Free Republic

On the day Christina-Taylor Green was born, 19 men using four hijacked airbuses left a pristine American morning forever stained with blood. As she was entering life, the rest of us were absorbing a lesson in how mean life can be. We saw proud towers disintegrate like sand castles, mangled bodies pulled from rubble, people with tear-streaked faces holding up photos of missing loved ones. And there bloomed in us a sense of union strong as blood ties, a renewed reminder of who we are. We are Americans. “All” of us. For some, it was likely a revelation. After all,...

A family with five children ran to their bathroom Friday night and hid after gunshots rang out on Vance Avenue. The shots had been fired by Officer K.H. Boehm, a three-year veteran of the Salisbury Police Department, who was being attacked by Robert Faulkner, 37, according to Police Chief Rory Collins. Boehm killed Faulkner, who lived at 711 S. Church St. The shooting occurred at 319 Vance Ave., just off South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Members of the nearby family, who did not want to be identified, said they heard three gunshots. “They are still afraid, for the children,”...

NEW BERN, N.C. - Election officials say they are taking steps to deal with issues that have surfaced at polling places. In Craven County, some people complained the voting machines didn't correctly count their votes. Over the weekend, a Federal judge ruled counties like Craven that use touch-screen voting machines must tell voters that the machines are sensitive. Poll workers also need to keep detailed records of complaints about the machines. Erin Burridge works with the Craven County Board of Elections and says "Any mandate that comes down from the state or any directive in regards to election day and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) is one of three Democratic senators to introduce a bill to fund the $1.15 billion Pigford settlement that black farmers reached with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in February. “We want to ensure black farmers in our country finally receive the justice they deserve,” said Hagan. “Today, I join with my colleagues from Arkansas and Louisiana, Senators (Blanche) Lincoln and (Mary) Landrieu, to introduce a bill to fund the settlement once and for all, and we are working to send this language to the President.” Hagan announced the bill Sept. 23 with Lincoln,...

Federal authorities have charged South Rowan High School graduate with conspiring to bomb a North Carolina clinic where abortions are performed. Justin Carl Moose, 26, of 93 Mary Circle, Concord, was arrested Tuesday morning in China Grove by the FBI, according to information provided by the Department of Justice and court documents. He is charged with providing information related to the making, use or manufacturing of an explosive, destructive device or weapon of mass destruction to a person Moose believed was planning to bomb a North Carolina clinic. Authorities did not identify the clinic. According to an affadavit accompanying a...

Police aren't sure whether Walmart's prices were so good or if there was shortage of chocolate rabbits. Whatever the reason, seven women ended up in a brawl in the Easter basket aisle Saturday evening. Candy eggs, rabbits and Peeps flew through the air in an unlikely Easter exchange. Property damage, primarily to candy and Easter decorations, totalled nearly $800. Salisbury Police responded to the Walmart at 323 Arlington St. around 7 p.m. Saturday. The five officers separated the women into two groups — with each claiming the other group started the fight. Unable to figure out who initiated the brawl,...

Russia proposed to China that the two nations should sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds in 2008 to force the US government to bail out the giant mortgage-finance companies, former US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson has claimed. The allegation is in his memoir On the Brink in which he also suggests that Alistair Darling, the UK chancellor, blocked a rescue takeover of Lehman Brothers by Barclays Bank when he refused to support special treatment by UK regulators. “Russian officials had made a top-level approach to the Chinese, suggesting that together they might sell big chunks of their GSE holdings...

DEAN: Well, no, I think this is an exception. The northeast is not a conservative place. And I think—I still believe that Martha can pull this out. But if she doesn‘t, I think the voters of Massachusetts are going to find out that Scott Brown doesn‘t vote anything like the average voter of Massachusetts. So, I don‘t really think it‘s that. I really think that you got to stand up and be strong, and people really were hoping that it was going to be a real push for some differences. It‘s—and a lot of this is not anybody‘s fault. Well,...

Breaking News: HAZMAT called out to Charlotte Airport around 10:30pm after a plane landed with a dozen sick passengers experiencing nausea. Five were trated on scene. Seven were transported to the hospital. It's not clear what caused the passengers to get sick.

The Oprah Winfrey Show/Kentucky Grilled Chicken Two-Piece Meal Coupon Get two pieces of grilled chicken, two individual sides and a biscuit! Limited Time Download Coupon download available from 9 a.m. CDT on May 5, 2009, to 11:59 p.m. CDT on May 6, 2009. Coupon is redeemable at participating KFC® locations in the United States from May 5, 2009 to May 19, 2009—excluding Mother's Day, May 10, 20099. Go to unthinkkfc.com to download your coupon! Due to heavy demand, you may experience some slowness navigating to the website. Please be patient and try again later. Please email KFC.PublicRelations@KFC.com with any problems...

