Free Republic

A Kansas man was charged in the April shooting that left New York Giants draft pick Corey Ballentine wounded and one of the player’s college teammates dead, police said Friday. Francisco Alejanero Mendez, 18, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and five counts of aggravated battery in the April 18 shooting, the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Ballentine and Dwane Simmons, who were both football players at Washburn University, were outside an off-campus house party hours after the Giants selected Ballentine when a gunman opened fire from a vehicle, killing Simmons and wounding...

An assistant medical examiner who helped perform a private autopsy on Michael Brown and whose medical credentials were called into question by CNN this week wonders why the network is only now bringing accusations against him to light. “Why are you guys bringing this old stuff up, but yet you guys used me on your program several times?” Shawn Parcells, the Kansas-based assistant examiner, said of CNN in an interview with The Daily Caller on Friday. Parcells aided forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden in the Aug. 17 autopsy on Brown, who was shot to death on Aug. 9 by Ferguson,...

Readers may not know Shawn Parcells’ name, but those who have followed the Michael Brown case know his work. Parcells worked with the Brown family and pathologist Michael Baden on a private autopsy, the results of which Parcells claimed demonstrated that Brown had been (a) shot in the back and (b) shot with his hands in the air in a position of surrender. Both claims were later discredited by the official autopsy and witness accounts to the grand jury that heard the case, but not before the claims made by Parcells on a number of news shows fueled protests...

A federal judge in Kansas ruled a university's prominent display of a sculpture that mocks the Catholic faith did not violate the Constitution. Washburn University's sculpture, entitled "Holier than Thou," depicts a Roman Catholic bishop with a grotesque facial expression wearing a miter that resembles a phallus. The Topeka school's Campus Beautification Committee selected the display to help fulfill its goal of having "one of the most beautiful campuses in Kansas." After refusing to act on complaints brought by numerous Catholics, including the archbishop of Kansas City, a lawsuit was filed by the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center....

ANN ARBOR, MI — A federal judge in Kansas has ruled that Washburn University did not violate the constitution by prominently displaying a sculpture that mocks the Catholic faith. The sculpture, entitled “Holier than Thou,” depicts a Roman Catholic bishop with a grotesque facial expression wearing a miter that resembles a phallus. The sculpture was selected for display by the Campus Beautification Committee , whose goal is to make the University “one of the most beautiful campuses in Kansas.” The lawsuit was brought by the Thomas More Law Center after the University refused to act on complaints by numerous Catholics...