Free Republic

Nancy Pelosi has been very quiet lately. Where did she go? What is she doing during the shutdown? Hard to believe she has nothing to say. Hakeem needs to check on her. What is Paul doing? Is Nancy's daughter on the front lines with Antifa? Inquring minds want to know...

I'm in Washington D.C. with about 200 farmers lobbying against the Food Security and Farm Protection Act (aka EATS Act in the Senate) or the Save Our Bacon Act (SOB in the House). This legislative effort at the federal level seeks to overturn California Prop 12 from seven years ago and Massachusetts Question 3. These two states went beyond what 11 states have done in outlawing gestation crates in hog factories. Sows lives in these crates all their lives. They can only stand up and sit; they can't walk or turn around. While 11 states have outlawed this protocol, California...

As the federal government shutdown drags on into a second week, a critical animal recovery program based in Colorado has ground to a halt, delaying a reintroduction plan that could be crucial to the survival of an endangered species. Fewer than 1,000 black-footed ferrets remain on the planet, including around 280 captive-bred ones currently being housed at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Carr, Colorado. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had planned to reintroduce them at 15 sites across federal, tribal and private lands this fall, according to the conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife. Instead, the creatures are...

This spider is a bilateral gynandromorph specimen, a rare organism whose two halves of the body appear to express different sexual characteristics. Image courtesy of Varat Sivayyapram ================================================================ This pocket-sized new spider is rocking a unique look. Near perfectly split down the middle, its left legs are dark orange while its right is a whitish salt-and-pepper color. Remarkably, this is not just an aesthetic division: one side of the body is female and the other is male. Scientists at Chulalongkorn University and Ubon Ratchathani University were recently surveying a forested area of Phanom Thuan in Western Thailand, not far from...

A loyal dog named Eeyore guided an Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office deputy to his injured "grandmother" after she fell during a late-night walk. Source: OCSO When a local woman took a tumble and injured herself while walking her son’s dog one recent night, her granddog became her lifeline to help. The woman’s husband called the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office after she hadn’t returned from what should have been a 10- to 15-minute walk. More than an hour had passed. “It’s over an hour now,” the husband told the responding deputy, explaining his wife had taken out the 100-pound dog. As...

There's evidence to suggest the ancient creature survived, at least for a little while, with two heads. Image courtesy of Bob Nicholls =================================================================== In 2006, a study published in the journal Biology Letters described a fossil unlike any ever seen before. It captured a prehistoric reptile that lived around 125 million years ago. That, in itself, wasn’t terribly surprising, but the fact that it had two heads really, really was. Bicephalism describes a quirk in animal development that results in an individual with two heads. We’ve seen remarkable examples of it in wild animals, such as this southern black racer...

This was already a difficult shot for Vince Whaley at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi. But notice DIRECTLY BEHIND HIM in the water, taking a front-row seat, sits an alligator. VIDEO: https://x.com/i/status/1974937259829797184

A dedicated dog stubbornly refused to follow officers who tried to lead him back home — until they followed him to his owner’s missing elderly mother who collapsed during a late-night walk. A deputy with the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call on Sept. 25 reporting a missing senior in Destin, Fla. One frantic man was waiting on his doorstep as he explained that his 86-year-old wife hadn’t returned from a walk with their adult child’s dog, according to body camera footage. “She just takes that dog, but she never takes more than 10 or 15 minutes. It’s...

A Missouri man was found dead from a likely bear attack this week, just two days after he sent photos to his family of a bear at his campsite in Arkansas, according to officials. Police found the 60-year-old man’s body several hundred yards from his campsite near Mt. Judea, Arkansas, on Thursday. The area showed signs of a struggle and had drag marks away from the camp. The man's son had asked for a welfare check because his dad hadn’t checked in for a couple of days since sending the photos. His body has "extensive" injuries "consistent with those expected...

A Mexican free tailed bat found on September 29th, 2025, in the Cachagua area of unincorporated Monterey County has tested positive for the rabies virus, the County of Monterey has reported. Hitchcock Road Animal Services investigated this incident and determined that there was exposure to owned pet(s) and those pet(s) that were exposed have been placed under quarantine. No human exposure has been identified. Officials also warn that domestic animals, including companion dogs and cats, are at higher risk for rabies once they come in contact with wildlife. Pet owners are reminded to visit veterinarians regularly and keep up with...

Florida authorities released body cam footage on Monday that appears to show a dog leading a deputy sheriff to a woman reported missing by her husband that night. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office posted footage of the September 25 incident on Facebook on Oct. 6. The video begins by showing a man at the door of a home in Destin, Florida, a town about 50 miles east of Pensacola. The man tells Deputy Devon Miller that his wife has been missing for an hour that evening. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said in an email that the woman is...

