Free Republic

“Bend down,” Lisa tells me as we cruise past a pickup truck at a deserted Garden Grove park about 10 p.m. Her twin sister Teresa crouches in the trunk of our rented Ford Fusion and I’m in the back seat with a notebook. Tonight I’m riding with bounty hunters — you know, like Duane “Dog” Chapman. They carry no guns. But they’re willing to pepper-spray or taze unwilling fugitives, tackle men three times their size and, some nights, slap them in girly PINK handcuffs.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday rejected bail for a Lodi man involved in a terrorism investigation, finding that his relatives could not properly post his $1.2 million bond. U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said he was gratified by the ruling, which overturned a decision last month by a federal magistrate who approved bail for Umer Hayat. Hayat's attorney said he will appeal Wednesday's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hayat, 47, was arrested in June and charged with lying to the FBI by denying that his son attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan...

It's an all-too-common answer for those shopping at the mall and now it will be an answer for some at the Cook County Jail: "Charge it." Inmates will soon be able to bond out if they can find a loved one with a credit card with a credit limit high enough to cover bail. County commissioners passed a measure out of committee Monday that would allow courts to establish credit card payment systems. With a full board vote expected to easily pass next Tuesday, the new systems should be in place this summer. And while many are lauding the no-risk...