Free Republic

WAUWATOSA, Wis. -- Multiple witnesses report that gunshots were fired at Mayfair Mall, leading to a massive response from law enforcement Friday afternoon.

Payless Shoesource pranked VIP shoppers into paying markups of up to 1,800 percent for the bargain retailer's shoes as part of a viral advertising campaign designed to shift consumers' perceptions of the brand. Creating a fake luxury brand — Palessi — Payless built a temporary store and filled it with fashionistas. So-called fashion influencers – essentially trendsetters that regular consumers look to for style cues — paid up to $645 for footwear that usually retails for between $19.99 and $39.99, the company said. The fashion insiders were captured remarking on the quality of the shoes' design and fabrication – before...

Voters with college degrees and international travelers are breaking for President Obama over Mitt Romney in the presidential race, according to a polling analysis from John Zogby. Romney, meanwhile, comes out ahead among top earners and the middle class.The trend should be worrisome for Obama, Zogby wrote: The picture that emerges from these select numbers is one of dissatisfaction among voters with the highest income, but an incumbent who might be able to cut his losses among more upscale voters by appealing to those with college degrees and those who have a more international perspective. At the same time, the...

Federal authorities from San Diego are investigating a border tunnel discovered by Mexican authorities over the weekend, it was reported Monday. The tunnel connected a luxurious Mexicali residence to neighboring Calexico in Imperial County, officials with the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office told The San Diego Union-Tribune. Inside the passageway, investigators discovered lighting and ventilation equipment, a closed-circuit security system, hydraulic machinery and various tools, Mexican authorities told the newspaper. The finding led agents to believe that the tunnel was presumably used for drug trafficking, Mexican authorities told the Union-Tribune. A middle section of the tunnel was initially discovered in...

AFTER struggling to fix up a brownstone in Harlem for the last 16 months, Meyghan Hill, a model and actress, and her husband, Daniel Scarola, a ballroom dancing instructor, are thinking about giving up and moving out. But what may drive them away is not the neighborhood, which they have come to love, nor their four-family house, where they have painstakingly stripped a century of varnish and paint from doors and balusters, but the shock of a tax notice they received last month from the New York City Department of Finance. The notice indicated that the taxes on their 19-foot-wide...