Free Republic

The circumstances of the death of the Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center of Gazprom for Corporate Security, whose body was found in the prestigious village of Leninskoye in the Vyborg District of the Leningrad Region, are being established. A note was found nearby, law enforcement officials told 47news. A month earlier, in the same village, the body of a top manager of another division from Gazprom's orbit was found. Both of the now deceased previously worked at Gazprom Transgaz. As it became known to 47news, in the early morning of February 25, the police received a message...

President Biden and his allies raked in campaign cash from a top Russia lobbyist in 2020, just months before his administration’s decision to scrap sanctions on a controversial firm building a Russian oil pipeline to Germany. Richard Burt, a managing partner at McLarty Associates and a former U.S. ambassador to Germany during the Reagan administration, ponied up $4,000 for Joe Biden in October 2020 and dropped another $10,000 in the lefty-aligned political action committee Unite The County in March 2020, FEC records show. In addition to violating Biden’s own campaign pledge not to take lobbyist cash, the money from Burt...

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Burt Reynolds died of a heart attack Thursday morning at a hospital in Florida, according to multiple reports. Reynold was 82. Burt was transported a Florida hospital after going into cardiac arrest. His family was by his side when he passed. Burt was a star in the moves and on TV -- appearing in classics like "Smokey and the Bandit," "Boogie Knights" and "Cannonball Run."

A grieving Bronx family is stunned that the teen accused of sucker-punching their father and husband is being charged with a misdemeanor that could result in the suspect doing less than a year in jail. Ildefonso Romero Jr. died days after a teenage boy allegedly sucker-punched him outside his home on Thieriot Avenue in Soundview on June 21. Witnesses said Romero had been protecting a girl from local teens who were apparently causing trouble in the street, and one of the teens punched Romero. Romero fell and hit his head on the curb, and his son found him unconscious on...

The Bombing of Sterling HallText and photos copyright © 2000 Leemark Communications The doors to the old part of Sterling Hall, as seen from Charter Street. Early on August 24th, 1970, a van loaded with six barrels of explosives blew up just outside the East Wing of Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. The bombing was carried out by four men in protest of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The bombing was directed against the Mathematics Research Center, a U.S.-Army-funded facility, which was located in the East Wing of Sterling Hall along with the...

Convicted Sterling Hall bomber Karl Armstrong was arrested last week in Chicago after state troopers found more than $800,000 cash in heat-sealed bags stashed inside of a motor home that Armstrong was driving, according to a document filed Monday in court. That arrest Thursday led to a search on Saturday by the state Division of Criminal Investigation of a town of Madison trailer home where Armstrong lives for evidence of marijuana trafficking, according to a search warrant filed in Dane County Circuit Court. Neither Wisconsin nor Illinois authorities found marijuana in Armstrong's trailer or motor home.

Note: Photo included, Wanted poster included, audio file and transcript include, and a link to America's Most Wanted included. (See below.) # Note: The following text (minus the photos) is a quote: Headline Archives The aftermath of the attack on Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin 40 years ago this week. TERROR AT STERLING HALL 40 Years Later, Fugitive Search Continues 08/23/10 Where is Leo Burt? You can earn up to $150,000 by helping us find him. Forty years ago—on August 24, 1970—Burt and three other young men protesting the Vietnam War carried out a pre-dawn bomb attack at...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Actor Burt Reynolds (search) sued his former girlfriend Monday, alleging that she was threatening to falsely accuse him of abuse if he did not pay millions of dollars in extortion.

Two major problems experienced during last month's suborbital space flight of Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne vehicle have been corrected, Wired News reported Wednesday. In an interview, Burt Rutan said that engineers have solved a problem with a roll trim actuator that SpaceShipOne experienced late in the powered portion of the vehicle's flight. While Rutan said immediately after the June 21 flight that the problem was serious, he downplayed the problem in the Wired interview, saying that the actuator had hit a mechanical stop that limited its movement. Rutan also said that the strong roll the vehicle encountered immediately after starting its...

Burt Rutan, designer of numerous state-of-the-art flying machines including the note-worthy "Voyager" aircraft that flew around the world non-stop and un-refueled, is poised to set another record. This time, he has designed and built an aircraft that is an entrant for the Ansari X-Prize competition. Pilot Mike Melvill will be at the controls for the record flight, the first private-owned flight into space (62miles/1000km high). Another aircraft, a "StarShip" built by Beechcraft (now known as Ratheon), is a unique modern composite-built design that will fly chase during the missions. "This flight is one of the most exciting and challenging activities...

The privately-built SpaceShipOne has chalked up a sixth glide test. Piloted by veteran rocketeer, Mike Melvill, the flight took place November 19 over Mojave, California desert. Carried by the White Knight mothership to 48,300 feet, SpaceShipOne was launched on an un-powered flight to a landing strip touchdown. During the glide to terra firma, the vehicle's new enlarged tails were evaluated, as were other handling qualities of the craft. According to Scaled Composites of Mojave, California -- builder and operator of the White Knight/SpaceShipOne -- Melvill reported improved stability of the space vehicle, as well as improved control powers and enhanced...

Burt Builds Your Ride to Space Burt Rutan wants to fly into space every Tuesday for five months, to test a concept and prove a point. And he wants to do it soon: He may make the first flight before the December 17 Wright brothers centenary. Chances are, he'll succeed. That was the buzz in Mojave, California, when Rutan, one of the world's most innovative aircraft designers, recently unveiled what could become the first successful privately funded manned space program, a system composed of two startlingly original vehicles: the insect-like White Knight mother ship, and SpaceShipOne, a winged, rocket-propelled pod...