Free Republic

Cody Balmer pleaded guilty to all counts, including attempted first-degree murder, dozens of arson-related charges, and terrorism The suspect in the arson of the Pennsylvania governor's mansion in April pleaded guilty to all charges on Tuesday.Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, appeared in person for the court proceeding, which started around 8:30 am Eastern Time at the Dauphin County Courthouse in Harrisburg, local news outlet WHP reported.Balmer pleaded guilty to all counts, including attempted first-degree murder, dozens of arson-related charges, and terrorism.Balmer called 911 on the night of the arson and admitted to setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's...

The Palisades Bowl mobile home park remains debris-covered, nine months after the fire and months after the neighboring park was cleaned FEMA denied cleanup services, arguing it couldn’t trust that the land owners, with a history of attempting to redevelop the park into something more lucrative, would let residents rebuild Former residents are running out of insurance money and aid to pay for temporary housing, still with no clear path home. As local and state leaders celebrate the fastest wildfire debris removal in modern American history, the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates — a rent-controlled, 170-unit enclave off Pacific...

The historic Thurn und Taxis hunting lodge was burned down on Monday morning. Lappersdorf Volunteer Fire Department.German police are investigating whether far-left extremists from Antifa were behind a massive fire that destroyed the historic Thurn und Taxis hunting lodge near Regensburg, Bavaria earlier this week. The fire, which broke out in the early hours of Monday, reduced the 19th-century building to its outer walls and caused damage estimated at around €4 million. Authorities confirmed that a statement claiming responsibility for the arson has been posted on the far-left online platform Indymedia. The message, signed by an “Antifa Kommando,” described the...

“The alleged pyromaniac accused of igniting the deadly Palisades Fire – Los Angeles’ most destructive wildfire – chipped in a tiny donation to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, records show. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, shelled out $2 to hybrid PAC ActBlue on two separate occasions just days apart in 2020 – $1 on Sept. 4 and another buck on Sept. 11, according to the Federal Election Commission. Records also show the alleged arsonist — born in France — was registered to vote in Florida, though he never declared a political party.”

Authorities in California charged a 29-year-old man with "malicious destruction' for allegedly starting a deadly fire that erupted into the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history and destroyed much of the wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood, officials announced Wednesday. Federal law enforcement officials accused 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht of lighting a fire on New Year’s Day that was initially extinguished by fire crews, but continued to smolder underground before reigniting during high winds, acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference. Rinderknecht was arrested Tuesday in Florida, where he moved after the fire, and is due to appear in...

Authorities have arrested a 29-year-old Uber driver in connection to the investigation into the deadly January Palisades Fire. Jonathan Rinderknecht, of Melbourne, Florida, was arrested Tuesday near his home on suspicion of destruction of property by means of fire. If convicted as charged, Rinderknecht faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 20 years in federal prison. "He is charged with starting a fire on Jan. 1," Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. "It did take a week to reignite, but he is charged with starting the Palisades Fire." The criminal complaint covers the damages and death...

A Florida man has been arrested in connection with a fire last week in a classroom at a Chabad in Florida, days before Rosh Hashanah. Blake Richard Hoover, 31, of Punta Gorda, was arrested by local police Monday and charged with arson and criminal mischief. Those charges were also enhanced with hate crime charges, according to the Punta Gorda Police Department. According to the criminal complaint, Hoover was identified after his mother, Kelly, saw reports of the blaze at the Chabad of Charlotte County in Punta Gorda, Florida, and thought that her son may be responsible. During the incident Friday...

America seems more scary and violent than ever these days. The news is filled with weirdness. Ice Cube is on tour and rolled into Portland, Oregon, and parked at the corner of SW Oak and Broadway was Cube performed Monday night (September 22) at the Moda Center. It appears that someone firebombed the bus. There was extensive damage, but no one was injured. Did someone get confused about the “ice” in “Ice Cube?” Was the bus confused with an ICE detention bus? Who knows?

he DOJ order was sent to U.S. attorney's offices in at least seven states. Multiple top federal prosecutors at U.S. attorney's offices around the country received a directive Monday to prepare to launch investigations into the Open Society Foundations, a group funded by the billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News. The order from Aakash Singh, a senior official in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's office, was sent to U.S. attorney's offices in at least seven states, the sources confirmed, including California, New York, Illinois, Michigan and Maryland. The letter lists potential charges prosecutors could take...

