Free Republic

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL (WFLA) - The girl shown in a home video in a pink top is Megan Campbell. She died at her Avila home on Wednesday morning. Megan spent many hours at her home. “She was the girl didn't get brought down by anything. She was always happy. Full of life,” said Lincoln. “And that's the legacy that all these girls would want to leave behind for Megan.” Investigators dropped several bombshells at a press conference Thursday evening. “What I can confirm to you is that all four individuals were shot,” said Col. Donna Lusczynski of the Hillsborough County...

Senate approves in-state tuition for undocumented students: The Florida Senate voted Thursday to let undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. The 26-13 vote came as no surprise. The sponsor, Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, was confident he had the votes for week. But that didn’t stop him from getting emotional in debate on Thursday. “The eyes of America are on us,” Latvala said moments before the vote. “I think we’re setting an example. I think we’re doing the right thing.” Read more Medical Marijuana Photo Source Hightimes.com House passes non-euphoric medical marijuana bill: The Florida...

A terrorist "lawyer" from eastern Jerusalem, who had been charged with passing messages to jailed terrorists, committed suicide in his home on Tuesday. The "lawyer," Safadi Amjad, was on house arrest on a local court's orders when he put an end to his life. Amjad had been charged for transferring money and messages from Hamas terrorists imprisoned in Israel to their family members. The ersatz lawyer was one of six who were arrested in late March, after security forces busted their "legal practice" dedicated to aiding Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. The six had used their cover of a legal...

The Hemlock Society Compassion and Choices has no shame. Now, they have bootstrapped assisted suicide onto the recent success of LGBT issues. From one of its ubiquitous emails: 1994 was a different time in America. A vicious plague was erasing entire communities across America and hope was scarce. The dark specter of HIV/AIDS loomed large as treatment options were unreliable, and many research programs were starved for funding. Too many in the LGBT community in the later stages of this disease–seeing their friends and loved ones torn apart by it–turned to desperate acts of violence to escape the inevitable, and often excruciating...

The vice-principal of a South Korean high school who accompanied hundreds of pupils on a ferry that capsized has committed suicide, police said on Friday, as hopes faded of finding any of the 268 missing alive. The Sewol, carrying 475 passengers and crew, capsized on Wednesday on a journey from the port of Incheon to the southern holiday island of Jeju. Kang Min-gyu, 52, had been missing since Thursday. He appeared to have hanged himself with his belt from a tree outside a gym in the port city of Jindo where relatives of the people missing on the ship, mostly...

Legendary singer Willie Nelson will be featured at a high-dollar fundraiser for Democratic governor nominee Wendy Davis. The event will be held April 27 in the Houston backyard of plaintiff’s lawyer Steve and Amber Mostyn, featuring barbecue, Nelson and — for those who stay overnight at the Hotel ZaZa — a campaign briefing on Monday morning.

A Dutch former top banker who came under fire for taking a large pay-off after the nationalisation of his troubled bank was found dead along with his wife and daughter on Saturday in what police called a family tragedy. Jan Peter Schmittmann, 57, ran the domestic operations of Dutch bank ABN Amro between 2003 and 2007 and was widely criticised for landing an 8 million euro pay-off after the bank's collapse and subsequent nationalisation.

A senior CIA official has died in an apparent suicide this week from injuries sustained after jumping off a building in northern Virginia, according to sources close to the CIA. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D., Calif.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has said the CIA has blocked efforts by the committee to investigate harsh interrogation of terrorists. Committee staff members working at a CIA facility in Northern Virginia to investigate agency interrogation practices also have charged that the CIA covertly searched the agency’s computers that were being used in the investigation. The agency subsequently reported that several Senate...

A senior CIA official has died in an apparent suicide this week from injuries sustained after jumping off a building in northern Virginia, according to sources close to the CIA. CIA spokesman Christopher White confirmed the death and said the incident did not take place at CIA headquarters in McLean, Va. “We can confirm that there was an individual fatally injured at a facility where agency work is done,” White told the Washington Free Beacon.

Having changed her Facebook profile picture to a "V...for Vendetta" face mask, the widow of former Zurich Insurance CFO Pierre Wauthier said she and her family cannot accept Zurich’s claim that his death wasn’t brought on by undue stress. As Bloomberg reports, Switzerland’s biggest insurer said in November that no “undue pressure” was put on Wauthier, who said in a suicide note that then-Chairman Josef Ackermann had created an unbearable working environment. But, his wife is demanding to know why her husband's former boss resigned if he had not accepted blame for the death, and why details of tensions at...

