Free Republic

Although Devon Dunham confessed to fatally shooting former Hardeeville volunteer fire chief Ernest Martin Stevens in a public parking lot in 2017, a Jasper County jury found him not guilty of murder Thursday. Dunham breathed an audible sigh of relief through his face mask after hearing the verdict and softly fist-bumped his attorney... Stone alleged Dunham walked up to Stevens, told him to give him the truck, then unloaded all eight rounds in his 9 mm handgun when Stevens tried to drive away. “He shot Mr. Stevens because he was losing his ride,” Stone claimed, adding here’s no argument of...

As all eyes are on the House impeachment inquiry, elsewhere an agricultural bill that could provide a path to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants is rumbling through the chamber — leading immigration hawks to accuse lawmakers of trying to sneak in an amnesty while the nation is distracted. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, passed in the House Judiciary Committee last month, is scheduled for a vote on the House floor Wednesday. The bill provides a process for undocumented farmworkers to seek a temporary five-and-a-half-year “Certified Agricultural Worker” status if they have worked for approximately six months in the...

Two top Republican chairmen stressed Friday that the final report from special counsel Robert Mueller "must be trusted by Americans." In closing out their joint committee investigation into decisions made by the Justice Department, Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., took a shot at their Democratic counterparts for playing up concerns that their probe was a campaign to undermine Mueller. "Contrary to Democrat and media claims, there has been no effort to discredit the work of the Special Counsel," Gowdy and Goodlatte wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acting Attorney...

Four Local Members of White Supremacy Group Face Federal Charges in Attacks at Political Rallies across CaliforniaLOS ANGELES – Four Southern California men who allegedly are members of a white supremacy extremist group have been named in a federal criminal complaint that charges them of travelling to political rallies across California, where they violently attacked counter-protesters, journalists and a police officer. Three of the four defendants are now in custody, and authorities are continuing to search for the fourth defendant. The criminal complaint unsealed today alleges that the four defendants are members of the Southern California-based “Rise Above Movement” (RAM)...

WASHINGTON — Charges have been dropped against the remaining defendants arrested in the wake of violent protests on Inauguration Day 2017. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement Friday that they believe “evidence shows that a riot occurred on January 20, 2017, during which more than $100,000 in damage was caused,” and that 21 people have pleaded guilty for their actions that day, including one felony. “In light of the results in the cases brought to trial, however, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has now moved to dismiss charges against the 39 remaining defendants in...

More than two dozen Senate Republicans are urging President Trump to re-engage in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. The 25 GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Trump on Friday saying they support his recent comments that he may consider U.S. participation if the 11-nation Asia-Pacific pact is improved.

In 2016, the estimated number of murders in the nation was 17,250. This was an 8.6 percent increase from the 2015 estimate, a 16.1 percent increase from the 2012 figure, and a 0.7 percent rise from the number in 2007. (See Tables 1 and 1A.) There were 5.3 murders per 100,000 people in 2016. The murder rate in 2016 was up from the rates in 2015 (7.9 percent) and 2012 (12.8 percent).

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is in D.C. urging Congress to save DACA Two weeks after President Donald Trump moved to eliminate a program that protects some young immigrants from deportation, IBM chief executive Ginni Rometty is visiting Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to save it. As part of a swing through Washington, D.C., this week, Rometty has met with Senate Democrats and Republicans in a bid to get them to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, from phasing out beginning in March. The initiative, implemented in 2012, had allowed children brought to the United States illegally to obtain...

Plano Police are investigating a gruesome scene at a single family home on West Spring Creek Pkwy., where investigators say 8 people have been shot to death. Police don't know what the disturbance was about or how the people in the home knew each other. A Plano officer shot and killed the suspect. It's unclear if that suspect is one of the 8 people reported dead.

A Mississippi teen has been charged after he allegedly stabbed an elderly woman and cut her ear off. Corey Smith, 13, was charged in connection with an attack that left a 61-year-old Jackson resident in critical condition and without an ear, KMBC reported. The unidentified woman was reportedly attacked at her home late Tuesday night. A family member told KMBC that after she parked her car and walked toward her house, a man ran over to her, cut her ear off and stabbed her multiple times. The man then reportedly stole the elderly woman’s purse and car keys before driving...

