Free Republic

It was learned late Tuesday night that Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever has died in a single vehicle rollover accident in Coconino County. Details of what occurred are sketchy as of this hour, but the news was confirmed by Cochise County Supervisor Pat Call at about 11 p.m. Dever was running unopposed in this fall’s election for what would have been his fifth term as sheriff. It is unclear at this time what his sudden passing will mean in the electoral process. The sheriff was more than a local law enforcement official as he took the lead on the national...

Dinosaurs passing wind may have caused climate change Huge plant-eating dinosaurs may have produced enough greenhouse gas by breaking wind to alter the Earth's climate, research suggests. 2:46AM BST 07 May 2012 Like huge cows, the mighty sauropods would have generated enormous quantities of methane. Sauropods, recognisable by their long necks and tails, were widespread around 150 million years ago. They included some of the largest animals to walk the Earth, such as Diplodocus, which measured 150 feet and weighed up to 45 tonnes. Scientists believe that, just as in cows, methane-producing bacteria aided the digestion of sauropods by fermenting...

The passing of Anthony "Budge" Rahe

Pelosi: Two 'pillars' down, one more to go in passing Obama 'blueprint' By Sean J. Miller - 04/17/10 06:51 PM ET House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said the Democrats are one bill away from completing President Barack Obama’s “blueprint for American prosperity.” “We have passed two of the three pillars in the historic healthcare and education reform and are working towards a clean energy and climate agenda in Congress,” Pelosi said in her remarks to the California Democratic Party state convention in Los Angeles on Saturday. “And essential to prosperity for middle-income Americans is reining in Wall Street.” “The House...

2/17/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The first woman to serve as major general in the Air Force, and the Department of Defense, passed away Feb. 15. Retired Maj. Gen. Jeanne M. Holm is credited as the single driving force in achieving parity for military women and making them a viable part of the mainstream military. The Portland, Ore., native attained the rank of two-star general in 1973 after a career that began 31 years earlier in 1942 when she enlisted in the Army. General Holm entered Women's Army Air Corps in January 1943 where she received a commission as third...

PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Willard Varnell Oliver, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, died Wednesday. He was 88. ... Oliver was part of an elite group of Navajo Marines who confused the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in Navajo. The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Their work was declassified in 1968. Oliver, who grew up between Shiprock and Farmington, N.M., served in the South Pacific with the 2nd Marine Division...

Columnist Robert Novak has died after a battle with brain cancer, FOX News confirms. He was 78. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Novak died early Tuesday morning at his home in Washington. Novak had been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades

Christina Formosa was settling down for the night in front of the behemoth television in her snug South Philadelphia rowhouse. That was when all was still right in her world. At 10:30 p.m. July 27, the phone rang. It was the coroner in San Bernardino County, Calif. He said her husband, Master Gunnery Sgt. Nicholas Formosa, 55, a Marine stationed at the large base at Twentynine Palms, Calif., had been killed.

My wife and I have sent our condolences to Macel Falwell and her family. Jerry has been a tower of strength on many of the moral issues which have confronted our nation. Liberty University is a magnificent accomplishment and will prove a lasting legacy. Jerry’s courage and strength of convictions will be sadly missed in this time of increasing moral relativism. I join with the tens of thousands of his friends to mourn the passing of this extraordinary human being.

Football was a brutish and sometimes deadly game. It must have seemed more like mayhem than athletic competition, more brawl than sport. President Theodore Roosevelt called for an end to the excessive violence. University presidents and faculty inveighed against the brutality and clamored for either reform or abolition. The professional game, largely unorganized and unstable, struggled to find an audience.But then, 100 years ago, somebody threw it, and the forward pass lifted the sport out of the mud and, eventually, into the cultural mainstream. Much of football's popularity and excitement, as well as its strategy and appeal, derive from something...

CAMP AL QAIM, Iraq, June 9, 2006 – The security situation in Iraq is like a relay race. Coalition forces have the baton for the first leg. They pass it to the Iraqi army, who in turn pass the baton to the Iraqi police. In Anbar province, the race is a bit slower than in other portions of Iraq. But progress is being made. Training the Iraqi security forces is the most important mission for coalition personnel, who realize that capable security forces will quicken their return home. Iraqi soldiers and police understand this and are very receptive to coalition...

