Free Republic

Couch and his 48-year-old mother disappeared earlier this month, prompting officials in Tarrant County, Texas, to issue a warrant for his arrest... Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said that when the Couches arrive back in the United States, the young man will appear in juvenile court and his mother will be arrested. The sheriff told a news conference that the two had had a going-away party before leaving the United States... The two were captured at the crossing of two streets near the popular Malecon, or boardwalk, in Puerto Vallarta. A police booking picture from Mexico showed the previously blond...

(Reuters) - A Texas teen, who was a fugitive after allegedly breaking his probation sentence for killing four people while driving drunk, has been arrested in Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, CNN reported on Monday, citing officials briefed on the matter. Ethan Couch, 18, was sentenced to probation about two years ago in juvenile court for intoxication manslaughter and is wanted in Tarrant County, Texas. He and his mother went missing earlier this month.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A teenage girl remains in critical condition at Strong Memorial Hospital when the car she was riding was struck by a drunk driver in Clarkson Thursday night. Sheriff's deputies say the crash happened on Redman Road, just north of West Ridge Road around 7 p.m. They say Efrain Lopez-Contreras, 29, was driving drunk and crossed the center line and struck a car being diven by Tony Bartolucci, 52, and his 14-year-old daughter Gianna. Witnesses told deputies that following the crash, Lopez-Contreras got out of his car and left the scene. The car being driven by Bartolucci became...

Alcohol Voted 'Worst' Christmas Gift The results of a recent poll by review and research organisation Consumer Reports have revealed alcohol is considered the "worst" gift to receive at Christmas. The Consumer Reports National Research Center designed a survey to explore "general sentiment and shopping behaviours" for the 2015 winter holiday season. Out of the 1,300 US residents polled - statistically weighted so that respondents in the survey were demographically and geographically representative of the US population - spirits such as vodka, rum and whisky received the highest number of votes for 'worst gift', with 20% listing booze as the...

In a move that allows a Wheeling funeral home to "pioneer" into uncharted territory, the Wheeling village board Monday approved the creation of a new liquor license that allows Kolssak Funeral Home to serve alcohol during funerals and wakes. David Kolssak, CFO of Kolssak Funeral Home, 189 South Milwaukee Avenue, came to the Dec. 7 village board meeting for discussion on his proposal to work with a Wheeling catering company in serving alcohol to funeral and wake attendees to keep up with the changing ways people are celebrating the death of loved ones. Kolssak says he sees things moving away...

An arrest warrant has been issued for a teenager who, two years ago, made national news when he was sentenced to probation in Texas for a drunken driving crash that killed four people. Ethan Couch's defense coined an infamous defense -- that he suffered from "affluenza," or that he was a rich kid who was less to blame for his crime because his parents didn't set limits for him. Ethan Couch's probation officer couldn't reach him this week, Couch's lawyers told CNN. Couch's mother, with whom the 18-year-old lives, is also missing, said Scott Brown and William Reagan. Their apparent...

I have previously written about the Northern Arizona University 'School Shooting' and that it may have been a legitimate case of defense of self and others.    It was clear that the 'school shooter' had been attacked, had been pursued, had articulated a fear for his life, had cooperated with the police, and that the people that he shot all belonged to the same fraternity.   In that article, I hoped that toxicology tests had been done for everyone involved. Blood should have been drawn from Jones and the others involved to determine blood alcohol levels or the presence of...

A University of North Texas police officer shot and killed a student who allegedly threatened him with an ax early Sunday. The student was identified as Ryan McMillan, who had celebrated his 21st birthday Sunday. University spokeswoman Kelley Reese told the Dallas Morning News. McMillan was a sophomore transfer student from Fort Worth studying pre-hospitality. UNT spokeswoman Margarita Venegas says police responded about 1 a.m. to a report that someone was breaking car windows in a parking garage about two blocks from campus. KDFW reported that university police were asked to respond to the situation because local police in the...

Alcohol Tax Hike in US 'Lowers Gonorrhea Rates' Tax hikes could help prevent sexually transmitted infections, scientists have claimed, after cases of gonorrhea fell 24% in Maryland since the introduction of alcohol price increases. According research by the University of Florida, since tax increases on alcohol largely decrease consumption, and less excessive drinking reduces 'risky' sexual behaviour, STI rates can be positively impacted by the measure. Researchers claim that in the 18 months after Maryland increased its alcohol taxes from 6% to 9%, there were 2,400 fewer statewide cases of gonorrhea. The team used data from the National Notifiable Disease...

