Free Republic

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A former Columbus police vice detective who pleaded guilty to kidnapping sex workers under the guise of an arrest was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Thursday. Andrew Mitchell, 60, of Sunbury, will receive credit for the roughly five years he has been in custody since his arrest in April 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. He had pleaded guilty in December to two counts of depriving individuals of their civil rights while acting under color of law and one count of obstructing justice. Mitchell spent more than 30 years...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that student protesters didn’t “know very much” about the Middle East. When asked about the protests at college campuses across the country, Clinton said, “First of all, I have had many conversations, as you have had, with a lot of young people over the last many months now. You are right. They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history in many areas of the world, including in our own country. With respect to the Middle East, they don’t...

CNN — Hunter Biden’s latest attempts to throw out his federal gun case were rejected in back-to-back rulings Thursday, teeing up a high-stakes criminal trial next month in Delaware. The president’s son had asked the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the charges by overturning prior decisions from the trial judge that let the case move forward. But the appellate panel instead rejected Hunter Biden’s appeals, which related to his defunct plea deal and his claims that the case was tainted by political bias. Hours later, the trial judge, Maryellen Noreika, rejected Hunter Biden’s remaining motion to dismiss...

Florida tax returns delayed

There was nothing like Sly and the Family Stone – not then, and not now. At their late-'60s best, this expectation-confounding group boasted the rhythmic ferocity of R&B, but none of its quickly devolving formulaic Motown tics. At the same time, they had a distinctly rock 'n' roll character. That meant no small amount of screw-you attitude, an exhilarating focus on hooks, some seriously weird outfits and a tendency toward hedonism. Fans got a taste of this groundbreaking, genre-jumping amalgam on 1968's Dance to the Music, but it all really came together with Stand, released on May 3, 1969. This...

resident Joe Biden called North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un the president of South Korea at a closed-door fundraiser Portola Valley, California Friday. Biden, 81, was going after his 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, for praising the North Korean leader after they met a handful of times during the Republican's administration. The president talked of Trump's pride from 'love letters from South Korean president Kim Jong Un.' The president of South Korea is Yoon Suk Yeol, who Biden has met a number of times - including at a White House state dinner, an official trip to South Korea and...

A man is being held in the Metro Jail on a felony charge after he reportedly destroyed parts of a Catholic charity building. According to an affidavit from the Metro Nashville Police Department, officers responded to a call regarding an irate person “actively destroying items on the property” of a Catholic charity on Monday, April 22 on Lea Avenue. When they arrived, they saw Napoleon Meredith on the roof of the building. Upon accessing the roof of the building, officers said they witnessed Meredith destroying an air condition unit. Officers approached Meredith, telling him to come out from behind the...

A 16-year-old boy spray painted LGBTQ graffiti Wednesday outside of the Central Catholic High School chapel, Lafayette police said. The vandal struck in the early afternoon Wednesday, and school officials covered up the vandalism on the walls with plywood. The vandal returned about 6:10 p.m. Wednesday and spray painted new messages on the plywood covering the earlier graffiti. The graffiti read, "Queer Lives Matter" and "God loves trans kids too," police said. The vandalism included inverted crosses spray painted on the chapel's stained-glass windows, according to police reports.

The Justice Department faced criticism on Friday for pushing back on a federal court's order to expedite the timeline for determining whether recordings of President Biden's interviews with then-Special Counsel Robert Hur should be released. The situation developed after advocacy groups filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the recording last month. The Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, as well as Judicial Watch and CNN, all filed requests seeking the release of the tapes, which congressional Republicans have sought and unsuccessfully subpoenaed. The three organizations' FOIA requests were combined into one suit. In April, the DOJ announced it would...

Russian forces have attacked across the Ukrainian border to the north of Kharkiv in a potential effort to open a new front in the war and intensify the pressure on Ukraine’s second city. Ukraine’s defence ministry said there had been “an attempt by the enemy to break through our defence line using armoured vehicles” at about 5am on Friday near the town of Vovchansk, and the initial attacks had been repelled. There were also reports of fighting in the border villages of Strilecha, Pylna and Borysivka farther west, and that Russian forces had advanced by about 1km around Vovchansk, though...

