Free Republic

Just after 5 a.m. on May 28, Tempe police officers responded to an apparent disturbance between Bickings and a woman at the Tempe Center for the Arts, which sits on a promenade along the Tempe Town Lake, a reservoir in the city. In its statement, the city referred to Bickings as "unsheltered." Body-camera footage released by the city shows officers approach and speak to a woman who identified herself as Bickings's wife. As she picked up her belongings off the ground, she explained that she and Bickings sometimes have disagreements but said that he did not physically harm her. Two...

A Michigan man won $45,000 in a lottery game – but drowned with the ticket in his wallet before he was able to cash it. Gregory Jarvis, 57, was at the Blue Water Inn in Caseville on Sept. 13 when he played the Club Keno add-on game “The Jack” — and hit the jackpot, WJRT of Flint reported. “Very nice guy, he was here every day,” joint owner Dawn Talaski told the news station. “Somebody said someone just won ‘The Jack’ and he said, ‘Great,’ and someone asked him, ‘Was it you?’ and it was, so he was super excited.”...

A 3-year-old girl died Saturday afternoon when she fell into a grease trap and drowned at an ice cream parlor in Auburn, police said. The incident occurred at Bruster's Real Ice Cream on East University Drive, police said. According to police, video evidence from the scene showed the girl was playing with two of her siblings when she apparently fell through a lid covering one of the grease pits on the property.

A swimmer trying cross a wildlife-area pond while holding a large rock drowned Monday in Oroville. California Highway Patrol officers said Austin Harr of Gridley was celebrating his 21st birthday with a swim at the dredger ponds when he sank below the surface about 5 p.m.

According to today's noon broadcast, video surfacing today shows the DI BEATING AND STRANGLING (WOWK's words), the recruit, one day before his death. After watching video of the admittedly harsh treatment recieved by the deceased recruit on channels 3 and 8, I tuned in to WOWK 13 to see a HUGE exaggeration (lie?). The anchor reported that video showed the recruit had been "beaten and STRANGLED" by the drill instructor the day before. No rational, sane individual could describe what what seen in the video as a beating or strangling - in much less inflammatory language, it could not even...

Gore's early endorsement drowns out voters' voices Wed Dec 10, 6:38 AM ET When Al Gore endorsed former Vermont governor Howard Dean for president before a cheering crowd in Harlem, N.Y., on Tuesday, Dean had good reason to thrust his arms triumphantly into the air. Gore awarded the highest-profile endorsement yet in the party's nine-way race for the 2004 nomination. By securing it six weeks before the first Democratic contest and seven months before the party's national convention, Dean solidified his front-runner status before a single vote has been cast. That may prove good for Dean, whose standing in the...

Suspected Thief Drowns, Weighed Down by Loot Sun Aug 18, 7:35 AM ET TULSA, Oklahoma (Reuters) - A suspected thief, weighed down with more than 50 pounds of stolen cameras and CDs, among other items, drowned as he attempted to evade police by swimming across the Arkansas River, officials said. The man, identified as Edward McBride, 37, was carrying a duffel bag weighing 50 pounds that contained stolen items and was found Friday with stolen goods also stuffed in his pockets, said Tulsa police spokesman Lucky Lamons. He was being pursued by Tulsa police who suspected him of robbing a...