Free Republic

The young woman identified as the first victim killed in Saturday’s deadly shooting at Brown University was Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore and outspoken conservative activist whose death has sent shockwaves through both the campus community and conservative circles nationwide. Cook, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, was serving as vice president of Brown University’s College Republicans and was widely known for standing firm in her beliefs on one of the most ideologically hostile campuses in the country. Friends say she was thoughtful, kind, and unafraid to express her convictions, even when doing so made her a target for hostility or...

Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from Birmingham, Alabama, was a student at Brown University, tragically killed in the December 13, 2025, campus shooting. An active parishioner at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, she was remembered as a grounded, faithful, and bright light in her community. She served as Vice President of the Brown University Republican Club and was described by peers as a staunch conservative unafraid to express her views on a liberal campus. Prior experience included work at Oxbridge Academic Programs and Mountain Brook Creamery

An Alabama town angrily shot down plans to build a Muslim school in their area, with locals citing the 'cultural takeover' of Muslims in a Michigan city and as far away as the UK. Residents of Hoover in suburban Birmingham showed up in force at a zoning commission meeting Monday as the board voted on whether to allow the Islamic Academy to transform a local office building into a school and community center. Around 170 locals attended the meeting, with many opposing a motion to move the existing Islamic Academy in Homewood to Hoover. Citing traffic concerns and questioning the...

A woman has been hospitalised with life-threatening injuries after she was stabbed in the neck in an “unprovoked” attack in Birmingham, England, on Friday evening. The woman, said to be in her 30s, was stabbed in the neck on Smallbrook Queensway in the city centre of multicultural Birmingham at around 9 pm local time on Friday. Woman in Critical Condition after ‘Unprovoked’ Stabbing in Birmingham City Centre 18 BIRMINGHAM, UNITED KINGDOM NOVEMBER 6: Police officers patrol around Villa Park Stadium ahYunus Kaymaz/Anadolu via Getty Images Kurt Zindulka8 Nov 2025348 1:55 A woman has been hospitalised with life-threatening injuries after she...

Mutha Trucker, a YouTube news source covering the trucking industry has reported that Montgomery Transport LLC, a Birmingham, Alabama-based trucking company, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased operations effective immediately. 1000 employees out of work as trucker files for bankruptcy The sudden shutdown has left hundreds of drivers stranded across America as the company’s leadership instructed them to halt operations. This abrupt closure represents a significant disruption in the trucking industry and has created immediate challenges for both drivers and clients dependent on Montgomery’s freight services. Details of the Bankruptcy Filing The company officially announced its Chapter 7 bankruptcy...

Would-be assassin Aimee Betro, from West Allis in Wisconsin, flew into the country as part of a plot to attack a British family in Birmingham in 2019, before going on the run for nearly five years. Her co-conspirators had been involved in a feud with the family, her trial heard. During the case at Birmingham Crown Court, jurors were told Betro hid her identity using a niqab when she tried to fire shots on Measham Grove, Yardley, but her gun jammed and the individual at whom she had aimed fled the scene unharmed. Jurors deliberated for almost 21 hours before...

The family and friends of a Birmingham woman are pleading with the community to help them keep her in Alabama after she was detained this week during a traffic stop. “On the morning of Tuesday August 5th, Giovanna [Martinez] was driving to work when a Leeds officer pulled her over for going 1 mile over the speed limit,” reads a GoFundMe set up by her brother Dilan Hernandez to cover Martinez’s legal expenses. “What should have been a regular traffic stop, turned into something much worse as an ICE agent arrived closely thereafter. In less than an hour she was...

The three Ukrainian nationals were arrested in Germany and Switzerland on suspicion of agreeing to send parcels containing explosive or incendiary devices from Germany to Ukraine, German prosecutors said. They were apparently working for people associated with Russian state agencies. The alleged plan was for the men to send packages that would explode while being transported to Ukraine. According to the German news magazine Spiegel, the man had started to run tests for possible attacks by sending parcels with GPS trackers to Ukraine. The men are suspected of acting as secret agents for the purpose of sabotage, as well as...

CBS News affiliate WIAT just reported the following:https://www.cbs42.com/news/crime/timeline-of-all-the-murder-cases-damien-mcdaniel-is-charged-with-in-birmingham/BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Already charged in the deaths of 11 people, four of whom were killed in a mass shooting in downtown Birmingham late last year, Damien McDaniel has now been charged with killing a firefighter at his own station nearly two years ago, killing a UPS employee, and a 21-year-old woman. October 9, 2019: Damien McDaniel is arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder involving him allegedly shooting into an occupied car. He was 17 years old at the time.April 26, 2023: McDaniel pleads guilty to two counts of...

