Free Republic

LANCASTER, Pa. — Lancaster police Chief Jarrad Berkihiser said an officer who shot and killed a man armed with a knife was in imminent danger of losing his life and acted appropriately. The police shooting death of 27-year-old Ricardo Munoz on Sunday was captured on an officer's body cam. Looking at that body cam video, Berkihiser said his officer's actions were justified. "There's been some question about, you know, where was the officer's backup? And should the officer have waited for backup? And that's a good question, and we can't always wait for backup," he said. Berkihiser said the officer...

- President Donald Trump has arrived in Philadelphia on Air Force One ahead of a town hall event hosted by ABC News on Tuesday evening. Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos will anchor the event, titled "The President and the People." According to the network, the forum will provide uncommitted voters the opportunity to ask the president their questions on issues affecting Americans from the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery to protests for racial justice and climate change.

Against the backdrop of large-scale social justice demonstrations that included Black Lives Matter t-shirts, a giant social justice banner, an entire team standing for the “black national anthem,” and at least 20 players kneeling in protest during the actual national anthem, the Steelers-Giants MNF contest saw a 27% drop from last year. The second game of the Monday Night Football double-header, saw another notable drop of 2.5 million viewers from last year’s mark. These numbers are bad, needless to say. However, the full context of how bad they are can’t be appreciated until you factor in two notable variables that...

Note: Journalist Niram Ferretti interviews Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the Freedom Center, for the Italian publication, L’Informale (original here).  Pasted below are excerpts from the English version. Question: How much is the concept of jihad intended as holy war, central to the way Islam has interpreted itself during the centuries? The concept of jihad was central from the start—at least according to the earliest Muslim historians who often portray the first warriors of Allah as being zealously motivated by the notion of jihad. Question: The last time that Islam tried to penetrate Europe through war was on the 12th of...

The man who helped create Jelly Belly jelly beans is hosting a series of cash prize treasure hunts around the country before his retirement. Anyone who participates will then be eligible to search for the ultimate treasure, which is a key to one of his candy factories. David Klein helped the company candy now known as Jelly Belly Candy Company create Jelly Belly jelly beans in the late 1970s and wants to spread the fruits of his labor around before he retires for good. To do so, he'll be hiding a golden ticket (in the form of a necklace) in...

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday engaged in a debate over a bill that assures residents of the right to practice their religion during disaster declarations. The bill, which passed by a 149-53 vote, now goes to the Senate for consideration. Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Tioga County, said the idea behind the bill was sparked by Gov. Tom Wolf discouraging people from attending houses of worship in April. After Owlett introduced his bill, he said Wolf and the state Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine clarified in July the restriction on gatherings of 25 people or less to control the spread...

Explanation: Could there be life floating in the atmosphere of Venus? Although Earth's planetary neighbor has a surface considered too extreme for any known lifeform, Venus' upper atmosphere may be sufficiently mild for tiny airborne microbes. This usually disfavored prospect took an unexpected upturn yesterday with the announcement of the discovery of Venusian phosphine. The chemical phosphine (PH3) is a considered a biomarker because it seems so hard to create from routine chemical processes thought to occur on or around a rocky world such as Venus -- but it is known to be created by microbial life on Earth. The...

I’ve never written of this episode in the history of Marion County, Fla., but then, I don’t think anyone else has either. However, so much time has passed, with most of the witnesses long gone, I feel it’s time to mention it for posterity’s sake. Back in the late 1960s, there was a very active chapter of the Weathermen in Tampa which planned (and occasionally completed) wicked assaults on Whitey. But, apparently, their most cherished dream was located not in Tampa, but 90 miles away in the small but politically important town of Ocala. Their plan was confided to Ocala...

An official who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation wrote in a recently released email that he or she was in possession of an iPhone belonging to Lisa Page three days after the former FBI lawyer’s last day on the job and at a time when the device was thought to have been lost. The special counsel’s office (SCO) and the Justice Department previously claimed to have no documents to show who handled Page’s iPhone after she turned it in on July 14, 2017, or who improperly wiped it two weeks later, before it could be checked for...

