Free Republic

HOUSTON - Congressman Nick Lampson, newly elected to the seat once held by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, underwent a procedure Friday to open up a partially blocked blood vessel, his spokeswoman said. Doctors at Christus St. John Hospital in suburban Houston performed the angioplasty on the 61-year-old Lampson and placed a stent in the vessel. Lampson was "conscious, alert and in good spirits throughout the procedure," spokeswoman Carrie Chess said in a statement. He was expected to be discharged Saturday. His wife, Susan Lampson, drove him to the hospital Thursday night because he started feeling sick during dinner....

LONDON - Former "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff had surgery after severing a tendon in his right arm in an accident in a London gym bathroom, his spokeswoman said Friday. The 53-year-old actor, who played lifeguard Mitch Buchannon on the TV beach drama for 11 years, was shaving at a gym in the Sanderson Hotel on Thursday when he hit his head on a chandelier, showering his arm with broken glass, his publicist, Judy Katz, said. Doctors operated to repair the injury and Hasselhoff spent one night at St. Thomas' Hospital in central London, Katz said. "He's fine," Katz said by...

11/3/2005 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- Age, weather and more than 3,000 operations every week take their toll on the busiest runway in Afghanistan. Without a continual effort to repair the runway here, the mission would virtually come to a halt. A nine-man spall-repair team from the 455th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron spends more than two hours every day maintaining the runway. A spall is a shallow break in the concrete, usually found along a joint. “We’ve made more than 200 repairs in the last two months,” said Tech. Sgt. Jason Benbrook, the noncommissioned officer in charge of...

LOS ANGELES - George Lopez underwent a kidney transplant with an organ donated by his wife, a publicist for the actor-comedian said Monday. George and Ann Lopez "are resting comfortably in their Los Angeles home and are both expected to make a full recovery," according to a statement from spokeswoman Marleah Leslie. The operation occurred last week at an undisclosed hospital in Los Angeles, said another spokeswoman, Ann Gurrola. Lopez, star of the ABC comedy "George Lopez," had a genetic condition that caused kidney deterioration, the release said. Further information on the condition was unavailable, Gurrola said. Filming on his...