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A six-month-old Medford baby was bitten by a rat up to 200 times after it escaped from its cage in the boy's room. Police say the parents, 21-year-old Robert Horsfall and 19-year-old Maegan McCleary, found the rodent near a creek. Police say they took the infant to the emergency room at Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford. Detectives say the parents apparently believed the rat was a domestic breed. They brought it home and kept it in a cage in the room where they slept with the baby. The next morning they found that the rat had escaped and bitten...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had had no alcohol before the accident. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. "I was involved in a traffic accident last night at First and C Street SE near the U.S. Capitol," Kennedy said in a written statement released by his office. "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident. I will fully cooperate with the Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake." Kennedy appeared to be intoxicated when he crashed...

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- A congresswoman's son and three Democratic campaign workers were sentenced Wednesday to four to six months in jail for slashing tires outside a Bush-Cheney campaign office on Election Day 2004. The men pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor property damage. A fifth worker was found not guilty. "This case had to be a public example of what can happen when you interfere with voters' rights," said Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Brennan, who rejected prosecutors' recommendation of probation for the four men.

Tire-slashing boasts recalled Witness says 5 were 'excited' about vandalism By DERRICK NUNNALLYdnunnally@journalsentinel.com Posted: Jan. 11, 2006 The key state witness in the election day 2004 tire-slashing trial testified Wednesday that the five defendants had all come into his office "excited, kind of boisterous" that morning to brag about vandalism that stranded 25 vans Republicans had planned to use for taking voters to polls. Election Day Vandalism Photo/Jack OrtonOpel Simmons III, a Democratic Party consultant, testifies Wednesday in the trial over tire-slashings on election day 2004. More Information Criminal complaint Recent Coverage 1/10/06: Outside operatives blamed in tire case 1/9/06:...

US President George W. Bush has warned rising oil prices will mean a "tough summer" for US consumers as the high cost of gasoline (petrol) showed signs of becoming a big political issue. But even as more Americans expressed discontent over the price of filling up their gas tanks, Bush suggested there was little his government could do in the short term about the problem. "We're going to have a tough summer because people are beginning to drive now during tight supply," Bush said as he toured a California facility developing hydrogen-powered vehicles. "The American people have got to understand...

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A Columbus man asked for directions early Monday, but the two pedestrians from whom he sought help stole his car instead. Keith Stroman, 21, told Columbus police he stopped his 1995 Chevrolet Camaro at an intersection on the south side of town around 2:50 a.m. to ask two men for directions. Instead of answering his question, one of the men pulled a silver gun and ordered Stroman out of his car. The carjackers got into the Camaro, valued at $4,000, and drove away, police said. Stroman was not injured.

A museum dedicated to broken hearts has opened in Croatia. Drazen Grubisic and Olinka Vistica decided to set up the museum after consoling friends over their failed romances. Items on display at the museum in Zagreb include letters and mementoes. Grubisic said: "We've never heard of such a museum and hope that it will be a form of therapy for all those people with broken hearts. We have collected mementoes, letters and different things from numerous people who have lost their loves. "The museum has everything from romantic and touching letters to different gifts given to lovers like teddy bears...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Thursday that Iran won't back away from uranium enrichment and said the world must treat Iran as a nuclear power. AP Photo Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he stands in front of picture of Iran's late leader Ayatollah Khomeini and addresses a meeting of students and universty staff in Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi province, 530 miles northeast of Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 12, 2006. The comments were made as Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran for talks aimed at defusing tensions over Iran's nuclear...

It seems almost any crime can be excused or ignored if the perpetrator is a Democrat. A married Democrat mayor can be caught smoking crack cocaine with a prostitute and, even after he is convicted and sentenced to prison, manage to return to public office. A married Democratic senator who leaves a party with a single young woman and gets into a drunk-driving accident that kills her does not merely avoid jail time, but retains his Senate seat and indeed goes on to become one of the most powerful politicians in his party. Wholesale corruption, election fraud, kickbacks, bribery, espionage,...

Sounding like a born-again social conservative, president Lyndon B. Johnson stepped to the podium and made this stirring pronouncement: “When the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale, the community itself is crippled.” And with his usual modesty, LBJ later hailed that 1965 Howard University commencement address as his “greatest civil rights speech.” A few months later the Moynihan Report came out. Despite its commonsense focus on strengthening the Black family, civil rights leaders raised a stink that Mr. Moynihan was trying to “blame the victim.” Floyd McKissick, director of...

