover. Knox County Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz ruled Eric McLean should serve time for the shooting death of 18-year-old Sean Powell in 2007. He spent 42 days in jail before making bond and must spend the additional 47 days incarcerated. McLean, 33, was convicted in September of reckless homicide, which carried no more than a four-year prison term. Powell had been having an affair with McLean's wife, Erin McLean, a...

Exactly as some legal experts predicted, Boulder's courts saw a spike in claims of "adverse possession" filed by people apparently trying to beat the clock on changes to the controversial land law. Of the 25 active adverse-possession lawsuits in Boulder County -- where a person or company claims someone else's land after trespassing on it for at least 18 years -- 15 of those cases were filed in June Some of those cases were filed just hours before changes to the law went into effect last Tuesday, court records show. The changes, drafted by a bipartisan group of state legislators...

Richard McLean and Edith Stevens did not fabricate evidence or lie to win their controversial land case against neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin, District Judge James C. Klein ruled today. Klein’s order essentially upholds his decision last fall to award about 34 percent of one of the Kirlins’ vacant lots to McLean and Stevens after they sued for it using the squatter’s-rights law of “adverse possession.” The Kirlins had filed paperwork earlier this year alleging that McLean, a former district court judge, and Stevens, an attorney, faked evidence of a dirt path across the Kirlins’ property and lied about using...

Adverse possession law set to change. Beginning July 1, people hoping to use "adverse possession" to take control of another person's land had better be prepared to pay for it... The bill, which garnered wide bipartisan support among state lawmakers, requires that an adverse possessor believe in "good faith" that the land is actually his or her own. It also raises the burden of proof in an adverse-possession case and gives judges the power to make plaintiffs payfor any land they are awarded. Witwer on Friday said the bill is a victory for property owners. "This will make it harder...

A Boulder County District Court judge charged with revisiting a controversial land dispute should not consider "outrageous" claims that Richard McLean and Edith Stevens lied to win their case, according to the couple's attorney. In court documents submitted Tuesday, Boulder attorney Kim Hult responded pointedly to accusations made by Don and Susie Kirlin that their neighbors fabricated a path across their Hardscrabble Drive vacant lot. The thin dirt trail, which has come to be known as "Edie's Path," was a critical piece of evidence that in part led Judge James C. Klein last fall to award about a third of...

Galen Foster's home and business of 23 years is supposed to make way for parking for the Wadsworth Boulevard light-rail station in Lakewood. But what chaps Foster's hide is that there already are conceptual plans showing his property being used not for transit parking, but for a five-story commercial office building. While government's right of condemnation, more politely called eminent domain, has been recognized for centuries, the Regional Transportation District is entering an untested area that includes economic development in its efforts to build the FasTracks West Corridor line. While there is little room to challenge RTD's acquisition of land...

A war of words continues in a high-profile Boulder land case, with each side accusing the other of lying. In January, Don and Susie Kirlin appealed an October ruling by Boulder County District Court Judge James C. Klein that awarded a third of their million-dollar lot to neighbors Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, based on the squatter's-rights law of "adverse possession." The Kirlins at the same time filed a request with the Colorado Court of Appeals to send the case back to the district court level to hear additional evidence, alleging their neighbors fabricated evidence to win their case. After...

McLean, Stevens ‘Insulted’. A Boulder couple who lost part of their million-dollar lot in a land dispute has filed a motion accusing their neighbors of fabricating crucial evidence. "These people have committed fraud on the court," said Don Kirlin. Don and Susie Kirlin said they have new evidence their neighbors, Dick McLean and Edie Stevens, deceptively created a path on the vacant lot next door after they sued for it. McLean and Stevens have said they've used "Edie's path" for the last 25 years to access their back yard with no objection from the Kirlins, a crucial part of their...

Lawmakers Want To Make Adverse Possession More Difficult. A proposal seeking to change a controversial "land grab" law ... A little more than half of the representatives in the State House have signed on as sponsors of a bill that would make adverse possession of property more difficult. “Clearly the time has come to change the law of adverse possession in Colorado,”... The proposal is in response to a ‘land grab’ situation in South Boulder where former mayor and district judge Richard McLean and Edie Stevens, an attorney, sued their neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin for their land. The couple...

The Boulder couple who successfully sued for part of their neighbors' land mailed a letter this week to "those who have supported us," saying they hoped to restore peace in their neighborhood. Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, plaintiffs in the controversial adverse-possession case against Don and Susie Kirlin, spelled out their side of the story in the four-page letter -- obtained by the Camera from a recipient who wished to remain anonymous. "We still hope that we can reconcile our differences with the Kirlins and restore peace in our neighborhood and community," McLean and Stevens wrote. Contacted at her home...

Ex-student teacher roaming with boyfriend, kids, documents allege - The student teacher whose affair with a teenager led to the young man's slaying by her husband is now roaming from seedy motel to seedy motel with a new teenage lover and her two young sons in tow, documents allege. In affidavits filed in Knox County Fourth Circuit Court, Eric McLean and his divorce attorney, Steve Sharp, allege former West High School student teacher Erin McLean is embarked on a rootless existence with a 19-year-old paramour. "(Erin McLean) has been to California and then to Austin, Texas, staying in cheap motels...

A judge who granted a couple part of their neighbors' property in an adverse-possession lawsuit has denied their request to add on a strip of land 9 inches wide. Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, of Boulder, had asked for the full width of a disputed path on land purchased by their neighbors Don and Susie Kirlin. In October, McLean and Stevens were awarded about a third of the Kirlins' lot, or more than 1,400 square feet... A judge said last week he could only consider evidence presented at trial ...