Free Republic

LARGO — A jury found Michael Drejka guilty of manslaughter late Friday in the 2018 shooting death of Markeis McGlockton in a convenience store parking lot. The conviction came after 6½ hours of deliberations by the jury of five men and one woman. It was read aloud at 10:41 p.m. Drejka stared straight ahead, standing beside his lawyers. He could face up to 30 years in prison. In the front row of the gallery, McGlockton’s girlfriend, Britany Jacobs threw up her hands and clapped. A woman broke into sobs. McGlockton’s father pressed his elbows into his knees as supporters squeezed...

A newly elected member of the St. Louis County Council chose to be sworn in with a Dr. Seuss book rather than a Bible. Earlier this month, Democrat Kelli Dunaway handily beat Republican Alderman Amy Poelker for the 2nd District seat, garnering 60 percent of the vote. Since election regulations don't require politicians to swear their oath of office on a Bible, Dunaway opted to lay her hand on Dr. Seuss' 1990 bestseller Oh, the Places You'll Go!Her son and daughter held the book for during her swearing-in ceremony on August 13. A former field organizer at Obama for America,...

Sunday could be a bittersweet first Mother's Day for Casey Greenfield. Greenfield is a pretty, ginger-haired, Yale-educated lawyer and writer who last March gave birth to a love child. The baby's father is married CNN star and best-selling New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin. (Casey's father is esteemed political pundit Jeff Greenfield.) Ever since we broke the news of her pregnancy, Casey has remained silent about the baby drama. But now some of her friends are fed up with what they claim is less-than-gallant behavior on Toobin's part. ... In 2008, when Greenfield became pregnant, and when she told Toobin the...

President Trump spoke out Sunday on reports his administration has been looking into buying Greenland. "Essentially it’s a large real estate deal. A lot of things can be done. It’s hurting Denmark very badly because they're losing almost $700 million a year carrying it," he said. "So, they carry it at great loss, and strategically for the United States, it would be nice. And, we're a big ally of Denmark and we help Denmark, and we protect Denmark." Trump said he may be visiting Greenland in the near future, but claimed the issue was not a top priority for the...

The private plane carrying NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., his wife, and child, bounced twice on the runway before it crashed to the ground and erupted into flames on Thursday, officials have revealed. Earnhardt Jr., 44, had been flying to Bristol with his wife, Amy, their 15-month-old daughter Isla, and their family dog, Gus, when his private plane skidded off the runway of Elizabethton Municipal Airport. National Transportation Safety Board investigator, Ralph Hicks, said surveillance footage captured the plant thumping down on the runway two times before the right landing gear collapsed, causing the aircraft to skid beyond the tarmac,...

The protest against President Trump got out of hand in St. Louis when a Muslim college student from Minneapolis attempted to burn down a Christian school, lighting four fires and endangering the lives of 33 children. Tnuza Jamal Hassan, a college student rom Minneapolis, has been charged with intentionally setting four fires at St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul to “protest” against President Trump. A criminal complaint alleges 19-year-old Tnuza Jamal Hassan confessed to police that she started the fires on Wednesday because she had been reading about President Trump and the actions of the US military, and she felt...

<p>FERNADALE, Md. (WJZ) — A 61-year-old man is dead after he was shot by an officer trying to enforce Maryland’s new ‘red flag’ law in Ferndale Monday morning.</p> <p>Anne Arundel County Police confirmed the police-involved shooting happened in the 100 block of Linwood Avenue around 5:17 a.m.</p>

Rocker David Crosby said in an op-ed published in the Daily Beast that President Donald Trump is “completely under the control of Russia” and suggested that the GOP intends to win again in 2020 with the help of the Kremlin. Crosby wondered what the Russians “have” on Trump, rehashing the egregious and unfounded allegations outlined in the anti-Trump Steele dossier. “It could be the alleged ‘pee tape,’ could be some truth to the whispers that Trump has been laundering Russian mob money for at least 20 years through his New York real estate deals, stashing illegal money in multimillion-dollar apartments...

Navy Identifies Pilot Killed in Death Valley Super Hornet Crash By: Sam LaGrone August 2, 2019 4:50 PM Lt. Charles Walker, 33, died when his F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed about 40 miles north of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif. The Navy has identified the pilot who was killed in a Wednesday crash in Death Valley National Park, Calif. Lt. Charles Walker, 33, died when his F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed about 40 miles north of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif. He was on a training mission over a canyon at the national park when the crash occurred....

