Free Republic

LA JUNTA — Police arrested a 64-year-old New Jersey man Tuesday for allegedly threatening to blow up an Amtrak passenger train. Ojore Nuru Lutalo of Elizabeth, N.J., was taken into custody at the La Junta train station at about 9:40 p.m. Tuesday by police officers. According to a police affidavit, Amtrak officials called police to report a suspicious passenger making terrorist threats on the train that was due to arrive in La Junta at 9:48 p.m. The conductor told police that Lutalo allegedly said several things that made passengers fear for their safety. The affidavit said two passengers allegedly overheard...

Heaping $21.8 million of federal stimulus money into 6,000 solar-powered trash compactors isn’t passing the smell test for lawmakers already concerned about wasting the Bay State’s share of the bailout windfall. The pricey garbage cans, which cost about $3,600 each, would be installed in all 250 state-owned parks if the funding is approved. “It’s projects like these that make people suspicious of the entire federal stimulus project,” said Rep. Vinny M. DeMacedo (R-Plymouth), who sits on the legislative committee designed to oversee how the state’s share is spent. “They might be nice, but how are they creating jobs?” BigBelly Solar...

A dead humpback whale that washed ashore at Fort Abercrombie State Park last week may be there to stay. The 30-foot, 2-year-old whale was discovered Aug. 14 and has probably been dead three-and-a-half to four weeks, said district park ranger Kevin Murphy. Murphy said Fort Abercrombie staff have two main concerns about the whale. “The Marine Mammal Protection Act, and more importantly, the Endangered Species Act protects those guys, even after death,” he said. “So collection of soft or hard parts, bone or baleen or blubber is illegal.” Murphy said tampering with an endangered species comes with a hefty $25,000...

A routine flight to tag a cow moose took a bizarre turn this weekend when the tranquilized animal charged the tail section of a hovering helicopter, collided with the rear rotor and brought down the aircraft. The injured animal was euthanized at the scene. The incident happened near the southeast town of Gustavus late Saturday afternoon, and baffled officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "I have never personally seen or heard of an injury of this type, caused to an animal by an aircraft," said Doug Larsen, regional supervisor for the Division...

Four suspected illegal immigrants were killed and 11 injured Tuesday when a packed minivan crashed on snow- covered Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs. The driver fled the scene on foot but was found hiding at a storage yard for boats and recreational vehicles south of Idaho Springs. He was treated for minor injuries then taken to the Clear Creek County Jail. Three men and a pregnant woman thrown from the 1998 Dodge Caravan were pronounced dead at the scene. Eleven others - nine men, a teenage boy and a woman - were taken by ambulance to St. Anthony Central Hospital...

A federal judge reversed himself Thursday and set bail for Rob Kane, the Security Aviation "commander" arrested a month ago on charges of possessing illegal Soviet-era rocket launchers. Kane, 37, of Eagle River, was ordered released on $200,000 bail in the 24-hour custody of Charles Sandberg, the real estate broker who employs his mother. .......... the only identification he could carry is his Alaska driver's license, not any passport or the many phony ID cards and badges found in his possession by the FBI and other government agents during searches of his home and three businesses Feb. 2. ................. ................

Former NFL star Larry Csonka, the host of a cable television outdoors show, pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegal filming on national forest lands. As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Csonka pleaded guilty to knowingly conducting work activity in a national forest without obtaining a special use permit. Csonka agreed to pay $3,887 in restitution for filming about 10 shows on U.S. Forest Service land, said assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Goeke. At sentencing April 19, Goeke said, prosecutors will request a sentence of probation for one year and a $5,000 fine. Csonka could not be reached for comment...

KENAI, Alaska (AP) -- A group of teens toiled away at a moose carcass near Bear Creek on a recent Saturday, stopped between cuttings to warm their hands in the cow's steaming flesh. The teens had really lucked out. The skies had cleared and the weather was unseasonably warm, but still cold enough to cool a skinned carcass quickly and prevent their bounty from spoiling. At about 9:30 a.m., the six teens gathered under drizzly skies at Kenai Alternative High School to accompany a moose hunt and learn hands-on how to field dress a moose, an animal that can weigh...

