Free Republic

A Fremont Vietnamese restaurant has closed its doors due to a neighbor’s complaints about the restaurant’s smell. Pho Gabo, which operates three locations in the Portland area, has closed its Fremont and Northeast 73rd location indefinitely due to “the city’s and the neighborhood’s complaints about the smell of the food that we grill and the foods that we serve customers,” according to a sign posted to the restaurant’s door. Willamette Week reports that the restaurant has been hit with complaints since September 2022, five years after the restaurant opened. A presumed neighbor has been filing complaints with the city about...

An eight-year-old Indian boy killed a cobra that had wrapped itself around his arm and sank its fangs into his skin by biting it back in a miraculous tale of survival. The boy, known only as Deepak, was attacked by the snake in the remote Pandarpadh village in India’s central Chhattisgarh region on Monday, it was reported. The cobra latched on to him while he was playing outside his family home and wound its body around his arm, before rearing back and biting down to inject its deadly poison. Fighting through the pain, Deepak furiously shook his arm but couldn't...

Film producer and philanthropist Steve Bing died Monday of an apparent suicide. Bing lived at a high-rise luxury tower in Century City, where a death investigation was underway. It is believed he jumped from the building. Bing, 55, was a prominent Hollywood producer and contributor to charitable and political causes who was behind films such as "The Polar Express" and the Rolling Stones concert film "Shine A Light." Bing also contributed millions of dollars to nonprofit charities as well as Democratic candidates. "I loved Steve Bing very much," former President Bill Clinton ...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Amid a flurry of accusations of inappropriate touching and crowding people's personal space leveled at former vice president Joe Biden, President Trump announced Friday that Biden is his appointment to the Transporation Security Administration. Biden will be tasked with showing TSA agents how to violate people's personal space and privacy in their daily groping of American citizens. ...

Victor Pratt has been in the hospital since Sept. 1 after a rattle snake bit him in the face. Two weeks later, and the wound is still difficult to look at. "It makes your brain smash," Pratt said, trying to describe what the pain felt like. He was able to keep his cool enough to pry the snake's jaw off him and get to a hospital in Coolidge, where the incident happened.

IONIA COUNTY, MI - Surveillance footage shows a woman being run over by John Calley's SUV as he pulls out of an Ionia County gas station, police say. The footage, obtained from the Ionia County Prosecutor's Office, gives a glimpse into the Jan. 28 hit-and-run, which resulted in charges being filed against Calley, the brother of Lt. Gov. Brian Calley. The incident took place at about 5 p.m. at a Pilot gas station, 7205 S. State Road, about 12 miles south of Ionia. The video shows Calley and a 24-year-old female friend pull up to the gas station. He went...

CNN) - It looks like something out of "Alien," but has more in common with "Jurassic Park." It's a rare frilled shark that has been caught by a fisherman in Australia, where no one remembers ever seeing one caught before. With a mouth packed full of needle-like teeth and a body like an eel, the six-foot long frilled shark is sometimes described as a fish "fossil" that dates back 80 million years.

I will find you and pay you back. Thank you.

One of the world's tiniest lizards has been discovered by keen-eyed researchers in Madagascar. The miniature chameleon, Brookesia micra, reaches a maximum length of just 29mm. German scientists also found a further three new species in the north of the island. The lizards were limited to very small ranges and scientists are concerned they could be at risk from habitat disturbance.

ELLENSBURG -- From Bigfoot to the disappearance of D.B. Cooper, the Pacific Northwest is full of mysteries. Another mystery burred deep in the hills of eastern Washington keeps resurfacing. Ellensburg and its surrounding valleys and Manastash Ridge are beautiful in any season. Some believe what lies beneath is a deep, dark hole with supernatural powers. A man named Red Elk is one of the only people alive known to have ever seen the mysterious hole.

State medical authorities have suspended the license of a Snohomish County surgical assistant accused of playing with the nipple of an unconscious female patient during a breast reconstruction surgery. Stanley Romes, a surgical technologist, was assisting on a surgery at a Swedish Medical Center outpatient clinic in April of 2010. The patient was undergoing reconstructive surgery of one of her breasts, after having a mastectomy. During the procedure, the surgeon saw Romes touching the woman's nipple and asked what he was doing, according to state officials. "After being questioned by the surgeon, (Romes) laughed and continued playing with the patient's...

RICHMOND, B.C. — A pair of feet that washed ashore in British Columbia in 2008 have been linked to a Canadian woman who committed suicide in 2004 by jumping into the Fraser River, officials said. The B.C. Coroners Service said Wednesday it was able to make the identification after a post-mortem investigation, which included a DNA analysis. The woman's family has been notified, but at their request, her name is not being made public. Officials said the woman committed suicide by jumping into the Fraser River from the Pattullo Bridge in New Westminster, B.C., in April 2004.

The High Mortality Rate Of Chinese Billionaires I’m no statistics whiz, but it seems to me that a Chinese billionaire dies every 40 days. China Daily reported Friday that unnatural deaths have taken the lives of 72 mainland billionaires over the past eight years. (Do the math.) Which means that if you’re one of China’s 115 current billionaires, as listed on the 2011 Forbes Billionaires List, you should be more than a little nervous. Mortality rate notwithstanding, what’s more disturbing is how these mega wealthy souls met their demise. According to China Daily, 15 were murdered, 17 committed suicide, seven...

Maintenance crews in Michigan made a gruesome discovery on Tuesday when they found a man’s body at the top of a broadcast tower, MyFoxDetroit.com reported. Workers spotted the dead man – who was only wearing a T-shirt and underwear – on top of the 1,100-foot CBS broadcast tower around 12:30 p.m. "Around 12:30 today, we received a phone call from the workers that were working on this tower. They had found a deceased black male at the very top of the tower," Oak Park Public Safety Sergeant Jason Ginoplis said. Investigators are trying to determine the man's identity, as well...

Editorial: Greg Habeeb in the 8th District The Republican angling to replace Morgan Griffith in the House of Delegates says he'll work for the good of the Roanoke Valley. If Salem attorney Greg Habeeb succeeds in his effort to replace Morgan Griffith in the House of Delegates, we don't expect to cheer many of his votes. Habeeb is a deeply conservative individual who believes that, even after years of punishing budget cuts, state government remains too large. He believes, as he put it when he announced his intent to run for the seat left vacant when Griffith beat Rep. Rick...

It has been two days since Staten Island's Juan Rodriguez stripped naked at an Obama rally in Philadelphia for a chance at the one million dollars being offered by British billionaire Alki David. It is uncontested that Rodriguez fulfilled the requirements of being naked; of writing the name of David's web-cam website, battlecam.com, on his chest; and of shouting "battlecam.com!" six times. But David is apparently unsure that Rodriguez fulfilled two other requirements of the challenge: that the streaker be within earshot and eyesight of Obama. "It's still not confirmed," David, 42, told the Daily News on Monday. "Whether he...

Are they human beings, these leftists? Please join in providing links, headlines, and bizarre encounters with these strange beings [and the strange things they say about normal humans].

Feminine hygiene products just aren’t for women anymore, a dog can benefit too. A suburban Atlanta couple learned that in case of an emergency, a maxi pad works just as well as any commercially available bandage does for a dog.

What's blue and white, squiggly and suddenly appears in the sky? If you know the answer, pop it on a postcard and send it to the people of Norway, where this mysterious light display baffled residents yesterday. Curiously, it appears to be unconnected with the aurora borealis, or northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena that can often be viewed in that part of the world. . . . The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds...