Free Republic

"....At a rainy press conference near the crime scene, Commissioner Evans described the man as in "mid 20s", travelling on foot, and carrying a black "military-style knife". Some US media have reported the weapon as a machete. The suspect was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The two officers are in hospital to be examined for stress, but did not suffer physical injuries, police said...."

A Syriac scholar at Philipps University in Marburg, Germany, Dr. Kessel was sitting in the library of the manuscript's owner, a wealthy collector of rare scientific material in Baltimore. At that moment, Dr. Kessel realized that just three weeks earlier, in a library at Harvard University, he had seen a single orphaned page that was too similar to these pages to be coincidence. The manuscript he held contained a hidden translation of an ancient, influential medical text by Galen of Pergamon, a Greco-Roman physician and philosopher who died in 200 A.D. It was missing pages and Dr. Kessel was suddenly...

An armed man in his 20s being surveilled by the FBI counterterrorism unit was shot and killed by an FBI agent and a Boston police officer in Roslindale this morning, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. "He was on foot, under surveillance," Evans said. "The officers have been surveilling him and again they wanted to speak to him ... and he turned and our officers gave several commands for him to drop the weapon and unfortunately he came at the officers and they did what they were trained to do and that's never an easy decision for any officer...

An armed man in his 20s being surveilled by the FBI counterterrorism unit was shot and killed by an FBI agent and a Boston police officer in Roslindale this morning, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. Evans said the suspect was wielding a large military-style black knife. FBI Special Agent in Charge Vincent B. Lisi is at the scene, and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh is expected as well, FBI spokeswoman Kristin Setera told the Herald. Dozens of police officers have swarmed the small shopping plaza and officers are seeking surveillance video from a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, employees said....

WASHINGTON — Was the resurrection of Jesus Christ an anti-scientific event? This question was discussed at a March 13 conference on science and religion hosted by The American Association for the Advancement of Science's Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion.At the end of a panel on "Science Engagement in Congregations," an audience member who identified himself as a rabbi said "the elephant in the room has not been discussed," which he identified as, "that the fundamental basis of Christianity is a violation of nature."He began his remarks by recalling another event he attended at a Presbyterian church. An audience member...

Lingering snow piles from the record-setting New England winter continue to plague the Boston area, even as the weather turns summer-like. A 75-foot-high snow mound in Boston's Seaport District has been reduced to a three-story pile of dirt and trash — including bicycles, traffic cones and even half a $5 bill — that remains encrusted in solid ice. In Boston, 108.6 inches of snow broke a two-decade-old record this past winter.

Incoming Boston University sociology professor Saida Grundy was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2008 after she made a fake account for another woman on an adult website. Grundy was a graduate student at the University of Michigan at the time. Grundy first gained widespread attention this month because of tweets in which she called white, college-aged males a “problem population.” She’s most recently been in the news due to comments she posted on a Facebook thread in February, when she argued with a woman who’d been sexually assaulted. ... Grundy was charged with felony counts of identity theft and using...

In 2009, the eulogy for the Boston driver rang out over City Hall Plaza. “The car is no longer king in Boston” decreed Mayor Thomas M. Menino. And with that was born an Emerald Necklace of biking and pedestrian accommodations that suffocated every major travel route in the Hub. Travel went from slowish to stoppish. Though Logan International Airport is 2.5 miles from downtown, there are days when it is quicker to get to Worcester. The Big Dig was supposed to make this better. It didn’t. Ponytailed boomers and dandified greenies preen openly, sheathed in exhibitionist spandex, as they cycle...

If Samuel Adams were to time-travel and suddenly appear on Purchase Street in Boston, a block or two from South Station, he wouldn’t recognize much of his old city.  His church however, is still there (the Old South Congregational Church, now known as the Old South Meeting House, one of the birthplaces of the American Revolution). When Adams was in Boston, it was a Christian city.  His alma mater, Harvard College, trained mainly ministers of the Gospel—but also quite a few politicians like himself.  Adams would not recognize Boston in any sense as a spiritual place these days.  The shells...

Members of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday will question outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller on investigations of the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, the Boston Marathon bombings, and recent leaks of classified government information. Mueller was to undergo questioning by the committee on these and other issues in what will be his final appearance before the panel. His last day on the job is Sept. 4. The Justice Department revealed last month that it had secretly gathered emails of Fox News correspondent James Rosen and phone records of The Associated Press in an effort to crack...

Thank you, jury! In case you had any lingering doubts about the wisdom of these 12 good men and women, consider the scurvy crew that’s frothing at the mouth over the fate of the tousle-haired All-American boy on the cover of Rolling Stone. Moonbats, NPR, The Boston Globe, terrorists — but I repeat myself. A crackpot nun was flown up here from New Orleans five times on the taxpayers’ dime to gaze into Tousle Hair’s dreamy brown eyes and attest to his EBT card-carrying Third World hunkiness. The Joker gives the courthouse camera the finger, and now the jury gives...

