Free Republic

Convicted felon who shot dead newlyweds in sports bar admits he killed them for less than $150 The convicted felon who was detained in connection to the shooting deaths of Wisconsin newlyweds inside a sports bar has admitted to killing them to rob them of a paltry sum — taking off with less than $150 from the cash drawer, police said. Thomas Routt Jr., 57, was charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the Feb. 1 shooting deaths of Gina Weingart, 37, and her husband, Emerson Weingart, 33, Elkhorn police said Friday. The parolee with a long rap...

Yes! I agree with you Crooked Joe!

Kindergarteners in rural West Virginia must endure a three hour commute to and from school each day, leaving the five year-olds too exhausted to play. Among them is Kolbie Hale, 5, who gets up at 5am each weekday and leaves her home in Waiteville, West Virginia, each day at 5.45am- like clockwork. Her parents drive her to the home of her grandmother Tammy Hale, a few miles down the road. There, she she waits for the 6.25am bus to Mountain View Elementary and Middle School, with the trip taking 90 minutes. She arrives in time to recite the pledge of...

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25:31–32What an image to ponder! Try to imagine this scene. At one definitive moment in the future, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, now also in human form as the “Son of Man,” will return to earth in glory surrounded...

Abraham Lincoln topped the list of U.S. presidents while Donald Trump was ranked last, according to the results of the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project expert survey released this weekend. The purpose of the survey, which was previously conducted in 2015 and 2018, was to "create a ranking of presidential greatness that covered all presidents from George Washington to Joe Biden," according to the co-directors of the Presidential Greatness Project, University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus and Coastal Carolina University political science professor Justin Vaughn.

Mr. Biden’s signature accomplishment, according to the historians, was evicting Donald J. Trump from the Oval Office.President Biden has not had a lot of fun perusing polls lately. He has a lower approval rating than every president going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower at this stage of their tenures, and he trails former President Donald J. Trump in a fall rematch. But Mr. Biden can take solace from one survey in which he is way out in front of Mr. Trump.A new poll of historians coming out on Presidents’ Day weekend ranks Mr. Biden as the 14th-best president in American...

Imagine if you could drive at night with your high beams on all the time, bathing the road ahead in bright light but without ever blinding other drivers. In Europe and Asia, many cars offer adaptive driving beam headlights that can do this. ADB is a lighting technology that has been available for many years in other parts of the world including Europe, China and Canada, but not in the United States. It can actually shape the light coming from headlights rather than scattering it all over the road. If there’s a car coming in the other direction, or one...

Chelsea Clinton claimed she left the Baptist Church at the age of six due to its stance on abortion, according to a recent interview. During an fundraising event for her mother, Hillary, Chelsea made an attempt to engage with evangelical voters who have doubts about her mother’s so-called religious faith Chelsea recalled how she felt troubled when teachers discussed the immorality of abortion in Sunday school. “I find it quite insulting sometimes when people say to my mom, my dad or me . . . that they question our faith,’ Chelsea said. “I was raised in a Methodist church and...

The West Coast is gearing up for yet another round of storms, poised to bring waves of rain and significant snowfall in the coming days. The Sierra region anticipates a substantial snowfall of 6-10 feet. The Sacramento Valley faces the potential threat of severe weather, including the rare occurrence of a tornado, as warm, moist air clashes with cooler air aloft. Southern California, particularly Los Angeles and San Francisco, is expected to bear the brunt of this weather onslaught, with projections of 2 inches of rain in LA and 1.5 inches in San Francisco over the next three days. This...

A presidential candidate’s running mate is usually chosen to “balance” the ticket to shore up electoral weaknesses. But in former President Donald Trump’s case, his vice presidential pick is likely to receive added scrutiny due to his multitude of legal problems. That’s why this month I&I/TIPP asked U.S. voters: Who should Trump’s vice presidential running mate be? To find out who’s potentially strongest as a vice presidential candidate, I&I/TIPP’s national online poll, taken by 587 registered Republican primary voters from Jan. 31-Feb. 2, asked two questions: “If Trump wins the Republican nomination, who would be your top choice for his...

