Free Republic

Murders in the U.S. are becoming increasingly concentrated in densely populated urban centers in just a handful of counties, according to a newly released report.Some 73% of all murders in the U.S. took place in just 5% of counties while 52% of all counties reported no murders at all, according to a Crime Prevention Research Center study published this week and provided to Fox News Digital.“Murders in the United States occur in very small areas, and that concentration has increased since 2014,” the study stated. “The concentration in 2020 is now greater than in 2010.”The 52% of counties with no...

The White House is pretty shameless when it comes to giving us an honest answer about virtually anything they’re being asked these days. They’re definitely up a creek without a paddle when it comes to the classified document scandal.

Priscilla Villarreal's case will be heard again tomorrow at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. She has attracted some unlikely supporters.Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is most known for its work taking up controversial religious freedom cases. They famously defended Jack Phillips, a baker who was the subject of a high-profile suit after he declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. More recently, the organization argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of Lorie Smith, a website designer who preemptively challenged a Colorado law so that she would not have to design wedding...

"Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." Revelation, Chapter 15 1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God. 2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his...

Angela Courtney died weeks after her dad died suddenly at workAngela Courtney, from Huyton, was preparing to spend her last Christmas with her family after being diagnosed with terminal cancer when she was told the devastating news her dad Tony had died suddenly at work. Tony, who worked as an electrician, died of a heart attack on December 14, just three weeks before his daughter Angela, 47, lost her battle with pancreatic cancer on January 3. Angela, who worked as an air hostess for TUI, leaves behind her partner John and her six-year-old son Jonny. Tony, 70, leaves behind his...

Japanese Prime minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Monday (Jan 23) to take urgent steps to tackle the country's declining birth rate, saying it was "now or never" for one of the world's oldest societies. Japan has in recent years been trying to encourage its people to have more children with promises of cash bonuses and better benefits, but it remains one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child, according to surveys. Births plunged to a new record low last year, according to official estimates, dropping below 800,000 for the first time - a watershed moment...

Have legitimate concerns about the national debt? Well, you may just be one of those GOP “economic terrorists,” according to New York Times bloviator-in-chief Paul Krugman. Krugman’s Jan. 19 column spewed bile at GOP congressional members seeking spending concessions from President Joe Biden on the debt ceiling issue. “Don’t Try to Appease Economic Terrorists,” the headline read. Yes, Krugman actually used the word “terrorists.” [Emphasis added.] He sugar-coated the issue falsely claiming that raising the debt ceiling “simply allows the government to honor its promises, which include everything from paying interest on its debt to sending checks to Social Security...

Jamin Pugh, better known as Jay Briscoe to wrestling fans around the world, has passed away at the young age of 38. Ring of Honor owner Tony Khan took to social media Tuesday night to announce that Briscoe has died. There was no initial information on Briscoe’s cause of death. However, the WWE later acknowledged his passing in a car accident Tuesday evening. This is absolutely shocking news around the wrestling world. At the time of his death, Briscoe was one-half of the Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions with his brother, Mark. He was also a two-time ROH...

Has there ever been a “meeting that should have been an email” so glaring as Davos? Each year, the world’s masters of politics and finance ride carbon-spewing jets to the World Economic Forum in a lavish Swiss resort town bristling with armed guards, where they opine somberly about solving poverty and climate change. The very act of attendance exposes all the subsequent dialogue as hypocrisy. The event serves primarily as a rare point of unity for political right and left wings, both of whom agree that everyone there should be in jail. If all of these professional decision-makers were really...

Daniel DeLong lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where packing a chainsaw is often just part of mountain life. His young daughters are as familiar with the gear – ropes, helmets, wedges, mini sledgehammer – as they are with their own backpacks. Unfortunately, The New York Times reporter who interviewed him last week during the storms, was not. “That reporter omits the most important aspect of rural mountain living: preparation. And having neighbors who look out for each other,” he says.Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here. “We’re taking the...

A man in Kansas was reportedly shot and killed by his own dog during a hunting trip. According to local outlet KAKE News, the victim, whose identity has not been revealed by authorities, was sitting in the front seat of his pickup truck when the tragedy occurred on January 21st in Geuda Springs, Sumner County, Kansas.

