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Between forkfuls of angel-hair pasta, Metra engineer Mike Smith calmly told his story Monday, detail by agonizing detail, of the ill-fated Rock Island line train that jumped the tracks under his control. At Nick and Tony's restaurant downtown, Smith talked to reporters for the first time, saying he was sorry that his passengers -- "the most precious cargo" -- suffered and died in the horrific crash. But last month's derailment that killed two women and injured dozens of others was not his fault, he said. "I can say I'm sorry even though I had nothing to do with it," said...

NEW ORLEANS - A retired elementary teacher who was repeatedly punched in the head by police in an incident caught on videotape said Monday he was not drunk, put up no resistance and was baffled by what happened. Robert Davis said he had returned to New Orleans to check on property his family owns in the storm-ravaged city, and was out looking to buy cigarettes when he was beaten and arrested Saturday night in the French Quarter. Police have alleged that the 64-year-old Davis was publicly intoxicated, a charge he strongly denied as he stood on the street corner where...

HAYWARD, Calif. — Two men who had sex with a transgender (search) teen were convicted of murdering her after they discovered she was biologically male, but a third defendant's case ended in a mistrial. In their verdict Monday, the jury rejected defense arguments that the killing of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo amounted to no more than manslaughter (search). "It's murder," said Gwen Smith, who maintains a Web site memorializing people believed to have been killed because they were transgender. "And a murder conviction shows that transgender lives are valuable." Michael Magidson and Jose Merel, both 25, face mandatory sentences of 15...

Troops participating in Operation Shadyville searched 244 houses and netted several suspected insurgent supporters, two IEDs, and 50 AK-47 assault rifles. SAQLAWIYAH, Iraq, July 7, 2005 — Many young men who join the United States Marine Corps during their late teenage years may often fantasize about saving a comrade’s life while fighting a war overseas. Although this 20-year old Bessemer, Ala., native is no longer an adolescent, that dream became reality June 29 when he unearthed an insurgent-made improvised explosive device. “The IED we found was an HE (high explosive) 155mm artillery shell,” explained Cpl. Patrick Jernigan. “I was walking...

Supreme court justices give their okie dokie to commercial land developers to sieze their homes and property and turn them into sprawling malls and bus stops.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 31) - Robby Gordon was not being critical of Danica Patrick when he said she had an unfair weight advantage in the Indianapolis 500. Rather, he said he was simply discussing a flaw in the Indy Racing League's rules. "The only thing I was saying was that I have a problem with the rule, not any particular driver," Gordon said Tuesday. "I've been impressed with Danica from the first time she got in an IRL car earlier this year, and I certainly did not mean to disrespect her or any other driver." Patrick wowed the racing world...

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in New Jersey: An Islamic Murder of Coptic Christians?.Anyone following the investigation into the mid-January slaughter of the Armanious family (husband, wife, two young daughters), Copts living in Jersey City, N.J., knows who the presumptive suspects are: Islamists furious at a Christian Egyptian immigrant who dares engage in Internet polemics against Islam and who attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.The authorities, however, have blinded themselves to the extensive circumstantial evidence, insisting that "no facts at this point" substantiate a religious motive for the murders.Somehow, the prosecutor missed that all four members of this...

Gore, Women and Social Security: He Still Doesn't Get It April 10, 2000 Vice President Al Gore's proposal to increase some Social Security benefits for women "is the equivalent of choosing a new china pattern for the Titanic," said Michael Tanner, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Social Security Privatization. "Clearly, Gore still doesn't understand the need for fundamental reform." On April 4 Gore proposed to eliminate what he terms the "motherhood penalty" by offering an earnings credit for women who leave the work force to raise their children. The change would give about 8 million women who leave...

This X-ray image shows the four inch nail that a construction worker from Colorado., accidentally fired through his mouth and into his head with a nail gun on Jan. 6. The worker didn't realize what had happened, though the nail plunged 1 1/2 inches into his brain. Six days later he went to the dentist for what he thought was a toothache, and the X-ray revealed the nail. He is expected to be released from the hospital Jan. 20. He is uninsured and is unsure how he will pay his 100,000-plus medical bill. 