Since a federal jury on Friday sentenced the convicted bomber to death, the [Boston Marathon] finish line suddenly seems to be a place of ambivalence. Fresh flowers are accumulating. A sense of sorrow lingers in the air. Sightseers who come to snap a photo feel a little self-conscious. Residents train their gaze on the line, and the conversations turn to death — and disappointment. “I was shocked,” said Scott Larson, 47, a records manager who works near the finish line. “The death penalty — for Boston.” To many, the death sentence almost feels like a blot on the city’s collective...

BOSTON - APRIL 8: Camille Lerner, 21, of Boston, painted the words 'B Strong' on the window of Sugar Heaven on Boylston Street, across from the Finish Line where the first bomb went off, after the verdict came down in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston on April 8, 2015. No victim of the Boston Marathon bombings was more poignant, perhaps, than eight-year-old Martin Richard. It was a photo of a smiling Martin, who was from Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, holding up a handmade sign saying, “No more hurting people,” that seemed to underscore the callousness of the acts and...

Even by the low standards of Congress, Loretta Sanchez’s performance ranks as a disgrace. The Democrat from California managed — in just a few minutes — to turn the congressional investigation of the marathon terror bombings into a political hatchet job, while demonstrating her complete ignorance of basic facts of the case. Sanchez somehow butchered the names of the alleged terror bombers not once, but three times, calling the Tsarnaev brothers “Tsarnavar,” then “Tsarnev,” and finally “Tsarnov.” “There are still unanswered questions about the Tsarnavar brothers,” the tongue-tied congresswoman said. Yes, like, how to pronounce the names of the terrorists....

Head-in-the-sand approach to Islamic terror There are several “laws” such as Godwin’s Law. Godwin’s Law is named after American lawyer and author, Mike Godwin, and postulates the longer a discussion on the Internet goes, the chance that one of the participants will compare someone or something to Hitler or the Nazis increases. A new and similar law is needed; perhaps it could be called “Ortiz’ Law.” Ortiz’ Law would hypothesize that the longer a person discusses Islamic terrorism, the more certain it will be that that person will say the act or acts in question have absolutely nothing to do...

The vast majority of those cases took place at the state level. Federal prisoners like Tsarnaev are even less likely to be executed. Between 1988, when Congress reinstated the death penalty for federal cases, and 2013, 71 federal defendants were sentenced to death; only three were executed, compared with 10 who had their sentences or convictions overturned on appeal. (One inmate died on death row, and another had his sentence commuted to life by President Bill Clinton in 2001.) No federal execution has taken place since 2003. Of those still awaiting execution, the typical inmate has already spent a decade...

According to a new poll, most Boston and Massachusetts residents oppose the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The Boston Globe poll found that fewer than 20 percent of Massachusetts residents supported the death penalty for the Boston Marathon bomber. Only 15 percent of Boston residents believe he should be executed. One-third of Massachusetts residents and one-quarter of Boston residents believe execution is typically appropriate for egregious crimes. "It seems that voters have concluded that Tsarnaev does not deserve a quick death, but rather should spend the remainder of his days in a windowless cell contemplating the heinous acts that put...

A jury's ruling today to sentence marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death is "justice" and a warning Boston "will not tolerate terrorism," survivors and police said after the verdict. "This is nothing to celebrate. This is justice," said survivor Michael Ward. "He wanted to go to hell and he's going to get there early." The verdict against Tsarnaev, who'll turn 22 in July, was announced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O'Toole Jr.'s courtroom clerk Paul Lyness. Tsarnaev showed no emotion as the verdict was read. Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost a third of her left leg...

"We will fight until the end," Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's father told ABC News by phone after Tsarnaev was sentenced to death today for the Boston Marathon bombings. "What a parent can feel at such moment? It is hard," Dzhokhar's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said from Dagestan, Russia. "Hope exists always. We had hope and still do." Anzor Tsarnaev's brother, Saeed Tsarnaev, said they will appeal. Saeed Tsarnaev blamed the lawyers for giving the family hope and said they are all "very worried" about Dzhokhar. He called the decision a "big tragedy" for the family and "insulting to our name." Anzor Tsarnaev's sister,...

In a first for the embattled publication, one of Rolling Stone’s cover boys was sentenced to death by a federal jury in Boston late Friday afternoon. This is a double whammy this week for the left-wing publication. On top of losing its cover boy, Rolling Stone was also sued this week over a fake rape story published earlier this year.