Free Republic

“How much of yourself had to be quieted while you were in the White House?” Hoda Kotb asked Michelle Obama on a book tour stop in Philadelphia. “So much of it,” the former first lady answers. “It was no accident that our children had to show up right in the world. They carried a burden of making sure they weren’t messy,” Mrs. Obama shares in an exclusive audio clip shared with ESSENCE of her new Audible podcast, which launched Tuesday. “It wouldn’t have been laughed off,” she continues. “It wouldn’t have been [dismissed as] just ‘oh it’s youthful’ whatever. It...

A deadly rampage at a Jehovah's Witnesses hall in Hamburg has put scrutiny on how the gunman was in legal possession of a semi-automatic pistol despite Germany's tightened gun laws and a prior warning about his suspicious behaviour. The 35-year-old man, whose name was given as Philipp F in accordance with German privacy laws, killed six people and then himself when he opened fire on Thursday (Mar 9) evening. The exact motives were still unknown, but officials said the gunman had previously expressed his hatred for Jehovah's Witnesses. He had once been a member of their community and had grown...

The FBI arrested Sarah Beth Clendaniel of Catonsville and Brandon Russell of Orlando, Florida, last month. Federal prosecutors allege that the pair were planning to destroy five energy facilities in Norrisville, Reisterstown, Perry Hall and other parts of the Baltimore area. Clendaniel, 34, and Russell, 27, plotted to shoot up and damage the substations because they thought the attacks would “completely destroy this whole city [of Baltimore]” and cause a “cascading failure costing billions of dollars,” according to an FBI affidavit. The two were indicted Feb. 14 of a single count of conspiring to destroy an energy facility, after being...

Yet another of CNBC host Jim Cramer’s hot stock market takes just fell harder than President Joe Biden stumbling up the steps of Air Force One. Cramer listed his top ten biggest stock “winners of 2023” during the Feb. 8 edition of CNBC’s Mad Money. In the ninth spot for Cramer was Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company, SVB Financial Group. Cramer characterized the institution as a “merchant bank with a deposit base that Wall Street has mistakenly been concerned about.” In Cramer’s ludicrous view, the stock was a good buy because “being a banker to these immense pools of capital...

That’s nothing compared to what the lieutenant governor has been doing. As Tennessee Republicans were busy also banning gender-affirming care for minors, some choice Instagram comments from Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally became public. McNally, 79, has supported the state GOP’s anti-trans efforts and once sponsored legislation banning same-sex marriage. He also appears not to understand that Instagram comments can be seen by everyone, because he has been liking the (mostly) nudes of a 20-year-old user named Franklyn McClur from his official account. On his verified Instagram page, McNally has been liberally using the heart and fire emojis and writing about...

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — When he looked to the future, Grayson Hart always saw a college degree. He was a good student at a good high school. He wanted to be an actor, or maybe a teacher. Growing up, he believed college was the only route to a good job, stability and a happy life. The pandemic changed his mind. A year after high school, Hart is directing a youth theater program in Jackson, Tennessee. He got into every college he applied to but turned them all down. Cost was a big factor, but a year of remote learning also...

Also titled: "Is high school theater the next battleground in the culture war?" Is high school theater the next battleground in the culture war? In Florida, Indiana, Kansas and Pennsylvania plays and musicals have been challenged or canceled recently. Parents or school officials have complained that the content isn't family friendly. One such case is a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Cardinal High School in Middlefield, Ohio. But there, the story took a different turn. Spelling Bee is a musical that debuted on Broadway in 2005, ran for nearly three years and won two Tony...

Jerry Samuels, who as “Napoleon XIV” wrote and recorded one of pop music’s most unusual hit singles, 1966’s “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!,” died today (March 10, 2023). Samuels, 84, had operated a Philadelphia-based talent agency for the past four decades. News of his passing was shared by his wife, Bobbie Samuels, on her Facebook page. “My friends,” she wrote, “Jerry died early this morning. He was my rock and the greatest love of my life. He taught me to be strong.” Samuels, born May 3, 1938, was a recording engineer in New York City. He came up...

A man who shot dead seven people in Germany was visited by police last month after a tip-off raised concerns about his mental health. He co-operated with officers and there were not enough grounds to take away his gun at the time, police said. The 35-year-old suspect, named only as Philipp F, had a licence to own the weapon for sporting purposes. The country is preparing a new law involving tighter curbs on gun ownership, the interior minister said. Seven people, including an unborn baby, were killed in Thursday's attack which unfolded at a Jehovah's Witness meeting hall in the...

