Free Republic

California artist Thomas Kinkade, whose brushwork paintings of idyllic landscapes, cottages and churches were big sellers for dealers across the country, died Friday, a family spokesman said. Kinkade, 54, died at his home in Los Gatos in the San Francisco Bay Area of what appeared to be natural causes, David Satterfield said. Kinkade's sentimental paintings, with their scenes of cottages, country gardens and churches in dewy morning light, were beloved by middlebrow America but reviled by the art establishment. The paintings generally depict tranquil scenes with lush landscaping and streams running nearby. Many contain images from Bible passages. Kinkade, a...

Ashley Turton, a former Democratic aide whose death last month shocked friends and colleagues on Capitol Hill, was under the influence of alcohol when she crashed her car into the family garage early on the morning of Jan. 10, an autopsy found. According to a statement released Friday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia, Turton died from the “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns” caused by a fire after her car crashed into the garage of the Turton’s Capitol Hill home. Turton, a mother of three, was also under the influence...

Ashley Turton, a former senior aide to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), was intoxicated when she died in an accident last month, according to an autopsy report. Turton, who was working as an energy lobbyist at the time of the accident, died from the “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns,” according to Beverly Fields of the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner’s office. “Acute alcohol intoxication” was a contributing factor in her death, Fields said. Turton was found dead inside of her burned SUV, which apparently caught fire in the early morning hours inside of her garage on Capitol Hill. Turton...

Police officer charged with rape after offering woman ride home BROCKTON - A police officer was charged with rape after he allegedly forced an intoxicated woman to perform oral sex on him while in uniform. Daniel MacIntosh, 28, of Brockton, pleaded innocent at his arraignment Tuesday in Brockton District Court. His attorney, Kevin Reddington, said MacIntosh was stunned by the allegations. ``He is very distraught by this,'' Reddington told The Enterprise of Brockton. ``He is a very, very nice young man who dreamed of becoming a police officer.'' According to court papers, the woman told authorities she was too drunk...

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) -- Two off-duty state police officers were arrested after a run-in with on-duty Albuquerque police officers. The state police officers allegedly got drunk at a downtown Albuquerque bar, flashed a badge, cursed at Albuquerque police and fought Albuquerque police officers as they were taken into custody. Officer Thomas Morrissey, 30, is a patrolman assigned the Gallup district. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Officer Saul Canialis, 28, was arrested on a battery on a police officer charge. He is assigned to the Grants district. Morrissey was released on his own recognizance by Bernalillo County Metropolitan...

William Henkle had more than 20 alcoholic drinks in his system when he attacked police with a chain saw outside his Forty Fort home last month, toxicology tests reveal. Henkle, who was killed by a flurry of police bullets following the attack, had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.495 percent, according to test results recently received by the Luzerne County coroner's office. The 40-year-old's blood-alcohol concentration was more than six times the amount (0.08) to be considered legally drunk in Pennsylvania. No traces of illegal drugs were found in the two blood samples and one urine sample tested at National Medical...

New York Post DEATH IN THE AIR By MURRAY WEISS and CYNTHIA R. FAGEN A Brooklyn man who went berserk aboard a JFK-bound airliner died Friday night after being handcuffed and held down by seven athletes who had come to the aid of the flight crew. William Lee, 48, got out of hand aboard American Airlines Flight 4 from Los Angeles after flight attendants told him he couldn't have any more booze, airline spokesman Tim Smith told The Post. Lee, who had told the Boeing 767 cabin crew he was despondent over a breakup with his girlfriend, was declared dead...

Welcome to the furthest right reaches of the right: the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC for short. Here, evolution is a wild hypothesis, "Log Cabin Republican" is a slur and young women know they have to wear short skirts to get ahead. Thursday through Saturday, young conservatives and established Republican activists got together in Washington, D.C., for the annual ritual of meeting, greeting, sitting and eating together in service of "the movement." Young activists were groomed, contacts were made and the Republican machine hummed along. Needless to say, triumphalism permeated the proceedings. The Republicans, having just held the presidency...

Muslim-bashing. That's the accusation many of my fellow Muslims now hurl at the various news outlets for their news stories about a Freedom House investigation that found extremist Islamic literature in some leading American mosques. This name-calling is unfortunate. Since 1980, the Muslim world has experienced an enormous growth of religious fanaticism and extremism the likes of which Islam has not experienced in its 1,400 years. This movement continues to grow because of the spread of Wahhabi Islam; a sect that used to number no more than one percent of all Muslims, but because of money and technology, has spread...

Victim tells police his weed was swiped CITIZEN STAFF REPORT KEY WEST -- Police officers investigate all kinds of thefts, usually involving money, bicycles, jewelry or cars. In Key West, stolen goods can also include marijuana, as a New York man complained to a Key West police officer Monday about his missing pot. It all began when the manager of a local hotel called police to report that a guest was claiming his "weed" was stolen, along with a watch. The manager said the guest was standing outside the lobby, hammering on the glass door and swaying back and forth,...

Pilot loses certificates after testing positive for alcohol in NorfolkBy Richard S. Koonce, The Virginian-Pilot Reach Richard S. Koonce at 446-2536 or at rkoonce@pilotonline.com The pilot certificate of a Delta Air Lines co-pilot who tested positive for alcohol at Norfolk International Airport in December has been revoked, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Gary Schroeder, 42, of Yorktown has been stripped of his pilot certificate and his medical certificate, prohibiting him from flying, said Christopher White, an FAA spokesman with the Southern Region’s operations office in Atlanta. Schroeder was the scheduled co-pilot aboard aBoeing 737 filled with passengers, scheduled to...