Free Republic

LAKE MARY, Fla. - George Zimmerman was involved in a shooting Monday in Lake Mary, police said. The shooting took place on Lake Mary Boulevard near Rinehart Road, east of Interstate 4. It's not known what prompted the shooting, but Lake Mary police said two vehicles were involved. Video from Local 6 helicopter Sky 6 showed a sport utility truck, believed to be a Honda Ridgeline belonging to Zimmerman, being towed. There's a possible bullethole in the passenger-side window of the truck. An SUV was also at the scene

Noting that he’s “perhaps the most progressive member of the United States Senate,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) described today how, as president, he would do socialism in America. “When we talk about Democratic socialism, I think it is important to realize that there are countries around the world, like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, who have had social democratic governments on and off for many, many years. And we can learn a whole lot from some of those countries,” the 2016 Democratic presidential contender said on CBS this morning. “For example, the United States is the only major country on earth...

Islamic Imam Anjem Choudary told Pamela Geller tonight that she should be slaughtered for her Texas cartoon contest.

For decades now, those concerned about global warming have been predicting the so-called “tipping point” — the point beyond which it’ll be too late to stave off catastrophic global warming. It seems like every year the “tipping point” is close to being reached, and that the world must get rid of fossil fuels to save the planet. That is, until we’ve passed that deadline and the next such “tipping point” is predicted. Would you believe it was eight years ago today that the United Nations predicted we only had “as little as eight years left to avoid a dangerous global...

PGA Tour golfer Bob Estes tweeted in response to the shooting outside a Garland, Texas “Draw Mohammad” event Sunday night that “Muslims may decide to exercise their [Second Amendment] rights” when others exercise their First Amendment rights. “If you feel the need to mock Muhammad in a cartoon, just realize that Muslims may decide to exercise their #2A rights on you #truth #WWJD,” Estes tweeted, using the popular hashtags for “Second Amendment” and “What would Jesus do.”

It’s not surprising that a black mother in Baltimore who chased down, cursed and beat her 16-year-old son in the middle of a riot has been called a hero. In this country, when black mothers fulfill stereotypes of mammies, angry and thwarting resistance to a system designed to kill their children, they get praised. “He gave me eye contact,” Toya Graham told CBS News. “And at that point, you know, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that — that’s my only son and at the end of the day, I don’t want him to be a Freddie Gray....

Baltimore Protesters Go Free as Arrest Paperwork Backs Up BY M. ALEX JOHNSON AND JON SCHUPPE Dozens of people arrested in violent demonstrations this week in Baltimore were being released early Wednesday evening because police were unable to complete their paperwork in time, the state public defender's office said. As many as 101 detainees began walking free without charges about the same time that Baltimore police announced that their report into the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American man who died in police custody this month, wouldn't be made public Friday. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts had set a deadline...

Obama’s Lawyer: Religious Institutions May Lose Tax-Exempt Status If Court Rules for Gay Marriage by JOEL GEHRKE Religious institutions could be at risk of losing their tax-exempt status due to their beliefs about marriage if the Supreme Court holds that gay couples have a constitutional right to wed, President Obama’s attorney acknowledged to the Supreme Court today. “It’s certainly going to be an issue,” Solicitor General Donald Verrilli replied when Justice Samuel Alito asked if schools that support the traditional definition of marriage would have to be treated like schools that once opposed interracial marriage. “I don’t deny that.” Alito...

LAS VEGAS — Sen. Ted Cruz has been gunning to abolish the Internal Revenue Service since coming to Washington two years ago.To critics of the Texas Republican in Democratic and GOP circles, it sounds like bluster. The fiery rhetoric garners hearty applause from conservative audiences, particularly since revelations in 2013 that the IRS targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny. But some federal agency is going to have to collect taxes, so Cruz's vow to shutter the IRS smacks of a politically motivated campaign promise rather than serious policy — at least to some.In an interview with the Washington Examiner...

NEW YORK – While skimming tens of millions of dollars from U.N. levies imposed on airline travelers, the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Health Aids Initiative worked closely with a pharmaceutical company in India to distribute “drastically substandard” generic antiretroviral drugs to Third World countries that had no chance of helping HIV/AIDs patients, according to a Wall Street analyst. As WND reported Wednesday, over the past six weeks, Charles Ortel shared with WND, prior to publication, the results of his six-month, in-depth investigation into what he characterizes as an elaborate scheme devised by the Clintons to enrich themselves. WND reported Thursday the...

