Free Republic

A 15-year-old girl who was forcibly separated from her mother after fleeing to the U.S. from El Salvador described to a Washington State investigator how she was crammed into a windowless room with 60 other girls and deprived of proper sleep or food for three days. The room was divided by wire fencing into three cages, with each one holding 20 separated girls -- some as young as 3 years old, according to an affidavit filed late Monday (July 2) in federal court in Seattle. The girls, who weren't told when they'd see their parents again, called it the "icebox."...

How do you survive 25 days at sea with nothing but the giant icebox you are floating in? By drinking rainwater and eating fish vomited up by seabirds, apparently. That is the amazing tale of two Burmese fishermen who were found floating in shark-infested waters off the far North Coast of Australia in a large cooler box. Ko Ko Oo, 22, and Haung Htaik, 24, were discovered by Australian customs officials floating in the orange-and-white cooler in the Timor Sea, about 60 nautical miles from Thursday Island, northwest of Darwin on the far north central coast of Australia, at the...

000 SXUS75 KBOU 150120 RRB RERBOU RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 616 PM MST SUN DEC 14 2008 ...NEW RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE IN DENVER FOR DECEMBER 14TH... THE TEMPERATURE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT PLUNGED TO -15 DEGREES AT 552 PM. THIS IS A NEW RECORD LOW FOR THIS DAY...BREAKING THE OLD RECORD OF -14 DEGREES SET IN 1901. CLB

On a balmy, 28-degree day on the Canadian border, the bigwigs of International Falls gathered Friday to celebrate at the Elks Lodge. Earlier this week, the city attorney opened an envelope containing Reg. No. 3,375,139 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Despite legal challenges from tiny Fraser, Colo., the document confirmed that International Falls is legally, rightfully and officially the Icebox of the Nation. “I ran over to the attorney’s office and kissed the certificate,” International Falls Mayor Shawn Mason said Friday afternoon, when reached on her cell phone at the Elks Lodge. “Fraser’s actions had sent a chill...

I plan on retiring within the next two years and would like to move to a cold-weather climate. To me, the perfect day is one where the mercury is hovering around zero. Ideally, I would like it to be as cool as possible year-round, not just winter. What is the coldest place (on an annual basis) in the U.S. (including Alaska) and in the Lower 48?