Free Republic

DENVER, Colo. -- The man police said planted a pipe bomb at a Littleton mall was released from prison one week before the incident. A nation-wide manhunt is underway for Earl Albert Moore, 65, who's accused of planting the explosives Wednesday, the anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings. Moore is considered armed and dangerous. The FBI confirmed that he had been serving time in a Georgia prison for a 2005 armed robbery in West Virginia. Moore had been sentenced to 18 years, but was released early on April 13. Authorities said just seven days later, he planted a pipe...

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Olympic organisers are "very alive" to the threat of a cyber attack on the London 2012 Olympics, made more challenging because of its evolving nature, senior Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings as well as security are among potential targets. Olympic security officials are also planning for the possible diversion of aircraft to protect airspace around the venues from terrorist attacks, the officials said. The greatest threat to security at the Games is international terrorism, the government's latest "Safety and Security Strategy" report said.

Online retail sales keep climbing, big box retailers keep wondering what to do with all their space, and small stores struggle to survive at all. As a result of that nasty brew, Malls Face Surge in Vacancies. Mall vacancies hit their highest level in at least 11 years in the first quarter, new figures from real-estate research company Reis Inc. showed. In the top 80 U.S. markets, the average vacancy rate was 9.1%, up from 8.7%. The outlook is especially bad for strip malls and other neighborhood shopping centers. Their vacancy rate is expected to top 11.1% later this year,...

AMSTERDAM -A gunman opened fire at a Dutch shopping mall, killing at least two people and wounding several others Saturday, state broadcaster NOS reported. A witness identified as Maart Verbeek said the attacker had a machine gun and that he had seen at least five people he believed were killed and numerous people wounded at the mall in the town of Alphen aan den Rijn, 13 miles (21 kilometers) southwest of Amsterdam, NOS reported. The broadcaster, however, cited the government as saying that at least two were killed at the Ridderhof mall. But the city government issued a statement saying...

Cathy Cruz Marrero ponders lawsuit after video of her fountain fall goes viral.

Video: Woman falls into fountain while textingTuesday, 18 January, 2011 10:20 AM WE all know that you shouldn’t text and drive - but texting and walking seems to be equally hazardous if this video is anything to go by.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. -- A man who dressed up as Santa Claus was kicked out of a mall in Boynton Beach. Larry Lester said he wanted to spread some Christmas cheer.Lester said he put on his Santa suit after doing some shopping at the Boynton Beach Mall Wednesday night. Mall security asked him to leave after receiving complaints from families in line to see the official Santa.--snip--"I enjoy seeing the kids tell me what they want for Christmas and they get excited seeing Santa Claus," Lester said.

Hamas has announced that a new mall will be built in the Gaza Strip. Yusuf Mansi, Minister of Housing and Public Works of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, told Gaza-based news agency Safa on Thursday that his office is currently on a plan to build a new mall. The 44-acre mall will be located in Gaza City and will be the largest shopping center in the Strip, said Mansi. The mall will be built on land that was established in 1929 by the British Mandate as the region’s military headquarters, and as of 1948 served as the headquarters...

ROSEVILLE, Calif. -- A regional shopping center in suburban Sacramento has been evacuated after a man started a fire, then barricaded himself in the back room of an electronics store.

PHOTO CAPTION: "Yasir Afifi said the FBI planted a GPS device on his car and later confiscated it when a friend posted this photo online. (Credit: khaledthegypsy/REDDIT)" SNIPPET: "Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old student and U.S.-born citizen found a GPS tracking device on his car. A friend posted pictures of the device, which resulted in the FBI coming by Afifi's Santa Clara, Calif., apartment to retrieve the surveillance equipment. It seems the FBI was tracking Afifi's movements..."

Maybe Ed Schultz was right about being able to attract more people than Glenn Beck: organizers of today’s “One Nation Together Rally” are claiming that, based on a “satellite image,” there are definitively more people on the Washington Mall today than there were on the 29th of August. Congratulations, liberals! Except “Restoring Honor” was on the 28th. It was bound to happen that the organizers of this rally, the goal of which was decidedly to undermine the strength in numbers of the Tea Party, would claim to have brought together a larger number of people than Glenn Beck’s crew. Given...

