Free Republic

(CNN)As former President Donald Trump prepares for a potential comeback bid in 2024, his allies are flocking to election jobs all the way down to the local level in key battleground states, raising new concerns that the election officials who blocked Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election won't be there the next time around. Trump himself has endorsed candidates for secretary of state and attorney general -- statewide races that play a crucial role in administering elections -- who have spread his lies about 2020. But in addition to statewide roles, Trump's acolytes are pursuing local election posts, even...

In brief: When Apple launched the AirTags earlier this year, they seemed like a helpful tool to avoid losing valuable items like laptops, phones, tablets, or anything else. However, car thieves are now using them to track high-end vehicles, showing them the location of their target in real-time. From September 2021 until now, the York Regional Police have already encountered five cases where suspects used Apple AirTags to track vehicles they were allegedly planning to steal. Thieves put the trackers on publically parked cars and situate the device in out-of-sight places, including trailer hitches, bumpers, and gas cap area. Thieves...

Authorities in Washington, DC, have provided a list of tips for residents as carjackings rise in the city, urging people to “drive in the center lane to make it harder for potential carjackers to approach the car” and to “GIVE UP YOUR CAR” without argument in the event of a criminal issuing a threat with a weapon. “Unfortunately, we have been seeing a rash of these recently in the D.C. area,” 7News reported on Monday, referencing “violent” carjackings last week that resulted one man shot and another held at gunpoint.

AWS seems to be not working. anyone else see or hearing anything? note: Amazon.com is working fine.

The name alone would strike terror into the hart of even the most battle-hardened German soldier: The Night Witches. Although these women were not Americans, we decided that since they fought as allies against Nazi soldiers and their story is not commonly known, we would give them an honorable mention in our Forgotten Americans section. Named for the sound of their rudimentary, plywood biplanes as they cruised slowly overhead at low altitude dropping bombs, the Night Witches were the all-volunteer, all-female air raid squad that the Soviets deployed against the Third Reich. The spooky “whoosh” as they circled overhead reminded...

https://twitter.com/G_P_L_MTwitter user retweeted by Lara Logan. His twitter feed is loaded with videos and images from around the world showing covid unrest, vaxxed vs unvaxxed rules, protests, people forcing their way into markets and malls to shop. Brussels is especially bad.

Jimmy Fallon is giving a boost to COVID-19 vaccine boosters, teaming up with Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion for an offbeat, Christmas-themed music video encouraging Americans to get "in line" for the shots. "It was a masked Christmas, we stayed in the house. We covered our nose, and covered our mouth," the NBC "Tonight Show" host croons in "It Was a (Masked Christmas)," which he debuted on Monday. "But it's Christmas time, we’ll be in line for a booster." Other lines in the tune include: "This Christmas Imma make it count, no more quarantine on the couch. This year...

Getting more bang for your buck used to be the mantra of dollar store shoppers everywhere, but times are changing - and prices are rising. As consumers continue to contend with escalating prices for food, clothing and other items thanks to inflation, discount retail chains like dollar stores are rethinking their pricing strategies. Dollar Tree announced last month that it will be boosting prices to $1.25 for most of its products. And now Dollar General is looking to roll out more of its Popshelf stores, where most items cost $5 or less. Dollar General said Thursday that it anticipates nearly...

After a thorough investigation, the sleuths in the Biden administration have identified a suspect in the smash-and-grab shoplifting spree that has besieged California retailers and terrorized residents of late. The likely villain is two years old, travels at will across the country, and has a vicious spike protein that has caused pain and suffering to millions of people. That’s right. It’s the coronavirus. Asked last week at a press briefing whether the pandemic was to blame for the surge in crime, as President Biden has suggested, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki declared that, yes, the virus is “a...

The police found a family of five in a house in Königs Wusterhausen in Brandenburg - all of them were dead. A farewell letter from the father is now said to contain references to a harrowing motive.In the case of the five dead in Königs Wusterhausen (Brandenburg), details from the family father's farewell letter have become known - and they indicate the man's worries about being arrested because of a forged vaccination certificate. According to the judiciary on Tuesday, this resulted in the 40-year-old's fear that the children would be taken away from him and his wife.The husband killed his...

