Free Republic

Trinity graduate has family history of schizophrenia "Voices" in the head of an award-winning Irish computer science graduate told him to rob a bank, it was claimed yesterday. Niall Clarke (27) was suffering from schizophrenia when he carried out a botched bank raid in Maine, a mental illness also suffered by his grandmother, said his solicitor yesterday. The brilliant Trinity graduate from Kilrush in Co Clare was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison earlier this week after the 2006 robbery of the Bangor Bank of America. "He was hearing voices that the bank had to be robbed. He said...

Michael Heath must step down as head of the Christian Civic League of Maine for one month for his attempt to solicit information about which state lawmakers and officials might be homosexual. The board of directors of the conservative Christian organization made that decision after a meeting Saturday. "The board determined that in making a call for personal information about the sexual orientation of public officials, Mr. Heath crossed a line of ethical behavior into a realm of sinful gossip," the board said in a statement posted on its Web site. "The board believes that in the heat of a...