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Harry Hubbard Johnson, who recently left the employ of trainer Steve Asmussen at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., committed suicide Friday in Kentucky. Johnson was Asmussen’s shed foreman, a position that ranks a level below assistant trainer. He died two days following his 27th birthday. “He was a kind soul and a pleasure to be around,” Asmussen said Saturday. “I feel horrible for the whole Johnson family.” Johnson’s death comes a little more than a week after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released controversial video and audio footage recorded undercover in the...

I was out earlier tonight and heard Mick Jagger over a store loudspeaker singing "Under My Thumb." Given the very tragic suicide of his lover of 13 years, fashion designer and stylist L'Wren Scott, who was buried earlier this week amid rumors that Mick's unfaithfulness was one contributory factor, I hope he never, ever performs that song again...

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dar Place was two feet away when his friend and fellow soldier took his own life during the Gulf War. Two decades later, like so many other veterans, Place is still haunted by the plague of suicide in the military. “I personally saw my driver after Desert Storm in his tank put a gun underneath his mouth and pull the trigger, while I was no further away from him than I am from you right now,” Place told the Washington Free Beacon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. He was one of the...

The dismal list of financial executive deaths has recently increased to 11 in the last few months. Speculation has surrounded many of these deaths (and suicides) as to the reasoning; none more than the first - William Broeksmit, an executive who worked in Deutsche Bank's risk function and advised senior leadership who hanged himself in his South Kensington home in late January. However, as the WSJ reports, we now know why this poor man felt compelled to take his own life: he was "anxious about various authorities investigating areas of the bank where he worked" (and yes, we are well...

Florida shooting: Alex Hollinghurst was killed by evil druggie boyfriend Brandon Goode says her family Mar 24, 2014 20:20 By Paul Byrne Oldham born Alexandria Hollinghurst and Brandon Goode killed a police officer then seemingly turned guns on themselves but her family says he killed her What happened? Alex as a little girl and with her family, and before she died A British teenager who was gunned down in an apparent murder-suicide had been living the ‘American Dream’. But when Alexandria Hollinghurst, 17, known as Alex, fell for drug addict Brandon Goode, her life spiralled out of control. And last...

A rash of eight financial-industry suicides so far in 2014 has mental-health professionals trying to understand what’s behind it. In late winter many people suffer from depression, but for bankers this is usually offset by finding out how large their bonuses will be. However, compensation across the entire financial sector is down from years past as large firms deal with new rules pinching their bottom lines. The other, more pressing matter for mental health pros is: Why are such a large proportion of these self- murders public affairs? While there are no definitive theories on suicide location, many in the...

William Melchert-Dinkel, center, leaves the Rice County Courthouse with his attorney Terry Watkins, right, and wife, Joyce Melchert-Dinkel, in 2011. Associated Press Encouraging someone to commit suicide is not a crime, Minnesota’s high court ruled Wednesday, reversing the conviction of a nurse who urged people to hang themselves and let him watch via webcam. William F. Melchert-Dinkel had been found guilty under a law that made it illegal to “advise, encourage, or assist” in a suicide. The Minnesota Supreme Court concluded that advising or encouraging suicide was speech protected by the First Amendment and carved the words from the statute....

Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top chief investment officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations. Several John Bellando emails were cited during testimony at the Senate Finance Committee’s inquiry into the bank’s losses during the infamous London Whale trade fiasco. Kenneth Bellando — who grew up in Rockville Center, LI, and was a Georgetown graduate — worked as a summer analyst at JPMorgan while in school. Upon graduation in 2007, he was hired as an investment...

A 28-year old Manhattan investment banker has died after an apparent suicide, police sources said. Kenneth Bellando, who worked at Levy Capital since January, was found dead on the sidewalk outside his East Side building on March 12, after allegedly jumping from the sixth-story roof, sources said. Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top Chief Investment Officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations.

Fashion designer L'Wren Scott was found dead today in her Manhattan apartment of an apparent suicide, according to New York police. She was 47 years old. According to authorities, police were called to her Chelsea apartment at 10:05 a.m. and found her body. A medical examiner will determine the cause of death. Scott was a renowned stylist and fashion designer whose clothes have been worn by A-listers including Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie and Penelope Cruz. In February, she announced that she had canceled her London Fashion Week show.