<p>"The Pilgrim Pope" - Since Thursday, March 31 and the announcement of the Pope?s critical condition, high fever, and urinary tract infection, and subsequent septic shock there has been a constant vigil of the faithful while media coverage has been continually providing updates along with stories, and historical information on this holiest of holy men.</p>

The Associated Press reported early this morning that Pope John Paul II is receiving nutrition through a feeding tube. His increasingly frail health is likely the reason Rizzoli moved up publication of the 84-year-old pontiff's fifth book, Memory and Identity: Conservations at the Dawn of a Millennium. But the book itself should put to rest to any suggestion that the Pope has been anything but alert during the last few years. Memory and Identity came out of conversations the Pontiff had in 1993 with two Polish philosophers. An anonymous editorial note at the beginning says the Pope has revised the...

On a bright Sunday afternoon in November 1999, I was standing in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. My family and I had just attended Sunday Mass, my feet were sore as it had been standing room only, and the scent of incense was lingering as it wafted out of the immense cathedral.As I walked through the crowds of believers, some holding flags and signs indicating their country of origin, my father tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at a building in the distance. I could see from my vantage point that a window had opened, and there stood a...

Passing Buck on Schiavo Cheats Public By JOYCE PURNICK Published: March 24, 2005 THE House of Representatives acted quickly over the weekend in the wrenching case of Terri Schiavo, so quickly that maybe those who opposed the special bill allowing the federal courts to take over the case might have missed the Senate's role - conspicuous for its silence. The debate was confined to the House, for nearly four hours late Sunday night and early Monday. In the Senate, home of Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California, and, of course, Hillary Rodham Clinton and...

Reggie White Dies At 43 posted 12/26/2004 Reggie White Future Hall of Famer Reggie White died Sunday morning after suffering a massive heart attack at his home near Huntersville, N.C. Nicknamed "The Minister of Defense," Reggie White was one of the greatest defensive linemen in football history. After eight years in Philadelphia, White joined the Packers in 1993 to help solidify their defense. He played a vital role in Green Bay's victory in Super Bowl XXXI, collecting a record three of the Packers' five sacks against the New England Patriots' Drew Bledsoe. The Packers' all-time sack leader with 68.5, White...

  Staff Sgt. David Scott Sublett, USAF, Retired, 54 of Roanoke passed away, Sunday, December 19, 2004. He was receded in death by his parents, Charles and Bernice Sublett, and infant brother of Grundy, VA. A decorated veteran, David served his country with distinction in thirteen duty stations around the World. He is survived by his wife of 31 years, Luisa, a son, US Army Specialist Jonathan Sublett serving in Afghanistan and his wife Nouthine and two sons, David and Justin of Roanoke, three Daughters, Christina Davis and her husband Ben, and three children, Cristian, Breanna, and Fallon of Salem, Maria...

Bill Clinton: "Hillary and I will always remember President Ronald Reagan for the way he personified the indomitable optimism of the American people, and for keeping America at the forefront of the fight for freedom for people everywhere. It is fitting that a piece of the Berlin Wall adorns the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington."

Palestinian families mourn passing of Saddam's donations for suicide bombers and 'martyrs' By Justin Huggler in Beit Hanoun, Gaza 07 May 2003 With the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the flow of millions of dollars that the Iraqi leader sent to support the Palestinian intifada has abruptly ended. The man who used to distribute Saddam's money, Ibrahim Za'anin, lives in Beit Hanoun, in the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel. You would not think from his humble bungalow that $12.5m (£7.7m) passed through his hands. But appearances can be deceptive in the Gaza Strip. In the hot...

I just received a call to inform me that my good friend and shooting buddy, John R. McCarthy, has died of a massive heart attack at age 72. Here is my draft eulogy. I wanted to share it with Freepers. ================================== May you go safe, my friend, across that dizzy way No wider than a hair, by which your people go From Earth to Paradise; may you go safe today-- With stars and space above, and time and stars below. --Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, Lord Dunsany: "May You go Safe: On the Death of a Mohammedan Friend". I am...