Free Republic

TACOMA, Wash. – A judge has sentenced a mother to three months in jail for hitting a convicted sex offender with an aluminum baseball bat. Before her sentencing Friday, Tammy Lee Gibson told Pierce County Superior Court Judge Susan Serko that laws were needed to keep convicted sexual predators away from children. Gibson, 40, who has two daughters, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree assault in January. She initially was charged with second-degree assault and felony harassment, which could have meant an eight-month jail sentence if she'd been convicted. Court papers said Gibson hit William Allen Baldwin, a...

An Open Letter From Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee To President Obama It is with a heavy heart for my country that I write to you today. I pray that you will be inspired, challenged, and that you will reconsider decisions that you have made in the past week since you took the oath to preserve, protect and defend our constitution. Many in my family have taken a similar oath in the military including my sons Kristofer & Marc, my son-in-law Chris, my brother Jim and my Father. “I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and...

The mother of the notorious Waco sect leader David Koresh has been found stabbed to death at the house of a sister in Texas, police say. Bonnie Clark Halderman, who was in her sixties, was found dead at the home of Beverly Clark who has been taken into custody pending a court appearance. Police say they have no idea of a possible motive for her death.

Sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree, and sometimes that's a good thing. You may not know the name Rebecca Walker, but she is a woman who learned, in a very harsh way, the often stark difference between theory and fact. She is the daughter of The Color Purple author Alice Walker, a militant feminist who, in deference to her belief that children enslave women, treated Rebecca as a burdensome cross.The younger Walker discussed her feminist-model upbringing in a May 2008 Daily Mail piece entitled "How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart." She recounts how her mother...

A tiny baby girl gaining strength in an incubator in England is named “Aya” — Arabic for “miracle.” The name is not only beautiful but also descriptive of her birth: She was born two days after her mother was declared brain dead. Jayne Soliman, a former British figure skating champion, was 41 years old and looked to be in perfect health as she carried the child she and her husband, Mahmoud, had dreamed of having. She was 25 weeks pregnant and working at her job as a skating coach on Wednesday, Jan. 7, when trouble signs appeared, according to a...

FRESNO, Calif., Dec. 31, 2008 – Like many high school seniors, Megan Schlotthauer wasn't sure what she wanted to do after graduation. Her grades weren't the best, and college is expensive. Megan Schlotthauer, left, and her mother, Lisa Altoon, enlisted together in the Army Reserve. U.S. Army photo by Al Laxamana  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Searching for a purpose, the 17-year-old decided to explore her options in the Army Reserve. "I was looking at the community colleges, and thought I would go there," she said. "Then I was talking to some people I know who are in...

In what may be the start of more such battles during the waning months of the Bush administration, about 30 demonstrators and elected officials rallied outside a Chicago federal immigration office Monday in hopes of stopping the deportation of a mother of six. Francisca Lino, 41, was scheduled to leave the country this week after she entered illegally in 1999 and was arrested in 2005 during a hearing for her application for legal permanent residency. A petition to delay the deportation for another year that was delivered Monday by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Lino's attorney temporarily halted the...

A mother has told how she was mauled by two pitbull terriers and her baby knocked to the ground in his pram. Concert pianist Mary Duella, who was left with deep wounds to her arm and leg, is due to have a skin graft and faces permanent scarring. She is also unsure if she will be able to play the piano professionally again but is determined to resume her career. The 35-year-old was walking home with her 19-month-old-son Daithi after playing at a jazz concert nearby to raise awareness for an arts cafe. She was metres away from her home...

I'll be the first to admit that there is more than a little cognitive dissonance on my behalf (as well as many thoughtful conservatives commenting on articles and calling radio talk shows), regarding a mother of five being second in command to the "leader of the Free World". Largely because we all know women (my own wife included) who have found greater fulfillment being stay-at-home mothers than they ever did in the workplace. I had some thoughts. Been known to happen. Sarah Palin is really more like a mother of three at this point. Though raising a down syndrome child...

Naivete" is a euphemism for Ann Dunham's motivation. Friends describe her as a "fellow traveler", that is, a communist sympathizer, from her youth, according to a March 27, 2007, Chicago Tribune report. Many Americans harbor leftist views, but not many marry into them, twice.... Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America with his mother's milk, but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his...

