Free Republic

A car park opposite the infamous New York City housing estate where rapper Jay-Z grew up seems an unlikely place for an agricultural revolution. Ten shipping containers dominate a corner of the Brooklyn parking area, each full of climate control tech, growing herbs that are distributed to local stores on bicycles. This is urban farming at its most literal. The containers are owned by Square Roots, part of America's fast-expanding vertical farming industry, a sector run by many tech entrepreneurs who believe food production is ripe for disruption. The world's best basil reputedly comes from Genoa, Italy. Square Roots grows...

CROYDON, N.H. (AP) — Joe Biden pondered a most serious, and awkward, question at a campaign stop Friday: What if Barack Obama had been assassinated during his presidential campaign in 2008?

Mr. Speaker, in 2012, two bioethicists—Dr. Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva—published an outrageous paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics, justifying the deliberate, premeditated murder of newborn babies during the first hours, days and even weeks after birth. The ethicists said: “When circumstances occur after birth that would have justified an abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible.” In other words, the same conditions that would justify the killing of a baby in utero justifies the killing of that baby even when she is born. They—these two individuals—made it clear that because a child does not have dreams...

The Satanic Temple plans to hold a rally this fall to demand that they be allowed to abort unborn babies for any reason, at any time — and without informed consent. The religious group is involved in abortion advocacy in a number of states, including lawsuits challenging pro-life laws. Its upcoming rally is part fundraiser, part publicity stunt for its radical pro-abortion agenda. “The Satanic Temple will be staging a rally for religious reproductive rights and women’s health at the capital of one of the states with the most egregiously restrictive abortion laws,” the group said in a statement. The...

Two would-be robbers in Chicago quickly discovered over the weekend they picked the wrong woman to mess with when they attacked a Golden Gloves champion. The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood as 26-year-old Claire Quinn was on her way to Unanimous Boxing Gym in Logan Square to train when police said two men tried to mug her. One of the men ran off, while the other punched Quinn and attempted to take her phone, police told FOX32. Quinn told neighborhood news outlet Block Club Chicago one of the men punched her in the...

New England Patriots safety Patrick Chung was indicted on a charge of cocaine possession, the Belknap County (NH) Attorney’s Office told the Boston Herald’s Kevin Duffy on Thursday morning. News first broke of Chung’s indictment in the Laconia Daily Sun, that reported: “Patrick C. Chung, 32, of Meredith, was indicted on a charge of possession of cocaine.”

President Donald Trump promised he’d get rid of bad rules. “Remove the anchor dragging us down!” he said when campaigning for president. “We’re going to cancel every needless job-killing regulation!” Trump was a developer, so he knew that the thicket of rules government imposes often makes it impossible to get things done. But would he keep his deregulation promise? I was skeptical. Republicans often talk deregulation but then add rules. People called President George W. Bush an “anti-regulator.” But once he was president, he hired 90,000 new regulators! Trump has been different. When he took office, he hired regulation skeptics....

arlier today, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutional order, limited the reach of expansive nondiscrimination laws, and protected a Christian couple from having to choose between their business and their conscience. The facts of the case are simple. The plaintiffs, Carl and Angel Larsen, are videographers who create “commercials, short films, and live-event productions.” While they work with anyone of any race, sex, sexual orientation, or religion, they will not produce videos that advance viewpoints that violate their Christian beliefs. That includes videos that “contradict biblical truth; promote sexual immorality; support the destruction of unborn children; promote...

5 things the media won't tell you about the Amazon fires By Jesse Ferrell, UPDATE: An astute reader pointed out that my quote below from a NASA website was changed on their end. The Google Cache of their page, which contained my quote, has been changed from "slightly below average" to "close to average" with no explanation of that revision. It would be nice to know if the data has changed, or it was a mistake. GlobalFireData Graph However, there is no average given, so I can't say whether it's above or below average. The data goes back to 2003,...

An Obama-appointed federal judge is forcing Wisconsin taxpayers to provide costly sex reassignment surgery and hormonal procedures for low-income transgender residents who get free medical care from the government. In a recently issued ruling U.S. District Judge William M. Conley writes that Medicaid, the publicly funded insurance that covers 65.7 million poor people, cannot deny the medical treatment needs of those suffering from “gender dysphoria.” Officials estimate it will cost up to $1.2 million annually to provide transgender Medicaid recipients in the Badger State with treatments such as “gender confirmation” surgery, including elective mastectomies, hysterectomies, genital reconstruction and breast augmentation....

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is not happy that a top House Democrat seemed to accuse her, along with President Trump, of spreading anti-Semitic messages. In a series of tweets Friday, the congresswoman called it “sickening to watch people make false equivalences between the open bigotry and hatred of this president and progressives.”

Six people ranging in age from 62 to 85 face sex charges after being arrested in a conservation area in Connecticut. Police say the six, five men and an 85-year-old woman, were involved in lewd and sexual activity in the Grace Richardson Conservation Area in Fairfield earlier this month. Police say the area was being publicized on the internet as an area for people to meet and have sex. Police say they set up surveillance in the area and observed several violations. Those arrested face charges ranging from breach of peace to public indecency. They were released on promises to...

August 21, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Since relaunching the #MeToo movement in October of 2017, Alyssa Milano has been popping up everywhere. A onetime TV actress and now activist, she showed up at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, responded to state-level abortion restrictions by suggesting a sex strike (a proposal pro-life leaders heartily endorsed), and has campaigned against pro-life legislation. She appears to be extraordinarily passionate about abortion. This week, the 46-year-old finally revealed the real source of her passion about abortion on her podcast, appropriately named Sorry Not Sorry: she had two children aborted in 1993, when she was in her...

A conservative young Latina from Illinois is running for Congress as the anti-AOC. Republican Catalina Lauf, 26, who is hoping to snag a Democratic-held seat outside Chicago, supports President Trump’s border wall, cites Ronald Reagan as an idol and hopes to be a counterweight to Rep. Alexandria ­Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional “Squad.” If Lauf wins the seat, she would break the Bronx-Queens representative’s record as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

CNN’s decision to hire disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as a contributor makes perfect sense to anyone who is at all familiar with the fake news network. Russia Collusion Hoax Forever McCabe is one of the chief architects behind the Russia Collusion Hoax and this hoax is something the far-left CNN does not want to let go of. Even though Robert Mueller’s report proves President Trump did not collude with the Russians or obstruct justice, things like facts, science, and truth have never mattered to anyone at CNN. CNN Loves to Mislead Viewers CNN is dedicated to misleading its minuscule...

Many of the illegal aliens arrested this month in the largest single-state raid by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Mississippi stole the identities of dead Americans to illegally work, federal prosecutors say. In the first week of August, ICE agents conducted the largest workplace raid in more than a decade across five food processing plants in Mississippi, netting the arrests of 680 illegal aliens. That same day, however, ICE officials said they released about 300 of the illegal workers back into the U.S. on “humanitarian grounds.” More than 200 of the illegal workers had prior criminal records. The raids have already resulted in job...

South Jersey progressives and their allies have sought to silence what’s billed as a freewheeling public conversation about ending racism, violence, and authoritarianism, an exchange critics believe is camouflage for what will instead be a racist, fascist hatefest by people who may have alt-right white supremacist sympathies. But rather than allowing the rest of us to evaluate the participants and decide for ourselves whether to plunk down as much as $150 for a daylong series of panel discussions, the forces of virtue have detected a sinister plot that must be shut down and run out of town at all costs....

When Karly Tardiff parked her bike before heading into work in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on August 13, she wasn’t expecting to do sprints until her CrossFit class later that afternoon. After all, the 28-year-old fundraising professional—who is the co-leader of a local Winnipeg running club called the Badass Lady Gang and trains for 5Ks and half marathons—was wearing a sundress and wedges, with her workout gear packed for later. “I commute to work every day, and then I bike off to CrossFit,” she told Runner’s World. Shortly after her lunch break, though, Tardiff’s normal routine was interrupted by a frantic maintenance...

Full Title:Sony Patent: Contact Lenses Taking Pictures and Recording Videos When You Blink – With Nicola Tesla Technology Sony has filed for a patent that shows how their smart contact lenses will captures pictures and record videos just with a blink of an eye, keeping them in a small memory space on the lens – or on the user’s eyeballs. Not only is Sony determined for this, but other technology giants such as Samsung and Google are also planning for their smart contact lenses, going public with their concepts of taking pictures, making videos and observing sugar intake; gamers will also experience improved gaming,...

RANDOLPH COUNTY, N.C. - A North Carolina woman is facing new drug charges after she was arrested on suspicion of bringing methamphetamine into court for a hearing on previous drug charges. Brooke Ann Kellems, 24, was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday in Randolph County on possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia charges, according to WGHP-TV. When Kellems went through a security check point at the courthouse, WGHP reported that officials spotted a round container in the metal bowl that holds personal items as a person walks through the metal detector. Investigators identified a substance in the container as meth.