In response to the murder of one of its students, Temple University President Dr. Jason Wingard said in a campus-wide email it will “work with the Philadelphia Police Department to increase their presence off campus,” to boost student security. The move comes after a year in which Temple administrators and students have debated and occasionally embraced facets of the “Defund the Police” movement --SNIP-- “Students are afraid. Parents are afraid. Parents are afraid for students’ safety,” student government president Bradley Smutek told the Inquirer.

There is no amount of money that can buy enough soap to wash that blood off their hands.

UPMC doctors are urging people to limit holiday gatherings to household members. They also stressed that face masks can protect children who are too young for vaccination and other people whose immune systems are weaker because of age or illness. “Wear your mask when you’re with others and in crowds. That still is the best way to keep even those who are more vulnerable from getting sick,” said Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC’s medical director for infection prevention. They offered the advice as Pennsylvania endures a surge in new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, with many likely linked to Thanksgiving gatherings. As...

CNN took a sudden detour from its love affair with President Joe Biden and accused his White House of trying to quietly shape the media coverage of his atrocious economic agenda. The Reliable Sources newsletter reported that the “The White House, not happy with the news media's coverage of the supply chain and economy, has been working behind the scenes trying to reshape coverage in its favor.” The newsletter, written by senior media reporter Oliver Darcy, said, “Senior White House and admin officials — including NEC Deputy Directors David Kamin and Bharat Ramamurti, along with Ports Envoy John Porcari —...

No major reforms have taken place at the Department of Justice or FBI even as its politicized bungling of prosecutions and investigations has made major news.Jeff Fortenberry is not the person you’d expect to be charged with any crime, much less the crime of lying to the FBI. Painfully earnest, the Nebraska Republican congressman is a devout Roman Catholic who has a perfect pro-life voting record. He served on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and has developed a reputation for activism on behalf of persecuted religious minorities in Iraq. It was that last focus that ended up getting him in...

Senator tells Pioneer his wife wants him to quit; decision coming this month Sen. John Thune is at the peak of his career. He’s in his third term in the Senate, is the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, is wildly popular in his home state and the heavy favorite to win a fourth term next year. So why he is considering retirement? Thune, in an exclusive interview with the Black Hills Pioneer on Saturday, said he is still undecided about running in 2022. “We’ll make that decision by the end of the month,” he said. Twice this year, he...

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows will no longer be cooperating with a committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, despite previous efforts to work with them. Meadows and his attorney George Terwilliger notified the committee Tuesday morning, after the senior Trump administration official could not come to terms with lawmakers on an arrangement to work with them. Terwilliger said Meadows was looking to appear voluntarily before the committee and answer questions that Meadows believed were not protected by executive privilege. Meadows is set to appear on "Hannity" Tuesday evening.

The Northwest Regional Corrections Center in Crookston, Minn., can house 200 inmates, but this week, a 60-bed housing unit will close, cutting the jail capacity to 140. Tri-County Community Corrections is operated by Polk, Norman and Red Lake counties. The jail needs about 38 full-time officers to meet state staffing requirements, but Executive Director Andrew Larson says the rate of staff turnover has become unsustainable. "This year, for example, we've had 40 resignations through Nov. 30, 2021. Last year we had 20," said Larson. Staff departures have been climbing since 2016, but the issue reached a critical point this year....

Diverse Sample Shows the Power of President Trump's Endorsement Nationwide Today the Las Vegas polling firm SoCo Strategies announced the results of a multi-state poll, focused on a diverse sampling to look for current trends in the Republican primary landscape. The results demonstrate two emerging narratives. Our polling showed that President Trump is a dominant force in Congressional Primaries across the country. Trump endorsed candidates Joe Kent and Harriet Hageman lead their anti-Trump incumbent opponents and Pro-Trump candidates Mike Collins and Anthony Sabatini lead their open primaries by double digits while another Pro-Trump candidate, Graham Allen, was tied in South...

For her first Great Dickens Christmas Fair in 2015, LaToya Tooles fashioned a gown out of dollar-store hula hoops and a tablecloth. A friend had invited her to the annual event, a festive re-creation of 19th century London inspired by the works of Charles Dickens that has been running in San Francisco for nearly 40 years. Almost as soon as she arrived at the antique winter wonderland, she joined the revelers on Fezziwig’s dance floor and didn’t stop waltzing for hours. “I met some of my greatest friends at the Dickens Fair,” says Tooles, who went on to join the...