Free Republic

The media industry was beset with a series of layoffs impacting a number of sectors in 2023. Earlier this month, Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement firm that tracks employment figures, said over 20,000 media jobs have been eliminated this year. This is the largest number of cuts in employment since 2020 when Covid-19 was raging and over 30,000 workers were laid off. The figure is also six times higher than the number of job losses in 2022 when several large media companies including Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney and others had undergone a series of layoffs impacting thousands of...

May 6, 2023 (by Lieven Dewitte) - On Saturday morning May 6, a "Wolf Pack" F-16 crashed in a farming area near Osan Air Base. Fortunately the pilot was able to safely eject and nobody got wounded. An F-16C assigned to the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, crashed in an agricultural area about 10 nautical miles from Osan Air Base at approximately 09:45h on Saturday during a routine training flight. The pilot ejected safely and was transported to the Osan Air Base Urgent Care Center for evaluation. The pilot is in stable condition and no other...

Intelligence agencies in the U.S. have spent the last few years analyzing footage of hundreds of recent UFO encounters, and they want the American people to know: It's still not aliens. According to several U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) officials who spoke anonymously to The New York Times last week, many recent sightings of UFOs — or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), as the government prefers to call them — are likely just observations of foreign surveillance operations or airborne clutter, such as weather balloons. Several UAP incidents have been officially identified as "relatively ordinary" Chinese surveillance drones, the anonymous officials...

Air Force Global Strike Command test-launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile Aug. 16, several days after delaying the test to avoid stoking tensions with China. The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., took place at 12:49 a.m. Pacific time. The ICBM reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, AFGSC announced in a press release. Airmen from the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and Sailors from the Navy’s Strategic Communications Wing executed the launch on board a Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft using the Airborne Launch Control...

SAN DIEGO (Tribune News Service) — The Marine Corps pilot who safely landed a KC-130J tanker in a California field after a midair collision with an F-35B in 2020 received the highest military aviation award Wednesday in San Diego, the Marines said in a news release. Marine Capt. Michael Wolff, a KC-130J Super Hercules pilot, received the Distinguished Flying Cross at a ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, the Marines said, for landing “successfully after losing two engines in flight.” Wolff landed the four-engine plane in a farmer’s field with the help of six crew members and a co-pilot,...

BROOKSHIRE, Texas – An aircraft with 21 people onboard ran off a runway Tuesday in a field near an airport in Brookshire, injuring one person, authorities said. The McDonnell Douglas MD-87 rolled through a fence and caught fire in a field while attempting to depart from Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire near Katy, the Federal Aviation Administration said. All 21 people aboard -- 18 passengers and three crew members -- evacuated safely. Officials said two people were transported from the scene. “Anytime you have plane that doesn’t make a landing on the runway like its supposed to, we’re always expecting...

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department tells 13 Action News that a military plane has crashed in the back yard of a home near Cheyenne and Nellis. FAA says they are hearing that it is a military plane involved in the crash. Nellis Air Force Base has sent out the following statement: "We are aware of an incident involving an aircraft associated with Nellis Air Force Base. We will provide updates as they become available." 13 Action News will have more on this story as we get more information.

On Jan. 3, 2020, at 12.47 AM LT, a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, along with members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), including Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq’s PMF militias. The attack occurred just outside Baghdad International Airport, in Iraq, where Soleimani had just arrived (from Lebanon or Syria) to bring Iran’s response to a letter that Iraq had sent out on behalf of Saudi Arabia in order to ease tensions between the two countries in the region, according to Iraqi prime minister Adil Abdul Mahdi....

BOISE, Idaho — Boise Mayor Lauren McLean on Thursday announced a new health order that creates consequences for people and businesses that violate COVID-19 restrictions as well as restricts or closes some city facilities and businesses. The new order will go into effect Monday, Nov. 23. According to the mayor's office, the health order requires face coverings, limits city board and commission meetings, restricts access to the Boise Airport and a few other businesses in Boise, and beefs up enforcement against individuals and businesses who violate the order. A mask ordinance is already in place for the city of Boise...

Elon Musk has been widely mocked after revealing the final version of his much-hyped underground transportation project. The Tesla and SpaceX founder’s Boring Company has been building a prototype tunnel system under Los Angeles since 2016 in a bid to relieve traffic congestion. It had been linked to the billionaire’s futuristic “hyperloop” concept of pods suspended on magnets travelling hundreds of kilometres an hour through vacuum tubes. While The Boring Company’s test tunnel did not feature an air vacuum, it promised to create a new kind of private, public and commercial transport system using special vehicles propelled on electric skates....

