Free Republic

Mary Ellen Mara-Christian is only five feet, five inches tall, weighing in at 115 pounds. She's looks small, but this week she proved she can take on a lot. Mara-Christian killed a 13-foot, six-inch, 1,025-pound alligator during South Carolina's alligator hunting season. How did she do it? In an exclusive interview on "The Early Show on Saturday Morning," Mara-Christian explained she was out on a boat on Lake Moultrie with her husband and a few friends when she hooked the alligator with her heavy-duty fishing pole. "We stuck him with a harpoon," she said. "We had two lines on him,...

SHREVEPORT, La. - A Dallas woman has been sentenced to three years in prison for the deaths of a Karnack, Texas, couple in a drunken driving accident more than two years ago. Janis Cooksey, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide. State District Judge Ramona Emanuel sentenced her Wednesday to 10 years in prison, with seven years suspended, and five years of probation after she is released. Each count carried up to 20 years in prison. Police said Cooksey passed out behind the wheel of her automobile on the night of June 24, 2002, causing the vehicle to...

Amid all the splendid selections of texts and knick-knacks at the Chicago Printers Row Book Fair, I happened to spy three tables and a considerable amount of sidewalk devoted a company or collective called Revolution Books. I immediately went over with pen in hand. It’s a local bookstore that features all kinds of radical trinkets and accessories. You could feel its rebel vibe from a few booths away as the three Caucasian comrades running the booth blared rap music from a jam box one of them had brought. Once I got there, the first thing that caught my attention was...