Free Republic

ABC’s Modern Family actor Ed O’Neill says he plans to give back his honorary doctorate degree to Youngstown State University in protest of the school hiring former Republican congressman Bill Johnson as its new president. “I was so disappointed when I heard about this decision,” O’Neill told MSNBC. “He’s a polarizing guy, an election denier. He’s not the biggest fan of the gay community. He’s anti-choice. He’s just a polarizing, far right-wing fanatical guy.” O’Neill, who is from Youngstown, Ohio, also criticized Johnson for supporting former President Donald Trump after the 45th president was indicted, saying, “It’s crazy.”

For months now, Western counterterrorism experts have sounded the alarm: as ISIS loses ground, foreign fighters from America and Europe may try returning home. When they do, the experts cautioned, they will carry the terror threat with them, ready and willing to strike. Law enforcement needs to be prepared. Now, with the fall of the Iraqi city of Harija, the Islamic State's last major stronghold, and the impending collapse of its Syrian capital, Raqqa, the time has finally come. But is law enforcement prepared? Not really. An estimated 5,000 Europeans joined ISIS and other terrorist groups since fighting first broke...

The forces fighting the remnants of the Islamic State group in Syria have tacit instructions on dealing with the foreigners who joined the extremist group by the thousands: Kill them on the battlefield. As they made their last stand in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, an estimated 300 extremists holed up in and around a sports stadium and a hospital argued among themselves about whether to surrender, according to Kurdish commanders leading the forces that closed in. The final days were brutal — 75 coalition airstrikes in 48 hours and a flurry of desperate IS car bombs that were...

How should Sweden's municipalities "take care of returning families that fight for IS"? That question poses Sweden's Radio on Wednesday. The response from social services varies depending on where in Sweden you ask. Now all the families return as a battle for the Islamic terrorist sect IS. But how the families are "taken care of" by the Swedish social service differs across the country, reports Ekot. In Gothenburg, the social services are van and when the terrorist families return with children, "social workers" fools to get them into the system and make sure they are doing well. {..snip..}

Back to work! President Obama said today that next week he will unveil “a series of steps that Congress can take immediately” to help grow the economy and create jobs, his two top priorities. “That’s our urgent mission,” Obama said as he nominated economist Alan Krueger to head his Council of Economic Advisers. “That’s what I’m fighting for every single day.” I’m fighting for it every day, the president said, upon ending his nine-day vacation. I’m sure the caddies of the nation thank him. Obama and aides are working on a major speech for next week centered on the nation’s...

Two chartered flights out of Egypt carrying over 400 Israeli citizens landed in Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday, Channel 10 reported, with returning Israelis claiming that the week-long anti-governmental protests that have been sweeping Egypt were not as bad as they seemed. Protesters have been rocking Egypt, a key U.S. ally in the Arab world, complaining about surging prices and the gap between rich and poor, calling for a new political system. Speaking to Channel 10 on Sunday, one of the passengers on the returning El Al flight said that the Cairo demonstrations did not look as bad on the...

Alan Krueger, a top economics official at the Department of Treasury, will leave his post next month to return to academia, becoming the latest in a string of departures from the Obama administration's economic team. A spokesman for the Treasury confirmed that Krueger, assistant secretary for economic policy, would return to Princeton University, where he previously served as a professor of economics. News of Krueger's departure comes after several other high-profile announcements of Obama economic advisers resigning amid concerns over the sluggish pace of the recovery.

"As few as a couple thousand troops" could be returning home from America's longest war at the July 2011 target for a "transition" in Afghanistan, Vice President Joe Biden told "This Week" in an exclusive interview. Biden previously was quoted in Jonathan Alter's new book, "The Promise," as saying, "In July of 2011 you're going to see a whole lot of people moving out. Bet on it." But he clarified to ABC News' Jake Tapper: "If you read three or four paragraphs above that, Jonathan was making a very valid point. He was saying a lot in the military think...

FOB MAREZ — Soldiers of the 3rd "Greywolf" Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, have begun packing for their return to Fort Hood, Texas, which will officially end their year-long deployment here. "Everyone is excited," said Cpl. Jennifer Nicholson, the supply non-commissioned officer for Forward Support Company G, 2nd Bn., 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd HBCT. "Everyone wants to pack to go home because it means it's getting closer to us leaving." In the face of that excitement, the packing process itself is a daunting task that requires attention to detail and a lot of hard work by the...

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) April 8, 2009 - An estimated 92,000 inactive Catholics in the Phoenix Diocese have come home to the church in the last year. Take that Newsweek! CatholicsComeHome.org, an international apostolate welcoming fallen away, inactive and non-Catholics home to the church, has the real facts about the state of Christian America. While Newsweek magazine prints yet another doom and gloom article on Christianity and its future in the April 13 article proclaiming "The End of Christian America," CatholicsComeHome.org is witnessing the greatest return to the Catholic faith in recent times. How did it happen? Simply by airing TV...

