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A farmer near Waco, Texas, was killed by a swarm of about 40,000 killer bees after he drove by their hive on Saturday. The Waco Herald-Tribune reports that the victim, Larry Goodwin, was on his tractor and hit an unused chicken coop which housed the hive and the lethal Africanized honey bees attacked. Goodwin's family told NBC station KCEN of Waco that every bit of exposed skin was covered with stings. "He had thousands and thousands of bee stings on his face and arms," his daughter Tanya told KCEN. Goodwin of Moody, Tex., tried to save himself by running to...

Hours after a West paramedic was arrested for possessing a destructive device Friday, the Texas Rangers and McLennan County Sheriff’s office launched a criminal investigation into the fatal fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people, injured 200 others and damaged hundreds of homes. But authorities have yet to say whether the arrest of 31-year-old Bryce Reed was related to the April 17 explosion at West Fertilizer Co. Reed was being held by U.S. marshals on Friday after he was booked into the McLennan County Jail. As Reed was due in federal court in Waco on Friday, divergent portraits of the...

My son graduated and is moving to Waco, TX in August to pursue his PhD in Physics(quantum optics). He is being paid to be a teaching assistant while studying. We are in the process of helping him look for one bedroom apartments in the Waco area. His politics, when he chooses to express them, are conservative. He does shoot occasionally. Any locals to the Waco area: Do you have any suggestions as to what to expect? Areas to avoid? We've done a lot of research online but really would appreciate any input from Freepers who actually live there. Thanks!

“The system of terror was essential to Stalinism. … Terror was the creation to mold politically the control that they wanted.”– Condoleezza Rice, “Joseph Stalin: Red Terror” As we look back at the atrocities that have devastated America over the past 12 years since 9/11, one has to reflect upon history and see how it is that past dictators have profited from the use of “terror.” For example: Hitler was responsible for attacking his own Reichstag to start a world war. He perpetuated a war against the “enemies” he himself created. His propagandists had the Germans believing they were under...

WACO, Texas (AP) -- Some who survived the fiery end to the 51-day standoff at the Branch Davidians' Central Texas compound are to gather for a memorial service on the 20th anniversary of the fire. Survivors and others who see the events as an unwarranted government intrusion into personal and religious freedoms are to attend the service Friday at a Waco museum. Federal agents raided the compound Feb. 28, 1993, trying to arrest sect leader David Koresh for stockpiling illegal weapons. But the group had been tipped off about the raid and a shootout ensued. Four agents and six Davidians...

A senior Obama administration official said a series of briefings overnight have produced concern the Texas blast could have been at least criminal in nature. Authorities are trying to contain their speculation for fear of causing a panic, but the official told The Post the cause of the blast is "suspicious." Authorities suspect the blast was set off by a truck or rail car holding a large quantity of ammonia that somehow caught fire or blew up. Ammonia, under certain conditions, can become combustible or explosive. "It's 50-50," the source said. "Some sort of explosion caused the ammonia truck/rail car...

First came the fire, then the blast. Assuming the EMS reports are correct, a terror attack on U.S. soil is responsible for only the second-largest mass-casualty event this week. Dwell on that. Unbelievable: West EMS Director Dr. George Smith says as many as 60 or 70 people died and hundreds were injured Wednesday night in a fertilizer plant explosion in West. A rescuer earlier said he knew of five deaths. Meanwhile, emergency crews were pulling back late Wednesday night because of concerns about the possibility of a second explosion… The fire started in an anhydrous ammonia tank and spread to...

WACO (April 17, 2013)--West EMS Director Dr. George Smith says as many as 60 or 70 people died and at least 100 were injured Wednesday night in a fertilizer plant explosion in West. A rescuer earlier said he knew of five deaths. West Mayor Tommy Muska said at a news conference however, that he doesn't yet know how many people were hurt or killed in the blast explosion. He said there was a fire at the West Fertilizer plant before the explosion.

A large explosion rocked the town of West, Texas, 19 miles north of Waco, on Wednesday evening. A source tells News 8 that a large swath of the small town with a population of 2,800 has been leveled. According to initial reports, the blast was at the West Fertilizer plant at 1471 Jerry Mashek Drive, about a half-mile east of Interstate 35.

