Free Republic

The federal Bureau of Prisons is considering releasing disgraced former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver from prison early — a move federal prosecutors strenuously disagree with, a spokesperson said Tuesday. Silver has served less than a year of his 6½-year sentence in federal prison for corruption-related crimes during his run as an Albany power broker.

A Florida man and his alleged accomplices traveled to Portland with the sole purpose of breaking into women’s cars -- typically by cruising parks, day cares and gyms -- to steal their purses, wallets and identification and then recruited locals to cash almost $100,000 in forged checks at banks around town, federal prosecutors said. . . Damian B. Fletcher, 27, and his alleged cohort found women with drug addictions and homeless people to impersonate the victims and collect the money . . Fletcher was sentenced Monday to just over three years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit...

Branching worm living in a sponge. (Ponz-Segrelles, Aguado & Glasby) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Nature is so weird. You can have worms living in the deep sea that are completely butt-free… while in reef-dwelling segmented worms whose bodies branch like a tree from its head, each branch ends in a separate butt. This species is called Ramisyllis multicaudata, and it's possibly the strangest worm on the planet. It was first discovered in 2006, and formally described in 2012. Now, for the first time, scientists have conducted a detailed study of its anatomy, finally revealing more about this enigmatic creature - and raising even...

Meghan Markle today announced she has written a children's book called The Bench, which is inspired by Prince Harry and her son Archie and comes illustrated with pictures of a red-headed soldier. The Duchess of Sussex, 39, said the book was inspired by a poem she had written for Harry on Father's Day the month after Archie was born and would explore the 'special bond between father and son' as 'seen through a mother's eyes'. The story, set for release on June 8, will be illustrated by bestselling Californian artist Christian Robinson, with Meghan saying she wanted the story to...

After years of very warm April months, this year's Easter month was the coolest since 1980. In addition, there was unusually frequent frost - but the cool days did not mean a lack of sun. April has not been as cold as this year for 40 years. According to the preliminary assessment of the German Weather Service (DWD), the average temperature of the month, which is considered capricious, was 6.1 degrees this year and was thus 1.3 degrees below the value of the internationally valid reference period 1961 to 1990. Compared to the current and warmer months In the comparative...

Hundreds of local citizens turned out to the Windham, New Hampshire, meeting at city hall with elected officials -- and they did not hold back. The Windham Board of Selectmen met at the Town Hall for its weekly meeting but when hundreds of people arrived, they caused the members to call for a recess and move the meeting to the Windham High School Auditorium. The scheduled meeting contained an item about auditing the November 2020 vote on the agenda that has gained national attention. The crowd grew more and more frustrated after the board was not addressing their concerns. Dozens...

Chinese President and Communist Party General-Secretary Xi Jinping continues to consolidate power and has reached new status, adopting the title “helmsman,” a descriptor not used since Mao Zedong and denoting ultimate authority, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Army Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Mr. Xi’s increased power will fuel the Chinese military’s drive to create forces more powerful than those of the United States in the coming years. “I think Xi is firmly in control of the party, of the military and every aspect of Chinese society,” Gen. Berrier told the Senate Armed...

VIDEOIt's like a pollster protection racket for Frank Luntz. Pay him for his dubious focus group services or he will actively try to derail you. In 2015 Donald Trump refused to pay Luntz and threw him out of his office. Shortly afterwards, as he can see here by his own admission, Luntz actively tried to derail the Trump train by appealing to the Republican establishment leadership to "do something" to stop Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris promised Central American countries to work with them to battle climate change in a speech on Tuesday, in the hopes of slowing the migrant crisis. The vice president spoke about climate change as a “root cause” of the migrant crisis, during a virtual speech to the Washington Conference on the Americas citing the lack of “climate adaptation,” and “climate resilience” in the region.

n the run-up to the 2020 elections, we were bombarded with stories about Republicans who were not only opposed to Donald Trump’s reelection but were actively campaigning on behalf of Joe Biden. These Republicans didn’t just express disdain for Trump, they sang Biden’s praises, calling him a uniter, a reasonable centrist, an honest man, someone who’d reach across the aisle “to get things done.” Now, after Biden’s first 100 days in office, we can see how well those promises have held up. Our judgment in three words: Not. At. All. Biden is governing as the most leftist president in history....