Political news commentator Cokie Roberts stressed the importance of incorporating social justice values into public service at Marquette's 124th commencement exercises. Roberts, an analyst for ABC News who has won several journalism awards, said Sunday morning at the Bradley Center that the need for social justice values – which are the touchstones of a Jesuit education – and civility in government is great due to increasing political partisanship. "Those values are so important to bring into public service today," she said. Roberts addressed the declining popularity of politics as a profession, placing blame on the news media for too often...

PALMER -- A Palmer magistrate on Wednesday found Willow musher David Straub guilty of animal cruelty for failing to provide his dog team with enough food, water or veterinary care last fall. Magistrate David Zwink fined Straub $300 for violating Matanuska-Susitna Borough code after the nonjury trial. Last October, borough animal control officers seized 28 of Straub's 32 dogs, describing all of them as dehydrated and some emaciated to the point their spines and hip bones showed through their fur. Ten dogs either died or were euthanized after arriving at the borough's animal shelter in mid-October, officials say.

ST. PETERSBURG - The leader of Tampa Bay area Catholics was among the thousands jolted awake Monday by a magnitude 8.7 earthquake that rocked Indonesia. "There was a loud groaning coming from the building and I didn't know whether I should wait it out in the room or find the emergency exit," said Bishop Robert N. Lynch, head of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, who was in Indonesia as part of a delegation assessing Catholic aid in areas devastated by December's tsunami. "It lasted for about two minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. I knew it was a big...

Man says fishing site discriminates against disabled KENAI (AP) -- A Soldotna man has filed a complaint against the city, saying the lone "handicap only" fishing spot in town is discriminatory because it is not properly patrolled. John Smallwood filed his complaint with the Alaska Commission for Human Rights. In the claim filed Dec. 28, Smallwood said the city of Soldotna has "failed to maintain appropriate signs and adequately patrol the handicap ramp at Centennial Park," and that he and others with impaired mobility and physical disabilities are unable to fish there. Smallwood uses a wheelchair and sometimes a cane...

<p>RETREAT: Disowned Michigan leader sees new hope on the Kenai.</p> <p>Traverse City, Mich. -- The founder of a militia group in Michigan says he plans to move to the Kenai Peninsula after being cast aside by the militia's main body as being too radical and self-serving.</p>

<p>Don Young was a dead man. Politically speaking, that is. After 10 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican "Congressman for all Alaska" had finally met his match. It was 1992, and polls showed that Young trailed former Valdez Mayor John Devens by more than 20 points with the election barely one month away.</p>

NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 18, 2002--The ARRL will receive a $181,900 homeland security grant from the US government to train Amateur Radio operators in emergency communication. The League was among several dozen nonprofit organizations designated to receive some $10.3 million in federal money to boost homeland defense volunteer programs. The grant, from the Corporation for National and Community Service special volunteer program, will provide free ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course training to 5200 volunteers nationwide, starting in 2003. "ARRL is the national association for Amateur Radio and is the national leader in emergency communications by volunteers who operate their own...

<p>The Municipality of Anchorage has won a federal grant designed to boost homeland security efforts on behalf of local senior citizens and the disabled. The three-year grant, which is for $300,000 a year, comes from the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is awarding a total of $10.3 million in grants to support a variety of homeland security-related programs in 26 states.</p>

<p>Biologists accidentally started McGrath-area fire NOISEMAKERS: State workers were trying to scare off cow moose, collar calf.</p> <p>The 100,000-acre, $3 million Vinasale fire that burned within six miles of McGrath earlier this month was started by state biologists using exploding firecracker shotgun shells to scare off an irate cow moose, Department of Fish and Game officials said Monday.</p>