Free Republic

OAKLAND, Calif. - Three men were charged with murder in the shooting death of Kevin Nishita, a security guard who was killed last November. Prosecutors from the Alameda County District Attorney's Office charged Shadihia Mitchell, Hershel Kiante Hale, and Laron Gilbert with murder, attempted robbery, and assault. All three suspect have prior offenses of varying degrees. They collectively include a shooting, assault of a peace officer or firefighter, firearms possession and burglary of a vehicle.

Correctional facilities in Rochester, Fishkill and Southport are among six New York prisons shuttering Thursday, amid diminishing prison populations and the implementation of key reforms aimed at curbing incarceration. At the close of business Thursday, Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill and the Rochester Correctional Facility will be two of six that will close, adding to the 18 prisons that the state has already closed since October 2011. The Department of Correction and Community Supervision operates 50 facilities as of March 1. People incarcerated at the prison have been moved to other facilities based on their security classification along with their...

Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) made a formal request on Wednesday for his fellow House Republicans to join him in an immediate effort to bring impeachment proceedings against President Biden's Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for his dereliction of duty in overseeing border security and action "to purposefully endanger American citizens while willfully ignoring one's oath to enforce our laws." Rep. Roy's letter doesn't hold back: The U.S. Senate confirmed Secretary Mayorkas just over one year ago & he subsequently took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and...

After receiving an initial dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Li Jun’s 4-year-old daughter developed a fever and began coughing, which quickly subsided following intravenous therapy at a hospital. But after the second shot, the father could tell something was wrong. Swelling appeared around his daughter’s eyes and lingered. For weeks, the girl complained about pain in her legs, where bruises started to emerge seemingly out of nowhere. In January, a few weeks after the second dose, the child was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. “My baby was perfectly healthy before the vaccine dose,” Li (a pseudonym), from China’s north-central Gansu...

A federal judge has dismissed a felony obstruction charge alleging a participant in Jan. 6 Capitol riot attempted to prevent the certification of the 2020 Electoral College results. The ruling Tuesday by U.S. District Judge for the D.C. Circuit Carl J. Nichols, a Trump administration appointee, marks the second time in eight days the judge has issued such a dismissal. Nichols ruled in the case against Joseph Fischer, who works for the North Cornwall Township Police Department in Pennsylvania, that the obstruction charge does not stand. "Nothing in Count Three (or the superseding indictment generally) alleges, let alone implies, that...

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the phrase “national interest” has become something of a blasphemy. Certain thinkers in the “realist” school of foreign policy analysis have drawn social media ire for articulating the interests which might motivate Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine or questioning whether the United States has a significant interest in intervening there. Increasingly in our censorious modern world, any attempt to understand the behavior of an actor (in this case Russia) is treated as a de facto endorsement of that actor’s behavior. This is not a new development. During the Global War on...

We humans are wired in such a way as to look out for our best interests. It's how we survive. But sometimes we go off the rails and do things that can cause us more harm than good. And yes, I'm thinking of the love and affection some Republicans still have for Donald Trump, despite all the harm he has done to them and the party. You'd think that after losing the House during his presidency, and losing the presidency itself..... Think about it this way: We are humans, after all, not robots. We don't always color inside the lines...

Russian President Vladimir Putin was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Sunday for his novel approach to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic, which had killed millions worldwide and brought the world to a standstill for over two years, was itself brought to a sudden halt on February 24, when Russia conducted a “special medical operation” in Ukraine. Global medical and scientific experts expressed astonishment that the pandemic had been virtually eliminated from websites, twitter feeds and newspaper headlines. “It’s amazing, we haven’t heard anything about the COVID-19 pandemic since Russia’s ‘operation’ in Ukraine,” said Dr. Fauxi of...

Gov. Kathy Hochul is now proposing a sweeping public safety package including changes that will make more crimes bail eligible in New York after weeks of being accused of ignoring the city and state’s crime wave, The Post has learned. The 10-point plan, obtained by The Post, includes a measure that would give judges more discretion to order bail and detain criminal defendants for a host of additional crimes based on their criminal history, including repeat offenders. “For offenses that are not currently subject to arrest, police will have the ability (though not the requirement) to deny a Desk Appearance...

