Free Republic

ASHLAND, Ky. - A man wearing a ski mask held up an eastern Kentucky ice cream store with a stapler, and briefly got away with $175. Police identified the stapler bandit as Gerald A. Rocchi, 32, who was arrested shortly after he allegedly flashed a chrome-plated stapler at an employee of The Ice Cream Shop in Ashland on Tuesday and demanded money. Ashland Police Capt. Don Petrella said he didn't know if Rocchi planned to shoot staples at the shop's employees or use it as a blunt instrument if he didn't get the cash. It didn't come to that because...

A suspect is dead after messing with the wrong person Tuesday morning. North Las Vegas Police say a man tried to carjack a security guard at about 6 in the morning near Gowan and I-15. The intended victim and the suspect got into a shootout. The security guard was taken to the hospital with a minor wound. The suspect was taken to UMC where he later died. Police say the security guard may not face any charges, because it appears he was acting in self defense.

A former FBI agent who pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship and then improperly accessing sensitive computer information about Hizbollah was working until about a year ago as a CIA spy assigned to Middle East operations, Newsweek has learned. The stunning case of Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese native who is related to a suspected Hizbollah money launderer, appears to raise a nightmarish question for U.S. intelligence agencies: Could one of the world's most notorious terrorist groups have infiltrated the U.S. government ...

Those Rocky Mountains are getting higher. Two municipalities - Denver, Colorado, and the small town of Hailey, Idaho - passed pro-marijuana measures on election day this week, joining a growing number of liberal localities that are reducing or removing penalities on using pot. It's part of a slowly evolving populist rehabilitation of the drug. San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Monica in California, along with Missoula, Montana, and Seattle, Washington, have previously passed laws that give the lowest priority to enforcing existing marijuana laws. ...

it's a fact . gun control cant work. if you take the legal right to bear arms by the honest citizens. then the only ones left with the gun's are the cop's and criminals.and the criminals arent stupid. they will know that the rest of us are ripe for the picking. ...

HELSINKI, Finland - A teenage killer's deadly school rampage has put Finns on the defensive about their relationship to guns. With 1.6 million firearms in private hands, the Nordic nation is an anomaly in Europe, lagging behind only the U.S. and Yemen in civilian gun ownership, studies show. ...

Sunday marked 'Death to America Day' where thousands of anti-US chanted and burned the American flag in front of the US embassy in Tehran. It has been an annual tradition for demonstrators who have gathered every year to celebrate the closing of the American embassy during Iran's Islamic revolution. These celebrations have spanned nearly three decades.

British Troops call in B1 assistance with a direct hit...

WINTERSBURG, Ariz. - As authorities tried to understand why a contract worker would bring a pipe bomb to the nation's largest nuclear power plant, one thing was immediately clear: The security worked. Guards stopped Roger William Hurd, 61, at the entrance to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station when they spotted the bomb. He was detained about a half mile from the containment domes where the nuclear material is stored. Officials pulled his security clearances and placed the facility on lockdown. ...

Thousands of Tulsa families are now packing up and moving out in light of Oklahoma's new immigration law. Police and deputies can ask about citizenship when a person is arrested and if someone can't prove it, that person can be deported. We spoke with one family that says it's leaving Tulsa next week. ...

A push to postpone Oklahoma’s controversial immigration law has failed. On Wednesday, a federal judge denied a request to keep the law from taking effect. Starting today, House Bill 1804 makes it tougher for illegal immigrants to live and work in Oklahoma. However, the fight over the law is not over yet. The Coalition of Hispanic Leaders were fighting to keep House Bill 1804 from going into effect on Thursday. They filed for a temporary injunction claiming the state does not have the authority to regulate immigration. They say that is a job for the federal government. ...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel began cutting vital fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, following through on a promise to step up pressure on the territory's Hamas rulers after months of Palestinian rocket attacks. ...

Green Country volunteers are on their way to help in California. Ten members of the Tulsa chapter of the American Red Cross left for San Diego on Tuesday. The News On 6’s Chris Wright reports all the volunteers have disaster relief experience, but some say they have never seen anything quite like what is going on in California. Despite the fact that they were preparing to head into the heart of a natural disaster, the Red Cross volunteers remained optimistic before leaving for the airport. "I'm not worried, they always keep us safe. I'm anxious, excited ready to go help,”...

Pizza delivery driver kills attacker in Roswell ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) - Police say a pizza delivery driver in Roswell apparently acted in self-defense in the fatal shooting of a man accused of attacking him. The driver, Dustin Eoff, says he was jumped by three men and beaten with a tire iron as he was getting out of his car to deliver a pizza at a Roswell apartment complex. Police say 25-year-old Jay Brito was shot to death during the struggle. Police say Eoff is not facing any charges because the gun was fired in self-defense. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated...

On the night he shot Austin Bodahl to death, Daniel Kelly was a vulnerable target for three drunken drifters looking to hurt someone, anyone, as they staggered up State Street, Kelly 's attorney said Monday. So when Bodahl, 23, who was five inches taller and 40 pounds heavier than Kelly, fought him on May 22 in the middle of State Street, Kelly did the only thing he could to avoid being more seriously hurt: He fired warning shots into the air, then shot Bodahl, Assistant Public Defender Dennis Burke told a jury, as Kelly 's first-degree reckless homicide trial began...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's prime minister will hold emergency talks with his ministers Tuesday on the crisis with Turkey after the Turkish government asked for authority to launch cross-border raids against Kurdish separatists. In a statement issued by his office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on Ankara to avoid "military solutions" to the situation sparked by recent attacks in Turkey by the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. ...

The burgeoning left wing smear industry, set up to manufacture attacks on conservatives, has its own radical Islam sector. I know this by personal experience. Earlier this week I reported that a known HAMAS operative was scheduled to speak at the Ohio State Capitol later this month (see Thomas Lifson's related blog entry). Within hours, a leftist attack blogger affiliated with the Ohio Democratic Party had published an ad hominem broadside in response parroting talking points prepared by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). ...

MEDFORD, Ore. - High school English teacher Shirley Katz insists she needs to take her pistol with her to work because she fears her ex-husband could show up and try to harm her. She's also worried about a Columbine-style attack. But Katz's district has barred teachers from bringing guns to school, so she is challenging the ban as unlawful, since Oregon is among states that allow people with a permit to carry concealed weapons into public buildings. "This is primarily about my Second Amendment right and Oregon law and the simple fact that I know it is my right to...

Iran Gifts 100 Books to US Columbia University TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An Iranian state institution gifted 100 volumes of books on the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan to the library of Columbia University. The books which contain hundreds of caricatures on the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan have been gifted by the director of the Foundation for Safeguarding and Promotion of the Values of the Sacred Defense (i.e. Iraqi imposed war on Iran 1980-1988). "To honor the self-restraint and patience of the Columbia University students during the address of Dr. Ahmadinejad and to appreciate their freedom and justice-seeking...

(TULSA, Okla.) September 28 - An overnight bust of illegal immigrants has a Tulsa community on edge. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, tracked down four suspected criminals who are also in this country illegally. In this FOX23 News exclusive, authorities say the four men, all from Mexico, had ignored a federal judge's deportation orders. In the meantime, a tough new Oklahoma law on illegal immigration will soon go into effect. Some in the neighborhood where the bust happened say they are leary of ICE’s tactics. Hispanic groups across Oklahoma are planting their message, wanting you to know they want...