Free Republic

Condoms must now be made available to 'all participants' at the Boy Scouts global gathering as girls are permitted to join the organization Rules require host of World Scout Jamboree to provide condoms during event Condom policy must be communicated to all 'participants, unit leaders, staff' The next Jamboree will be held in the mountains of West Virginia in July 2019 Will be hosted by Boy Scouts, Scouts Canada, Asociación de Scouts de México By Dailymail.com Reporter Published: 12:15 EDT, 22 May 2018 | Updated: 12:52 EDT, 22 May 2018 The Boy Scouts will ensure that condoms will be made...

A teenager who started a major wildfire in the scenic Columbia River Gorge in Oregon has been ordered to pay restitution for at least the next decade, though it's unlikely the boy will ever cover his nearly $37 million bill. The Oregonian reports that Hood River County Circuit Judge John A. Olson issued the opinion on Monday, awarding the restitution totaling $36,618,330.24 to cover the costs of firefighting, repair and restoration to the gorge and damage to homes. Victims include the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Transportation. The 15-year-old from Vancouver, Washington, earlier this year acknowledged wrongdoing and...

U.S. President Donald Trump will meet on Monday with Justice Department and intelligence officials to discuss his order to look into whether his 2016 presidential campaign was infiltrated or surveilled under the Obama administration, a White House official told Reuters. Trump will meet at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, the official said.

One person was killed in a stabbing attack in the Opera district of central Paris Saturday night. At least eight people were stabbed in the attack, and one victim is reported dead. At least two of the victims are reported to be in serious condition and are receiving first aid. Eyewitnesses told police that the stabber shouted, "Allahu Akhbar!" during the attack. Police forces eliminated the stabber, and are investigating the incident. According to a report by the BBC, witnesses said police officers initially attempted to neutralize the attacker with a stun-gun, but after it failed officers fired two rounds...

Thinking of building or purchasing a newly constructed home in California? Even assuming you can somehow afford to own one in one of the most brutal real estate markets in the country, get ready for the cost to go up further. The state government is preparing to pass a new law which will mandate that every new house, condo or other building up to three stories high must have solar panels installed and comply with a “net-zero energy” profile. (This means that they have to produce enough of their own solar power to offset all electricity off the grid and...

Conservative outlet RedState fired most of its staff Friday while its owner, Salem Media, froze the site, citing an inability to "no longer support the entire roster of writers and editors." "The site name will linger, but RedState is all but dead now. I have invited the fired writers here," Erick Erickson, a RedState founder who left the site in 2015, wrote in a blog post. Fired staffers said the cuts focused on writers who have been critical of President Trump. RedState had often distinguished itself since 2016 as a home for Trump critics within the GOP. RedState staffers were...

ENGLAND, April 24, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Justice Anthony Hayden, the judge at the center of the Alfie Evans case, is a member of The Bar Lesbian and Gay Group (BLAGG) and co-authored a book on homosexual relationships and their pertinence to children’s rights. A post on the website of BLAGG – a British association that supports “lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons at all levels” of the legal profession – names Hayden as a member. The post is titled BLAGG Member appointed to High Court Wednesday, 31 July 2013 and remains on BLAGG’s website as of April 24, 2018...

Starbucks is planning to follow up on its CEO’s promise to implement “unconscious bias” training by closing more than 8,000 company-owned stores across the U.S. on May 29 to conduct “racial bias training,” per a Starbucks news release. “I’ve spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it,” said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson in the statement. “While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution. Closing our stores for racial bias training...

The Marine who became immortalized by playing a brutal drill sergeant in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” has died. “It is with deep sadness that I regret to inform you all that R. Lee Ermey (“The Gunny”) passed away this morning from complications of pneumonia,” his manager Bill Rogers said in a statement posted to Mr. Ermey’s official Twitter account.

A sad case of self-immolation with fossil fuels, to protest fossil fuels A green activist who was a pioneering lawyer for gay and transgender rights — including in the infamous “Boys Don’t Cry” murder case — committed suicide by setting himself on fire Saturday morning in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.In a gruesome protest against the ecological destruction of the earth, David Buckel, 60, left behind a charred corpse and a typed suicide note that said he was burning himself to death using “fossil fuel” to reflect how mankind was likewise killing itself, police sources said. He left the note behind in...

