Free Republic

A UK mom wept in court Thursday as she was cleared of knowingly having sex with a boy who was only 14 years old — after he admitted previously lying about his age to set up a social media account, according to reports. Mom of three Teah Vincent, 32, admitted to initiating sex with the teen after inviting him and a pal into her Glousterceshire home — but insisted she thought he was 16, the legal age of consent in the UK. She had told the court that it was only after they were finished in bed that the schoolboy...

Andrew Gillum and his wife addressed the controversy that has surrounded the former gubernatorial candidate since he was found unresponsive in a hotel room and entered rehab on the season 2 premiere of The Tamron Hall Show. “I cried every day,” Gillum told Tamron Hall. Gillum and his wife, R. Jai Gillum, sat down with Hall for her eponymous talk show for the episode that aired on Monday, Sept. 14. A press release touted that he would “discuss his swift fall from grace, his rehabilitation experience in the face of adversity, and share what life looks like now.” Gillum told...

President Barack Obama is again complaining about conservative media, accusing it of creating candidate Donald Trump. “Trump didn’t come out of nowhere now,” Obama said during a campaign speech in Miami. “For years, Republican politicians and far-right media outlets had just been pumping out all kinds of toxic, crazy stuff.” Obama employed a straw man attack against conservative media, accusing them of starting “the whole birther thing” and calling climate change a “Chinese hoax.” “According to them, I’m powerful enough to cause these hurricanes, and I’m about to steal everybody’s guns in the middle of the night and declare martial...

The wife and I just brought home a German Shepherd pup yesterday. He seemed "shy" but later I realized he was lethargic. He ate a bit but not like what you would expect from a two month old Shepherd. We took him to the Vet today to have him checked out and he tested positive for Parvo. He hadn't started puking yet and they put him on IVs so with a little luck he should recover. Our other dog is up to date on his shots and the cats are supposed to be immune. I went around and disinfected everything...

Pelosi Calls Catholic Bishops ‘Lobbyists’—With Whom She Has ‘Some Areas of Disagreement’ By Edwin Mora December 1, 2011 (CNSNews.com) -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) on Thursday described America’s Roman Catholic bishops as “lobbyists in Washington, D.C.” in their efforts to persuade the Department of Health and Human Service to rescind a proposed regulation under the new health-care law that would require all health care plans to cover sterilizations and all-FDA approved contraceptives, including abortifacients. The Catholic Church teaches that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortion are morally wrong and that Catholics cannot be involved in them. CNSNews.com asked Pelosi...

U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday he is "very proud of our track record" but the biggest challenge America faces is "fixing our politics." Speaking at a fundraiser at a private home in Washington, the president conceded he has "some bumps and bruises" from political battles but claimed credit for a string of successes. "We were able to prevent America from going into a Great Depression," he said. "We were able to, after a series of quarterly GDP reports that were the worst that we've seen since the Great Depression, reverse it and get the economy to grow again. We've...

ROSEDALE, Md. -- Despite their closeness, Edna Stebbings was shocked to learn that her grandson was the victim of a brutal attack at a Rosedale McDonald's that was caught on tape. Stebbings, who saw the video for the first time Saturday during an interview with 11 News reporter Sheldon Dutes, said she didn't realize the person in the video was her grandson up until the last minute. A restaurant employee captured two women viciously beating her grandson on a cellphone camera. "I was really upset to see this, because he has taken a number of beatings since he's been out...

Michael Jackson was allegedly a huge fan of movies featuring Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. According to Jackson's distributor Norman Scherer, the Thriller legend's ideal night in involved a documentary about the Third Reich followed up by a Judy Garland film. Scherer told the New York Post that Jackson had built up a "really good collection" by the time of his death, with titles such as "Nazis - Of Pure Blood, Oasis Of The Zombies" and Hitler's Children". He also claimed that Jackson was a keen viewer of Garland TV specials and dramas depicting troubled boys in dysfunctional families.

"He's got the whole world in his hands?" To one atheist, it's more like ‘He's got the whole world under his thumb." David Smalley, the editor of American Atheist magazine and a self-described "civil rights activist," wrote in a personal blog post June 7 that Christian daycare "a form of child abuse." "In short, by starting your child off in a Christian environment, you are heading them down a path of forced ignorance," Smalley wrote. "At least let your child begin in a secular world, and if he or she chooses Christianity after an age of accountability, then so be...

