Free Republic

The top job at Oregon State Police has gone to Casey Codding, one of two state police troopers who fatally shot a leader of the armed Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation in January 2016, Gov. Tina Kotek announced Monday. Codding, a 27-year veteran of Oregon State Police, shot Robert ‘LaVoy’ Finicum in the back after Finicum sped his truck toward a roadblock of state SWAT police and FBI agents. State police withheld the names of the two officers who fired at Finicum, but a witness let Codding’s name slip during subsequent court hearings about the shooting. Now superintendent, Codding started...

The Russian ruble struck its weakest mark since late April on Tuesday, hurt by lower foreign currency revenue inflows from hydrocarbon exports and a continued recovery in imports as companies build new supply chains. -snip- The Russian government has been selling 8.9 billion rubles ($120.8 million) of foreign currency per day to plug a budget deficit that has soared because of lower oil and gas revenues. Expectations for weaker energy revenue were also weighing on the Russian currency after the central bank cut its Urals oil price forecast on Friday. The bank dropped its projected average price for the rest...

The findings of the investigation into the terrorist attack at the Shuafat checkpoint in which Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed was murdered yesterday (Monday) were released Tuesday evening. According to the investigation, Sgt. Sawaed boarded a bus at the checkpoint together with a civilian security guard to check the identity cards of the passengers. The attacker, a 13-year-old boy, was sitting at the back of the bus when he suddenly stood up and stabbed Sawaed in the head. The security guard drew his weapon and fired one shot, which struck Sawaed in an artery in his thigh, Kan News reported. Security...

The Trump administration has finalized a roll back of Obama-era regulations for oil trains. The rules, which date back to 2015, required railroads carrying crude oil or other flammable liquids to outfit their trains with more responsive electronic braking systems. The rules came in response to concerns about explosions and spills from mile-long trains of crude and ethanol. In the Northwest, those trains move along the Columbia River and through cities to coastal refineries. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which has been working on rescinding the rules since last December, said in statement this week that its analysis showed the...

Dubbed the “dirtiest player” in the NFL over his 10-year career with three teams, Conrad Dobler, 72, died Monday in Pueblo, Colorado. After a standout career playing for the University of Wyoming from 1969-71, Dobler was a fifth-round pick by the St. Louis Cardinals. He started all but four of the 129 games he played over a decade in the NFL for the Cardinals, New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills, and was named to three Pro Bowls. He also earned a reputation of doing whatever it took to protect his quarterback – whether it was allowed within the rules or...

For some reason, the left loves a good rousing round of glorifying childlessness and living a life of pure self-absorption. Interestingly, the older a woman on the left gets, the more outward she is about her love of not having any children. Chelsea Handler, who I’m told is a comedian, decided to put out a short skit about her childless life of wonder and ease. The 47-year-old leftist paired up with The Daily Show to show off how she wakes up lazily in the morning, gets high and masturbates (she even flashes her vibrator for good measure), then sleeps for...

...In Rome in C.E. 270, Valentine enraged the emperor Claudius II,* who had issued an edict forbidding marriage. Claudius felt that married men made poor soldiers, because they would not want to leave their families for battle. The empire needed soldiers, so Claudius abolished marriage. Valentine, bishop of Interamna, invited young couples to come to him in secret, where he joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius learned of this “friend of lovers,” and had the bishop brought to the palace. The emperor, impressed with the young priest’s dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the roman gods,...

The LG 5.8 cubic foot Capacity Top Load Washer sat in the laundry room, brand new. Maybe it was my imagination, but it looked insouciant. Dad said it was the latest and greatest in laundering technology. Supposedly, some sort of internal sensor system (having something to do with a computer) fine-tuned water levels depending on clothing weight. Or something. I can't remember exactly what he—or was it the moving guy?—said. I did notice the washing machine had several preset wash cycles—Allergiene, Sanitary, Bright Whites, Towels, Heavy Duty, Bedding, and more. You could select them with a shiny, space-age-looking chrome dial....

A Russian spy at the British embassy in Berlin was caught by a sting operation, the OId Bailey has heard. Briton David Ballantyne Smith, 58, was working as a security guard when he passed secret information to Russian authorities. The court heard how two fake Russian operatives working undercover helped lead to his arrest in August 2021. Prosecutors claim Smith held strong anti-UK views and was paid for information. ... Items seized from his flat included travel documents and sheets of blank embassy headed paper. Photographs taken at that address showed a Russian Federation flag, a Soviet military hat, a...

