Free Republic

Christina Westman dreamed of working with Parkinson’s disease and stroke patients as a music therapist when she started studying at St. Cloud State University. But her schooling was upended in May when administrators at the Minnesota college announced a plan to eliminate its music department as it slashes 42 degree programs and 50 minors. It’s part of a wave of program cuts in recent months, as U.S. colleges large and small try to make ends meet. Among their budget challenges: Federal COVID relief money is now gone, operational costs are rising and fewer high school graduates are going straight to...

<p>The Nebraska State Patrol says the nearly 120 pounds of suspected cocaine and fentanyl that troopers seized last month turned out to be all fentanyl, a deadly opioid that federal officials blame for thousands of deaths nationwide.</p> <p>The patrol says the stash was a record fentanyl seizure in Nebraska and estimates the drugs may have been worth up to $20 million on the street. The Drug Enforcement Administration says just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal. The fentanyl seized was enough to kill 26 million people, according to DEA estimates.</p>

“Historians and pundits always say that the first real decision a governor makes is the one of running mate,” Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, Ohio Democrats’ likely nominee for governor next year, wrote to supporters when he announced he had chosen state Sen. Eric Kearney (D) as his running mate. FitzGerald may be starting to wish voters weren’t paying attention to his first gubernatorial decision. That’s because, in the two weeks since joining the ticket, Kearney has been under almost constant barrage for owing back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. And the campaign’s response to the revelations about their...

After months of congressional pressure, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has opened an investigation of an Army general who tried to bring murder charges against U.S. troops. The investigation, requested by Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican, will probe whether Lt. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III overstepped his bounds and/or compromised legal proceedings in two Afghanistan incidents, one involving Marines and the other involving two Special Forces soldiers. The general's orders, to redeploy a Marine unit and probe the soldiers, were first reported in The Washington Times in October. "I am troubled by the premeditated-murder charges...

WASHINGTON -- A Marine company involved in the shooting of civilians in Afghanistan last March responded appropriately to an ambush against them, and should not have been pulled out of the country, the commander of Marine Corps special forces said Thursday. Marine Maj. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, head of Marine Corps Special Operations Command, also told reporters that a legal tribunal investigating the incident has been postponed until mid-January at the request of one of the officers involved. "Obviously it was not my decision to bring the company out of theater," Hejlik said. "It was the theater commander's decision. I...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., has asked the Pentagon to open an investigation of a high-ranking Army official who is at the center of two probes involving possible wrong-doing by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Jones said he believes Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney has overstepped his authority in the investigations and in turn is hurting troops' morale. "When men and women are asked to go to war for this country, then in my humble opinion they should be given every benefit of the doubt, and if there are any questions then they should not be handled in the press," Jones...

By Sharon Behn - Charges will no longer be pursued against a company of Marines who were yanked out of Afghanistan by a three-star general on suspicion of criminal wrongdoing, a lawyer involved in the case said yesterday. Defense attorney Mark Waple said he was informed late Wednesday that the case was being referred to a court of inquiry, which would limit itself to examining the actions of three Marine officers. A court of inquiry, the Navy's highest-level administrative investigatory body, is rarely convened and "is not a criminal proceeding," said a spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central...

A crusading three-star general has sparked outrage within the Army Special Forces and Marine Special Operations Command by publicly condemning and twice bringing legal actions against members of their forces. None of Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney's actions has resulted in a conviction, but they have roiled the military community, led to the resignations of several top-trained Marines, and sparked accusations of improper command influence. Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican, worried about the effect on the military, has asked Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to investigate Gen. Kearney, who currently heads the Special Operations Command. The case also has...

Divers search for New Jersey police officers who drove off bridge NEW YORK (CNN) -- Divers from state and federal agencies searched Sunday for two police officers whose emergency vehicle drove off a drawbridge and plunged into the Hackensack River in New Jersey outside Jersey City, an official said.The vehicle was driving eastbound from Kearney toward Jersey City through heavy fog on the Route 1 and 9 Bridge -- also known as the Lincoln Highway Bridge -- at 8:15 p.m., when the accident occurred, said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Tom Sperduto."The bridge was up; they couldn't see it and...

<p>LIBERTY, Mo. - This storied town was first settled about 1817 as a frontier post on the Missouri River. Nearly 200 years later, Liberty's town square has become a magnet for tourists fascinated by the legend of Jesse James and the history of the Old West.</p>