Free Republic

The FBI is seeing a growing problem of false emergency calls designed to trigger a significant police response. These false reports of hostage situations, kidnappings, and bomb threats put both first responders and innocent people in jeopardy. At least 600 people were victims of swatting since last year, according to FBI data. Swatting even led to an innocent Kansas man being killed by responding officers. FBI Special Agent Siobhan Johnson said the bureau has created a special unit of 700 individuals from 350 law enforcement agencies across the country to collect data to identify patterns and solutions. The FBI created...

The late Pope John Paul II, who has been put on the fast track to sainthood by the Vatican, regularly whipped himself as an act of penance to feel closer to God, and signed a secret document saying that he would step down as pontiff if he became incurably ill, according to a new book. "Why a Saint?" by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican "postulator" in charge of the canonization process, says the Polish-born Pope performed self flagellation as a bishop in Krakow and continued to do so in the Vatican after being elected Pope in 1978. "In his wardrobe,...

Something rotten in air -- but what? February 28, 2005 BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Staff Reporter The City of Big Odors lived up to its name Sunday as Chicagoans woke up, opened their doors and smelled something rotten. An invisible cloud of ... well, who-knows-what wafted across the city starting about 2 a.m. Sunday. Was it from the fire at BP Amoco's Whiting, Ind., plant Saturday afternoon? BP officials say that was not the cause of the smell. Winds of 10 to 15 mph out of the southeast gradually blew the stench through Chicago, up to northwest suburbs such as...