Four Russian aircraft were detected and intercepted over the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Monday in what NORAD called a "routine" incident. Two F-16 fighter jets were dispatched by NORAD to intercept the Russian aircraft, which included a TU-95 BEARH-H and SU-35 fighter jet. NORAD also sent out two F-35A fighters, an E-3 Sentry, and two KC-135 Stratotankers to assist. "Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative,"...

Does this website still exist? I tried to log on but it still is loading for my email to validate my address and be signed on. I'm trying to reach a poster there who wrote a letter to my mother when my sister died, quite a while ago actually. But cannot get into the website without joining and it never finishes the process.

The European Council met in Brussels on February 9 for a one day summit, which saw President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine make his first appearance in person at an EU meeting since February 2022.It was an occasion which highlighted increasing strains in the bloc, within countries and between them, bringing the vaunted values of the EU once more into question. It was a meeting which highlighted the deepening divisions in the West over Ukraine, the economic fallout of the war policy, and of the vision of EU itself as the guarantor of a uniform, supranational managerial state.This summit was convened...

BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) - One person died after a train crashed on Monday in Blount County, according to Blount County Sheriff’s Office Spokeswoman Marian O’Briant. Officials were not able to confirm much information, but O’Briant said she would have more information on Tuesday. This is a developing story.

Research Confirms the Stereotype: Liberals Confuse Emotion With Rationality by Selwyn Duke February 9, 2023 Research Confirms the Stereotype: Liberals Confuse Emotion With Rationality Liberals are not only more likely than conservatives to suppose that “emotion is a feature of rationality,” a series of three studies has shown, but also apparently believe it should be. In fact, they consider emotions more “functional” (utilitarian, essentially) than conservatives do despite reporting less emotional well-being. The research was published in the journal Motivation and Emotion. Defining “functional” as “beneficial for individuals for adapting to the environment or attaining their goals,” the authors write...

Fatah praises child killer who murdered 2 brothers aged 6 and 8 and a young man aged 19 for “continuing the path” of other terrorists. Fatah in the Deheisheh refugee camp “eulogized” child killer “through the loudspeakers of the camp’s mosques” The PA, Fatah, the PFLP terror organization, and the PA-funded Prisoners’ Club call child killer a “Martyr"[sic].The murdered children Yaakov Yisrael Paley and Asher Menachem Paley

A Florida man was arrested Monday and charged with assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill after allegedly throwing an alligator through a fast-food chain’s drive-thru window in October. This Oct. 12, 2015 photo provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shows an alligator in the kitchen of a Wendy's Restaurant in Loxahatchee, Fla. Joshua James, 24, threw a 3.5 foot alligator through a Palm Beach County Wendy’s drive-thru window nearly four months ago, according to Florida Fish Wildlife and Conservation officials. He was also charged with illegally possessing an alligator and petty theft. A report...

President Joe Biden is a distant second to 'don't know' in an open-ended poll question that asks Democrats who they want to lead their party. Biden, who is chief of the party in addition to running the country for the past two years, was picked by just 12 per cent of respondents in a new AP-NORC poll when asked who Democrats want to lead. That puts him ahead of new leaders bursting onto the scene, as well as longtime legislators, but is not a vote of confidence as he intends to launch a presidential reelection campaign soon.

Police are investigating a violent video from Spencerport that shows an altercation between two classmates. According to the Spencerport Central School District, a ninth-grade student was seeking out a student from Cosgrove Middle School during dismissal. In the video, the older student approached the younger student and slammed him to the ground. The student that was slammed to the ground, according to the district, was evaluated by a medical practitioner after the incident occurred and will be providing support for the student. The school district has shared the video with the Ogden Police Department, which is investigating the incident. The...

President Biden's brother was hired to engage in secret negotiations with the Saudi government on behalf of a US construction company because of his relationship with the then vice president, legal documents claim. Jim Biden was selected because Saudi Arabia 'would not dare stiff the brother of the Vice-President who would be instrumental to the deal,' bombshell affidavits obtained by DailyMail.com allege. Joe's younger brother Jim, 73, was at the center of a $140million settlement negotiation between Hill International and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the paramilitary Wagner Group that has fought alongside the Russian military in the war in Ukraine, admitted that the "meat grinder" battle for Bakhmut is far from over. -snip- Prigozhin, a Russian businessman, told The Moscow Times, an independent newspaper based in Amsterdam, that his troops "will not be celebrating in the near future" as the battle pushes on. He said Ukraine's military has become more active in the city, pulling in "more and more new reserves" to fight to prevent a Russian breakthrough. Up to 500 new fighters have become engaged in Bakhmut each...