Free Republic

A teenage Minnesota McDonald's employee is being hailed a hero after she leapt from a drive-thru window to save a woman choking on a chicken McNugget. Sydney Raley, 15, from Edina, Minnesota, said she was working a 'mostly normal' shift at the Eden Prairie McDonalds Saturday when she popped her head out a window to inform a customer that the rest of her food would be ready shortly. That's when she realized the unidentified woman was in trouble.

I previously wrote that the key to conviction in the Derek Chauvin trial (and avoiding a cascading failure in all four cases) is the autopsy findings and the role of drugs (including fentanyl) in the body of George Floyd. Prosecutors are now asking the jury to effectively dismiss the findings of the only official autopsy in the case and insist, contrary to those findings, that Floyd died from asphyxia, or, lack of oxygen. Some new disclosures may make that claim more difficult for the prosecution. Last week, special prosecutor Jerry Blackwell admitted to jurors that Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner...

Robin Williams struggled to remember his lines. This was unusual for the hyperverbal, Oscar-winning actor, and it hit him hard in Vancouver in 2014 during the filming of “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” the third movie in the successful family franchise.

"We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled," said Poindexter. "He was lying very restfully. It looked like he had not quite awakened from a nap," he said. Scalia,79, did not have a pulse and his body was cold, and after consulting with a doctor at a hospital in Alpine, Poindexter concluded resuscitation would have been futile, He then contacted federal authorities, at first encountering a series of answering services because he was calling on a weekend.

Oklahoma is poised to become the first state in the nation to allow the use of nitrogen gas to execute inmates under a plan given final legislative approval on Thursday and now headed to the governor’s desk. Without a single dissenting vote, the Oklahoma Senate approved legislation that would allow the new method to be used if lethal injection is ruled unconstitutional or if the deadly drugs become unavailable. Republican Gov. Mary Fallin is a staunch supporter of the death penalty, but her spokesman declined to comment on the measure Thursday. Executions are on hold in Oklahoma while the U.S....

John, the 14 year old son of my daughter's friend and co-worker, hung himself two days ago. When he was found, he still had a heartbeat and has been in intensive care, with no brain activity. Tonight, the family prepared to remove him from life support, but brain activity has started, and they are asking for prayers. If you read this, please pray for him and his family. I will post any updates I receive on this thread. Thank you so much.

Botched sex-game may've killed BBC host AGENCIES, Mar 3, 2010, 12.28am IST LONDON: Kristian Digby, a TV presenter working for the BBC, was found dead in his apartment after his bid to get a thrill from a suspected solo sex game apparently went wrong. Digby, 32, is believed to have suffocated while starving himself of oxygen for sexual arousal. The death of the ‘To Buy Or Not To Buy' host, who was gay, has been described as "unexplained" by authorities. "At this time we believe he died from auto-erotic asphyxiation," The Sun quoted a source as saying. Auto-erotic asphyxiation (AEA)...

March 2, 2010 TV Presenter Kristian Digby Died After 'Solo Sex Game Went Wrong' Russell Jenkins Kristian Digby, the popular daytime BBC television host, who was found dead at his home yesterday, is believed to have died after a solo sex game game went wrong. The 32-year-old presenter of BBC1’s To Buy Or Not To Buy was pronounced dead at the scene after the ambulance service was called to his house in Newham, East London, at 7.45am on Monday. Police are officially treating the circumstances surrounding the death as “unexplained”, but a post-mortem examination being conducted today is expected to...

PHOENIX, August 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two professional death "assistants" are under murder investigation for helping a mentally ill woman commit suicide without the knowledge of her close and loving family members, the Phoenix New Times reports. Jana Van Voorhis, a 58-year-old Phoenix woman, was found by her sister Vicki Thomas and her husband Jared lying dead in bed in a townhouse. Because of Jana's mentally unstable condition, her sister expected to see pills lying about as the cause of her death. The couple was surprised, however, to find a neat and orderly scene that they said looked "staged." Afterwards,...

Benjamin Fawley, a suspect in the death of Taylor Marie Behl, told police that the Vienna teenager died accidentally while they were having a sexual encounter, an attorney representing Behl's mother said yesterday. Her grieving mother disputed the account. "Let's be clear -- Ben Fawley murdered my daughter," Janet Pelasara said during a hastily arranged news conference outside her attorney's McLean office. "His claim that it was accidental is just one more perversion of the truth in his ever-changing web of lies." Fawley told investigators that he had consensual sex with Behl in her car parked near a beach in...

A Romanian nun has died after being bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room in a convent, Romanian police have said. Members of the convent in north-west Romania claim Maricica Irina Cornici was possessed and that the crucifixion had been part of an exorcism ritual. Father Daniel Cornici was found dead on the cross on Wednesday after fellow nuns called an ambulance, according to police. On Saturday a priest and four nuns were charged in connection with her death. Orphan Police say the 23-year-old nun, who was denied food and drink throughout...

MERCED, Calif. - The deaths of two dairy workers who were asphyxiated by gases rising from a fetid stew of cow manure could have been prevented if the farmer responsible for their safety had given them the proper training and equipment, prosecutors said Monday during opening statements in a case against the farmer. Patrick Joseph Faria, from the small farming town of Gustine, has been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2001 deaths of Enrique Araisa and Jose Alatorre. Prosecutors said Faria failed his workers in a number of ways, including failing to warn the...

ABA Journal Report Friday, August 20, 2004 INSURANCE COVERS AUTOEROTIC DEATH, COURT SAYS 2nd Circuit Panel Vacates Earlier Decision, Orders Benefits in Asphyxiation BY STEPHANIE FRANCIS WARD Rock climbing and skydiving can be dangerous, yet death from those activities is often covered by life insurance policies. Considering that, a case of death from the practice of autoerotic asphyxiation should also be covered, says the New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The decedent in the 2nd Circuit case was insured by an accidental death policy provided by his employer. First Unum Life Insurance Co. of America had denied...

Officers had arrived to help him fix a flat tire ASSOCIATED PRESS Thursday, November 20, 2003 FORT WORTH -- A man changing a flat tire choked to death on a bag of marijuana he stuffed down his throat in an apparent attempt to hide it from police who stopped to help him early Wednesday. Cpl. Frank Lott of the Corinth Police Department said officers had no idea Nickolas Sandoval, 24, of Ponder had drugs when they spotted him on Interstate 35E in Corinth, about 45 miles northeast of Fort Worth. "Officers went from `Oh, hey, here is someone with a...