Free Republic

A group of experts has discovered proof that people during the Bronze Age used drugs in their ceremonies. By examining hair strands from a burial location in Menorca, Spain, researchers have learned that our ancestors took in hallucinogenic drugs derived from plants. This new information presents the initial clear evidence of drug use in olden Europe. These drugs may have been an important part of their traditional events and practices, according to the researchers. The scientists identified three specific substances, scopolamine, ephedrine, and atropine, in three separate hair samples that they replicated. The researchers noted that due to the dangerous...

Colorado health officials estimate that it will cost $5 million to launch an emergency water-pumping program next week to avert a potential catastrophic blowout at an old mine tunnel here. Such an event could send a toxic brew laced with heavy metals into the Arkansas River and harm hundreds of people in this historic mountain community. Jim Martin, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, told townspeople Friday the state will do everything it can to jump-start a response plan that includes pumping water out of the tunnel to relieve pressure and to treat the water...

The FBI is investigating a man who called himself an Army captain and looked through a briefcase and laptop computer belonging to a victim of last month's deadly interstate bridge collapse. The man, wearing fatigues and a beret, showed up within two hours of the Interstate 40 collapse and told the mayor he was in charge. He identified himself as Capt. William Clark. Mayor Jewell Horne said Wednesday that the man told her Army Capt. Andrew Clements had died in the river and that his briefcase and laptop were in the water. A fisherman found the items the day...

The owner of the towboat whose barge collapsed the Interstate 40 bridge near Webbers Falls has asked a federal court to limit its liability. The injured and the families of the 14 people killed in the May 26 bridge collapse would be unable to receive more than a combined total of about $1.2 million for their losses if a judge approves the petition filed Monday by Magnolia Marine Transport Co. If the petition succeeds, that total also would apply in case the state and federal governments seek monetary damages for the bridge. "We filed a petition for exoneration and/or...

WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. (AP) -- The pilot who said he blacked out just before his barge toppled an interstate bridge had slept fewer than 10 hours in the roughly two days previous, investigators say. But chief investigator Ken Suydam said Thursday that Capt. Joe Dedmon told the National Transportation Safety Board that he was not tired before the collision that killed 14 people. Dedmon's barge rammed the Interstate 40 bridge in eastern Oklahoma early Sunday morning, collapsing 500-feet of the span and sending 10 vehicles into the murky Arkansas River. "We have not reached a conclusion,'' Suydam told reporters....

A Norman police detective and his wife are believed to be among those missing and feared dead in the Arkansas River when the I-40 bridge collapsed early Sunday morning. Norman Police Chief Phil Cotten said Wayne Martin and his wife, Susan, left Sunday morning to attend a family reunion in Clarksville, Ark. They were driving a 2001 full-size Chevrolet pickup truck. When they didn’t arrive at the reunion and couldn’t be reached on their cell phone, family members believe they fell to their deaths in the Arkansas River. Cotten said the couple’s two daughters haven’t been able to reach...

The tugboat that struck and toppled a 580-foot section of an Interstate 40 bridge over the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma also collided into a Mississippi River bridge in St. Louis about eight years ago, U.S. Coast Guard records reveal. A search of the Coast Guard's database revealed 11 pages of records involving the Robert Y Love -- the tug that struck the interstate bridge in Webbers Falls, Okla. The report included two references to steering problems and a reference to a May 4, 1994, incident in St. Louis. "M/V Robert Y. Love allided [struck] with Eads Bridge rupturing...