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Shirley Lynette Ledford was a pretty, 16-year-old teenage girl just coming into her own in 1979, the year she was kidnapped and murdered. She would have turned 48 this year. I got to thinking about her Wednesday after reading another story about how we can't seem to come up with a humane way to thin out the waiting list on San Quentin's death row without causing murderers too much pain and suffering. It's a hard argument to swallow when you know the pain and suffering Ledford went through at the end of her short life. I can still hear her...

The new religious leader at the Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan is raising eyebrows and objections from gay advocates over his views on homosexuality...A fight over the planned Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan centers around its location of being two blocks from the World Trade Center site. But now the controversy is broadening as some gay advocates are airing concerns about the new imam who's joined the project. In a lecture Imam Abdallah Adhami sells on the Internet, he offers the following explanation for the existence of homosexuality: "An enormously, overwhelming percentage of people struggle with homosexual feeling...

A bipartisan panel investigating the financial crisis has referred cases of potential wrongdoing by financial industry officials to the Justice Department, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The 2009 law creating the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission instructs the congressionally appointed panel to refer anyone who may have violated the law to the Justice Department and state attorneys general

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio says it's switching its lethal injection drug to an anesthetic commonly used to euthanize pets as a shortage of the drug normally used for executions has worsened.

Thanks to Michael Savage. Well, if anyone had any remaining doubts about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political leanings, you can rest easy. He’s commuted the prison sentence of the son of a leftist political crony, former Democrat California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Nunez’s son, Esteban Nunez, was convicted in the October 2008 death of a San Diego State University student. According to the Los Angeles Times’ story, Esteban Nunez and three friends, all of whom were intoxicated, attacked the victim Luis Santos when he refused to allow Nunez et al entry to a fraternity party. Nunez’s friend, Ryan Jett, was convicted of...

Use compassion for those who deserve it. After we have punished the criminal, expressed compassion for all his victims, and done our best to relieve their suffering, then we can feel compassion for the criminal. But till then, feeling compassion for both criminal and victim leads only to more criminals and more victims – who need more compassion. So we feel good about ourselves, while helping to make the world a worse place. If you doubt this, ask Dru Sjodin. The 22-year-old University of North Dakota student disappeared, and her blood was found in the car of a man who...

Health Reform Law's Legal, Political Obstacles Continue to MountAIR DATE: Dec. 20, 2010 JEFFREY BROWN: Next: new legal challenges for the landmark health reform law, as this past week marked a major moment in the battle between the Obama administration and a number of states. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) One of the most important and controversial pieces of the health reform law signed by President Obama last March is the so-called individual insurance mandate, under which individuals must buy health insurance beginning in 2014, or pay a penalty. The fines would be phased in, starting at $95 per person that first...

Mr. Frank's attitude seems to be that Americans need to justify why they should keep the money they inherit instead of the government needing to justify why they should be allowed to confiscate it. Video at link.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — He's killed more people than the Son of Sam, but there are no made-for-TV movies about Alfred Gaynor. The one-time handyman did not even pick up a macabre nickname as he attacked and strangled at least eight women in his hometown of Springfield in the 1990s, becoming one of his state's most prolific serial killers. The scale of his killing spree only recently became clear when Gaynor, imprisoned on four murder convictions, confessed this fall to four other unsolved slayings in which he'd been a longtime suspect. Charges are possible in two more deaths for which...

Delegates at today's Republican Party State Central Committee approved a 2-year party ban on 18 high profile Republicans who supported Independence Party candidate Tom Horner. The list includes former GOP governors Al Quie and Arne Carlson and former US Senator Dave Durenberger. On a 59 to 55 vote, the motion would forbid them from being Republican delegates or attending the Republican National Convention in 2012. Supporters of the motion say it would hold people accountable for calling themselves Republicans yet supporting a rival candidate. Delegate Jim Newberger of Becker says Democrat Mark Dayton may not be leading the recount if...

Punishment Phase for Charlie Rangel Set for ThursdayPosted: November 17, 2010 WASHINGTON — It took House investigators 2½ years and a jury of congressional peers two days to conclude Rep. Charles Rangel of New York violated House rules. A decision on his punishment will be much quicker. Possible sanctions include a House vote deploring his conduct, a fine and denial of certain privileges. The House ethics committee set a hearing Thursday on the appropriate punishment for Rangel, a Democrat who formerly wielded great influence as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. That's only two days after an ethics...

