Free Republic

Two people were killed Wednesday when a Fort Hood AH-64 Apache attack helicopter violently crashed into a field in Central Texas, sparking a wildfire that forced evacuations and sent emergency crews racing to the scene, authorities said. Bell County Sheriff's Office spokesman Cliff Coleman said authorities received the call about the crash at approximately 1:34 p.m. The helicopter went down in a field south of Salado, roughly 30 minutes from Fort Hood. KWTX reported the crash occurred off Dove Hollow Lane. Coleman described the crash as violent and confirmed two people were killed. No one else was injured. Coleman identified...

With election officials insisting there was nothing really seriously wrong, results in Tuesday’s primaries in Milwaukee were delayed by what was labeled “human error.” Milwaukee Election Commissioner Paulina Gutierrez said that when she arrived at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to hand off about 28,000 absentee ballots, five of nine USB drives she brought with her contained the wrong data. Election audit logs, not ballot results, were on the drives, she said, according to Urban Milwaukee.

With recent wildfires causing widespread destruction in Southern California, how would you feel about someone profiting off of the devastating loss of your home or community? It turns out, people are placing bets on wildfires on prediction markets like Polymarket, and now California lawmakers are calling for a crackdown on the concerning new trend, warning those bets could create an incentive for arson. ... They’re urging the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to implement what they call “common sense guardrails” to prevent people from profiting off of the suffering and devastation on digital gambling sites. “It’s important to point out that...

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Though the terms are often used interchangeably, coffins and caskets are actually completely different things. The same goes for ghosts and ghouls, though I have to admit that the difference between the latter pair is significantly gorier. And since we’re on the subject of spooky, not-quite synonyms, I wondered – wait, are cemeteries the same thing as graveyards? Apparently, not, it seems. Though both refer to burial sites for the dead, they are actually distinct (I had no idea). What’s the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s site, it has to do with size,...

For over two years, a 16-year-old transgender girl says she was bullied, excluded and discriminated against by her teammates and coaches at the Capital Crew youth rowing program housed at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center.

Videos found at a "mystery house" in Philadelphia's Olney neighborhood show two missing women who are believed to be dead, investigators revealed Wednesday. Philadelphia Police Inspector Raymond Evers shared new details during an afternoon press conference on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. Evers broke down what started this extensive investigation and what detectives have found so far This all began on June 19, 2026, when a park ranger stopped a BMW on the 600 block of Market Street near Independence Mall that had a male driver and female passenger inside, Evers said. The driver was identified as 44-year-old Eugene Horsch, officials...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholic governor met Pope Francis, then signed abortion up to birth — Excommunication?Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a law that removes the requirement for specific medical justification for abortions after 24 weeks. She is Catholic. She met with Pope Francis in 2024 and spoke of caring for “the most vulnerable among us.” Now she has celebrated the expansion of abortion access up to birth.Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston called the law a “grave offense against the sanctity and dignity of every person” and urged Catholics to continue proclaiming the value of life. But many Catholics are demanding stronger...

The Fifth Circuit restored nine provisions of Texas's 2021 election law, including mail-ballot ID and voter-assistance rules, largely finding that groups challenging them under federal disability laws lacked standing. Judge Oldham said the challengers lacked standing to attack Texas's mail-ballot ID rules because they failed to show that any member faced a substantial risk of future harm. The court noted ID-related rejection rates fell from 11-12% to 2.7% The court also rejected claims that groups had standing because they diverted resources to help voters comply. Citing the Supreme Court, Judge Oldham wrote that an organization cannot establish standing simply by...

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has overtaken California Governor Gavin Newsom in prediction market odds for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination for the first time, according to data from Polymarket highlighted Wednesday by the political-tracking account InteractivePolls. The market showed Ocasio-Cortez at 18 percent, narrowly ahead of Newsom at 17 percent. Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff ranked third at 16 percent, while former Vice President Kamala Harris stood at 8 percent. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro each came in at 5 percent. The shift marks a notable moment in the still-early race to shape the Democratic field ahead...

