Free Republic

An ex-con who vanished after being released without bail on gun charges by a soft-on-crime judge was captured by federal agents in Puerto Rico, a source said Wednesday. Frankie Centeno, who allegedly ignored an order to get fitted with an ankle bracelet following his release, was nabbed on the Caribbean island on Tuesday night, the source said. It’s unclear when he’ll be brought back to New York to face prosecution for allegedly being a felon in possession of a firearm. Centeno, who has four gun-possession convictions that date to 2003, was arrested early March 27 inside a Bronx restaurant and...

How many times can Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg get it wrong when it comes to criminals and crime victims? His prosecutors declined to charge the woman who stabbed bodega clerk Jose Alba, arguing that she was just defending her boyfriend. This, though she began the deadly altercation by bringing Austin Simon, her irate ex-con boyfriend, into the store and forcing the 61-year-old Alba to act in self defense. Somehow, Bragg still thinks the bodega worker was the aggressor. After meeting with United Bodegas of America leaders Tuesday, Bragg is hinting that he might drop the second-degree murder charge against...

The U.S. Constitution is overwhelmingly admired by American voters, but most Democrats believe our national charter is tainted by racism and sexism. A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute finds that 82% of Likely U.S. voters have a favorable opinion of the Constitution, including 58% who have a Very Favorable view of the document, which was ratified in 1789. Just 14% view the Constitution unfavorably. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (snip) Despite their generally favorable opinion of the Constitution, however, 57% of Democratic voters agree it “is a document rooted in...

The Biden administration is warning pharmacies not to discriminate against women who may seek reproductive health prescriptions, including some that might be involved in ending a pregnancy. The Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that pharmacies receiving federal money from programs such as Medicare and Medicaid cannot discriminate in how they supply medications or advise patients on prescriptions. The agency noted that discrimination against people based on their pregnancy or related conditions would be a form of sex discrimination. The announcement comes as the administration seeks to ensure reproductive health services for women following last month’s Supreme Court...

“When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean’” (Matthew 8:1–2). Leprosy was a most feared and contagious disease in the ancient world. Spongy, tumor-like swellings grew on the face and body, and eventually leprosy affected the internal organs and bones. In ancient Israel lepers were vivid object lessons regarding sin. Like leprosy, sin infects the entire person (cf. Eph. 2:1) and is ugly, corrupting—incurable without extraordinary means. Several things stand out about the leper...

Zach Wilson’s ex-girlfriend appears to be dating his college roommate, Washington Commanders wide receiver Dax Milne — after she seemingly accused the Jets quarterback of cheating on her with his mom’s best friend. Milne appeared to reveal his relationship with his one-time best friend’s ex, Abbey Gile, with a romantic Instagram post on Saturday. “Word on the street,” he wrote alongside two photos of him on a beach holding hands and cuddling his new flame, who never showed her face.

The world is filled with a lot of brokenness. People are looking for answers and purpose in their lives. This generation has so many fears and doubts, trying to figure out who God is and what he wants from us. One of the gospel writers in particular would’ve understood this well. Matthew probably grew up in a traditional Jewish home; he’d heard all the Old Testament stories and seen all the religion. Something had gone wrong, though; he’d become a tax collector for the Roman Empire, and they were put in the same category as harlots, traitors and sinners. In...

I just received the below email from the Missouri AG: Missouri Attorney General Condemns FBI’s Illegal Attempts to Harvest Concealed Carry Permit Information from Missouri Sheriffs July 13, 2022 Contact: Constituent Services Office: 573-751-3321 JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Today, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding that they cease their attempts to illegally obtain information from local sheriffs on Missourians who have concealed carry permits. Missouri law specifically prohibits the sharing of information on concealed carry permit holders to any entity – local, state, federal, or otherwise. “The FBI has absolutely no business...

President Joe Biden has long been known for his questionable actions around young children, and a new video provided yet another example of this fact. In the video shared on Twitter, Biden can be seen standing next to a young girl on what appears to be a bike trail in the woods. After a few seconds, he seemingly leaned down and sniffed the girl’s head before whispering something in her ear. Meanwhile, a man standing next to the girl stared into the distance with a straight face. Many social media users responded with disgust after seeing the video. “What mom...

USCCB Drops Opposition to Catholic Agencies Serving Single LGBTQ Foster ParentsIn an unprecedented move, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has granted an exception for an unmarried lesbian applicant to serve as a foster parent through a program administered by a Catholic organization. After months of litigation, the Conference has stated that it no longer has a religious objection to housing foster children in single-parent lesbian or gay households, according to Baptist News Global.In March 2021, Kelly Easter, a Nashville-area realtor, applied to foster an unaccompanied child seeking asylum in the United States through the federal Department of Health...

