Free Republic

Authorities in Portland, Ore., investigated in late 2006 and early 2007 a masseuse's claim that she was sexually assaulted by former vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore during his visit to that city, but the matter was eventually dropped for lack of evidence, officials said Wednesday. The woman who alleged the assault through her lawyer declined initially to be interviewed by police and did not want officers to pursue the matter, the Multnomah County district attorney's office said Wednesday. She later reconsidered and met with Portland police detectives in January 2009, telling them she "was repeatedly subjected to unwanted...

A police officer and two other men, including Dallas Police Chief David Brown's adult son, were fatally shot Sunday night at an apartment complex. 900 block River Bend Drive "Officers responded to the apartment complex and started looking for the shooter," said Kim Leach, a Dallas County sheriff's department spokeswoman. "At the time, the suspect turned and shot one of the officers, killing him. Another officer returned fire at the suspect and shot and killed him." Dallas police officials confirmed late Sunday night that 27-year-old David O'Neal Brown Jr. was among the dead. It was unclear whether he was shot...

At least 40 people were shot over the weekend across Chicago, with seven of them slain, according to police logs. The toll covers a period from 8:43 p.m. Friday--after violent storms hit the city--to 6:39 this morning. On Sunday, Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis acknowledged a high number shootings over the weekend and attributed more than half of them to the work of gangs. The total from overnight Sunday into this morning was at least 18, including a 1-year-old girl who suffered a graze wound and a 44-year-old man who was shot in the head and killed. That girl and...

When actor Val Kilmer recently applied for permits to turn his 6,000-acre ranch outside Santa Fe into an upscale bed-and-breakfast, several of his neighbors protested.*Mr. Kilmer, ... was quoted—misquoted, he says—describing his rugged corner of New Mexico as "the homicide capital of the Southwest." He went on to avow that "80% of the people in my county are drunk," requiring him to carry a gun for protection. That was in a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone. In Esquire two years later, Mr. Kilmer was quoted—again, misquoted, he says—opining that he understands Vietnam better than its veterans, because most of them...

A Missouri man who had the side of a semi-truck box trailer professionally painted with a sign assailing Democrats says he put the trailer in a cornfield along a busy highway because he wanted people to see it. The sign, next to U.S. 71 about an hour south of Kansas City, reads: "Are you a Producer or Parasite. Democrats - Party of the Parasites." A lot of people have seen David Jungerman's sign, and someone clearly has not liked it. It's been torched twice, first on May 12, then about a week later. Then an empty farm house that Jungerman,...

Oregon's 32,929 medical marijuana users can't be denied concealed handgun licenses, despite the efforts of at least two sheriffs who want to keep concealed weapons out of those hands. The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled this week that Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon and Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters were mistaken in their interpretation of the federal Gun Control Act. The act states that "an unlawful user ... of any controlled substance" can't own a gun, and the sheriffs contended the federal act trumps Oregon's medical marijuana law. Though federal law prohibits marijuana, Oregon's 12-year-old law legalizes pot possession for...

A story surfaces in the local press: [Then high school senior Brandon] Leslie said he introduced himself to Etheridge and asked him about his stance on a particular education program. He said Etheridge didn't answer his question, so he pressed him two more times. "And that's when he grabbed me by the shoulders, he shook me, and I'll never forget it, he said, 'Son, you need to learn to respect your elders,'" he said by phone on Wednesday. "I was just so taken aback, I think my jaw just dropped, and he walked off." Leslie said he was angrier about...

Sometime after midnight Friday, Ronnie Lee Gardner is to be strapped into a chair in the execution chamber at the state prison in Draper, Utah. A black hood is to be slipped over the bald head of the 49-year-old convicted killer, if he wishes. A small circular target will be pinned over his heart. It has been 14 years since rifles were last fired in a state execution. Barring a last-minute reprieve, Gardner will be only the third person to die before a firing squad in Utah  or anywhere else in the nation  since the death penalty was...

Yes, he’s out of office, and splitting with his wife. But Dayo Olopade investigates why America’s leading environmentalist is conspicuously absent from the debate over the worst environmental disaster of our time. In the spring of 1989, weeks after the catastrophic sinking of an Exxon Valdez oil tanker in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, then-Senator Albert Gore, Jr. was leading the outcry against the company responsible for the second-worst oil spill in United States history. From his position on the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Gore demanded to know if Exxon was “stonewalling” the cleanup efforts. A flustered Coast Guard commandant,...