Emergency crews were responding Wednesday night after a report of a major explosion at a burning fertilizer plant in West north of Waco. West firefighters were dispatched to the plant earlier in the evening after an earlier fire rekindled. The explosion was reported at around 7:50 p.m. in a frantic radio call from the scene of the fire at West Fertilizer at 1471 Jerry Mashek Dr. just off Interstate 35. Numerous injuries were reported and multiple ambulances were requested. Several buildings were reported destroyed and a nearby nursing home was damaged.

Twenty years ago at this time we were in the midst of the federal government’s 51 day siege on a compound of Bible worshippers who with their 12 children were all snuffed out in a raid. “That’s torturing babies,” a U.S. Representative bemoaned at the Congressional hearings investigating the Waco siege during which CS gas vapor was spewed down a long arm of an armored tank onto the roof, into the rooms, and ultimately wafted down into the windowless tower where some of the women and their children were hiding in the Mount Carmel Church compound of the David Karesh...

Twenty years ago at this time we were in the midst of the federal government’s 51 day siege on a compound of Bible worshippers who with their 12 children were all snuffed out in a raid. “That’s torturing babies,” a U.S. Representative said at the Congressional hearings investigating the Waco siege during which CS gas vapor was spewed down the long arm of an armored tank onto the roof, into the rooms and ultimately wafting down into the windowless tower where some of the women and their children were hiding in the Mount Carmel Church compound of the David Karesh...

This is really incredible. H-S Precision is sells hunting and tactical rifles. Here is a scan from the back cover of their Catalog. Note who did the write-up (circled in yellow):For the three of you who don't know who Lon Horiuchi is, he's the FBI sniper of Ruby Ridge infamy who murdered Vicki Weaver in cold blood while she was holding her baby. I'm not sure what H-S was thinking when they decided to hire this despicable thug as a spokesperson, but they are in dire need of remedial correction for this deplorable business decision. No gun decent gun owner/buyer...

Twenty years ago, on February 28th 1993, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) launched an assault on the Branch Davidian religious compound just outside Waco, Texas. The resulting siege ended more than seven weeks later, on April 19, but not before claiming the lives of 80 men, women and children -- many burned to death in the final inferno that destroyed the compound. Even today, videos of the burning buildings remain vivid reminders of an assault gone horribly wrong, from start to finish; and, lessons from what has become known as the “Waco Tragedy” should be borne...

<p>February 28, 1993, a raid by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms sparked the biggest firefight in the history of American law enforcement and continued debate 20 years later. Two agents who were there say the disastrous raid led to fundamental changes in ATF.</p>

"Most people are law-abiding citizens and may go ahead and sell those or turn those over, but you're going to have a fraction of people that are going to take a stand, and I can just predict a Waco-style standoff in some rural area and it's not going to end well," Gloversville, New York Mayor Dayton King (R) said about New York state's new gun control laws that Gov. Cuomo recently signed into law.

OVERVIEW OF THE DAVIDIAN MASSACREby Carol Moore I was one of millions of Americans who, after seeing the April 19, 1993 burning of the Branch Davidian church outside of Waco, Texas wondered: Did these people really commit mass suicide, as the government alleged, despite the clear evidence on television that the fire started after a tank crashed into one part of the building? Were they really as insane as the government claimed? Why did they have to be attacked with massive, military-like force 51 days earlier? What is the truth? After two years of research I came to the following...

The ATF, FBI and other government thugs massacred 76 American women, children and men with assault weapons, tanks, helicopters and machine guns in 1993 in Waco,TX. Then they set the church on fire in which the innocent American citizens were taking refuge from the government thugs! If anyone needs their assault weapons taken from them, it is the U.S. Government thugs!!

We lost another FReeper last week - Waco. His sister GrannyK wanted to post about it. He was very active on FR until May of this year when he entered the hospital. He was an Air Force veteran (74 yrs young) & very conservative.

WACO (June 25, 2012)—Michael Terron Daniel, 22, of Waco, was in custody Monday charged with cruelty to a non-livestock animal in a bizarre incident on June 14 when a man who claimed to be on the synthetic drug K-2 chased a neighbor while barking a growling like a dog and then attacked a family dog, which he beat, strangled and then started to eat.