Free Republic

A Florida man angry with his homeowners association set his unit on fire, causing an explosion that damaged other units and shot himself afterwards, authorities said. Marc Hermann, 53, was arrested Monday and is being held in the Seminole County jail on four arson charges. The fire broke out on Jan. 14 in a small apartment community in the Orlando suburb of Longwood, according to a police affidavit. A responding deputy found Hermann sitting on the ground draped in towels and bleeding, the documents said. When asked about his injuries, Hermann allegedly told authorities they were caused by a gun....

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formally approved a small modular reactor design from NuScale.The U.S. has just given the green light to its first-ever small modular nuclear design, a promising step forward for a power source that remains controversial among some climate advocates but is experiencing a popular renaissance.The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the design, which was published Thursday in the Federal Register, from NuScale, an Oregon-based reactor company. The publication of the design in the Register allows utilities to select this type of reactor when applying for a license to build a new nuclear facility. The design would...

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) is going to vote no on the decision to deny Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She announced her opposition to Kevin McCarthy’s push to remove three Democrats from committees on Tuesday. It’s all about consistency for her. She said it was wrong for Pelosi to remove Republicans from committees and it is wrong for McCarthy to do the same.“Two wrongs do not make a right. Speaker Pelosi took unprecedented actions last Congress to remove Reps. Greene and Gosar from their committees without proper due process. Speaker McCarthy is taking...

Will French nuclear power plants be able to operate for up to 80 years? What will be the cumulative effects of climate change on reactors? What will happen to future radioactive waste? On Tuesday, January 24, senators are expected to adopt the nuclear acceleration bill, which aims to facilitate the start of work on the sites where six new European Pressurized Reactors (EPRs) could be built. Concurrently, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has called for a “global and systemic” reflection on safety issues as part of the debate on the future of the energy system.The discussions need to cover...

All of the ongoing buzz around OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot continues to increase in volume as people discover new and more inventive ways to use it. But some of it is taking on an increasingly darker tone. As the bot continues to expand its language base, becoming more and more “humanlike” in its responses and accurate in the material it generates, it’s becoming clear that the technology may be reaching the point where it is outgrowing its makers. The most recent example turned up when the University of Pennsylvania tasked ChatGPT to take a final exam in a core course from...

The sky seems to be perpetually falling if you ask Democrats, journalists, and even some Republicans, and the current fiscal fight in the House seems to be no exception.Joe Biden and the Democrats are adamant that a clean debt ceiling increase has to happen or else the consequences will be dire. Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate, is only telling reporters “We will not default.” But in the House, Republicans are poised to force a lengthy battle over the debt ceiling and potential cuts to the federal budget.That puts House Speaker Kevin McCarthy somewhere he may not be...

It’s fascinating how Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling went from being one of the world’s most celebrated authors to being a litmus test for being considered a good or bad person in modern society. Any kind of friendly interaction with her means you’re truly an evil person deep down.Apparently, hard leftists on Twitter found that famed actor Mark Hamill is a hateful bigot despite years of open advocacy for some of the most leftist of positions. This was revealed to them after he did the unthinkable; he liked a Rowling tweet.The tweet that Hamill liked was a response by Rowling...

Edward Snowden, who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency in 2013, has been one of the most polarizing people in politics over the last decade. Ask a libertarian, and they’ll tell you he’s a hero for exposing a range of government surveillance programs, some of which pushed or violated constitutional boundaries. Ask someone of a more hawkish leaning and they’ll tell you he got Americans killed and is a traitor to his former country.I tend to be one of the squishes who falls somewhere in the middle. I think calling him a whistleblower is a stretch given...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is calling for the Justice Department to search through President Joe Biden's papers at the University of Delaware for any classified documents. He made his comments Monday on his "Verdict" podcast. Cruz's remarks came after classified documents dating back to Biden's term in the Senate were found at the president's Wilmington, Delaware, home. "If Biden's Senate documents include classified documents outside of classified settings — which is illegal — how many more classified documents are illegally in his Senate papers?" Cruz said. "During the 2020 campaign, there was a concerted media effort to try to get...

Last week, following two days of heavy fighting along the southern front in Ukraine, I concluded that the expected push from the south into the back of the Ukrainian forces at the Donetzk frontline, was finally happening. Ukraine - Russian Army Activates Southern Front I was wrong. I, and other analysts following the war, had been deceived by the sudden rush of news from that frontline. It said that Russian forces made progress in a large number of towns. But nearly as soon as I had published my peace that news died down. In the following days nothing happened but...