This beetle likely fed on fungi that grew in the Cretaceous forest. Credit: Enrique Peñalver ========================================================================== Amber from Ecuador has revealed 112-million-year-old insects and plants, offering a rare glimpse into Gondwana’s ancient forests. Researchers have reported the first discovery of amber deposits in South America that contain preserved insects. Found in a quarry in Ecuador, the samples are described in Communications Earth & Environment. This discovery captures a moment in time from a forest that existed 112 million years ago on the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, offering scientists a rare chance to investigate an ecosystem that has remained largely unknown. Amber...

Centuries of human history have been frozen in time inside the towering nests of bearded vultures, Europe’s most endangered raptors, and have revealed a surprising archive of ancient artefacts carried aloft by the birds themselves. A Spanish research team who were excavating 12 ancient eyries in southern Spain’s rugged cliffs uncovered 2,483 preserved remains in a study published recently in the Ecology journal. Among them: 2,117 animal bones, 86 hooves, 72 leather scraps, 43 eggshell fragments—and 226 human-made objects, some dating back over 650 years via carbon-14 analysis. “These nests have acted as natural museums,” the authors wrote, who credited...

“The taste was delicious, and none of us suffered any ill effects from the meal.” =========================================================== Blue Babe bison lived twice. First, 50,000 years ago, the steppe bison (Bison priscus) wandered Ice Age Alaska until a lion brought it down. Its second life began millennia later, when scientists uncovered its perfectly preserved body from the Alaskan permafrost, where it had lain frozen since that ancient day. The remarkably well-preserved bison was first discovered by gold miners in 1979 and handed over to scientists as a rare find, being the only known example of a Pleistocene bison reclaimed from the permafrost....

View of winged Lion of Venice at Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy. (Photo by BGStock72 on Shutterstock) In A Nutshell Scientific testing shows Venice’s bronze Lion of St .Mark was cast in China during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907), not in Europe. Lead-isotope analysis traced the copper to the Guishan, Yaojialing, and Anji mines along China’s Lower Yangzi River. Stylistic evidence reveals it began as a mythic tomb guardian called a zhènmùshòu, complete with horns and bat-like ears later cut away. Venetian merchants, possibly the Polo family, may have refashioned the statue into a winged lion as Venice’s new...

ICE Spokesman: PORTLAND — Refuse to walk? We’ll give you a ride.

Rep. Madeleine "Next Tuesday" Dean (D-Pa.) on Wednesday confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), urging the GOP leader to address comments made by the president during his address to generals in Quantico, Va. “The president is unhinged. He is unwell,” Dean told Johnson in front of a crowd and cameras. Johnson fired back by telling her, “A lot of folks on your side are, too.” Dean then pointed to President Trump’s remarks from the day prior, when he suggested Democratic-led cities be used as “training grounds” for the military. He and Hegseth also told service members that the days of...

A Tesla Cybertruck owner visiting Chicago for a conference captured video of a woman wiping dog feces on his vehicle, which features a distinctive American flag wrap with President Donald Trump’s signature in gold on the tailgate. Internet sleuths quickly identified the alleged perpetrator Fox 32 Chicago reports that John Evans, a visitor from Savannah, Georgia, parked his distinctive Tesla Cybertruck in Chicago’s Northalsted neighborhood on Wednesday while attending a conference. The vehicle, covered in an American flag wrappingand featuring President Donald Trump’s signature in gold leaf on the tailgate, caught the attention of a passerby who took offense to...

Not all heroes wear capes. Some of them don't even wear shirts. [Warning: Language] https://twitter.com/i/status/1973031953273385088 That's the takeaway from a Macon, Georgia, McDonald's this week, when a group of fearless citizens stepped up to capture a dangerous beast that had wandered onto the premises. Local news reports: A 12-foot alligator found lounging near a McDonald's drive-thru in Macon this weekend was eventually captured and relocated — but not before a group of residents took matters into their own hands. The alligator was first spotted Friday outside the McDonald's on Rocky Creek Road, according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. We've...

Researchers and filmmakers are exploring the Superior Shoal, an underwater mountain in Lake Superior. (Courtesy of Inspired Planet Productions) ============================================================== * There is an underwater mountain in the middle of Lake Superior * Scientists and filmmakers think it could be a hotbed for aquatic life * They’re using underwater drones to document the volcanic mound * Known to some as the “Freshwater Everest,” if you want to explore this mountain, you don’t go up, you go down. ============================================================= In the middle of Lake Superior, near the boundary between Canadian and US waters, sits the Superior Shoal, a mountain that’s completely...