On Sunday afternoon we asked how long before the twitter account of the "rogue" Chinese virologist, Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who yesterday "shocked" the world of establishment scientists and other China sycophants, by publishing a "smoking gun" scientific paper demonstrating that the Covid-19 virus was manmade, is "silenced." We now have the answer: less than two days. A cursory check of Dr Yan's twitter page reveals that the account has been suspended as of this moment. The suspension took place shortly after Dr Yan had accumulated roughly 60,000 followers in less than 48 hours. It was not immediately clear what justification...

News is breaking right now of what would appear to be a targeted shooting at a federal officer who was protecting the federal courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona.According to reports, a U.S. Marshal, who was guarding the courthouse was shot in a drive-by shooting while he was providing security outside the courthouse in downtown Phoenix. According to City Councilman Sal Diccio, the officer was hit by multiple shots and was struck in the vest. “If you didn’t think it could happen here, it just did,” DiCiccio added

A suspect in Georgia left his good luck behind when he abandoned a winning lottery ticket while fleeing sheriff's deputies. The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office says the man had a Georgia Lottery scratch game card worth $100 when he ran away during a traffic stop on Interstate 75 on Monday. In a Facebook post, it offered its congratulations and invited him to claim the ticket at its office in Canton about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Atlanta.

As the Jussie Smollett case boiled over last year, Judge Michael Toomin appointed a special prosecutor to look at how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office handled the controversial case, saying it had been botched. On Monday, the Cook County Democratic Party, which is chaired by Foxx ally Toni Preckwinkle, took the relatively rare step of voting not to endorse Toomin for retention on the Nov. 3 ballot. The move set off a political firestorm. Toomin called it “retaliation.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said it sure looked like payback. But the Democratic leaders who dumped Toomin pointed to...

Doctors and dentists are reporting more cases of cracked teeth and insomnia as the coronavirus pandemic takes a toll on the nation’s stress levels. PepsiCo’s latest drink Driftwell is pitching itself as a way to combat the problem. Pepsi employees came up with an idea for a beverage to help consumers de-stress and relax before bed as part of an internal competition started last year by CEO Ramon Laguarta. The concept won, and the food and beverage giant went to work to make it a reality. Emily Silver, vice president of innovation and capabilities at Pepsi’s North American beverages unit,...

Mainstream media hates President Trump. You already knew they. But their hatred has expanded to the point that it prevents many major outlets from giving appropriate reporting to anything that could be construed as helping the President get reelected. Case-in-point: The historic peace deals orchestrated by the White House and signed today by Israel, UAE, and Bahrain. It isn’t just about the news-loaded year of 2020. Yes, there is more going on this year than pretty much any other since at least 9/11. But this really is all about President Trump. The peace deal is nothing short of miraculous. The...

Riots and Covid Restrictions: Is it time to go there and ask the following questions? I'm no mental health professional but just curious. What are the Covid restrictions like and how long were the lock-downs and are the lock-downs still in place in these democrat cities where rioting is taking place?" Is this all partly the result of being locked down? I realize that yes the left, the media and the democrats support this and encourage it and incite it all but have many of these people become vulnerable mentally due to extended lock downs and Covid restrictions? Like to...

A Oregon woman made a citizen’s arrest after she found an arsonist with matches in his hands on her property. The woman reportedly told the man he was lucky it was her that found the man, and not her husband or else he’d be dead. Kat Cast held a suspected arsonist at gunpoint on Saturday when she was driving into her driveway and saw the man with matches in his hand walking on her property. Check out the footage, here: Cast went on to explain what happened: “I walked him out of my property at gunpoint and then when we...

Two football players on the Little Miami (OH) High School team have been suspended from the team after they defied school officials and carried a thin blue line and thin red line flags, supporting police and firefighters, onto the field before last Friday’s September 11 game. Senior cornerback Brady Williams, whose father is a police officer, carried the thin blue line flag onto the field. “I was just doing it to honor the people that lost their lives 19 years ago,” Williams told WKRC. The thin red line flag was carried by Jarad Bentley. His father is a firefighter. “I...

More than two dozen parents have sued Ohio’s interim health director over the state’s mask mandate for children in schools. A complaint, filed last week in Putnam County Common Pleas Court, argues a state-imposed mask requirement infringes on parents’ religious beliefs and ability to rear their children as they wish. Attorneys for the parents, which include a Cincinnati-area mom, also say mask mandates have become a political issue, and forcing children to wear masks is forcing them to make a political statement. “Plaintiffs dissent from this view, yet are being compelled to participate, and have their children participate in the...