Free Republic

Police in New York are looking for the vandals who cut down a flagpole at a memorial honoring five firefighters who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The police chief of Washingtonville, a village north of New York City, told the Times-Herald Record that vandals used a tool to cut the flagpole about five feet from its base and then scrawled a message on the part left standing. Police discovered the damage early Wednesday and would not disclose the nature of the message.---

A New York man allegedly mowed down a family of eight, including a baby and five children, outside a 7-Eleven store on Wednesday, killing a 32-year-old mother after the father asked the driver to stop smoking, a report said. Jason Mendez, 35, hit all eight members of the family following an argument he had with the father who had allegedly asked him not to blow cigarette smoke around his children, WCBS-TV reported. Mendez, of Washingtonville, got into his car and smashed into the Rockland County convenience store before he reversed the vehicle and plowed forward again, striking the family a...