Free Republic

If you think your pool floats are safe in your backyard this summer, think again. I don’t know what the odds are that they'll be stolen by a guy who wants to have sex with them, but there is a chance of that taking place. That's especially true if you live in Florida near 41-year-old Christopher Monnin, who has had several pool-float theft-related incidents over the years. His last arrest was in 2019 when he was found storing about 75 pool floats in a vacant house. He pleaded guilty this week on the eve of his criminal trial that was...

LOS ANGELES - As anti-ICE protests enter a fifth day in Southern California, President Donald Trump is doubling down on his decision to deploy thousands more troops to Los Angeles despite fierce opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. What we know: In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump defended his decision to deploy the National Guard to LA, claiming if he hadn't, "that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now." "If I didn’t "SEND IN THE TROOPS" to Los Angeles the last three nights,...

LOS ANGELES - Several business owners in downtown Los Angeles were left picking up the pieces after thieves vandalized and looted stores as the state of unrest continues over immigration raids and protests. What we know: Downtown LA has been the center of anti-ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) protests after federal agents began conducting raids across Southern California on Friday, June 6. On Monday night, perpetrators exploited the state of unrest and turned to violence. Apple and Adidas were among the stores hit by thieves, as well as several mom-and-pop shops. According to the LAPD, 14 people were arrested...

Mark Zuckerberg is personally assembling a team of experts to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI) in a move to accelerate Meta’s AI development. Bloomberg reports that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking a hands-on approach to accelerate the company’s AI development by personally recruiting a team of experts to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI). The secretive new team, referred to internally as the “superintelligence group,” is part of Zuckerberg’s audacious goal to outstrip other tech giants in the race to develop machines capable of performing as well as humans at many tasks. According to people familiar with the matter, Zuckerberg...

1.5TB of James Webb Space Telescope data dumped on the internet — new searchable database is the largest window into our universe to date | New imagery encompassing nearly 800,000 galaxies.

Country singer Conner Smith allegedly struck and killed an elderly pedestrian while behind the wheel of his truck. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department conducted a preliminary investigation that suggested Smith was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck June 8. Police allege he struck 77-year-old local resident Dorothy Dobbins at approximately 7:30 p.m. in a press release posted June 9. Dobbins was crossing the street inside of a marked crosswalk when she was struck, according to authorities. Dobbins was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center after she was struck by the vehicle. Despite the best efforts of medical...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a threat to the feds as National Guard Troops were deployed to quell the riots. Bass warned the feds that the violent riots won’t stop unless the National Guard is withdrawn from Los Angeles. President Trump deputized 4,000 California National Guard Troops and deployed 700 US Marines to downtown Los Angeles after LAPD got overwhelmed by the violent anti-ICE rioters. California’s Democrat Governor Newsom and failed Democrat LA Mayor Karen Bass blamed the feds for the violence. Mayor Bass said the violence won’t stop until the feds withdraw from Los Angeles. WATCH: MAYOR KAREN...

There’s an old joke line that says, “Don’t confuse me with facts.” It’s also a leftist line of argument. I used to try to argue with a leftist about politics, but whenever I’d bring in facts to counter his theories, he’d storm out, furious that I was polluting the discussion with how the world actually works. Greta Thunberg is a leftist down to the marrow of her bones, so she, too, refuses to have her ideological purity tainted by the facts. That’s why, when Israel attempted to show her and her fellow “selfie” yacht comrades footage of the October 7...

TIger NS @TIgerNS3 SHOCKING; How the Illegal Bangladeshis are now looting Apple Store in Los Angeles. Deport them now immediately. #DeportKanglus #Islamic_Jihad https://x.com/TIgerNS3/status/1932438085033513438

Peripatopsis barnardi represents the first ever species from the little Karoo, which indicates that the area was historically more forested than at present. It is one of seven new species from the Cape Fold Mountains described by researchers from Stellenbosch University. Credit: Savel Daniels A newly discovered velvet worm species is the first ever found in South Africa’s arid Karoo region. In March 2022, Stellenbosch University student Rohan Barnard was exploring a farm in the Swartberg Mountains between Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn, turning over rocks in search of ants, reptiles, and other small creatures. During his search, he made the discovery...

Forfeiture Action is the Latest Disruption of an Indicted North Korean Official’s Efforts to Generate Revenue for North Korea and its Weapons Program Through Illegal IT Worker Schemes and Cryptocurrency Theft The Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that North Korean information technology (IT) workers obtained illegal employment and amassed millions in cryptocurrency for the benefit of the North Korean government, all as a means of evading U.S. sanctions placed on North Korea. The funds were initially restrained in connection with an April 2023 indictment against...

Dear Freepers After almost 25 years of freerepublic.com being a rare bastion of sanity in this crazy world, I will be ending my time as a member of this once great site. The quality of FR has degraded to the point that I no longer find much usage for the site that I can’t find on other platforms and sources. I have had multiple conversations with many freepers, both in the forum and privately and many of them agree with some of my points of contention: A) The primary reason I am leaving is the failure of FR to address...

The Justice Department announced today that it filed a lawsuit against Fathi Abdulrahim Harara and Native Grounds LLC, the owners of the Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland, California. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants discriminated against Jewish customers, in violation of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in places of public accommodation.“It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Through...

The judge says the president didn’t cite an actual invasion and that he violated the Fifth Amendment. A federal judge in Texas became the latest on June 9 to hold that President Donald Trump had misapplied the Alien Enemies Act in attempting to remove from the United States purported members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. In a 56-page opinion, U.S. District Judge David Briones said that Trump violated the Constitution’s guarantee of due process and failed to demonstrate that Tren de Aragua (TdA) was engaged in the type of invasion that allowed presidents to invoke the Act. His...

Legendary sports play-by-play man Bob Costas thinks that the corporate press is simply doing “MAGA media,” leaving the news industry without a dissenting or oppositional voice. On Monday night, Costas blasted corporate media outlets at the Mirror Awards, held in New York City. At the event, held by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, of which Costas is an alumnus, the longtime American sportscaster received the Fred Dressler Leadership Award for making “distinct, consistent and unique contributions to the public’s understanding of the media.” However, Costas didn’t use his speech to reflect on his years in sports media alone. Instead, he singled...

Ukraine has achieved a breakthrough in its domestic missile program. A new Ukrainian ballistic missile has completed a combat test, striking a Russian command post nearly 300 kilometers from the launch site, military analyst and director of the Center for Army, Conversion, and Disarmament Studies Valentyn Badrak revealed. The missile’s development began in May 2022, with a successful test already conducted in the summer of 2024. According to Badrak, the system is now entering serial production, Badrak stated in a recent interview with Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform on June 10. “I don’t know how many missiles we can expect per...

Planned investment will establish multiple innovation campuses, create 1,250 jobs, and support new workforce development training programs and local community projects. Key takeaways Amazon plans to invest at least $20 billion in Pennsylvania to expand its AI infrastructure, creating 1,250 new high-skilled jobs and supporting thousands more in the AWS data center supply chain. Since 2010, Amazon has invested $26 billion in Pennsylvania, contributing more than $26 billion to the Commonwealth’s GDP and supporting 27,000 full and part-time jobs, as well as 37,100 indirect jobs across various facilities. Amazon will bring training and education programs, including data center technician programs,...

The top US military commander for the Middle East says he has presented US President Donald Trump with military plans to strike Iran and is prepared to do if so ordered. “I have provided the secretary of defense and the president a wide range of options,” Central Command head Gen. Michael Kurilla says during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Kurilla was responding to Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the chairman of the committee, who asked if CENTCOM was prepared to respond with overwhelming force if Iran does not permanently give up its nuclear ambitions. “I take that as...

But the lawmaker didn’t say whether he would vote against the rescissions package. A top House Republican appropriator opposes the Trump administration’s plans to claw back funding for public media — a potential problem for GOP leaders who need near-unity within their party to pass the White House’s request that Congress revoke billions of dollars it has already approved. Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada, who leads the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security, on Monday joined with Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) to urge the administration to reconsider its proposal to cut $1.1 billion from the Corporation for...

The operator of the LAScanner account, known for revealing ICE activity locations in Los Angeles, has shut down the account after claiming he was doxxed himself. In a formal apology, he admitted that sharing ICE raid locations was wrong and apologized for putting lives at risk. He pleaded for privacy for his family, insisting they shouldn’t be targeted due to his actions. “I won’t post ICE raid locations anymore,” he stated, adding that he has already contacted authorities and is cooperating as they investigate whether any laws were broken. “If I’m found to have violated the law, I’ll fully cooperate...