Hopes for a general ceasefire in Ukraine have increased following meetings with Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers in Lviv and Moscow, Turkey’s top diplomat has said, informing that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has had another phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “We will welcome to bring two foreign ministers again in Antalya. But we believe it is time to prepare a ground for a meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said at a press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kiev on March 17. Çavuşoğlu, who was in Moscow to hold...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was allegedly on a flight headed to Beijing Thursday, but the plane turned around midway and flew back toward Moscow, according to German newspaper Bild. The plane allegedly turned around while over Novosibirsk, a city in Siberia, according to Bild. Fox News Digital has been unable to independently verify the outlet’s report. It is unclear if China refused to meet with a Russian official or if Russian President Vladimir Putin called him back to Russia, according to Bild. The plane's final destination is also unclear. A State Department spokesperson told Fox News they did not...

He said he had an allowance of $3,300 a month and needed UK government permission to spend money. Fridman, who has a net worth of $10.1 billion, Bloomberg's Billionaires Index said, was sanctioned by the European Union on February 28 and by the UK on March 15. The Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman said in an interview that he didn't know how to live, three weeks after coming under sanctions, Bloomberg reported. He described the EU's sanctions as "groundless and unfair" at the time and said he would contest them, Reuters reported. Since the invasion of Ukraine began, Fridman's wealth dropped...

Russian troops have killed at least 10 civilians standing in line for bread in Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian public broadcaster and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. CGTN America @cgtnamerica China state-affiliated media

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called on Germany to help destroy a new "Wall" Russia was erecting in Europe, as he appealed directly to Chancellor Olaf Scholz to bolster his tentative response to the invasion. In a speech combining an appeal for fresh aid for his besieged country with criticism of Berlin's long accommodating stance toward Moscow, Zelensky recalled Germany's own triumph over its Cold War division. "It's not a Berlin Wall -- it is a Wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb" dropped on Ukraine, Zelensky told MPs,...

Daughter taken from mom, who was banned from talking about GodBy Greg BurtAn immigrant mother living in Los Angeles has revealed publicly that her 16-year-old daughter killed herself after public school employees, doctors and the courts fed the troubled teen lies about her identity. This progressive ideology promoted by legislative leaders, that one’s gender is separate from biological sex, is driving some mentally struggling teens to despair and leading many others to destroy their reproductive systems with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. California teachers, gender counselors and judges tell parents that affirming their child’s self-perception without question is the only...

In a bid to slow the surging crime rate in their state, Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblywoman Pat Fahy (D-Albany) have proposed a tax of 2 to 5 cents per round of ammunition. Calling the traditional approach of increasing funding for police and imposing severe punishment of criminals "racist," Gounardes believes "using economic incentives will have a greater impact. If every bullet fired costs more, fewer bullets will be fired. Instead of letting loose with a hundred bullet barrage, shooters will be more frugal in their firefights with rival gangs. Robbers will be incentivized to merely threaten to shoot...

On Wednesday, March 16 a congressional briefing revealed the U.S. 100 “Tactical Unmanned Aerial Drone Systems” included as part of an $800 million military aid package to Kyiv as it struggles against Russian invasion in fact referred to lethal Switchblade kamikaze drones. That same package also included 2,000 more Javelin anti-tank missiles, 800 Stinger missiles, and 7,000 lighter AT-4 and LAW single-shot anti-tank weapons. But the term “unmanned system” doesn’t actually refer to an individual drone, but rather to a complete package of ground launch and control systems, and potentially multiple drones. And indeed according to journalist Michael Weiss, a...

Forget producing dinosaurs using DNA from mosquitoes trapped in amber, how about if the dinosaurs themselves got trapped? OK, we're not there yet, but scientists have found a lizard that lived at the peak of the dinosaurs' reign that got trapped in tree resin, and it's a species unknown from more conventional fossils. In Scientific Reports, a team including Dr Juan Daza of Sam Houston State University describes a small lizard distantly related to modern skinks that was found trapped within a lump of amber in Myanmar. Its outstanding preservation gives us an unbeaten insight into a reptile from 110...

As concerns grow over long-term side effects from COVID and vaccination protocols, new school sports requirements are unsettling parents. The Orange County Public School (OCPS) system based out of Orlando, FL recently announced an update to their standards for the 2021-2022 school year which includes an unprecedented new screening. All high school students who desire to participate in one of the available athletic programs are now required to have an electrocardiogram (ECG) screening. According to the OCPS website, the ECG screenings are necessary to “help identify athletes who are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest which is the leading cause...

86.6% of Russians tolerate and support the potential assault on the territory of the European Union, including: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and others as evidenced by the results of the sociological survey conducted by “Active Group”. 75.5% of Russians approve the idea of a military invasion in the next country and believe that it should be Poland. According to respondents, this is a logical continuation of the so-called “military special operation of the Russian Federation”. Moreover, according to the survey, 75% of respondents tolerate to a varied extent the use of nuclear weapons by their...