Little Rock police have identified the victim in Friday's homicide as 31-year-old Carlo Marigliano. According to the victim's family, Marigliano, was visiting Little Rock from Italy and spoke limited English and was traveling with an Italian tour group when he decided to break away and explore the city alone. The victim’s family tells KATV they are flying in from Italy and the Italian Consulate is getting involved in the investigation. Little Rock police are not releasing any suspect information.

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The Little Rock Police Department confirms a 3-year-old boy is dead after he was shot during a road rage incident Saturday. According to police, the shooting occurred in southwest Little Rock. The child's grandmother was driving the car and taking her grandson shopping when the incident occurred. Police believe she and the victim were completely innocent and have no relationship with the suspect. The child was discovered to be fatally wounded at the JCPenney store in the Shackleford Crossings shopping center in west Little Rock. Police are now looking for an older black Chevrolet Impala being...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police are investigating a pair of murders in two Memphis neighborhoods. These murders mean the city has tied its record of 213 homicides set in 1993.

Tulsa hit a new high for homicides in a year early Friday with a pair of deaths, including a woman who died after being stabbed during an altercation with a friend who was helping her move. Tahmachqua Floyd, 24, was the city’s 72nd homicide victim of 2016. The previous record of 71 was set in 2009, according to Tulsa World and Tulsa Police Department records. The new record didn’t stand for long. Just minutes after Floyd’s death, Leon Crockett, 37, died of gunshot wounds he received Nov. 19 in a north Tulsa apartment, police reported.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A little girl is dead and her mother and young sister were critically injured after they were shot during an attempted robbery in north Harris County, according to deputies. This all started around 8:40pm as a 27-year-old woman was carrying groceries to her apartment alongside her 10-year-old and 4-year-old daughters. Investigators said at least two men in a dark-colored sedan pulled up next to them and got out. The men reportedly asked for the woman's purse, but she refused. That's when deputies believe one of the men shot the mother and her two children at close range.

SAN ANTONIO -- News 4 San Antonio has learned there have been 129 murders so far this year, compared to 85 this time last year. San Antonio hasn't seen so many murders since 1995. Some of the youngest victims include five-year-old Ana Garza who was shot in the head while she slept inside her home on Pecan Valley Drive in June, and seven-year-old Iris Rodriguez who was also shot while walking to a West side store with her Family the same month.

Australian art gallery owner Kevin Reid has been praised as a hero by his wife after he moved her out of danger moments before masked robbers fatally shot him dead on a US street. Kari Graham-Reid told how she was on an after-dinner stroll with her “wonderful” husband near their home in Savannah, Georgia, on Wednesday night when three men suddenly appeared from the shadows... Local police described one of the suspects as a black male wearing a light coloured bandanna over his face. The other two suspects were described as black males. “There hasn’t been an arrest in the...

A rash of unsolved outdoor homicides in Alaska's largest city is putting residents on edge. Altogether, the deaths of nine people who were killed on Anchorage trails, parks and isolated streets since January remain unsolved — among them three cases involving two victims each. "It's terrifying," said Jennifer Hazen, a longtime resident who lives near Valley of the Moon Park, where two people were found dead early Sunday, one of them on a park bike trail. Hazen walks in the park regularly, and finds some comfort in knowing the unsolved homicides occurred in the middle of the night when she...

MILWAUKEE - Five men are dead after a series of overnight shooting's in Milwaukee. "We had a horrible night last night," Mayor Tom Barrett said Saturday afternoon. The shooting's stretched from 6 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday, a 9-hour span that saw 9 shootings, including the 5 deaths. The victims range in age from 21 to 36.

Half-ton pickup trucks crowd the curb outside the One Horse Saloon, a neon Coors Light sign in the window and rib-eye steaks on the menu, but otherwise Nickerson, Nebraska, is nearly silent on a spring evening, with only rumbling freight trains interrupting bird songs. Regional economic development officials thought it was the perfect spot for a chicken processing plant that would liven up the 400-person town with 1,100 jobs, more than it had ever seen. When plans leaked out, though, there was no celebration, only furious opposition that culminated in residents packing the fire hall to complain the roads couldn't...