Free Republic

John Honore, the 17-year-old accused of murder in Monday’s carjacking and dragging death of Linda Frickey, had a previous violent crime allegation charged in adult Criminal District Court that was dropped last year by District Attorney Jason Williams’ office, court records show. Honore and two co-defendants who are not accused in Frickey’s death were charged as adults for another alleged carjacking nearly two years ago when he was 15. Former District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office charged Honore in that case in June 2020, along with co-defendants Aaliyah Thompson (then 17) and Miguel Leon Jr. (then 17). Williams was sworn in...

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia police say a would-be robber was killed inside of a dollar store on Thursday night. It happened around 8:30 p.m. at the Dollar General located at 9th Street and Girard Avenue. Police say a man tried to rob the store when he was shot in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The store manager, who is licensed to carry, shot and killed a man who said he had a gun and ordered the cashier to empty the register, according to investigators. However, police say the suspect did not have a weapon, but he was...

With severe shortage of food, cooking gas, and other essential items, sky-rocketing fuel prices and record-high inflation, Sri Lanka is battling its worst economic crisis in over several decades. A critical shortfall of foreign currency had led to a massive reduction in imports of essential items. This nightmarish situation has crippled the lives of common citizens who have been waiting in long queues across the country for groceries and fuel. At least two elderly men reportedly died in different parts of the country waiting for petrol and kerosene oil. As anger against the government grows, troops have been deployed outside...

'The price of the sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia'War in Ukraine threatens to blow US food costs sky high. Experts say American shoppers will begin to see higher grocery bills as the war in Ukraine threatens global food supplies. President Biden said Thursday that a food shortage is "gonna be real" following the sanctions that were placed on Russia by the U.S. government as a result of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion into Ukraine. "With regard to food shortage, yes we did talk about food shortages, and it's gonna be real," Biden said during a press conference at...

The six high school students were packed into a small, 2015 Chevy Spark with just four seats - and only the two teenaged girls riding in the front seat were wearing seatbelts, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Wednesday. The six girls were all students of Tishomingo Public School, according to the district's superintendent. The driver was 16 years old, three of the other girls were 15 and the other two passengers were both 17. The two vehicles collided around 12.19pm on Tuesday at the intersection of U.S. 377 and Oklahoma 22 in Tishomingo, a rural city of about 3,000 located...

MOGADISHU, March 24 (Reuters) - The death toll from two bombings that killed a parliamentary election candidate in central Somalia has risen to 48, a regional leader said on Thursday. Amina Mohamed, a vocal critic of the government, was killed on Wednesday by a suicide bomber in the city of Beledweyne, around 300 km (185 miles) north of Mogadishu, on the eve of her expected re-election, witnesses and relatives said. "The two blasts killed 48 people including traders, clerics, officials and civilians and injured 108 others," Ali Gudlawe Hussein, president of Hirshabelle state, said in a statement broadcast on Facebook.

Following a lawsuit filed by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a federal judge has blocked parts of President Biden’s immigration policy that drastically tied the hands of immigration officers and coincided with a drastic decrease in the number of deportations.The nationwide preliminary injunction issued yesterday requires the Department of Homeland Security to resume deporting dangerous convicted criminals and those whom federal immigration courts have already ordered removal from the United States.“This is a great victory for the rule of law, border security, and public safety across the country. President Biden’s open border policies encourage illegal immigration and make it easier...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska was convicted Thursday on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign from a foreign billionaire at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser. A federal jury in LA deliberated about two hours before finding the nine-term Republican guilty of one count of falsifying and concealing material facts and two counts of making false statements. Fortenberry was charged after sitting for two interviews with FBI agents who were investigating the donor, Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent. Fortenberry showed no emotion as the...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stopped pursuing charges against former President Trump and suspended the investigation "indefinitely," one of the top prosecutors who resigned from the office said in his resignation letter--but disagreed with the decision. Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under former DA Cyrus Vance, submitted their resignations last month, after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump."You have reached the decision not to go forward with the grand jury presentation and not to seek criminal charges at the present time," Pomerantz wrote in his resignation letter, first reported by...

