Free Republic

A former Mayo Clinic resident accused of fatally poisoning his wife last year may have been identifying as a widower before she even died, a new warrant reveals. Connor Bowman, 31, is facing charges of second- and first-degree murder for the death of 32-year-old Betty Bowman on Aug. 20, 2023. According to her obituary, Betty Bowman died at the Mayo Clinic's St. Marys Hospital "following a sudden onset of autoimmune and infectious illness." While hospitalized, Betty suffered heart issues, fluid buildup in her lungs and had to have part of her colon removed. She eventually died from organ failure. Toxicology...

The myth that Cass Elliot died by choking on a ham sandwich in 1974 was invented by her manager in an attempt to protect her legacy, the singer’s daughter said. Owen Elliot-Kugell was 7 years old when Elliot passed away at 32 from a heart attack after 36 hours of performing and partying. The former The Mamas & the Papas vocalist had been developing her solo career in London, U.K,. and seemed to have a bright future ahead of her. “By the time she got back to her flat, it was evening the following day,” Elliot-Kugell told the BBC in...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she regrets saying that Black children ​who grow up in the Bronx don’t know what the word “computer” means. “I misspoke and I regret it,” she said in a statement Monday. “Of course, Black children in the Bronx know what computers are — the problem is that they too often lack access to the technology needed to get on track to high-paying jobs in emerging industries like AI,” she said. “That’s why I’ve been focused on increasing economic opportunity since Day One of my administration, and will continue that fight to ensure every New...

Videos posted to social media showing a young, white Christian school student repeatedly saying the N-word has triggered calls for more severe punishments for students who use racial slurs and hate speech. The Kansas City Defender reported on two videos, originally posted on Snapchat last October, showing the student in a school bathroom saying, “You stupid ******,” and “Come here little ******.” Students who saw the videos reported them to their school administrators at Summit Christian Academy, but administrators reportedly made no effort to punish the student at the time. The Kansas City Defender said several students reached out to...

Former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas criticized Timberwolves defensive star Rudy Gobert for missing Monday’s Game 2 win against the Nuggets in their second-round playoff series due to the birth of his baby boy Monday morning. “It’s a baby, bro. It’s gonna be there when you get back, we hope,” Arenas said on his “Gil’s Arena” show before Minnesota’s 106-80 road win to grab a 2-0 series lead. “I’m just saying, the baby, whatever you think you about to do, he going to be asleep.” Gobert, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year, was questionable entering Monday’s game after his baby...

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela is an exuberant dictator, a lover of military salutes who is being investigated for crimes against humanity, but he’s not reckless enough to invade neighboring Guyana, is he? Would the leader of a country in an ever-deepening economic crisis risk starting Latin America’s first interstate war this century? Well, maybe. For a century and a half, Guyana and Venezuela have quarreled over Essequibo, a stretch of the Amazon that both countries claim. Guyana has long governed the territory, but Venezuela also claims sovereignty over it, citing maps drawn in colonial times. Last year, Maduro expressed...

A Florida congressman apologized Monday for invoking an insensitive stereotype in a joke aimed at Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. “Why am I getting the feeling that she wanted to eat dog with Kim Jong Un?” Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz wrote on X in response to a clip of Noem promoting her upcoming book on “CBS Mornings.” Noem’s book includes a false claim about a meeting with the North Korean leader and a true anecdote about her killing her “untrainable” 14-month-old hunting dog. Moskowitz was called out by Politico reporter Nicholas Wu,...

Independent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. landed a celebrity endorsement Monday from embattled Kevin Spacey — who hailed the independent candidate as a “loyal friend.” Spacey, 64, is facing fresh allegations of sexual misconduct from multiple men in the upcoming documentary “Spacey Unmasked,” which drops Tuesday. “There’s a lot I can learn from this man. When the world turned its back on me, Bobby leaned in,” Spacey posted on X. “He’s a formidable fighter for justice and a loyal friend that’s not afraid to stand up for what he believes.”

The President of Pacific Grove Pony Baseball and Softball announced that recently, a registered sex offender umpired at least three games for them. "Unfortunately, our umpire contractor, Peninsula Sports Incorporated (PSI), employed an umpire that was a registered sex offender listed on California’s Meghan’s Law website," said Paul Black, President of Pacific Grove Pony Baseball and Softball, in an email to families. The games officiated by the person in question were: Baseball, Mustang Division, Orioles vs. Monterey 1, April 1 at Ferrante Park Baseball, Mustang Division, Cubs vs. Pirates, April 27 at George Washington Park Baseball, Mustang Division, Cubs vs....

I spent a decade helping people with disorders considered messy, ugly or outright feared – but one patient was particularly memorable...SNIP ‘For those who don’t know, Femi is a 45-year-old man with psychosis who believes he’s a werewolf,’ Reggie, the nurse in charge, tells us. We’re on the hospital’s male psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU); because some minds need thorough care too. Hidden away in the bowels of the psychiatric hospital, it’s where florid mental illness at its most disturbed and dangerous is housed. Myself and members of the emergency response team are huddled inside the staff office, which is...

Labour's Sadiq Khan has won a landmark third successive term as mayor of London. Mr Khan, who was first elected in May 2016, beat his Conservative rival Susan Hall by more than 276,000 votes - representing a swing of 3.2% to Labour. He won nine of the 14 constituencies including two gains from the Tories. More than 2.4m votes were cast reflecting a turnout of 42.8% - ever so slightly down compared to the 2021 mayoral election. Speaking after his victory was declared at City Hall in east London, Mr Khan said: "It is the honour of my life to...

To convert a hush money payment into 34 felonies, prosecutors are invoking an obscure state election law that experts say has never been used before.Jurors in Donald Trump's trial at the New York County Criminal Courthouse in Manhattan have heard a lot about paying people to keep their mouths shut. The New York Times understandably calls the trial a "hush money case." But both sides in the case, the first-ever criminal proceeding against a former president, object to that characterization, and their dueling interpretations go to the heart of the legally dubious charges against Trump. When Trump lawyer Michael Cohen...

An annual report by a Uyghur advocacy group revealed ongoing persecution in China's far-western Xinjiang province, with an estimated 1 in 26 Uyghurs jailed, accounting for a third of China's prison population, 3.5 times the world's highest rate of imprisonment. A new Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) report indicates that Uyghurs, Turkic and other non-Han peoples in the Uyghur Region account for more than a third (34 per cent) of China's estimated prison population, despite making up only one per cent of China's overall population. When accounting for the total regional population, the Uyghur region has the highest prison rate...

For Jews in America and around the world, Israel represents a thriving land of survival and opportunity, and not only for my people. Nowhere else in the Middle East are those of all races, religions, sexes and sexual orientations welcome to live in peace and prosperity. Now the dream is dying — thwarted by people who’d like nothing better than to see Israel wiped from the map. It’s a sad day across the United States and abroad as whiny, privileged college students and thrill-seeking provocateurs, egged on by leftist professors, the “mainstream” news media and numbskull politicians, foment pro-terrorist, anti-Jewish...

If April showers bring May flowers then what does May bring? Apparently significant snow at higher elevations. The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a winter weather advisory for the greater Lake Tahoe basin and parts of the high Sierra. The NWS says snow accumulations up to three to six inches are expected around Lake Tahoe and six to 12 inches over higher Sierra passes, with up to 10 to 14 inches across the Sierra crest above 7,000 feet. The bulk of the storm moves through Saturday and wraps up by 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 5. Roads, especially...

The guitar legend says he's "speechless" after hearing the news.Peter Frampton says news of his long-awaited Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction “hasn’t really sunk in yet.” But he’s still thrilled that the honor is upon him after 26 years of eligibility as a solo artist. “I think I’m a little bit in shock, and speechless,” Frampton tells Billboard with a laugh from his home in Nashville. “I never expected this. People always said, ‘You should be in.’ I said, ‘Eh, what is to be,’ y’know? So mixed emotions, because it’s something that I just never expected, whereas other...

Duane Eddy, the twangy, Grammy-winning rock guitarist who had Top 10 instrumental hits including “Rebel Rouser” and “Forty Miles of Bad Road” and scored with a version of Henry Mancini’s “Peter Gunn,” died Wednesday of cancer at a hospital in Franklin, TN, his wife Deed Abbate told The Associated Press. He had turned 86 last week. Eddy, who influenced generations of guitar legends including George Harrison, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen, Ritchie Blackmore, Mark Knopfler and The Ventures’ Don Wilson, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Born on April 26, 1938, in Corning, NY, Eddy...

For years, the general population has believed that people with flat feet are more likely to develop future pain and musculoskeletal issues. The Cube takes a look at a study claiming that this isn't the case after all. The idea that having flat feet inevitably leads to pain or other musculoskeletal problems goes back centuries. It was revived during the second half of the 1900s, when US podiatrists popularised the notion of having ‘normal’ feet. This included the theory that not having a well-defined arch or a straight heel would make your feet abnormal and more prone to injury, because...

Politicians and faith leaders have condemned the incident at the Polish capital's Nożyk Synagogue, which follows similar acts across Europe. Warsaw's main synagogue was attacked with firebombs early on Wednesday by an unknown perpetrator, but sustained minimal damage and nobody was hurt, Poland's chief rabbi said. The incident was strongly condemned by political leaders. The attack on the Nożyk Synagogue happened around 1 am, Rabbi Michael Schudrich told The Associated Press.

Sweden kicks off for spring with a traditional night of songs and bonfires on April 30. Walpurgis Night, “Valborg” in Swedish, is the last day of April, spent in celebration of spring and community spirit. Dating back to the Middle Ages, it was initially the Germans who brought the festive tradition to Sweden, in honour of the 8th century German saint, Walpurgis. In medieval times, April 30 marked the end of the administrative year; local merchants and craftsmen celebrated by dancing and singing in anticipation of spring. It was also a significant day for peasants and farmers, who attended the...