Free Republic

SPRINGFIELD -- A key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris died in an automobile accident Monday, authorities in far west-suburban Kendall County confirmed Tuesday. John Ruff, of Sandwich, Ill., was killed shortly before 3 p.m. when his 2001 BMW convertible crossed an oncoming lane of traffic and collided with a tree while he was driving eastbound on Rogers Road near Oak Brook Road in unincorporated Plano, said Kendall County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Pearson. John Ruff, a key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris was killed in an automobile accident Monday in Kendall...

Cheney mixes up Obama, Osama By Reid Wilson Posted: 06/01/09 03:00 PM [ET] Former Vice President Dick Cheney confused the president of the United States with the world's most-wanted terrorist in a speech on Monday. Speaking at the National Press Club, Cheney answered a question as to why his administration had not caught Osama bin Laden. But in a faux pas certain to end up on cable news networks and late-night talk shows, Cheney transposed bin Laden's name with that of the current president. "I believe he's still out there someplace," Cheney said of bin Laden. "I'm sure the current...

The Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan., will no longer be selling blue sno-cones after a dangerous mix-up at the refreshment stand, Fox4KC reported. Four people became sick Thursday when a zoo employee accidentally poured a degreasing agent into the sno-cone machine instead of the flavored syrup.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) -- Officials say a Russian naval ship accidentally shelled a village not far from St. Petersburg. No injuries were reported in the Thursday evening incident close to the border with Finland.

A Texas mother of twins got the shock of her life when doctors revealed that her 11-month-old boys do not have the same father. Mia Washington decided to get some expert advice when she and her partner noticed that twins Justin and Jordan had different facial features. Paternity tests then revealed what had happened — two eggs had been fertilized by two different sperm and there was a 99.99% chance the twins had different dads. Doctors at the DNA lab in Dallas, Texas had never seen such a result. Washington later admitted she had had an affair and got pregnant...

LOS ANGELES — Aviation authorities say a baggage cart was drawn into an engine of a Boeing 747 as it was leaving a terminal gate at Los Angeles International Airport. .. .. a baggage cart was being towed by at the same time and the engine ingested one of the containers. The object was lodged in the outer left-side engine of the four-engine jet.

MONDAY, May 11 (HealthDay News) -- Climate change isn't only bad for the Earth, it may be bad for your health -- especially if you have allergies or asthma. Global warming is making pollen seasons last longer, creating more ozone in the air, and even expanding the areas where insects flourish, putting more people with bee allergies at greater risk, experts say. [snip] Those changes will mean more people with allergies and asthma will suffer.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A speed camera boss had a taste of his own medicine on Wednesday when he was banned from the road for driving at more than 100 mph (165 km/h) on a 70mph highway. Tom Riall, a chief executive of Serco, which supplies many of Britain's traffic enforcement cameras, was caught by a police patrol car in Newmarket, in the eastern English county of Suffolk. Riall was recorded driving at 102.92 mph in a Volvo car, Sudbury Magistrates Court heard. He was fined £300 ($450) and banned from driving for six months.

OTSU — A curator at a museum in Shiga Prefecture in western Japan accidentally dropped and broke an antique glass accessory estimated to be 2,200 years old, the museum said Friday. The item, designated by the government as an important cultural asset and believed to date back to the mid-Yayoi period, was unearthed in 1989 at the Yoshinogari Remains in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan. It was on loan for a special display scheduled to begin Saturday at the Shiga Prefectural Azuchi Castle Archaeological Museum. ‘‘It’s a great pity,’’ said Toshihiro Kawasaki, head of the Saga prefectural board of education in...

The Washington Nationals are off to a 1-10 start -- the worst in the majors -- but something more embarrassing than losing happened to them this weekend. Their two most prominent players, outfielder Adam Dunn and third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, had the team name misspelled on the front of their uniforms. Nationals was misspelled "N-A-T-I-N-A-L-S" on both players' jerseys

A 17-year-old boy was struck and killed by a vehicle while apparently tagging the center divider on the 60 Freeway near Hall Avenue early Saturday. Blake Locko, 17, of Riverside, was struck in the carpool lane about 2:15 a.m. and thrown across the 5-foot-high center divider into the eastbound carpool lane, where he was struck by several vehicles, according to the California Highway Patrol.... The driver who first struck Locko was not expected to be cited in the death.

