Free Republic

She'll be in jail for racism by the end of the week

A University of Chicago student was killed in a freak tragedy when a stray bullet ripped through his subway-car window during the commute home from his summer internship, police and loved ones say. Max Solomon Lewis, a 20-year-old junior from Denver, Colo., succumbed Sunday morning to injuries he suffered from the slug that pierced a window of the train at the 51st Street Green Line station, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “It’s a senseless tragedy for so many reasons,” classmate Zach Cogan told the outlet. Lewis, who was pursuing a double major in economics and computer science, had snagged a competitive...

Her Playbill bio is longer than that of some of her co-stars. Then again, she’s had a helluva life, having narrowly escaped death row. Now, after three years on the road with “Annie,” Macy, a 9-year-old mixed terrier, is making her off-Broadway debut. In “For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday,” which opens Wednesday at Mainstage Theater, she’s billed simply as “a dog.” (Talk about typecasting.) One of her more significant bits of stage business involves gobbling up some dropped cereal. All told, it’s a long way from Oklahoma, where animal trainer Bill Berloni found Macy in December 2009.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Investigators say they now know what caused a small hole in a US Airways plane that travelled from Philadelphia to Charlotte Monday. Sources say a stray bullet struck the rear of the Boeing 737-400 as it was landing in Charlotte. A pilot making a pre-flight inspection during a lay-over discovered the hole towards the rear of the aircraft. “He noticed a small hole in the exterior of the fuselage towards the rear of the aircraft,” said US Airways spokeswoman Liz Landau. Landau said the Boeing 737 arrived at Charlotte from Philadelphia. She said there were no apparent...

DALLAS, TX (KERA) - There are new rules in Dallas for handling stray dogs. Anyone who takes "possession" of a stray must try to locate the owner within 72 hours, or face a fine up to 500 dollars. Council member Vonciel Jones Hill was the only "no" vote. She said the ordinance would place a burden on anyone trying to have some kindness towards a stray. Dog owner Brad Kirby spent two years pushing for the ordinance after his dogs were stolen from his yard. He discovered who took them, but police had no legal power to make the man...

Russians can go nutty when it comes to dogs. Consider the incident a few years ago that involved Yulia Romanova, a 22-year-old model. On a winter evening, Romanova was returning with her beloved Staffordshire terrier from a visit to a designer who specialises in kitting out canine Muscovites in the latest fashions. The terrier was sporting a new green camouflage jacket as he walked with his owner through the crowded Mendeleyevskaya metro station. There they encountered Malchik, a black stray who had made the station his home, guarding it against drunks and other dogs. Malchik barked at the pair, defending...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Americans visiting violence-wracked Mexico this month for annual "spring break" vacations should be safe as long as they don't stray from tourist resorts, a Republican lawmaker from Texas said Monday. Mexico's escalating drug feuds and mounting murders have worried some American students considering spending the customary spring exodus south of the border. "Many places in Mexico are basically self-contained resort areas, where, frankly, you are not going to have a lot of interaction with people from the outside," Senator John Cornyn told Fox News. "My guess is, (the resorts) are probably a safer bet than some of...

Highway, the stray dog rescued from a grassy island between highways near downtown Fort Worth, is on the road to recovery.Tammy Hawley, operations manager for the Humane Society of North Texas, said the dog, who was befriended by passing motorists and captured in late November, is starting to warm up to being touched but is not quite ready to be adopted. "She is starting to lean in and let us pet her, instead of freezing," Hawley said. "But we want to assess her and make a good match so that once she goes home, she will stay home."Highway lived on...

This is my first vanity post. I just had to share this: We're thinking of calling her Mariah because she came in on the wind. LOL We've had her for about an hour now ... Neighbors found her in their backyard beneath the trampoline in the weeds and stickers and all filthy and starved with one eye all half closed with dirt and her nose all filled with dirt. We cleaned her up, fed her warm milk from an eye dropper and made her a crib in the nursery where they all begin their lives in Wonderland. LOL She's adorable...

