Free Republic

An ice hockey star who is believed to have taken a blade to his throat in a horrific injury during a game has died aged 29, his family have said. Adam Johnson's injury was so horrific it forced the game to be abandoned and left traumatised fans in tears. The Minnesota-born athlete is believed to have been stuck in the neck by an ice hockey blade in a freak accident at the match between Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers at Utilita Arena Sheffield this evening. His mother Kari took to social media to share her heartbreak this morning - telling...

Nearly seven out of 10 US service members are considered either overweight or obese — which may compromise the nation’s military readiness and undermine national security, according to a new wide-ranging study. The American Security Project, a Washington-based nonprofit, found that 68% of US troops qualified as either “overweight” or “obese” under the Body Mass Index, which takes into account a person’s age, height and weight. It also determined that the number of troops in the “obese” category have more than doubled over the course of the past decade — from 10.4% in 2012, to 21.6% last year. The trend...

A hate-fueled attacker pummeled a young man for wearing a turban and a face mask on an MTA bus in Queens over the weekend, police said. “We don’t wear that in this country,” the creep snarled, adding, “And take that mask off!” before he repeatedly punched the 19-year-old man in the head, face and back. The suspect then tried, and failed, to snatch the victim’s turban off his head, cops said. The shocking attack took place at around 9 a.m. Sunday on an MTA shuttle bus near 118th Street and Liberty Avenue in the Little Guyana neighborhood, authorities said. The...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” anchor Jake Tapper asked National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan why it looked like nothing was being done to rescue Americans currently held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Partial transcript as follows: TAPPER: Is rescuing the hostages a priority at all? I mean, Israeli news media, like “Haaretz,” they say it doesn’t seem like it at all. And frankly, Jake, if my kids were being held hostage in Gaza — and, as you know, there are Americans being held hostage in Gaza right now — I’d want you to send in the Navy SEALs....

The White House said on Wednesday that so far details are scant when it comes to the location and conditions of Americans it believes are being held hostage by Hamas following the terrorist attacks against Israel. National security adviser John Kirby told reporters there are a “very small” number of Americans believed to be held as hostages, but that he wasn’t aware of proof of life, and he couldn’t provide details about their whereabouts or condition. So far, the administration has determined 17 Americans to be unaccounted for and it is unclear precisely among those how many may be held...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Israel, where an unknown number of Americans are being imprisoned by Hamas militants who have threatened to begin executing hostages. The State Department announced the trip in a press release Tuesday, but did not mention the hostages: Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Israel and Jordan October 11-13, 2023, where he will meet with senior officials. The Secretary will reiterate his condolences for the victims of the terrorist attacks against Israel and condemn those attacks in the strongest terms. The Secretary will also reaffirm the United States’ solidarity with...

Delta, American, United and Southwest Airlines have discovered that unapproved jet engine parts with fake safety certificates have been installed inside their planes. The airline companies and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency have claimed that AOG Technics, a leading global aircraft support provider to the air transport industry, sold them the fake parts. The airlines stated that AOG Technics falsified the required airworthiness documents for the spare parts and mass-produced artificial safety certificates in order to sell its engine parts to them. Parts sold by the problematic company have been found in 126 engines across the airlines and several...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) said Tuesday she doesn’t “understand” Americans who support Russian President Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine. “I don’t understand any American siding with Putin, but we’ve seen it and we’ve heard it and we have to fight against it,” Clinton said in an interview with PBS NewsHour’s Geoff Bennett. Clinton was asked by Bennett about a “growing” divide in American politics over funding and support for Ukraine in their fight against Russia and how she thinks the Russian leader views it. She said she thinks Putin is “thrilled” about this divide.

About 100 planes around the world have been caught up in a scandal that would be cartoonish if it weren’t so terrifying. It saw a dubious company, with fake employees and an address that was a glorified PO box, sell and distribute fake airplane parts that ended up in planes belonging to some of the world’s biggest airlines. On Thursday night, American Airlines became the fourth, and so far final, airline to have found parts from AOG Technics in its aircraft. Southwest kicked off the disclosures from various airlines around the world in early September, when it became the first...