BETHLEHEM – All 15 bison that roamed across a section of town for the past several hours were shot and killed by family members who owned the animals Friday. The center of attention was at a creek off of Willowbrook Avenue as authorities tried to round up the herd that escaped from a farm in Rensselaer County, crossed the Hudson River and bolted across the state Thruway. One of the hunters — "hired guns" — appeared to have a heated exchange with Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple after the gunfire started and was taken into custody. Apple said he was...

Yesterday’s Senate vote on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s nominee to succeed Attorney General Eric Holder, was a classic example of why talk among conservatives of forming a third party alternative to the establishment Republican Party will not die. Not only did the usual jelly-backed Senate Republicans vote to confirm Lynch, they were led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose job is, ostensibly, to be the leader of the conservative opposition to Obama and his lawless progressive agenda. In moving the Lynch nomination McConnell broke a pre-election promise that no attorney general nominee would be considered in...

In the wake of the tragic murders of two Michigan children whose mother tortured them before stuffing them into the family’s freezer, lawmakers are calling for more stringent regulation of homeschooling in the state. The proposed legislation from state Rep. Stephanie Chang, a Detroit Democrat, would require homeschooled children to be inspected twice per year by a licensed social worker or law enforcement officer. The bill would also require homeschooling parents to register their children — like dogs or sex offenders — with the superintendent of the school district in which they reside. Michigan is one of eleven states that...

Left-wingers and progressives in America are becoming insufferable, are they not? It's quite apparent that they have no desire to "live and let live," but want to force their delusions off onto everyone else. You will live, think, and do as the Left tells you, whether you like it or not. Even in the pettiest of way, they can't help themselves. Take, for example, this story coming out of the University of Oregon. To summarize for the reader, a student named Elle Mallon, who was running for office in student government filed a number of grievances against a rival student...

"They never stopped plotting another way to get to Syria. These men are focused men who were intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible," Luger said. Luger said the six men are not part of an organized recruiting group but were friends who worked to recruit and help each other get to Syria to support ISIL. There is not one master ISIL recruiting organizer in Minnesota, Luger said; that makes it more difficult to stop. "I will work and help anyone who in good faith wants to break the cycle of terror recruiting in Minnesota," Luger said....

High school students in Wisconsin were asked to pretend that they were Muslims for a 10th grade World History writing assignment. Union Grove High School teacher Beth Urban asked students to write a five paragraph essay in which they pretend they are a Muslim male or female in the U.S. "Give three examples of what you do daily for your religion and any struggles you face," Urban instructed.

Russia announced Monday that it will sell Iran advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles. The sale, which ends an embargo dating back to 2010, shows that President Barack Obama is rapidly losing control of the international consensus on Iran. It also sets Israel a deadline to attack Iran–since Israel has treated the S-300 system as a “red line,” and has attacked Syria several times recently to prevent advanced Russian air defense and anti-ship missile systems from becoming operational. ********* Effectively, then, Putin is calling the world’s bluff. He is setting a deadline for Israel to make a fateful choice, and daring the...

For many, President Barack Obama entered the White House a coddled narcissist whose thin set of accomplishments was papered over by his supporters. They liked his ideals, his identity, and how he made them feel about themselves. That was sufficient to prompt millions of Americans to bury their concerns about this energetic but untested freshman senator and his readiness for the presidency. Six years later, the nationÂ’s affairs are in a shambles. The presidentÂ’s once ascendant party has been decimated, his signature achievement the focus of endless court challenges and political fights, and the international environment appears less stable...

The White House on Tuesday introduced President Obama’s blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by nearly a third over the next decade. Mr. Obama’s plan, part of a formal written submission to the United Nations ahead of efforts to forge a global climate change accord in Paris in December. But the plan’s reliance on executive authority is an acknowledgment that any proposal to pass climate change legislation would be blocked by the Republican-controlled Congress. At the heart of the plan are ambitious but politically contentious Environmental Protection Agency regulations meant to drastically cut planet-warming carbon dioxide...

The Benghazi investigative committee on Tuesday formally requested former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton give a transcribed interview detailing her decision-making in determining which emails she turned over to the government and why she wiped her email server clean. Chairman Trey Gowdy said Mrs. Clinton’s “unique arrangement with herself” — in which she claimed complete control of government business emails — needs to be explained, and nobody other than Mrs. Clinton can do that. The interview would be behind closed doors, but would be part of the committee investigation’s record. A public hearing would follow eventually, once the select...