"World's Oldest" Cognac Opened in Poland What is thought to be the world's oldest Cognac sold at auction was opened in Poland recently to inaugurate a partnership between a Swiss watchmaker and a corporate collector. The Gautier Cognac was purchased by collector Wealth Solutions in 2014 during an auction of rare wines and liquors organised by Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers in New York. The bottle itself dates back to 1762 and was recognised as the oldest Cognac sold at public auction to-date when it went under the hammer. It was opened during a ceremony to mark the partnership...

HOLLY HILL, SC (WIS) - Two Eutawville residents are facing multiple felony charges after police say their dog bit an officer during an arrest. According to the incident report, Scott Jones, 24, and Kayla Wallace, 26, were arrested Saturday afternoon after two citizens reported a tan Cadillac with a beat-up front end almost struck the doors of the CVS on Old State Road and then ran over a curb. The report states an officer found the vehicle and pulled it over to check on the occupants. After pulling over the vehicle, Jones told the officer he didn’t have a valid...

Please pray for my brother tonight as he checks himself into the hospital for alcohol abuse. He recently lost his job while at the same time celebrating the birth of his third child. He feels lost and inadequate.

<p>Legally, alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia. In reality, however, there are people in the country who drink.</p> <p>If you're wondering how exactly they actually get that alcohol, consider the multiple reports in the Saudi press today that describe how the Saudi authorities at border with United Arab Emirates caught a man with 48,000 cans of Heineken – all disguised as Pepsi cola.</p>

A large segment of white middle-aged Americans has suffered a startling rise in its death rate since 1999, reversing decades of progress, according to a new review of statistics published Monday. The mortality rate for white men and women between the ages of 45 and 54 with less than a college education increased by half a percent per year between 1999 and 2013, most likely because of problems with legal and illegal drugs, alcohol, and suicide, according to the study released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.... The rising death rate was accompanied by a parallel increase...

Something startling is happening to middle-aged white Americans. Unlike every other age group, unlike every other racial and ethnic group, unlike their counterparts in other rich countries, death rates in this group have been rising, not falling. That finding was reported Monday by two Princeton economists, Angus Deaton, who last month won the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, and Anne Case. Analyzing health and mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from other sources, they concluded that rising annual death rates among this group are being driven not by the big killers like heart...

A jury has awarded $240,000 to two Muslim men who say they were fired from an Illinois trucking company after refusing to deliver alcohol. A judge found Morton-based Star Transport Inc. violated the religious beliefs of Mahad Abass Mohamed and Abdikarim Hassan Bulshale. A trial to determine whether they were entitled to damages ended Oct. 20 with the jury's judgment. A 2013 lawsuit filed by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the men wouldn't deliver alcohol because it was against their religious values as practicing Muslims. The lawsuit claimed the company didn't provide them "with a reasonable accommodation and by...

Marijuana use has more than doubled in the U.S. since the beginning of the century — but so have problems for users, including addiction, researchers reported Wednesday. ~snip~ "The prevalence of marijuana use more than doubled between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013, and there was a large increase in marijuana use disorders during that time," they wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA Psychiatry. "Young adults were at highest risk for marijuana use disorder." "While not all marijuana users experience problems, nearly three of 10 marijuana users manifested a marijuana use disorder in 2012-2013." That adds up to 6.8...

Full title: "Month off drinking slashes risk of disease: Abstaining found to heal the liver and lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels" Drinkers should take a month off alcohol to prevent serious illness in later life, doctors warned yesterday. They cited dramatic British research showing how abstention can heal the liver and lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Patients who gave up for four weeks were also at lower risk of developing cancer and diabetes.

One more data point on the “When does your religion legally excuse you from doing part of your job?” question — like it or not, under American law, employers sometimes do have to excuse employees from tasks that the employees find religiously objectionable. Tuesday, two Muslim truck drivers who were fired for refusing to deliver shipments containing alcohol were awarded $40,000 in compensatory damages and $200,000 in punitive damages by the jury in their discrimination claim. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought suit on their behalf (EEOC v. Star Transport Co., Inc. (N.D. Ill.)), arguing that the employer had failed...

If your doctor has ever told you that small amounts of alcohol are safe to drink during pregnancy, a new report is proving them wrong. The American Academy of Pediatrics just released a new report in the journal Pediatrics. No amount of alcohol, whether wine, beer, or liquor, is safe to drink while pregnant, no matter the trimester. While research shows that most women cut out alcohol completely during pregnancy, the report states that a small percentage of mothers-to-be admit they continue to drink, while some even admit to binge drinking. According to Live Science, Dr. Janet F. Williams, one...