Free Republic

A six-year-old Connecticut boy is hospitalized with severe burns to his face and legs after he was intentionally lit on fire by another child, who poured gasoline on a tennis ball, lit the ball on fire and threw it at the child's face. The youngster, identified as Dominick Krankall, survived the vicious attack but is suffering from severe second-and-third degree burns to his face and legs. 'My six-year-old brother could've died. The kid covered a ball in gasoline, lit it on fire and threw it at him. All in a matter of seconds,' wrote the victim's sister, Kayla Deegan, on...

Two Americans volunteering in Ukraine’s armed forces were wounded by artillery fire during combat in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, April 27. US Army veterans Paul Gray and Manus McCaffrey were on a mission to destroy a Russian tank near Orikhiv, a small city in the path of Russia’s ongoing military offensive in the south and east of Ukraine. The pair were waiting for a Russian tank to appear on a road when an artillery round struck nearby at roughly 2:35 p.m., Gray told Coffee or Die Magazine via text message. McCaffrey suffered serious shrapnel wounds to his face, head, shoulders,...

Dr. Anthony Fauci walked back his comment that the US was no longer in the “pandemic phase” of COVID-19 — the latest jumbled messaging from President Biden’s chief medical adviser on the coronavirus. Biden administration officials and Fauci were scrambling Wednesday to emphasize that the country is still in the midst of a pandemic and that emergency measures are still needed after Fauci told PBS the precise opposite. “Here we are. It’s the end of April. It’s the spring of 2022. How close are we to the end of the pandemic?” Judy Woodruff of “PBS NewsHour” asked Fauci Tuesday.

Paul Ryan has one big complaint about former President Donald Trump: He wasn't willing to pursue cuts to the safety net programs Ryan had championed for years. "He and I fought about Medicare and entitlement reform all the time," the former GOP House speaker said Wednesday at a book event at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. "It became clear to me there was no way he wanted to embrace that."

Pope Francis ends automatic dismissal of religious-order priests for [sexual] abuseLess than a year after he strengthened the Code of Canon Law’s section on crimes, Pope Francis has issued an apostolic constitution motu proprio (on his own initiative) that alters the wording of one of the canons.As a result of the alteration, religious-order priests who sexually abuse minors and other vulnerable persons, or who commit canonical crimes related to child pornography, will no longer be automatically dismissed from their religious institutes.In addition, religious-order priests who “force someone to perform or submit to sexual acts” will no longer be automatically dismissed...

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr shot down calls from left-wing activists for the government agency to block African-American tech philanthropist Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, and criticized the “hard left” for believing “the free exchange of ideas is incompatible with the outcomes that they want to see at the ballot box.” “Yesterday, the Open Markets Institute issued a release that called for the FCC, FTC, and DOJ to block Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter,” the FCC said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., announced on Wednesday that she has tested positive for COVID-19, but is experiencing no symptoms. Waters said that she is not experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and is currently isolating.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — In 1994, Kyle Hedquist led a teenager down a remote logging road, then shot her in the back of the head because he feared she might tell police about burglaries he’d committed. This month, Oregon. Gov. Kate Brown granted clemency to Hedquist, who was serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of murdering Nikki Thrasher when he was 17. Brown’s act is unleashing a storm of criticism from prosecutors and law enforcement. “The executive clemency granted by Gov. Brown in this case is shocking and irresponsible,” Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said Tuesday in...

Disney-Marvels’ The Avengers star Mark Ruffalo is threatening City National Bank with a Hollywood boycott if its parent company doesn’t cave to pressure from environmental activists over the Coastal GasLink pipeline in Canada. In an op-ed for Rolling Stone magazine, Mark Ruffalo demanded that the bank’s parent company, the Royal Bank of Canada, immediately divest from the Coastal GasLink “or Hollywood and many others will just divest from them.” Los Angeles-based City National Bank is known as the “Bank to the Stars” for its celebrity clientele and deep financial ties to the entertainment industry.