While Moscow is protected by one of the world's best air defense networks capable of shooting down ICBM's incoming MIRV warheads, satellites and other space-based weapons, this doesn't make it immune to sabotage attacks invoving drones and drone swarms. Air defense is one of the key modern military capabilities that provide adequate protection for ground units, helping them retain their combat capabilities. In recent decades, these systems have become increasingly networked and multilayered, giving the defenders a plethora of other options to shoot down hostile jets, missiles, drones etc. More recently modern militaries have started relying on swarms of well-coordinated...

Ticketmaster defended itself publicly for the first time since the concert promoter's highly publicized meltdown late last year during ticket sales for Taylor Swift's "Eras" tour.

Well before classified documents were found in President Biden’s Delaware home, its garage, and the Penn Biden Center, it’s fair to say a certain number of Democrats were uncomfortable with the idea of our octogenarian president seeking reelection. Now a narrative is building that if the classified documents found at these locations aren’t the leverage needed to convince him not to run — or even to resign at some point — his age and health very well could be a reason for him to do just that by the time campaigning begins in earnest next year. So, on the admittedly...

Could a “no-needle” COVID-19 vaccine protect against the virus better than traditional shots? A new inhaled COVID-19 vaccine created in Canada is “far more effective” at kickstarting the body’s “protective” immune response than shots, according to researchers at McMaster University in Ontario. This is based on the results of published, pre-clinical trials, which have paved the way for the vaccine to be studied in people. With the first phase of studies in people underway, the researchers have now received over $8 million in funding to support a larger Phase 2 study involving up to 500 people in the coming months,...

One person she stole from described the woman as nicely dressed but smelling “heavily of body odor,” according to Houston Police. Coleman’s crime spree started Nov. 15 when investigators said she approached Katie Otten, an employee at Galleria Houston, in the mall parking lot and demanded money, reported KTRK. The thief had her hand in her pocket, making Otten think Coleman was armed. Otten told the Houston station. “She forced her way into my vehicle and was like, ‘OK, take me to an ATM.'” The hijacker then forced the terrified woman to drive to multiple ATMs before making a final...

[Devotional] St. Timothy, Bishop, Martyr–R (III) January 24 St. Timothy, who is the best-known disciple of St. Paul, was bishop of Ephesus in Asia Minor. He was stoned to death by pagans in 97. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* TIMOTHY was a convert of St. Paul. He was born at Lystra in Asia Minor. His mother was a Jewess, but his father was a pagan; and though Timothy had read the Scriptures from his childhood, he had not been circumcised as a Jew. On the arrival of St. Paul at Lystra the youthful Timothy, with his mother and grandmother, eagerly embraced the Faith. Seven...

LONDON (AP) — The Church of England formally apologized Friday for its treatment of LGBTQ people, even as it said that same-sex couples still won’t be allowed to marry in its churches. The apology from the church’s bishops came in a report following five years of debate on the church’s position on sexuality. The report will be delivered to the church’s national assembly, the General Synod, which is meeting in London next month. “We want to apologize for the ways in which the Church of England has treated LGBTQI+ people – both those who worship in our churches and those...

Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., on Wednesday called for the White House to provide longer-range munitions to Ukraine, a press release revealed. Spartz, who was born in the northern Ukrainian city of Nosivka, also urged the Biden administration to be more "proactive" in providing security assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces roughly one year into the conflict. "The next six months will be critical to the brutal war in Ukraine and longer-range capabilities will be crucial for its success," she stated, asking for Guided Multiple Rocket Launch System or Army Tactical Missile System munitions to be sent over. "What these capabilities...

ROME – Anyone who’s ever taken an English literature course in an American high school likely knows the classic Edgar Allan Poe poem “The Bells,” which, among other turns of phrase, celebrates “the tintinnabulation that so musically wells .. from the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.”Those lines, however, were written in mid-19th century Baltimore. In Italy, where it’s basically impossible to find a square inch of space that isn’t with easy acoustical reach of a nearby church tower, yet where levels of religious practice are declining while cultural diversity expands, the constant tintinnabulation of the bells isn’t uniformly...

Des Plaines Councilwoman Alderman Carla Brookman slammed censor-happy leftists and hecklers during a recent city council meeting, proclaiming, “If you don’t allow discussion, that is a real problem in our society.”