Hit Man Misses, Shot Dead by Target 03 April 2009 By Carl Schreck / The Moscow Times Here's a self-defense story to warm the hearts of any NRA members who might stumble upon this blog. A hit man sent to kill a businessman in the Moscow region missed his target Tuesday night, giving the would-be victim enough time to return fire and shoot his attacker dead, regional investigators said Wednesday. At around 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, the businessman showed up at the police precinct in the Moscow region town of Shyolkovo and told the duty officers that half an hour...

RIPLEY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A 12-year-old boy is in police custody after deputies say he stole his mom's car and rammed a Ripley Police cruiser on Interstate 77 Wednesday. According to the Wood County Sheriff's Department, the 12-year-old was first reported as a runaway from his home in Mineral Wells on Tuesday, but was later found and returned home. The next morning, the boy's mother woke up and found her son and her Chevy Lumina missing. She called the police and a multi-agency bulletin was issued to law enforcement agencies in the area. A short time later, a Ripley Police...

A Mississauga family who tried to light a candle for Earth Hour nearly burned their Meadowvale townhouse down. Afshan Khalid, 46, said her 8-year-old daughter tried to light a candle before Earth Hour started at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. “She was lighting up the candle and we thought it didn’t light up or the match fell somewhere that we didn’t notice and then we left,” said Ms. Khalid. The family was going to see friends and when getting ready, they lighted scented candles so they could see. While they were gone, Ms. Khalid’s son Omar, 19, came home at 9:30 with...

A Mississauga family who tried to light a candle for Earth Hour nearly burned their Meadowvale townhouse down. Afshan Khalid, 46, said her 8-year-old daughter tried to light a candle before Earth Hour started at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. “She was lighting up the candle and we thought it didn’t light up or the match fell somewhere that we didn’t notice and then we left,” said Ms. Khalid. The family was going to see friends and when getting ready, they lighted scented candles so they could see.

The Vatican has dismissed as a heretic a mystical medieval monk apparently cited by Barack Obama as a moral authority and visionary. According to Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household, the US President referred in campaign speeches to Gioacchino da Fiore, or Joachim of Fiore, as a ''master of contemporary civilisation'' who had sought to create a better world. Drawing on the Book of Revelation, Gioacchino envisaged a "new age of the Holy Spirit" in which the Church hierarchy would cease to exist and Christians would unite with infidels in an "Order of the Just". --snip-- He said...

Blundering Afghan suicide bomber blows up 6 militants Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:58am EDT KABUL, March 26 (Reuters) - A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew himself up on Thursday, killing six other militants as he was bidding them farewell to leave for his intended target, the Interior Ministry said. "The terrorist was on his way to his destination and saying good-bye to his associates and then his suicide vest exploded," a statement from the ministry said. Taliban-led attacks in Afghanistan have escalated in the past year with suicide and roadside bombings insurgents' weapons of choice. The incident happened in Helmand...

He fought a deer, and the deer won. Well, not exactly. But "Today" show co-host Matt Lauer was absent from his morning talk show Monday after an incident with a deer that caused the TV personality to flip off his bicycle. Lauer was riding his bike over the weekend when a deer suddenly jumped into his path. Lauer flipped over the handlebars and sustained minor injuries, reps at NBC said. "Matt's banged up with a displaced shoulder, it popped out," said co-host Meredith Vieira Monday. "Hopefully he'll be on the mend soon."

Confirmed: DVDs that Obama gave Gordon Brown are the wrong format posted at 4:50 pm on March 19, 2009 by Allahpundit Send to a Friend | Share on Facebook | printer-friendly Via Media Blog, one final cringeworthy indignity from the gifts that keep on giving. Until now I thought Obama’s team had spent about five minutes brainstorming on what to get Brown. I was wrong. It was more like two minutes. What’s that term The One’s been using for his foreign policy? Ah, right. “Smart power.” Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he...

AN UNFORTUNATE LOGO which has somehow made it onto the Apple App Store appears to be a Freudian slip. After years of Apple kicking its fanboy base with its autocratic and expensive gizmos, it appears that one app developer has finally come clean with what he thinks of them. Its latest application for the Iphone is a product called Icount which seems innocent enough, if not a bit challenging for the average fanboy. However the logo that accompanies the product seems to be arranged in a way so that the letter 'o' is dropped. Of course this must be an...

