Free Republic

At 8 a.m. Sunday the population of Kinsman, Ill., stood at 109. An hour later it nearly doubled, as upwards of 100 federal agents and police swooped in on the tiny, rural community. And no one seems to know why. The law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, immigration officials and state police, surrounded an Islamic meat plant in Kinsman, cordoning off the area and briefly detaining the plant's handful of employees. The FBI isn't saying much, and the county sheriff is mum too, leaving Kinsman's residents mystified. The bust, in a town that has no local police force, involved dozens...

NEW ULM, Minn. -- Too bad firefighters didn't have a pile of popcorn handy -- or better yet, loads of lobster tails. An intense fire consumed half of the roof of the Associated Milk Producers Inc. butter packaging plant, sending melted butter flowing out of the facility. There were no immediate reports of injuries, but officials worried that the melted butter would interfere with the railroad tracks bordering the plant's east end. The plant was holding an estimated 3 million pounds of butter at the time of the fire Wednesday. A plant employee discovered the fire in a utility area,...