Free Republic

When President Obama's offshore drilling moratorium halted work off the Gulf Coast in late May, the industry spewed that Washington just doesn't get it. For every rig worker, they argued, there were three to four more jobs supporting deepwater operations -- 21,000 in all, according to Louisiana's Oil and Gas Association. How could President Obama's administration legally close 33 permitted drill sites in the Gulf of Mexico when nearly all passed inspection by the Minerals Management Service after the Deepwater Horizon's April 20 explosion?

We are a leading provider of technologically advanced, new generation OSVs serving the offshore oil and gas industry, primarily in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and in select international markets. The focus of our OSV business is on complex exploration and production activities, which include deepwater, deep well and other logistically demanding projects.

RICHWOODS — When Shawn Hornbeck first walked through the doorway of his family's new home Tuesday evening, his jaw dropped and he backtracked right out of the house. A moment later, he opened the front door again, still smiling ear-to-ear and headed straight toward his new room. He was floored again. Shawn stood outside the blue room, with its small plasma television mounted on the wall, an encased poster of his favorite movie, "The Fast and The Furious," and an iTunes home audio system on his dresser. Excerpt- See link for rest of story and photo of house.

Michael J. Devlin was charged today by federal authorities with four counts of the production of child pornography and two counts of transporting a minor across state lines for illegal activity. U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said that the transportation charges both involve the same minor, identified only by the initial "S," who allegedly was transported once into Illinois and once into Arizona. The child pornography charges, going from October 2002 to January 2007, involve still photography and video photography, Hanaway said. Advertisement Devlin already faces charges in St. Louis County, Franklin County and Washington County in the 2002 abduction of...

For First Time, Officials Openly Accuse Michael Devlin Of Molesting Children (CBS News) CLAYTON, Mo. A Missouri man accused of kidnapping two boys and holding one for more than four years was charged Monday with molesting them — nearly 70 times in all. The charges were the first time authorities have openly accused Michael Devlin of molesting the children. Devlin, a 41-year-old pizzeria manager who had previously been charged with two counts of kidnapping, was charged with 69 counts of forcible sodomy, all felonies and each punishable by up to life in prison. St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCullough...

Here's a True Crime Update and we've got some serious stupid criminals plus the winner of this year's Stella awards…or lawsuits you will not believe. How about this, a couple kill an unwanted spouse by parachute? Also, can someone really committ suicide in the trunk of a car? A horrific child pornography crime, the Hornbeck's get a new house, pets killed by PETA, the organization that should protect them. And what's this about new Winkler pics from a cell phone?

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- A St. Louis-based homebuilder is donating a new house to Shawn Hornbeck and his family. McBride and Son Homes said the ranch-style home will be built on the property where Shawn and his parents now live in Richwoods.

Monster Next Door? From Webster Groves High to Imo’s Pizza to a cheap apartment in a forlorn corner of Kirkwood. For years Michael Devlin was all but invisible. Now he’s Public Enemy No. 1. By Malcolm Gay Michael Devlin as he appears in his junior-year photo in the 1983 Webster Groves High School yearbook. Jennifer Silverberg After working for roughly twenty years at the Imo's Pizza in Kirkwood, Michael Devlin had become a neighborhood fixture. Jennifer Silverberg Authorities allege that Devlin held Shawn Hornbeck and William "Ben" Ownby captive in this ground-floor apartment on South Holmes Avenue near I-44 in...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Detectives investigating accused kidnapper Michael Devlin have shown photographs of a teenage boy to the family of Charles "Arlin" Henderson, asking if the pictures resemble the then-11-year-old who disappeared in 1991, Arlin's relatives said Wednesday. Arlin's mother, Debra Henderson, and his uncle, James McWilliams, were both shown the pictures this week by Lincoln County Sheriff's detectives. McWilliams said detectives told him the pictures came from someone who claims to know Devlin and who said the teenage boy pictured was an acquaintance of Devlin's from years ago. Detectives were investigating whether the source did in fact know...

