Free Republic

In a bedroom lay a white silk pillow - yellowed with age and emblazoned with the screaming eagle emblem of the Army's 101st Airborne Division. On the walls were pictures and plaques telling the story of a World War II veteran; in another room was an adjustable hospital bed and, on a windowsill, a worn Bible. That October day, Jim Bennett was looking for an investment, a house to buy, rehab, then rent or resell, as he has done with about 500 others over more than 20 years. But Bennett found much more at the modest, two-story rowhouse on Winton...

Jim Bennett, the son of Sen. Bob Bennett who ran his father’s campaign for a fourth term this year, has begun working as a volunteer on the Senate campaign of Democrat Sam Granato, who hopes to replace the senior Bennett in Washington, D.C. Bennett was ousted at the Republican State Convention earlier this year when he came in third in the delegate vote. Mike Lee then defeated Tim Bridgewater in the GOP primary to become the Republican nominee against Granato in the November election. The defeat of Bennett at the convention has triggered concerns among a number of traditional Republicans...

A US coalminer left a detailed note showing that he and other trapped workers were alive at least 10 hours after an underground explosion, a family member said. The daughter of 61-year-old Jim Bennett, who was a shuttle car operator in the West Virginia mine, said the note has three or four entries, the first coming on Monday at 11.40am and the last, in words that trailed off the page, at 4.25pm, nearly 10 hours after the blast. "Each time he documented, you could tell it was getting worse," Ann Merideth told The Associated Press. "Later on down the note...