Free Republic

Full Title: "Finally, Someone Acts Like An Adult: District Attorney Drops Charges Against Bullied Teen Who Recorded His Tormentors" South Fayette School in Pennsylvania, along with a complicit criminal justice system, recently made headlines with its groundbreaking anti-bullying program, which apparently deters bullying by punishing bullied students. Here's a short recap: A bullied student used an iPad to make an audio recording of other students abusing him. He brought this to school administration who a) called in a police officer (after being advised by its legal team that this might be a violation of the state's wiretapping law) and b)...

Hillary Clinton is trying to impress voters that she’s a true friend of Israel, which is odd given that relations with the Jewish state reached a low point while she was secretary of State. The Post reports: “Hillary Rodham Clinton cast doubt on the interim nuclear agreement with Iran, saying in a muscular policy speech [in New York] Wednesday night that she is ‘personally skeptical’ that Iran’s leaders will follow through on a comprehensive agreement to end their march toward nuclear weapons. Still, the former secretary of state and potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate told a pro-Israel audience in New...

It took filing a lawsuit, but Judicial Watch discovered Friday that President Obama has set a new record for travel on the taxpayer dime. The conservative watchdog group obtained travel records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force that show the Obamas racked up $7.4 million during just three trips in 2013 – in flight expenses only. The records, revealed Friday, include the Obama family’s Christmas vacation in Hawaii from Dec. 21, 2012, to Jan. 5, 2013. During that stay, the president took a short break and flew back to Washington to work on a budget deal, then returned...

(CNSNews.com) -- A record 20% of American households, one in five, were on food stamps in 2013, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The numbers also show that there were a record number of individuals on food stamps in 2013 and that the cost of the program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), was at an all-time high.

Nebraska resident Molly Schuyler plowed through a 12-pound sandwich with a 1-pound side of fries in 54 minutes. The very next evening, the 125-pound mother of four mauled a 72-ounce steak in just 2 minutes and 44 seconds “on a whim.” She followed that up with a burger an hour later and now, she's a minor celebrity. “It really wasn’t any work at all,” the 34-year-old told TODAY.com. “I was just going through the motions.”

Feeling chilly? Here's cold comfort: You could be in East Antarctica which new data says set a record for soul-crushing cold. Try 135.8 degrees Fahrenheit below zero; that's 93.2 degrees below zero Celsius, which sounds only slightly toastier. Better yet, don't try it. That's so cold scientists say it hurts to breathe. A new look at NASA satellite data revealed that Earth set a new record for coldest temperature recorded. It happened in August 2010 when it hit -135.8 degrees. Then on July 31 of this year, it came close again: -135.3 degrees. The old record had been -128.6 degrees,...

The correlation between stock prices and margin debt continues to rise (to new records of exuberant "Fed's got our backs" hope) as NYSE member margin balances surge to new record highs. Relative to the NYSE Composite, this is the most "leveraged' investors have been since the absolute peak in Feb 2000. What is more worrisome, or perhaps not, is the ongoing collapse in investor net worth - defined as total free credit in margin accounts less total margin debt - which has hit what appears to be all-time lows (i.e. there's less left than ever before) which as we noted...

The city clerk’s office has informed KRQE-TV that there’s been a record number for early voting on a proposed ordinance. What has caused over 23,000 people to vote as of this morning? The city of Albuquerque’s “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance,” which would ban abortions after 20 weeks, the juncture by which science shows the unborn child can experience pain. Early voting ends November 15th and Election Day is November 19th. (There is also a run-off election in one city council district that will give the city a new councilor.) There are four known late abortion centers in the...

Francis Bacon’s three-paneled painting “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction on Tuesday when it soared to $142.4 million at Christie’s.

Rosstat recently released their latest batch of demographic statistics. Nothing particularly bizarre or unexpected happened, but the data show that births have held steady at their 2012 level while deaths have modestly decreased. This means that, if the trends from the January-September period are maintained for the entirety of 2013, Russia will record natural population growth of roughly 13,000, its first natural population growth since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now in one sense natural growth of 13,000 out of a total population of 143,000,000 sounds puny and unimpressive. However, as I never tire of reminding people, it wasn’t...

Three men, a souped-up Mercedes, 2,813 miles of American roadway, a bedpan, and a dream. Ed Bolian, and his team, obliterated a cross-country driving record this month, racing from New York to LA in a heart-pounding 28 hours 50 minutes. That’s 11 hours faster than Google maps says it should take, and nearly 3 hours faster than the previous record set in 2006 of 31 hours and 4 minutes. “Honestly, I was so shocked at how much we had beat our target and previous record,” Bolian, a 27-year-old Lamborghini dealer from Atlanta told ABCNews.com.

Ed Bolian had a serious cross-country need for speed. The 28-year-old Atlanta man and a two-man crew shattered the unofficial record for fastest drive from New York City to Los Angeles earlier this month by making the 2,813-mile trip in 28 hours and 50 minutes, besting the previous mark set in 2006 by more than two hours. Using a souped-up 2004 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG, Bolian, co-driver Dave Black and support passenger Dan Huang left the Red Ball Parking Garage on 31st Street in New York City at 9:55 p.m. on Oct. 19. The trio later arrived at the Portofino Hotel...

(CNSNews.com) - The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the nation's labor force has climbed to a record 90,609,000 in September, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a job in the last four weeks. A person is not participating in the labor force if they are 16 or older and have not sought a job in the...

<p>U.S. debt jumped a record $328 billion on Thursday, the first day the federal government was able to borrow money under the deal President Obama and Congress sealed this week.</p> <p>The debt now equals $17.075 trillion, according to figures the Treasury Department posted online on Friday.</p>

For the third straight day, high temperatures in Atlanta are breaking records for how low they are. Saturday’s high was 66 degrees as against the normal high in the upper 80s. The temperatures put a chill over, “It’s kind of a freak of nature that it’s even cold – it’s August and we’re wearing jeans and coats, and it’s very weird,” said Regan Koski, event manager for Decatur’s Blues, Barbecue and Bluegrass Festival. “I’m from Atlanta, and I still can’t believe this weather. It’s crazy,” Wynn said. “I would expect this in November. Not in August. Not in Atlanta.” Thursday...

A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 60 per cent. The rebound from 2012’s record low comes six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013. Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.

The driver, who went by the name Afroduck, was fast and proud of it, using a dashboard camera to capture his wild 26.5-mile journey around Manhattan in 24 minutes.

You might want to put aside any plans for the beach this weekend. The high temperature on Saturday is forecast to stay one notch below 70 degrees, threatening the record for July 27. Lows are expected to dip into the mid and upper 40s in some suburbs Saturday night, with northern suburbs experiencing slightly colder and southern suburbs slightly warmer temps conditions.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 scaled fresh heights on Thursday, boosted by better than expected results from Morgan Stanley and United Health, while investors looked to a second day of congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Shares of Morgan Stanley (MS) surged 4.1 percent to $27.64 after the bank reported stronger-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit as revenue grew in all its major businesses. A jump in shares of UnitedHealth (UNH.N) helped boost the Dow and other health insurers. UnitedHealth was up 5.7 percent at $70.03 after the company's results beat expectations, while the S&P health...

NEW YORK - Barraged with a surge in demand for its firearms, Smith & Wesson is vowing to continue to ramp up manufacturing. Smith & Wesson (SWHC) reported that its gun sales jumped by 42% for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended on April 30 with record sales of $587.5 million. The company reported net income of $78.7 million more than quadrupling it´s prior-year results. Going forward, the gun maker expects to keep breaking sales records. Sales have surged for guns and ammunition ever since the presidential campaign of 2012.