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HOUSTON (July 30, 2001 7:29 p.m. EDT) - A woman who is accused of drowning her five children has been indicted by a Texas grand jury on capital murder charges. Andrea Yates, 37, was indicted on one count of capital murder for the deaths of her sons Noah, 7, and John, 5, and on another count for the death of her daughter Mary, 6. Yates has remained in jail since police were called to her southeast Houston home June 20. When police arrived they found the bodies of four children still wet under a sheet on a bed. Noah ...

DALTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - James Burtchett and his son were trapped for nearly five hours on an amusement park ride after its large wheel holding passenger cars fell to the ground, sending more than two dozen people to hospitals. Burtchett, 41, and son Ryan, 13, were the last of 25 to 30 riders rescued from the Chaos ride late Monday at Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park. Burtchett's wife, Jennifer, said husband had blood on the back of his head and Ryan was bleeding from one ear. They were in stable condition Tuesday at a hospital where they were treated for ...

Cars Drive Around Man Lying Dead In StreetCleveland police need your help in finding out the driver of a car who apparently struck and killed a man this morning. According to NewsChannel5, this is the second hit-and-run in the city and the third in the area in just a few days. Officials say that a man apparently was hit and killed by a car this morning in the 9300 block of Harvard. Witnesses say that several people drove around the man's body in the middle of the street. From what witnesses say, no one stopped to help until Robert Schippling, ...

Washington, D.C., police will probably not ask Rep. Gary Condit to take a police-administered lie-detector test, the No. 2 man in the department said Monday. In fact, police are losing interest in the California Democrat and his wife as central to the Chandra Levy case altogether. "I don't think that [a polygraph] is going to happen," Executive Assistant Chief Terrance Gainer told CNN. "You have to understand that we've gathered a lot of information in this — a lot of electronic information, telephone records, banking records — and nothing has led us to Chandra Levy," Gainer said. "And I really ...

Enter Stage Right - A Journal of Modern Conservatism Bush versus his critics By Jackson Murphy It has been just over six months since George W. Bush was sworn in as the 43rd President and the criticism over his foreign policy has already reached a feverish pitch. In the past few weeks Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), former President Jimmy Carter, and editorials from coast to coast and beyond have tried to paint Bush as an isolationist. The refusal by Bush to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing manmade greenhouse gasses, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), ...

Power delivery efficiency questioned: Output at low-cost generating plants has been cut while costlier ones continue to operate.By Carrie PeytonBee Staff Writer(Published July 31, 2001) California is sometimes deliberately cutting output from low-cost power plants while running more expensive ones, utility and grid officials say. The sporadic episodes haven't cost much yet, but they illustrate a potentially troubling disconnect in the system that has quickly grown between two agencies that help deliver electricity to a power-strapped state. "We seem to be building this inefficiency into the system, and it doesn't seem to be getting better," said Mike Florio, a ...

I'M GOING TO SERBIA! – won't you join me? The Balkans have long been the focus of the War Party, and now here's your chance to experience the consequences of US intervention firsthand – while learning more about the ancient culture and uniqueness of the region. The Rockford Institute is sponsoring a trip to Serbia and Montenegro, September 17-28, and I'll be going – and I want you to come along, too. Visit Belgrade; meet President Vojislav Kostunica and other top officials; visit with Serbian journalists and other writers; see the results of the devastating US bombing up close. Witness ...

Letter From Israel by Ran HaCohen Antiwar.com July 31, 2000 The Chosen Pariah 	Israel's Complaint Life in the Israel is so difficult – and it's not just because of the hot and humid summer. No, it's the neighbours, they are the real trouble. It's so hard to be the only democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by all those bloodthirsty Arab dictatorships. Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Nobel Prize Winner for Peace) said it all back in 1996: "In a Middle Eastern feast you have a simple choice: either you are one of the diners, or you end up as the ...

US War Games Resume in the Philippines by Murray Horton Special to Antiwar.com July 31, 2001 The years 2000 and 2001 have been tumultuous in Philippine politics, even by that country’s usually volatile standard. But one thing doesn’t change – the US military is in the Philippines. Forced out by the 1991 Senate vote (including Senator Estrada's) which terminated the century-old bases treaty, the US military has had no bases in the Philippines since 1992. This was a major blow to the Pentagon, but it assiduously worked away at its former colony under the Ramos and Estrada presidencies, finally getting ...

Wal-Mart to Offer Free Immunizations for Kids, but Some Doctors Skeptical Tuesday, July 31, 2001 If your preschooler does not want to go back-to-school shopping at Wal-Mart, he or she is probably just afraid of the needles. The retailer is teaming with local health officials in 16 states to give free immunizations in Wal-Mart parking lots. Infants, toddlers and preschoolers with records of previous immunizations are eligible for the shots, which will be administered by the health officials. Wal-Mart sees the program as a way to reach children who might otherwise go without immunization. As many as one in ...

