Free Republic

Groups opposed to Maine's new law expanding abortion access won't attempt to nullify the statute through a so-called People's Veto referendum. Republican Rep. Laurel Libby, leader of the Speak Up for LIFE group, said Wednesday that allies have decided to focus their resources on electing candidates who are opposed to abortions instead of collecting signatures and running a referendum campaign. “At the end of the day, we want to put our effort into the most effective place possible,” Libby, a Republican from Auburn, told The Associated Press. That means flipping legislative seats, she said, particularly in the Maine House.

The aid request is the first by the president since Republicans took over the House in January, and some party leaders have expressed opposition to spending more to help Ukraine beat back Russian forces.President Biden asked Congress on Thursday for another $24 billion to help Ukraine and other countries affected by Russia’s invasion, the first time lawmakers have been asked to increase financing for the war effort since Republicans took over the House in January.The request will test whether the expansive American effort to bolster Ukraine retains the bipartisan support it has enjoyed in Washington since Russian forces crossed the...

“Craig Robertson, come out with your hands up! This is the FBI.” That’s what residents of a quaint, suburban neighborhood pushed up against Provo Canyon near the BYU campus say they woke up to in the early morning hours Wednesday. “It sounded like it was coming from inside my house,” said one neighbor, who asked not to be identified. What followed was a barrage of gunshots. Moments later, authorities carried the overweight, elderly man out of his house, placed him on the sidewalk and tried, unsuccessfully, to render first aid, according to the witness. Several neighbors said his body remained...

SEQUIM — Jesse Marunde, who long aspired to be the world’s strongest man, died suddenly this week at the age of 27. Mr. Marunde, who was born in Glennallan, Alaska, but raised in Sequim, collapsed and died Wednesday night while working out at his gym in Sequim. Chuck Marunde said his son died of a heart attack. Autopsy results will be known in about a month. Mr. Marunde made an international splash in the weightlifting world with a second-place finish in the World’s Strongest Man competition in China in 2005. He won a local strongman event this spring in...

The average monthly rent in Manhattan rose to a record $5,588 in the month of July as inflation and higher interest rates push rental prices to new record levels, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. Manhattan’s new average monthly rent of $5,588 is up more than 9 percent from last year, when rent was $5,113, according to the report. The median rental price also reached a new high of nearly $4,400, up more than 6 percent from last year, marking the fourth time in five months Manhattan has hit a record. The report found the average...

As soon as President Joe Biden publicly embraced “Bidenomics,” CNN began doing everything it could to slip the term into the minds of viewers like a Jedi mind trick to blind people to the economic woes his policies have created. On June 17th, 2023, President Biden used the term “Bidenomics” in a speech at a Philadelphia rally and in his social media posts to describe his policies. Later that month, The Washington Post turned into a public relations firm for Biden when it published a propaganda piece about how the president and his advisers “have long been frustrated that the...

The owner of a Kia shot an accused car thief several times during a confrontation at a Texas apartment complex, San Antonio police told news outlets. Officers responded to a 911 call from an apartment complex on the city’s northeast side at about 4 a.m. Aug. 10, police told KENS. A resident spotted a man trying to break into his Kia, police told the station. The resident went outside, along with his girlfriend, to confront him, police told the outlet. The accused thief ordered the man to bring him his car keys, which he had left in his apartment, police...

Explanation: On mission sol 872 (Earth date August 3) Ingenuity snapped this sharp image on its 54th flight above the surface of the Red Planet. During the flight the Mars Helicopter hovered about 5 meters, or just over 16 feet, above the Jezero crater floor. Tips of Ingenuity's landing legs peek over the left and right edges in the camera's field of view. Tracks visible near the upper right corner lead to the Perseverance Mars Rover, seen looking on from a distance at the top right edge of the frame. Planned as a brief "pop-up" flight, Ingenuity's 54th flight lasted...

Senator Joe Manchin, the prominent Democrat from West Virginia, has revealed that he is “seriously” contemplating a switch to independent status. This comes amid growing concerns about the image of the Democratic Party in Washington and has the potential to reshape the balance of power in the Senate. Manchin, in a conversation with West Virginia Metro News’ “Talkline” host Hoppy Kercheval, expressed his dissatisfaction with the national branding of both major parties. He stated, “I have to have peace of mind, basically. The brand has become so bad, the ‘D’ brand and ‘R’ brand.” He went on to clarify that...

