Free Republic

Watertown resident Jason J. Cleveland appeared in Day County magistrate court Monday, accused of taking six lives and injuring a seventh person in a Saturday night wreck south of Waubay. Cleveland, 25, was advised of the multiple felony and misdemeanor charges he faces for driving the pickup that killed the family of Skyman Redday Sr., a patrolman with the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal police who was among the first at the scene of the two-vehicle crash. Sisseton-Wahpeton police say that Redday has been given as much time off from his job as needed considering the extent of the tragedy and has been...

RAVENNA, Ohio (Aug. 9) - A woman who belonged to an obscure religious sect was found innocent Friday of child endangerment for breast-feeding her baby while driving, but was convicted of three lesser charges. Catherine Nicole Donkers, 29, was found guilty of violating child-restraint laws, driving without a valid driver's license and fleeing police while on the Ohio Turnpike in May. Prosecutors recommended Donkers be sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine instead of the maximum one year in jail and $2,000. Judge Donald Martell said he would postpone sentencing to investigate Donkers ``because I feel I...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- A study found that most drivers surveyed fiddle with their radios or engage in other distracting behavior, even when they're being watched as part of a study on distracted drivers.</p> <p>Cell phones were not the major distraction, the study found. Only 30 percent of the subjects used a cell phone while their vehicle was moving, compared with 97 percent who leaned over to reach for something and 91 percent who fiddled with radio controls.</p>

Paul Dean, the 17-year-old son of Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, will take part in a court diversion program for his role in the burglary of a Vermont country club. According to the Associated Press, police have pegged Dean as the getaway driver, having questioned the teen while he sat in a car waiting for four buddies to steal beer and champagne from the Burlington Country Club on June 20. "I think this is a good outcome for Paul and for his friends, and that's what the program is designed for," Howard Dean told reporters after meeting with an official...

Driven to succeed August 4 2003 A British supermarket worker has passed her driving test at the 20th attempt after taking more than 300 lessons. Sue McIlwraith, of Hill Top, West Bromwich, West Midlands, said she was delighted to have made the breakthrough after spending thousands of pounds on tuition since 1996. The 46-year-old grandmother admitted that her marathon quest to tear up her L-plates was not entirely due to bad luck or harsh examiners. "I've got to be honest - I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to driving and I just didn't get it...

LULING (TX) -- An adventurous 6-year-old is home safe after swiping his baby sitter's car and taking it on a 25-mile joyride. The boy, whose name was not released, hit three cars Wednesday before the battered Mazda's trip ended in a Luling H-E-B parking lot. The child ran into the grocery screaming and crying and told store employees that he didn't want to go to jail, store director Barbara Hammer said. "All I can say is that an angel got my little baby home," the boy's mother, Stacy Blackmon, told the Austin American-Statesman in Friday's editions. "We have been on...

An Israeli taxi driver has been missing since Friday and authorities now believe that he may have been kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. Eliahu Gorel, 61, from Ramat Gan, transported passengers from Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem on Friday afternoon. His cab was later found abandoned, with the engine running, in the village of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem. Israeli Police from the Jerusalem and West Bank districts have been searching the area, backed by helicopters, trackers, and dogs in an effort to locate Gorel.

MERIDEN, Conn., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- According to an analysis by Response Insurance of their national driving survey, people who use cell phones when driving are more likely to be distracted from the road even when they are not talking on a phone. The results indicate there may be a "distracted-driver personality" type behind the wheel. The Response Insurance National Driving Distractions Survey compared attentiveness of cell phone users to non-users when not talking on a phone. When asked a series of questions about different topics that might take their attention from the road, people who use cell phones were...

Wed May 28, 2:12 PM ET Sultaana Freeman opens her brief case Wednesday May 28, 2003, in Orlando, Fla., as the second day of a case involving the veil. Freeman is fighting to wear a veil that covers most of her face for her driver's license. (AP Photo/Red Huber, Pool)

ORLANDO -- Speaking softly from behind a black veil, only her eyes visible as they moved from the face of her questioner to the judge, Sultaana Freeman cited the religious beliefs that have brought her into conflict with the state over her driver's license photo. Freeman, 35, who became a Muslim in 1997 and started wearing a veil full time shortly after that, told Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe she is opposed to being photographed or being seen without her veil. It was a mistake that allowed Freeman to be photographed for her driver's license wearing a niqab, a religious...

