Free Republic

<p>Cops have launched an investigation into a series of mysterious assaults on crippled astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. The probe reportedly began after the author of the best seller "A Brief History of Time" was left stranded in his wheelchair in the garden of his country home last summer on the hottest day of the year.</p>

A 24-year-old archaeological worker with the Shreveport Cultural Resource Analysts died suddenly from a medical event Monday, July 11, the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office says. It happened in the Kisatchie National Forest-Kisatchie District within the parish. Around 2:15 p.m., multiple law enforcement agents responded to reports that a female hiker was possible suffering from heat exhaustion or a stroke on Forest Service Road #321 Bayou Camp Road off Longleaf Vista in the forest. While first responders were trying to get to the location, two coworkers were performing CPR on the woman until help could arrive. Medical personnel arrived on scene...

Georgia Supreme Court has overturned a father's murder conviction for leaving his infant son to die in a hot car after they found the jury was shown evidence that was 'extremely and unfairly prejudicial.' Justin Ross Harris, 41, was sentenced to life in prison for the death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, who died in 2014 after being left in a hot car for seven hours. But on Wednesday, Supreme Court justices agreed that prosecutors in his 2016 trial should not have told the jury about his conviction for sexting an underage high school girl. Prosecutors had highlighted Harris' frequent...

fficials in Phoenix voted Thursday to fully adopt a policy limiting access to certain hiking trails in extreme heat. The Phoenix Parks and Recreation board unanimously pushed through the measure, which will close trails at Camelback Mountain and Piestewa Peak from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. any day an excessive heat warning is issued. The policy was tested at Echo Canyon and Cholla Trail in the Camelback Mountains and the Piestewa Peak trails in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve from July 13 to Sept. 30. The trial run began after nearly a dozen members of the Phoenix Fire Department were sent...

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK) - A Charleston Police Officer has been accused of leaving his two young sons in a hot car in a parking lot. According to the criminal complaint, Daniel Goffreda, 32, of Poca, WV, has been charged with two counts of Child Neglect Creating Risk of Injury. The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office says Goffreda drove to a Kroger in the Cross Lanes area on Sunday, Agust 26th, 2018 with his 2-year-old and 5-year-old sons in the car.

The official start of summer comes later this month, but already children have died after being left unattended in hot cars, according to the nonprofit National Safety Council, drawing attention to an issue that kills an average of 37 children a year. The council released a report this month that says 742 US children died of heatstroke in vehicles between 1998 and 2017. Forty-two children died in these conditions in 2017, up from 39 the previous year. Just 21 states have laws regarding this issue, the report says; eight include the possibility of felony charges for individuals who deliberately leave...

At least nine people died after being crammed into a sweltering tractor-trailer found parked outside a Walmart in the midsummer Texas heat, authorities said Sunday in what they described as an immigrant-smuggling attempt gone wrong.Thirty-nine were inside when rescuers arrived, and the rest were believed to have escaped or hitched rides to their next destination, officials said. Some of the survivors told authorities they were from Mexico, Homan said.[SNIP]...investigators were still gathering evidence from the tractor-trailer, which had an Iowa license plate and was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa.

ED. NOTE: As this article is posted, Pope Francis begins his visit to the United States. In his encyclical released in June of this year, the pope singled out air conditioning as being a "harmful habit" that is a symbol of rampant capitalism that is blind to the plight of the poor and disadvantaged. These comments by Matt Michel, CEO of Service Roundtable, serve as a timely response. ————— Since becoming pontiff, Pope Francis has repeatedly made the news for his criticism and condemnation of capitalism and free markets. Worse, in his encyclical, he singled out air conditioning as particularly...

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — A woman and her two young daughters found dead in her stifling car in a middle school parking lot died from accidental heatstroke, the Maryland medical examiner's office said Tuesday. The formal cause of death was hyperthermia and environmental heat exposure, spokesman Bruce Goldfarb said. Allison Keyonda Pluck, also known as Allison Lancaster, 32, was found dead in her silver Nissan sedan June 16 along with the bodies of Shania Gill, 18 months, and Shameka Gill, 6 months. The mother was reclined in the driver's seat and the girls were strapped in their child seats with...

Hi all -- Seeking prayers for a friend's dad out in Vegas. He's almost 86 and was overcome by the heat yesterday. He had collapsed at an outdoor business and by the time he was found he had a high internal temperature, heatstroke and at least 2nd degree burns on his arms and legs where they touched the pavement. Thanks so much for prayers.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFPN) -- The first test was in an outhouse. Saddled in the middle of Baghdad -- where temperatures are reaching at least 120 degrees -- that outhouse had all the qualities Capt. James Ross needed to test his idea to cool off flightline logistics workers from the stifling heat. His idea -- a “cool vest.” The captain, a bioenvironmental officer with the 477th Air Expeditionary Group here, is hoping to add something to help Airmen battle 150-plus degree temperatures as they work behind running aircraft engines. “The situation there is too hot, and it hurts them,” he said....

Police Report Raises Questions About Missouri Football DeathBy Alan Scher Zagier Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 27, 2005 \ COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - The Missouri football player who died after collapsing at the end of a preseason workout wasn't immediately taken to the hospital across the street but instead driven to the team offices, a university police report shows. Aaron O'Neal, 19, was "in full cardiac arrest" by the time campus police officer Clayton Henke and University Hospital paramedics arrived at the Tom Taylor Building on July 12, Henke wrote in a police report obtained by The Associated Press under...

Medical examiner's office says total of illegal immigrant bodies found is up to 27 since JanuaryBISBEE -- The bodies of four illegal immigrants were found this past weekend, according to Cochise County Sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas. Two were discovered Saturday and two on Sunday, she said this morning. This brings the number of dead illegal immigrants found in the county to 27 since Jan. 1, based on figures from the Cochise County Medical Examiner's Office. Rob Daniels, a spokesman for the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Borer Patrol, said there have been 82 illegal immigrant deaths for the entire sector...