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. debate sending billions more in military aid to Ukraine, an American citizen journalist, Gonzalo Lira, is languishing in a Ukrainian prison on allegations of spreading Russian propaganda, throwing into question the status of free speech in the supposed democracy the Biden administration argues is worthy of more taxpayer dollars. The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve another $24 billion for Ukraine for now through the end of this year, which would add to the $113 billion that Congress has committed to the country since its war with Russia began in February...

The Heritage Foundation found that the United States’ current provision of $113 billion in aid to Ukraine costs $900 per American household. “The formal aid packages alone amount to a staggering $113 billion—roughly $900 per American household and almost 12 times the spending cuts promised by House leadership in the annual spending bills,” Richard Stern, the director of the Heritage Foundation Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, told the Daily Signal.

Democrats are very worried that a third-party presidential candidate backed by the group No Labels could cost Joe Biden the 2024 presidential election — handing victory to the Republican candidate, possibly former President Donald Trump. Democrats are right to be worried … but Republicans should be worried too. Although third-party candidates are fairly common in U.S. presidential elections — as well as other federal and state elections — they seldom have much of an effect on the outcome. But in at least four presidential elections since 1900, a third-party candidate attracted enough votes to arguably change the outcome. Two of...

It would seem logical that anyone dealing with children would have to undergo extensive background checks.However, a convicted U.S. pedophile was given a free hand to work with orphanages and schools in Ukraine.Moreover, Ukrainian law enforcement appears to have ignored his activities in the country, unlike U.S. authorities.On Jan. 30, a U.S. court sentenced Charles Richard Skaggs, Jr., also known as Rick Skaggs, to life in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and concealment of evidence. Skaggs had a prior conviction in 1997 out of Indiana’s Clark County for having sexual misconduct with a minor.Martin...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee defends George Soros, calling him “an American and a patriot.”

The American Dream is alive and well for most, but the younger generation and less educated do not share such optimism, according to a new poll conducted by NORC – University of Chicago. In a survey of 2,187 of U.S. residents – regardless of age, race, ethnicity, income, or education – a whopping 75% of respondents said they had achieved or are on their way to obtaining the American Dream, namely economic opportunity and freedom of choice.

A tiny town in Maine has been divided by a plan to build the world's tallest flagpole, with an American flag the size of a football field and an accompanying museum and theme park. The scheme is the brain child of a local businessman, Morrill Worcester. Worcester's family-owned business, Worcester Wreaths, cultivates thousands of acres of balsam forest used to make wreaths for Christmas. Since 1992 he has also been donating wreaths for the tombs of American veterans, and in 2007 the charity Wreaths Across America was formed. Worcester came up with the plan for a gigantic patriotic gesture in...

NEW YORK — What would you do to be completely debt-free? A new survey finds Americans would give up social media for a year (32%), spend a night on a remote island (31%), and even go a month without internet access (29%). According to the poll of 2,000 U.S. adults, the average person feels they could only stay debt-free for eight-and-a-half weeks (less than 3 months) before accruing new debt. The research also measured people’s confidence in their ability to remain out of debt, revealing only 38 percent feel “very confident” in this regard. The most uncertain respondents (384) shared...

Layoffs for Ford workers are on the horizon this week, following contractor cuts on Friday, June 23. Salaried workers in the U.S. and Canada are expected to hear notice of layoffs with severance packages this week, Ford spokesperson T.R. Reid said. Layoffs will affect workers across all three business units: Ford Pro, Ford Blue, the internal combustion engine company, and Ford Model e, the electric division. This includes teams that support them. This will reduce the workforce of 28,000 North American salaried employees, but Reid did not specify how many workers or what percentage of the workforce. It does not...

They are losing it that Trump posted this. (2 minute campaign video in the link) https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1668088392922419202

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Wednesday declined to say whether he accepted as legitimate the verdict by a jury in New York finding that former President Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and owes her $5 million in damages. “That’s about presidential politics and that will all be settled in the primaries next year,” McConnell said when asked about whether the jury’s verdict, which also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll by denying her claims of sexual abuse, was legitimate.