Free Republic

Joseph James Pappas was charged with the murder of Dr. Mark Hausknecht Joseph James Pappas, 62, the suspect in the fatal shooting of Dr. Mark Hausknecht, killed himself on Friday morning during an encounter with two police officers in southwest Houston. Police Chief Art Acevedo said during a press conference that the Houston Police Department had received a call about Pappas’ location. Acevedo detailed Pappas was wearing a bullet proof vest.

A man whose mother died during surgery 20 years ago is the suspect in the fatal shooting of a prominent Houston cardiologist who performed the operation, police said Wednesday. Chief Art Acevedo said the mother of Joseph James Pappas, 62, was a patient of Dr. Mark Hausknecht, who was fatally shot as he rode his bicycle to work at Houston Methodist Hospital on July 20. Police earlier said Pappas was born in 1953. Acevedo said a tip came in Tuesday after surveillance video released a day before showed the suspect, whom someone said they recognized. Police got a search warrant...

JTA - Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos called on the Justice Ministry to take action against a neo-Nazi lawmaker after he made anti-Israel comments in parliament. Speaking during a debate in parliament on Monday, Christos Pappas, from the Golden Dawn party, called Israel an “eternal enemy of Greece and Orthodoxy.” Pappas was speaking during a debate on the ratification of Greece’s international agreements with other countries. “The state of Israel implements genocidal methods and is a regional troublemaker,” he said, according to the Kathemirini newspaper, asking how “a state like Israel could possibly have relations with Greece, which is the...

The press corps has a mild buzz going about a weekend contretemps ginned up, for publicity's sake, by Sarah Palin's camp, in her ongoing campaign to show how badly she is victimized by the media. The odd thing is that she has been victimized by the media, horribly so, and many of us (myself included, in several posts after the Gabby Giffords shooting) have rushed to her defense -- so she doesn't need to gin up controversies out of thin air. But that's exactly what she and her team did this past weekend.

Ike Pappas, a longtime CBS newsman who reported the shooting death of presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on the radio as it was happening, has died at age 75. Pappas died Sunday in a hospital in Arlington, Virginia, of complications of heart disease, his family said. Pappas was among the reporters at the Dallas police station waiting for Oswald to be moved two days after President Kennedy was assassinated. Pappas had just asked him, "You have anything to say in your defense?" when a shot rang out. "Oswald has been shot!" Pappas said on the air, adding, "Mass confusion here,...

What if the US had saved all the money it has spent over the past 65 years instead of spending it on Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom and others? What if the US had let Saddam Hussein keep his foothold in Kuwait? What if the US had allowed NORIEGA to remain in power in Panama? What if the US didn’t defend its vital interests’ in Europe and allowed socialist Hitler, imperialist Japan or communist Stalin to reign supreme? For “liberal” readers, over 100 million people perished at the hands of those two kindred socialist political spirits. And American “socialists”...

An attorney for a U.S. Army soldier court-martialed in connection with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal says he's frustrated that he was not allowed in court to try to link the prison abuse to top-ranked military officials, including the incoming Fort Huachuca commander. Paul Bergrin, a New Jersey lawyer, said Monday that he will press his efforts to link the scandal with higher-ups to the Court of Military Review and, if necessary, the Court of Military Appeals. His client, Sgt. Javal S. Davis of Roselle, N.J., pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty, lying to investigators and battery last Tuesday as...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A San Joaquin Valley broadcaster cannot aid Republican candidates with free air time unless the same offer is extended to other candidates, the Federal Communications Commission ruled Friday. Pappas Telecasting Cos., which had donated $325,000 in air time on its radio and TV stations to 13 GOP county committees last week, had insisted for days that the gifts were legal and did not trigger federal equal time rules. It was not clear whether the company would appeal the staff ruling to the full commission. Phone calls to the Visalia-based company, which operates 28 stations in 11 states,...

SACRAMENTO -- One of the state's biggest broadcasters has given 13 Republican county committees $325,000 worth of free air time to promote candidates on its radio and television stations that serve communities from Sacramento to San Diego. Pappas Telecasting Cos., which calls itself the largest privately held broadcast firm in the nation, made the donations earlier this month. While it is unclear how much of the time has actually been taken, Democrats complain the offer unfairly benefits GOP candidates in violation of federal law. An attorney representing Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford -- who is running in a hotly contested re-election...

Minnesota Freedom Ride, a cross-state bus tour designed to highlight immigrant issues and rights, stopped in the Twin Cities on Sunday and will host a rally and march today. The bipartisan group crisscrossed the state for the past four days, sponsoring rallies, marches and voter registration drives emphasizing labor rights, civil liberties and reform of immigration laws that would help unify families. About two dozen people representing Latino, South American, Asian and African immigrant communities are sharing their stories as part of the Freedom Ride, which has made stops in Willmar, Moorhead, Pelican Rapids, Worthington, Owatonna and the Twin Cities....

