Free Republic

A contentious circuit judgeship race in Hillsborough County is violating the norms of usually quiet judicial contests, as the two candidates and their supporters bash each other publicly and file or threaten ethics complaints. The bitterness stems from an overturned decision by Judge Jared Smith in a case of a minor seeking an abortion.

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“A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings” (Proverbs 1:5-6 KJV).

RNS) — The way Florida Southern Baptist pastor Tom Ascol sees it, there is little difference between a woman who chooses to end her pregnancy and a hit man. Both pay someone to end a human life, his argument goes, and so both should face criminal charges. “It’s like saying if I don’t murder someone, but I just contracted a murderer to murder someone I’m not culpable,” he told Christian radio host Jeff Schreve on Tuesday (May 17). The analogy is not uncommon — Pope Francis has made similar “hit man” comments — Ascol also believes that women who have...

KYIV, Ukraine — A small explosive device carried by a makeshift drone blew up Sunday at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula, wounding six people and prompting the cancellation of ceremonies there honoring Russia’s navy, authorities said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drone explosion in a courtyard at the naval headquarters in the city of Sevastopol. But the seemingly improvised, small-scale nature of the attack raised the possibility that it was the work of Ukrainian insurgents trying to drive out Russian forces. A Russian lawmaker from Crimea, Olga Kovitidi, told Russian...

<p>The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) confirmed it has created a division that will oversee mail-in ballots in future elections.</p><p>Adrienne Marshall, executive director of the newly created Election and Government Mail Services, said that it will oversee “election mail strike teams” in local communities to deal with possible problems.</p>

Last week, Halliburton Co.'s CEO Jeff Miller warned hydraulic fracturing equipment is in short supply and could hamper fracking growth. Another oil/gas executive echoed the same warning this week and said bottlenecks could persist through 2023. "Availability of frac fleets is one of main bottlenecks impeding oil and natural as production growth for the next 18 months," Robert Drummond, chief executive officer of fracking firm NexTier Oilfield Solutions, told Reuters. Besides supply chain snarls, Drummond warned that capital constraints would make adding equipment to fields challenging. He said this imbalance could take several years to correct, adding that NexTier has...

NEW YORK (CNN) – A mysterious red glow above the Pacific Ocean has internet sleuths fishing for answers. From a cockpit 31,000 feet over the ocean, pilot Dustin Maggard saw and photographed a mysterious red glow below. Watch the video report below.

@codeofvets Replying to @jonstewart You are not a veteran. You do not speak for us. You made it about politics. It is about the $400B. It is infuriating but expected. The PACT Act needs to state: $280 billion for toxic exposure health care. That is it. The additional $400 BILLION needs to be removed.

Replenishing the military ranks with qualified personnel is a perennial challenge. It’s no secret, though, that this year our armed forces are fighting uphill to recruit and retain talent. Most of the services are well behind their quotas.But the Army, our largest service, is having the hardest time enticing young Americans. That service will fall short, nearly 20,000 troops from its original target end strength of 485,000 for FY ’22, and next year could be worse.To manage, Army officials have slashed end strength and enlistment goals, while recruiters are offering fat stacks of cash and generous service terms as inducements....

Brazilian President Jair Bonsonaro gave Leonardo DiCaprio a lecture in hypocrisy, telling the virtue-signaling actor that he should 'give up his yacht before lecturing the world' about the environment.Of note, in January DiCaprio was pictured vacationing with friends on the $150 miullion "Vava II," the largest yacht manufactured in Britain, which is estimated to produce 238kg of carbon dioxide per mile - as much as the average British car emits in two months.@LeoDiCaprio climate around your fakeness is changing rapidly.. 😂😂 https://t.co/DZHKpXy86m — Civilizedbeast (@Footyfied) January 10, 2022Bolsonaro was responding to DiCaprio, who tweeted that the Amazon rainforest has "faced...

LOS ANGELES — After living in the Bay Area for nearly seven years, Hari Raghavan and his wife decided to leave for the East Coast late last year.They were both working remotely and wanted to leave California because of the high cost of living and urban crime. So they made a list of potential relocation cities before choosing Miami for its sunny weather and what they perceived was a better sense of safety.Raghavan said that their Oakland house had been broken into four times and that prior to the pandemic, his wife called him every day during her seven-minute walk...

The Court of Appeal is to hold a last-minute hearing in the case of Archie Battersbee - hours before doctors are due to withdraw life support. The government asked judges to urgently consider a request from a United Nations committee to keep treating the 12-year-old while it examines the case. The Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled for 11:00 BST - three hours before care is due to end at 14:00. Archie was found unconscious at home in Southend, Essex, on 7 April. He has never regained consciousness and his mother Hollie Dance said she believed he might have been...

Spiez Laboratory, known for its detective work on chemical, biological and nuclear threats since World War Two, was tasked last year by the World Health Organization to be the first in a global network of high-security laboratories that will grow, store and share newly discovered microbes that could unleash the next pandemic.

U.N. peacekeepers returning from leave opened fire at a border post between Congo and Uganda, killing at least two people and wounding at least 15 more, the U.N. mission and Congo government officials said Sunday. Tensions between the population in restive eastern Congo and the U.N. peacekeeping force have risen dramatically in the past week, with nearly 20 killed in protests calling for the force to leave the region.

Cycling at the Commonwealth Games was struck by another horrifying crash on Sunday afternoon that saw England's Matt Walls catapulted over the barrier into the crowd, leaving athletes and spectators requiring urgent medical attention. In the second qualifying heat of the men's 15km scratch qualifying, there was a multi-rider crash and England's Matt Walls flew over the barrier and into the crowd, with his bike. Fellow racer Matt Bostock was taken away on a stretcher, while 24-year-old Walls received treatment for more than 40 minutes before being taken away by ambulance. British Cycling confirmed on social media that Walls and...

Pat Carroll, a comedic television mainstay for decades, Emmy-winner for Caesar's Hour and the voice Ursula in The Little Mermaid has died at the age of 95. Her daughter Kerry Karsian, a casting agent, said Carroll died at her home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Saturday, while EW reported she passed away while recovering from pneumonia. Her other daughter Tara Karsian wrote on Instagram that they want everyone to 'honor her by having a raucous laugh at absolutely anything today (and everyday forward) because besides her brilliant talent and love, she leaves my sister Kerry and I with the greatest...

A new report in The New York Times says the spring and summer have brought an autumnal chill to the relationship between Fox News and former President Donald Trump. The Friday report noted that it had been more than 100 days since Trump was interviewed on Fox News, which during Trump’s presidency became his go-to network for getting his side of an issue out to the public. The report noted that on April 13, Trump did a phone interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in which he listed a number of problems facing the nation, adding that they would...

Fox News host Mark Levin gives viewers a history lesson on the presidential election of 1800 and slams the left's Jan. 6 Committee for criminalizing politics on 'Life, Liberty & Levin.'