Free Republic

A raid of an (Logansport) Indiana specialty car shop by San Mateo County (California) Sheriff’s Office deputies is facing scrutiny over allegations Sheriff Carlos Bolanos did so as a favor to a friend. The issue stems from an alleged payment dispute between Mark Racop, the owner of Fiberglass Freaks, which makes classic 1966 Batmobile cars, and (San Francisco) Bay Area real estate broker Sam Anagnostou, who ordered one in 2017. According to Racop, a missed 2019 payment from Anagnostou and a lack of contact over nine months about the payment bumped Anagnostou to the end of the line for a...

...The villa was laid out around two courtyards and the many rooms were adorned with mosaic floors. In addition to geometric patterns, there were also motifs of various mythological figures and scenes taken from Greek mythology; e.g. Princess Europa being abducted by the god Zeus in the form of a bull and Aphrodite at sea in her seashell.Motifs from the stories of the much younger Roman author Virgil are also represented.Inscriptions in the floor have revealed that the owner was named Charidemos and that the villa was built in the mid-fifth century.Mosaic flooring was a costly luxury: expensive raw materials...

"I'm a federal agent."

A total of 27 skeletons were discovered in a burial pit carved into rocks in the eastern Turkish province of Adiyaman on Wednesday. The discovery came to light when locals alerted the authorities about the illegal excavation by treasure seekers in a rural area of the Golbasi district.Initial findings dated skeletons in Roman-era graves to 1,600 years ago. Archaeologists are now examining the findings.Along with skeletons, broken lachrymatory bottles, a staple of ancient Roman tombs and three intact spindle whorls, usually found in ancient graves of women, were discovered in the grave. Authorities told the media outlets that it was...

Jason Lewis wanted to finish what he started. His time in Congress was cut short, one of more than 20 casualties of the Trump midterms, when Democrats picked up a net total of over 40 seats in the House. One of his regrets: he didn’t fight back hard enough. That’s why he wrote “Party Animal: The Truth About President Trump, Power Politics and the Partisan Press.” “Yet no one defied these rules more than Donald Trump. And so did I. But not nearly enough. This book is an attempt to finish the job and tell the real side of the...

Liberal mega donor George Soros pledged that he has "no intention" of slowing down his donations to progressive district attorneys and dismissed the notion their policies were to blame for crime spikes nationwide. "Some politicians and pundits have tried to blame recent spikes in crime on the policies of reform-minded prosecutors," Soros wrote in an op-ed published Sunday in the Wall Street Journal. "The research I’ve seen says otherwise. The most rigorous academic study, analyzing data across 35 jurisdictions, shows no connection between the election of reform-minded prosecutors and local crime rates." Soros attempted to make the case that policies...

If you please give a simple YES reply if you think China will invade Taiwan by December 31, 2022, or a NO if you’re not so inclined. This is not a scientific poll and is for entertainment purposes only. Thanks for your participation.

What do we know about the new head of al-Qa’eda, Ayman al-Zawahiri? Not very much. We know he’s a former ‘emir’ of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad who spent three years in an Egyptian prison after his group assassinated the pro-western President Anwar Sadat. But there is one curious fact about him that it would be foolish for the West to ignore: his links with the KGB, and its successor, Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. It was Alexander Litvinenko, the rebel FSB officer assassinated with radioactive material in London in 2006, who named al-Zawahiri as ‘Moscow’s man in al-Qa’eda’. In...

First Lady Jill Biden defended her husband and his administration's performance in an interview published on Tuesday, saying she wished voters could see just how hard he was working on the problems facing the nation. President Joe Biden's personal standing has been battered by crisis after crisis, from the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan to inflation and high gas prices. This week it fell to 38 percent, according to Gallup, marking a new low.

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Xinhua News Agency is authorized on Tuesday to release the following notice: from 1200 (Beijing Time) August 4 to 1200 (Beijing Time) August 7, 2022, the Chinese People's Liberation Army will conduct important military exercises and training activities including live-fire drills in the following maritime areas and their air space bounded by lines joining: 25-15.26N 120-29.20E, 24-50.30N 120-05.45E, 25-04.32N 119-51.22E, 25-28.12N 120-14.30E 26-07.00N 121-57.00E, 25-30.00N 121-57.00E, 25-30.00N 121-28.00E, 26-07.00N 121-28.00E 25-34.00N 122-50.00E, 25-03.00N 122-50.00E, 25-03.00N 122-11.00E, 25-34.00N 122-11.00E 22-56.00N 122-40.00E, 23-38.00N 122-51.00E, 23-38.00N 123-23.00E, 22-56.00N 123-09.00E 21-14.00N 121-33.00E, 21-33.00N 121-18.00E, 21-07.00N 120-43.00E, 20-48.00N 120-59.00E 22-43.00N...

