Free Republic

The beloved star of Discovery Channel's Flying Wild Alaska Jim Tweto, 68, has been killed along with a hunting and fishing guide from Idaho when their small plane crashed shortly after takeoff. Tweto's family-run rural aviation business in Unalakleet was featured in three seasons of the television series a decade ago. He and passenger Shane Reynolds of Orofino, Idaho, died Friday near the coastal village of Shaktoolik, roughly 125 miles east of Nome, Alaska State Troopers said. The plane 'was witnessed taking off but not climbing and then crashing,' their report said. Troopers were notified of an SOS activation around...

The U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) rejected on Monday a free-speech challenge to a New York law banning the wearing of masks at public gatherings by a group claiming ties to the Ku Klux Klan. Without comment, the justices let stand a ruling by a U.S. appeals court that upheld the law as constitutional and rejected the challenge by the Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The group advocates white separatism and "white pride." It calls itself an "ideological descendant" of the original Klan, but says it does not use violence. Members wear white...