Free Republic

LOS ANGELES — One of the crew members aboard the dive boat Conception hadn’t been asleep long when a noise jolted him awake. He swung open the door of the wheelhouse — the top level of the 75-foot boat, located just above the galley — and was greeted by flames. As the fire raged in the predawn hours of Labor Day, the vessel’s captain made a frantic mayday call to the Coast Guard. Then he and four crew members jumped from the wheelhouse and climbed into a dinghy to get help from the Grape Escape, a fishing boat anchored nearby...

The NFL this season has 32 league-wide category sponsors, including new brands in the auto and yogurt categories. Hyundai this season begins a four-year deal with the league. The automaker replaces GM, which had been the NFL’s official auto brand since ’01. Dannon, which began running Super Bowl spots in ’12, begins the first year of its league-wide deal after signing on in July '14. NFL corporate partnership benefits vary from deal to deal, but they typically include category exclusivity, use of league marks for advertising and promotional purposes, event signage, media exposure through radio, print and TV ads ....

___________________________________________________ Please help to ID my "new" weapon. Backstory: I recently received this beautiful Colt's revolver as an early inheritance from my mother's estate. The accepted mythology is this: My stepfather was a navigator on a B-17 and later a B-24 and it is known that he was crew on USAAF battle missions over Jap held islands in the Pacific - throughout the entire Pacific War. What is less known is a little more about this issued firearm. There is no stamping of caliber anywhere on the pistol. On the top of the barrel is a rather careless stamping...

A woman who was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun while walking with her boyfriend in Hollywood Sunday night appeared to have been killed in a “random act of violence,” police said Monday. The victim was identified Monday afternoon as Carrie Jean Melvin, 30, according to Lt. John Radtke with LAPD’s West Bureau Homicide. The coroner’s office confirmed the victim’s name and age and said an investigator was still working on a report. Melvin was walking with her boyfriend near Sunset Boulevard and McCadden Place (map), about a block away from the heavily used intersection of...

Do you know who the vice president is? The speaker of the House? How many U.S. senators are there? Don't know the answers to these questions? If not, you're not alone. As the Yahoo! News Ask America van travels the country asking people about this election season's hot issues, we pulled a pop quiz on some of them, stumping many with basic civics questions.

Ron Paul led the annual Fourth of July parade through Friendswood, Texas, from the back of a gleaming pickup truck that inched along behind a replica of the Liberty Bell and just ahead of Lady Liberty herself, who was sitting in a Corvette and seemed to have wilted under the oppressive noonday sun. Or perhaps the oppressive policies of Barack Obama—it was hard to tell which. Along the parade route, the Stars and Stripes vied for prominence with STOP OBAMA signs.

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July."He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview. Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations...

. . .Biden and his boys gradually recovered and, over time, the young senator emerged as the most eligible bachelor in Washington. In 1974, when he was interviewed for The Washingtonian by Kitty Kelley, an early pioneer in the art of the embarrassing celebrity profile, Kelley clearly charmed her subject. Biden foolishly (and typically) took her into his confidence, speaking openly of his grief, and in startlingly intimate terms about his relationship with the departed Neilia. Biden described her as “my very best friend, my greatest ally, my sensuous lover.” The two of them had enjoyed a “sensational” marriage, sharing...

Ex Military men say unknown intruders have monitored and even tampered with American nuclear missiles

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made a deal with Rep. Bart Stupak in order to secure his vote and that of other anti-choice Democrats for the health care bill, which is scheduled to be voted on this Sunday. According to a member of Congress who was briefed on the matter, Pelosi has agreed to let Stupak have a vote on his amendment, which instructs the Senate to substitute his language for the Senate language on abortion. FDL has obtained a copy of the concurrent resolution (PDF1, PDF2, PDF3, PDF4), which includes cosponsors Marion Berry, Sanford Bishop, Joseph Cao, Kathy Dahlkemper,...

Barack Hussien Obama wins the Indy 500 for the 4th consecutive time. Rest of field declines to test his mettle - refuse to finish race!