Free Republic

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft aced its second major deep-space maneuver last Thursday (June 28), firing its engines to change its velocity by 37 mph (60 km/h), mission team members have confirmed. "The thruster burn put the spacecraft on course for a series of asteroid-approach maneuvers to be executed this fall that will culminate with the spacecraft's scheduled arrival at asteroid Bennu on Dec. 3," NASA officials wrote in a statement Tuesday (July 3). ... This material will make it to Earth in a special return capsule in September 2023. Scientists in labs around the world can then study the sample in...

I went for a haircut today. Money is no object when it comes to my appearance – only the absolute finest will do. So I went to Sport Clips in the strip mall next to Target, with a $3 coupon in hand. Like many other fashion-conscious men, I frequent this establishment and don’t think I’ve ever had my hair cut by the same person twice. Like many other seemingly mundane things, this interests me. Well, most of the things that interest me actually are mundane, I suppose. But I’m fascinated by these young ladies. Who are they? Where do they...

Tonight, Prelims on Fox Sports One and Fox Sports Go at 8 Eastern. Main Card on PPV at 10 Eastern. Heavyweight Champ Stipe Miocic defends his belt against Light HW Champ Daniel Cormier in the main event. DC seeks to be become the 5th 2 division Champ. This is only the 3rd (Reigning) Champ V. Champ match-up in UFC History. Scheduled co-main between Featherweight Champ Max Holloway and Brian Ortega cancelled due to Holloway developing "concussion-like symptoms". Whether it was a real concussion or just a bad weight cut I can't say. Rest of the main card Francis Ngannou...

Philippine fast-food giant Jollibee has taken another step forward in its planned re-entry into the Guam market with the announcement of its hiring plan for its new store on island. The $2 million construction project to build a standalone Jollibee in the Micronesia Mall parking lot broke ground earlier this year. Jollibee posted a recruitment notice in June at Guam Community College seeking applications from those who may be interested in joining its restaurant team. The food establishment is looking for managers, supervisors and crew members. According to the information posted by the company, the hiring process for crew members...

The Pentagon said Friday that contrary to what an Associated Press report has suggested, there are no new changes to a program for immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship through military service. The Associated Press reported on Thursday evening that some “U.S. Army reservists and recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to citizenship are being abruptly discharged.” However, the Pentagon said there have been no new policies or guideline changes to prompt any discharges from the program. Rather, any discharges are based on initial security screening of each candidate. The Army could not comment on specific persons...

North Korea has accused the US of using "gangster-like" tactics to push it towards nuclear disarmament after a fresh round of high-level talks. It branded the US attitude at the meeting as "extremely troubling". The statement, by an unnamed foreign ministry official, gave a starkly different account from one provided by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just hours before. He had said progress was made during his two-day visit to Pyongyang. It is the first time he has visited North Korea since a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore....

On the first day of Essence Fest 2018, Snoop Dogg created a gospel concert where there was none. And it was good. The multitudes that filled the Mercedes-Benz Superdome witnessed a performance that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago when Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. emerged on the California gangster rap scene. For the first few songs on Friday (July 6) night, the braided and bespectacled Snoop touched on tried and true topics, such as the consumption of cannabis, mayhem and serial romance. Two scantily clad women added scintillating choreography to the songs. Snoop's mascot, a dude in a plush...

Roe is judicially wrought social legislation pretending to the status of constitutional law. It is more adventurous than Miranda and Griswold, other watchwords of judicial activism from its era. It is as much a highhanded attempt to impose a settlement on a hotly contested political question as the abhorrent Dred Scott decision denying the rights of blacks. It is, in short, a travesty that a constitutionalist Supreme Court should excise from its body of work with all due haste. Roe has been commonly misunderstood since it was handed down in 1973, in part because its supporters have been so determined...

SAN FRANCISCO Growing up in eastern China, Panshu Zhao fell in love with America. He read the Bible his parents gave him, watched Hollywood movies and studied the ideals of democracy. He jumped at the chance to attend graduate school at Texas A&M University. In 2016, Zhao enlisted in the U.S. Army as part of a special recruitment program offering immigrants in the country legally a path to citizenship. The future, he said, was bright. Now, he is one of the dozens of immigrant recruits and reservists struggling with abrupt, often unexplained military discharges and canceled contracts. They traded being...

The adolescent soccer players trapped for two weeks in a partially flooded cave in northern Thailand don't want their parents to worry. And they also wouldn't mind having some fried chicken ready for when they get home. That's what's on the minds of the 12 boys, ages 11-16, according to handwritten notes they sent out with divers who made an 11-hour, back-and-forth journey to act as postmen. The boys and their 25-year-old coach have been trapped since June 23, when they went exploring in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave after a practice game. Monsoon flooding cut off their escape...