New recommendations favor universal access to screeningA photo of a blue rubber gloved hand holding a test tube of blood labeled for testing for Hepatitis B All adults should be tested for a hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection at least once in their lifetime, and a wider range should get periodic retesting, according to new CDC recommendations. The report recommended moving from a risk-based approach to a universal approach in order to increase awareness of infection and reduce chronic disease and premature death. "Overall, risk-based testing has been insufficient to identify persons with HBV infection in the United States and...

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) said Friday on “CNN This Morning” that pharmacies not selling abortion drugs “is so abhorrent at every level.” Hochul said, “Pharmacies have become the new battleground ever since women’s rights were stripped in the overturning Roe v. Wade last June. So we want to make sure we send a preemptive message that despite the threats that you are seeing receiving from Republican attorneys general that here in New York, these rights are protected. We will protect them every inch of the way. If they try to suspend the distribution of this important drug to women in...

An employee was attacked recently when he tried to stop two alleged shoplifters at a store in a Bronx neighborhood. The worker at the Allerton Foodtown has since returned to work. According to News 12, he confronted a man and woman, who tried to exit the store carrying food they did not purchase, the outlet reported Thursday. The pair is accused of punching the man, knocking him to the floor.

Jane Fonda caused national outrage after she suggested that one way to deal with pro-lifers was to murder them. Fonda delivered that stunning statement on The View saying she’s “thought of murder” when asked how she recommends to fight for abortion rights beyond “marching and protesting.”

A Florida man is facing multiple charges after police say he opened fire on his roommates after one was naked in his teenage daughter’s room. Dayne Victor Miller, 44, was arrested at his home early Wednesday after he called police and admitted to shooting at his two adult roommates through a closed bedroom door, the Cape Coral police said in a statement. According to the official report, Miller told dispatchers that he fired at the pair after learning one of them was naked in his teenage daughter’s room.

If you looked at the performance of the financial sector over the past week or two you’d be excused for feeling a bit of panic. The deterioration in share prices slowly accelerated into a crushing run on two banks in two days. Given the way markets have been fluctuating over the past 18 months and the pressure the Fed has been putting on the market, we can understand how some people might jump to conclusions and think the financial system is finally cracking under the pressure of rate hikes and inflation. We’re going to dive into this deeper, but lets...

The collapse of a small bank in California on Friday set off a wave of concern over the health of the banking sector, amplifying fears for the broader economy and sending global stock markets lower. Silicon Valley Bank, a prominent bank for start-ups in Santa Clara, Calif., was put under the control of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation early Friday. The decision to close the bank followed whipsaw trading on Thursday that continued into Friday, after SVB said that it needed to take immediate steps to shore up its finances amid a darkening environment for start-ups and other tech companies.

Rep. Jim Banks said Biden administration 'wants to purge conservative service members from the military'Thousands of military service members could still be discharged because they didn't apply for a COVID-19 vaccination exemption — even though the U.S. Department of Defense rescinded its mandate in January. Members of the House Armed Services Committee blasted the DOD's handling of its mandate as 69,000 out of 2 million active service members never received a vaccine, according to data sent to Congress members last week. Located in Arlington, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the Pentagon has served as the epicenter...

Six suspects between the ages of 11 and 14 are now in custody in connection with the brutal beating of a woman on a Philadelphia street that left the victim unconscious late last month, police told WPVI-TV. Police told the station five of the six suspects in custody surrendered, while the sixth suspect — a 14-year-old female — was arrested at her home. There are eight suspects total. Investigators added to WPVI that there's a warrant for another 14-year-old female and authorities are still working to identify a juvenile male suspect. What's the background? The department said several people in...

An excerpt from a notorious “Access Hollywood” tape in which former President Donald Trump seems to brag about sexually assaulting women will be allowed into evidence at his upcoming trial in the alleged rape of writer E. Jean Carroll. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said Trump’s statements on the 2005 recording — in which he described moving on a woman “like a b–ch” — could lead a jury to infer that Trump has assaulted or attempted to assault women in the past. “In this case, a jury reasonably could find, even from the Access Hollywood tape alone, that...

SNIP How common are murder-suicides? Though shocking, murder-suicides are far from rare: some 1,200 Americans die in such incidents each year, according to research by the nonprofit Violence Policy Center. Although there is no agency comprehensively tracking the toll of murder-suicides in the U.S., what data there is indicates that they are on the rise. According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), 2022 saw the highest number of murder-suicides using firearms on record. Some 670 occurred last year, up from 594 in 2021 and 570 the year before. As of March 9, there have have been 134 murder-suicide incidents involving...