Free Republic

I was doing the Mancow radio show talking about my candidacy for the 5th Congressional District (Rahm Emanuel's seat) I was honored to meet the guy who made this movie. We talked and I told him I would help him get the word out. It will premiere in Chicago on March 13th 2009. It will be playing in alot of diferent cities. Please support the film. The movie trailer is AWESOME!

DECATUR, Ala. -- Decatur police are searching for one of their own who went missing from his office Friday night. Officers found signs of a struggle between Sgt. Faron Eugene White and another person in his office at the Decatur Police Department Training Center, where he was working alone that night, police spokesman Lt. Jonathan Green said in a statement this morning.

Several Decatur County voters are concerned about problems with the voting machines at the Election Commission Office. Voters claim they tried to vote for McCain for President but the machine checked Obama instead. At least three voters encountered the problem when casting their early ballot on Saturday morning. Franklin Boroughs says he intended to vote for Republican but rather the computer had checked the Democratic candidate instead. Wanda and Barney Blasingim similarly said they tried to vote for McCain but the machine switched the vote. "I noticed the problem immediately," Wanda said Monday. She says she touched the "button" for...

DECATUR BOY RESCUES LITTLE SISTER Thursday, February 19, 2004 cmccool@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8575 DECATUR -- The ground opened up and swallowed his little sister, and Vaughn Copeland jumped in after her. Some people grow old wondering whether they'd make the right split-second decision in a crisis. At the age of 7, Vaughn proved himself a hero. He saved his little sister's life Monday. The siblings were playing outside in the family's back yard Monday night when an abandoned septic tank suddenly collapsed beneath Alexanna Copeland. The 4-year-old girl fell into a cavity filled with water well over her head. "She knows how...

On the opening day of the Illinois Republican Party's quadrennial state convention in Decatur, please standby for this special message for Illinois Republicans: Hoping your political opponents get indicted is not an electoral strategy. The combination of euphoria and self-righteous indignation streaming out of GOP politicos on the occasion of Tony Rezko's conviction on public corruption charges this week is predictable if not well thought out. Considering he was elected Governor by running against that which has become the hallmark of his administration, it is natural for Republicans to delight in the possibility that Rod Blagojevich may soon be joining...

Novelist Salman Rushdie will join the faculty of Emory University and donate his archive to the institution, marking the writer's first extended relationship with a university, Emory officials said Friday. Rushdie will join the school in the spring of 2007 and lead a graduate seminar, participate in undergraduate courses and deliver lectures during his five-year appointment. "We'll have one of modern literature's giants on our faculty," said Emory President James Wagner. "And students will have access to his records - and the man himself. We're very, very pleased." Rushdie, the author of "The Satanic Verses," was forced into hiding for...

For the past 27 years, Point Mallard Park has been the sight for the September Skirmish, a Civil War reenactment of the beginning of the Battle for Decatur, Alabama, a small part of the 1864 Franklin-Nashville Campaign. The annual 3-day event this year included open Confederate and Union war camps, troop drills and weapon demonstrations, dinner and a dance in period dress. A civilian support camp was also erected, housing shops for Civil War era food, drinks, clothes, weapons, and even a chapel. I spent Saturday roaming the camps and once again enjoying the company of soldiers, and managed to...

Decatur is best known for his 1816 toast to the nation at a dinner party in his honor. Raising his glass, he said, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.” ... Then there are those like Hollywood film star George Clooney and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy who today have their own takes on Decatur’s words.

BATTLE CRY By Kay Day for W. Thomas Smith, Jr. He thought he heard it first in the oak trees, within boughs he chose for lookouts, sturdy perches where he spotted enemy encroaching fields of peanuts or cotton: fierce Hessians with scraggly beards and beefy arms, earnest Yankees in blue, Braves in feathers and paint, his enemy shaped in tales he’d heard or read. He heard it again in the water, pulling him along the rivulets where he dodged arrows and musket balls, a call urging attack, defend. The sound was the sweetest he’d known since he was an infant...

Gangs of Decatur: Residents concerned By Chris Paschenko DAILY Staff Writer cpaschenko@decaturdaily.com When gang members shot her mother's car two months ago, Amber Woods felt helpless. And when gang members chased and shot at her brother's car in March, missed and hit a sleeping Mississippi couple's recreational vehicle, Woods nearly gave up hope. Woods, 18, and her fiancée, Joe Manz, were two of about 150 people in attendance Tuesday at an Austinville community meeting, voicing their opinions on crime and gangs to Police Chief Joel Gilliam, Mayor Don Kyle and other city officials. "My complaint is I live on Russell...

After enduring months of intense heat, long hours, dust and Spartan living conditions since their arrival in May, Army postal units have nearly completed turnover of military postal operations to contractors. The turnover began in October, when the first KBR postal workers began to arrive, said Lt. Col. Steven Heggen, commander of the 461st Personnel Services Battalion, an Army Reserve unit from Decatur, Ga. Originally, the Joint Military Mail Terminal here was manned exclusively with soldiers from the 461st PSB and units from the National Guard, Army Reserve and active Army, numbering about 300 in all. Now, except for a...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND 7115 South Boundary Boulevard MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101 Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 December 20, 2003Release Number: 03-12-52 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE COALITION FORCES MAKE SECOND MAJOR DRUG SEIZURE IN FIVE DAYS Aboard USS Enterprise – Five days after nearly 10 million dollars worth of hashish was found aboard a dhow in the Arabian Gulf, coalition forces have made another significant drug interception. Intelligence gained from the Dec. 15 raid by USS Decatur (DDG 73) led the U.S. Navy to board two dhows in the North Arabian Sea, this time discovering...

[View JPEG Photo, 1046 KB] Over 50 bags of hashish litter the deck of the dhow intercepted in the Arabian Gulf. A U.S. Navy boarding team operating from the guided missile destroyer USS Decatur (DDG 73) discovered an estimated two tons of narcotics with a street value of around eight to ten million dollars aboard a 40-foot dhow intercepted in the Arabian Gulf. The dhow's 12 crewmembers were taken into custody and transferred to USS Decatur, and Decatur sailors are in control of the dhow. DoD photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Sandberg, U.S. Navy. (Released) 031216-N-4374S-030

A large ape-like animal has been seen over the last several days in and around Decatur. Police Chief Coy Hendrix says he received two calls last week and another call Monday from people reporting that they have seen the animal. The first sighting was on Hill Street in Decatur; the second caller said the animal was headed north toward Crystal Lake, about a quarter mile away. Monday`s caller said the animal was on Benning Road, several miles east of town. An employee at the Wild Wilderness Drive-Thru Safari in Gentry said no animal matching the description had escaped from...

4 students fail nicotine part of city drug testsNone fail alcohol or drug portionsBy Bayne Hughes DAILY Education Writerhughes@decaturdaily.com · 340-2432Decatur City Schools had their first drug test failures during November's random tests, but not for drugs or alcohol.According to Supervisor for Safety and Alternative Education Phil Hastings, four students failed the tobacco portion of the random tests given to students participating in competitive extracurricular activities."All of the students admitted to it (smoking cigarettes or using smokeless tobacco), and are taking steps to stop using it," Hastings said.The penalties for positive nicotine use are not as harsh as the penalties...