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A US soldier has told how a senior military intelligence commander at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison was present when a detainee died during questioning. Speaking as a witness at a two-day preliminary hearing at a military court in Baghdad for a female soldier embroiled in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, Captain Donald Reese said a "Colonel Pappas" was one of a number of people present during the interrogation. Colonel Thomas Pappas was commander of the 205 Military Intelligence Brigade at the prison near Baghdad. He is now deployed in Germany, a US military spokesman said. On...

The images of the American guards at Abu Ghraib Prison posing for the camera all the while grinning at the plight of their charges was a disgusting display of ignorance, perversion and inhumanity. One photo shows a young female soldier while sporting a wide grin, pointing in the direction of the genitals of a naked male prisoner; another photo shows the same grinning female displaying a big thumbs up in front of a human pyramid of naked men. Judging from her appearance and facial expression, one might conclude that she is some kind of sexual pervert who had never seen...

May 19, 2004THE COMMANDEROfficers Say U.S. Colonel at Abu Ghraib Prison Felt Intense Pressure to Get Inmates to TalkBy DOUGLAS JEHL ASHINGTON, May 18 — As he took charge of interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison last September, Col. Thomas M. Pappas was under enormous pressure from his superiors to extract more information from prisoners there, according to senior Army officers."He likened it to a root canal without novocaine," a senior officer who knows Colonel Pappas said of his meetings with his superiors in Baghdad. Often, the officer said, Colonel Pappas would emerge from discussions with two of them, Maj....

Re: the May 6 article "Key figure in scandal served in S. Arizona." From 1997 to 1998, I had the honor of working with Col. Thomas M. Pappas in Korea, and consider him to be one of the most professional, honest, ethical and principled officers with whom I had the privilege of serving over a 20 year career in the Army. I fail to understand how a brigade commander with over 1,200 soldiers dispersed throughout Germany and Iraq can be directly or indirectly responsible for the actions of a few soldiers under his command. There are many levels in the...

It is notable that more words have been uttered about "The Passion of Christ" by the so called, "mainstream" media, many of whom have not seen the presentation nor read the account in the Bible, in the last week than perhaps in all of the commentators' collective lives to date. There is hope however remote that they will learn something spiritual and eternal from the experience, and that's good. Like millions of other disciples of Christ, the writer watched a screening of "The Passion of the Christ" Wednesday, February 25th. It forged him into unanticipated deeper and stronger appreciation and...

Just seven weeks after he came from nowhere and declared, "I am in--no doubt," Downstate millionaire John Simmons again upended the U.S. Senate race Wednesday, folding his Democratic campaign and throwing his support to state Comptroller Dan Hynes. "Dan's the man," Simmons said. "He'll do great for us." The trial lawyer said he is pulling the plug to devote his energy to reopening a steel mill and to try to prevent a Democratic donnybrook from hurting the party's chances in 2004. "The Democrats do not need a bloodbath in March," Simmons said. "It's not going to help us win in...

PEORIA - The latest multi-millionaire to turn neophyte politician came to Peoria on Monday to tout himself as a candidate for the common people. Blair Hull, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by fellow multi-millionaire Peter Fitzgerald, stressed his roots: Fuller Brush salesman, high school math teacher, former card-carrying union member. "I have life experience," Hull said during an appearance at Carver Community Center in South Peoria. The Chicago businessman, who sold his stake in 1999 in the trading company he founded for almost $340 million, would hold an elected office for the...

The city filed a lawsuit today against the owners and managers of the apartment building where 13 people died in a weekend porch collapse, arguing that the porch was too big, built with the wrong materials and lacked the proper construction permit. The city asked for hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties. Also today, hundreds of friends and family members attended funerals for several of the victims, remembering them as kind, caring and helpful. According to the city's lawsuit, the porch jutted out 11 feet from the building -- 1 foot more than is allowed under city codes. It...

Millionaire Senate candidate M. Blair Hull took to the airwaves Monday, running television and radio commercials introducing himself to voters--nearly nine months before the Democratic primary. The initial round of 60-second biographical ads will only appear in Downstate areas, but Chicagoans shouldn't feel left out. This early media buy is only a small slice of the $40 million Hull has pledged to spend on the race. He will soon be as easy to find on the TV dial as Emeril Lagasse. "You will hear from us consistently," said Mike Henry, Hull's campaign manager. Hull, 60, is believed to be launching...

Illinois Democrats looking to recapture retiring Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald's seat have been mobilizing for months -- raising moneiy, rounding up endorsements, recruiting volunteers. Republicans, meanwhile, have had trouble even finding candidates. First Fitzgerald said he wouldn't seek a second term. Then political veterans Jim Edgar, Judy Baar Topinka and Jim Ryan bowed out. In the past month, a handful of newcomers have stepped in. With 17 months to go before Election Day, Republicans, already tainted by former GOP Gov. George Ryan's scandals, must now fight a costly, uphill battle to hold the seat. "They kind of had that head...