In head-to-head contests, Cruz holds comfortable leads over both Allred (46% to 32%) and Gutierrez (45% to 31%) in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups early in the election year . . . In a head-to-head match-up between the current and former presidents, Trump bests Biden 48% to 41%, with 7% opting for “someone else” and 4% undecided . . . Trump led with 45%, followed by Biden (36%), activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (6%), academic and author Cornel West (3%), and former Green Party candidate Jill Stein (2%). In the hypothetical multi-candidate match-up, 8% were undecided.

If you want any idea of the identity of the deceased suspect in the murder of two Burnsville police officers and a paramedic yesterday, you have to turn to Alpha News (via X). According to law enforcement, the suspect killed himself. According to Alpha, his name is Shannon Cortez Gooden.Alpha’s story on the murder of the three is here. The suspect is obviously known to law enforcement. Why hasn’t he been identified? Your guess is as good as mine. The Star Tribune has the bylines of five reporters (count ’em) on its current story, but nothing on the identity of...

Daniel Williams, come pick up your junk.For more than six months, a parade of unsolicited Amazon packages — large and small, cheap and expensive, free or fraudulently billed — have arrived at John DeFiore’s rural Woodside home, addressed to a mysterious Mr. Williams.“It’s like the Twilight Zone,” said DeFiore, 61, an electrical engineer who is meticulous about his online shopping habits and credit card use.“We don’t want any of this stuff,” he said. “It’s not ours. We have everything we need.”Online shopping offers near-infinite choice and convenience. But it has also created a global gathering place for digital crooks, fraudsters...

There's a swamp that does NOT want to be drained.Guys, you've gotta check out this AP headline and just ponder on what it means for a second.[embedded X comment]As President, as the executive, Donald Trump plans to fire A LOT of executive employees.So libs are working hard to make sure it's impossible for him to do so.Yeah, we're at the stage where the "Deep State" deniers are writing stories explaining how the Deep State is working to protect itself.A collection of activists, advocates and legal experts is promoting new federal rules to limit presidential power while urging Biden's White House...

Moscow officials announced Saturday said they had taken control of Avdiivka. Ukrainian forces confirmed pulling out of the bombed-out city in what amounted to a triumph for the Kremlin even though the four-month battle was costly. The victory was a morale boost for Russia, days ahead of the two-year anniversary of its full-scale invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24 2022. For Ukraine, the rout was a bleak reminder of its reliance on the supply of Western weapons and ammunition, as hold-ups in the delivery of expected aid have left it short of provisions and handicapped in the fight.

A Russian CEO has won an autographed pair of Donald Trump’s new golden sneakers after making an eye-watering bid. Roman Sharf, the founder and CEO of luxury watch dealer, Luxury Bazaar, walked away with an autographed pair of Trump’s golden “Never Surrender high-tops” after placing a winning bid of $9,000 at Philadelphia’s Sneaker Con. … Sharf, who was born in the Soviet Union and lives in Philadelphia, describes himself as “one of the world’s biggest grey market watch dealers” – which trades luxury watches “without being authorised by the brand to do so on their behalf”…

Alexei Navalny’s death in a Russian prison camp elicited widespread condemnation, and Western leaders demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin be held accountable. A fierce Putin critic, Navalny returned to Russia in January 2021 after recovering from a 2020 attempted assassination by poisoning that was almost certainly ordered by the Kremlin. He was immediately jailed. President Joe Biden said Friday, “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death … What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality.” Of course, there are always exceptions. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump declined to blame Russia’s government for the...

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have been central to the war in Ukraine. Some analysts claim that drones have reshaped war, yielding not just tactical-level effects, but shaping operational and strategic outcomes as well. It’s important to distinguish between these different levels of war. The tactical level of war refers to battlefield actions, such as patrols or raids. The operational level of war characterizes a military’s synchronization of tactical actions to achieve broader military objectives, such as destroying components of an adversary’s army. The strategic level of war relates to the way these military objectives combine to secure political aims,...

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) tried and failed to reassure businesses that they “have nothing to worry about” after a recent penalty ruling against former President Trump. During an appearance on WABC 770 AM with The Cats Roundtable’s John Catsimatidis, Hochul was asked if New York businesses need to worry that if “they can do that to the former president, they can do that to anybody.” “I think that this is really an extraordinary, unusual circumstance that the law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are business people have nothing to worry about,” Hochul replied, “because they’re very different than Donald Trump...

Explosion of "Chinese and Middle Eastern migrant" crossings at the U.S. southern border Interviewed are migrants from Syria and Turkey