Weapon used to shoot at NYPD officer during morning commute was found inside teddy bear in baby’s crib: court docs https://t.co/cvPvVu0xIQ pic.twitter.com/kwzumi6EmI— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 25, 2022

U.S. airline chief executives urged President Biden on Wednesday to cancel ‘outdated’ federal mask requirements on airplanes as well as the requirement for predeparture testing internationally. ‘Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions – including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate – that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment,’ Airlines for America’s (A4A) Board of Directors wrote to the administration. After the mandate was originally scheduled to end on March 18, Biden opted to extend it until April 18. As the number of cases...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stopped pursuing charges against former President Trump and suspended the investigation "indefinitely," one of the top prosecutors who resigned from the office said in his resignation letter--but disagreed with the decision. Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under former DA Cyrus Vance, submitted their resignations last month, after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump. "You have reached the decision not to go forward with the grand jury presentation and not to seek criminal charges at the present time," Pomerantz wrote in his resignation letter, first reported...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. Billy Graham Sermon: Pray For America You Who answer prayer, to You all people will come. When we were overwhelmed by sins, You forgave our transgressions. Psalm...

We've been telling you for years now that governments are coming up with more and more excuses to cancel your passport and reduce your freedom. But What if your fellow citizens will steal your passport? In this video, Andrew shares an article about it and discusses what you can do to protect yourself. (video at link)

News AnalysisAfter five years of terror against the Rohingya in Burma (also known as Myanmar), the U.S. government finally designated it as a genocide. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the determination on March 21 at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.The genocide designation took so long because Washington did not want to drive the Burmese regime further into the arms of China. Officials had hopes of instead easing the Burmese military junta from the illiberal embrace of Beijing.But after a coup in February 2021, less than two weeks following President Joe Biden’s inauguration, a deteriorating environment for the...

A senior Biden administration official, handling global energy policy, recently held a high-level position at a Ukrainian state-run natural gas firm but resigned citing corruption. Amos Hochstein, who President Joe Biden appointed to be the State Department’s top adviser for energy security over the summer of 2021, was a member of the energy company Naftogaz’s supervisory board. Hochstein took the position in 2017 after he said government officials persuaded him to accept the offer. “When fears abounded in late 2017 that Ukraine’s efforts to dismantle corruption were weakening, U.S. and foreign officials encouraged me to accept the (European Bank for...

A major diplomatic crisis is brewing in Eastern Europe as nation after nation concludes that Russian diplomacy aims to undermine the legitimate government or divide Russian speakers from others rather than increase mutual understanding. Moreover, the activities by Russian intelligence operatives that had been tolerated in the past have now run head-on into unified support of Ukraine and condemnation of Putin’s bloody and illegal invasion of that country. As a result, several nations are taking action.Bulgaria is expelling 10 Russian diplomats, saying they were carrying out activities deemed incompatible with their diplomatic status; a move followed up quickly by the...

Wednesday, I posted on the rather strange absence of the two men at the top of Russia’s military hierarchy (Correlation or Causation? The Ukraine Invasion Has Stalled and Putin’s Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff Have Vanished). Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov dropped out of sight on March 11. Considering Russia is at war, this seemed most odd. One would have expected Gerasimov to make ceremonial appearances, perhaps at one of the thousands of funerals conducted for Russian men killed in Ukraine.Shoigu was personally selected to be Defense Minister by Russian...

Thursday, US intelligence officials leaked a classified assessment about the performance of Russian precision-guided munitions in the Ukraine invasion.The United States assesses that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60% for some of the precision-guided missiles it is using to attack Ukraine, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence told Reuters.The disclosure could help explain why Russia has failed to achieve what most could consider basic objectives since its invasion a month ago, such as neutralizing Ukraine’s air force, despite the apparent strength of its military against Ukraine’s much smaller armed forces.The U.S. officials, who spoke on...

The White House on Thursday issued a statement condemning North Korea for allegedly testing a new ICBM missile, reportedly the largest one tested by the government since 2017. “This launch is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “The President and his national security team are assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners,” Psaki wrote in her statement. The White House noted “the door has not closed on diplomacy” with North...