When oursupposedly compassionate federal government pokes its nose into areas that, under our principle of federalism, should be none of its business, the result is often unintended consequences, gross injustices, and of course massive costs. A prime example is the 1986 federal Bradley Amendment, which mandates that a child support debt cannot be retroactively reduced or forgiven even if the debtor is unemployed, hospitalized, in prison, sent to war, dead, proved to not be the father, never allowed to see his children, or loses his job or suffers a pay cut.

In an unexpected twist in the Election Day tire slashing trial, four former Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers, including the sons of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and former Acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, have agreed to plead no contest to misdemeanors. The plea agreements came in the middle of jury deliberations after an eight-day trial on felony property damage charges that carried potential 3 1/2 year prison terms upon conviction. Michael Pratt, 33, Sowande Omokunde, 26, Lewis G. Caldwell, 29, and Lavelle Mohammad, 36, have all pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property. Omokunde is Moore's son. Prosecutors...

Publicity about a pair of ‘affluent’ Ashland panhandlers has cut handouts for some others who say they’re lucky to get enough for food Jenah Dodge panhandled in downtown Ashland Sunday carrying a cardboard sign that declared she was pregnant. A passerby cried out, "I’ve heard that one before." Dodge, who showed her swollen stomach to prove she was pregnant, just shrugged the comment off, saying, "I never lie when I get money. I believe in karma." While the 20-year-old, who says she gets $20 to $30 a day, hasn’t noticed a drop-off in donations, other panhandlers say the publicity about...

Couple fend off public ire following news article ASHLAND — Sudden notoriety and public condemnation have surprised an Ashland couple who make a living as panhandlers and refer to themselves as "affluent beggars." Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, who have three children, think the public has been taken aback by their unconventional image of a well-fed, well-dressed family that lives off the streets. "What has happened is that we’re going along with a lifestyle that you couldn’t imagine we should have," said 34-year-old Pancoast. A story in Sunday’s Mail Tribune about the couple, who sometimes make up to $300 a...

The first time 30-year-old Elizabeth Johnson stopped a stranger on the street to ask for money, she was really nervous. She was six months pregnant and desperate, having just spent seven days in jail for shoplifting books... Now Johnson and her 34-year-old partner, Jason Pancoast, who have been together for 14 years, support themselves and their three children, 6-year-old Seth, 3-year-old Adrianne and 3-month-old Synclair, by panhandling...

Al Qaida abuses young operatives To the long list of Al Qaida's sins against humanity, add one more: child abuse. Al Qaida chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi abuses children. His network brainwashes them through abuse and deprivation and forces them to do any number of depraved things. U.S. forces are learning of this as they raid Al Qaida safe houses where these kids are basically held as slaves. Particularly informative was a raid of an Al Qaida safe house east of Tal Afar on Oct. 28. U.S. forces discovered that Al Zarqawi was forcing youngsters to conduct attacks against U.S....

While dangerous and morally reprehensible, one can at least admire the convoluted logic of the Left and the brashness with which it is waved under the noses of disbelieving Americans. But has anyone considered that many on the Left are just…not very bright?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Broke and without enough money in the bank to pay its bills after the end of the month, the Florida Democratic Party has now been slapped with a lien by the Internal Revenue Service for failing to pay payroll and Social Security taxes in 2003. The state party's budget and finance committee voted Tuesday to ask for a new audit to account for more than $900,000 it believes somehow disappeared from the books during the 2003-2004 calendar years when the party was led by Scott Maddox, who is now seeking its nomination for governor. Maddox and successor...

A couple in Tucson, Arizona is making news for refusing to give their child a name. Andrew Heatley and Mary Lane decided against naming their second child when she was born, because they wanted to see what would fit her personality. She is 18 months old now, and still nameless. For now, they just call her "Baby" or "Bobee" - a nickname used by her big sister, Meah. Because "Baby" has no legal name, she has no birth certificate, no social security number, and cannot be claimed as a tax deduction. The mother and father with their nameless 18-month-old daughter.

Sudan Report: Widespread Gang-Rape of Boy Slaves July 16, 2002 From Freedom Now World News Widespread Gang-Rape of Boy Slaves By Maria Sliwa Sudan, July 15, 2002: During a recent fact finding trip to Southern Sudan, Freedom Now World News discovered overwhelming evidence that young black, boy slaves are repeatedly gang-raped by their Arab masters. While previous reports on slavery have focused mainly on the gang-rape of female slaves, sociologist and investigative reporter, Maria Sliwa received testimony from numerous boy victims of rape. "This type of sex is very strange to us," said recently redeemed slave Deng Deng. "Many...