Free Republic

While Mark Cuban said he sees some value in President Donald Trump's economic policies, he's not a fan of his social stances — or the president personally. "The economic policies of his that are pretty much traditionally conservative I like.... But in terms of him personally, he's the Zoolander president," Cuban said to a South by Southwest Festival audience in Austin, Texas on Sunday. Cuban spoke on a panel alongside car insurance marketplace The Zebra's Adam Lyons. Lyons scored Cuban as an investor in his company after cold emailing him a one paragraph pitch. Cuban, who called himself a libertarian,...

Israel’s national baseball team upset Cuba 4-1 in the World Baseball Classic, continuing its unlikely run in the tournament. After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning Sunday, Israel took control of the game, driving in four consecutive runs and holding the heavily favored Cuban team to just five hits. The game was the first of the second round and gave Israel a 4-0 record in the international tournament. Israel was the lowest-ranked team to qualify for the showcase tournament, coming in at 41st in the world. But last week in the first round, the team squeaked past third-ranked South...

President Trump has unfollowed "Morning Joe" anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Twitter. A CNN report, which recorded all of the Twitter users the president followed March 6, had the MSNBC co-hosts on the list. At some point in the next six days, Trump unfollowed them. Criticized for being too cozy with Trump during the beginning of the presidential campaign, Scarborough and Brzezinski have been sharply critical of the president in recent weeks. An unnamed adviser told the Associated Press in February that the decrease in Trump's early-morning tweets were a result of the president no longer watching "Morning...

Store owner said city advised him to shut the store down until official July start date. Someone was unhappy, however. That would be Minneapolis licensing manager Grant Wilson, who phoned Surdyk before noon Sunday to advise him to lock up the store or be in violation of state law. "Why send our tax to money to Wisconsin, when we can do the business ourselves?" "My father was the first one to discount liquor way back in the 1960s, and he didn't wait till July to do it," Surdyk said.

Right-wing commentator Wayne Allyn Root recently declared that for business owners, the president is like a beautiful wife who “makes passionate love to you every day, seven days a week.” Root made the comments earlier this week, where he said that he never tried to start a business during Barack Obama’s presidency since, according to Root, the former president hated the business community. But now Root says that he has been hard at work raising millions of dollars to start new businesses and hire hundreds of people, all thanks to the love and support from Trump. “There is only one...

Frightened immigrants are creeping into Canada through a quiet border town in northeast New York to escape Donald Trump. The families are fleeing through the town of Champlain which shares a border with Quebec. They make their crossing on Roxham Road which leads them directly towards the village of Hemmingford and in to the path of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers who take them to immigration offices where they can apply for asylum. Since Donald Trump tried to implement a controversial travel ban stopping citizens from Muslim majority countries from entering the US, foot traffic on the road has increased....

A 56-year-old woman and her dog, who were missing for almost two days after setting off on a hike in unincorporated Woodside, were found Saturday morning, San Mateo County sheriff's officials said. Bethnee Haury, who was last seen Thursday on Skyline Boulevard, was located alive and conscious in a deep ravine at 10:30 a.m. Saturday along with her Australian Shepherd named Camaro, sheriff's officials said. The dog not only stayed by Haury's side while she was lost, but also helped lead rescuers to her. "When we called out for her, we heard her yell back and then a couple seconds...

Friday, March 10, 2017, 5:55 - Parts of the Northeast are primed for significant snow threats through midweek next week as Canadian Arctic air spills south. A clipper system is forecast to descend form the Canadian Prairies this weekend bringing light snow to the Upper Midwest. As the low interacts with the sub-tropical moisture in the Southeast, it will begin to significantly intensify Monday and Tuesday. Early models indicate areas north of Virginia could see the highest snowfall accumulations Monday through Wednesday, while areas farther south will see mostly rain. “The threat of heavy snow greatly increases for Pennsylvania, New...

Health officials warned the public Friday to throw away any herbal tea purchased from a Chinatown shop, after two people became critically ill after consuming the tea which was found to contained Aconite, a lethal poison. In separate incidents from February and March, a woman in her 50s and a man in his 30s became gravely ill within an hour of drinking tea made from leaves supplied by the same San Francisco herbalist. The tea leaves were purchased at the Sun Wing Wo Trading Company, located at 1105 Grant Ave. in Chinatown in San Francisco. Each person quickly became weak,...

At its national conference, Norway’s governing Høyre party announced that it plans to scrap a mandatory airline tax connected to last year's closure of Oslo Rygge Airport. The party wants to replace the flat fee with a new type of tax that would have a “clear environmental effect,” reports newspaper Dagbladet. The proposal, which came from the Østfold division of the party, was made at the end of a debate on transport. […] RSL closed down operations on November 1st 2016 following Ryanair’s decision to cease using the airport after the introduction of the tax. Around 1,000 people are estimated...

