Free Republic

He kept charging. A bullet to the torso did not stop Riley Howell. A second bullet to the body did not prevent him from reaching his goal and hurling himself at the gunman who opened fire last week inside a classroom at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The third bullet came as Mr. Howell was inches from the gunman, who fired at point-blank range into his head. Mr. Howell’s parents said their 21-year-old son, who is being heralded for his bravery, was shot at least three times. He tackled the gunman so forcefully that the suspect complained to...

There are 34 Senate seats up for election in 2020 — including a special election in Arizona — many of which are expected to be brutally competitive as Democrats vie for control of the Senate. Quick take: The U.S. Senate is currently made up of 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats. Dems must win 3 or 4 seats to take control of the Senate — 4 to recapture control — or 3, if they also win the vice presidency. Some of the fiercest races will come from Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire, according...

Michael Yovany Aldana, 28, of Mooresville, has been identified as the suspect in the fatal shooting Saturday night of Mooresville K9 Officer Jordan Harris Sheldon. Aldana died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Shortly after 10 p.m., the 32-year-old officer was shot during a routine traffic stop on West Plaza Drive, according to a news release. Sheldon was transported to a hospital, but later died from his injuries. Aldana fled and was later located in a nearby apartment. Prior to police entering the residence, the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police say. Police said during a news conference on...

The hero UNC Charlotte student who died after jumping on a gunman when he opened fire in his classroom will be buried with full military honors. Riley Howell, 21, was one of two students who died in the shooting at the university's campus on Tuesday. Ellis Parlier, 19, also lost his life. When gunman Trystan Terrell burst into their anthropology class and opened fire, Howell ran towards him and tackled him to the ground. Officials in North Carolina say it bought police time to get to him and stop the shooting which saved countless lives. Wells Funeral Homes in Waynesville...

Here's your latest installment of "everything is racist," courtesy of the New York Times. The paper's "Race Related" section is described as "a weekly newsletter focused on race, identity and culture," and for my sins, I recently subscribed to it. This morning, an email arrived from "Race Related," attaching a story about gentrification in the historically black South Park neighborhood of Raleigh, North Carolina. According to the article's author, Emily Badger [emphasis added throughout]: "A few new homes rise high above the modest, single-story properties around them. Those houses, some longtime residents lament, feel so large that they evoke plantation...

Years after a scathing federal audit exposed rampant waste in a multi-billion-dollar government program to help the “unemployed or underemployed” pay their mortgage, the gouging continues full throttle. Public officials who operate the disastrous project, known as Hardest Hit Fund (HHF), have wasted millions of dollars on parties, fancy cars, gifts, extravagant dinners and receptions, gym memberships and luxury travel. Previous investigations have uncovered more than $11 million in wasteful spending at HHF for illegal things such as employee bonuses, lavish shindigs, expensive vehicles and superfluous data storage. The latest enraging figures are documented in a lengthy report to Congress...

The past few presidential campaigns, environmental activists have "been left begging for there to be a single question at a campaign debate about climate change," longtime climate change activist and author Bill McKibben recently told NPR. "This time around I'm not worried in the least. I think it's going to be one of the central topics in the primary," McKibben said, "and then I think whoever wins the Democratic nomination is going to try and ram the issue straight down Trump's throat." Indeed, Democratic voters told a CNN poll this week that aggressively addressing climate change is more important than...

Sharia truth and the “Progressive Muslim” Feminist As a “Muslim feminist scholar,” Williams College Assistant Professor of Religion Saadia Yacoob has a “very complicated relationship” with her Islamic faith, as her Duke University dissertation explains. This research, the basis for an April 3 presentation at Georgetown University’s Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), reveals the chasm between her “progressivism” and historic Islamic orthodoxy. The leftist Jewish publication The Forward wrote over 15 years ago that Yacoob is a founder of the Progressive Muslims Network, whose members “appear to be working toward a new Islam.” She was...

Riley Howell, pictured with his girlfriend, was killed in the UNCC shooting. ============================================================= Riley Howell, who was praised as a hero who “took the fight to” the UNCC shooter, saving lives, was named as one of the two victims who died in the terrifying mass shooting on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus. An ROTC cadet, Howell, 21, confronted the gunman as the shooter opened fire in a classroom, and Howell gave his life protecting his classmates, police confirmed. “He was the kind of person who you knew would take care of you the moment you met...

Riley Howell, hero: A student killed in the University of North Carolina-Charlotte shooting is being hailed as a hero for leaping in front of the gunman in an attempt to stop him. Riley Howell, 21, was in his liberal studies class at the university Tuesday with about 30 other students when the shooter burst in and opened fire. The brave junior ran at the gunman and knocked him off his feet, allowing fellow students the chance to escape. “He’s an athletically built young man and he took the fight to the assailant,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Kerr Putney. “His...

