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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr Matthew Kroll said Monday night that 25 people had died. Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel. Rescuers initially recovered four bodies about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island, and 16 others were pulled from the water later in the...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot clashed with Sen. Ted Cruz over the latest burst of gun violence in the city, claiming Monday that Chicago’s decades-long crime problem is actually the fault of Republican-run states like Indiana – because they don’t have “commonsense gun legislation” in place. The retort came after Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted that “gun control doesn’t work” and pointed to the Democrat-run city as evidence that “disarming law-abiding citizens isn’t the answer.” His tweet referenced an article reporting that at least 25 people were shot in Chicago during Labor Day weekend amid a continuing crime wave in the city. “Stopping...

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shown some phenomenal political nerve in first shutting down parliament, and then insisting on party discipline on penalty of expulsion from the wets and wobblies in his Tory Party who'd rather drag the Brexit farce out to keep Britain caged within the EU just a little longer. He's got his eyes on the prize, knowing that it's his job to ensure that Britain can leave the European Union as British voters demanded. Like President Trump, he means to keep his promises. What's vivid now is that a whole lot of things he probably didn't expect -- and...

Ohio Democrats filed a lawsuit Friday attempting to stop Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s plan to remove more than 200,000 voters from registration rolls next week for sitting out too many elections. State Democratic Chairman David Pepper said that after recent revelations showing “thousands of errors in voters purged ... it makes no sense for the secretary of state to push forward with the purge.” The 17-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus seeks a restraining order blocking the Sept. 6 purge and asks that LaRose be ordered to conduct “a manual review of the voting history of...

Dear FRiends, We need your help to get this FReepathon wrapped up. Prayers up for continuing progress and success. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the IRS -- trying to control what we do or say....

The idea that there is this mythical nation of Palestine is unknown to those in the Arab world, but anti-Semites and fools use it with great agility as an excuse to undermine Israel. Not that there is a definable difference between the two groups, and that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. But I digress. The Bible is the final authority in support of what I have just said; and not that it is needed, archeology too supports my fact. Jew-haters are all motivated by the same mindset: 1) they hate Jews but are unable to provide any truly...

Die-hard Trump haters continue to maintain that the President of the United States is in thrall to, or maybe being blackmailed by Russia’s President Putin. As a corollary, they still push the notion that Russia will corrupt the 2020 presidential election, so that if and when Trump wins, they will deny him legitimacy. The crashing and burning of the Mueller effort to prove this thesis means nothing to the deluded dead-enders. But the stupidity of this charge is refuted by the power play President Trump’s Secretary of Energy Rick Perry carried out over the holiday weekend. Via Reuters: “We’re...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Winston Churchill. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of Great Britain during WW2, and was one of the greatest motivators in Western Civilization. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of the puzzle into the white squares on the bottom...

It's never a good sign for a city when starts to see its population contracting. But that seems to be New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan, trashing the few little islands of good public school education in the great city, in the name of socialized outcomes. He set up a commission of cronies and those cronies recommended what he wanted them to recommend - that New York's charter and competitive schools be shut down in the name of "equality." Now, every school is set to be equally bad. But the custodians will continue to draw $100,000 salaries. Kyle Smith at...

A separate statement by the Enshi City police was originally posted on Chinese social media site Weibo but was later removed without explanation. The hashtag "school criminal case in Hubei" had gained 120 million views on Weibo as of Tuesday morning. Attacks on schoolchildren in China have happened before. In October, at least 14 children at a kindergarten in Chongqing were slashed by a woman with a kitchen knife. In April 2018, nine students were killed and others injured after a male suspect began attacking students in Shaanxi province. According to a statement from the local government, a 40-year-old man...

During the summer of 2012, I campaigned for Joe Walsh.  I manned the phones for him, I went door to door for him, and I attended his events.  That October, I witnessed the third debate between Walsh and Tammy Duckworth (who would go on to win the election), which was not so much a debate than it was a large-scale shoutdown by the latter’s supporters.  Outside the event, I wasted fifteen minutes trying to get a sentence in against some rambunctious, spittle-drenched animal who mistook his arrant girth for intimidation. I supported Joe Walsh because he had spent the previous two...

Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, moderates who project themselves as pragmatic collaborators, are taking a no-compromise approach on the overhaul of the nation’s gun laws after the latest mass shooting. Campaigning separately in eastern Iowa on Monday, the former vice president and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, say the minimum provisions include universal background checks, a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition, and red flag laws to allow officials to confiscate firearms from dangerous people. Biden told reporters before a Labor Day picnic in Cedar Rapids that inaction from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans...

Ismail Ajjawi, a Palestinian student denied entry to the United States last month at the airport in Boston, was allowed to enter the country on Monday and was at Harvard in time for the beginning of classes, according to Amideast, the group that sponsored him. Amideast said in a statement that the United States Embassy in Beirut had reviewed Mr. Ajjawi’s case and reissued a visa. Harvard officials confirmed that Mr. Ajjawi was on campus. Mr. Ajjawi, 17, landed at Logan International Airport in Boston on Aug. 23 and was turned back after immigration officials objected to his friends’ social...

Here’s the complete Week 2 college football schedule with dates, matches, locations, kickoff times and TV channels.

Ten years ago, Becket Cook was a gay man in Hollywood who had achieved great success as a set designer in the fashion industry. He worked with stars and supermodels, from Natalie Portman to Claudia Schiffer, traveling the world to design photo shoots for the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He attended award shows and parties at the homes of Paris Hilton and Prince. He spent summers swimming in Drew Barrymore’s pool. A decade later, Cook has moved on from that life—and he doesn’t miss it. What changed for Cook? He met Jesus. On a momentous day in September...

Doug Ogden doesn’t know what to do. The 75-year-old retired law enforcement officer is disgusted by President Donald Trump. But he can’t imagine voting for a Democrat in 2020, either. A self-described independent in South Carolina, Ogden doesn’t recognize the modern-day Democratic Party. “The state of the Democratic Party is wild against wilder,” says Ogden, standing with his arms crossed at a recent town hall meeting for Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg. “It scares me.” At the core of Ogden’s concern is a broader question about the direction of the Democratic Party and its values in the age of Trump....

AMERICAN Airlines passengers were left stunned after noticing a miniature HORSE had joined their flight. Evan Nowak said he noticed the animal, which had been brought onboard by a fellow traveller, while flying on an a service from Chicago to Omaha. He posted the footage to Twitter, which showed the horse calmly sitting near the front of the plane in an aisle seat. He added: "At this time we would like to begin boarding with any active duty military, families travelling with children under the age of 3, and horses..." Another passenger, Amberley Babbage, also spotted the animal at check...

“Impeachment August” is officially over, but with progressive groups reaching few of the goals they hoped to reach towards the impeachment of President Trump. Twelve groups had banded together in hopes of convincing lawmakers — particularly from swing districts — to back the impeachment of Trump during the August break, when members of Congress were back home and in front of constituents. However, during August, only one Democrat from a district rated a “toss up” by the Cook Political Report came out in favor of impeachment — Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), from Illinois’ 14th district.

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez promoted a fundraiser for bail money for a group of counter-protesters that included Antifa members after a “Straight Pride” parade in Boston, Massachusetts, this weekend. “One way to support the local LGBTQ community impacted by Boston’s white supremacist parade? Contribute to the Bail Fund for the activists who put themselves on the line protecting the Boston community,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said in a social media post Saturday

Rep. Ilhan Omar dodged questions on Thursday about her alleged affair with a DC political consultant who’s on her payroll. The freshman Democratic congresswoman appeared ahead of a scheduled event at the University of Minnesota when a Post reporter asked her about claims she broke up the marriage of Tim and Beth Mynett. But instead of answering, Omar nervously made a beeline to make small talk with a police officer ... Omar has paid Tim Mynett’s E Street Group consulting firm $230,000 since 2018 — raising concerns of potential ethics violations.