EVERY other Sunday afternoon since April 2003, advocates of animal rights have gathered with bullhorns across from 279 Central Park West, near 88th Street. They are there to protest Huntingdon Life Sciences, a product-development company that does scientific tests on animals, and its chief executive, Andrew Baker, who lives in the building. Or does he? Months ago, residents heard that he had moved out. And so, they wonder, why don't the protesters stop? "Someone would first of all have to provide really good proof that he's not in the building," said Camille Hankins, who organizes the events for the group,...

LONDON, Jan. 13 -- Britain's Prince Harry apologized on Thursday after he wore a Nazi uniform to a costume party two weeks before Queen Elizabeth is due to lead the country's Holocaust memorial events. In the latest of a string of gaffes, Harry, 20, wore a red-and-black swastika armband and an army shirt with Nazi regalia at the party at a friend's house Saturday. The incident will heap more embarrassment on the royal family and Harry, third in line to the British throne and due to train at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst this year. Queen Elizabeth is due...

WHEN titian-haired publish ing titan Judith Regan took up with former top cop Bernard Kerik, she thought she'd met her match. And vice versa. But the illicit relationship came tumbling down, a friend of Regan's told me, not when she discovered her married lover had another mistress. It ended horribly after Regan learned Kerik's wife was pregnant. After that jolting discovery, Regan — as volatile, driven and foul-mouthed as any man — began using other words to describe her lover. "He's maniacal. Insane," a terrified Regan confided in a pal. Kerik, she said, had Regan followed to Los Angeles. He...

Slain soldier spoke of his deathHe was filled with foreboding on recent visit home, family says.By YONIKA WILLISTribune Staff Writer Joyce Adcock, of rural Goshen, reflects Monday on the life of her son, Staff Sgt. Marvin Lee Trost III, who was killed in Iraq early Sunday morning when an individual explosive device struck his vehicle.Tribune photo/JIM RIDER Trost Staff Sgt. Marvin Lee Trost III, seen here with his wife and children in a photo provided by his family, was killed in Iraq Sunday when an individual explosive device struck his vehicle. His wife, Sherry, sons Levin, 3; and Gabriel, 3...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

I was just thinking about the Jeremy Glick episode. O'Reilly may be moderate politically, but that doesn't mean unbiased these days. His problem is that he isn't neutral when it comes to the United States. He is pro-American. To the left, that's biased.

Don't waste your time, girls - some romances are not meant to be, writes Caroline Overington. Is there a woman alive who hasn't sat on the couch, sobbing and saying: "Why doesn't he call?" Well, now we know: he's just not that into you. Sounds simple, no? Yet a guide for women that explains this basic concept has taken the book world by storm. The book, He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys, has reached the top of the bestseller lists in The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. It was...

Kerry Says His 'Family' Owns SUV, Not He Friday April 23, 2004 12:46 AM PITTSBURGH (AP) - Does John Kerry, who supports higher automobile fuel economy standards, own a gas-guzzling SUV? He does, but says it belongs to the family, not to him. During a conference call Thursday with reporters to discuss his upcoming jobs tour through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, the Democratic presidential candidate was asked whether he owned a Chevrolet Suburban. ``I don't own an SUV,'' said Kerry, who supports increasing existing fuel economy standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015 in order to reduce...

Where is Saddam Hussein? Are they getting information out of him? What do they plan on doing with him? World courts? Iraqi Courts? U.S. courts? Or is there something else in store for Saddam Hussein? I'm curious... enlighten me. :)

BETHANY - Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich made a quick stop in Oklahoma on Tuesday, blasting international trade compacts and promising to end American involvement in Iraq. “It’s time to end the occupation of Iraq and bring our troops home,” he told a crowd of about 75 at Wiley Post Airport. “The Iraq war has left us wasting tens of billions of dollars for a war that didn’t have to be fought.” Kucinich made the stop in Oklahoma as part of a three-day tour across 11 states to formally announce his candidacy for president. The trip began in Cleveland, where...

A Brooklyn man charged with fatally shaking his girlfriend's 15-month-old son said the death was "the baby's fault," the tot's mother testified yesterday. Nyerere Moses made the astounding comment at the 75th Precinct on Nov. 16, 2001, during a brief conversation with his girlfriend, Monica Munroe. "He said it was the baby's fault," Munroe testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "[The baby] was crying, so he picked him up and shook him." Moses, 23, is charged with murdering little DeAndrew Munroe in the mother's apartment on Barbey St. in East New York. The defendant was baby-sitting while Munroe, his girlfriend of...