AL FAYIL, Iraq (Oct. 6, 2007) -- Whenever coalition forces drive into a village children come running, screaming and waving. “Mista, mista, you give me futbol,” or “Mista, please, chocolate, give me,” are the most common phrases used by Iraqi children. As soon as the trucks stop they are engulfed by a frenzy of children, resembling an ice cream truck on a hot summer day. But recently, Marines brought more than soccer balls and candy to this small farming community; they brought home a child wounded by war. He is thirteen and shy. His black hair is short and his...

STEPHENS CITY, Va. - A stray kitten has found a new mother in a golden retriever, who began producing milk for the gray tabby after hearing its cries. The hungry kitten, found in an old tire at a concrete plant, refused to drink from a bottle and her rescuers feared she would die. That's when Honey, the family dog who hadn't given birth in 18 months, stepped in with her motherly instincts. "She started licking her and loving her. Within a couple of days, Honey started naturally lactating," said Kathy Martin, whose husband, Jimmy, brought the kitten home six weeks...

A Calvert woman claims her 2-year-old golden retriever saved her life Friday by giving her the canine version of the Heimlich maneuver. “The doctor said I probably wouldn’t be here without Toby,” said Debbie Parkhurst, 45, a jewelry artist who lives near Rising Sun High School with her husband, Kevin, and their two dogs. “I keep looking at him and saying ‘You’re amazing.’” Parkhurst said she was home alone with the dogs Friday afternoon when she decided to snack on an apple. Suddenly, she said, a chunk of the fruit became wedged in her windpipe. “It was lodged pretty tight...

Israeli police today detained two of Madonna’s bodyguards after they assaulted photographers waiting for the star outside her Tel Aviv hotel. Two of the photographers and a policeman who tried to break up the brawl were wounded, said Tel Aviv police spokesperson Liat Pearl. “Two security guards were detained for questioning by the Tel Aviv police department,” said Pearl. The pop diva has been in Israel since Wednesday with 2,000 other students of Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. Madonna’s visit to the country has sparked a media frenzy with the local dailies devoting pages detailing her luxury hotel suite and even...

Stray American cat 'found wandering in Oxford' A stray cat that was wandering the streets of Oxford was found to have been registered in the USA when rescuers did a microchip scan on it. The RSPCA says it has no idea how the cat, nicknamed Jasper, got to Britain, says BBC Online. And it has been unable to trace Jasper's owners in the USA. It is now hoping someone will recognise the animal, which was found in Campbell Road in the city. RSPCA inspector Doug Davidson said Jasper was friendly and 'a good ambassador for the USA'. He said he...

Animal shelters in USA send away for more strays Fri Jan 31, 6:52 AM ET Add Top Stories - USA TODAY to My Yahoo! Tom Vanden Brook USA TODAYMarianna Massa wanted to help solve the problem of stray dogs in her ''own little way.'' So she adopted Peluso, a three-legged mutt. She picked him out of a crowd at a shelter in Salem, Mass. But Peluso was no neighborhood stray. The terrier mix had been shipped 1,700 miles from Puerto Rico because Salem doesn't have enough strays to satisfy demand. Peluso is part of a trend: Animal shelters in the...

Video system can redirect stray missiles 12:31 27 September 02 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition The US Navy has developed a new missile guidance technology that it hopes will cut the number of casualties caused when its missiles are wrongly targeted or go astray. The smartest bombs still hit the wrong targets Photo: CORBIS The technology allows a commander to redirect a missile that appears to be heading for the wrong target, as a result of malfunction, or because the target moved or was wrongly identified in the first place. This happens all too often. During the Kosovo conflict...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Two Japanese tourists, eager to visit Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, were so engrossed in their guide book Wednesday they did not notice they had wandered into a war zone. It was only when news photographers in flak jackets and helmets spotted the oblivious couple and pointed out the bullet-pocked buildings and military hardware around them that they decided to call off their trip to the Christian shrine. "We have been on the road for the last six months and we did not watch television or read the newspapers," a bemused Yuji Nakano told one...