A woman in a now-viral TikTok video climbed through a McDonald’s drive-thru window to get to the kitchen so she could cook the food herself. The clip posted by the user, @greergreer, said that because the fast-food employees ran out of gloves, they could not take any more orders due to sanitary concerns. She asked for the manager’s permission to begin her “first day of training” so she could make her own order

I think we can judge this Biden presidency right now. The record isn’t anything you don’t already know. We’re a nation on the verge of officially entering a recession. The list of items that are not available is staggering. Mothers can’t feed their kids because baby formula is not on the shelves. Our southern border has more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese. Inflation is reaching astronomical highs, and gas prices are killing America’s working class. What is amusing is that Joe Biden thought he was America’s savior. He felt his win would bring back leadership and competence. First,...

Humanity has ‘moral obligation’ to fight climate change, pope saysVATICAN CITY — The care of the environment and the fight against climate change is not a lofty goal for humanity but a moral imperative, Pope Francis said.The worsening climate crisis can no longer be ignored, and it is up to all human beings, who were entrusted by God as “stewards of his gift of his creation,” to act, the pope said in a message July 13 to participants at a Vatican conference on climate change.“Care for our common home, even apart from considerations of the effects of climate change, is...

A top tech executive who uprooted his company from the Bay Area blasted San Francisco as “probably the worst run city in the United States” during a conference of Silicon Valley bigwigs. Drew Oetting, the president of 8VC, a venture capital firm that was once headquartered in San Francisco but has since pulled up stakes and relocated to Austin, Tex., said that rampant homelessness, rising crime, COVID lockdown measures and high taxes led him to say good riddance. “San Francisco is probably the worst run city in the United States,” Oetting told fellow participants at Fortune Brainstorm Tech in Aspen,...

Known only as Amy, the 21-year-old claimed that alleged shooter Crimo admitted to postponing his dream of opening a nearby deli with his father in order to be closer to herA neighbour of the Highland Park mass shooting suspect has admitted to feeling guilty to once having turned down the alleged killer for a date. The 21-year-old, known only as Amy, also revealed this week that she still has a crush on Robert “Bobby” Crimo III, despite him having been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder for the Fourth of July parade bloodbath in Illinois. Around 30 injured...

Dr. Tedros Ahanom Ghebreyesus claimed that the coronavirus outbreak was not over. The number of cases of Covid-19 rising globally has prompted Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (World Health Organization) to call on Tuesday for masking and ventilation to be reinstated. Tedros said this during a weekly briefing. “the virus is running freely, and countries are not effectively managing the disease.” With the WHO concluding last week that the virus remains a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’, Tedros asserted that the pandemic was “nowhere near over.”

(CNN)The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in adults. It is the fourth coronavirus vaccine available in the United States, and it uses a different type of vaccine technology than the shots already available. Novavax's vaccine will be available as two-dose primary series for people 18 and older. The FDA's independent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted in favor of authorization of the vaccine June 7, saying that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks for adults. It is also being used in 170 other countries.

Effigies of the Russian president have been spotted at different temples in a Japanese town but Mitsunobu Hino has escaped prosecution despite being caught on cameraA man who was arrested after being caught nailing Vladimir Putin voodoo dolls to Japanese temples will not be prosecuted. Mitsunobu Hino, 72, was spotted on security cameras leaving Vlad impaled after hammering an effigy of the warmongering Russian president to a tree at a sacred Shinto shrine in the town of Matsudo, which lies about 20 miles east of Tokyo in the Chiba Prefecture. The dolls, known as wara ningyo in Japan, have repeatedly...

Former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA), who owes roughly $220,000 in attorney fees to two news outlets and two conservative journalists after an unsuccessful lawsuit in a California state court, has filed for bankruptcy, the Los Angeles Times reports.In the weeks leading up to Hill’s resignation, the Daily Mail and Red State covered Hill’s “throuple” and published nude photographs of the former congresswoman brushing another woman’s hair. These photographs and reports caused the House Ethics Committee to investigate Hill’s allegedly improper sexual relationship with a male congressional staffer. However, the Ethics Committee investigation did not finish, as Hill resigned from Congress...

"Aquaman" actor Amber Heard lost a bid for a new trial in her defamation case with ex-husband Johnny Depp on Wednesday when a judge rejected her lawyers' argument that one of the jurors had served improperly. In June, Heard was ordered to pay Depp $10.35 million in damages when a jury in Fairfax County, Virginia, ruled she had defamed the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star in a newspaper opinion piece. Her attorneys had asked the judge in the case to throw out the decision and declare a mistrial, arguing that one of the jurors on the case should not have...