Free Republic

First, the angry mobs of Texas fans demanding the Longhorn Network from their cable or satellite providers never came. Or, not in large enough droves to cause considerable action. Now, the very state of conference flux in which the Longhorn Network is either the chicken or the egg is yet another reason why the Texas/ESPN venture will air in virtual anonymity for the foreseeable future. "Given the dynamic situation in college football conferences today, we'll wait and see how it all shakes out before we decide what we will or won't carry," DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer told FOXSportsSouthwest.com on Friday....

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Well, the first two drives for each team didn't go completely South Florida's way. Notre Dame did come up with a couple of key stops at its own goal line after consecutive facemask penalties on Harrison Smith put the Bulls in position to make it a three-possession game early. A 17-yard field goal from Maikon Bonani has instead made it 13-0 in the first quarter.

WACO, Texas -- Some instant analysis from a dizzyingly entertaining first half that more closely resembled a tennis match. Outstanding. Turning point: Baylor's opening drive. The Bears announced very early that they would be moving the ball consistently with a six-play, 72-yard drive that featured two carries for 19 yards from Terrance Ganaway and was capped by a double pass from Robert Griffin III to Kendall Wright to Terrance Williams for a 40-yard touchdown. This would not be a repeat of the 2010 game.

The Ravens’ Torrey Smith, In The Safest Place Imaginable, Ran For His Life When The Earthquake Hit Smith, the Ravens' second-round draft pick out of Maryland, was doing a UM commercial when the earth moved. Owings Mills is 120 miles as the crow raven flies from the epicenter of the quake, so we're sure it was intense. We're also sure that a wide open football field is precisely the safest place to be in an earthquake, so we have no clue where he was off to hide. Smith will end up the return man for the Ravens, and clocked a...

No matter how hot it gets on the practice field at Wesley Chapel High, Ahmed Elshaer will not drink. No matter how faint the senior offensive lineman feels, he will not eat. Elshaer is fasting from all food and drink from sunup to sundown for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of August. So now, all the Christian players are forced to cater to one muslim’s religious demands. RIVALS -(H/T Carl) -Ahmed Elshaer is a sophomore at Wesley Chapel (Fla.) High. As first reported in a terrific story (Terrific? What’s terrific about being a muslim?) by the St. Petersburg Times’ Matt...

Sheryl Crow will be auctioning off her 1959 Mercedes-Benz 190SL Roadster to raise money for the tornado victims of Joplin, Mo. The money raised from the auction of the car will go to benefit the Joplin Schools Recovery Fund, a fund created by Community Foundation of the Ozarks and its Joplin-based affiliate, the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri, Inc. A fitting charity for the former schoolteacher turned rock star. Crow donated her car to Gooding & Company, an auction house in Pebble Beach, Ca., where it will go up for auction the weekend of Aug. 2oth and 21st. The “100...

Council says it has no obligation to provide facilities but then makes embarrassing U-turn A mother was ordered not to breastfeed her baby in public because she was in a ‘multicultural building’. Emma Mitchell, 32, was about to feed 19-week-old son Aaron when a receptionist at a town hall warned her to stop. Last night Mrs Mitchell condemned council staff, saying it was time people recognised the law which allows nursing mothers to breastfeed in public. ‘It was just awful. I felt humiliated, intimidated and guilty through the whole thing,’ she said. ‘What I was doing was one of the...

Washington (CNN) -- What is the best way to search travelers for explosives: Full-body Imaging machines, which can see through your clothes? Or Rin Tin Tin, who can't, but might lick your hand? ........... Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, led the dog caucus, arguing that canines are cheaper and less invasive than body scanners. Dogs are exceptional at sensing explosives, do not require software upgrades, don't depreciate with use and might even be able to detect bombs implanted under a person's skin. ........... "Who doesn't like dogs?" chimed in Inspector William Parker, head of Amtrak's K-9 unit. ........... Sammon said the...

<p>Nightmares, we have many. But one that we didn't have until today was being trapped in a delayed airplane with Nadya "Octomom" Suleman and her brood of children. A situation that former 3rd Rock from the Sun star Kristen Johnston, along with a full plane, reportedly found herself in last night. Johnston at least managed to do more about it than we probably would have.</p>

ONONDAGA, N.Y. (AP) — Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike's handlebars and hit his head on the pavement. The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse. State troopers tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets.

