Free Republic

Dramatic video footage captured the moment a 69-year-old homeless man stabbed the thugs who terrorized him on a Queens subway train, killing one and wounding another. In a twist of justice, it’s the surviving goons who are behind bars. “The victim was accosted, without provocation, and our investigation has shown that he defended himself while attempting to retrieve his property,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Wednesday. “As a result, my office will not be filing charges for the fatality.” Footage of the encounter on a 7 train on Dec. 22 shows the victim sleeping on the...

Click on link

UK officials are monitoring social media posts by Elon Musk and others as a possible security risk. The monitoring is being carried out by a team in the Home Office's Homeland Security group, which is responsible for reducing national security risks and, according to a government website, "focuses on the highest harm risks to the homeland".

Water prices are soaring in California’s Central Valley, where a quarter of the nation’s food is grown. As the West Coast’s megadrought worsens, one farming company has long been scrutinized for its outsize role in the arid region’s water supply. Wonderful, the closely held company owned by billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick, can buy up huge amounts of water whenever it needs more. Most of the Resnicks’ water comes from long-term contracts and other water from land rights they have from the farms they own. Around 9% of the total water used by Wonderful is bought out on the open...

ALTADENA, Calif. — Firefighter Ryan Babroff hurried to a nearby hydrant, hoping to connect his hose and douse the massive flames consuming homes in this mountain community northeast of Los Angeles. But when he pried it open, no water came out. The hydrant was empty. The longtime Cal Fire volunteer said he encountered at least four dry hydrants as he tried to battle the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Wednesday. Fellow firefighters had to drive to neighboring Pasadena to fill their trucks. “How do you fight a fire with no water?” Babroff said. As wildfires tore through greater Los Angeles...

Hiya kids! Hiya, Hiya!Good Morning Crypto-FReepers.I see some of the same old faces out there.But that's OK - I like you anyway.Here's today's quote!It's a LODU OUZY quote, sort of!I'm expecting lots of YEWSIKS clues!Have fun!!!Ha Ha Ha!I'll be good - I will, (like heck) I will!Ha ha ha.MZ [DEE] YSKM MQDO D YEWSIKS WL - EZKSDUJ XHHKN, LODU OUZY L3 Z7, "JDN KT OQZ JKBZ" Where'd I put my magic twanger? Oh, here it is - - -boinng!Hal's cryptogram helper

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns described the incident as a “monstrous act." Joshua Marks. (Jan. 10, 2025 / JNS). A synagogue in Allawah, South Sydney, was defaced with swastikas and hateful graffiti, including messages glorifying Adolf Hitler. Additional slogans, such as “Hitler on top,” the Arabic phrase “Allah hu Akbar,” “Free Palestine,” “F**k Israel” and “Jew do_s,” were spray-painted on the building’s exterior walls. Local police discovered the vandalism during a routine patrol early Friday and have opened a hate crime investigation. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack, stating, “There is no place in Australia, our tolerant...

Within Iran and its terror proxies severely weakened, is a new adversary to Israel emerging? Turkey’s Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is notorious for his anti-Israel rhetoric and is now building up his military as well. Erdogan just announced that Turkey will expand its long-range ballistic missile stockpile and its navy and there are concerns that Erdogan could soon begin his own nuclear program as well. All of this comes as an Israeli government commission just warned that an eventual war with Turkey could be on the horizon. Could this be a prophetic showdown, with Syria as the trigger? Watch...

Archaeologists have dated the lakefront Neolithic (7000–3200 b.c.) settlement of Dispilio in northern Greece using a method that involves detecting evidence of bursts of cosmic radiation in ancient wood samples. In 2012, physicist Fusa Miyake first identified sudden spikes in the level of radioactive carbon-14 in tree rings that could be attributed to bombardment by cosmic rays at precisely known points in the past. A handful of these spikes, called Miyake Events, which allow wood samples to be dated to a single year, can be identified in tree rings dating back as far as 12,350 b.c.A team including University of...