WASHINGTON -- Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given. Cowen was set to speak twice at the White House on Tuesday night because there were two different parties going on at the executive mansion. No matter -- he would give the same speech to the two different audiences. But Cowen was 20 seconds into his second address when it dawned on him that...

WASHINGTON – Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given.

The damage appears to much worse than initially thought, as a result of the USS Port Royal, an American cruiser, running aground on February 5th. The ship was returning to its base in Hawaii after the first day of sea trials. The ship slid into a shoal of sand and rock, which was actually construction debris from a nearby air port. The Port Royal had spent the last four months in a shipyard, getting a normal batch of upgrades and maintenance. The 9,600 ton ship has been in service for 15 years, and is the 27th, and last, Ticonderoga class...

The sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in almost 100 years. At such a calm time, even a little solar activity is remarkable.

Video at link. http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=295683

SAN FRANCISCO -- A former San Francisco Community College trustee has no right to sue city police for arresting him on suspicion of counterfeiting after he passed what turned out to be a genuine $100 bill, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the officers could not be held liable for their mistake, which led them to handcuff Rodel Rodis at a Walgreens drugstore in February 2003 and take him to a station before confirming the bill's authenticity through the Secret Service."Although the arrest was unfortunate, we cannot say that...

I saw this bumper sticker a day or so ago and would like to order a few. Anyone remember where it was or how to order it? Thanks Freepers!

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police and medical examiners who thought a man died of natural causes changed their minds after funeral-home workers found bullet holes in his head. The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that three bullet wounds — two of them in Anthony Crockett's head — were noticed after the man's body was embalmed Friday. The funeral home returned the 49-year-old Kansas City man's body to the Jackson County medical examiner's office, and police counted the death as a homicide. Detectives and Jackson County medical examiners never visited Crockett's home to inspect his body. A paramedic told police he...

A retired St. Paul police officer was wounded Saturday when a pistol belonging to an off-duty Minneapolis police officer accidentally discharged at a gun show. Both men were working security at the Minneapolis Gun Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center when the accident happened about 1:15 p.m., said Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia. The semi-automatic pistol went off when the holster got caught on a chair that the Minneapolis officer was either leaning back on or getting off of, Garcia said. One bullet hit the floor and fragmented pieces struck the retired officer in the leg and hand, Garcia...

President Obama's fiscal sustainability summit at the White House Monday apparently wasn't all that stimulating. The Financial Times is reporting that Larry Summers, head of Obama's National Economic Council, actually fell asleep at the podium. This is the same event where John McCain ranted about the cost of upgrading the presidential helicopter.

A NASA satellite crashed back to Earth about three minutes after launch early Tuesday, officials said. ... NASA launches a rocket from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday. "We could not make orbit," NASA program manager John Brunschwyler said. "Initial indications are the vehicle did not have enough [force] to reach orbit and landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean." "Certainly for the science community, it's a huge disappointment." The satellite, which would have monitored greenhouse gases to study how they affect the Earth's climate, was launched on a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- A Palestinian fighter died in a clash with Israeli troops and Israeli aircraft attacked two targets in Gaza on Monday as mediators tried to broker a long-term cease-fire a day before Israel holds national elections. The militant group Islamic Jihad said in a statement that one of its fighters was killed overnight in an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military said troops spotted an armed militant trying to cross the Gaza-Israel border late Sunday and opened fire, after which a bomb belt he was wearing detonated.

New York tells woman $5 million winning lottery ticket is a 'printing error.' How would you like to win $5 million, then be denied from collecting your prize? I think the state of New your should have to honor this ticket. Instead, they offered to give her the $20 back that she paid for the ticket. Watch video here The Intellectual Redneck

The $1 billion guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal, skippered by Capt. John Carroll, was returning to its homeport of Pearl Harbor when it ran aground just before 9 last night about one and one-half mile from the entrance to the Harbor.

