Free Republic

According to the BBC, this is worst outage in Facebook’s history. The last time the social media network had an disruption this big was in 2008. At that time, the site had 150 million users; it has around 2.3 billion monthly users today. Facebook did not say what was causing the outages.

Newly released recordings of Tucker Carlson — the third set made public in as many days — feature the prominent Fox News host joking about having sex with a teenage beauty pageant contestant. In the tapes, Carlson also makes a series of sexist, misogynist and cruel remarks about the young woman, who was a contestant in a 2007 Miss Teen USA competition. . . . The unearthed audio is the latest in a series of tumultuous revelations that began Sunday, when Media Matters released audio of Carlson degrading women and flippantly discussing child rape in old radio interviews. On Monday,...

Santa Clara County officials are firing back at critics who say their policy of not notifying immigration authorities when undocumented immigrants are released from their jails led to the release of a homicide suspect who had nine detention orders issued against him. The suspect Carlos Eduardo Arevalo-Carranza, 24, is suspected of stabbing to death Bambi Larson, 59, in her South San Jose home last month.

Prosecutors say that [Mark] Riddell worked closely with [Rick] Singer, [founder of the Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key — a for-profit college counseling and preparation company offering families help in getting students into competitive colleges and universities]. In conversations recorded by investigators, Singer called Riddell his “best test-taker.” The Bradenton Herald’s review of the federal complaint document revealed that Riddell earned at least $240,000 from his involvement in the scheme and Proctored [or corrected] at least 16 exams for students. “I would really appreciate the opportunity to Proctor the test because I’m applying to grad...

Baltimore, Md., Mar 11, 2019 / 10:40 am (CNA).- Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore announced on Monday restrictions on the ministry of both retired West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield and retired Bishop Gordon Bennett, S.J. The restrictions against Bransfield are the result of a months-long preliminary investigation conducted by Lori, into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, as well as financial improprieties. “Pending the assessment of the findings of the Holy See, as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, I have directed that Bishop Bransfield is not authorized to exercise any priestly or episcopal ministry either within the Diocese...

In an interview in a book published by French politician and essayist Philippe de Villiers, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says there is no place for multiculturalism in Hungary. “What outrages our opponents the most is the fact that in our Constitution we have written that Hungary has Christian roots, that here there is no place for multiculturalism, that a child has the right to a mother and a father, and that our nation has the right to defend its borders.” Orbán stated that the Hungarian people have long-standing traditions of resistance to “limited sovereignty”: “First there were the rulers of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Creighton University and the Catholic Climate Covenant are collaborating on the first of three biennial conferences to inspire parish and school leaders to more fully integrate Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment into church life. “We want to be able to catalyze Laudato Si’ across all of the ministries in the Catholic Church and to do so in a programmatic way and to help institutions to most effectively bring it into their respective ministries as they see fit,” said Jose Aguto, associate director of the Catholic Climate Covenant. Set for June 27-29 at the Jesuit university in...

Spring Break sees the sleepy island community of South Padre Island, which has just over 5,000 people, transformed as an estimated 100,000 college kids descend for a non-stop party on the Texas beach For businesses and the city itself, the influx means a bumper payday with students spending $3.1 million on alcohol alone last year and providing South Padre with an overall windfall of $33.9 million But DailyMail.com can reveal that the overwhelming numbers mean the local police department has to draft in officers from other Texas cities – among them border towns such as Los Indios Police chief Jose...

HONG KONG, March 8, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — U.S. ambassador Sam Brownback said on Friday that China’s persecution of Catholic citizens continues despite a deal Pope Francis reached with the communist government. “Since this provisional deal was announced last year the Chinese government’s abuse of members of the Catholic community has continued. We see no signs that will change in the near future,” he said, speaking in Hong Kong as U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom. In China, there has long been an underground persecuted Church loyal to the papacy and an ecclesial organization that is officially recognized by the Chinese...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ REPLENISHMENT LIGHTS Sailors assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Farragut prepare for a replenishment at sea with the fast combat support ship USNS Arctic in the Atlantic Ocean, April 13, 2018. Farragut is deployed as part of the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron M. Stoner Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. SEAHAWK PREP Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian Comly,...

