Free Republic

PINEHURST, N.C. -- Many kids in Rickie Fowler's generation just don't get it, that's what the Old Schoolers like to say, anyway. The twenty-somethings don't respect history, don't appreciate who came before them, and don't see any cause as bigger than their own daily pursuits. On the surface, Fowler can come across as the too-cool-for-school face of that perception. He has fame and fortune despite only one PGA Tour victory to his name. He wears hip clothes, appears in cute, if self-congratulatory, commercials, and plays in a faux band on YouTube with a circle of fellow pampered golfers. Oh yeah,...

Do you remember where you were 10 years ago when you heard the reports of an aircraft flying across the central U.S. without any communication with ground controllers? Later of couse before the plane crashed the passenger list was made public but you didn't want to believe it? Then at mid afternoon with the aircraft out of fuel the crash into a rural area of South Dakota?.........Do you remember........William Payne Stewart was born January 30, 1957 in Springfield, MO. Payne learned the game from his father Bill who was a golf pro at an area course.Payne went to SMU to...

ORLANDO, Fla. - A jury in a $200 million lawsuit cleared Learjet of responsibility Wednesday for the 1999 death of pro golfer Payne Stewart in a charter plane crash. The twin-engine jet went down in a cow pasture in South Dakota after flying halfway across the country on autopilot, as Stewart and the four others aboard apparently lay unconscious for lack of oxygen. Everyone was killed.Stewart's widow, Tracey, and their two children sued the aircraft manufacturer, claiming a cracked piece of equipment caused cabin air to escape as plane climbed.Learjet argued that the plane lost pressure in another way, and...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A civil trial has started over who and what is to blame for the 1999 Learjet crash that killed pro golfer Payne Stewart and five others. The lawsuit, brought by the families of Stewart and his close friend and agent Robert Fraley, who also died, could result in a jury award worth millions if the plane's manufacturer is found to be at fault. Or testimony could show that a lack of pilot training and plane maintenance caused the Learjet 35 to lose pressure soon after takeoff from Orlando, killing all aboard within minutes. The plane then began...

A private plane chartered by a few Hollywood actors made an unexpected landing in El Paso last week. According to the Knight Ridder News Service, after a Mardi Gras weekend in New Orleans, "That '70s Show" co-stars Ashton Kutcher, Wilmer Valderrama and Danny Masterson, along with Colin Hanks -- son of Tom Hanks -- and "7th Heaven" stars Geoff and George Stults, were flying back to Los Angeles when the cabin pressure in the plane dropped. Liz Bellegarde, spokeswoman for El Paso International Airport, said Saturday that there were no reports of a charter plane making an emergency landing at...