Senior defense officials in Taiwan were coy about the country's military collaboration with Japan when quizzed on Monday about satellite imagery showing an apparent joint surveillance operation of a Chinese warship in the East China Sea. Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters that Taiwan was cooperating with a number of friendly parties but said he could not disclose information about specific departments. On Saturday, Japan's Defense Ministry said the People's Liberation Army (PLA) frigate Binzhou had passed through the Miyako Strait into the Western Pacific the day before. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force later deployed an Abukuma-class destroyer escort and...

News item: Biden Administration is prohibiting a July 4 fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore. Previous July 4 fireworks celebrations at Mount Rushmore had proceeded as a joint venture between the state of South Dakota and the National Park Service. Gov. Kristi Noem has filed suit against the Biden Administration. News item: Pentagon refuses to issue a parking permit for the annual Memorial Day “Rolling Thunder” motorcycle rally. COVID risk is the stated reason, but I’m guessing the real reason is the likelihood of too many Trump flags being displayed by the riders. The annual rally has perviously used the Pentagon’s...

Exactly two years ago, U.S. Steel Corporation announced that the company would turn its Mon Valley operations into a key source of lightweight steel for the automotive industry. At the time, local leaders and company officials called the investment “transformational.” It involved a whopping $1.5 billion upgrade to its Mon Valley Works. On Friday, U.S. Steel said after months of tug-of-war with the Allegheny County Health Department, it is canceling the $1.5 billion upgrade and idling three batteries at Clairton Coke Works by 2023. President Joe Biden said in his joint speech in front of Congress that there there's no...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Move over, Champ and Major! There’s a new pet in the Biden family, and he may be the ticket to smoothing over relations with China. The White House has officially announced the arrival of their new cat “Chairman Meow”. Meow has been named after the revolutionary Communist leader who founded the People's Republic of China: Chairman Mao. “We are so excited to welcome ‘Chairman Meow’ to the family,” said a beaming President Biden. “We got him from Beijing. He already thinks he’s in charge of the place! Ha! That rascal. Always walking on the keyboard in the Situation Room,...

Part of a huge rocket that launched China’s first module for its Tianhe space station is falling back to Earth and could make an uncontrolled re-entry at an unknown landing point. The 30-metre high core of the Long March 5B rocket launched the “Heavenly Harmony” unmanned core module into low Earth orbit on 29 April from Wenchang in China’s Hainan province. The Long March 5B then itself entered a temporary orbit, setting the stage for one of the largest ever uncontrolled re-entries. Some experts fear it could land on an inhabited area. China launches first module of new space station...

Even though Pennsylvania is historically pro-life, the taxpayer-funded University of Pittsburgh is the hub for some of the most barbaric experiments carried out on late-term aborted babies--and the evidence indicates that sometimes they are delivered ALIVE before being killed for organ harvesting.

After Fully-Vaccinated Father Dies of COVID-19, Family Hopes Story Raises Awareness A suburban Chicago family who lost their fully vaccinated father to COVID-19 said they hope his story can help others with certain pre-existing conditions and immune deficiencies as they say his unexpected passing left them with a major "what if." Alan Sporn, owner and president of Spornette International and an outgoing father of four who was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2019, had been taking added precautions throughout the coronavirus pandemic, despite not yet requiring treatment for his cancer. "We were very careful when we visited him, always...

Hundreds of Ukrainians attended a neo-Nazi march celebrating Nazi SS soldiers in Kiev on Wednesday, sparking condemnation from around the world. The Embroidery March, which was conducted legally, marked the 78th anniversary of the creation of the SS Galicia, a force set up under German occupation of predominantly Ukrainian and German volunteers who wished to take up arms for Nazi Germany.

<p>The Roman Colosseum is one step closer to having a floor, which will let visitors see the ancient amphitheater from a gladiator's vantage point for the first time in two centuries.</p><p>Colosseum Gets A Good 2,000-Year Scouring The famed Italian landmark dates back to the Flavian dynasty of the first century, and was originally used to host spectacles like animal hunts and gladiatorial games. It's been without a complete floor since the nineteenth century, when archaeologists removed it to reveal the network of structures and tunnels underneath.</p>

One of the jurors who convicted Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd defended his participation in a protest last summer in Washington, D.C., following online speculation about his motives for serving on the jury and whether it might be grounds for appeal. A photo shows Brandon Mitchell, who is Black, attending the Aug. 28 event to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech . Floyd’s brother and sister and relatives of others who have been shot by police addressed the crowd. That photo shows Mitchell standing with two cousins and wearing a T-shirt with a...