Free Republic

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge has struck down the Bush administration's change to a rule designed to protect the northern spotted owl from logging in national forests. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled from Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of changing the rule to make it easier to cut down forest habitat of species such as the spotted owl and salmon on 193 million acres of national forests. "I am hopeful that this is the last nail in the coffin to (President George W.)...

States with lax gun laws had higher rates of handgun killings, fatal shootings of police officers, and sales of weapons that were used in crimes in other states, according to a study underwritten by a group of more than 300 U.S. mayors.

Seperated By War, Soldier Reunites With Daughter (CBS4) HOLLYWOOD A Hollywood security guard who spent years hunting for the daughter he thought was lost forever was reunited with her Saturday, thanks to a chance meeting on the social networking site Myspace. Alex Estrella was sent to war shortly after April Lynn was born about 21 years ago, serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. When he was overseas, his wife left home with the baby. Almost two decades later, he e-mailed a message to someone in Ft. Meyers on a social networking site. He gathered small bits of information about...

Questionable directions given by online mapping services could have contributed to the death of James Kim, who perished while trying to save his stranded family. Kim, 35, was driving home from a vacation with his wife, Kati, and daughters, four-year-old Penelope and seven-month-old Sabine, on November 25 when he took a wrong turn and they became lost in the wilderness in Oregon, in north-west US. Kim left his family on Saturday to find help, but never returned. When searchers found his lifeless body yesterday, he had already walked 13 kilometres through rugged terrain, wearing only light clothing. But Kim -...

By accident, I stopped on CNN just as they were doing a story on the anniversary of the successful peace action at Nagasaki in 1945. They showed some older Japanese people as the female announcer, in a voice deep and wet with concern, told about today's moment of silence at 11:02 in commeration of the time in 1945 when "a B-52 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki."