Free Republic

"If newspapers are having trouble turning a profit without deep annual cuts, how about becoming a nonprofit?" That was the question posed just a few months ago by an article in NiemanLab, a news industry publication. Late Monday night, in a stunning development for a struggling business, that's pretty close to what the storied Philadelphia Inquirer and its sister publications, the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, reported that they would become. Philly.com reported that owner H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest donated the entire Philadelphia Media Network (PMN), which runs all three of the outlets, to the nonprofit Institute for Journalism in New...

The man who attacked a police station in Paris last week had been previously arrested in Germany's Cologne for sexually assaulting women in a nightclub, German police said. The man was shot dead by French police on Thursday after he tried to storm a police station in northern Paris, brandishing a meat cleaver and wearing a fake suicide vest. The assault took place exactly one year since the start of a series of jihadist attacks in France, marked by the killing of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine on January 7th 2015. French investigators said on Friday the...

Woohoo!!! -0.2%! #Winning! If you have the misfortune of living in any one of 49 states, I have bad news for you. The average 2016 healthcare premium is going to skyrocket thanks to ObamaCare. 17 states will see their rates jump by at least 20%, while five of them - Minnesota, Alaska, Tennessee, Hawaii, and Oklahoma - will see truly staggering increases of 30-47%. The majority will see double-digit increases. But, hey, why be so “glass 98% empty” about this? Obama has promised us that his namesake legislation is “working” and in one state it actually is. Sort of. Ok,...

More than 100 Chicagoans have been shot in the first 10 days of 2016 — a jarring figure three times more than last year. At least 19 people were shot and killed between New Year’s Day and Monday morning, including someone gunned down just blocks away from the mayor’s home, the Chicago Tribune reported. Another 101 were injured by firearms.

It is a testament to the precarious state of the world today that in a week that saw North Korea carry out a possible test of a hydrogen bomb, the most frightening statement uttered did not come from Pyongyang. It came from Pakistan. Speaking in the military garrison town of Rawalpindi, Pakistani Army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif said that any Iranian threat to Saudi Arabia's territorial integrity will "wipe Iran off the map." Sharif made the statement following his meeting with Saudi Arabia's defense minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. According to media reports, Salman was the second...

They’re not celebrating diversity in Germany quite as enthusiastically as Frau Merkel might prefer. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the main investigative authority in Germany, said in a response to Welt newspaper it knows sexual harassment of women in public is widespread in Arab countries, and that this is exactly what happened on New Year’s Eve in Cologne. Collective harassment is translated as “taharrush gamea” (حرش جماعي). "Such crimes are committed by groups of young men… mostly when there are large gatherings of people, such as demonstrations. They range from sexual harassment to rape," the BKA told Welt. Charming....

Only 22 cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in 2015, the Carter Center announced last week, a significant drop from the 126 cases reported in 2014. The cases were spread across 20 villages in four countries, two of which — Mali and South Sudan — are split by tribal fighting that hampers eradication efforts.

Vice President Joe Biden says “the Second Amendment says you can limit who can own a gun.” In an interview with CNN’s Gloria Borger on Monday, Biden said, “people who are criminals shouldn’t have guns. People who are schizophrenic and have mental illnesses shouldn’t have guns.” The Second Amendment says on the matter, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Biden was asked by Borger, “So does Bernie Sanders has to change position on gun manufacturers in order to have

Getting lucrative government contracts is easy – if you know the right people.  And in the case of former ambassador Joe Wilson, husband of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, it was Hillary Clinton who greased the skids so that government contracts could go to business associates and friends. Is this really in the job description of the secretary of state? Daily Caller: Wilson’s requests for help — on behalf of an American engineering contractor he consulted for called Symbion Power — is a recurring theme in each monthly Clinton email dump. The latest two batches of records are no different....

@DCCogan

They’re not celebrating diversity in Germany quite as enthusiastically as Frau Merkel might prefer.   The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the main investigative authority in Germany, said in a response to Welt newspaper it knows sexual harassment of women in public is widespread in Arab countries, and that this is exactly what happened on New Year’s Eve in Cologne. Collective harassment is translated as “taharrush gamea” "Such crimes are committed by groups of young men… mostly when there are large gatherings of people, such as demonstrations. They range from sexual harassment to rape," the BKA told Welt. Charming. ...

The price of oil collapsing should actually help the economy. It's a sign of weakness, but it's one of the ways that a weak economy corrects itself, at least for countries that don't rely on oil exports. Inflation rates and interest rates are low, but the labor supply is still glutted and labor costs are still depressed. With increased access to raw supplies and cheap costs, this should be a great time to expand business capacity. So why are people worried about a recession? Why is the stock market plunging? Simply put: the federal reserve is raising rates without cause....

Hillary Clinton took part in the "Brown and Black" candidate forum in Iowa yesterday and laid the pandering on thick to her minority audience. She agreed with the moderator who asked her if "white terrorisms and extremism is as much a threat to some in this country as something like ISIS[.]” Her rambling answer starts about 1:20 into the video.CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Daily Caller: Hillary then turned to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old shot in Chicago shortly after performing a President Obama’s second inauguration. She called the bombing of the Alfred P....

Take this as yet another sign that Hillary Clinton's campaign is in deeper trouble than anyone thought possible: MoveOn is endorsing Bernie Sanders for president after the liberal challenger to Hillary Clinton won 78 percent of votes cast by its membership. Ilya Sheyman, MoveOn's executive director, lauded Sanders for his run-away win and promised to help turn out voters in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where the group has 43,000 members and 30,000 members respectively. Sheyman explained: "This is a massive vote in favor of Bernie Sanders, showing that grassroots progressives across the country are excited and...

When Hillary Clinton famously blamed her husband’s bimbo eruption troubles on a “vast right wing conspiracy,” she revealed, via projection, her own approach to getting things done.  Covertly pulling strings behind the scenes, mobilizing forces to act while maintaining personal deniability to foment events and determine outcomes is the very definition of conspiracy, and now also is revealed to be the way Hillary’s staff has been conditioned to think about action for the SecState in the latest trove of Hillary emails. Adam Kredo of the Free Beacon highlights two emails that reveal the sort of strategies her advisers believe...

"One day in 1981 Bowie reunited with Queen in a recording studio in Switzerland, with the intention of doing vocals for the song “Cool Cat” . David got bored and suggested writing a new song from scratch. According to Mark Blake, author of a biography of Freddie Mercury, they began a 24 hours marathon of wine and cocaine and ended up with this musical gem. This is incredible! Back in the day when auto-tune wasn’t needed. You’d never hear this from most ‘singers’ these days."

A Tulsa woman has become an internet star after a hilarious interview with reporters after her apartment complex caught on fire.

[redacted], I want to thank you. Over the past seven years, and through the course of seven State of the Union addresses, Barack has talked about his goals and our accomplishments -- from passing the Affordable Care Act and bringing health care to nearly 18 million people, to replacing No Child Left Behind with education reform that works for American families, to taking historic steps to address climate change -- the list goes on and on. And none of it would have happened without your generous support, your unflagging dedication, and your determination to create change. At 9:00 p.m. ET...

Dubai: Obama has just got a new home in Dubai. "He definitely has a personality you can't ignore," said Emily Ann Herbert, a 30-year-old Australian who signed him in on Monday night. "He commands attention and knows exactly what he wants." But no, she's not talking about the US President here. Obama is her new pet, an abandoned Persian cat she has rehomed. Put up for adoption by Dubai-based animal group Friends of Animals, Obama was high-strung and temperamental, but he had little difficulty finding a new home, thanks to his illustrious name. "Yes, I took him in because of...

But for all the promises of an engaged 2016, there's no getting around the fact that in just one year and eight days, Obama must cede the power to protect what he sees as his greatest achievements, including health care reform, staying out of Middle East quagmires and advancing social justice issues such as gay rights and economic prosperity. There is no doubt that Obama has an awful lot riding on Clinton capturing the White House -- although he has also met with her left-wing rival [fellow left winger], Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the White House said Monday. A Democratic...