Free Republic

BATH — Josephine Cushman Vail will lay red tulips on the grave of her little brother today, as she has nearly every year since 1927. Ralph Cushman, then 7, died 80 years ago today, along with 44 other people in what stood for more than 60 years as the largest mass murder in the United States. Vail, 93, said she could just as easily have died with her brother when a disgruntled school board member dynamited the Bath Consolidated School in the quiet, close-knit community 13 miles northeast of Lansing. Vail, then 13, was excused from taking final exams that...

Van Sant hits bullseye with teen gun film PETER HOWELL Two American high school teens, Alex and Eric, discuss their plan to brighten up a dull day. It involves the assault rifle they've just received from a friendly courier. They have a small arsenal of other guns and ammo to go with it. Alex and Eric are going to their school to hunt students. "We'll just be able to pick them off one by one," says Alex, the mastermind. "Most importantly, have fun." The scene is from the chilling final reel of Elephant, the new film by U.S. indie veteran...

judge lawfully imposed the 112-year prison sentence given Kip Kinkel for the 1998 murders of his parents and two students and the shooting rampage at Thurston High School that left 25 youths wounded and shocked the nation, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. The court said the sentence was neither unconstitutionally cruel nor a misapplication of the stated constitutional purpose of criminal sentences: to protect society and to provide personal responsibility, accountability and reformation. Jesse Barton, chief deputy state public defender, argued in the appeal that the trial judge misread Oregon's constitutional principles for criminal sentencing and wrongly gave...