PATTAYA, Thailand (AFP) — Anti-government protesters trapped Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva inside a beach hotel and attacked his motorcade as the kingdom's political turmoil boiled over into violence. The clash was the most serious since supporters of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra surrounded Abhisit's offices in Bangkok on March 26, and came amid mounting speculation about a possible military coup.

ROCKWELL — A Depot Street couple discovered Sunday that someone did more than just disagree with their choice for president. Someone spray-painted a racial slur on the Barack Obama campaign sign in their front yard. Sharon Osetek, who is black, and her husband, Alan Osetek, who is white, were leaving their Depot Street home Sunday morning when they discovered someone had spray-painted the word "n-----" on the Obama sign in front of their house. The sign is blue with the names Obama and Biden printed in white. The sign is outlined in white and a lighter shade of blue. Someone...

The city of Kannapolis is taking its "Dale Trail" banners down at the request of Castle & Cooke, the developers of the N.C. Research Center — and they won't be going back up. According to e-mails, California billionaire David Murdock, owner of Castle & Cook, is coming to town Saturday with a very important guest and wants to put the "best face on the city." The banners along with a statue in Cannon Village honor the town's most famous native, Dale Earnhardt, who died in a last lap wreck in the Daytona 500 in 2001. And according to the e-mails,...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had tough words Monday afternoon in Salisbury for big oil, China, the wealthy, insurance companies and the federally mandated No Child Left Behind program. Clinton, speaking for a half-hour at Salisbury Station, also sounded a hopeful note for the country, if she becomes president. Clinton told Salisburians it’s “our time” provided that the country changes course, repairs the damage of the Bush administration and finds a way to pull people together. “I’m betting that we will,” she said. Locked in a tight, often contentious battle with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Clinton campaigned all...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- All outbound flights were grounded at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport this morning because of a security breach, the Transportation Security Administration confirms. At 7:55 a.m. a Hispanic male circumvented the security screening process and proceeded to concourse C, the TSA reports. The concourse was immediately closed as airport officials searched for the man. He was not located inside the concourse and they believe he may have boarded a plane in the C concourse. Six planes were grounded in the C concourse while all other outbound flights were allowed to continue. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police, TSA and airport security...

GROVE CITY, Ohio -- A bizarre act of nature was found in Grove City Wednesday -- a kitten was born with two faces. The kitten was born Wednesday morning. It has two mouths that meow in unison, two noses and four eyes that have not opened yet, NBC 4's Mike Bowersock reported. "I was playing outside in the rain. Once I came in, I saw a two-faced cat my mom was picking up. That's how I knew there was a two-faced cat," said Charles Roberts, the cat's owner. Roberts said he hasn't decided on a name for the kitten yet,...

PARIS - Sikhs can wear their turbans in drivers' license photos, France's highest administrative body ruled Monday, overturning an earlier denial of a license to a Sikh who refused to take off his turban for the photo. The ruling does not apply to identity or residence cards. The Council of State, hearing a case brought by Shingara Mann Singh, said officials of his region, the Val d'Oise, could not cite a 1999 Interior Ministry order in refusing the license. The council said only the Transport Ministry had the right to "define the conditions ... and determine the documents to be...

RALEIGH, N.C. - A man who killed his wife and father-in-law awaited lethal injection early Friday in the nation's 1,000th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977. Kenneth Lee Boyd, set to die at 2 a.m., spent the day visiting family and friends. Late Thursday, Gov. Mike Easley denied Boyd's clemency request. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected final appeals by Boyd's lawyers. "We went in and told him the governor turned him down and he handled it well," said Boyd's lawyer, Thomas Maher, who was among a succession...

Some anonymous post-election gloating by mail has angered local Democrats. "It's disturbing," April Sherrill said of a postcard sent to her Mount Ulla home. Sherrill is secretary of the Rowan County Democratic Party and chaired the John Kerry-John Edwards campaign in Rowan. Other Democrats in Salisbury have received similar postcards, which had only this type-written text: "YOUR GUY LOST NOW GET OVER IT Thank the Lord for George W. Bush and his leadership, testimony and witness. Just think what this country would be like with a confessed war criminal, traitor of our country, murder (sic) of unborn children, kissing up...

They've printed one thousand T-shirts to give away bearing the slogan "Who shot the blimp?" A sign at the dealership over the weekend proclaimed "No Hunting" and featured a bullet-ridden blimp. Cloninger Ford-Toyota officials say public interest in the April 17 shooting of a blimp that was advertising the dealership has led them to use the situation for more advertising. It certainly has spread the dealership's name. Type the words "blimp,""shotgun" and "advertisement"into the Google search engine, and more than 1 1/2 pages of links featuring the story pop up. On his office computer, Cloninger Sales Manager David Wilson has...