OMED: Reports began to seep out late in April. There was a new and strange Portland-Iraqi connection. Not the business of the famous (and well watched) local mosque, but something truly bizarre. We ran across it on the famous internet forum, Free Republic, some text of which follows. Iraq Workers Are Promised 1000 Pct. Raise Posted on 04/23/2003 9:12 AM PDT by areafiftyone BAGHDAD, Iraq -Baghdad's self-proclaimed rulers said Wednesday they will use Iraqigovernment funds to pay all state employees their salaries this month - with a 1,000-percentraise - and took credit for advances in getting power, water and hospitals...

A PENSIONER on his way to receive an award for 25 years accident-free driving was stopped by police at a roadside check - and then admitted he did not have a licence. Wilibald Schmidt, 77, had been forced to hand over his licence for driving offences a quarter of a century before, but had carried on driving illegally without it, according to a report in the German daily newspaper, Bild. Because Mr Schmidt had not had an accident since 1978, the local motoring club in Essen, Germany, where he was a member, had invited him to receive an award for...

Cell Phones Rank Sixth on List of Causes of Accidents By  Jennifer Warner  Reviewed By Brunilda  Nazario, MD on Friday, March 07, 2003WebMD Medical News March 7, 2003 -- Chatting on a cell phone while driving may have gotten a bad rap in recent years as a common cause of car crashes, but a new study shows cell phones can't hold a candle to good, old-fashioned rubbernecking when it comes to causing a highway pile up. In one of the largest studies to date on crashes involving distracted drivers, researchers found looking at other accidents, traffic, or roadside incidents caused the largest number...

A New Plan Let it be remebered, JESUITS DO NOT GIVE UP. They would have to bide their time. They would once again resort to undercover activities as they had so many times before. Their task would be a difficult one, yet for the unfaltering Jesuits, not impossible. They would have to discredit the Reformation. They would have to dislodge the Universal Greek Text from the firm position it once held in the minds and hearts of English scholarship. The would have to "wean" Protestantism back into the fold of Rome. To do this they would use the same plan...

The driver of a bullet train in Japan is under investigation after falling asleep for nearly ten minutes at the helm. The train was travelling at 170mph with 800 passengers on board. No one was hurt in the incident because the train was on autopilot at the time. A spokesman for West Japan Railway, the operating company, said they were investigating why the driver fell asleep. "We are very shocked," said Kosuke Sugiyama. "Our business is all about passengers trusting us enough to travel on our trains." Railway staff became suspicious when the train pulled into Okayama station, about 90...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - Police have arrested a 30-year-old man who allegedly stole a van with the body of the dead owner inside it, a police spokesman said Monday.</p> <p>Juan Preciado of Los Angeles told detectives that he saw the dead man but thought he only was unconscious and even rifled through his pockets, said Officer Jack Richter.</p>

Co-Founder of Designated Driver Program Charged With DUI FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - A co-founder of a designated driver program is facing DUI charges. Marcel Beaumont, 49, of Delray Beach, was charged early Sunday after police said he fell asleep behind the wheel of his BMW while at an intersection. Beaumont was awakened by police, who said they found him to be slurring his speech. Beaumont declined comment Tuesday. Beaumont is a co-founder of Smashed Inc., a program in which individuals can purchase $30 memberships which let them call a toll-free number and obtain a ride home from any Delray...

THE man thought to have parked the explosive-filled van that destroyed the Sari Club has been arrested with an accomplice in northern Indonesia - and is believed to have confessed to his role in the Bali bombings. Ali Imron, the younger brother of prime suspects Mukhlas and Amrozi, was arrested on Berukang Island, East Kalimantan, on Monday night. He was holed up with a man named Mubarrok and police believe the pair had been trying to flee to Malaysia. Investigation chief Made Mangku Pastika said Ali Imron had "admitted to being connected with the Bali bombings". Australian Federal Police counter-terrorism...

Drivers face road charge by satellite Monthly bills for motorists in transport revolution Joanna Walters, transport editor Sunday February 24, 2002 The Observer All cars will be fitted with a 'big brother' satellite tracking meter to charge drivers up to 45p a mile for every journey taken under radical plans to slash congestion on British roads. The scheme, proposed by the Government's independent transport advisers, would see drivers handed monthly bills charging them for every single journey. In a landmark report to be given to Ministers tomorrow, the Commission for Integrated Transport will recommend using existing Global Positioning System satellites...