Free Republic

(The Center Square) – An Operation Lone Star task force that has seen a number of successes is expanding throughout the state to combat cartel and gang crime, led by Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd. Law enforcement officials from over 30 agencies met for an operational meeting this week to discuss future goals as well as expansion efforts with Texas Border Czar Mike Banks. The Center Square has reported exclusively on Boyd’s task force operations since the multi-agency initiative was launched in 2022. Initially, the OLS Task Force involved 20 agencies, including 12 sheriff’s offices, seven city police departments and...

You may just be one tick bite away from never being able to eat a ham sandwich again. The lone star tick is making its way into Massachusetts from the southeastern part of the United States. People will find them on Nantucket and the coast. The tick's bite can cause some people to develop an unexpected food allergy. "The reason we are seeing more coastal areas is because there is a substantial difference when it comes to temperature in coastal regions than inlands," explained Dr. Goudarz Molaei, Chief Scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. "In some municipalities it has...

There are more than 18,000 beds for the homeless on any given night in New York City. But Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials can’t find room for the 1,500 illegal aliens bused to the Big Apple over the last couple of weeks? A cursory examination of Mayor Adams’ criticism of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reveals that Adams doesn’t have a leg to stand on. If there is a “crisis” in New York City of illegal aliens “overwhelming” the city, it’s been manufactured by Adams and Democratic members of his administration.

A Russian beverage company said on Thursday that it was acquiring the Pabst Brewing Company, which makes the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer popular with barflies and hipsters alike and other brands like Colt 45 and Old Milwaukee. [snip] The buyer is Oasis Beverages, a Russian brewer and beverages distributor. Backing Oasis is TSG Consumer Partners, an American private equity firm focused on consumer goods, which will take a minority stake. “Pabst Blue Ribbon is the quintessential American brand – it represents individualism, egalitarianism and freedom of expression – all the things that make this country great,” Eugene Kashper, the chairman...

A South African company in the spotlight for paying $100,000 in speaking fees to White House adviser David Plouffe is also in business with a Liberian official under U.N. sanctions for his ties to convicted war criminal and former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. That's among the latest details to emerge on the connections involving MTN Group, a subsidiary of which paid President Obama's former campaign manager for engagements in late 2010, shortly before he joined the White House. The ties to Liberia's bloody Taylor era center on Benoni Urey, who was commissioner of maritime affairs in Liberia during Taylor's reign....

Putting a Texan on the national ticket is as American as apple pie, and has been so for almost eight decades. Texans instantly add character to any race. Whether it is Cactus Jack Garner who joined FDR and became the first Southerner elected on a national ticket since the Civil War, or LBJ stealing the 1960 election in South Texas for Kennedy, the Texans always make it interesting. Why is that? Well, we are like Americans . . . but more so. Sure the Bush Presidents were not originally from Texas, but at least George W. Bush is a country...

If you're a true blue Texan or even from another state or nation, you probably know about Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Barret Travis. The revolutionary martyrs of the Alamo deserve their fame along with Sam Houston, who led 783 men against the 1,400-man army of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in the April 21, 1836, Battle of San Jacinto. But many more obscure heroes of the Texas Revolution were just as brave and played important roles. Speaking at today's 2 p.m. "Toast of Texas" ceremony at Haley Memorial Library at 1805 W. Indiana Ave., attorney-historian Lloyd...

BABADAG TRAINING AREA, Romania, July 27, 2005 — A Texas flag that once flew over Texas National Guard Master Sgt. Michael Young's bunker in Vietnam now soars over the Task Force Raider Tactical Operations Command tent in Romania. The flag flies one last time before the fifth generation Texan retires from his 38-year military career in February. Young and his fellow soldiers from Texas posted the colors to bring a Lonestar State ambiance to their operations at ROMEX 05. ROMEX 05 is a bi-lateral exercise in the Babadag Training Area that includes tactical training and community development projects in Tulcea...

Taxman probes foreign funds invested here April 15, 2005 ¤Ñ Korean tax authorities are investigating foreign funds, including U.S.-based Lone Star Funds and Carlyle Group, sources said yesterday. "I will neither confirm nor deny," Han Sang-yool, chief of the National Tax Service's investigative division, said yesterday. But he added, "It is the National Tax Service's duty and responsibility to examine whether international capital, as well as domestic capital, has made unfair profits through irregularities." The investigation follows growing public suspicion about foreign stock investors, and increasing concerns in Korea that foreign capital is making huge tax-free profits by investing in...

Japanese TV (FNN) ran a short report yesterday, highlighting the fact that Houston, Texas was voted as the US city with the most obese population.The report runs about one minute. It does not seem to be particularly flattering of poor Houston, nor overweight people living there (some which are profiled by telephoto lens). The way the clip is done is interesting, if not somewhat humorous, and from a Japanese perspective of rare obesity (but wait 'til it comes to cigarette smoking).At any rate, a short peek of how 'some' Americans are viewed and described, from overseas.

Two very different Texas institutions are set to spar over an image almost as seminal as the state flag. Last month, Red River punk/garage nexus Beerland received a notice from attorneys for cosmic cowboy shrine Luckenbach, informing them Luckenbach considered Beerland's logo an infringement on their trademark. Owner Randall Stockton begs to differ, saying the star-in-oval design – perhaps you've also seen it representing Lone Star Beer, the Lone Star Cafe, and Jerry Jeff Walker – should belong to nobody; or, rather, that it belongs to all Texans. "There's just so many people who affiliate themselves with Texas that use...

Oh boy - if you want to shed a tear this a.m., check out Lonestar's rendition of "I'm already there" - a tribute to our troops. turn volumn up

LAJITAS -- Strange tales have always sprung from the Big Bend -- the Marfa lights, the discovery of an alligator in the Rio Grande -- but none stranger than the growing epic of the assault on the mayor of Lajitas. It's a story with larger-than-life elements: a millionaire and a movie star, an irate stone mason and a stealthy act of violent revenge in a border town, the castration of a magistrate in the dark of night. Added is the singular nature of the victim: Clay Henry III, a duly elected figure who happens to be a red and...