The sheriff of Franklin County is condemning as speculation a television news report that kidnap victim Shawn Hornbeck himself helped to kidnap another victim, William "Ben" Ownby, 13. The news report has been aired by KMOV-TV (Channel 4), which attributes it to "authorities close to the case." The station says that on Jan. 8 near Ownby's house in Franklin County, Hornbeck shoved Ownby into a pickup truck owned by Michael J. Devlin, 41, of Kirkwood

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. - Shawn Hornbeck's parents hope "to step out of the spotlight" to focus on their abducted son's healing now that he has returned home. That plan to take a lower profile was announced Tuesday during a news conference, as a suburban St. Louis homebuilder detailed plans to build a new house for Shawn and his parents, Craig and Pam Akers. The home will include office space for the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, which Shawn's parents began as a means to aid in the search for missing kids soon after Shawn disappeared in 2002.

Here's a True Crime date and a hoot. The psychic promised to find Hornbeck's body because she swore he was dead. Only it would cost a few bucks….. Pregnant teens attack their group home leader, a fine group of guys try to enroll a sex offender in a school and a weird youngster stabs a schoolmate in cold blood. Will that radio show with the water ingestion stunt become a True Crime? Someone died from it. Finally, getting to the bottom of the tale of those border agents.

UNION, Mo. — The hulking pizza manager accused of snatching two boys in Missouri is so ashamed of his arrest, he can't face his own mom and dad. "I don't know how I'm going to explain myself to my parents," said Michael Devlin, who is accused of kidnapping Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby, in an exclusive interview with The New York Post. "It's much easier talking to a stranger about these things than your own parents."

The man who fathered kidnapped teen Shawn Hornbeck was a convicted sex offender who did three years in a Missouri prison on drug and sodomy charges, The Post has learned. The late Walter Hornbeck was 60 when Shawn was born to him and his wife, Pamela Akers. He had little contact with his son, Akers said. Akers kicked him out of the house when the boy was just 6 months old, and the couple divorced in 1992, about a year after Shawn was born. Hornbeck was arrested in Washington County, near St. Louis, on Sept. 30, 1992, and charged with...

Shawn Hornbeck's parents say they may never know the full story as to why their son Shawn never attempted to contact them or to escape during the more than four years he lived with the man police say abducted him in 2002. But they said comments by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly that the boy may have enjoyed living with Michael Devlin more than his family had infuriated the couple. Shawn's stepfather, Craig Akers, said in an interview with TIME late Thursday evening. "Our son was 11 when he was abducted. A child that age can be mentally manipulated in...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Investigators announce a task force made up of federal, state and local investigators to examine whether the man accused of abducting Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby is responsible for other child kidnappings in eastern Missouri. Michael Devlin is charged in kidnappings in both Franklin County, where 13-year-old Ben was abducted January eighth, and Washington County, where eleven-year-old Shawn was abducted more than four years ago.

Devlin also is under investigation in the 1991 disappearance of another Missouri boy who still has not been found, The Associated Press has learned. Michael Devlin is the "most viable lead" in the case of Charles Arlin Henderson, who was 11 when he disappeared in 1991 and has never been found, Lincoln County sheriff's deputies said. ... Investigators began re-examining the 1991 case after Devlin's arrest. Detective Chris Bartlett said a witness saw a man snapping photos of Arlin before the Moscow Mills boy vanished. Arlin's uncle, James McWilliams, said the boy came home from school a few months before...

NEW YORK -- Ben Ownby and his family appeared on the NBC "Today" show this morning to describe what it was like to be back after his abduction last week. Host Meredith Vieira asked the boy what he had felt when he was reunited with his parents. His answer: "Great relief." Ben's mother, Doris Ownby, recalled the words a police officer used to tell her they had recovered her son, who had been missing for four days: "We have him." "And I said, 'We have who?'" she added, " 'cause I thought he was talking about the bad guy," Advertisement...

Time for some up-to-date True Crime. This week, it's all about those missing boys, now found. One was missing for four years, the other a week. Oh, and there's so much new info on that Duke rape case we're dizzy with it all. Update on the Atlantic City prostitute murders, a building superintendent who joined in on the rape, those New Orleans' cops and the bridge murders, and yes, it's early yet as reported, but a father really did decapitate his young daughter.

KIRKWOOD, Mo. (AP) - While his alleged kidnapper was away at work, teenager Shawn Hornbeck apparently had access to a computer, and may have put photos of himself online and posted a chilling message on a site created by his own desperate parents: "How long are you planning to look for your son?" A series of Web postings under the name "Shawn Devlin" - Devlin is the last name of the man suspected of kidnapping Shawn and posing as his father - came to light after Shawn's rescue from an apartment in Kirkwood last week.