A vice chairwoman at Bank of America said Tuesday that the financial services giant will no longer lend money to manufacturers of "military-style firearms." "We want to contribute in any way we can to reduce these mass shootings," Anne Finucane said on Bloomberg TV. "We do have a few manufacturers of military-style firearms. We're in discussions with them. We have let them know that we are going to—it's not our intent to underwrite or finance military-style firearms on a go-forward basis." When asked whether Bank of America will take the same actions with retailers who sell such weapons, Finucane said...

London's murder rate has surpassed that of New York City in 2018 so far, and Mayor Sadiq Khan is determined to stop it. The mayor, who branded stop-and-search tactics of suspicious individuals as "racist," now says police will dramatically increase the practice as well as banning home deliveries of knives and acid, which is another popular weapon used by criminals in the city. Daily Wire: Khan announced Friday that the city has created a "violent crime taskforce of 120 officers" tasked with rooting out knife-wielding individuals in public spaces, and is pumping nearly $50 million dollars [sic] into the Metropolitan...

Oregon's governor says that if President Donald Trump asks to dispatch members of her state's National Guard to the US southern border, she'll "say no." In a set of tweets Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said she was "deeply troubled" by Trump's plan to send members of the US military to the border and implied that the President is doing so as a political distraction. "If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I'll say no. As Commander of Oregon's Guard, I'm deeply troubled by Trump's plan to militarize our border," the tweet said. Brown...

“I really feel sorry for them because it’s not only ignorant and dangerously stupid, but it’s soulless,” rocker says Ted Nugent, the sometime classic rocker and current NRA board member, is speaking out about the new generation of gun reform advocates: the “pathetic” teenage “liars” who survived the deadly massacre last month at a high school in Parkland, Florida. “These poor children, I’m afraid to say this and it hurts me to say this, but the evidence is irrefutable, they have no soul,” he said Friday on Newsmax’s “The Joe Pags Show.” “The dumbing down of America is manifested in...

Former President Barack Obama says he aspires to create "a million young Barack Obamas or Michelle Obamas" who will pick up the baton in what he describes as the "relay race that is human progress." At a conference in Japan on Sunday, the former president spoke about how he hopes the Obama Foundation, a nonprofit formed in January 2014, will help achieve his post-presidential aims. "After I left office, what I realized is that the Obama Foundation could potentially create a platform for young, up-and-coming leaders, both in the United States and all around the world to come together, meet...

I shudder to think she could have been the president.Hillary Clinton nearly falls down stairs in India -- twice!

President Trump issued the second pardon of his presidency Friday to former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, who learned the news while driving a garbage truck, the only job he could find with a felony conviction. Saucier was sentenced to a year in prison during the 2016 campaign for taking pictures inside a nuclear submarine. Trump invoked his case repeatedly on the campaign trail, saying he was “ruined” for doing “nothing” compared to Hillary Clinton. Still, Trump allowed Saucier to serve his full prison sentence. He was released in September and returned to the Vermont home he shares with his wife...

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) resigned from office on Monday, effective April 1. He has been in failing health for several months. “Longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Associated Press on Monday that he will resign April 1 because of health problems,” the wire service reported from Jackson, Mississippi late Monday afternoon: Cochran, who turned 80 in December, stayed home for a month last fall with urinary tract infections, returning to Washington in October to give Republicans the majority they needed to pass a budget plan. “I regret my health has become...

Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg vowed Monday to refuse a subpoena from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team to appear before a grand jury this week as part of the Russia probe, defiantly claiming: “Let him arrest me.” “Mr. Mueller should understand I am not going in on Friday,” Nunberg told the Washington Post.

Andres Avelino Anduaga, an illegal alien from Mexico previously arrested on gun, drug, and forgery charges, pleaded guilty Thursday to theft of public property and being a removed alien found in United States. Anduaga’s plea agreement, entered with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, contains admissions that he assumed the identity of a Texas-born American citizen more than 37 years ago in 1980. Using it and 21 other invented or assumed identities, he claimed more than quarter million dollars of “Supplemental Security Income” benefits, over a hundred thousand dollars in public healthcare benefits, and, separately $12,000...