Free Republic

Mark Shields, the longtime political commentator who was a decades-long fixture on “PBS Newshour,” died Saturday at age 85. News of his death was shared on Twitter by Newshour anchor Judy Woodruff. “I am heartbroken to share this,” she said in the tweet, stating that for decades, Shields “wowed us with his encyclopedic knowledge of American politics, his sense of humor and mainly his big heart.” She said he died with his wife Anne at his side. Shields first appeared on “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” during the 1988 presidential election and became a weekly guest. From 2001 to his retirement in...

SEATTLE — A second defendant has been convicted of sabotaging railroad tracks near the U.S.-Canada border in Washington state just before a train carrying crude oil was due to pass through — apparently part of a campaign to protest construction of a pipeline across British Columbia.Following a two-day trial and three hours of deliberation, a federal jury in Seattle on Thursday convicted Ellen Brennan Reiche, 28, of Bellingham, of violence against a railroad carrier. Her co-defendant, Samantha Frances Brooks, 24, pleaded guilty in July.

One man is dead and two women are injured after what San Antonio Police said was a domestic dispute that took a violent turn on Friday afternoon. The incident started around 4 p.m. in the Walmart parking lot on the 1600 block of Vance Jackson. Police said the suspect, identified by police as Teles Jurarez, 21, had a woman by the hair in the parking lot when a man pulled up and tried to help her. The Good Samaritan, who was still in his car, told the male suspect "Get your hands off her." After that verbal command, investigators say...