If Tom Daschle had his way, Tom Daschle would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for failing to pay his taxes. At least according to the old Tom Daschle, who gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor about the scourge of tax scofflaws. "Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter," the former Senate Majority Leader said in 1998 during a debate on a bill reforming the Internal Revenue Service. [video at source link]

Bangkok: A hippopotamus swallowed a circus dwarf in a "freak accident" in northern Thailand according to a columnist in the Pattaya Mail. The Grapevine column reported" A circus dwarf nicknamed Od,died recently when he bounced sideways from a trampoline and was swallowed by a yawning hippopotamus waiting to appear in the next act" "Vets said Hilda the Hippo had a gag reflex which caused her to swallow. More than 1000 spectators continued to applaud wildly until they realized there had been a tragic mistake"

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Tragedy nearly struck a group of actors in Bradenton, Fla., when authorities say a loaded gun was accidentally used during a rehearsal. Members of the Sarasota Senior Theater were rehearsing a scene from John Steinback's "Of Mice and Men" when one actor picked up a pistol he'd borrowed from another cast member. He pointed the revolver at another actor's head and pulled the trigger. The shot grazed the man's ear. He was treated at a hospital and another actor took his place in the performance that went on as scheduled a few hours later.

With great fanfare, the City of Portland, Oregon, inaugurated its first solar-powered "loo" in Old Town, on December 8. "At the unveiling, mayor-elect Sam Adams gave the fancy new toilet its first ceremonial flush and Commissioner Randy Leonard was awarded with an honorary golden plunger," reported Portland's KGW-TV.Leonard, who helped design the solar-powered outhouse, said the $140,000 price tag was nothing to worry about because "we're patenting the design and we intend to actually market them." The city could actually make a profit down the road, he said.  Mother Nature was less than cooperative, however, dumping record-breaking snowfalls on the...

It looks as if Barack Obama and his transition team know how badly Bill Richardson’s resignation reflects on them. They have started leaking to the press that Richardson’s to blame for the embarrassing spectacle this afternoon of his withdrawal as a Cabinet nominee. Jake Tapper has the details: "Sources tell ABC News that officials on the Obama Transition Team feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial...

Filmmaker George Butler wants his friends to know he's very much alive, despite a premature obituary on "The Charlie Rose Show" this week. During Rose's annual New Year's Eve tribute on PBS to notable figures who died during the year, he included Butler, whose 1977 film "Pumping Iron" featured a then-unknown bodybuilder named Arnold Schwarzenegger. The screen even flashed a Butler tombstone, 1943-2008. The PBS show had confused him with another George Butler, a longtime jazz record executive who signed Wynton Marsalis, who died April 9. snip- Rose, who did not immediately respond to e-mail messages seeking comment, apologized at...

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees.

WARSAW (Reuters) - A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees. Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town. "I was dumfounded. I thought I was dreaming," the husband told the newspaper on Wednesday. The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

I stumbled upon this today on YouTube. A dead whale is too big to bury. It is rotting and stinking. I know, let's try dynamite! WHALE AND DYNAMITE

KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house. The trap was set and less than 24...

WHITE HOUSE (CNN) - Whoops! A picture of a Christmas tree is not the first thing you would expect to see on an invitation to an event celebrating Hanukkah, but that is exactly what recipients of invitations to this year's White House Hanukkah reception initially got in the mail. The invitation sent to American Jewish leaders on behalf of the President and First Lady, requesting "the pleasure of your company at a Hanukkah reception," bore an image of a Clydesdale horse-drawn cart, carrying the White House Christmas tree, with a Christmas wreath-adorned White House in the background. Mrs. Bush's press...

Article 1 Section 6 Part 2 of the U.S. Constitution says: No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time: and no person holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. Since the Senate raised the compensation of Sec of State in January this prevents Hillary Clinton from constitutionally accepting the post. Personally, however, I feel...

A man who said a bad diagnosis caused him to lose his penis and a testicle to flesh-eating bacteria while in prison has won a $300,000 settlement from Washington state. Charlie Manning, 61, who now lives in a motor home near Lake Cushman on the Olympic Peninsula, told The Seattle Times on Monday he expects to net about $115,000 this week after paying lawyer costs and other bills. "It's been a nightmare. I figured I should settle for what I could get because I just want it behind me," Manning said. "It's unreal. It's like something from Mars." Daniel D....

"There was an incident this morning at Ben Gurion airport when one of Blair's bodyguards' guns accidentally went off," police spokesmaan Micky Rosenfeld said. "An investigation was opened," he said. Airport authorities said the incident occurred as Mr Blair was about to board a plane at the international airport near Tel Aviv with the British guard. As representative of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, made up of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, the former prime minister is a frequent visitor to Israel. The incident will be embarassing to the police team guarding Mr Blair...