Congressman Blake Farenthold: I will be on Lou Dobbs tonight at 7:30 pm ET/6:30 CT to discuss Operation Fast and Furious.... tune in!

The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for picketing soldiers' funerals with signs like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God Hates the USA." Yet the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church to the Quantico Marine base in Virginia to talk to FBI agents as part of the bureau's counterterrorism training program. But after four sessions this spring, the FBI canceled the arrangement amid criticism from inside the bureau, while church leaders claimed that they had been misled. The church group, led by Pastor Fred Phelps and based in Topeka, Kan., says its protests are intended to tell the...

Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry reintroduced a bill that would make it a felony in his state for employees of the federal Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to conduct pre-flight pat down searches at security check points. It looks like Idaho might follow Perry’s lead when lawmakers meet in Boise next year. Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, told IdahoReporter.com said he may address search methods in the next legislative session, set to begin in January. “I do plan on revisiting the issue,” said Hart, who unsuccessfully pushed a bill to limit the use of full body scanners at public airports...

.......................... The government says 25 people have been killed in the violence so far, but the actual death toll is thought to be much higher. "This is one of the most violent events to have occurred in a Venezuelan jail in the past 10 years," says Carlos Nieto, a lawyer and human-rights advocate. Which is why so many Venezuelans are just as troubled by President Hugo Chávez's uncharacteristic silence on the crisis, as he languishes in a hospital bed in Cuba, recovering from surgery to remove a pelvic abscess. Chávez is usually omnipresent on Venezuelan television and radio. But the...

A Russian woman died from a heart attack brought on by the shock of waking up at her own funeral. Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, was mistakenly declared deceased by doctors, the Daily Mail reported Friday. But she later woke up - in a coffin surrounded by sobbing relatives. She started screaming after realizing she was about to be buried alive. Mukhametzyanov, a resident of Kazan, was rushed back to the hospital where she was declared dead -- this time for real. Her husband, Fagili Mukhametzyanov, was distraught. "Her eyes fluttered and we immediately rushed her back to the hospital but...

No charges will be lodged against West Chester bar for serving "Jackass" star, state police say "Jackass" star Ryan Dunn drank six shots and two beers at Barnaby's in West Chester before getting behind the wheel early Monday morning, Pennsylvania State Police say. Police say that Dunn was legally drunk at the time of the accident that killed him and a friend early Monday morning. Dunn’s blood alcohol level was .196 – twice that of the state’s legal limit of .08 -- when he crashed his Porshe on Rt. 322 killing himself and his passenger Zach Hartwell, according to police....

Ci the Border Collie has developed a fear of sheep making it impossible for him to perform his day job. Despite his pedigree, Ci proves instinct alone is not enough to overcome a bad case of ovinophobia. The four-year-old developed his fear of sheep when owner Jane Lippington placed him in their field as a puppy. Now instead of rounding up his flock, Ci is more likely to be seen being chased by it. Mrs Lippington, 54, said Ci instinctively wants to work the sheep, but is too scared. "If they run away from him, he will go after them...

CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) - Late last night, someone hopped a fence surrounding the McCoys Lumber Yard on N. Padre Island Drive. Police say once 52 year old John Gonzalez jumped the fence, he headed for the lumber yard's pick up truck. He then allegedly hot wired it, and before smashing through a fence to get out, he allegedly loaded it up with 40 bundles of roofing shingles. But here's the clincher: the truck had a mind of it's own! Link to video.

CORPUS CHRISTI - Spanking your kids can send you to jail. This week, a local woman avoided jail time, but her case made it clear that local prosecutors and judges will not tolerate what used to be a much more accepted practice. Back in December, police arrested Rosalina Gonzales for Injury to a Child, related to the spanking of her daughter, who was nearly two years old at the time. It was her daughter's grandmother who noticed red marks on the child's rear end, and took her to Driscoll Children's Hospital to be checked out. Wednesday, Gonzales was in court...

Robstown Independent School District, endowed with $1.27 million of federal taxpayer money to improve education for the children of migrant workers, spent what money authorities could document on barbecue dinners for committee members, trips to Fiesta Texas and movies. The results of an audit by the Texas Education Agency found the district, just west of Corpus Christi, was not able to establish how buying computers and calculators and paying for staff training for the entire district between 2002 and 2006 specifically benefited migrant children, according to a Corpus Christi Caller-Times story today. The district was unable to track expenses...