Free Republic

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- SkyEye 13 HD was over the south side where at first look, it appears there's a massive SWAT scene happening. People have been calling police, as well as our newsroom, saying they're hearing gunshots in the area of Scott and Airport. It turns out, the Army says, it's a multi-agency training drill. They're doing it at the old Carnegie High School.

Mexico’s Cristero War (1926-29) was a grassroots rebellion against the administration of Plucarto Elias Calles, who provoked the Catholic community by arresting priests and forcing the closure of all churches with military force. He sought to restrict – if not eliminate – Catholicism from the country. Excerpt...

Will Huma Adedin lose her security clearence as soon as Hillary steps down from SOS? Huma Mahmood Abedin (born 1976) is an American deputy chief of staff and aide to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Ties to Muslim Brotherhood: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/312211/huma-abedin-s-muslim-brotherhood-ties-andrew-c-mccarthy#

I have a pair of old 50's era Dodge pick-ups that have been sitting in the woods since the 1960's. Is it worth my while to try to sell them to someone who restores old vehicles, or just sell them to the junk yard?

As McIntyre and Dellairo continued to batter Williams and Ramos, Williams broke free and ran to his bedroom, where he armed himself with a .22-caliber handgun equipped with a laser sight. Williams shot McIntyre in the leg then followed him, Dellairo, and the female out of the apartment. While outside the apartment, Dellairo lunged at Williams with a knife. In response, Williams “fired off a couple surprised rounds,” which struck Dellairo’s hip. As the three fled, they entered a vehicle, possibly with a second female. Williams fired two rounds that impacted the vehicle’s trunk in an effort to aid police...

The mainstream media bullied professional golfer Phil Mickelson into apologizing for criticizing California's high taxes and threatening to leave the state because of California's high income tax rate. But California's high taxes have been forcing many athletes--including those far from the limelight and who have not made as much money as Mickelson--to leave the state for fiscal reasons. Tiger Woods said he left California because of high taxes in 1996. According to the Wall Street Journal, Woods' net savings over those 16 years come to about $100 million. Mickelson, meanwhile, earned nearly $60.7 million last year. After Proposition 30, Mickelson...

Start immediate investigation of Barack Obama's use of forged IDs and a CT SSN which was never assigned to him according to e-verify -- 19,362 Letters and Emails Sent So Far. On April 15, 2010 Obama posted his 2009 tax returns on line. He forgot to flatten the PDF file and his full unredacted Social Security number xxx-xx-4425 became known to the public. This number immediately raised suspicions of Attorney Orly Taitz, as it started with 042, a digit combination which was assigned to the state of CT and Obama was never a resident of CT. E-verify and SSNVS showed...

State Budgets: Inability or unwillingness to fix the state's hemorrhaging pension system and curb union power has led a major credit rating service to downgrade the Land of Lincoln's rating to the lowest in the nation. On Friday, the bond rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the state's credit level again, to A-, putting Illinois' on par with California. No, actually below California, for S&P gives California a positive outlook. Illinois' fragile overall financial status netted it a negative outlook, putting it behind California overall. The ratings came out now because Illinois plans to issue $500 million in bonds within...

Mr Bryan, a former adviser to Bill Clinton who helped raise funds for Mr Obama's re-election campaign, has owed the money to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) since 2006, according to court filings obtained by The Daily Telegraph from Texas. Mr Bryan, who has been in a relationship with Ms Wintour since 1999, was also pursued for outstanding Texas property taxes, and has had energy companies he owns in the state chided by local authorities for falling behind on their financial filings

There are movie stars, and then there are actors whose involvement appears more important than the movie itself. Some are so critical to success that studios will pay them tens of millions of dollars to be in their pictures. Johnny Depp just signed a contract to make a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean, and some members of the press are speculating that Depp could earn as much as $95 million. That’s a big paycheck when the most recent Pirates movie grossed roughly $1 billion worldwide.Click here to see the 10 most valuable actors of all timeThere are a small...

A preliminary draft of a report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was leaked to the public this month, and climate skeptics say it contains fresh evidence of 20 years of overstated global warming. The report -- which is not scheduled for publication until 2014 -- was leaked by someone involved in the IPCC’s review process, and is available for download online. Bloggers combing through the report discovered a chart comparing the four temperature models the group has published since 1990. Each has overstated the rise in temperature that Earth actually experienced.

DENVER - Demonstrators demanding stricter gun laws gathered outside the Colorado State Capitol at noon on Monday. More than 100 gun-control supporters rallied on the Capitol steps with signs that said "Let Us Live." The gun violence prevention rally was organized by Together Colorado, a group that specializes in community organizing. The rally included speeches and presentation by friends and family of gun violence victims, religious leaders, elected officials and other advocates of stricter regulations on firearms.

A Pennsylvania woman has appealed to the state Supreme Court in her suit against a home seller and real estate agent who failed to disclose that a murder-suicide had taken place in the home she purchased. When Janet Milliken, 59, moved from California after her husband died, she had hoped to start a new life with her two teenage children in Pennsylvania near her family. She bought a home in Thornton, Pa., for $610,000 in June 2007. She learned a few weeks after she moved in from a next-door neighbor that a murder-suicide had occurred the year before in her...

The NFL has no current players and startlingly few ex-players who are known to be gay, but it appears ex-49ers and Raiders offensive tackle Kwame Harris, a former first-round pick, has involuntarily been added to the list as a result of the legal fallout from a fight at a restaurant. According to the San Mateo Daily Journal, a dispute over soy sauce at Su Hong restaurant in Menlo Park, Calif. last Aug. 21, has landed the former NFL player in court after he assaulted his ex-boyfriend. Harris pleaded not guilty to felony charges of domestic violence causing great bodily injury...

Forum’s Global Risks report for 2013, the Forum collaborated with the journal Nature and identified five “X Factors,” which they define as “serious issues, grounded in the latest scientific findings, but somewhat remote from what are generally seen as more immediate concerns.” These X Factors are: Runaway Climate Change, Significant Cognitive Enhancement, Rogue Deployment of Geoengineering, Costs of Living Longer, and the Discovery of Alien Life. As the Voice of Russia reports, experts from the Forum contend that “given the pace of space exploration, it is increasingly conceivable that we may discover the existence of alien life or other planets...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Boat Trip: USS Carl Vinson ~ CVN 70 The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) is the third United States Navy Nimitz class supercarrier and is named after Carl Vinson, a Congressman from Georgia, in recognition of his contributions to the US Navy. The ship was launched in 1980, undertook her maiden voyage in 1983, and underwent Refueling and Overhaul between 2005 and 2009. Carl Vinson's callsign is "Gold Eagle". Besides deployments in Operation Desert Strike, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Southern Watch, and Operation Enduring Freedom, the Carl Vinson was involved in a number of...

What We Know.  Fordow has become 'Iran's most heavily fortified facility', officials say. APReza Kahlili reported Friday 25 that there had been an underground explosion at the secret Fordo nuclear enrichment facility in Iran.  The details included the closure of a major roadway nearby following the event.  The report also mentioned many technicians trapped underground, perhaps more than 200.   Reza Kahlili and I then discussed the report earlier in the week of an emergency meeting in Ahmadinejad's office in Tehran.  We reported on Wednesday evening 23 January that the meeting in Tehran was in anticipation of a covert operation by Israel or...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue says he will step down in February after completing his six-year term. Astrue's departure gives President Barack Obama the opportunity to name a new head to the federal government's largest program. Astrue's term was marked by increasingly dire warnings about the long-term financial health of the massive retirement and disability program. Astrue worked to reduce backlogs of people applying for disability claims, despite a big surge in applications since the recession. snip Social Security commissioners serve six-year terms. Astrue was nominated in 2007 by former President George W. Bush. The term...

We're not gonna take it. Hard to believe this is now a conservative anthem...but I guess it is.