Free Republic

I would like to start a holiday thread for Matt Maupin and his family. We have so many great memories of family during this time of year. I dont want this Buckeye to be forgotten. Please keep it current and bumped. Born on July 13, 1983 in Batavia, Ohio, Maupin was a 3.5 grade-point-average student and football player at Glen Este High School in Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio. He graduated in 2001 and joined the U.S. Army Reserve and was assigned to the Army Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, from Bartonville, Illinois. On April 9, 2004, Maupin's fuel convoy came...

The parents of a US solider missing in Iraq will meet with officials at the Pentagon. Army Reserve Sergeant Keith Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, has been missing since April 9, 2004, when his fuel-truck convoy was ambushed. He is the only soldier the Army lists as captured. Carolyn and Keith Maupin will talk to senior officials at the Pentagon and have a video conference with commanders in Iraq. Last June, Al-Jazeera released a tape claiming to show a US soldier being shot to death. But the tape was dark and grainy, and the Army says it hasn't determined if the...

My husband bought me a dachshund last year for my birthday. When we brought him home (at the time)we lived in a very rural, VERY quiet neighborhood. We are now living in Columbus on a very busy side of town. Hence the increase in traffic, noise, people, and everything else that goes along with it. Well our dog barks for hours at the smallest noise. I hate trash day....when the trash truck shows up our dog is in full blown hysterics. What can I do about this? We have tried training (it didnt work), taking him outside when the the...

What? Yes, you read the title right. PETA is the worst friend an animal could have these days. Normally an organization takes its mission statement and tries to fulfill it. Not PETA. In their 25th year fighting for the rights of all animals, “PETA believes that animals have rights and deserve to have their best interests taken into consideration, regardless of whether they are useful to humans. Like you, they are capable of suffering and have an interest in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use—for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, or any other reason.” Back to...

I wanted to throw a casserole party for one of our FR moms. For those of you that dont know what a casserole shower is...I will explain. :) Please post a casserole recipe that is easily made and frozen so when the baby makes their welcomed appearance Mom can have some help with some easy and good food to make for herself and her family. This is a baby shower/casserole shower people. It's time for some recipes and really cute pics. :) Have Fun!

I have done this semi yearly thread before and I would now like some additional comments from my fellow Freepers on this. If you have visited the past threads please post what you remember or what you have posted. If you are new to the thread please continue the list. Its always fun. :) Please keep it light hearted. We are talking about are Freeperism's. K? 1. You know you are a Freeper when you can tell your spouse or friends what the news is like all over the world but you cant recall any recent news happenings in your...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Marilyn Gonzalez worried that her 2-year-old was coming down with an ear infection. Rather than miss work for a doctor visit, the 25-year-old single mother of two dropped her daughter off as usual at the day care and went to work. Little Jaeda was examined soon afterward by a University of Rochester pediatrician and given antibiotics. Using telemedicine tools wielded by a day care staffer, the diagnosis was done through the Internet. “When I picked her up, everything had been taken care of,” said Gonzalez said with a sigh of relief. “At least for those common things...

PHILADELPHIA - A third-grader stuck 19 schoolmates with her mother’s diabetes blood-testing needle this week, and one pricked student tested positive for HIV on a preliminary test, officials said. Health officials said the virus could not have been contracted from the needle stick, and they noted that preliminary tests can yield false positives. The risk to students who were stuck after the possibly infected child depends on factors including the depth of the stick, health officials said. The 8-year-old stuck her Taylor Elementary schoolmates Wednesday at the school’s breakfast, at lunch and in the classroom, using a needle that was...

Oh Booy, does he have a bone to pick with Pamela Anderson. So Murray Booy, a second-generation Ontario chicken farmer, is issuing a challenge to the Canadian-born sexpot over her cruelty campaign launched against KFC restaurants. Standing on his Aylmer spread, he offers: "Come stay at my farm Pamela Anderson ... I'll put you to work and you can see if any of my chickens are mistreated." The name of that farm his dad bought in '78? "Rising Star"! Last week, Anderson called for a boycott of KFC, claiming suppliers mistreat the birds they slaughter. It prompted a small, peckish...

I signed up for email alerts from our local sexual offender website several weeks ago after seeing so many stories about children being taken or killed by sexual offenders. Well....this morning I got an email notifing me that there was a registered sexual offender across the street. The website says he was charged with gross sexual conduct with a minor. We have a four year old child and I am now very uneasy living here. I can see the home this man lives in from my front window. And of course he can see ours. Our homes are directly across...