As long as your heart is in the right place, who cares, right? As long as your heart is in the right place, who cares if you are a multiple arsonist who throws fire-bombs and endangers lives? And you have a well-placed heart as big as the Ritz if you hate Israel and want to see it disappear, to be replaced by a 23rd Arab state. More on the antisemitic and pro-Hamas supporters who have rallied round the pyromaniacal comically-named Casey Goonan, can be found here: “Anti-Israel serial arsonist receives support from Columbia encampment protest groups,” by Michael Starr, Jerusalem...

A federal judge handed down a stiff sentence to a man who turned political rage into arson, and it matters. Casey Robert Goonan was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison after a string of firebombings and arsons in the Bay Area. The court applied a terrorism enhancement, and the result should remind anyone tempted by violent activism that the system takes these attacks seriously. On June 1, Goonan placed a bag of six incendiary devices under a UC Police Department patrol car near the UC Berkeley campus, an act caught on surveillance video. Ten days later he attacked an...

Judge Boasberg blocks Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua, despite intelligence linking the gang to Venezuela’s government and acts of sabotage in the U.S. As President Trump fulfills his campaign promise to deport criminal illegal aliens, a blatantly corrupt judge is trying to stop him. Judge James Boasberg, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has abandoned all pretense to fairness. I will leave it to others to focus on his conflicts of interest (the FISA Court, his wife, his daughter) and his double standard of justice. This article...

A church in Wales was set on fire by 2 Pakistani migrants. Christianity under attack in the UK.

Yesterday, we told you that the FireAid scandal hit President Trump's radar. As it should: tens of millions of dollars raised with the explicit promise that those monies would go directly to victims of the L.A. wildfires. Instead, the money went to Leftist nonprofit organizations, and not a dime went to people who lost everything.

It has been reported that of the tens of millions in Fire Aid money distributed so far since the January benefit concerts for Los Angeles’ wildfire victims, all has gone to nonprofits, not directly to residents impacted. Sue Pasco, the editor at Circling the News who also lost her home in the Palisades fire, spoke with Fox 11 on the discovery. She said that a reader had sent her a message saying, "I’ve never seen any Fire Aid money. How do I apply for Fire Aid money?" What she discovered was that the initial $50 million given in the first...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (KTRK) -- A man who alleged a hate crime at his property in 2023 has been detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Agents with the FBI and the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested Mario Roberson Thursday morning. Roberson is facing twelve charges linked to a June 2023 deadly arson at his rental property in Huntsville, and could possibly spend his life in prison. ABC13 first reported on Roberson in May 2023 after he claimed racist graffiti had been spray-painted on the home. He implied alleged racism in the neighborhood's HOA was to blame for the incident,...

Arsonist in Runyon Canyon gets detained by several presumptive fitness influencers before being arrested by law enforcement. A man was arrested Sunday after witnesses claimed he deliberately started a fire at Runyon Canyon, the popular hiking destination in the Hollywood Hills.

Security camera footage shows the ridiculous moment a group of would-be arsonists accidentally set their getaway vehicle on fire. South Australia Police have released the footage from a residence in Port Pirie, 124 miles north of Adelaide, showing a car pulling up alongside a fenced-off building at night. A man hops out of the vehicle, which remains idle, and begins to douse the area in liquid. “As seen in the footage, three male suspects had attended an address in Young Street and doused the front of the residence with accelerant,” SA Police said in a statement. The man can be...

We all knew that this was coming. When voters came out in force last November to make sure that President Trump’s margin of victory exceeded Democrats’ systemic fraud, it was obvious what would happen next. Democrats would do what Marxist globalists and Western Intelligence agencies have been doing across the world for many years: instigate riots, mayhem, sabotage, and general rebellion. As any thinking person now understands, whenever the powers that be don’t get the election results they want, they just foment revolution and work to overturn the will of the people (see Victoria Nuland and the U.S. State Department’s...

Bass believes that the use of taxpayer dollars to deploy the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to protect the city and its citizens, as well as federal law enforcement, is ‘shameful’ and ‘despicable.’ With riots and looting destroying Los Angeles (again), it is important to remember that the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, reportedly led a radical Cuban communist cell that was part of a group responsible for radicalizing youth and organizing chaos. In the 1970s, when Bass was in her 20s, she led the Southern California cell of Cuban Venceremos Brigade — a Fidel Castro regime-linked organization and...