Free Republic

The Colts are planning to fire coach Chuck Pagano, ESPNs Mike Wells reported. The news attributed to Wells flashed across the networks breaking news ticker around 3:20 p.m. Thursday.

A reputed Genovese capo who was once pals with Rev. Al Sharpton pleaded guilty Thursday to federal racketeering charges involving illegal gambling and extortion. Pagano has been reportedly linked to an unsuccessful mob attempt in the early 1980s to recruit Sharpton to distribute illegal drugs. The two were also once acquaintances. Sharpton, according to reports, was also once a mole with the FBI’s Mafia unit when they were investigating Pagano’s father.

Phil Pagano, the chief executive of Chicago's commuter rail system who was under investigation for paying himself a $56,000 bonus, "committed suicide by stepping in front of a commuter train" as reported by Andrew Stern for Reuters. Apparently suicide is the Chicago way: "Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Michael Scott shot himself to death along the Chicago River in November; and Christopher Kelly, an aide to ousted former state governor Rod Blagojevich, committed suicide in September before he was due to begin a prison term."

The death of Metra executive director Philip Pagano, struck by a Metra train this morning, "appears to be a suicide," the McHenry County coroner says. Pagano -- under investigation for financial irregularities -- appeared to walk in front of the train just west of Terra Cotta Road on Hillside Road in Crystal Lake at about 8:10 a.m., sources say.

Embattled Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano, under investigation by his own agency for financial issues, threw himself in front of a Metra train this morning and was killed, sources said. It happened in an unincorporated area near Crystal Lake just after 8 a.m.