Free Republic

The parents of 17-year-old Liam Ashley, who was beaten to death en route to prison, say they were the ones who charged him with theft. Ashley was found badly beaten in the back of a Chubb Security van on Thursday night. Although he was revived by paramedics at the scene, he died on Friday. Ashley's family say his parents wanted to teach him a lesson about the consequences of breaking the law. He had taken his mother's car without permission so they had him charged him with theft. On Thursday Ashley appeared at the North Shore District Court. The judge...

Federal Appeals Court: Driving With Money is a Crime Eighth Circuit Appeals Court ruling says police may seize cash from motorists even in the absence of any evidence that a crime has been committed. A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that if a motorist is carrying large sums of money, it is automatically subject to confiscation. In the case entitled, "United States of America v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit took that amount of cash away from Emiliano Gomez Gonzolez, a man with a "lack of significant criminal history" neither accused nor...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Chicago Cubs catcher Michael Barrett was suspended for 10 games and White Sox outfielder Brian Anderson five games for a bench-clearing brawl that led to four ejections. Barrett, who punched White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski to ignite the melee, and Anderson also were fined an undisclosed amount by Major League Baseball on Friday. White Sox third base coach Joey Cora was suspended two games and fined, while Pierzynski was fined for the incident during the interleague game on Saturday. Barrett immediately field an appeal and was in the lineup for Friday's game against the Atlanta Braves...

Bureaucrats Responsible for High Prices at Pumps The Libertarian Party Denounces Stifling Gas Taxes (Washington) This week, in response to constituent concerns regarding increasing gas prices, Congressional lawmakers sent President Bush a letter, urging him to look into the possibility of oil company price gouging. Additionally, both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked the president to instruct the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to investigate. The federal gasoline tax alone is responsible for 18.4 cents of the price of every gallon of gasoline sold in the United States. When the federal gasoline...

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS Before the U.S. House of Representatives April 5, 2006 Iran: The Next Neocon Target It’s been three years since the U.S. launched its war against Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Of course now almost everybody knows there were no WMDs, and Saddam Hussein posed no threat to the United States. Though some of our soldiers serving in Iraq still believe they are there because Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11, even the administration now acknowledges there was no connection. Indeed, no one can be absolutely certain why we invaded Iraq. The current...

Deputy Uses Taser to Stop Bullying Goat Jan 27 5:31 PM US/Eastern Email this story ROUND O, S.C. A normally pleasant billy goat turned gruff and, for his troubles, was zapped three times with a Taser gun. Dodge the billy goat snapped a leash and charged at Dawn Pinette, knocking her to the ground Wednesday about 35 miles west of Charleston. "All I could do was grab his horns and scream bloody murder," Pinette, 38, said. Her daughter called police and Colleton County Deputy Jeff Scott arrived to try to help Pinette up. But the goat bullied his way in...

GARY, Ind. A woman who was robbed at knifepoint while pumping gas into her church's van couldn't believe it when the gas station attendant refused to call police for help. "I ran, of course, to the nearest place," Gary resident Rosetta Heffner said, recounting Sunday's robbery. Her request to call 911 was met with silence from the other side of the Citgo station's counter. She tried again. The clerk's response? "Use your cell phone." Heffner couldn't believe it. "I thought it would be a safe haven, anything could have happened, and he told me to use my cell phone," Heffner...

Dr. Elsebeth Baumgartner and Bryan DuBois run a blog called Erie Voices that focuses on local issues in northern Ohio, especially those that are underreported by local newspapers. Many of their posts deal with judicial and governmental corruption in northern Ohio. The bloggers were arrested in July on charges of intimidation, retaliation, and possession of criminal tools (a computer). Their trial began yesterday. The charges originated from a complaint made by retired visiting Judge Richard Markus, who alleges that Baumgartner and DuBois intimidated and threatened him in 2004 prior to a civil trial in which Baumgartner was the defendant, as...