Free Republic

Joe Biden wrote to his son Hunter and others close to him using the pseudonym “Peter Henderson” – a fictional Soviet Union-era spy in several Tom Clancy novels who infiltrated the US government, emails show. The messages contained on Hunter’s abandoned laptop appear to indicate the then-VP started using the fictitious mole’s moniker in October 2016 while forwarding a YouTube video to his son Hunter, brother Jim, daughter-in-law Hallie, as well as his sister and longtime political strategist Valerie Biden Owens. Biden sent the message using an email address with a username of “67stingray” — a clear reference to his...

The Boeing prototype MQ-25A T1 unmanned carrier tanker refueled an F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter as part of early testing for the program, Naval Air Systems Command announced on Tuesday. The F-35C, assigned to the “Salty Dogs” of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, and the MQ-25 flew from MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Ill., near Boeing’s facility in St. Louis for the test flights. The fighter and the “Stingray” prototype drone tanker “performed formation evaluations, wake surveys, drogue tracking and plugged with the MQ-25 test asset at 225 knots calibrated airspeed (KCAS) and altitude of 10,000 feet. From...

More than 500 people were injured over Labor Day weekend by stingrays in Southern California beaches. The spike in injuries came as hundreds of beach-goers tried to make the most of the sun as summer draws to a close, rather than there being a surge in stingrays locally. Stingrays are a common find in shallow waters of south-facing beaches, such as Bolsa Chica State Beach and Huntington State Beach, because of the suitable conditions for breeding, and safety from predators, Superintendent of California State Parks, Kevin Pearsall, said.

For the first time, the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged the existence in Washington of what appear to be rogue devices that foreign spies and criminals could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages. The use of what are known as cellphone-site simulators by foreign powers has long been a concern, but American intelligence and law enforcement agencies -- which use such eavesdropping equipment themselves -- have been silent on the issue until now. In a March 26 letter to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acknowledged that last year it identified...

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security detected potential surveillance activity near “sensitive facilities” in Washington, including the White House, according to a study conducted last year.Officials disclosed the activity, associated with devices commonly known as “Stingrays,” in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), which was first reported by The Washington Post this week. The revelation boosts long-held suspicions that foreign actors are using the technology to conduct spying in the nation’s capital. Christopher Krebs, the acting head of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), Homeland Security’s cybersecurity unit, explained in the May 22 letter that the department...

A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year. A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, on May 22. The letter didn’t specify what entity operated the devices and left open the possibility that there could be alternative explanations for the suspicious cellular signals collected by the federal testing program last year. The...

Ambulances were called to La Jolla Wednesday afternoon after at least 30 people were stung by sting rays. The attacks happened at both La Jolla Shores and Blacks Beach up the coast to the north. Lifeguards said that at one point, they were treating 11 or 12 people at the same time. Paramedics were called in to assist with triage because of the abundance of victims. Most of the victims are treated by immersing the stung spot in hot water right away. However, they monitor the victims' vital signs. A lifeguard said that if you are allergic to bees, it's...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP)—At least 10 stingrays have been killed since “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin was fatally injured by one of the fish, an official said Tuesday, prompting a spokesman for the late TV star's animal charity to urge people not take revenge on the animals. Irwin died last week after a stingray barb pierced his chest as he recorded a show off the Great Barrier Reef. Stingray bodies since have been discovered on two beaches in Queensland state on Australia's eastern coast. Two were discovered Tuesday with their tails lopped off, state fisheries department official Wayne Sumpton said.