Free Republic

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Healthy and in their 30s, Christina and Josh Tidmore figured they were low-risk for COVID-19. With conflicting viewpoints about whether to get vaccinated against the virus filling their social media feeds and social circles, they decided to wait. On July 20, Josh came home from work with a slight cough initially thought to be sinus trouble. On Aug. 11, he died of COVID-19 at a north Alabama hospital as Christina Tidmore witnessed a doctor and her team frantically try to resuscitate her husband. “She would say, ’I need a pulse. ’I would hear, ‘no pulse,’ “Christina...

In a rural stretch of northeastern Florida where barely half the people have gotten a coronavirus shot, Roger West had no problem telling others he was “adamantly anti-vaccination.” The co-owner of the Westside Journal weekly newspaper used his voice as a columnist to widely share his doubts about the vaccine and his mistrust of the health experts in the U.S. who have been urging everyone to get it. “I do not trust the Federal Government,” West wrote recently. “I do not trust Dr. Fauci, I do not trust the medical profession, nor the pharmaceutical giants.” But something happened to change...

Newspapers from really small towns can still be quite delightful, which is why I still subscribe to the Leelanau Enterprise where all the news is parochial, all sports regional and all politics local. They still have space for human interest stories and local history, unvarnished and largely unretouched by politically correct sensibilities. Stories such as this from a local book, “A Port Oneida Collection: Images, Oral History, Maps,” which chronicles the history of the Charles and Hattie Olsen Farm. The excerpt continues from an earlier installment and picks up with a 1978 letter from the Olsen’s daughter, Virginia, to one...

Saw this, and thought that it would be a nice change of pace for Saturday morning- Ron Perlman reprised his role of Hellboy for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Iwo Jima vet's son takes photos to family in Japan The two wallet-size photos sat in a box in Fiorenzo Lopardo's bedroom dresser, reminders of a promise not yet kept. Decade after decade he held on to them, through law school, through raising a family, through 16 years as a Superior Court judge in Vista. Lopardo got the photos at a moment of high anxiety – literally in the heat of battle. That's what made them precious. On March 19, 1945, he was a Marine commander on Iwo Jima, an island in the Pacific that was the site of one...

Video from the helmet camera of British skydiver Michael Holmes. It shows him plummeting 12,000ft to earth after both his parachutes failed, saying goodbye to the world... and hitting the ground with a sickening thud at 80mph. Michael's friend, who jumped from the same plane, also filmed the whole event. He found his pal bleeding and unconscious - but alive.

NEW YORK - Surgeons freed a 6-year-old boy from the twisting grip of a tumor Wednesday, cutting through the growth to relax his spinal cord and give him a chance at a relatively normal boyhood. In the first half of an operation that will resume next week, doctors at Montefiore Medical Center cut into Aidan Fraser's neck to attack the tumor that had grotesquely twisted his spinal column. "It went very, very well," said Dr. John Houton, a neurosurgeon. "I am absolutely thrilled with the result that we got." He said Aidan woke up easily, was breathing on his own,...

SEATTLE - This is a story about a mother, a baby in dire need and how the two came together. It didn't matter that they didn't come from the same place, or look at all alike -- they weren't even the same species! But instinct took over when the need was greatest. Debby Cantlon of Seattle explains: "He doesn't know he's a squirrel; he thinks he's a dog." She's talking about Finegan, the squirrel. He could be excused for thinking he's a dog, that's how he's being raised. Rescued at just a few days old, Finegan had fallen from a...

Subtitled: Final Score Means Little To Youth Coach

<p>NEWTON -- About the only criticism you can muster of Martin Abramowitz's crowd-pleasing idea -- to produce a set of baseball cards of all 142 Jewish major leaguers from 1871 to 2003 -- is that its thoroughness kills the possibility of trades. After all, if everyone owns every card, how can someone offer to swap, say, a Mike "Superjew" Epstein for a Moe "The Rabbi of Swat" Solomon?</p>

NASIRIYAH, Iraq -- After one firefight on the Euphrates River, the acrid smoke cleared and a U.S. Marine handed Staff Sgt. Nelson Hidalgo two casualties of the war and poverty in Iraq.The mother was dying of hunger, unable to nurse her young, who were on the verge of starving, too. The "barbarians," as Marines with the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance unit are called, were about to become proud parents."We scooped the babies right up," said Hidalgo, nodding at the white puppy chowing down on a military MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) of pasta and vegetables beneath the gun turret of...

Posted on Sun, Apr. 14, 2002 Dog gone but not forgotten By ELIZABETH CAMPBELLStar-Telegram Staff Writer SAGINAW - Ted E. Bear won't be in the classroom anymore to comfort upset children by letting them lie on his stomach or help withdrawn children get the courage to talk. But the specially-trained Golden retriever, who died late last month on his way home from Bryson Elementary School, will always be remembered for his loyalty and good nature. Ted's owner and friend, long-time special education teacher Carolyn Walsh or "dear Walsh" to children and their parents, said Ted touched many lives. `It's...