Two people have been killed and a man is in custody after a shooting at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte on Tuesday. UNCC Chief of Police Jeff Baker said during a media briefing that two people were killed and four were injured in a shooting on the campus, which began at about 5:40 p.m. Three of the injured are currently in critical condition, Baker said. Baker said police were preparing for a Waka Flocka Flame concert set to take place on campus when they were alerted to the shooting. Officers ran to the scene and, within a few minutes, were...

The University of North Carolina on Tuesday said it had received reports of an “active shooter” at its Charlotte campus and local media said three people had been struck by gunfire before a suspect was taken into custody.

UNC forms Campus Safety Commission Dozens of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently walked out of class and called for the school’s police department to be stripped of its ability to oversee and police their “anti-racist” efforts after a year of racial tension on campus. The Daily Tar Heel reported their demands include “to cease harassing and arbitrarily arresting anti-racist protesters, stop coordinating with white supremacists, lift the ‘no trespass’ orders against anti-racist protesters, stop police brutality and excessive force, stop inviting outside police agencies onto campus and allow community-based investigation and accountability regarding collaboration...

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — As Peter Johnson and Emily Neal waited for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to arrive at Barley’s, a brick-lined sports bar in southwestern Iowa, they gamed out possible nominees in the Democratic presidential primary. Mr. Johnson, a 27-year-old law student, said the large field was a great equalizer, and “if at the end of it we get an old white guy, someone who represents the status quo, it’ll be because they’ve proven themselves.” Ms. Neal, a dental hygienist, made an agonized face at Mr. Johnson, her boyfriend. Wouldn’t something be lost, she asked, if the historically diverse slate...

“You told me to.” Those were the dying words of a North Carolina man who was shot by police as he followed orders to drop the gun he had in his pocket, body camera footage shows. Footage of the March 25 death of Danquirs Napoleon Franklin, 27, was released Friday by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. The video was released on the order of Mecklenburg County Superior Judge Donnie Hoover, who was responding to a petition by local media.

At least two Democrats have reimbursed the campaign contributions made by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who has been at the center of numerous controversies since she was sworn in as a freshman congresswoman last January. North Carolina’s 9th congressional district candidate Dan McCready refunded $2,000 to Omar in March after she donated to his campaign last November ahead of the 2018 midterms, WSOC reported Wednesday. A spokesman for McCready told the news station he'd refunded Omar’s contribution because “he believes there is no place for divisiveness in politics, and McCready did not feel it is appropriate to accept the donation.”

They label their opponents as racists – one of the most odious things a person can be thought of in America – with absolutely no substantiation for the charge, and they do it unceasingly. When words fail, they violently attack those with whom they disagree. Indeed, they routinely countenance violence yet, in passive-aggressive stance, bleat like helpless, wretched victims when their opponents take the offensive, or even suggest taking the offensive. In the workplace, they take improper liberties with their subordinates and engage in fraud in order to get their children into high-profile universities. Their captains of industry conspire to...

A Depression-era mural depicting white children playing outside in the winter was removed from Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park because school officials said it failed to represent the school’s diversity. While some said the mural was upsetting to students of color who felt it excluded them from the school, a local historian likened the removal to a “modern-day book burning.” Cynthia Brito Millan, a coordinator for the middle school’s Social Justice Club, said the push to remove the mural began in February at a district school board meeting. Students expressed frustration about an atmosphere of exclusion for students...

Carolyn Carpeneti, Mayor Willie Brown's fund-raiser and mother of his 2-year-old daughter, has been paid at least $2.33 million over the past five years by nonprofit groups and political committees controlled by the mayor and his allies, public records show. The relationship intensified after Brown was elected. ... According to people who know them, then-Assembly Speaker Brown met her at a party during the 1995 mayor's race. Brown, who is married but has been separated from his wife for 25 years, was dating lawyer Kamala Harris, now a candidate for district attorney. Nevertheless, Brown soon phoned Carpeneti and invited her...

Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke of Texas swung through North Carolina on Monday opening with greetings of “buenos dias” to nearly 100 students and others in Charlotte. Newly minted Democrat State Senator Mujtaba Mohammed, elected in 2018, launched the Central Piedmont Community College event around 9 a.m. It was the first of three 2020 campaign events for O’Rourke in North Carolina on Monday. O’Rourke’s opening remark on gerrymandering elicited cheers from the crowd. He threw in mention of LGBT issues, voter suppression, and a new voting rights act.