Free Republic

The morning after they found the Jeep Cherokee believed to be the getaway vehicle in Sunday’s murder of a New York tourist, Miami Beach police descended on a Brickell-area condominium and took several people into custody. At least two men were being held and questioned at Miami Beach police headquarters Tuesday afternoon in the early Sunday morning shooting death of Lavon Walker, a reformed Brooklyn gang member turned anti-violence activist who was vacationing in Miami Beach.

A heartbroken son remembered his murdered 95-year-old father as an adventurer beloved by all who knew him as the two suspects held in connection with his slaying in Orange are set to appear before a judge in Virginia. “He had a great personality, forever an optimist,” Thomas Harty, 64, told the Herald about his late father, also named Thomas. “He lived by the theory of Henry Ford. He said, ‘If you believe you can do something, or you believe you can’t, you’ll be right.’ “He always thought he could,” Harty said.

MONTPELIER, Vt. - The ongoing effort at rebranding Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day continued this year, as an entire state took up the mantle of recognizing Native Americans with a holiday for the first time. Vermont’s governor issued a proclamation Monday in honor of the “sacrifice and contributions of the First Peoples of this land,” including the Abenaki, their ancestors and allies.

In addition to bottles of hot sauce, ketchup and sparkling water and several glasses, a circular table for two had a cone under it and a cone atop it. Behind the table, a bullet put a hole and a web of cracks in a sliding glass door. Police say they are looking for three men in a newer model Jeep Grand Cherokee with tinted windows. The name of the victim was not released because his family was still being notified.

Scientists have unearthed in Mongolia's Gobi Desert one of the biggest dinosaur footprints ever recorded, measuring over a metre in length. The enormous print, which measures 106cm (42 inches) in length and 77cm in width and dates back more than 70 million years, offers a fresh clue about the giant creatures that roamed the earth millions of years ago, scientists from the Okayama University of Science said.

"I take my family into the city quite often, but I'm at the point where I'm ready to boycott the city of Chicago," said Lativsky, who lives in Glen Ellyn. "That someone can't go to Millennium Park -- with someone who should be in jail, with a warrant, 39 arrests, two times for pointing a gun into someone's face -- this scumbag is out on the street when he should be in jail. Lativsky said he has employed hundreds of people at his business, which does industrial work coating floors, and Fabbri was one of his best. Anything Lativsky asked...

Walking through a high-crime neighborhood without fear of being shot is the ultimate white privilege. Belonging to a conquering culture provides a free pass on another race’s turf, an immunity from the violence that afflicts oppressed communities. Howard Street is the main drag of a neighborhood nicknamed the Juneway Jungle, or simply “the Jungle,” but I’ve never been hassled there, even at 1 in the morning. I look so square that no one even tries to sell me weed.

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- New York Knicks center Joakim Noah says he skipped a team dinner at the West Point Military Academy that featured cadets and a speech by a former colonel because he is against war. Noah added he had "mixed feelings" about spending time at the West Point Military Academy, where the Knicks are holding training camp this week, because he is opposed to the idea of young troops fighting in wars.

PETA is going after Hallmark for selling cards that it says are harmful to primates. The animal rights organization has sent a letter to the greeting card maker requesting that it stop selling cards that feature chimpanzees, especially those in which the animals are dressed up in costumes and wigs. PETA cited famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall in saying that the “smiles” you see coming from the chimpanzees on those cards are actually expressions of fear. “No chimpanzee should be forced into a costume and scared to death for a birthday card,” PETA primatologist Julia Gallucci stated in a press...

Washington (CNN) — The Arizona Republic, the state's largest newspaper, has never endorsed a Democrat for president -- until now. In an op-ed published to its website Tuesday, the editorial board backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump for president. "The 2016 Republican candidate is not conservative and he is not qualified," the editorial board wrote.

