Free Republic

Boy Falls Through Ice; Dog Gets HelpPOSTED: 3:29 pm EDT March 23, 2008 UPDATED: 5:56 pm EDT March 23, 2008 NOVI, Mich. -- A 13-year-old boy has his dog to thank for his rescue after falling through thin ice into the frigid waters of a pond in Novi. According to Novi police, the boy and his dog were walking in the area of Haggerty Road and Nine Mile Road when both fell into the water. The dog was able to escape, police said, and make its way back to the house and alert adults. A dive team from the Marine...

Battle Of The Sexes Includes Food Choice Men Eat More Meat, Frozen Foods; Women Choose VeggiesPOSTED: 8:43 am EDT March 20, 2008 ATLANTA -- If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then Mars is a land where the refrigerators are stocked with meat and frozen pizza, and Venus has a bounty of yogurt, fruits and vegetables, a new study suggests. The study of eating habits of adults, called the most extensive of its kind, was a telephone survey of 14,000 Americans. It confirmed conventional wisdom that most men eat more meat than women, and women eat more...

Joining Office Pool? You're Not Alone NCAA Tournament Pools Hurt Businesses' Bottom LinesPOSTED: 3:24 pm EDT March 17, 2008 CHICAGO -- How much work will be lost from participation in March Madness office pools, as well as the watching of the NCAA college basketball tournament games on the job? The question arises now that team selections have been announced. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said employers could see as much as $1.7 billion in lost productivity over the next few weeks, as the tournament proceeds. The calculation includes estimates on participation in the pools, worker wages and the...

Feb. Foreclosures Up 60% From Last Year Nevada, California, Florida Had Highest RatesPOSTED: 7:51 am EDT March 13, 2008 UPDATED: 9:22 am EDT March 13, 2008 A research firm said nearly 60 percent more U.S. homes faced foreclosure in February than in the same month last year, with Nevada, California and Florida showing the highest foreclosure rates. According to Realtytrac, a total of 223,651 homes across the nation received at least one notice from lenders last month related to overdue payments, up 59.8 percent from a year earlier. Nearly half of the homes on the most recent list had slipped...

The Story Of 'N': The Word That Won't DiePOSTED: 6:05 pm EDT March 12, 2008 UPDATED: 6:24 pm EDT March 12, 2008 DETROIT -- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick stood before hundreds of people last summer and triumphantly proclaimed: "Die N-word, and we don't want to see you 'round here no more." But the epithet that he and other black leaders symbolically buried in downtown Detroit during a national NAACP convention was resurrected by the embattled mayor Tuesday night during his annual State of the City address, carried live on local television and radio stations. Facing possible perjury charges from testimony...

Woman Faces $1,000 Fine For Pink Poodle Dog Dyed To Help Raise Awareness For Breast CancerThomas Hendrick, News Editor POSTED: 8:11 am EDT March 11, 2008 BOULDER, Colo. -- A Boulder woman said she will fight a $1,000 fine she was given for dyeing her miniature poodle pink. Joy Douglas she dyed Cici pink to help raise awareness for breast cancer. The salon owner said she has used beet juice -- and occasionally Kool-Aid -- for four years now to "stain" her dog. Officials at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley told the Daily Camera Douglas was warned several times...

Pennsylvania Hair Stylist Shoots Client Unhappy With CutFriday, March 07, 2008 She thought she was getting a bad haircut, but police in southwestern Pennsylvania say when Lauren Newton complained, she got a bullet in the back. Newton's hairstylist is now facing charges of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. Police say the two had been arguing yesterday about the style of the cut when the hairstylist left the room and returned with a gun. Newton and her sister tried to flee after the stylist fired a shot into the ceiling, but police say that's when a second shot hit Newton in...

6th Graders To Get Drug TestsPOSTED: 10:41 am EST March 7, 2008 UPDATED: 5:59 pm EST March 7, 2008 ROYAL OAK, Mich. -- A new drug testing system could soon take place in Royal Oak starting in September. Superintendent Thomas Moline said he will be taking a proposal to the school board that will allow voluntary and random drug testing for students as young as 11 years old. Moline said nobody can predict who's going to use drugs and he wants to include middle school and elementary school students. He said it is part of the Save Our Youth Task...

Minnesota Bars Skirt Smoking Ban by Declaring Patrons as 'Actors'Thursday, March 06, 2008 MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors." The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away — and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too. The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down...

DVD-Sniffing Dogs Enlisted in Malaysia to Take a Bite Out of Piracy Monday, March 3, 2008 Associated Press PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities said Monday they hope two specially trained dogs will help police sniff out pirated DVDs and clean up the country's reputation as an abuser of intellectual property rights. The two male Labrador retrievers from Northern Ireland, Paddy and Manny, are trained to smell chemicals used in DVD production. They will become the world's first permanent, national anti-piracy canine unit when they go into action next month, according to Malaysia's Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs. Mohamad...

Michigan Prisons To Be Tobacco-FreePOSTED: 5:09 pm EST March 2, 2008 LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Department of Corrections plans to ban smoking and the use of other tobacco products by prisoners and staff early next year. State prison officials plan to extend an existing ban on smoking in prison buildings to outdoor property, the Detroit Free Press reported. Smoking cessation programs for inmates and staff are planned. "It won't happen overnight, but we should see healthier inmates long-term ... and that should translate into some health care savings" for taxpayers, Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said. Smoking currently is banned...

