Free Republic

Unconfirmed reports resurfaced Tuesday that escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán allegedly upped his campaign against Donald Trump recently by putting a $100 million bounty on the American billionaire's head. El Chapo, who's been on the run since escaping from prison in July, reportedly told inmates before he fled that he was offended by Trump's comments insulting Mexican immigrants, according to Telesur.

The number of people seeking asylum in Germany this year will be as high as 1.5 million - almost double the previous estimate, German media report. The German government has not confirmed the new estimate, which comes from an internal official report cited by popular daily Bild. The report warns that services helping refugees will not be able to cope. Separately, a centre-right regional minister put the expected total at 1.2-1.5 million for this year. The German government previously estimated the number of asylum claims this year to reach 800,000 to one million in total. Many are refugees fleeing the...

A Confederate flag advocacy group is rallying Saturday in Albert Lea for the reinstatement of the Hartland volunteer firefighter suspended in July for flying a Confederate flag on a department truck during a parade. The firefighter, Brian Nielson, didn't respond to interview requests. He previously told media he was protesting "political correctness" and the censuring of the flag. There was a national push for removing the flag from public locations after the Charleston, S.C., shooting. Nielson said he doesn't support slavery nor racism and has since apologized to both cities. But he said he would fly the flag again, though...

Tehran continues to claim support for victims of police violence, and some families of victims say they want to attend Iran has invited African-Americans affected by police violence to a conference on discrimination in Tehran, the Telegraph reported Sunday. A large group of black Americans, including victims of police brutality and black activists, are due to arrive in Iran for the conference,” an organizer told the Islamic republic’s Shargh newspaper, according to the Telegraph.

Fifth Third Bank will pay $18 million to settle federal allegations that it discriminated against thousands of black and Hispanic borrowers by charging them a higher interest rate for auto loans than white customers, federal regulators said Monday. The Cincinnati-based bank agreed to pay $3 million to credit card customers, as well as a $500,000 penalty, to resolve a separate case over debt protection coverage that regulators said was deceptively marketed. Fifth Third spokesman Larry Magnesen said the bank, which has 17 branches in Pittsburgh, was “pleased to put both of these matters behind us” and maintained that it treated...

COLUMBIA — About 100 students gathered Thursday afternoon at MU for a "Racism Lives Here" rally in Speakers Circle. Many held signs with sayings such as “I am more than my skin color” and “Mizzou is racist,” in an attempt to spark MU's administration to action.

SALEM, N.H. — Using the astronomical chart on a table in the covered tower, visitors aim their gaze along worn arrows to huge, upright stones hundreds of feet away. Beyond each slab of granite, clearings stretch the eye to the horizon on a dazzling day in late summer New Hampshire. On Wednesday's autumnal equinox, people will flock to the woods near the Massachusetts state line, watch the sun rise or fall over the massive chunks of granite and decide for themselves whether they're standing amid relics of ancient history or pure hooey.

A team of marine archaeologists last week recovered a 9,000 pound cannon from the CSS Georgia, a Civil War ironside that has rested at the bottom of the Savannah River since 1864. The Dahlgren rifled cannon was previously undiscovered by several high-tech, multibeam sonar surveys, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wrote in a press release. The ship must be moved for a $700 million project to deepen the river to proceed.

he inscription on a monument in New Orleans dedicated to the “honor of Americans on both sides of the conflict who died in the Battle of Liberty Place” ends with the advice “A conflict of the past that should teach lessons for the future.” That lesson is lost on left-leaning members of the City Council of New Orleans, which, like so many southern cities, is seeking to cleanse itself of reminders of past unrest, during — or in the case of this memorial, shown above — after the Civil War. As The Advocate reports, an anonymous donor has offered to...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, in a historic first for the Pentagon, has chosen to nominate Eric Fanning to lead the Army, a move that would make him the first openly gay civilian secretary of one of the military services. Fanning’s nomination is the latest in a series of actions taken by the administration to advance the rights of gays and lesbians throughout the federal government. The Obama administration has overhauled internal policies to provide benefits to same-sex partners, appointed gays and lesbians to the executive branch and the federal bench, and ended the 18-year ban on gays serving openly...

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) -Protesters gathered outside the Bon Secours Wellness Arena where Republican presidential candidates spoke Friday at the Take Back America Presidential Candidate Forum. The protest included Confederate flag supporters from Columbia and individuals from around the Upstate. They told FOX Carolina that they were protesting the removal of Confederate monuments earlier this summer after nine people were killed in a shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. Many of the protesters are affiliated with the S.C. Constitution Party. They are calling for the impeachment of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, but say that's unlikely. Haley was...

A large yellow X marks the spot. Donald Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star has been defaced with a large yellow X. It is unclear when the star, located at 6801 Hollywood Blvd., was defaced or what was used to make the large yellow X. One reporter shared a photo.

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -David Duke was asked to leave LSU’s Lod Cook Hotel during a meeting of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. LSU spokesperson Ernest Ballard says that Duke, a Louisiana politician and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, was not given time to speak at the event, arrived uninvited, and was escorted outside where he stayed to speak to media.

The numbers are small, but Moscow may be looking at its own version of mission creep in the treacherous Middle East. The end of summer. It means back-to-school shopping, tearfully ended beach-borne romances, Labor Day barbecues—and, it would seem, the increased likelihood of new Russian adventurism. As if Moscow weren’t satisfied with the game in Ukraine, the last month has seen a flurry of reports about its ever-expanding military involvement in Syria.

VIENNA – At least four countries Friday firmly rejected a European Union plan to impose refugee quotas to ease the worsening migrant crisis, which Germany’s foreign minister said is “probably the biggest challenge” in the history of the 28-nation bloc.

COLUMBIA - The Confederate flag may have been removed from the S.C. State House grounds, but the aftermath from its removal is far from over. If a commission tasked with deciding how to display the banner at the Confederate Relic Room proposes flying the flag again, Democratic legislators are prepared to fight, said state Rep. James Smith, D-Richland.

Inside the Obama administration there is growing concern that Congress will be unable to resolve differences over the U.S. budget by Oct. 1, the start of the 2016 fiscal year, and will stumble into a shutdown though Republican leaders insist they don’t want one. Already, both sides have begun public relations campaigns to pin blame on the other.

The California Legislature on Tuesday sent the governor a measure that would bar the naming of public buildings, including schools, after Confederate leaders from the Civil War. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) said the bill "shines the light" on the practice of naming buildings in a way "where we are celebrating traitorous leaders" who "attempted to break our nation in two to continue to enslave black people." His bill would affect two schools named after Gen. Robert E. Lee, one in Long Beach and the other in San Diego. Senate passed the bill, SB 539, by a 31-2 vote, with two...

Statue would be replaced by statue more representative of Florida TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -The bronze statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, which has stood in the U.S. Capitol since 1922, would be replaced by a statue more representative of Florida, under a bill filed Tuesday by a Republican state lawmaker.

From the Texas Tribune: A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis may have been removed from the south mall of the University of Texas at Austin, but the Sons of Confederate Veterans isn't giving up its fight to save it. On Friday afternoon, a lawyer for the southern heritage group said he filed a motion in state district court seeking a new judge's order to vacate a previous decision by state District Judge Karin Crump, who denied the group's request for an injunction blocking the statue's removal. "Ultimately, they need to put them right back where they were," said Kirk...