Free Republic

Waco Biker Dismissals an Attempt to Avoid Millions in Lawsuits. In the interests of justice, on April 2, 2019 all remaining charges related to the May 17, 2015 Twin Peaks shootings in Waco, Texas have been dismissed by the newly elected McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson. These dismissals are a significant victory in the history of motorcycle club culture and the fight against motorcycle profiling and discrimination. Although this concludes the criminal chapter of Twin Peaks, the legal battles are far from over. There are currently over 100 civil rights claims pending and the official press release announcing the...

The reason that humans shifted away from hunting and gathering, and to agriculture -- a much more labor-intensive process -- has always been a riddle. It is only more confusing because the shift happened independently in about a dozen areas across the globe... One theory posits that in times of plenty there may have been more time to start dabbling in the domestication of plants like squash and sunflowers, the latter of which were domesticated by the native peoples of Tennessee around 4,500 years ago. The other theory argues that domestication may have happened out of need to supplement diets...

Angela Kennecke is a popular reporter for a television news station in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Each weeknight, Kennecke is at the anchor desk for KELO, a CBS affiliate, and has been there as long as I can remember. For many people in the “Sioux Empire,” Kennecke’s work on television is a normal part of the day, and they can count on her to tell them how it is.But Kennecke’s objectivity was shaken in May 2018, when her 21-year-old daughter, Emily, was found dead after overdosing on heroin that had been laced with the opioid fentanyl....

Customers at various Starbucks stores in China were filmed fighting each other over limited edition 'cat-paw' coffee mugs. A series of videos filmed by witnesses showed people quarrelling and tussling at several branches of the American coffee shop chain as they struggled to get their hands on the new double-walled glass mug that has a mould resembling a cat's paw. The pink cups, part of Starbucks China's new Cherry Blossom collection, went on sale at its stores and online on Tuesday for 199 yuan (£22) and sold out in minutes. One of the clip shows a man and woman wrestling...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) attacked Senate Republicans Monday for sitting on a bill that in actuality has not passed the House of Representatives. Ocasio-Cortez received thousands of retweets for a tweet claiming that the "For the People Act" had passed the House with over two hundred cosponsors. "Now it’s at the Senate," she wrote. "GOP is calling getting money out of politics a ‘power grab.'"

Katy Perry's shoe that is under scrutiny for resembling blackface is about to be yanked ... TMZ has learned. Katy's got a whole shoe line for sale at retailers like Dillard's and Walmart -- and a couple of her designs feature what looks similar to blackface ... the "Rue Face Slip On Loafers" and its high-heeled counterpart, "Ora Face Block Heel Sandal." The "face" shoes have two eyes, a nose and red lips on them, and they come in two different colors ... black and beige. The black one is problematic, because it looks a lot like classic blackface makeup,...

Dear fashion people: Please stop trying to make “blackface” happen. First it was Prada. Then Gucci. Now, pop star Katy Perry (who, yes, is apparently a fashion designer) is in hot water for selling shoes that evoke — intentionally or not — the racist imagery. The styles in question — a pair of mules and some high-heeled sandals — feature eyes and big red lips, resembling minstrel makeup. TMZ reports that retailers Dillards and Walmart will pull the offending styles, though not the whole line, from their stores after facing social media backlash...

Back in June, FBI agent Chase Bishop was at a bar in Denver when he decided to do a backflip with his duty weapon on his hip. When he made the made the flip, his gun fell out of the waistband of his pants. As Bishop picked up the firearm to place it back in his pants, he accidentally hit bar-goer Tom Reddington. The round hit one of Reddington's main arteries. According to his attorney, he could have died had witnesses not created a tourniquet with a belt while they waited for EMS to arrive. And it was all caught...

Ambassador John Bolton, the President's national security adviser, unveiled the strategy in remarks delivered at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. "Under our new Africa strategy, we will target U.S. funding toward key countries and particular strategic objectives," Bolton said. "We will make certain that all aid to the region—whether for security, humanitarian, or development needs—advances U.S. interests," Bolton said. Currently, the U.S. sends more than $8 billion annually to African countries, though Bolton, citing a "longstanding pattern of aid without effect," indicated that amount may soon be slashed. "Unfortunately, billions upon billions of U.S. taxpayer...

On 'America's Newsroom' Senator Rand Paul backed President Trump in the face of harsh criticism from Republicans over his decision to withdraw the 2,000-strong U.S. force from Syria. RAND PAUL: This is a very bold move for President Trump. It is exactly what he promised the American people -- in fact it is one of the reasons he won the election. Because he is different from so many Republicans who want us to be everywhere all the time around the world. They want us to be the world policeman, that every war on the planet we have to have our...