NEW YORK - New York police have ticketed a man they say set up a table on a Brooklyn sidewalk to sell Girl Scout cookies without a license. advertisement But the suspect’s 13-year-old daughter disputes the account and says her father was only helping her deliver pre-ordered cookies in the neighborhood. Officers issued a summons for unlicensed vending to Hoi ”Howard” Louis over the weekend. “An adult 55-year-old male who had set up a table along a busy stretch was given a summons,” Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said Wednesday. “No Girl Scouts were seen by officers at the time the...

Lisle, IL, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Police have recovered a rare, 18th Century violin that was taken from the basement of suburban Chicago church when its owner took a break from music lessons. The instrument made by Italian-violin maker Nicolo Gagliano in Naples in 1774 was valued at more than $280,000. The violin disappeared Feb. 2 from a basement room at the First United Church of Christ in Lisle, Ill. Police released few details but said the violin was recovered undamaged and was being held as evidence. Printed music scores and catalogs were missing from the violin's case. Technicians were...

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Traci Hodges works about 30 hours a week running her own consulting business and managing a small production company. She recently finished a master's degree in human development counseling. On top of it all, she finds time to homeschool her oldest daughter. Make that she and her husband, Harlan, who is an emergency room doctor at DePaul Hospital. The Maryland Heights, Mo., couple split the responsibility. As two working parents, the Hodges are a far cry from the stereotypical homeschool family with a stay-at-home mom and ultra-conservative moral and religious values. Hodges likes that she and...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Scottish man sent to Ohio's death row in 1987 for setting a fire that killed a 2-year-old girl was granted a new trial on Tuesday by an appeals court that described his original defense as incompetent. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals' scathing opinion recounted defense attorneys' mistakes committed during Scottish native Kenneth Richey's original trial and the injustices of his numerous failed appeals. Richey, 40, who had been diagnosed with behavioral problems before coming to the United States to live with his American father, became a global cause celebre that elicited pleas for mercy from...

A Canton teenager is recovering after being impaled by a crowbar over the weekend. Fourteen-year-old Magen Stephens was sledding while being pulled by a four-wheeled ATV when a crowbar hooked to the lid of a septic tank, ripped the sled in half and then lodged in Magen's leg. She lay stuck there for 45 minutes with the bar coming out through her hip until a neighbor used bolt-cutters to set her free. Magen's mother Tracy says, "If it would have been a centimeter either way, it could have killed her, because it went through and it hit nothing. It hit...

A 14-year-old honor student from Briggs High School may be paralyzed for life after being shot in the face Monday night by a close friend. As Billy George lay in a hospital bed, unable to move, his friend he has know since the age of four was sitting behind bars. Raymond Sims, 16, is charged with shooting Billy George. Friends say Sims had been flashing a gun all Monday, and then pulled the trigger just before 10 p.m. The teens were at Billy's Brehl Avenue home on the west side of Columbus all day Monday. Billy's mother had the flu....

About 200 people attended a private, two-hour service Saturday for shooting victim Nathan Bray at a funeral home in his hometown of Circleville, about 30 miles south of Columbus. "He'll be in my heart forever," family friend Sherri Jordan said afterward. Funeral services for Erin A. Halk, age 29, of Columbus, were scheduled for Monday (12/13) at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Clintonville. As most fans rushed for the exits after the nightclub shooting that killed five people Wednesday night, a few tried to help and comfort the victims, witnesses and police say. Those included Nathan Bray, a...

Vaughn Could Graduate College At 19 POSTED: 1:32 pm CST November 8, 2004 UPDATED: 2:10 pm CST November 8, 2004 KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Homeschooling helped a local girl graduate high school and make history at an area college, KMBC's Natalie Moultrie reported. Charion Vaughn, 15, is the youngest student on campus at Kansas City, Kan., Community College. "They're shocked, telling me I'm lying. And I have to prove it, then they're pretty much impressed," Vaughn said. Vaughn is not only the youngest on campus, but because of her high ACT scores, her college is paid for. Vaughn and her...

Experts Say Homeschooled Children Better Prepared Academically CLEVELAND -- The numbers for home-schooled children are booming. Researchers say it's grown 28 percent over the past four years. But does spending time outside of the traditional classroom hurt their social skills? One of the biggest criticisms of home schooling is that children will lack the social skills necessary to become successful adults. NewsChannel5's Debora Lee talked to two college students who got their elementary and secondary education at home in order to get their point of view on the homeschooling debate. Jon Woodhams is a freshman at the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory...

It took Pam Rudolph about six months of consideration before doing something that changed the way her family lives. “It’s not a decision you make lightly by any means,” Rudolph said. When Rudolph’s son, Clay, 13, was in fifth grade, she was concerned about how preoccupied he was with with his clothes and other trends at school. “It really upset him ... It started affecting his grades,” she said. Knowing two families in which the children were homeschooled encouraged Rudolph in making the decision to homeschool her own three children. “I saw how happy their children were,” she said. After...