Free Republic

When a television show first starts, the writers of the program already have the star in mind. They write for the characters they think the audience will relate to and like the most and design the show around those characters. However, once the show hits the airwaves, the viewers don’t always agree. Sometimes the true star of the show is the unlikeliest candidate. The breakout character is usually a character who was introduced as part of the supporting cast, but for one reason or another became a fan favorite.

Police: Inmate hid in laundry basket to escape ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities say a New Mexico inmate has been captured after he escaped from jail by hiding in a laundry basket. Officials say 28-year-old Kevin Matthew Perkins packed himself in the basket on Monday to get away from the Metropolitan Detention Center. Authorities say the laundry basket was headed to another facility. When an officer opened a truck door, officials say Perkins jumped out of the basket and ran. Albuquerque police later received a breaking and entering call at an assisted living complex. That's where they found broken glass from...

Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich told a meeting of the Republican National Committee that his party needs to move beyond its image of steadfast opposition to President Barack Obama and convince voters its goal is to improve the country. “We have to get beyond being anti-Obama and we have to convince people you can have hope in America,” Gingrich said on Wednesday. “What we have to do, in a sense, is be a party of optimism and a party of hope and show actual cases of how it can work.” Speaking at a Boston hotel adjacent to where Republican...

The voting is over, and so for the most part is the counting. The delegate math, I leave to others; let’s take a look at how the popular vote has shaped up over the course of this primary season and what conclusions we can draw. First, the overall popular vote before Super Tuesday, on Super Tuesday, and to date.* In addition to listing the candidates’ individual vote totals, I’ve classified them in three groups: the five conservative candidates (Santorum, Gingrich, Perry, Bachmann and Cain), the two moderate candidates (Romney and Hunstman) and the libertarian (Paul). While there will undoubtedly be...

LONDON (AFP) - Authorities were still hunting Monday for 14 illegal immigrants, all convicted criminals, who escaped from a detention centre. Twenty-six men went on the run from the Campsfield House Immigration Detention Centre in Oxfordshire, southern England, on Saturday after detainees started fires and broke out. Police officers in riot gear were called in to deal with the blaze, while helicopters and dogs have been used in the hunt for those still at large. Police have rounded up 12 of those who fled, but 14 remain on the run and the Home Office has warned that they are all...

When Richard Fuld, chief executive of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., couldn't control his addiction, he took drastic measures. In October, he had the game BrickBreaker taken off his BlackBerry. "I was playing so much," says Mr. Fuld, who had used it to relax on the plane or in the car. He missed it so much he had it reinstalled, but it's no longer on the main menu. That removes the temptation, he says, "for the most part." In this era of startlingly realistic video games, BrickBreaker is straight out of the Stone Age. Yet it has developed a cult following,...

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police are investigating a plan to recruit ex-soldiers to break Schapelle Corby out of jail in Bali. A South Australian man is offering to pay crack ex-soldiers for weapons, false passports and expertise to bust Corby out of Indonesia and spirit her away to a secret location. The man, Mark Streater, says he has the resources to fund the operation and has already secured recruits. Mr Streater said the operation was "100 per cent do-able" and insisted it was genuine break-out plan. "I have no doubt someone will get her out of the country," he said. An...

Link post: Geology Picture of the Week Bonus: Hot Kilauea Action!

The ongoing Kilauea eruption has been relatively lacking in photogenic action for a few weeks, but over the weekend there was a diversion in the main lava flow that resulted in some striking images. My favorite is below; go to the source site for more.