Why Angela Merkel is like the former Soviet leader There was a time when Angela Merkel, like many young East Germans, would don a special shirt (blue rather than brown; different dictatorship) and parade for the Party, sometimes (not everything had changed) by torchlight. On occasion, she and her Free German Youth comrades would have marched behind banners carrying the portrait of Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader whose extended (1964–82) rule has more than longevity in common with her own. No, no, Merkel is not a Communist. Nor does she order the invasion of other countries; she merely bullies them....

Ohio Congressman Warren Davidson thinks crowdfunding may provide a solution to the controversial proposal of building a wall on the Mexican border. And, perhaps more notably, he suggested using a cryptocurrency to do so. During an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, the U.S. lawmaker explained that he has already proposed letting the American public pay for the wall, which is opposed by Democrats but mades up a key aspect of President Donald Trump’s list of 2016 campaign promises. In particular, Davidson told Inskeep, he has suggested a private funding program wherein “the American people, or whomever should choose to donate,”...

President Trump on Sunday blamed the FBI's search of the office of his former attorney, Michael Cohen, for causing his longtime associate to turn against him. "Remember, Michael Cohen only became a 'Rat' after the FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started. They BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY’S OFFICE!" Trump wrote on Twitter. The president questioned why the FBI did not "break into" the offices of the Democratic National Committee or his 2016 campaign opponent, Hillary Clinton. The FBI in April raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room, seizing troves of...

White House Senior Adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner joined Sean Hannity on Monday night for a rare public interview. Kushner has been instrumental in the USMCA trade talks, the peace talks with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia and criminal-justice reform. On Monday Kushner pushed the White House sentencing reform bill. Jared also commented on the Middle East peace talks and the conflicts due to the Khashoggi murder in Istanbul. Jared said his Middle East peace plan will be released in next couple of months.

WICHITA, Kan. — Kansas is recalling hundreds of vehicle license plates on the streets containing the “JAP” lettering in the wake of complaints that it is an ethnic slur offensive to Japanese Americans. The Kansas Department of Revenue said there are 731 active registrations containing that random letter combination on standard license plates. Vehicle owners were sent a letter dated Tuesday asking them to return the plate to their county vehicle office within 30 days for replacement at no cost. Plates not replaced within that period will be identified in the state’s system and will be replaced at their annual...

Last week, we touched upon Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's support for the asinine government overhaul of the American economy known as the" Green New Deal. " In what appeared to be spontaneous show of support, Ocasio-Cortez met with a group of environmentalists inside Nancy Pelosi's office and told the mostly young group of people just how proud of she was of them "for putting yourselves, and your bodies, and everything on the line to make sure that we save our planet, our generation, and our future." However, Ocasio-Cortez had actually delivered that same message a day before at a training...

Full title: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Three Branches Of Government Tweet Wasn't The Only One That Triggered An Avalanche Of Stupid We all knew we were going to have to deal with Alexandria Ocasio-CortezÂ’s nonsense. Anyone who won that primary against incumbent and soon-to-be-former Congressman Joe Crowley was going to win. The district is more left wing than Lenin. ItÂ’s easy to poke fun of Ocasio-Cortez, who found herself in the spotlight thanks to that upset win. SheÂ’s a democratic socialist, with many of her colleagues viewing her as the future of the party. And by future, do they mean being the...

"Well designed ballot layouts allow voters to make their intentions clear; badly designed ballots invite voters to make mistakes. This year, the Florida Senate race may be decided by a misleading ballot layout—a layout that violated the ballot design recommendations of the Election Assistance Commission."

To understand how American voters are being driven apart, look no further than two powerful demographic forces: gender and education. Once, the political outlooks of white men without a college degree and white women with one were similar. In recent years, the groups, which represent about 40% of voters, have moved sharply apart. Analysis of the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey shows the division to be at its widest since the poll began measuring it in 1994. The gap is something new in American politics, and it has fundamentally changed how campaigns are waged. Once, white voters as a...

*SNIP* While these big paydays have spawned numerous rags-to-riches stories over the years, they have also spelled disaster for some. Not only do most winners have to deal with people coming out of the woodwork looking for a handout, but there's also bankruptcy, murder, robbery, drug abuse and legal troubles in many cases. In fact, according to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, nearly one-third of all lottery winners go bankrupt. *SNIP* If you're lucky enough to score the winning combo, you could be taking home an estimated lump-sum payout of $904.4 million. While these big paydays have spawned...