Free Republic

It's now or never for the New York Yankees. The Yankees open a five-game series at Fenway Park on Friday with their alter egos in the American League East, the Boston Red Sox. Just 1 1/2 games will separate the two teams when that series begins. Since the All-Star break, the Sox have slipped considerably, going 16-17 with problems surfacing with their starting pitching, relief corps and hitting (with the exception of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez). The Yankees, meanwhile, seem to have righted themselves after a long year of struggles with injuries and under-producing pitchers such as Randy Johnson....

KILLEEN, Texas - A Fort Hood soldier and his wife have been accused of injury to a child for allegedly forcing their 3-year-old daughter to beat up an older boy as they videotaped it, Killeen police said. .... The fight allegedly occurred Saturday while the couple babysat for the 5-year-old son of a friend, police said. When the boy's mother arrived to pick him up, she turned on the couple's video camera, which had previously been used to tape the children playing. Police said the tape shows the soldier commanding his daughter to knock the victim down, kick him and...

LONDON, England -- The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that a British woman has no right to use frozen embryos to have a baby without the consent of the man who provided the sperm. The court upheld a UK law that says permission from both parents is needed at every stage of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process, as well as for the storage and implantation of the fertilized eggs. Natallie Evans, 34, underwent IVF in 2001 with her partner Howard Johnston ahead of ovarian cancer treatment which rendered her infertile. The couple later split and he withdrew...

Newsweek Feb. 20, 2006 issue - Viviana Chapman, who's due to give birth on March 1, was looking forward to capturing the event on camera. "This was going to be our memory forever," she says. But Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, like a growing number of the 2,778 U.S. hospitals with delivery rooms, is turning down patients' requests to videotape births. The official reason: privacy and safety concerns. But some say the real reason is that hospitals are afraid the tapes will be used against them in malpractice suits. Though videos rarely yield evidence, Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 2004...

There were some eye-opening remarks from Bryant Gumbel on the most recent episode of HBO's Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. According to a transcript posted by a television columnist named Seth Frelich, Gumbel said the following in his closing monologue last week (emphasis mine): "Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying ... Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when...

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - A collaborator on the children’s book series Curious George has been found dead on the driveway of his mobile home in Florida. Police say Allen Shalleck’s body was covered in black garbage bags. Neighbors had passed by for a least a day, thinking it was just trash. Investigators haven’t released any details of the death. But the timing is an odd curiosity, as a Universal Pictures animated movie about the mischievous monkey opens in theaters Friday, with Will Ferrell as the voice of the Man in the Yellow Hat, George's amiable owner and friend.

For 28 years it has stood as the largest unsolved burglary from a private residence in state history: the theft of seven paintings, including a Cezanne, from a collector's home in the Berkshires. ....[T]he mystery was abruptly solved, as a retired Massachusetts lawyer told the Globe he has secretly held the stolen paintings, worth millions of dollars, since 1978. .... [Retired attorney] Robert M. Mardirosian, 71, said in an interview that the paintings were left with him by the lead suspect in the theft, a Pittsfield man whom Mardirosian was representing in another case. ... In 1988, he said, he...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) -- A man accused of fatally shooting someone in a car has been acquitted of first-degree murder under a state law that provides legal protection to homeowners who defend themselves. ... Gary Lee Hill, 24, faced charges in the 2004 killing of 19-year-old John David Knott, who along with three others had assaulted Hill in his home. Hill was accused of firing a shot into a car that Knott was driving. Knott crashed into a house and died from a single gunshot wound to the back, authorities said. "It's a miscarriage of justice," said Sen. Jim...

December 08, 2005 Renteria's gone By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff Edgar Renteria's tenure in Boston was a short one. The Sox dealt Renteria and cash considerations to Atlanta today in exchange for top prospect Andy Marte (third baseman). Commissioner Bud Selig needed to OK the money exchanging hands between the teams. The Red Sox are expected to pick up part of the $29 million remaining on Renteria’s contract over the next three years. The exact dollars are still unclear, but the commissioner needs to approve any deal in which $1 million or more exchanges hands. The Red Sox are now...

Sox play tough on memento Lawyers file suit for '04 Series ball By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff To Red Sox fans, it is priceless -- the baseball that Keith Foulke flipped to Doug Mientkiewicz on an October night in St. Louis last year to clinch the team's first World Series championship in 86 years. Now, 13 months after Mientkiewicz pocketed the ball, the team is playing hardball. Lawyers for the Red Sox filed suit yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court seeking permanent possession of the cherished symbol of suffering redeemed. When the team first tried to claim it, the light-hitting but...

