Free Republic

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A New York appeals court says a chimpanzee isn't entitled to the rights of a human and doesn't have to be freed by its owner. The three-judge Appellate Division panel was unanimous Thursday in denying "legal personhood" to Tommy, who lives alone in a cage in upstate Fulton County. A trial level court had previously denied the Nonhuman Rights Project's effort to have Tommy released. The group's lawyer, Steven Wise, told the appeals court in October that the chimp's living conditions are akin to a person in unlawful solitary confinement.

Two New Jersey men were arrested yesterday and charged with conspiring to manipulate the stock price of Marx Toys & Entertainment Corp., a toy company made famous in the 1920s for introducing the yo-yo. Steven Wise, the chief executive officer of Marx Toys, and Larry Vindman, a stock promoter, were charged with fraudulently inflating the company's stock price by $6 million. The two were charged in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn and released on bail. If convicted, Wise, 43, of Manalapan, and Vindman, 32, of Marlboro, could be sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $250,000 or twice the...