Civil rights, labor groups rally on National MallThe goal is to arouse enthusiasm among Democratic voters and stave off an expected GOP comeback in the midterm elections. The rally is also a liberal response to conservative commentator Glenn Beck's rally in August. By Jordan Steffen, Tribune Washington Bureau 11:52 a.m. CDT, October 2, 2010 WASHINGTON - Thousands of activists from groups that support the Democratic Party gathered for a march and rally on the National Mall on Saturday in a bid to rejuvenate the enthusiasm of more liberal voters and stave off an expected GOP comeback in next month's midterm...

On Friday and Saturday nights, at an increasing number of malls across the country, teenagers are being forced to bring along the one person they'd most likely rather leave behind: a parent. Dozens of malls now have what they call a "parental escort policy," meaning teens under the age of 18 have to be with a parent or guardian who is 21 or over to enter. Most shopping centers have these restrictions only on weekend evenings, but some keep them in place seven days a week. The Mid Rivers Mall in St. Louis, Mo., started sending away teens at the...

A brawl involving juveniles outside the AMC 24 Theaters in the Aventura Mall on Saturday night resulted in 16 arrests and the early closing of the theater and nearby restaurants. Aventura police evacuated the area outside the theater shortly after they arrived at 10:09 p.m. Several police and mall security officers were struck by suspects who were resisting arrest, and a few officers reported minor injuries, according to Aventura Police spokesperson Chris Goranitis. Officers used Taser guns on several suspects while making the arrests, Goranitis said.

ROSEVILLE, Calif - A California appeals court struck down a mall's rules banning strangers from talking about subjects other than the mall while inside the facility. A three-judge 3rd District Court of Appeals panel issued a 43-page opinion Wednesday describing the rules, which ban the unacquainted for discussing anything other than Roseville's Westfield Galleria mall and its stores while in the mall, as "unconstitutional on their face" due to violations of free speech as outlined in the California Constitution, the Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday. The mall's rules, which were previously upheld by Placer Superior Court Judge Larry Gaddis, allow for...

Look what I found on my last trip home. You have to see it to believe it!

A British holidaymaker has been charged with indecency in Dubai after walking through the world's largest shopping centre in a bikini. The woman was buying clothes and gifts in the Dubai Mall, fully dressed but in a low-cut top, when she was accosted by an Arabic woman and criticised for wearing 'revealing clothing'. The pair then became embroiled in a heated row in front of hundreds of bemused shoppers. Incensed by the Arabic woman's comments, the British woman told her to 'mind her own business' before stripping out of her clothes and 'taunting' the locals by walking around in only...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Authorities in Las Cruces say someone stole a gun and a Taser out of a Dona Ana County Sheriff's car at the Mesilla Valley Mall. According to investigators, an off-duty sheriff's sergeant had his marked vehicle parked at the mall when someone broke the front window before taking off with a gun, ammunition, a Taser, and handcuffs. When questioned why the sergeant took all his equipment to the mall, investigators say he was just obeying the rules. "Yes, he was off-duty; however, he was on-duty so far as being on call which required him to have...

A thief with an eye for fancy lingerie stole more than $8,300 worth of underwear and bras from the Victoria's Secret at Orlando Fashion Square Mall on Tuesday. Police said the bra bandit emptied 11 drawers and a couple of display trays — containing about 200 panties and 140 bras — from the East Colonial Drive store in less than 30 minutes. An employee said workers had filled their drawers with the underwear and bras for the upcoming sale at 5:30 p.m. and noticed someone had lifted the undies at 6 p.m. Workers said they don't know how the thief...

City Creek Center may be trying to attract retail tenants during tough economic times, but that doesn't mean there will be lots of empty storefronts when the massive project opens for business in early 2012, a representative said Wednesday. Interest in City Creek -- one of the few large shopping centers in development nationally -- is high, Mark Gibbons, president of City Creek Reserve, said without elaborating. SNIP But City Creek Reserve, a development arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has yet to release much information about retailers that will fill 80 smaller speciality shops. The...