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) warned Republicans against continuing their "assault" against Robert Mueller, writing in an op-ed Friday that the GOP must let Mueller continue his investigation. In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, the former Tennessee Republican urged Republicans to fight for the "rule of law," even if it meant going up against the Trump administration. "I am also a Republican because I believe in the rule of law. Republicans must fight for that principle today — even if it means pushing back against a Republican administration," Frist wrote. "It isn’t easy to tell a...

It’s time we all faced a cold reality: no one actually “cares-cares” about those kids separated from their families at the border.  Oh, we all feel the emotions: sickening sadness, sympathy, national embarrassment, frustration, and anger.  Those feelings, however, aren’t really because “kids are kept in cages,” but rather because Trump put kids in cages. Look, the reason we study history is so that we can learn from it.  Our 21st Century history tells us that 99.999% of the American people don’t freak out whenever kids are kept in cages or separated from their parents.   It’s happened for centuries.  Almost...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's legal team demanded that before the president agrees to an interview, the special counsel's team must prove it has evidence of Trump committing a crime and that it needs testimony from the president to conclude its probe, The New York Times reported Friday. According to the Times, Trump's legal team set its new conditions on Friday with the special counsel team led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. The demands mark further reason to believe the president will not submit voluntarily to an interview with the special counsel. The Times account painted a picture of...

Judge Hardiman isn't the frontrunner, but he would also be an excellent SCOTUS pick -- and if he doesn't get it, he's okay with that. Here’s where we stand on the search for a Supreme Court nominee to succeed Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, according to John Roberts of Fox News (which is about as close as one can get to an official news outlet for the Trump Administration): "John Roberts ✔ @johnrobertsFox Sources tell @FoxNews that the White House is preparing 4 rollout packages for @realDonaldTrump nomination announcement. The 4 are Kavanaugh, Kethledge, Barrett.......and.......Thomas Hardiman 8:16 AM - Jul 6,...

You'll no longer be able to post written reviews as of July 30, and then in mid-August existing written reviews will be removed. Soon, it'll be a little harder for you to tell everyone what you thought of Marvel's The Avengers. Netflix is removing a desktop-only feature this summer that allowed users to read and write reviews of TV shows and movies on its website. But the shutdown is coming in stages. People will no longer be able to write their feedback on a show, similar to a Yelp review of a restaurant, by July 30. And in mid-August, people...

The mainstream media and the Democratic Party have gleefully counted on support from the black community for years. Their messaging has been clear: At best, Republicans don’t care about black people, and at worst, are made up largely of racists. Unless you want to betray your race, you must vote Democrat. So, you can imagine Democrats’ dismay at the growing movement of black Americans who are — as some have put it — leaving the Democratic plantation after waking up to the fact that the Democratic Party is bad news for African-Americans. That brings us to Antonia Okafor. She’s a...

One London pub owner is on a mission to thank President Donald Trump and let him know the city’s mayor does not speak for everyone. Damien Smyth is temporarily changing the name of his pub, The Jameson to “The Trump Arms” to celebrate the U.S. president’s visit to the UK next week. Breitbart reported. The Hammersmith pub owner is also planning a “Welcome Trump” party “to show solidarity with the U.S. people and the President.” “We’re the greatest friends in the world and natural buddies,” Smyth told Breitbart London. “We want to show solidarity. We want to thank Trump for...

The Catholic church is being used as a pawn in a well-orchestrated plan to radically alter the Christian identity of European nations through mass migration, said Bishop Athanasius Schneider in a bombshell interview last week. Schneider, who serves as auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, told the Italian daily Il Giornale that the current migrant crisis “represents a plan orchestrated and prepared for a long time by international powers to radically alter the Christian and national identity of the peoples of Europe.” To achieve their objectives, these powers abuse “the true concept of humanism and even the Christian commandment of charity,”...

An Indiana church has been kicked out of its building after posting a sign that said “LGBTQ is a hate crime.” A member of Remnant Fellowship Church in Auburn confirmed to ABC-affiliate WPTA21 that they had been forced out, following reports that the church appeared to have vacated the building. The church placed the signed, reading, “LGBTQ is a hate crime against God. Repent,” outside the church late last month, sparking backlash. The church member declined to comment to WPTA on whether they had plans to relocate. The church also appears to have deleted its Facebook page, where it previously...

NASEEB, Syria — Syrian soldiers fanned out across towns and villages in southern Syria Saturday, celebrating the recapture of the main border crossing with Jordan by raising portraits of President Bashar Assad and tearing down rebel flags. Troops captured the Naseeb border crossing a day earlier following a crushing two-week military offensive, after rebels announced they had reached an agreement with Russian mediators to end the violence in the southern province of Daraa and surrender the crossing.Some flashed victory signs and pumped fists in the air as they chanted pro-Assad slogans. A soldier could be seen hoisting the Syrian flag...