Free Republic

A 15-year-old girl who was shot along with her mother as they sat in a car outside their Romeoville home has died, authorities said. Briana Valle was pronounced dead at 12:03 a.m. today at Loyola University Medical Center, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Manuel Valle scheduled to die of lethal injection in FloridaThe execution of a Florida man convicted of killing a Coral Gables police officer 33 years ago is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Manuel Valle, 61, is set to be executed by lethal injection at 4 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Raiford, over eight weeks after his original execution date. Valle was convicted of fatally shooting 41-year-old Luis Pena in the neck during a traffic stop in April 1978. He was driving a stolen car when he was stopped by Pena and officer Gary Spell, who also was shot but saved...

Before last night’s U.S. Senate campaign debate in Kentucky between Rand Paul and Jack Conway, a fracas ensued when a left-wing activist approached Paul wearing a blond wig and carrying an anti-Paul sign. The activist accosted the Republican candidate, upon which she was wrestled to the ground and had her head stepped on by some overzealous and hypersensitive Paul supporters. Interestingly enough, the activist – whose name is Lauren Valle – seems to have spent some time in Louisiana earlier this year. And Valle picked up a citation for rather uncivil conduct during her stay in the Sportsman’s Paradise. Per...

Work is under way on the construction of a security wall that will surround a parking lot used by Cameron County state district judges and the district attorney. County workers on Monday used a backhoe to break up the concrete in the parking lot at the Cameron County Courthouse on Harrison Street as they readied it for rebar. The construction will take from 60 to 90 days depending on the weather, said County Administrator Pete Sepulveda Jr. Although the estimated cost of the wall is $240,000, Sepulveda anticipates it will be “much less than that” because the work is being...

19 convicted as Mexican style of corruption moves north of the border BROWNSVILLE — The bribe has long been a shortcut to wealth and power along the Texas-Mexico border. But these days, it's not just politicians lining their pockets or crooked lawmen taking bags of cash to overlook drug loads. The culture of bribery is quietly seeping into new realms of government, from school districts to municipal court, experts say. Proximity to Mexico is at least partly to blame, said Anthony Knopp, a professor who teaches border history at the University of Texas at Brownsville. "What we're dealing with is...