Free Republic

A Texan couple have been arrested in Boston after police found a haul of weapons inside their hotel room including AR-15 and AK-47 rifles along with parking tickets which suggest they were surveilling the site of Saturday's March for Our Lives protest.

Country singer Neal McCoy says his new song in response to the national anthem protest controversy likely is polarizing, but it's a reflection of where he stands on the issue, adding that he "respects the flag and the country." McCoy, who lives in Longview, debuted the song "Take a Knee ... My Ass!" this past week on his Christmas tour in Branson, Missouri.

Legislation proposing to create a registry for convicted drug dealers is meeting with positive reviews across the state, according to state Rep. Demetrius Atsalis, who introduced the proposal last year. Some law enforcement authorities say the proposal, modeled after the state's sex offender registry, could help police identify and track convicted drug dealers, who often bring drug-related violence into a community. And some education professionals say it could better ensure safety through the school community. "It would definitely be good to know that you're not establishing a bus stop directly outside the home of a narcotics distributor," said Arthur Dulong,...

PROVINCETOWN — Several Cape Cod residents, former residents and civil rights advocates want leniency for a former Provincetown gay rights activist facing prison in Vermont for transporting child pornography. Twenty-two letters of support for activist John Perry Ryan, 62, of Braintree, Vt., were filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Vermont. Of those, 17 mention Ryan's civil rights advocacy on the Cape from the 1970s through the 1990s. The letters — a few handwritten, others typed, most addressed to U.S. District Court Judge William K. Sessions III — ask that Ryan be considered for a reduced prison sentence or at-home...

I tried to post this earlier but I couldn't get the link to work. Enjoy!

BARNSTABLE - Two Cape men pleaded not guilty yesterday to brutally shooting a pair of pit bulls earlier this week near the town firing range. The dogs were discovered Wednesday morning riddled with bullets in what police that day called an ''execution.'' Keith Kynock of Cotuit and Todd Soderberg of Forestdale, both 26, were arraigned in Barnstable District Court yesterday afternoon. They face two counts of maliciously killing a domestic animal and two counts of animal cruelty, as well as several weapons charges.

NANTUCKET - The years 1492, 1620, and 1776 are familiar milestones in the history of the land that became the United States - Columbus, the Pilgrims, the Declaration of Independence. What about 1676?

A noise device designed to annoy teenagers and only teenagers is enjoying great success in Britain. No, it’s not the sound of their mother’s voices. The Sonic Teenager Deterrent — nicknamed “The Mosquito” — is a wall-mounted gadget that sends out a high-pitched noise at a frequency that can only be heard by young people, according to yesterday’s UK Telegraph. Staffordshire police this week gave the machine to grateful shopkeepers sick of loitering teenagers.

DENNIS - Twice already in recent weeks Matt Emery has taken his friends to see ''Jarheads,'' the new movie about Gulf War-era Marines and the bonds they formed in battle. Veterans from the Vietnam era had their own movies, like ''Platoon,'' says Emery, a Marine from Dennis. This is the soundtrack for Iraq veterans. And sure enough, for Emery the movie brought back memories of the dust and dirt, loneliness and exhilaration, and, most of all, the precious letters from home.

Bay Staters who are seriously overweight or have mild problems concentrating on one thing should not escape from having to work, Gov. Mitt Romney says. Romney wants stricter standards for welfare recipients who do not have to work under current law, which considers them ``disabled'' if they are obese or have a ``deficiency'' in concentration. There are currently about 46,000 families on welfare in Massachusetts. Roughly 11,600 people work or are in job-training under the current system.

On a Baghdad street Friday, two 9-year-old boys stopped a U.S. Humvee and pointed to what they feared was a bomb disguised as a rice bag. Pvt. Christopher ''Bucko'' Donnellan, a 19-year-old calvary scout with the Army's 3rd Infantry out of Fort Stewart, Ga., told the boys to get in the vehicle while he got out a robotic camera to take a closer look at what the military calls an IED or improvised explosive device. As Donnellan cordoned off the area, an insurgent detonated the bomb, sending shrapnel flying. Donnellan was hit in the neck by a piece about the...

CAMP EDWARDS - After 10 days amid a swamp of human waste and floating debris that was once the grand city of New Orleans, 107 Hurricane Katrina survivors and six pets landed at Otis Air National Guard Base yesterday afternoon.

They were teenage toughs, Paul Czerwonka and Joseph Cook, sporting slicked-back hair and leather jackets and dingo boots. Czerwonka never ran from a fight, and soon he volunteered for one, in Vietnam, with the US Marine Corps. Before heading to war, the Massachusetts duo bonded on predeployment assignment in Hawaii, chasing girls and swilling beer. CZ, as the grunts called him, would get them into trouble; Joe's wit would get them out of it.

Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday launched a revolution over health care, unveiling a bold initiative that would force tens of thousands of people to pony up cash for coverage. But whether Romney can piece together a coalition to topple the largely employer- and government-paid system is another matter, experts said. The main feature of Romney's proposal - mandating that 150,000 uninsured individuals start paying a share of their medical costs via forced insurance - dramatically shifts the debate in Massachusetts over who should foot the bill for any future universal health-care program.

When a blue pickup truck approached his convoy last Friday, something looked amiss. Specialist Dean Levy of Pembroke, riding atop a Humvee in Iraq, fired warning shots. But the vehicle kept heading toward the US troops. Levy fired another burst from his .50-caliber machine gun, this time hitting it straight on. The truck turned out to be carrying 400 pounds of explosives and Levy's second burst detonated it, killing the driver and sparing the lives of nearly a dozen US soldiers, according to military officials and Levy's family members.

A 'good for a chuckle' Bin Laden joke.

PROVINCETOWN - The town's sewer system is out of hot water with the state Department of Environmental Protection. ''At this point we've been out to the site, we have inspected it,'' said DEP spokesman Joseph Ferson. ''It looks like everything is a go. We're going to issue a return-to-compliance letter.'' In November, the DEP issued a notice of noncompliance, because of several August overflows of raw sewage along the sewage collection system. The town was given 180 days to fix the problems with its sewer system. The August trouble appeared to stem from difficulties in assuring the smooth flow of...

A playground beckons from the end of his street and it's a lovely day for a roll in the grass, but that's one trick too many to ask of a dog confined to a wheelchair. ``He's a trooper. He deserves the best and I'm trying my best to give it to him,'' said Patricia Foye of Brockton, whose year-old paraplegic yellow Lab ``Suga'' just may be the poster pup for a new breed of litigation: wronged pets.

The Fenway Community Health Center yesterday acknowledged its mistake in displaying a graphic safe-sex booklet for homosexuals at an event attended by middle- and high-schoolers at Brookline High. ``Fenway Community Health regrets accidentally making available a small number of copies of the `Little Black Book,' an HIV prevention publication for gay and bisexual men over the age of 18, at an event where young people were present,'' said Dr. Stephen Boswell, Fenway's president and CEO.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's name is sprouting on signs, billboards and bunting all over Boston - from schools and parks to Red Sox banners to markers on freshly paved new thoroughfares - as spring, and a city election year, takes hold. The cement is barely dried on the newly refurbished Seaport Boulevard, but a shiny blue sign reading ``Welcome to Boston'' and ``Mayor Thomas M. Menino'' already greets motorists on the median strip.