Rev. Peterson Supports Rep. Rangel Ethics Conviction; Calls On Ethics Panel To Deliver Tough Punishment Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND Action, issued a statement in support of the House ethics panel decision to convict Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) of breaking ethics rules. An ethics panel of eight House members deliberated over two days and convicted the former Ways and Means chairman on 11 counts of financial and fundraising misconduct. The embattled 20-term congressman walked out of his own hearing and was not present when the verdict was announced. The full ethics committee will now conduct a...

MSNBC says Keith Olbermann will be back on the air Tuesday, ending his suspension for violating NBC's rules against making political donations after two shows. MSNBC's chief executive Phil Griffin said late Sunday that after several days of deliberation, he had determined that two days off the air was "an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy." The left-leaning cable network's most popular personality acknowledged donating $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. NBC News prohibits its employees from making political donations unless an exception is granted...

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - An East Allen County Schools parent is accusing her son's teacher of spanking him with his pants down in front of the class. Fort Wayne Police confirm a detective is investigating an incident at Village Elementary after the child's mother called police Monday. In a report, the mother says the child was acting up in class. The teacher made the student sit in the corner and when he continued to act up the teacher pulled the boys pants down and spanked him for misbehaving. The mom says the child is mildly disabled. East Allen...

A former boarding school head was today facing a lengthy jail term after being convicted of abusing boy pupils during the 1970s and 1980s Derek Slade, 61, was convicted of more than 50 offences and will be sentenced on Monday. . . **Reign of terror: Derek Slade, pictured here when he was interviewed by ITN in 1982 speaking in favor of corporal punishment, subjected boys to beatings and sexual assaults** The court heard that Oxford-educated Slade, who has no teaching qualifications, set up the school with colleagues.

A former headmaster accused of assaulting and sexually abusing schoolboys at two East Anglian schools yesterday admitted that he was a paedophile. Derek Slade told a jury that there was a sexual motive behind his “excessive” smackings, canings, slipperings, and beatings of boys at St George’s School, Great Finborough, near Stowmarket, in the late 1970s and early 80s. The 61-year-old yesterday conceded that he went beyond what was reasonable corporal punishment and feared that he had caused long-lasting physiological harm to pupils who attended the boarding school he formed in Wicklewood, near Wymondham, Norfolk, and later at Great Finborough. The...

An Enfield High School teacher has been accused of inappropriately touching a student and was ordered to have no contact with her student while he works at the school. Court records state that Francis Hajosy, 54, of Stafford, spanked the student. He has been suspended, the superintendent said. He was arrested on Tuesday and charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and second-degree breach of peace, according to court records. Hajosy was arrested after a school resource officer was notified of a June 9 incident, according to the Journal Inquirer. He is accused of spanking a student who was visiting the class,...

WASHINGTON -- Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel said yesterday that investigators have unearthed new allegations of misconduct against him, while House Democratic leaders increased the pressure on him to reach a settlement before a congressional trial starts Thursday. "We waited almost two years, and they finally investigated, and guess what -- they have some more alleged violations," Rangel said. The embattled pol did not reveal whether the latest accusations were previously unknown to the public or were related to the original charges that prompted the probe by the House Ethics Committee. The alleged misdeeds include Rangel using House stationery to solicit...

/begin my excerpts RFA: N. Korean National Soccer Team Put to Ideological Criticism Session after their Return 2010-07-27 09:33 According to report by Radio Free Asia (RFA) on July 27, N. Korean national soccer team, who lost all three games including 0-7 rout by Portugal at 2010 World Cup Soccer Tournaments, was put to ideological criticism session after their return. Quoting a Chinese businessman who is a reliable source of N. Korean affairs, it reported, "On July 2, there was an 'ideological struggle' session at People's Cultural Palace in Pyongyang for players of national soccer team who took part in...

Never in the civilised world have so many been locked up for so little THREE pickup trucks pulled up outside George Norris’s home in Spring, Texas. Six armed police in flak jackets jumped out. Thinking they must have come to the wrong place, Mr Norris opened his front door, and was startled to be shoved against a wall and frisked for weapons. He was forced into a chair for four hours while officers ransacked his house. They pulled out drawers, rifled through papers, dumped things on the floor and eventually loaded 37 boxes of Mr Norris’s possessions onto their pickups....