Free Republic

Explanation: Cradled in red-glowing hydrogen gas, stars are being born in Orion. These stellar nurseries lie at the edge of the giant Orion molecular cloud complex, some 1,500 light-years away. This detailed view spans about 12 degrees across the center of the well-known constellation, with the Great Orion Nebula, the closest large star-forming region, visible toward the lower right. The deep mosaic also includes, near the top center, the Flame Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula. Image data acquired with a hydrogen-alpha filter adds other remarkable features to this wide-angle cosmic vista: pervasive tendrils of energized atomic hydrogen gas and portions...

Rebekah had Judaism in her background, but was raised in a fundamentalist form of Pentecostalism that she rebelled against strongly, going deep into a world of regrettable life decisions. Through God’s providence and some key relationships, she began to come back to faith, and was surprised to find, after her initial Christian conversion, that her true spiritual home was in the Catholic Church. She now works helping women in crisis pregnancies in Steubenville, OH.

Do any of our FReeper Coast Guard veterans want to list their service on our military table of honor? If so, please provide the details. Regardless, thank you for your service. Here's a blank template with placeholder text until I receive actual dates and details.FReeper veteranCoast Guard19XX - 19XX, details placed hereFReeper veteranCoast Guard19XX - 19XX, details placed hereFReeper veteranCoast Guard19XX - 19XX, details placed hereI have already built the tables for the Air Force, Marines, NAVY and National Guard tables of honor. After I build tables for each branch, I will create a master table of all military willing...

President Trump is sending the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest warship, to the Middle East, along with a huge fleet of aerial refueling tankers and F-22 and F-35 strike fighters, according to reports. It would join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group in the Middle East as a major show of force amid US negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. The Ford — America’s most advanced aircraft carrier and the largest ever built — is designed to carry more than 75 aircraft, including F-35C Lightning II stealth fighters and F/A-18F Super Hornets, as well as EA-18G...

Peace officers, military personnel and prosecutors in recent years have faced a growing threat from the practice known as “doxxing” in which their personal, private information is obtained, sometimes through legal means and sometimes illegally, and spread online via a variety of social media. In most cases the information posted online has included home addresses, obviously putting law enforcement and military personnel, and their families, at great risk.Some states, particularly Alabama, have moved to protect America’s heroes with legislation outlawing the practice and imposing penalties on those who participate in the practice.There is also a federal statute to protect federal...

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s vehicle was stolen Monday after someone broke into her office, according to the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA). The police union confirmed that someone tampered with the door of Lee’s office and stole the keys to her city-issued vehicle. The suspect drove away in Lee’s vehicle, the OPOA said. A day later, on Tuesday, the stolen vehicle was recovered in Vallejo. The Oakland Police Department (OPD) confirmed that a city-owned vehicle was stolen from Oakland City Hall on Monday and recovered “hours later.” Neither OPD nor the OPOA specified the location of where in Vallejo it...

Nearly 44 years after 13-year-old Sarah Geer was brutally raped and strangled to death in a Cloverdale alley, the girl’s murderer has been convicted, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office announced. On Friday, a Sonoma County jury found 66-year-old James Oliver Unick guilty of the May 23, 1982, murder and found true that he committed a sexual assault during the commission of murder. Unick was ultimately identified as the suspect and arrested on July 22, 2024, after a cigarette he had smoked was collected by FBI agents and analyzed to be a match of DNA evidence at the scene of...

Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?

This video shows bodycam footage and other recordings of the aftermath of UPS Airlines Flight 2976, which crashed on October 31, 2025. The crash occurred shortly after takeoff, with the plane landing on a recycling facility and causing a massive fire and explosions due to the combination of jet fuel and stored fuel oil (5:09). Key points from the video: Initial Response (0:11-1:59): First responders arrive to a chaotic scene of heavy black smoke and a large fire. Police work to evacuate people and shut down roads. Worsening Situation (2:45-5:47): Officers discover the plane was fully loaded with fuel for...

Apparently, Americans must give up their dogs to avoid appearing “Islamophobic.” Outrage against Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) is the left’s outrage du jour. The rage mob swung into action after Fine wrote: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.” Yeah, that was it. He didn’t say “Kill them all” or even “Deport them all.” He didn’t recommend any action at all. He was actually responding to an X post from far-left, pro-Hamas activist Nerdeen Kiswani. In response to a news item about two grocery stores removing people with dogs, Kiswani...

“ TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (MNA) – The Russian Defense Ministry has released a video showing that Russian and Iranian navies hold maneuvers in the Oman Gulf The Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russia and Iran have held joint naval operations in the Gulf of Oman. Iran’s fleet is joined by the Russian corvette Stoiky, whose crew took part in joint ceremonial events in the port of Bandar Abbas, the report said. The sailors from both sides synchronize their actions to ensure safe navigation. Earlier, media have cited the Russian defense ministry as saying that Iran and Russia will hold joint...

Vatican declines invitation to join Trump’s Board of PeaceVatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said global crisis management ‘primarily’ belongs to the UN, which the cardinal said poses a ‘critical issue’ for Trump’s Board of Peace.The Holy See has declined President Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, the stated aim of which is the governance of global areas affected by conflict.On Wednesday, February 17, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told reporters that the Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace due to its particular nature, which is clearly not that of other...

Eight backcountry skiers died and one remains missing after an avalanche in the Lake Tahoe area, officials said on Wednesday. The rescue mission is now a recovery mission because the missing skier is presumed dead. Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said a group of 15 skiers was in the Castle Peak area when the sheriff's office got a report of an avalanche around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. She said challenging weather conditions made it difficult for crews to reach the site of the avalanche. Crews arrived at the scene just after 5:30 p.m. and used a snowcat to travel two...

This week, President Donald J. Trump announced the single largest deregulatory action in American history: the full revocation of the disastrous Obama-era “Endangerment Finding” and the consumer mandates that depended on it. This decisive action dismantles the flawed 2009 determination that Democrats weaponized to justify over $1.3 trillion in burdensome regulations on American families, businesses, and consumers.This historic step clears the path for lower prices, greater consumer choice, and a thriving economy. American families will save an average of over $2,400 on new cars, SUVs, and trucks. Transportation and trucking costs will drop, helping bring down the price of everyday...

There are extensive studies on how to deal with stupidity. Some argue that it’s best to keep idiots hidden to minimize their destructive capacity, while others maintain that it’s better to expose them so everyone understands what they are. AOC has achieved something unprecedented in the history of universal stupidity: she has proven both sides right.

Remember the Taylor Swift terror plot that led to the cancelation of her ‘concerts’ in Austria? We’re finally getting more details about that and it appears to involve a Muslim terror cell operating in the small nation. The leading figure in the attack ‘Beran A’ is an Albanian Muslim. He had begun making a TATP bomb. Muslim terrorists were able to kill quite a few people, including children, during their terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert using a TATP nail bomb. They were not doubt looking for similar numbers from their terror plot involving the...

Matt Bergman, founding attorney of Social Media Victims Law Center, said the Meta CEO's testimony is "a moment that families across this country have been waiting for." "For the first time, a Meta CEO will have to sit before a jury, under oath, and explain why the company released a product its own safety teams warned were addictive and harmful to children," Bergman said in a statement Tuesday. It’s the first of a consolidated group of cases — from more than 1,600 plaintiffs, including over 350 families and over 250 school districts — scheduled to be argued before a jury...

US-mediated peace talks on Ukraine collapsed in less than two hours after Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky claimed it was unfair that Donald Trump was placing more pressure on his country than on Russia.The second day of talks concluded on Wednesday, though neither side signalled they were any closer to ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.The talks wrapped up after just two hours, much shorter than the six hours of meetings on Tuesday, according to the head of Russia's delegation.

President Donald Trump has barely finished the first year of his second term in office, but already pollsters are looking to the midterm 2026 congressional battle and 2028 presidential election. That includes the I&I/TIPP Poll. Believe it or not, many voters are already deciding whom they will support. The latest national online I&I/TIPP Poll asked registered voters of both major parties and independents two questions about their preferences. The poll, which was taken by 1,126 registered voters from Jan. 27 to Jan. 29, has an overall margin of error of +/-3.1 percentage points. The first question: If the vote...

By now, the pattern is impossible to ignore. When Democrats face exposure for corruption, the political and bureaucratic machinery springs into action—not to investigate the wrongdoing, but to manufacture a scandal around Donald Trump and flood the media zone with distractions. We saw it first with the Russia collusion hoax. That operation was used to divert attention away from Hillary Clinton’s very real misconduct involving classified government documents, a private homebrew email server, and false statements to Congress. Rather than answer for those actions, Democrats and their allies shifted the narrative to a completely fabricated conspiracy tying Donald Trump to...