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave that post by the end of August, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday. Leavitt’s departure was announced less than a month after she returned to the White House after having been on maternity leave for the birth of her daughter on May 1. Leavitt, 28, is resigning “so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing her planned departure. The president said that Leavitt will become “one of my top outside advisors” and...

"Congressman John Larson is well-positioned to win the Democratic primary election for Connecticut’s First District. Larson leads former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin by 23 points, 49 to 26 percent with 9 percent for State Representative Jillian Gilchrest and 15 percent undecided or supporting other candidates. Larson enjoys near universal name recognition (92 percent), is well liked (76 percent view him favorably) and voters believe he delivers for Connecticut (80 percent say that it describes Larson well). He wins all regions of the district, across the ideological spectrum and among voters over 50 years (71 percent of the electorate). What’s more,...

The Dallas airport is now installing dedicated Islamic “Wudu” foot-washing stations inside bathrooms. Sharia financing is coming to dozens of states. Sharia compliant community centers. USDA funded halal public school pipelines. TX public school students being bused to mosques to experience Islam firsthand.

The University of Michigan is eliminating first-semester grades in an effort to address what it calls a growing mental health crisis among college students

Kathy Hochul received $55,000 in campaign contributions from social adult daycare centers (SADCs) in fraud-plagued Flushing, Queens, records show. Almost half of those donations can be linked to two men: local powerbroker Baoli Zhang, and Jiemin Shang — who own two of Flushing’s biggest daycare businesses, both of which were empty of patients when visited by The Post last week. Zhang, 69, personally donated $10,000, as well as another $5,000 through his Bao Kang Adult Day Care, financial disclosures show. Zhang’s various businesses have claimed at least $32 million from Medicaid since 2018, on behalf of tens of thousands of...

For nearly two decades, Pew Research Center surveys delivered the same reliable finding: The world viewed the United States more favorably than China. That era is over. In its July 2026 report, Pew found China now ranks higher in favorability than the United States across most of the 36 countries surveyed. Gallup data from 2025 already showed China’s median approval edging past America’s. Confidence in Xi Jinping now exceeds confidence in Donald Trump by a clear margin in the countries Pew tracks annually. The Council on Foreign Relations rightly asked what happened. The answer is simpler – and more damning...

Elon Musk is betting that the next phase of his sprawling technology empire will require a building on a scale that has never existed before. SpaceX and Tesla are building Terafab, a 100-million-square-foot semiconductor manufacturing facility in Grimes County, Texas, more than five times the size of the world's largest building. "Terafab Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far. And it will be stunningly beautiful," Musk wrote on X. "We're now embarking on the most epic chip-building effort—combining logic, memory, and advanced packaging all under one roof," said Musk in a press release. The...

WASHINGTON — Mao-adoring Twitch streamer Hasan Piker erupted in fury after Wisconsin state rep. Francesca Hong’s shocking defeat in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, venting that boomers should be outlawed. Piker, who had stumped with Hong during the final weeks of her primary, blamed older Americans for her loss amid her double-digit lead in most polling and struggled to talk about the blow to the far-left. “I don’t want to read this because I will f—ing kill myself with a gun in a video game,” Piker griped after reading an article about a late-deciding voter who backed Milwaukee County Executive David...

The Maumelle High School player wore the helmet for an hour before noticing movement underneath the padding. Thousands of high school football players across the country are taking the practice field, preparing to kick off the 2026 season in the coming weeks, but one young man in Arkansas recently had a practice experience unlike any other. With the Maumelle High School football team split into position groups during practice, a player noticed there was movement inside his helmet. Obviously, nothing is supposed to be moving inside a football helmet, but when he handed the helmet over to a defensive coach,...

Bill Gates’ “nepo baby” daughter Phoebe Gates, 23, has been accused of “cookie stuffing” at her multibillion-dollar startup, Phia – an illicit practice that comes with a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, according to reports. Phia – a digital personal shopping assistant co-founded by Gates with fellow Stanford alum Sophia Kianni – reacted with shock in July following reports that it was dropping more web “cookies” than it should, taking undue credit for online sales at retail partners. The company released a statement that it had only learned of the issue “within the last 24 hours,” pledging...