Call it “mansplaining,” “bropropriating,” or “Kanye at the VMAs,” women are familiar with being interrupted by men when they speak. So when Donald Trump repeatedly interrupted Hillary Clinton at Monday night’s debate — 51 times, according to Vox — it hit home for much of the audience. Women have been interrupted by men in professional settings for decades. Whether it’s Kanye West cutting off Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards or an executive halted midsentence by her peer in a corporate meeting, studies have found that men are more likely to block women from talking entirely, to correct...

American tennis player Serena Williams took to Facebook on Tuesday to say she "won't be silent" about race relations and tension with police. Williams, 35, said she had the moment of reflection while riding with her 18-year-old nephew. She wrote that she saw a cop on the side of the road and checked to make sure her nephew was driving at the speed limit, prompting her to think about the case of Philando Castile, who was shot after being pulled over in Minnesota.

CHICAGO — A witness to the fatal shooting of a man along Chicago’s busy Michigan Avenue Saturday night said the victim had just gotten into an argument about politics with his killer, reports CBS Chicago. “There was some sort of political discussion going on,” said Marques Wilson, who told the station he saw the moments leading up to Peter Fabbri’s murder.

A Chicago man has made a stunning confession — insisting he committed a 2003 murder that his identical twin brother was thrown in prison for 13 years ago. “I’m here to confess to a crime I committed that he was wrongly accused of,” Karl Smith, 38, told a Chicago judge last week, as his identical twin, Kevin Dugar, dabbed tears from his eyes from his heavily guarded seat in the courtroom. But could these two brothers — so identical that for years they impersonated each other for fun — simply be pulling a fast one on authorities?

CHICAGO (CBS) — A south suburban state lawmaker appears to have played a role in the capture of three murder suspects from Georgia after being the victim of a mugging earlier this month. State Sen. Napoleon Harris (D-Harvey) owns two Beggars Pizza franchises in Oak Forest and Harvey; and decided to give his “overwhelmed” delivery crew a break late one night earlier this month, according to his spokesman Sean Howard. Harris was trying to make a delivery at a house on 158th and Paulina in Harvey, but Howard said the whole order had been a ruse, and that four men...

(CBS) — Chicago Police are investigating the stabbing death of a 28-year-old in the West Garfield Park neighborhood – a victim officially listed as male but who friends say was a trans woman. “I really want justice for my friend. That’s really it,” says Jaliyah. Jaliyah says she knew the trans woman who was murdered and was her friend for seven years.

Colin Kaepernick is now the most disliked player in the NFL. That's at least according to a recent poll of Americans by E-Poll Marketing Research, which asked 1,100 people whose demographics were representative of the general population. The poll, taken last week, revealed that Kaepernick was "disliked a lot" by 29 percent of those polled, more than any of the more than 350 players asked about in the survey. Kaepernick finished ahead, in the dislike category, of Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston (22 percent), Miami Dolphins defensive end Ndamukong Suh (21 percent), New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (13...

In a message sent to The Salt Lake Tribune and other news organizations Monday afternoon, someone identifying himself as Christopher Craig and as "the radical Islamic jihadist Muhammad Allah Al-Khidr" said the sender would "call 911 with a threat of an explosive" at the school. The email describes a promised bomb threat and a hunger strike he plans to conduct in jail. "Racism is the reason for my hunger strike," the email reads, "to take this conversation deeper, to the truth, core and roots." The sender says he will await the return of Prophet Isa, the name for Jesus Christ...

Donald Trump is coming to a different Florida on Friday — a Florida where he’s on the upswing. Last time he visited the southeastern end of the state, for a Sunrise rally a little more than a month ago, Hillary Clinton continued to edge him in Florida polling averages. He’d suffered a spate of bad press over his campaign’s criticism of the Gold Star Khan family. He falsely accused President Barack Obama of “founding” ISIS. When he returns Friday, to hold a rally at downtown Miami’s James L. Knight Center, Trump will be fresh off a batch of new polls...

A large piece of aircraft debris found on the island of Pemba off Tanzania in June was from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet MH370, it has been confirmed. The debris, an outboard flap, will be examined further to see if it can provide any clues about the Boeing 777's disappearance. It went missing in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board soon after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing.