Free Republic

A diehard David Bowie fan in Japan took the rock icon’s death to heart, attempting suicide because of it. Tomoki Shiota, an unemployed 25-year-old, was found outside a shipping company in Sapporo, a village in northern Japan, Monday afternoon, shouting and waving a box cutter around.

A Michigan company running health clubs ejected a woman and canceled her membership after she warned other women that she had found a man using the women’s locker room – with the company’s permission. And then a Michigan judge tossed her lawsuit over the ejection, telling her she had no grounds for complaint. The result will be an appeal of the case to the higher courts, according to a law firm working on the dispute. A statement from lawyers at Kallman Legal Group explained, "It is clear that the appellate courts in Michigan will have the final say in this...

The league recently sent out memos to clubs outlining the new policy, according to ...(espn).

Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, a power-hitting outfielder who starred for the New York Giants in the 1950s in a career abbreviated by major league baseball's exclusion of black players, has died. He was 96.

Singer David Bowie, one of the most influential musicians of his era, has died of cancer at the age of 69. A statement was issued on his social media accounts, saying he "died peacefully, surrounded by his family" after an "18-month battle with cancer". Tributes have been paid from around the world to the "extraordinary artist" whose last album was released days ago. Sir Paul McCartney described him as a "great star" who "played a very strong part in British musical history". Bowie's son Duncan Jones, who is a Bafta-winning film director, wrote on Twitter: "Very sorry and sad to...

"The Senate on Tuesday rejected Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) controversial proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, turning aside a bill that has drawn the ire of the business community and the White House. The Senate voted 53-44 on taking up the presidential hopeful’s Audit the Fed measure. Sixty votes were needed to move forward. Paul won some bipartisan support for the legislation, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another presidential candidate, voting in favor. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) backed the bill as well. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is also running for president, supported moving forward with Paul's legislation, while...

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) says he has endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for president. "I am endorsing Sen. Cruz because I have worked with him in the trenches, fought battles with him on the Hill, and he has proven himself to be honorable, tough, and a man of his word," Gosar said in a statement. "He votes the way he says he will vote. He backs his words with action. I respect that and for that reason I think he will make a great President." Gosar has been one of the few members of Congress who has fought for conservative...

Michigan recently administered a new series of tests to public school students between grades three and 11, covering the four separate subject areas of English, Math, Science, and Social Studies. With one exception, more than half the students were rated less than “proficient” for their grade level. (That exception was third-grade English, where precisely 50 percent of students scored “proficient” or “advanced.”) This poor performance is reflected in other findings as well, such as a 2013 analysis of state scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress published by the Urban Institute, which ranked Michigan’s public school system 44th in...

Appearing alongside with Dr. Mohsin Jaffer, a Muslim constituent she invited as her guest to tonight's State of the Union address, DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) told MSNBC it was "incumbent" upon her to stand with Muslims because as a Jew she knows what persecution is. Wasserman Schultz on MSNBC: I've been appalled as so many of my constituents have been appalled at the vitriol and the hatred and the appalling reactions of some towards Muslims and Muslim-Americans and I felt for me as a member of a minority religion myself, a religion, Judaism, that has been persecuted...

Iranian military forces seized two U.S. Navy boats Tuesday and are holding them in custody on Iran's Farsi Island in the middle of the Persian Gulf, senior U.S. officials told NBC News. Officials said it's unclear whether the 10 American sailors aboard one of the small riverine boats had strayed into Iranian territorial waters before they were captured. The officials said the Americans were on a training mission around noon ET when their boat experienced mechanical difficulty and drifted into Iranian-claimed waters and were seized by Iranian Coast guard. The crew was described as being safe. Following reports of the...

Glenview Elementary School in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, was already far along the safe road to political correctness. The suburban Philadelphia-area school's annual Christmas concert, held on Dec. 23, was called the Holiday Concert, and Christmas break had become Winter Break. Its website has a link to the 79-page, state-issued, anti-bullying guidelines. So far, so good. But the school had not bent entirely to PC fashion. After each recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, the pupils recited the words, "God bless America." Although this was not a required action, the school had been doing it to honor fallen first responders...

'It was terror on the streets': Mayor of German town rocked by anti-migrant riots condemns the 'naked violence that took place' as the country braces for a new march of the far~right Anti-refugee rioters went on a rampage in the German town of Leipzig, trashing doner kebab fast food restaurants 250 hooligans ~ part of the local branch of PEGIDA known as LEGIDA ~ set cars on fire and vandalised shops Mayor Burkhard Jung condemned the 'naked violence that took place' and has described 'terror on the streets' Tonight the country feared a new march of the far right...

In the wave of protests that rocked college campuses this fall, one proffered demand was the creation of a system for students to report microaggressions committed by faculty and staff. Presumably, such reporting would be used in faculty evaluations for decisions such as granting tenure and promotions. If new research by University of California-Berkeley and Paris Institute of Political Studies scholars is accurate, such a reporting system would disproportionately harm female instructors. Inside Higher Ed reports that the research found "student evaluations of teaching" (SET) tend to be better at "gauging students' gender bias and grade expectations than they are...

The smart car is upon us and self-driving automobiles soon will be commonplace - which will be the buzz at this week's 2016 Detroit Auto Show. In the past two or three years, you see, computer processing capacity has become powerful enough to rapidly manage and analyze massive amounts of complex data sets or "big data." What does this mean for automobiles? By installing incredibly intricate roadside sensor networks and additional sensors in "smart" automobiles - both of which feed continuous data, via the Internet, to a powerful collection engine - automobiles will be in constant communication with road conditions...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon says it briefly lost contact with two small Navy craft in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday but has received assurances from Iran that the crew and vessels will be returned safely and promptly. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook tells The Associated Press that the boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when the US lost contact with them. Cook says, "We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the crew and the vessels will be returned promptly."

It appears that the bromance between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump is probably over for good. I mean, it was one thing to see Donald Trump openly attacking Cruz for days on end. We've seen that before, and never before had Cruz taken the bait. It appears that this method of dealing with Trump has finally reached its end in the Cruz campaign. (CRUZ): >>>I will say that it's more than a little strange to see Donald relying on as authoritative a liberal, left-wing, judicial activist Harvard Law professor who is a huge Hillary supporter (Ed. note - Laurence Tribe)....

PORTLAND, Ore. — A snake thief smuggled a 2-foot-long python from a Portland pet store by stuffing it down his pants. Sgt. Greg Stewart said no arrests have been made in Friday’s theft. But Christin Bjugan, an owner of A to Z pet store, said video surveillance has helped viewers and police detectives identify a suspect, and she expects to have the snake returned soon. “We know who did it,” she said Monday. “We know where he lives, we know where he works, we know all about him and his girlfriend. We’re just waiting to get our snake back.”

Obama dismisses Trump phenomenon as a flash in the pan: 'Talk to me if he wins' – but Biden says 'it's possible' Trump could become president Obama said he is 'pretty confident' that Trump won't win by 'scapegoating,' and the American people will ultimately reject the Republican's message However, he said, 'Anything's possible. And I think we shouldn't be complacent. I think everybody's got to work hard' The president acknowledged that politics is as divided as it has ever been, though he declined to call it a failure: 'It's a regret' Biden talked about the 2016 race and his dis...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court on Monday tossed out a veteran's conviction for wearing military medals he didn't earn, saying it was a form of free speech protected by the Constitution. A specially convened 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the First Amendment allows people to wear unearned military honors.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department has agreed to review 29,000 pages of emails from Huma Abedin, a close aide to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, from their days at the State Department for possible public release under a new legal agreement with a conservative legal group. But even as Clinton presses her campaign, many of the emails would not be publicly released until six months after the election.