Thousands of Obama's most ardent supporters like Gay-Allen are now filtering out into communities as part of the group's Vote 2010 campaign, aimed at persuading people who do not ordinarily participate in off-year elections to go to the polls in November. Volunteers say those they approach are largely receptive, which is not surprising considering their primary target: voters who cast their first-ever ballots in 2008, a group that heavily backed Obama. But not all have a favorable view of the president. And some volunteers are vexed themselves -- not necessarily at Obama, but at the cascade of bad news that...

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) was injured by a mohair goat on Thursday during a press conference to highlight subsidies to the mohair industry. The goat nicked Weiner's right hand with one of its pointy, foot-long horns, hard enough to draw blood. Weiner was speaking to reporters in a park near the Rayburn House Office Building, and he was joined by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), and two young male mohair goats, Lancelot and Arthur. At press time, it was unclear which goat, Lancelot or Arthur, was to blame for Weiner's injury. According to a statement from Weiner's office, the mohair...

This interview with Helen Thomas was conducted in March. We were holding it for an upcoming issue of Vice magazine, but in light of what’s going on with her now, we’ve decided to run it online today. ”Uh, wait, what’s going on with her now,?” you say. Oh, you live in a cave. OK then. Helen Thomas just made some comments about Israel that Israelis, President Obama, and a lot of other people vehemently didn’t like. Not to put too fine a point on it, she pretty much said that Jews need to “get the hell out of Palestine”...

Long pilloried for being soft on illegal immigration, top Democratic officials have concluded there’s only one way they can hope to pass a comprehensive immigration bill: Talk more like Republicans. They’re seizing on the work of top Democratic Party operatives who, after a legislative defeat in 2007, launched a multiyear polling project to craft an enforcement-first, law-and-order, limited-compassion pitch that now defines the party’s approach to the issue. The 12 million people who unlawfully reside the country? Call them “illegal immigrants,” not “undocumented workers,” the pollsters say. Strip out the empathy, too. Democrats used to offer immigrants “an earned path...

<p>With a judge's earlier ruling that Chicago Police Officer John Ardelean had been arrested and detained without probable cause, Cook County prosecutors today dropped all charges against him in a crash that killed two people.</p> <p>The 36-year-old officer was charged with drunken driving and reckless homicide after his SUV broadsided a car on Thanksgiving 2007.</p>

As the prime minister and home secretary meet people in Cumbria today there will be voices urging them to do something to ensure that the horrors of this week can never be visited on another community. David Cameron has already warned against a knee-jerk response but there will be a review of our gun laws when the facts are known, the dust has settled and the scars have begun to heal. Before ministers consider tightening what are already some of the toughest gun-ownership laws in the world, however, it might be worth seeking answers to two questions: • Is there...

Supporters of the "open carry movement" are proving to be their own worst enemies. In their high-profile display of weaponry, they have led many Californians to question the sanity of a law that allows people to openly carry unloaded handguns in public places. They certainly caught the attention of the California Assembly, which voted 46-30 this week for legislation by Lori Saldaña, D-San Diego, to repeal the open carry law that has been on the books for four decades. Saldaña introduced AB1934 after several dozen gun-packing demonstrators frightened beachgoers in San Diego last year. She regarded the flaunting of weaponry...

BP's request for tax records poses a problem for some residents of fishing communities in southeastern Louisiana — the nonconformists who haven't kept records or reported their cash income. The first step for a commercial fisherman or coastal business seeking compensation for losses suffered in the oil spill seems simple enough: Submit copies of a commercial fishing license, proof of residence and tax statements. But the request for tax records poses a serious challenge to some residents of close-knit fishing communities on the swampy edges of southeastern Louisiana, which for generations have harbored self-reliant nonconformists who don't pay much heed...

President Barack Obama is on the defensive over his presidential multitasking, for refusing to scrub his schedule of events that seem peripheral — even trivial — compared with the unfolding catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. As oozing oil fouls Louisiana’s marshes, Obama has committed to maintaining the semblance of a regular schedule, adhering to his walk-and-chew-gum style of crisis management even as criticism of his administration mounts. That includes a sit-down to talk hoops with Marv Albert, events touting the stimulus and Duke’s basketball team, a Memorial Day appearance in Illinois and a pair of fundraisers in California that...

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A bullet narrowly missed a north Boulder man on Sunday afternoon, as it crashed through a glass window, sailed through his living room and lodged in a wall. The Boulder County Sheriff's Office is investigating the apparently errant shot. Deputies on Monday canvassed the upscale neighborhood to see if any other homes were hit and interviewed the nearby owners of the Boulder Rifle Club and private property where people often target shoot. Jeff Boxer, 61, said he had just walked up the stairs of his home in the 3900 block of Pebble Beach Drive when he heard a loud noise...