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that since 2001 it has led all nonprofit organizations in filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, according to figures released late last year by The FOIA Project of Syracuse University. Judicial Watch makes this announcement in honor of “ Sunshine Week,” March 10-16, which is an “annual nationwide celebration of access to public information.” According to the FOIAproject.org’s most recent study, Judicial Watch was again number one on the top ten list of most frequent Nonprofit/Advocacy Groups (Jan 21, 2001-July 2018) challenging federal government withholding in court and for the Bush, Obama...

Full Title: Exasperated Olive Garden Waitress Asks Bernie Sanders If He's Just Gonna Sit There Eating Free Breadsticks All Night HYATTSVILLE, MD—An exasperated waitress at a local Olive Garden restaurant was forced to ask Senator Bernie Sanders if he was just gonna sit there all night eating free breadsticks or if he was going to order something, sources confirmed Monday. evening. Sanders walked in and the waitress asked if she could bring him a basket of breadsticks while he thought about what he wanted to order. Sanders' eyes went wild. "Free bread? Oh, I think I would like that very...

Bombshell testimony released this week revealed that Hillary Clinton received what amounts to a secret pre-pardon to avoid the possibility that she would be charged under the Espionage Act for her gross negligence in the handling and dissemination of classified material. According to the newly disclosed testimony of former FBI official Lisa Page, the Obama Justice Department instructed the FBI not to pursue charges against Clinton Page said in her testimony that the FBI held “multiple conversations” with the Obama Department of Justice about charging Clinton with gross negligence, but the Bureau was told that such a charge would not...

Facebook is suffering the most severe outage in its history, with key services rendered unusable for users globally for much of Wednesday. The last time Facebook had a disruption of this magnitude was in 2008, when the site had 150m users - compared to around 2.3bn monthly users today. Facebook's main product, its two messaging apps and image-sharing site Instagram were all affected. The cause of the interruption has not yet been made public. "We're aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps," Facebook said in a statement. "We're working to resolve the issue...

Foxx’s call to Johnson came after an influential supporter of the “Empire” actor reached out to Foxx personally: Tina Tchen, a Chicago attorney and former chief of staff for former First Lady Michelle Obama, according to emails and text messages provided by Foxx to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a public records request. In an interview with the Sun-Times this week, Foxx said that the family member expressed concerns about leaked information about the investigation — information that media outlets attributed to “police sources.” “They had no doubt about the quality of the investigation, but believed that the FBI...

One of the co-founders of Greenpeace on Tuesday rejected the climate alarmism of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats, and accused them of proposing a "silly" plan to solve it. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has offered the Green New Deal to reshape the U.S. economy into a green economy. But Patrick Moore, one of the original founders of Greenpeace, called her expensive plan "silly" and repeated his claim that she is a "pompous little twit." "It's a silly plan. That's why I suggested she was a pompous little twit. Twit meaning silly in the British lexicon and pompous meaning arrogant," he said...

After being approached by a politically connected lawyer, State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx asked Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to turn over the investigation of Jussie Smollett’s reported attack to the FBI, according to communications provided to the Tribune. Foxx reached out to Johnson after Tina Tchen, former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, texted Foxx saying the actor’s family had unspecified “concerns about the investigation.” Tchen, a close friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wife, said she was acting on behalf of the “Empire” actor and his family.

<p>But in the coming months, he [Sykes] tells me, The Bulwark will home in on a specific class of “grifters and trolls” — those opportunistic Trump enablers who still get invited on Meet the Press and write for prestigious newspapers. To Sykes, these are the true sellouts, and he wants to ensure that their public flirtations with Trumpism leave a stench on them.</p>

BREAKING: @BetoORourke announces he’s running for President #Election2020 #fox44tx @KWKTFOX44

The Senate broke with President Trump on Wednesday over the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, paving the way for a veto showdown with the White House. Senators voted 54-46 to pass a resolution requiring the president to withdraw any troops in or "affecting" Yemen within 30 days unless they are fighting al Qaeda. GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Steve Daines (Mont.), Mike Lee (Utah), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Jerry Moran (Kan.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Todd Young (Ind.) voted with Democrats on the resolution. The chamber first passed the resolution in December, but it did not pass the GOP-controlled House before...