Danish people have become consistently mere generous over the last four year when it comes to donating money to refugees, a new survey shows. Carried out by Voxmeter on behalf of the Danish Red Cross, the survey shows that 9.4 percent of Danes state that they would give money to refugees today compared to 4.5 percent in 2016 and 2.3 percent in 2013. The results reflect a significant change in the attitudes of Danes towards helping others, according to the secretary general of the Danish Red Cross (DRC). Anders Ladekarl, DRC’s general secretary, told news agency Ritzau that Danes have...

Erin Dietrich, known as "the giraffe mom" after her video went viral over the weekend, has given birth to a baby boy. On Sunday, Dietrich went live on Facebook in a giraffe mask and impersonated the pregnant giraffe April. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, mom's video, which has over 30 million views, is about eight minutes long. In it, Dietrich can be seen pacing her room, sitting in a chair and even dancing. On Wednesday night, Dietrich delivered. Meanwhile, April -- the actual giraffe -- has been livestreamed for about two weeks now. The Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New...

The small business owners who rent space inside El Mercadito shopping mall in Memphis offer a bit of everything: jewelry, insurance, cell phones, cowboy boots. Shoppers can play video games, eat at a restaurant or pause at the monument to the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is decorated with Christmas lights. Most of the shoppers are Mexican immigrants or their children. But business at the Hickory Hill shopping mall has dropped by about 50 percent in the past couple of months as wary immigrants stay close to home, said mall owner Gaspar Perez. “Everything that the president said has affected me,”...

A Plano man’s daily walk to work has received a lot of attention in Collin County this weekend. Five days a week, Patrick walks the 15 miles from his Plano home to the Braum’s near U.S. 75 and U.S. 380 in McKinney where he works as the acting manager. The walk typically takes him two-and-a-half to three hours. But for Patrick, 52, it is simply a matter of commitment. “You can’t keep your job if you don’t go to work,” he said. “I used to work at the Braum’s in Plano and I got transferred here because they needed help...

7 p.m. update: The Texas Medical Board released a statement about its action in the Burzynski case. “The violations as detailed in the order, and supported by the judges’ findings, show a pattern of misleading patients at the Burzynski Clinic. These misrepresentations can lead to direct harm to the public if left unchecked. In total there were over 130 violations cited.” “Among the violations are numerous instances of misrepresenting services billed; failing to supervise and allowing those working in his clinic to misrepresent themselves to patients; and a continued failure of not informing patients of potential risks before and during...

Faced with the threat that Asian carp could enter the Great Lakes, Michigan is turning to the public for new ideas and plans to offer a prize to whoever comes up with a way to stop the voracious fish. Michigan's global search challenge comes after the U.S. government and others have spent hundreds of millions searching for a solution to stop the carp from entering the world's largest freshwater system. If they aren't stopped, officials fear the aggressive fish will crowd out prize native fish and hamper recreational boating in large sections of the lakes, which stretch from Minnesota, Wisconsin...

Author and sex columnist Dan Savage says many liberals are giving first lady Melania Trump a pass because she’s pretty — and that she doesn’t deserve one. “God knows there’s enough hate in the world and I don’t want to add to the sum total, but forgive me, I have got to get this off my chest: I f—ing hate Melania Trump,” Savage said at the start of his latest “Savage Love” podcast. “I’m not alone in loathing Donald Trump’s third wife — she’s married to a misogynist after all. Odds are good her husband hates her too,” Savage continued....

Joe Triplett works hard and plays hard. When Joe and his girlfriend, Bailey Miller travel to Sin City and other wild destinations, they have a routine. Miller said, "Every time we travel, we look up IV in big cities. We jump in an Uber and go find them. It's crazy how right in the middle of it, you're like 'wow.'" And now, Oklahoma City is joining the ranks of other party towns with IV therapies. Folks come to "Revitalize" in Oklahoma city to salvage their day after a long night. Triplett calls it "Hangover Heaven." "I rush in as fast...

The northern region of Liguria on Tuesday announced plans to ban the Islamic face veil from hospitals and other public institutions, in a bid to “defend women’s freedom”. Regional president Giovanni Toti, of the Forza Italia party, described the burqa as “the worst symbol of the oppression of women”. He defended the ban against accusations that it is discriminatory and possibly anti-constitutional. “Those who live in Italy need to grasp and respect at least the minimum rules of equality between men and women,” said Toti, who proposed the measure together with Liguria’s health councillor, Sonia Viale of the far-right Northern...

A New Orleans police severely wounded outside a Faubourg Marigny po-boy shop in September 2014 said he had no warning before the ambush, only hearing one of two approaching men say, "Hey, bruh," before lifting a chrome revolver and starting to shoot. "I can't tell you why they shot me," NOPD Officer Jonathan Smith testified Wednesday (March 8) in the trial of accused gunman Cornelius Barthelemy. "I don't know what the reason was behind me being shot."-snip- What Smith couldn't do Wednesday was identify Barthelemy as the man who shot him, explaining that the incident unfurled too fast for him...