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s pick for national intelligence director, Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, withdrew from consideration Friday after just five days as he faced growing questions about his experience and qualifications. The move underscored the uncertainty over his confirmation prospects. Democrats openly dismissed the Republican congressman as an unqualified partisan and Republicans offered only lukewarm and tentative expressions of support. The announcement will leave the intelligence community without a permanent, Senate-confirmed leader at a time when the U.S. government is grappling with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, the prospect of war with Iran and the anticipated efforts of Russia...

They're pests that carry diseases, multiply quickly and are hard to catch. Rodents are terrorizing a Baltimore County community. Stephanie Yelton of Dundalk called the county to report the problem--and ended up being fined. (Crazy Story!!) Stephanie Yelton was fined for "Rat Harboring" She was not allowed to speak in court and they have placed a lien on her home pending payment of fine

Enter for a chance to win round-trip tickets for you and a guest to meet Senator Warren to grab a drink in addition to two nights’ hotel accommodations.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — USA Today has named Baltimore the most dangerous city in the country. The paper analyzed police crime data in the nation’s 50 biggest cities, which revealed Baltimore had the highest per capita murder rate in the nation with nearly 56 murders per 100,000 people — a record for the city. The rate outpaced New Orleans and Detroit, with a rate of 40 and 39 killings per 100,000 people, respectively. Baltimore’s 342 murders in 2017 was an increase from 318 in 2016. Baltimore — the most populated city in Maryland with more than 615,000 residents — had more...

The Remains Of A Man Missing For A Decade Have Just Been Found Behind A Cooler At His Job By Marco Margaritoff Published July 23, 2019 Nobody knew what happened to Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada when he disappeared in 2009. Authorities searched far and wide, only for contractors to find his body at his place of work a decade later. TOP ARTICLES 1/5 READ MORE 44 Evocative Images Of The Prague Spring, When Czechoslovakia Tried To Escape Soviet Rule Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada Iowa Department of Public Safety Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada was 25 years old when a tragic mishap pinned him between...

California may be on the verge of eliminating single-family zoning statewide. This is huge. And it’s a sign of how quickly the politics around housing and land use have shifted in just the last year. ... Senate Bill 50 — San Francisco Sen. Scott Wiener’s bill to allow denser, taller housing ... Single-family houses could be converted to four-unit buildings, by right, anywhere in the state. That is, a property owner could subdivide or remodel a house to turn it into four apartments. Or a developer could build a fourplex on a vacant single-family lot. ... Let’s just pause on...

On Wednesday, Netflix announced its subscriber base in the United States declined for the first time since 2011. ... Netflix blames the decline on its most recent price increase... Perhaps there’s another factor that Netflix is missing, or evening ignoring .... For more than a year now, Netflix has made some controversial moves that undeniably alienated a large portion of its U.S. subscribers: conservatives. Back in March of 2018, Netflix named former Susan Rice, the former National Security Adviser and Ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama, to their Board of Directors. ... Rice’s placement on the Board of...

South Korean air force jets fired 360 rounds of warning shots Tuesday in response to “multiple” Russian military planes that entered into the South's airspace, officials said. Seoul officials said three Russian military planes – two Tu-84 bombers and one A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft – entered the South’s air defense identification zone off its east coast before the A-50 intruded in South Korean airspace. An unspecified number of South Korean fighter jets, including F-16s, scrambled to the area and fired 10 flares and 80 rounds from machine guns as warning shots.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, a California-based physician who now hosts a talk radio show, correctly predicted the current typhus outbreak in Los Angeles about 18 months ago. Now he is sounding the alarm about a potential outbreak of the bubonic plague in the Los Angeles area, saying that unless conditions change quickly and drastically, Southern California will be dealing with a horrific epidemic. The last outbreak of the bubonic plague, ironically, was in the 1920’s in Los Angeles. Yersinia pestis, the organism that causes the plague, is endemic to the valleys Southern California and comes down through the foothills on squirrels...

One of Baltimore’s newest deputy police commissioners and his wife were robbed at gunpoint Friday night near Patterson Park, police said. Deputy Commissioner Daniel Murphy and his wife were approached around 9 p.m. by four men in a large white SUV at the 2200 block of East Pratt Street, police said in a statement. Two approximately 18-year-old men got out of the SUV and approached the couple. The men announced it was a robbery and showed a gun before fleeing with a wallet, a purse, some cash and multiple cell phones, the press release said.

The Berkeley, California, City Council is getting headlines for its decision last week to ban supposedly gendered language from its city code. “Manhole” and “manpower” are now out in favor of “maintenance hole” and “human effort.” Somewhere George Orwell is crying, but the city’s progressive lords were even more destructive when they also moved to ban natural gas from nearly all new buildings. The ordinance is due for a second reading this week and already has unanimous council support. Beginning Jan. 1, with few exceptions the city will deny developers permission to build a home, town house or small apartment...