On Feb. 2, 1961, several months after they met, Obama's parents got married in Maui, according to divorce records. It was a Thursday. At that point, Ann was three months pregnant with Barack Obama II. Friends did not learn of the wedding until afterward. "Nobody was invited," says Abercrombie. The motivations behind the marriage remain a mystery, even to Obama. "I never probed my mother about the details. Did they decide to get married because she was already pregnant? Or did he propose to her in the traditional, formal way?" Obama wonders. "I suppose, had she not passed away, I...

The family of an Orlando toddler missing for more than a month won't answer questions about a tip that a new concrete slab was poured in the grandparents' backyard over July 4 weekend, shortly before they reported the child missing. Caylee Marie Anthony's grandmother would neither confirm nor deny the tip about the fresh concrete received by local WFTV Eyewitness News in Orlando, according to the station.

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican woman and her three American daughters have been caught smuggling $1.16 million worth of cocaine into Texas from Mexico, a rare case of a mother and her family trafficking drugs, U.S. customs said on Friday. The four women stashed the cocaine under their clothes and inside their 2006 Mercedes Benz and tried to cross through the Brownsville, Texas entry port from eastern Mexico. A sniffer dog alerted customs agents to the smell of cocaine emanating from the car and agents also noted unusual bulges under their clothes, finding cocaine packages on three of the...

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- A Hall County mother has been sentenced to a year in jail after taking desperate measures to keep her son's teenage girlfriend from having his baby. Officials said Cindi Cook, 44, found the Northside Women's Clinic for a 16-year-old girl. Cook paid for the abortion and signed a parental notification form saying she was the girl's mother. "This is reprehensible conduct and it will not be tolerated," said DeKalb County Solicitor General Robert James. James told WSB-TV Channel 2 he had never seen a case like the one involving Cook. "It's terrible when one parent takes...

She's revered as a trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker touched the lives of a generation of women. A champion of women's rights, she has always argued that motherhood is a form of servitude. But one woman didn't buy in to Alice's beliefs - her daughter, Rebecca, 38. Here the writer describes what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a cultural icon, and why she feels so blessed to be the sort of woman 64-year-old Alice despises - a mother.

CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind., May 15, 2008 – Many mothers sit at home and wonder what their deployed son or daughter is doing, hoping everything is all right and waiting for the next phone call. Some might see a mother deploying with her son as a great thing, but what onlookers might not think about is what is left back home. Army National Guard Spc. Roschell Eaton and her son, Spc. Jason Hutchins, both from 3175th Military Police Company, train at Camp Atterbury, Ind., for their upcoming deployment as part of Kosovo Force 10, Multinational Task Force East. U.S. Army...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child. Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins. "We've had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us," she said, laughing. The Duggars' oldest child, Josh, is 20, and the youngest, Jennifer, is nine months old. The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names...

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, May 5, 2008 – The daily stresses of being a mother can make it a difficult, full-time job. Factor in the burdens of serving multiple deployments to a combat zone, and “Army Strong” takes on a new meaning for many military mothers. Army Spc. Ocie Terry, an administration specialist serving in Multinational Division Baghdad and assigned to the 4th Infantry Division’s Company B, Special Troops Battalion, is a single mother of three girls. Her children -- Samantha, 6, Amari, 4, and Sunnieday, 2 -- are living with her mother in Jacksonville, Texas, during her deployment. Terry,...

Easter Sunrise Services and Our ServicemenKT McFarland The only people in the history of the world who have sacrificed their lives for people they didn’t know have been Jesus Christ and the American soldier, sailor, marine and airman…Read Full Story Here

I just saw a picture on the front page of my local paper showing an Anti-Iraq war protestor holding a sign with a picture on it that said "President Bush, You Killed My Son", with a photo of a man in an Army Dress Uniform. As a Veteran and a Navy Retiree, it just made my blood boil. This person,(the Soldiers Mother I guess)should have realized that when her "Little Boy" joined the US Military, that he was not going to be going to a regular 9 to 5 job! The contract that every Military Recruit signs states that the...