NEW YORK - When it comes to the Hall of Fame, Pete Rose will still be locked out. Rose won’t appear on the baseball writers’ ballot in his final year of eligibility because commissioner Bud Selig will not rule on Rose’s application for reinstatement before the 2006 candidates are announced Nov. 29, according to Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer. Rose, who last year admitted he bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing the team in the late 1980s, doesn’t understand why the rules, unless changed, won’t allow him to ever appear on the annual ballot of the Baseball Writers’...

A hunger strike has left at least one detainee in danger of dying. Pentagon officials are struggling to control the protest—and the possible global outcry over any death. WEB EXCLUSIVE Newsweek Updated: 7:06 p.m. ET Nov. 16, 2005 Nov. 16, 2005 - A Guantanamo detainee who has engaged in a three-month hunger strike to protest his treatment is so “severely malnourished” that he may be “in significant danger of dying,” according to an outside doctor who has reviewed the prisoner’s recent medical records. The prospect that a Guantanamo detainee may starve himself to death—and potentially provoke an international outcry—has raised...

WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials say white phosphorous was used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November, but deny an Italian television news report that it was used against civilians. Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that while white phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants. White phosphorous is a colorless-to-yellow translucent wax-like substance with a pungent, garlic-like smell. The form used by the military ignites once it is exposed to oxygen, producing...

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- The Iraqi woman who said she failed in her bid to blow herself up in an Amman hotel had three brothers killed by U.S. forces, friends of the woman said Tuesday. In a response to the bombings, Jordanian officials unveiled tough new anti-terror measures. The killings of Sajida Mubarak al-Rishawi's three brothers in Iraq's volatile Anbar province is being considered as a possible motivation behind her bid to take part in last week's triple bombings, which killed 60 people, including her husband and two Iraqi bombers. Friends of al-Rishawi, who comes from Anbar's provincial capital of...

November 14, 2005 A-Rod named MVP By Boston.com and Globe Staff Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was named the American League MVP today, beating out Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz to win the award for the second time in three years. A-Rod received 16 first-place votes and Ortiz got 11 first-place votes. Rodriguez got 11 second-place votes and Ortiz garnered 17 second-place votes. The final rally was 331-307 in favor of A-Rod.

MONTPELIER, Vt. --A car parked outside the Statehouse bore a bumper sticker saying, "Regime change begins at home." Inside, about 100 Vermonters gathered in the House chamber for the Vermont Independence Convention --devoted to Vermont creating a regime of its own. If participants have their way, the state whose former governor was laughed out of the 2004 presidential race after the infamous Iowa scream is going to take what some call its wackiness and others call its sanity in a crazy world and go home. ... Ethan Allen, who led the Green Mountain Boys to take Fort Ticonderoga from the...

By Arian Campo-Flores Newsweek It was a dream come true for Ashley Burns when the lithe 14-year-old with the blue-ribboned ponytail and squeaky voice learned in July that she'd landed a cherished spot on the varsity cheerleading squad at Medford Vocational-Technical High School in Massachusetts. To celebrate, she and a friend got pedicures and tooled around town in a convertible blasting their favorite tunes. One week after joining the team, Burns was at practice, preparing to perform a stunt called a "double down." Held aloft by four cheerleaders gripping one of her feet, she was thrust into the air. But...

Newsweek Oct. 24, 2005 issue - While everyone knows divorce is tough on kids, researcher and writer Elizabeth Marquardt says even when the split is amicable, kids still suffer. For her controversial new book, "Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce," Marquardt spent three years interviewing 1,500 young adults—half from divorced families—who described the painful emotional, moral and spiritual dilemmas they faced. .... [quoting Ms. Marquardt:] I'm not against divorce, but the best answer might be to get help and stick it out—especially if you are in a low-conflict marriage. The idea that we know how to...

WASHINGTON - NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018. The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday, Washington sources tell SPACE.com. U.S. President George W. Bush called in January 2004 for the United States to return to the Moon by 2020 as the first major step in a broader space...

By Rey Guzman August 4, 2005 WASHINGTON (Army News Service, August 4, 2005) – A pair of female Army captains temporarily traded in their camouflage uniforms and combat boots for evening gowns and high heels and entered and won each of their state beauty pageants. First Calvary Division company commander Jeannie Deakyne and Army Reserve Capt. Rose Lopez-Keravuori, both competing in their first pageants, claimed the “Mrs.” crowns. Deakyne, who applied for the Mrs. Texas International pageant while deployed in Taji, Iraq, won the competition May 22, while Lopez-Keravuori was named Mrs. Virginia America May 1. According to the contestants,...