Free Republic

<p>After a decade in dock, the historic 1920s-era Delta Queen riverboat will cruise again.</p> <p>President Donald Trump signed legislation on Tuesday authorizing the 285-foot-long riverboat immortalized in poems and songs to cruise again along the Mississippi and several other rivers.</p>

Watch your heads! Check out this video showing the American Queen, the largest steamboat ever built, passing under the Illinois Central Railroad Bridge in Cairo, Illinois while southbound on the Ohio River with only 6″ minimum clearance. “We topped around above the bridge and backed down through it with the throttles ready to go ahead should anything go wrong,” a source told gCaptain. “We have several close bridges but that was the closest.” Built in 1955 by McDermott Shipyards, the American Queen is an authentic recreation of a classic Mississippi paddle-wheeler and really is powered by a genuine steam plant....

Steamboat cruises are back on the Mississippi River as of today. The Great American Steamboat Co. heads out of New Orleans today. "They'll be offering three-, to seven- to fourteen-day cruises all up and down the Mississippi River," says Robert Jumonville, director of cruise and tourism at the Port of New Orleans. They're steaming on the American Queen, which has been totally refurbished since it last sailed out of New Orleans in 2008. "It's about 420 passengers and top-of-the line. They've done a really nice job of reconditioning it after it's been laid up for a couple of years," says...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...