A newly released essay by Douglas Allen, professor of economics at Simon Fraser University, examines why governments repeatedly used lockdowns during COVID-19 even after it became clear lockdowns were ineffective and “failed to isolate the virus and stop it from spreading.” Lockdowns were sustained with political support, suggests Allen, and lockdowns had “many winners.” He says for the “laptop class,” the lockdown was “the great vacation,” the “great excuse,” and the “great opportunity.” Lockdowns, said Allen, transferred wealth to this group. Meanwhile, he says, public health campaigns repeatedly told citizens that “death was ‘at the door,'” ‘now is not the...

Per mile traveled, our British friends are now paying more to charge their electric cars than to gas them up. Do stories come any more feel-good than this? No, no, they do not: Rapid charge points used by motorists topping up on long drives are now nearly £10 more expensive than filling up a car with petrol, the RAC revealed last week. But research from the AA published on Monday finds that recharging an electric car even using a slow public charger at peak times can be more expensive, per mile driven afterwards, than for refuelling a comparable petrol car.

ONCE AGAIN! According to emails uncovered from the “Laptop from Hell,” Hunter Biden sent his business partner Devon Archer a very detailed email on Ukraine on April 13, 2014 – just one week before Joe Biden visited Ukraine to meet with then-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. It appears Hunter Biden was emailing Devon Archer information he received from a briefing from his father Joe Biden or directly from top-secret documents. Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters on Tuesday that he would be shocked if there was anything sinister going on with Biden. “I’ve known President Biden for a long time – I...

Mayor Eric Adams strode into Cipriani Wall Street, packed with the city’s civic and business elite, to tout a highly ambitious, thinly sketched plan to reinvigorate the city’s commercial districts. “We’re going to show the country why we are New York, and this new New York conversation is going to show how together we get all cylinders operating on the same engine to regain our economy, regain our city, and we leave no one behind,” he said. That plan would include more bus lanes, electric-vehicle charging stations, and converting official buildings to residential use. In recent weeks, he announced an...

Mythbusting: “African Catholicism is a Vatican II Success Story”Bishop Gregory Ochiagha, of Orlu Diocese in Nigeria, offering pontifical Mass in the old riteA recent episode of “Word on Fire” responds to Ross Douthat’s two NYT pieces on Vatican II and its failure with two arguments:Argument #1: To blame the collapse of Catholicism in the West on Vatican II is a “post hoc propter hoc” fallacy.Argument #2: The growth of the Church in Africa since Vatican II is entirely thanks to The Council.It hardly requires pointing out that the second argument commits the same fallacy.Nevertheless, this oft-repeated claim about Africa really...

An Atlanta district attorney has said "decisions are imminent" on whether to charge Donald Trump with criminal offences over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state...The probe initially focussed on a tape recording of Trump pressuring Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to conjure nearly 12,000 votes out of thin air in order to overturn Joe Biden's win.

A wildlife refuge in Arkansas said an African serval cat on the loose in Missouri for at least six months has been safely captured on a farm and will have a new home at the refuge. Officials said the serval was likely an exotic pet that escaped or was abandoned by its owner. The cats are common as exotic pets and are used to breed Savannah cats, a hybrid of a serval and a domestic feline.

The decades-long quest to develop a HIV vaccine has been dealt another major blow, with the 'last true candidate in development' failing to prevent infections any better than a placebo in late-stage clinical trials. The multinational Mosaico study, which began in 2019 and involved more than 3,900 volunteers, was investigating a four-shot HIV vaccine for cisgender men and transgender people who have sex with cisgender men and/or transgender people. As the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) reported last week, the trial was stopped after a planned data review by the study's independent data and safety monitoring...

Insulin is a hormone that plays a critical role in the regulation of glucose (sugar) levels in the blood. It is produced by the pancreas and helps the body use glucose for energy. In individuals with diabetes, the body is either not producing enough insulin or is unable to use it effectively, leading to high blood sugar levels. Researchers at WEHI have solved a century-old question in diabetes research by discovering that a molecule other than insulin can have the same effect. This provides valuable information for the future creation of an oral insulin pill. Researchers at the Walter and...