Free Republic

Karl Williams from Brooklyn, N.Y., believes that Black people have “nothing to win” in this year’s presidential race with either President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden. “There’s no policy platform being presented that’s going to address any needs of Black men,” Williams, an investor who trades options, said in a video interview with Yahoo News. Despite this conviction, Williams plans to vote for Trump for a second time on Nov. 3. “I support Trump,” said Williams, 34, who describes his reasoning as based solely on the prospect of personal financial gain, since he invests in the stock market....

Democratic state legislators urged Pittsburghers on Thursday to support a bill that would ban the use of some military-style rifles by everyone except service members and law enforcement personnel. The lawmakers also said hunters in Pennsylvania don’t need the added firepower of semiautomatic rifles, including AR-15-type weapons, even though the Legislature passed a law in 2017 allowing that. The weapons increasingly are being used in mass killings that are “traumatizing today’s children,” said state Rep. Ed Gainey, D-Lincoln-Lemington, at a gathering sponsored by House Democrats at the Carnegie Library in Homewood. He and others called for support of a bill...

First they heard the screams. Karl Williams, the assistant coach for the Ooltewah High School basketball team, hurried downstairs to the rooms where the 14 teenage players were staying for the duration of their four day tournament in Gatlinburg, Tenn. There he found a 15-year-old freshman player covered in blood, urine and feces, Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston told ESPN. Two sophomore players were holding the boy down, while a third teammate, a senior, shoved a pool cue up his rectum. The freshman was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to repair his bladder and colon, which...

Three high school basketball players from Tennessee have been charged with raping and assaulting a teammate while staying in a rental cabin for a tournament, officials said late Tuesday. The male victim was hospitalized and had to undergo surgery "due to the extent of his injuries" after the Dec. 23 incident, according to local police. The three suspects and the victim were all juveniles from Ooltewah High School, in Ooltewah, Tennessee. Their basketball team was in Gatlinburg, around 100 miles to the northeast, for a tournament, Gatlinburg Police Department said in a statement.