Fred Plops For Reparations Sells Out To Johnny Cochran I see by the papers in the Yankee Capital that Johnny Cochran, and of course Jesse and Al, are wheezing and blowing like a county-fair calliope with a leaky boiler. They always are. This time it was about the need to pay reparations for the ravages trala of slavery. It got me to thinking. I hate it when that happens. Now, I know I’m hard-hearted, and mean-spirited, and no damn good. It’s probably my only virtue. But on consideration, I realized that they might be right. The ravages of slavery ...

Gay rights group sues Advocates challenge drive to repeal law against discrimination; 'They're ... lying'; Referendum backer files federal complaint alleging intimidation Gay rights advocates filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to prevent Maryland's new anti-discrimination law from being put before voters in November 2002. The lawsuit charges that gay rights opponents misrepresented the law in gathering signatures to place the measure on the ballot and that state and local elections officials improperly certified invalid petitions. "They're scaring people who don't know what the law is and lying to them," said Della Post, 51, of Port Republic, one of the plaintiffs. ...

Kosovo residents sign up to vote The registration of voters has begun in Kosovo for the general election on 17 November - the first since the province was brought under a United Nations administration. The European security organisation, the OSCE, said more than 50 registration centres and mobile units were operating across Kosovo, including the Serb enclaves, in order to complete the province's electoral register. Another 100 centres were opened in Serbia and Montenegro to account for members of Serb and other ethnic communities who were displaced in the wake of the Kosovo conflict. From the newsroom of the BBC ...

By YURI BAGROV, Associated Press Writer MINERALNYE VODY, Russia (AP) - Russian commandos stormed a bus seized by hijackers Tuesday in southern Russia not far from separatist Chechnya (news - web sites), killing one of the two gunmen after a 12-hour standoff.Explosions and gunfire rang out as an elite anti-terrorist squad and other soldiers raided the bus, which was stopped outside the airport in Mineralnye Vody.Commandos set off two concussion grenades, prompting one hijacker to stick his head out a bus window. A sniper shot him dead, said Valery Kavtosenkov, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service in the regional ...

   Hallucinated dead body sends Putnam police on search By Rob Peecher The Macon Telegraph EATONTON - Three teen-agers high on hallucinogenic mushrooms had law enforcement authorities in Putnam County searching throughout the night Sunday for a dead body in the trunk of a car. But when authorities found the car there was no dead body. Putnam County Sheriff's Detective Lee Wilson said Sunday afternoon three teen-agers, 18-, 17- and 14-years-old, were swimming in a river at Gregory Bridge on Ga. 16 when a 38-year-old Jasper County man approached them and struck up a conversation. "He asks the teen-agers if ...

Claim of Levy Store Sighting Probed By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI (news - web sites) agents went to a hardware store Tuesday to talk to an employee who says he believes Chandra Levy ordered keys from him at least a day after police have said she was last seen. Three agents interviewed John Woodfolk, a 16-year employee of W.J. Candey Hardware, located across the street from Levy's health club. Police have said the last confirmed sighting of Levy was April 30, when she canceled her membership at the club. Woodfolk says he believes Levy ...

Knowles lobbies House to open ANWR By SEAN COCKERHAM Staff Writer Gov. Tony Knowles is lobbying all members of the U.S. House of Representatives as the vote looms on whether to allow drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "I urge you to be guided by the substance of the issue rather than the symbolism associated with ANWR," Knowles wrote in the draft version of a letter that he will send today to every U.S. House member. "In doing so, I believe you will conclude, as I have, that environmentally responsible development of ANWR is an ...

Free Republic has a rich history of activism -- we pull together when the going gets rough, and we're making headway! On behalf of Jim Robinson, who has so kindly consented to authorize this thread for the Breaking News category, I would like to invite you all to take five minutes from your very busy lives and make a phone call, send a fax or write an e-mail -- or do all three. Pertinent phone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses will be listed together at the bottom of this article post. You can call the White House. Ask for ...

Power firms amp up lobbying Politics: Edison spends $5.5 million to gain support for bailout to prevent bankruptcy. July 31, 2001 By KIMBERLY KINDYand HANH KIM QUACHThe Orange County Register SACRAMENTO Edison International has spent more than $5.5 million this year to enlist residents and stockholders to lobby the Legislature to bail out its subsidiary Southern California Edison and save it from bankruptcy, reports released Monday show. The latest financial disclosure statements show that energy companies continue to spend millions of dollars to influence the Legislature. Meals, campaign contributions and tickets to sporting events continue to flow to lawmakers ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. anti-missile weapon was able to destroy a test warhead in space on July 14 partly because a beacon on the target signaled its location during much of the flight, defense officials said on Friday. The officials confirmed a report by Defense Week that the ''hit-to-kill'' weapon was guided to the vicinity of the speeding warhead high over the Pacific Ocean by signals from the electronic beacon in a successful, highly publicized test. But they stressed in interviews with Reuters that the weapon, fired at the oncoming warhead from Kwajalein Atoll, used its own on-board seekers ...