... While UNC did, in fact, offer Nikole Hannah-Jones a position, which she did, in fact, accept, there was a devil in the details. The job she accepted did not come with tenure; it came with a five-year contract with an option for tenure review. Whatever the interior machinations at the Hussman School, this was not an unreasonable offer. Hannah-Jones, quite simply, had not done the sort of academic work that tenure rewards. Journalism and academia are two very different animals. Nonetheless, she fomented a public campaign to be granted tenure, alleging racial discrimination in the process. To no one’s...

Over the weekend, Houston's Democrat Mayor Sylvester Turner held a gun buyback event in a church parking lot where residents could turn in their firearms and receive a gift card ranging from $50 to $200 with no questions asked. According to the Mayor's announcement, the funds provided to those turning in firearms came from the American Rescue Plan — aka American taxpayers — and the amount-per-firearm was $50.00 for a non-functioning firearm, $100.00 for a rifle or shotgun, $150.00 for a handgun, and $200.00 for a fully automatic rifle. Heralded as a success by the mayor and hyped up by...

The Biden administration filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Idaho for restricting access to abortion to patients who need lifesaving medical treatment, the first such Justice Department challenge since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer. Idaho's near-total abortion ban, which will take effect later this month, would make it nearly impossible, according to the Justice Department. for patients who need an abortion in emergency medical situations, such as an ectopic pregnancy or other complications, from receiving potentially lifesaving treatment.

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday issued a statement on Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi's visit to China's Taiwan region. Following is the full text of the statement: On 2 August, in disregard of China's strong opposition and serious representations, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited China's Taiwan region. This is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués. It has a severe impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and seriously infringes upon China's sovereignty and...

There are many ways to prepare and consume hot dogs, and I enjoy the entire spectrum. Give me a grilled dog, an air fried dog, a split or spiraled dog, a Costco dog, or a chili dog. I will eat them all. I do, however, have a special place in my heart and stomach for dirty water dogs. Dirty water dogs are those classic, iconic hot dogs you get from a cart on the street, usually in New York, though not exclusively. (My favorite dirty water dog cart growing up was run by a man named George who hung out...

Everyone, do you remember the YouTuber or blogger who was actively posting about the Clinton Foundation not too many years ago? I seem to remember they had an ally investigator who was distinguished in accounting, if I remember correctly. They often would go live on Sunday nights, and I think they kept a website with records. I used to listen faithfully, and now I’m having a devils time remembering who they were, and I can’t find it by searching Google. Thank you! Missing you all… Just being…

A man armed with an AR-15 fled from a California liquor store screaming 'He shot my arm off!' after the 80-year-old owner blasted him with his shotgun. Craig Cope opened fire after the 23-year-old armed intruder entered his shop in Norco early Sunday morning. As they suspects frantically ran away, Cope suffered a minor heart attack from the shock of the incident. Four suspects armed with guns and wearing facial coverings had planned to rob the store, Riverside County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. But employees say Cope, who has owned the store since 1967, spied the suspects...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used his self-granted emergency powers to decree that farmers must reduce nitrogen fertilizers by a minimum of 30% from current levels. Saskatchewan Minister of Agriculture David Marit expressed his concern with what he called "an arbitrary goal. Fertilizers have helped drive increases in Canadian crop yields, grain sales, and exports. Trudeau's decree will drive a lot of farmers out of business and worsen global hunger." The Prime Minister admitted "there may be some hardships. However, the quest to avert a climate disaster requires making the tough choices. Given the growing prevalence of obesity in Canada,...

The first generation-IV nuclear reactor design has been approved for certification by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). NuScale's small modular reactor design promises safe, clean energy at radically reduced cost, land use and installation time.The NRC released news last week that its staff have been directed to make a final rule certifying the NuScale reactor design for use in the United States. This is just the seventh design approved by the NRC since it was established in 1974, and the first of a coming generation of next-gen technologies designed to make nuclear power cheaper, easier and safer to implement...

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — African officials outlined their priorities for the upcoming U.N. climate summit, including a push to make heavily polluting rich nations compensate poor countries for the environmental damage done to them. How much funding Africa gets is the biggest factor for how prepared it will be for a hotter future, said Harsen Nyambe, the director of sustainable environment at the African Union Commission. “We recall the $100 billion that was promised has never been fulfilled and current assessments show that even that amount is not enough,” Nyambe said. He added the continent only received about 7.5% of...