Free Republic

Six people were killed and at least 23 others—including a 4-year-old girl—have been wounded in shootings across Chicago this Memorial Day weekend, police said. The 4-year-old, identified by her family as Jacele Johnson, was shot about 8 p.m. Friday in the West Englewood neighborhood. She and her 17-year-old cousin Romare Wilson were inside an SUV in the 7000 block of South Justine when another vehicle pulled up and someone inside opened fire, according to their family and Chicago Police.The girl was shot in the head and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where she was in critical condition, authorities said. The...

DUNDALK, Md. - Baltimore County Police say another arrest has been made in connection with the brutal attack of a Maryland man who was trying to break up a fight in front of his own house. 61-year-old Richard Fletcher was home on April 22 when a large fight broke out in the 500 block of 45th Street in Dundalk. Police say Fletcher saw two teen girls, surrounded by a larger group of teens, fighting on his vehicle. When he approached the group to ask them to move away from his truck, he was attacked. Witnesses say they believe anywhere from...

The arrests are in connection with an April 22 incident in which Rick Fletcher was assaulted in front of his 45th Street home. Antoine Willie Lawson, 17, was indicted last week on charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, robbery and theft of less than $1,000. County police on Tuesday announced the arrests of four other teenagers charged as adults, and an arrest warrant has been obtained for a 20-year-old man. Andrew Omar Allen, 15, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, robbery and related charges. He is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. Yahkeem Zavion...

A 17-year-old boy has been charged as an adult for his role in beating a 61-year-old alongside a group of approximately 50 other teens in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 22. Richard Fletcher was brutally beaten by the teens after he went outside to ask two girls who were fighting on top of his truck to move along and continue their dispute elsewhere. The mob of teens began to hit and kick Fletcher until he fell to the ground, but the attack didn't end. After the beating last month, Fletcher was left with broken eye sockets, a broken nose, broken ribs...

April 28, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- I’ve been saying for quite some time that pornography is dangerous for more reasons than those that we typically discuss. Pornography is not dangerous just because it is spiritually dangerous. Pornography is not dangerous just because it is addictive, unhealthy, and unrealistic. Pornography is dangerous because it is becoming a new ideology of sex, in which women are objects to be abused and consumed and men are sexual aggressors, using the girls and women to physically extract as much so-called “pleasure” as possible.When I first spoke on this issue at the University of Ottawa with...

Fathers and Daughters – Is This a Missing Key to Modesty Today? By: Msgr. Charles PopeWe often speak today of the terrible toll that fatherless homes have on young boys. And this is true. Without a reasonably good (even though not sinless) model of manhood and responsibility, many boys lose their way. Fathers also play a large role in disciplining boys, especially as they grow older and become  stronger than their mothers.But missing fathers also bring forth terrible effects on many girls. Women, even young girls, certainly do seek and desire the love and appreciation of men and have...

Breaking on CNN: Rioters at it again in Baltimore. Police hanging back, again..

Not a single 11th grade student showed up to take the SBAC test at Nathan Hale High School this week, a Seattle Public Schools spokesperson confirmed. The news that 100% of the 11th graders opted out of the test was first reported on an education blog. State Superintendent Randy Dorn released a statement Friday on the potential "fallout" from students opting out of testing. Dorn said there could be academic and financial consequences for the state of Washington if students don't take the SBAC. "No test is perfect. But the Smarter Balanced tests, with their emphasis on real-world skills, are...

A 17-year-old gay student from Las Vegas’ Desert Oasis High School was completely caught off guard when his straight best friend asked him to prom. Anthony Martinez posted the promposal on Twitter with a giant sign that read: “You’re hella gay, I’m hella str8. But you’re like my brother. So be my d8?” Jacob Lescenski came up with the plan after Martinez, who often plans school dances with his student council, said he’s never asked to go, New Now Next reports.

Surveillance video released on Monday shows a group of high school students beating a man at a Tennessee gas station. Police said a large group of Northwest Prep Academy students swarmed a BP gas station outside Memphis. “As we got to the car they are in the parking lot throwing up gang signs and putting up a ruckus,” Orrden Williams, Jr. said. Williams told WREG one of the kids “sucker punched” him. After he was attacked, dozens of teenagers swarmed the gas station. Workers held the door shut as the children rushed the entryway. Williams ran to his car where one teen...