@CharlesPHerring OAN EXCLUSIVE: Sen Rand Paul Tells OAN in a sit-down interview, "I think what is important for people to understand is, there is NO JUSTIFICATION for Putin invading another country – for the war in Ukraine. But there is an EXPLANATION.” Hear the full interview exclusively on OAN.

The family of a woman killed in a West Los Angeles crash involving a speeding Lamborghini last year will receive at least $18.85 million after a wrongful death settlement was reached with the then 17-year-old driver, the family’s attorney announced Wednesday. The law firm representing the family called the agreement one of the largest settlements in California history for a single plaintiff in a wrongful death case. Monique Muñoz, 32, was killed on Feb. 17, 2021, when she was heading home from her job at UCLA Health. She was heading west on Olympic Boulevard and was waiting to turn left...

In a statement quietly posted April 21, Disney informed investors that despite the recent law abolishing its special tax district by 2023, the state of Florida can’t actually do that unless it also covers all outstanding debts associated with the district. Subsequently, the company told investors it intends to conduct business as usual for the time being. In the statement, first reported by WESH in Florida, officials for the Reedy Creek Improvement District — the official name of the tax district in which Disney operates its Florida theme parks and also functions as the local government — assured investors that...

Because it has become widely known that Google search-results exclude any find that proves the falsehood of the U.S. Government’s key allegations regarding international relations (such as the U.S. Government’s allegation that Ukraine’s Government is not controlled by racist fascists or “nazis” as it actually is and has been ever since February 2014), many researchers have started using other search-engines, such as DuckDuckGo, which advertises on America’s neoconservative liberal National Public Radio (NPR) network as being an alternative to Google. However, on March 9th, DuckDuckGo’s CEO & Founder, Gabriel Weinberg, issued a tweet saying “Like so many others I am...

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) Wednesday called for an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) over allegations that Cawthorn violated federal insider trading laws. “Insider trading by a member of Congress is a serious betrayal of their oath, and Congressman Cawthorn owes North Carolinians an explanation. There needs to be a thorough and bipartisan inquiry into the matter by the House Ethics Committee,” Tillis tweeted on Wednesday.

"And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Revelation, Chapter 8 1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given...

A special grand jury seated to hear evidence in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances is set to expire at the end of the week and will not be extended, people familiar with the investigation tell CNN. The six-month special grand jury, which was empaneled in October, heard evidence late last year from several witnesses, including reporters to whom former President Donald Trump boasted about his personal wealth. Presentations to the grand jury were halted earlier this year after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was sworn into office and raised concerns about the strength of the...

Department of Homeland Security is setting up a new board designed to counter misinformation related to homeland security, with a focus specifically on Russia and irregular migration. The board will be called the "Disinformation Governance Board, and will be headed by executive director Nina Jankowicz. Speaking with the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee on Wednesday afternoon, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "Our Undersecretary for Policy, Rob Silvers is co-chair with our Principal Deputy General Counsel, Jennifer Gaskell, in leading a just recently constituted misinformation disinformation governance board. So we're bringing — the goal is to bring the resources of the department...

I want to send flowers and chocolates to the Twitter employee who permanently suspended The Babylon Bee. Maybe a car. Apparently, it was the inanity of that decision that incensed Elon Musk, whereupon he decided to purchase the entire platform to stop the censorship. Liberals, until five minutes ago: Elon Musk is a climate hero! Electric cars! Solar power! He loves Obama! Liberals, five minutes ago: He believes in free speech? Fascist! Loads of liberals are threatening to leave Twitter if Musk's deal goes through. To those who will miss The New York Times' Charles Blow, I understand. I will...

President Joe Biden said Wednesday he continues to suffer from his childhood stutter, telling an audience he has not fully conquered it. “I didn’t really beat my stutter — still occasionally I do,” he said, recalling the struggle he experienced as a child.

The ink isn’t even dry on Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter and make speech free again, and the authoritarians in the Biden administration are nakedly acting to lock down the flow of information. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is creating a new agency called the Disinformation Governance Board.Politico is reporting:DHS is standing up a new Disinformation Governance Board to coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia. Nina Jankowicz will head the board as executive director. She previously was a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as...