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is Maj. Marion R. McCown Jr., U.S. Marine Corps, of Charleston, S.C. He will be buried on Jan. 18 in Charleston. Representatives from the Marine Corps Mortuary Office met with McCown’s next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the secretary of the Navy. On Jan. 20, 1944 McCown...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2007 – When Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Timothy Stoeckle deployed for Operation Enduring Freedom in 2004, he never heard a word from his employer -- not a card, note or thank you. He eventually left that job and went to work for the Wilmington Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Delaware. Since taking that job, he has again gotten the call to serve, and the difference has been like night and day, Stoeckle said. Cards, e-mails and care packages of support were constant during his most recent 120-day deployment to Afghanistan, he said. He was shown...

TUCSON — Case is home. The body of Army Cpl. Casey Lee “Case” Mellen came back to Arizona around 2 p.m. Monday as a Navy cargo aircraft landed at Tucson International Airport and taxied to the executive terminal. Although it was a sad day, the soldier’s father, Casey Edward Mellen, said, “I’m happy my son’s home.” The war is claiming many American men and women, he said. Case is just one of the dead and is part “of all the future dead soldiers,” Mellen said. It was not a political statement against the war, just a reality as GIs remain...

FORT HUACHUCA — On Sept. 11, 2003, Ronald Fruchey was beginning Army basic training. In March of that year, the United States and its coalition partners attacked Iraq. On Monday, Fruchey, now a specialist with Company C, 40th Signal Battalion, held his 6-month-old daughter Eliana. Monday was 9/11, five years after the U.S. was attacked by terrorists and three years after he started basic training to become a soldier, and it was the day he came home from Iraq. While Sept. 11, 2001 and 2003, both have special meanings, for Fruchey it is this year’s Sept. 11 that has the...

Australia accused of returning to convict ship era By Nick Squires in Cairns (Filed: 04/08/2006) Australia plans to use an armed prison ship to hold illegal fishermen and "boat people" in a move that critics say smacks of the country's convict origins. Under the plan, naval and customs patrol boats will no longer have to return to port to deposit asylum seekers and poachers detained at sea. "The vessel will have the capability to remain at sea for extended periods and operate independently in waters around Australia," said Chris Ellison, the customs minister. Terry O'Gorman, the president of the Australian...

Congressional candidate Pete McCloskey, running against Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy in Tuesday's GOP primary, is returning a $2,100 campaign donation he received from a man tied to al-Qaeda. The money was from M. Yaqub Mirza, a Pakistan native living in Virginia, who has been investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly helping to finance al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad. Mirza's offices were raided by federal authorities in March 2002. McCloskey, a moderate former House member who has raised questions about Pombo's ethics, said he's never met Mirza but would return the money. "This is America, so you are presumed innocent...

FORT HUACHUCA — One of the soldiers who returned from Kuwait Thursday was Spc. Carlos Smith, of the 269th Signal Company. While the majority of the returning 142 soldiers were members of the 69th Signal Company who spent most of a year in Iraq, Smith was stationed in Kuwait for six months during his second deployment. The troops were on a civilian airliner that first touched down on U.S. soil in Bangor, Maine. Unknown to Smith was that he was going to be honored by a group of greeters, local residents and veterans who have been welcoming military people back...

Graduation is a milestone in anyone's life, but imagine being 39 years old, in your cap and gown, the mother of five, and the wife of a soldier deployed to Afghanistan. That’s the reality for a Sierra Vista woman who received her master's degree this weekend. And, along with her diploma, she got the surprise of a lifetime. It was Saturday, May 6, 2006, graduation day for Stacy Tebo who's been studying to get her Master's in Education Administration for the past two years. A month ago, Stacy never planned on going to graduation ceremonies. But then, Grand Canyon University...

You'll hear a lot of mottos in the military. One key phrase is "hurry up and wait," which definitely applied to the friends and families of 29 Marines returning from Iraq Tuesday. They spent a couple extra hours waiting at Fort Snelling because one Marine had to spend a couple extra hours at a Los Angeles airport. "My surprise was when he told me he wasn't making the flight with the rest of his unit," says Terry Brown, mother of Staff Sergeant Dan Brown. Brown, who has now served two tours of duty in Iraq, couldn't get through LAX security....

INDIAN HEAD, Md. (March 1, 2006) -- Key Volunteers from the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) didn't realize how many Marines and Sailors at the unit had a sweet tooth until they sold $430 worth of baked goods March 1st. Two hours after the "Returning Heroes Fund" bake sale began, it became abundantly clear that a simple idea like selling baked goods to raise funds for Marines and Sailors returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom would be a success. As the shadow of the third anniversary [March 19th] of the Iraqi conflict approaches, Sheryl Brochu, the...