Free Republic

Fenway Park is steeped in tradition, but one controversial piece may soon be history — the wads of smokeless tobacco stuffed into players’ bulging cheeks or tucked under their lips. Mayor Martin J. Walsh on Wednesday is expected to announce plans to prohibit use of the smokeless products at the city’s baseball parks and other professional and amateur sports venues.

Does this video really show a UFO? Virgin Atlantic flights out of John F. Kennedy International Airport were treated to a potential New York UFO sighting when a mysterious object was shown racing past the passenger jet as it took off from the runway. In a related report by the Inquisitr, some say a photo by NASA’s Mars rover shows a self-replicating alien probe that’s shaped like a sphere.

BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) - Three people were shot Monday while sitting in a car in Roxbury. This comes, ironically, on the same day as Boston's Night Out and Mayor Marty Walsh and BPD Commissioner William Evans are begging for help from the community. The shooting occurred around 1 p.m. in the area of Academy Terrace. “I’ve got as many cops as I can possibly have in this area, yet it doesn’t seem to stop the violence in the neighborhood,” Evans said.

Archaeologists at Israel's Bar-Ilan University announced on Monday the discovery of a massive gate and other fortifications in the ruins of Gath, the hometown of the Bible's Goliath. The ancient gate is one of the largest ever discovered in Israel and evidence of the Philistine city's power in the 10th and ninth centuries B.C.E, head archaeologist Professor Aren Maeir says. It even made a brief appearance in the Bible when David, Goliath's slayer and future king of Israel, "acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard."

DUBAI—Iran wants to buy up to 90 airplanes a year from Boeing BA, -0.33% and Airbus AIR, +1.58% to revive its aging fleet following last month’s landmark nuclear deal, according to a report Sunday by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

New York (CNN)—The number of deaths in the New York City Legionnaires' disease outbreak is up to four. Seventy-one cases of the flu-like disease have been reported since mid-July in the South Bronx, up from 31 on Thursday, the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Sunday.

Three men have died and at least 12 other people have been wounded in separate shootings since Saturday afternoon across the city, police said.

The new Dr. Seuss book "What Pet Should I Get?" is about two children who go to a pet store to buy a pet. That was a commonplace event back in the 1950s or early 1960s, when Dr. Seuss is believed to have written the long-lost book, but it's discouraged today. Which is why the new book comes with a remarkable addendum: A publisher's note urging children to walk on by the pet store and adopt from an animal shelter. But animal rights activist Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said it's not enough...

A Missouri man was charged Sunday with murdering his 74-year-old father by lying on his head until the man lost consciousness, to prove "how big and bad" he was, authorities said. Kyle Webb, 44, of Grandview, Missouri, is charged with killing Franklin Webb late Saturday night at a home they shared after the father complained about the way his son was cleaning up around a leaky pipe, according to a police report.

Charles Haley is the only player in NFL history who's been a part of five Super Bowl winning teams, so it was no surprise in May when one of those teams, the 49ers, asked him to speak to their rookies. What might come as a surprise to some people though is what Haley said to those 49ers rookies. "As far as the rookies, and I know they probably got mad, but I said, 'Why don't you all act like the white guys? You never see them in the paper getting high or hitting people," Haley said, via the San Jose...

Brittney Griner filed to have her marriage to fellow WNBA player Glory Johnson annulled last month, claiming that the union was based on “fraud and duress” and that Johnson pressured her into it. Griner also suspected that Johnson was cheating on her. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Griner says she discovered in April that Johnson had been texting with her ex-boyfriend. She says she never would have married Johnson if she suspected something was still going on between Johnson and the man.

British Authorities charged two Muslim relatives on Tuesday with terror-related offenses, including plotting an attack against U.S. military personnel in the U.K. The news comes less than a week since the deadly terror attack that killed five service members in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell says that he hopes that reports of his band being introduced by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at next month’s Iowa State Fair are untrue, because doesn’t want his name associated with “this clown.” CNN reported last Friday (July 17) that Trump will handle the introductory duties forDEF LEPPARD at August 15 concert at the State Fair Grandstand on the fairgrounds in Des Moines. But, according to Campbell, he has no knowledge of Trump making an appearance at DEF LEPPARD’s gig, which is also set to feature STYX and TESLA. “I really, really, really hope...

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A Chicago Police officer shot a male beating someone with a baseball bat early Monday in the North Side Lincoln Park neighborhood. Officers working the CTA Special Employment beat were on patrol when a citizen told them there was a large fight in the 1500 block of North Clybourn, according to a statement from Chicago Police. The officers responded and saw a male striking another male lying on the ground with a baseball bat, police said.

Parents of private school students don’t want to put their children in public school for 100 days to be eligible for Nevada’s new voucher program. That was the general consensus of four hours of public comment at a Friday hearing on the new law. Parents urged lawmakers to figure out another way to determine eligibility for the program, which currently requires students be enrolled at a public school for 100 days before their parents can receive money. SB302, passed by legislators this year, says families can receive around $5,000 each year per student to use on things like private school...

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Three girls staged suicide bombings in the Nigerian city of Damaturu, killing at least 13 people as residents prepared for the Eid festival at the end of Ramadan, police said. The attacks, in a northeastern area hard hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, came just days before Nigeria's new President Muhammadu Buhari travels to Washington for talks with US counterpart Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON — Furious American Federation of Teachers members are demanding the union withdraw its endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton, calling it premature and undemocratic. “There was no internal discussion. Zero. Zip,” said Steve Conn, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. “This is wrong and something needs to be done.” The 45-member AFT executive board voted Saturday to back Clinton despite an AFL-CIO request to wait until July when the presidential field is more set.

ERIE, Pa. -- Deer that have been invading the thoroughbred horse racing track at Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Summit Township will be shot. The Pennsylvania Game Commission has given the casino a permit for the deer kill as one way to combat the problem of deer entering the track grounds and making it dangerous for jockeys and horses.

Stenberg left this piquant comment on Jenner's Instagram post: "When you appropriate black features and culture but fail to use your position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards your wigs instead of police brutality or racism," followed by the hashtag "white girls do it better." Ouch.

ST. CHARLES • A former Lindenwood University wrestler was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for recklessly infecting one sex partner with HIV and risking the infection of four others. Jurors in May had found Michael L. Johnson, 23, guilty of five felony charges after testimony that included experts in infectious diseases and the men who had unprotected sex with him. One of the men contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.