Heaps of trash, clothing, and items such as birth control pills are scattered across the southern border, John Rourke of Blue Line Moving discovered as he went to the Southern border ahead of his annual cleanup, documenting his findings along the way. Rourke, owner of Blue Line Moving, previously spoke to Breitbart News at the Turning Point Action summit in July, detailing his annual border cleanup, as he heads to the southern border every year on September 11 to clean up trash. “So I have the great American cleanup where I go to border towns, and I pick up trash...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sidestepped a swipe at Hunter Biden’s wonky business dealings, bemoaning instead a revolving door of “influence peddlers” in Washington, DC. The pivot came Wednesday after CNN’s Jake Tapper — who named-dropped Hunter — asked Warren for her thoughts about those near to President Joe Biden “making tens of millions of dollars because of their closeness to him.” Rather than blasting the first son outright, Warren lamented a DC culture of currying favors and cashing in on government gigs.

Kathy Griffin shared an image of Jack Smith holding up Trump's severed head, with the caption "finally." The image is a reference to one Griffin posted in May 2017, in which she was depicted holding the severed head of President Donald Trump. She was banned on Twitter over the image, though was later reinstated after Elon Musk took over the platform, renaming it X. (snip) The criticism against Griffin came from both right and left. Griffin claimed that it was a joke, but she lost her spokeperson deal with Squatty Potty and lost her appearance on CNN's annual New Year's...

In 2001, Fargo, North Dakota, used the vehicle of zoning ordinances to prevent people from selling guns and/or ammunition from their homes. The ordinance was mostly ignored until some residents renewed their Federal Firearms Licence (FFL) in 2020. Fargo considered changing the ordinance but did not do so. In 2021, North Dakota strengthened its preemption statute to this language: 1. A political subdivision, including home rule cities or counties, may not enact a zoning ordinance or any other ordinance relating to the purchase, sale, ownership, possession,transfer of ownership, registration, or licensure of firearms and ammunition which is more restrictive than...

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has sparked outrage after suggesting that criticisms thrown at him could be a form of gender-based violence. "Everything they say to me, isn't that gender-based violence? Or is gender only female?" he asked reporters on Wednesday, according to AP News.

Comedian Marlon Wayans is defending comedy, free speech, and laughter. Jalen Rose wrote for the New York Post detailing his “Renaissance Man” interview and the “comedic genius” of Wayans. Wayans told him, “I’m raised to tell jokes and I will never fear telling my jokes.” “Most of the people on social media with these [negative] opinions aren’t even real people …They’re trying to strip us of the very thing that makes our country special: the freedom of speech,” he added. Rose addressed the angry responses Wayans received after joking about a recent brawl on an Alabama dock. He posted a...

Police have been accused of heavy handedness after an autistic teenage girl was arrested by seven officers after saying 'a female officer looked like her lesbian nana'. The 16-year-old, who also suffers from scoliosis, had been driven to her home in Leeds, West Yorkshire, by officers after midnight when she allegedly made the comment. She was later dragged away screaming in the early hours of Monday morning having been served a 'homophobic public order offence'. The incident was recorded by the girl's mother who uploaded the footage to TikTok. The mother posted: 'This is what police do when dealing with...

Cassowary (Casuarius) Cassowaries are the only members of the family Casuariidae and belong to the order Casuariiformes, which also includes the emu. Three species (counted by some experts as six), each with several races, live in habitats that span parts of Australia and New Guinea. The cassowary has been known to kill human beings with slashing blows of its feet, as the innermost of its three toes bears a long daggerlike nail.

The United States and Iran have reached an agreement to win the freedom of five imprisoned Americans in exchange for several jailed Iranians and the unfreezing of about $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue, according to several people familiar with the deal. As a first step in the agreement, which comes after more than two years of quiet negotiations, Iran has released into house arrest five Iranian American dual citizens, according to the lawyer for one of the prisoners. The prisoners are Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz, who had all been imprisoned on unsubstantiated charges of spying, as...

A snake eating its own tail has been a symbol of infinity since ancient times. But seeing an illustration of this concept is nothing like witnessing the real-life horror. On rare occasions, mostly cataloged in captivity, a snake really can swallow its own tail. As the reptile guzzles back more and more of its body, the emblem of eternity quickly becomes a spiral of death. If the snake's owner does not intervene, its digestive fluids may start breaking down its own body. Some captive snakes that make a habit of eating themselves show damage on their scales from their acidic...

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