Free Republic

A 23-year-old man who said he hated the U.S. government has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly trying to blow up an Oklahoma City bank with what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb in a truck. According to a criminal complaint, Jerry Drake Varnell wanted to start a militia group and admired Timothy McVeigh, the domestic terrorist who was convicted and executed for setting off a massive truck bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. Varnell thought he was dealing with two fellow sympathizers in the anti-government movement but they were a confidential informant and...

By Laura Heinauer AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, December 15, 2004 A former Boy Scout from Burnet has donated $2 million toward a new Boy Scouts of America regional headquarters, the organization announced Tuesday. Frank Fickett, an 83-year-old real estate developer who sits on the Scouts' Capitol Area Council executive board, made the lead donation for the planned $3.9 million, 25,000-square-foot facility, which will be named in his honor. "It serves so many children throughout the entire area, and, after all, they are our future," Fickett said Tuesday. A former Burnet City Council member, Fickett has lived in the Hill Country town...