Free Republic

...The deputy suffered a two-and-a-half-inch cut to his forehead and multiple bodily injuries. The doctor told the deputy it looked like the cut was made by a box cutter. "They roughed him up, but the officer was able to press a button and release his K-9 from the backseat," Adam said. The dog bit at least one of the suspects, potentially saving the officer's life, Adam said. That was more than good equipment and a good dog, Adam said. "We have four K-9 units here, but only two of our vehicles are equipped with the pop mechanism," he said. But...

ST. PETERSBURG - A six-hour period of black on white violence 19 months ago has earned St. Petersburg an unflattering distinction in a new state report: the city with the most hate crimes in 2004. Police Chief Chuck Harmon cut short his holiday vacation to hold a news conference about the numbers, contained in an annual report by Attorney General Charlie Crist. The figures were an aberration, Harmon said, largely the result of one evening of civil unrest on May 12, in which a group of about 125 people, mostly black, threw bricks and bottles at drivers, mostly white. One...

<p>CHICAGO -- Back in 1992, when Chicago Democrat Mel Reynolds was elected to Congress, there was no telling how high he would climb.</p> <p>He had escaped Chicago's public housing to study at Harvard and Oxford and, on his third try, ousted a longtime congressman from Chicago's South Side and southern suburbs. He became a darling of local Democrats, made his presence known on Capitol Hill with an appointment to the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and was even invited to jog with President Clinton.</p>