Teen In Critical Condition After Cough Medicine OverdosePOSTED: 6:25 pm EST February 27, 2008 UPDATED: 8:22 pm EST February 27, 2008 TAYLOR, Mich. -- Some teenagers in Taylor are using some over-the-counter medications to get a dangerous high. A 17-year-old is in intensive care after he tried to get high by drinking cough medicine. Timathy Berczel said he lives with guilt and hopes to stop what has become a dangerous trend among teenagers. Berczel was there Tuesday when his friend took an excessive amount of cough medicine to get high. "I really did not know he took that much from...

Mike Baker: Terrorists and MoralityTuesday, February 19, 2008 By Mike Baker Just the other night, while having our usual Wednesday happy hour at the office with the handful of PWB staffers either still gainfully employed or not currently incarcerated, one of the interns asked if I thought it was morally okay to be happy that the senior Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh had just been blown up in a car bomb in Damascus, Syria. Huh? Or better yet, mmmm. As I poured myself a tasty measure of bourbon (from a bottle bought just that day to celebrate Mughniyeh’s explosion) I stared...

Third-Graders Give Bloomberg a GrillingBy Associated Press SARA KUGLER Updated: 2/14/2008 NEW YORK Mayor Michael Bloomberg faces the notorious New York City press corps several times a week, but nothing prepared him for the grilling he got Thursday from a group of third-graders. The kids at a public school in Harlem, where Bloomberg was holding a news conference down the hall, disarmed the potential presidential candidate by singing ''Happy Birthday'' to honor the billionaire, who turned 66 on Thursday. Then they got down to business. ''Are you rich?'' asked one little boy. ''Am I what? I can't hear you,'' Bloomberg...

Judge Marries Couple After Sentencing Groom Man Gets Up To 18 Years In Prison For RobberyPOSTED: 11:52 am EST February 15, 2008 UPDATED: 1:28 pm EST February 15, 2008 WHEELING, W.Va. -- Kevin Felder and Misty Johnson aren't having a honeymoon. They're not even spending their wedding night together. Felder and Johnson said their "I do's" in a West Virginia court Thursday, just minutes after Felder was sentenced to up to 18 years in prison for second-degree robbery. He wore an orange prison jumpsuit and handcuffs during the ceremony. The judge denied the groom's request to be uncuffed, noting Felder...

Florida Man Hopes To Donate 3rd Kidney Police Officer Hopes To Help Man With Renal Kidney FailurePOSTED: 5:04 pm EST February 15, 2008 FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- A police officer in Florida hopes his rare medical condition will allow him to help a man facing a long wait for a new kidney, reported West Palm Beach, Fla., TV station WPBF. Dean Ovshak, a Fort Pierce police officer, has three kidneys. That makes him and Ricky Williams, who suffers from renal kidney failure, potentially a perfect match. Up until two and a half years ago, Williams had a pretty normal life....

Gov. Wants To Raise Dropout AgePOSTED: 1:51 pm EST February 10, 2008 UPDATED: 2:08 pm EST February 10, 2008 LANSING, Mich. -- A century-old law lets Michigan students drop out of high school anytime after their 16th birthday. Download: House Bill 4042Now, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and some lawmakers want to change that. Bills in the state Legislature call for students to stay in school until they turn 18 unless they earn their diplomas first, one of several proposals aimed at improving Michigan's high school graduation rate. Although differences in the ways that schools track dropouts makes firm figures hard to...

Hospitals Turn To Wii For Rehab Therapy 'Wiihabilitation' Growing More Popular Among DoctorsPOSTED: 11:07 am EST February 9, 2008 CHICAGO -- It could be called "Wiihabilitation." Nintendo's Wii video game system is now gaining popularity in hospitals and medical centers, which are using the system as part of physical therapy programs for patients. While traditional physical therapy can be painful, repetitive and boring, hospital officials said playing Wii is more fun for patients, to the point that some almost forget they're in therapy. The system's motion-sensitive controller requires body movements similar to traditional exercises, but officials said the game format...

Girl Shot 6 Times While Shielding Mother From Gunfire Released From HospitalThursday, February 07, 2008 DETROIT — A Detroit girl who was shot six times while jumping to her mother's defense has been released from the hospital, a relative said. Alexis Goggins, 7, was released on Wednesday and is living with her mother at her grandfather's Detroit-area home, said Tonya Colbert, the girl's cousin. Parker has said Alexis was trying to save her from the attack.

Actor O'Connell Rips on Boston Sports 'Monopoly' in Advance of Super BowlSaturday, February 02, 2008 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Jerry O'Connell is sick of Boston and it's not just because he's a New Yorker. The New England Patriots, who go into Sunday's game against the Giants with a perfect record, are another example of Boston's dominance in sports. The Red Sox are baseball's World Series champs, the Celtics have the best record in basketball, and the Bruins are one of the top teams in hockey. "I'm sick of Boston wining so much. It's like a monopoly," the actor told The Associated...