A bad week for Democrats compounded by an awful moment for Barack Obama. President Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships. After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance....

WILKES-BARRE – Two teen girls – one a self-proclaimed Nazi – were arrested Thursday and charged with spray-painting the Ohav Zedek Synagogue and another building with anti-Semitic words and symbols. Nora Rynkeiwicz, 18, of Factoryville, and her 17-year-old juvenile friend, turned themselves in to police. Rynkeiwicz, a senior at Wyoming Valley West, told a judge she has been living with her grandmother in Plymouth for the past several years. Dressed in baggy camouflage pants and black leather boots, Rynkeiwicz was taken to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility from District Judge William Amesbury’s courtroom after her arraignment late Thursday. Rynkeiwicz’s parents,...

A leader in the United Methodist Church has equated the U.S. flag to the Nazi swastika, drawing the criticism of a watchdog organization that says it is an example of the church's "contemptuous" attitude towards the nation and its heritage. The comments came from Rev. Clayton Childers, of the Washington-based United Methodist Board of Church and Society, who said, "The presence of a national flag in worship can imply endorsement of national policies which often run counter to the teachings of Jesus Christ and our Christian faith. … One need only recall the way the swastika flag was displayed prominently...

Live radio interview with Webb.

Nature 422, 368 - 369 (2003); doi:10.1038/422368a Joan Roughgarden profile: A plea for diversity Joan — formerly Jonathan — Roughgarden rejects established evolutionary ideas about gender roles and sexuality. Everyone wants to discuss the parallels with her personal experience. But the science speaks for itself, she tells Virginia Gewin. Darwin's legacy is under attack. His fundamental theory of evolution by natural selection retains its status as the bedrock of modern biology, but a new generation of researchers is challenging his later ideas about evolutionary aspects of sex and gender. And this movement has just gained an eloquent spokesperson — albeit...

VIENNA, Austria -- An Austrian man who used an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler for his cell phone voice mail has been sentenced to two months in prison. Police accidentally came across the message on the 20-year-old's phone in 2004 when they called to question him about a burglary. Prosecutors said the man had downloaded the offending audio from the Internet and saved it on his cell phone to greet callers when he was unable to answer. It said: "I swear unswerving loyalty to Adolf Hitler! I swear absolute obedience! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!" The defendant said...

Fox News in Ratings Free Fall Here's something you won't hear on Fox News -- ratings for the cable news channel have been plummeting since before the November election. According to TV Newser, the number of people watching Fox during prime time in the 25 to 54 age bracket dropped in April for the sixth straight month.

Feb 20, 2:25 PM (ET) SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) - A judge made sure the punishment fit the crime when he sentenced a man to clean 100 toilets at the Saginaw County Jail. Jonathan F. Naessens, 23, pleaded guilty to stealing a firearm from a Richland Township home, but investigators also found human feces in the basement near the window where the burglar entered the house. Authorities say Naessens defecated on the floor. In addition to the toilet scrubbing, Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard on Wednesday sentenced the Richland Township man to two years' probation and to pay $389 in restitution...

Carl Hiaasen Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in South Florida. He joined The Herald in 1976 and worked as a general assignment reporter, magazine writer and award-winning investigative reporter before starting his column in 1985. He is also the author of many novels, including Basket Case, Sick Puppy, Tourist Season and Strip Tease, which was made into a feature film starring Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds. Hiaasen's column appears regularly on the Other Views page. ---------------- Ten questions that should be on FCAT test by CARL HIAASEN The following are 10 timely questions for the next round of FCATs:...

SANFORD -- Calling it the most malicious crime he's seen in 25 years on the bench, a judge on Friday sentenced a former TV repairman to life in prison for shooting his estranged wife twice and pouring acid on her face. Stephen Herrick Smith, 53, said he did it because he suspected she had begun a romance with someone else. When rescuers got to Teresa Peterson the day she was attacked, Nov. 11, 1998, she was on the floor of the couple's home near Casselberry, bleeding from the gunshot wounds and blind from the acid. Deputies said smoke was rising...