A zoo in China has come under fire after it was revealed that they painted chow chow dogs to look like pandas. The zoo, located in Jiangsu Province, showcased the "panda dog" on Labor Day holidays from May 1 to May 5. While thousands of people came to see supposed pandas, a few thought that their behaviour was strange as they shook their heads like dogs. Nevertheless, many people believe that they are real pandas, as per reports. Visitors' clips seemed to depict the puppies as having black limbs, ears, and eye rings, but their doglike characteristics were still clearly...

A pair of men driving a spray-painted van trespassed onto one of Fresno’s Jewish temples and Catholic churches, papering their facilities with fliers, leading to their arrest.Fresno police are investigating a possible hate crime at Temple Beth Israel, a Jewish temple in north Fresno, after vandals papered the religious facility with fliers. Officers apprehended two men around 4:15 p.m. when they began to post fliers on the campus of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church nearly a mile south of the Jewish temple. Driving the news: The suspects’ van, which was spray-painted to read “Repent or Perish” was seized at...

The U.S. has promised to vote against any resolution that would seek to grant the Palestinians full membership in the United Nations after a General Assembly resolution passed with significant support from member states. "Our vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood," U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Robert Wood said after the vote. "We have been very clear that we support it and seek to advance it meaningfully: Instead, it is an acknowledgment that statehood will only come from a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties." "This resolution does not resolve the concerns about the Palestinian...

The president of a Detroit-area congregation hoped to play down the antisemitic incidentPolice are investigating after witnesses said a man who reportedly called himself a “Jew hater” drove to a Detroit-area synagogue, yelled antisemitic slurs at two people outside the building and threw a pair of work gloves at one of them. The incident in Oak Park, Michigan began at about 9 a.m. on Thursday, when police said in a statement that a white man “with thick dark hair and a long dark beard” driving a Chevrolet SUV pulled into the parking lot of Congregation Beth Shalom. At the time,...

Rudy Giuliani was suspended from New York City talk radio station WABC and his daily show was canceled on Friday after he violated company policy by questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election, the New York Times reported—cutting off a source of income for Giuliani months after he filed for bankruptcy.

In honor of Mother's Day, let's discuss this trivia: How many women can you name in the genealogy of Jesus Christ? If they tried really hard, most people can name at least two: the first and last. Can you name more?

"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: "That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." John 10 1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3...

Drone honeybees can be tricky to spot when surrounded by thousands of other bees. So how do you identify them? Easy. By looking at their eyes. Drone bees have massive eyes that touch each other. This comes in handy for helping them spot queens to mate with. In contrast, female bees have smaller eyes that don’t touch.

The NFL is close to finalizing a deal with Netflix to carry its upcoming Christmas Day slate. That's fine. Netflix costs anywhere between $6.99 and $22.99 a month. However, Netflix is yet another bill that fans have to pay to watch the NFL closely this season. Let's review: Viewers still need basic cable to watch games on CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, ABC and NFL Network. Did we miss any? Cable options include YouTube TV, DirectTV, Dish, Xfinity, AT&T, Spectrum, etc. etc. On average, cable costs around $80 a month. **SNIP** To watch the NFL this season, you need cable (ESPN,...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday announced a $44.9 billion deficit in his revised proposal for the 2024-2025 state budget, while proposing a series of cuts to close the spending gap. The shortfall includes $27.6 billion detailed in his proposal, plus $17.3 billion in cuts that the State Legislature proactively instituted a few weeks ago. The governor proposed a $288.1 billion topline budget figure, down from Newsom’s initial January proposal for a $291.5 billion budget. Although the total $44.9 billion deficit is higher than the $37.9 figure projected in January, Newsom’s revision involves withdrawing $4.2 billion from the state’s...