Free Republic

Federal agents said Wednesday they were looking for a dark sport utility vehicle in the investigation of nine rural Alabama church fires. Two members of Old Union Baptist Church in Bibb County said they saw just such a vehicle driving slowly by the church at Brierfield when they arrived moments after the fire was set around 4:05 a.m. Friday. "They were looking at the church when I spotted them," one of the witnesses, Alvin Lawley, told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "It was like they wanted to see what they had done." Lawley said he got in his...

A sport utility vehicle is believed to have started a fire at a southeast Houston apartment complex Wednesday, fire investigators told Local 2. Investigators believe the fire started at about 1 a.m. in a Suzuki SUV parked under a carport at a complex on Broadway Street and Moline Street. The fire destroyed the SUV, and two apartment units suffered minor damage. No injuries were reported.

NEWPORT, Ore. -- Two people were killed Saturday on Highway 101 near the Sea Lion Caves. A Ford Excursion was passing several vehicles when the lead car in the line made a left turn and was broadsided by the Excursion. Oregon State Police said 23-year-old Trina Eyler and her passenger, 24-year-old Scott Carlson, both died. The driver of the Excursion, 20-year-old Salina Taylor-Caldwell, was treated for minor injuries. OSP is investigating the crash.

Published February 19. 2005 6:01AM Train, SUV collide at 12th Street crossing A 16-year-old boy was slightly injured Friday night when the Ford Explorer he was driving struck a train at the railroad crossing on 12th Street near Meighan Boulevard. It appears the SUV struck the train about midway in the line of about a dozen rail cars as the westbound train crossed through the intersection, said Gadsden, Alabama Fire Department Commander Tony Franklin. The SUV hung on the train and was dragged about 150 feet from the intersection, Franklin said.The boy was able to get out of the SUV,...

America's state attorneys general were getting in touch with their wacky side this week. That is, assuming the comedy of their new campaign for SUV safety is, er, intentional. It's certainly one of the most bizarre public-safety efforts ever. The AGs of Connecticut, Florida, Iowa and Vermont helped launch the $30 million ad campaign at the Central Park Zoo on Monday — and its key feature debuted on the Today Show next to a befuddled Katie Couric. "Esuvee," a truck-faced furry monster, is somehow supposed to scare teenage drivers about the dangers of SUVs. "The yearlong national consumer education campaign...

Two Long Island teens, heading home from a birthday party, were killed on the Southern State Parkway yesterday when an SUV traveling in the opposite direction careened into a median, launched into the air and landed on top of their car. Promising student Luis Alfaro, 19, of Brentwood, who had borrowed his aunt's Chevrolet Cavalier to go to the party in Freeport with his neighbor, Sammy Mena, 17, were killed instantly by the smash in the eastbound lane near Exit 42 in Bay Shore, authorities said. The two occupants of the SUV Ford Explorer — which then rolled over and...

Police have a man in custody after two firebombings Wednesday at the Vancouver Law Courts. The downtown block around the courthouse and government office complex was cordoned off by police after a man threw a Molotov cocktail at a window, setting a bush on fire. The building was evacuated after a second fire was discovered in the underground parkade. Police said witnesses saw the man making his escape in a black SUV. The vehicle was later tracked to a house in suburban Surrey, where investigators arrested a suspect. No one was hurt in the firebombings, although one person was taken...