A fight involving 30 people — some teenagers and others adults — Saturday night at the Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing ended in the arrest of a 17-year-old who was charged with disorderly conduct for throwing chairs, police said. Hamilton Township police said the fight was reported at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Hamilton Mall security officers asked for assistance dealing with a large fight involving approximately 30 people, according to a statement issued by police. As police officers were responding, they were told that gunshots had been fired by a man. After getting a description, police saw “a large juvenile male...

Police: Remains Identified as Missing Virginia Teen Anjelica 'AJ' Hadsell Apr 10, 2015 By EMILY SHAPIRO [Pic in URL] Remains recovered by police in Virginia have been positively identified as missing college student Anjelica "AJ" Hadsell, Norfolk Police said today, as the investigation into her death continues. The remains were found in Southampton County, Virginia, on Thursday, police said, and were sent to the Chief Medical Examiner's Office to be identified and to determine the cause of death. Police said they have not made any arrests and the cause of death has not been determined. Norfolk police told ABC News...

STROUDSBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania woman said she was attacked, after urging a group of teens to be quiet during a movie. Cindy Santamaria-Williams, of Stroudsburg, said the three girls were loud and cursing, so she “shushed” them. After the movie, the girls were waiting for her outside with five other teens. Santamaria-Williams suffered a broken eye socket and bruises during the attack. "They immediately jumped on me and knocked me to the ground, punched me in the face," she said. She said she hopes someone will come forward to help police catch the young suspects. “They were in my...

A gay student in Louisiana says she is going to skip her prom because the school principal won’t let her wear a tuxedo. Claudettia Love is a senior and one of the top students at Carroll High in Monroe. She says she was planning on going to the prom with a group of friends, but now they are staying away because of the policy. …

ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta area teenager who said a heart transplant two years ago gave him a second chance at life died this week when he lost control of the car he was driving while fleeing police, according to police records. Anthony Tremayne Stokes, 17, died Tuesday when the car he was driving hit a bank sign, a Roswell police officer wrote in an incident report. The officer noticed the black Honda Accord fit the description of a vehicle involved in a home invasion a short time earlier, the report says. The officer tried to pull the car over,...

Fortunately for the children caught in its sill, there was more than one teenage lifesaver out on the Pearl River Navigational Canal last Saturday. Two friends fishing there wound up pulling a 5-year-old girl to safety. A.J. Holmes and his buddy, Josh Miley, both 19 of Bush, were out checking their fishing lines Saturday along the western edge of the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge. They were just about to check the last one they'd set when the saw a water sopped teen motioning to them from the bank just above a sill. The soaked person turned out to be...

A man who pulled a gun on two teens and said, "Get ready to die," had the weapon knocked out of his hand by a man wielding a motorcycle helmet, according to deputies. The situation began at 4 p.m. Sunday in Salem. Investigators said two 17-year-old boys crossed the street in front of a truck on Center Street near Lancaster Drive Northeast. Deputies said the driver, 59-year-old Edward West, yelled at the teens to get out of the street. When they yelled back, deputies said West drove into a nearby parking lot and confronted them. A verbal altercation ensued, deputies...

A Downey mall was shut down Saturday as police attempted to calm a crowd of 2,000 teenagers arriving to see two professional skateboarders scheduled to appear at a local clothing store. Stonewood Center shopping mall, located in the 200 block of Stonewood Street, was swarmed with fans of professional skateboarders Steven Fernandez, 15, and Keelan Dadd, 27. Downey police say hundreds converged inside the shopping center while thousands formed a line outside its doors.

A year after Blake Brockington was voted homecoming king at East Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, the transgender teen died from an apparent suicide, The Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday. Brockington, 18, was the school’s first transgender homecoming king. When he was voted king, he told local LGBT newspaper QNotes: "I honestly feel like this is something I have to do. Nobody should be scared to be themselves, and everybody should have an equal opportunity to have an enjoyable high school experience." The transgender youth activist became open about his identity when he was a sophomore. He explained to...

Distractions - especially talking with passengers and using cellphones - play a far greater role in car crashes involving teen drivers than has been previously understood, according to compelling new evidence cited by safety researchers. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analyzed nearly 1,700 videos that capture the actions of teen drivers in the moments before a crash. It found that distractions were a factor in nearly 60per cent of moderate to severe crashes. That's four times the rate in many previous official estimates that were based on police reports. The study is unusual because researchers rarely have access to...