When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) met with key Democrats last month to make her case to help lead a committee that will be critical in countering President-elect Donald Trump, she faced sharp questions from members of her party. As Ocasio-Cortez lobbied the powerful Steering Committee that decides panel assignments, Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-California) pressed her on her past decisions to endorse primary challengers against Democratic incumbents. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), one of the incumbents Ocasio-Cortez tried to defeat, followed up by asking why Democrats should elevate her given her previous animosity toward her less-liberal colleagues, according to two...

Hundreds of incarcerated firefighters are helping battle the destructive blazes that are rapidly spreading across southern California as a powerful windstorm devastates the region. The California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) said on Thursday that it had deployed 783 imprisoned firefighters while the county fights multiple out-of-control blazes fueled by extreme winds and dry conditions. The incarcerated crews are embedded with the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) and its nearly 2,000 firefighters, who have been stretched thin from several simultaneous emergencies. CDCR operates more than 30 “fire camps” across the state where people serving state...

My latest song. Not actually my last song.

China’s central bank said on Friday it has suspended treasury bond purchases, triggering a jump in yields and spurring speculation that the move was aimed at defending a falling currency. The People’s Bank of China cited a shortage of bonds in the market as the reason it was halting the purchases, which were part of its operations to ease monetary settings. But the move coincides with a brutal selloff in other major bond markets around the world and suggests China’s central bank is trying to ensure yields at home also rise in tandem, analysts say. Yields, which move inversely to...

The story begins at about the 1.10 mark.Arsonist seen carrying a blowtorch. He claimed it was because he was poor, and he couldn't afford a lighter for his medical marijuana.In Third World nations, when law enforcement collapses, citizens begin taking the law into their own hands.

A firefighting plane that drops more than 1,500 gallons of water at a time is grounded after it collided with a drone flying illegally above the Palisades fire Thursday, Jan. 9, according to officials. A drone was flying above the nearly 20,000-acre fire around 10 a.m. Thursday, when the Canadair CL-14 Super Scooper struck the drone, said Christopher Thomas, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The impact left a large hole in the plane’s left wing, but the pilot landed safely. Because of the damage, the Super Scooper, which can drop 1,600 gallons of water at a...

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) signed an agreement with Trinity Health Care Services to register residents for COVID vaccines. The FDEM, according to USA Today, owed $50,578.50 on an invoice but accidentally paid $5 million more... In response to USA Today's reporting, Inside Elections' Jacob Rubashkin went to X, formerly Twitter, and posted, " Holy cow! Florida says it accidentally paid a healthcare company $5.7 million instead of $50k. That company's CEO, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, then loaned herself $6.2 million to win a congressional race."

Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn introduced a bill Thursday to allow concealed carry license holders to carry their guns in any state. The bill, titled the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, will compel states to recognize concealed carry permits from all states as a valid certification to carry a concealed firearm, according to the bill text. A similar bill was proposed in the House in 2023 by Republican North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson...

Capitol Police arrested a 35-year-old man from Virginia on Wednesday (January 8) after he allegedly attempted to set his car on fire near the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on Capitol Hill. The incident occurred as President-elect Donald Trump was visiting Republican lawmakers and paying respects to the late former President Jimmy Carter. The man, identified as Adrian J. Hinton, reportedly parked his vehicle in front of the memorial and set a bag on top of it ablaze. The bag extinguished itself before officers arrived and detained the suspect. Capitol Police's Hazardous Incident Response Division inspected the vehicle and found no...

LA mayor remains silent when reporter overseas questions why she wasn't back home during fires

The [Labour] government has announced plans to cap the price of resale tickets in a clamp-down on ticket touts who bulk buy tickets and then resell them for huge profits. The cap would apply to tickets in the live events industry including sport, music, comedy and theatre. It was one of the government's election promises, after complaints from fans and concert-goers about the massively inflated cost of some resale tickets. A public consultation will now be launched to consider the cap and how much it will be - anywhere from the ticket's face value or up to 30% on top...