Bishops within the Church of England have raised concerns that certain Christmas carols might be “problematic” because of their explicit references to Jesus as the “true Messiah.” The Birmingham Diocese recently communicated to its clergy the need to reassess the language used in hymns to create an “inclusive” environment during the festive season. The Birmingham Diocese instructed clergy to “use language that won’t add further confusion or tension or take away anything from the good news of the Nativity,” The Mail on Sunday reported, citing the email. The hymns under scrutiny include “Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending,” a favorite...

Allegations of fraud have been tied to Black Fork Strategies, a left-wing Ohio firm committed to ‘building long-term progressive power.’Earlier this year, Cincinnati-area voters Cassandra and Harry Scott were puzzled to receive voter registration updates showing they had changed their address. They hadn’t. The Hamilton County Board of Elections had received two registration forms for the voters from Black Fork Strategies LLC, an Ohio-based “engagement firm that focuses on all aspects of community and electoral field work.” Elections Board staff made the requested changes in the voter rolls and, per Ohio law, sent notice to the voters at their “new...

Four people were killed and at least 21 others injured when “multiple shots” erupted in a popular entertainment district of Birmingham, Alabama Saturday night as police assured they will “hunt down” those responsible. Birmingham Police said it was responding to the scene where “multiple people were shot with possibly multiple casualties just after 11 p.m. near 20th Street and Magnolia Ave. in Five Points South, a popular nightlife section of the city. The Five Points South area has numerous entertainment venues, restaurants and bars and often attracts large crowds on Saturday nights.

A Jefferson County man with a lengthy criminal history has been convicted of soliciting the murder of federal prosecutor in Birmingham. The federal jury on Thursday found Michael Roman Black, 32, guilty of threatening to murder and soliciting the murder of a federal prosecutor, and for making false statements to a federal agent, according to a Friday announced by Acting Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Kevin P. Davidson. 0:12 / 0:30 Middle District prosecutors tried the case since the threat was against a prosecutor in Birmingham. Black, who has had addresses in Bessemer and Hueytown, was previously convicted in...

Police in Birmingham have launched an investigation after three instances of apparently anti-white graffiti appeared in the multicultural British city. The inner-city Birmingham neighbourhood of Alum Rock saw graffiti reading “no whites” and “no whites allowed” appear over the past week, the Daily Telegraph broadsheet reported. The paper obtained CCTV footage appearing to show a man in a hoodie sweatshirt scrawling the message “no whites” on a wall outside of a primary school in the early hours of Thursday morning. Two other locations were marked with a similar message, however, there is currently no indication that the same man was...

Last night in Birmingham, UK, a father's throat was slit by an immigrant while his baby and partner was with him. Four people have been arrested. Father is critical and hospitalized

Ayoub Khan, the independent candidate backed by The Muslim Vote (TMV) who defeated Labour to take the seat of Birmingham Perry Bar, publicly questioned the extent of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7.Having served as a Liberal Democrat councillor, Khan resigned from the party in May after he had already been selected as its Perry Bar parliamentary candidate, saying he had been told to “hush up” his concerns over the Gaza war but could not do so without compromising his integrity. In yesterday’s poll he overturned the Labour incumbent Khalid Mahmood’s 15,000 majority to win by just under...

Nigel Farage is due to address voters at a Reform UK general election rally at Birmingham NEC. Oliver Dowden has described alleged Russian interference in the general election campaign as “gravely concerning” amid calls for an investigation. The deputy prime minister was responding to claims by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that it had uncovered a suspected Russian influence operation, encouraging support of Nigel Farage’s Reform party, after monitoring five co-ordinated Facebook pages.

An Alabama mother was kidnapped and tortured for hours before being gang-raped and murdered by a gang of eight, police say. Mahogany Jackson, 20, was stripped, handcuffed, beaten, spit on and forced to perform sex acts at gunpoint in a Birmingham apartment before being shot in the back of the head on Sunday February 25. Her torturers were four men and four women, according to prosecutors. Around 8am on February 25 Jackson messaged family members to say she was being held hostage in apartment 3 at Serenity Apartments in southwest Birmingham. The mother's body was found in the early-morning hours...

It’s the second largest city in England and it just effectively declared bankruptcy. There are multiple problems that have contributed to this situation but one near the top of the list is a settlement over equal pay.Birmingham City Council, which provides services for more than one million people, filed a Section 114 notice on Tuesday, halting all spending except on essential services.The deficit arose due to difficulties paying between £650 million (around $816 million) and £760 million (around $954 million) in equal pay claims, the notice report says.What will this actually mean for residents? No one is quite sure yet...

I ran across this while mousing around. Several flights are looping around without landing.