Multiple departments battled a small brush fire that was sparked when an F/A-18E Super Hornet went down in Kern County after "a mishap during a routine training flight," according to the Navy. A Navy fighter jet pilot was able to safely eject from his plane before it crashed in California on Tuesday. The single-seat F/A-18E Super Hornet went down shortly before 10:30 a.m. in an open field in eastern Kern County, Cmdr. Zachary Harrell, a Naval Air Forces spokesman, told ABC News. Crews from multiple departments battled a small brush fire that erupted from the crash. The jet had originated...

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. (AFNS) -- A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 12:03 a.m. Pacific Time Sept. 2 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The test demonstrates that the United States’ nuclear deterrent is safe, secure, reliable and effective to deter twenty-first century threats and reassure U.S. allies. Test launches are not a response or reaction to world events or regional tensions. The ICBM's reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. These test launches...

This story is a collaboration between ProPublica Illinois and the Detroit Free Press, and co-published with Bridge Magazine. Update, July 17, 2020: A Michigan Family Division judge Friday granted a request to review the case of Grace, a 15-year-old sent to juvenile detention for violating probation by not doing her schoolwork, and reconsider her decision to detain the girl. Oakland County judge Mary Ellen Brennan scheduled a hearing for Monday morning to review the “progress and engagement” of Grace and her mother during the past two months, while the girl has been in detention and then a residential treatment program....

OKINAWA, Japan—About 45 people experienced symptoms of smoke and chlorine gas exposure June 22 at Kadena Air Base, after a fire at the 18th Wing Hazardous Materials Pharmacy sent hazardous particles and plumes of smoke billowing into the air. Most of the individuals had mild symptoms and were treated and returned to duty, according to a base press release. The fire began shortly before 9 a.m. at the HAZMAT building, which is in the central part of the base, south of the airfield. Emergency services responded and contained the fire by 10 a.m., though a shelter-in-place order for some areas...

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) -- An F-22 Raptor assigned to the 43rd Fighter Squadron, and part of the 325th Fighter Wing currently based at Eglin Air Force Base, crashed at approximately 9:15 a.m. May 15. The location of the crash was approximately 12 miles northeast of Eglin AFB’s main base on the test and training range. The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft and was transported to the 96th Medical Group hospital on Eglin AFB for evaluation and observation. He was listed in stable condition. The name of the pilot has not been released. There were no other...

After an intense period of restocking, Air Force precision weapon inventories are almost back to acceptable levels, Air Force leaders say. Now they are throttling back planned purchases for fiscal 2021. “We have been able to make a dent” in the munitions shortage, said Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr., head of Air Force Materiel Command during the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium in February. The sharp reduction of U.S. air attacks against the Islamic State group “has allowed us to get in a better place and on a better trajectory” in terms of war reserves. Bunch has previously referred to...

A federal judge in Los Angeles has rejected a plea from prominent convicted lawyer Michael Avenatti to be released from jail because of the risk he could contract the coronavirus. U.S. District Court Judge James Selna turned aside Avenatti’s claims that a bout he had with pneumonia last September puts him in grave danger if COVID-19 begins to rampage through federal prisons like the Manhattan detention center where he’s currently locked up. Avenatti, who was convicted by a New York federal court jury last month on charges of trying to extort shoemaking giant Nike and is facing other federal charges...

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- At Hill Air Force Base, civil engineers and emergency response personnel at the installation are evaluating buildings for structural damage following the earthquake this morning. No injuries have been reported. Currently, no major building damage has been reported and personnel are being accounted for. Several buildings were evacuated as a precaution after reports of possible natural gas leaks. As those buildings are being cleared by the base fire department, people are returning to work. The air traffic control tower is operational, and there has been no damage to the flight line, aircraft or other...

Laura Ingraham took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her demeanor during the State of the Union address and eventually tearing up President Trump's speech as he concluded before she focused on Utah Senator Mitt Romney. "Last night, [Pelosi] showed the world who she really is," Ingraham said on "The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday. "A woman left with little else, but her own sour puss, facial expression and a paper ripping stunt. She let her anger get the best of her, and her white suit didn't make her look any more angelic. It was the color of surrender." Ingraham then...

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - The Washington Redskins are in the midst of one of their worst seasons in recent memory – but at least die-hard fans can buy cheap tickets for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions at FedEx Field. GameTime Tickets has upper-level tickets for as little $4 and, on Ticketmaster, they are currently available for as little as $6.