Free Republic

Our legal team, American Freedom Law Center, which has triumphed on our behalf more times than I can count, has prevailed today against a frivolous, hoax lawsuit by the infamous “clockboy.” You remember Ahmed Mohamed (aka clockmed). He took apart an LCD digital clock and stuck it in a box. What he put together resembled a homemade bomb. Ahmed brought a strange ticking device to his high school that set off alarms and fear. When teachers and school administration officials became concerned for the safety of the students, they walked into Clockmed’s trap. The student was detained for having...

Hillary Clinton returns to Washington, and to the scene of her last government job, for the ceremonial opening next week of a new exhibition and museum area at the State Department that will be partly named for her. Clinton is slated to speak at the ceremony and reception on Tuesday, alongside fellow former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, according to an invitation to the event, which has not been announced. It would be only her second public appearance in Washington since losing the Nov. 8 election. One of the four exhibition halls in the U.S. Diplomacy Center...

After 15 years of development, an Israeli tech firm is optimistic it will finally get its 1,500 kg (1.5 tonne) passenger carrying drone off the ground and into the market by 2020. The Cormorant, billed as a flying car, is capable of transporting 500kg (around half a tonne) of weight and traveling at 185 km (115 miles) per hour. It completed its first automated solo flight over terrain in November. Its total price is estimated at $14 million. Developers Urban Aeronautics believe the dark green drone, which uses internal rotors rather than helicopter propellers, could evacuate people from hostile environments...

In the world of climate science, the skeptics are coming in from the cold. Researchers who see global warming as something less than a planet-ending calamity believe the incoming Trump administration may allow their views to be developed and heard. This didn’t happen under the Obama administration, which denied that a debate even existed. Now, some scientists say, a more inclusive approach – and the billions of federal dollars that might support it – could be in the offing. ~snip~ The field is cluttered with entrenched figures who must toe the established line, he said, pointing to a recent congressional...

Since Election Day, President-elect Donald J. Trump has proposed a U-turn in American diplomatic relations with Cuba, boasted about negotiations with a major manufacturer, trumpeted false claims about millions of illegal votes and hinted that he might upend current free speech laws by banning flag burning. All in 140 characters or less. As news organizations grapple with covering a commander in chief unlike any other, Mr. Trump’s Twitter account — a bully pulpit, propaganda weapon and attention magnet all rolled into one — has quickly emerged as a fresh journalistic challenge and a source of lively debate. How to cover...

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — When Western Michigan hired P. J. Fleck before the 2013 season, he was, at 32, the youngest head coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision. With indomitable energy, offensive smarts — he had been a receivers coach in the N.F.L. — and a penchant for quirky motivational mantras like “Row The Boat,” he has turned the Broncos from a 1-11 doormat in his first year to a 9-0 team that is No. 17 in this week’s Associated Press poll. Fleck’s success, as intense as his personality, is great news for Western Michigan. It is also, in a sense,...

Donald Trump was consistently behind in the polling in Michigan since his nomination in July. Yet Tuesday, he narrowly edged out Hillary Clinton by a little more than 13,000 votes. So what happened? Just as Obama's message of change resonated among Michigan voters in 2008, so Trump's call for change appeared to carry the day in 2016. "America is going in the wrong direction and if we don't make some changes, we'll cease to exist as the country we have known," said David Lambright, a Lansing resident who went to Grand Rapids for a Trump rally on the eve of...

The U.S. Army has dropped Smith & Wesson from its Modular Handgun System competition, according to a Sept. 23 report Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Smith & Wesson, which was partnered with General Dynamics, was one of five gun makers competing to replace the Army’s M9 9mm pistol. “We and our partner in the pursuit of the U.S. Army’s Modular Handgun System, or MHS, solicitation to replace the M9 standard Army sidearm have been notified by the Department of the Army that our proposal was not selected to advance to the next...

A new study from professors at Oklahoma State University has found that Republicans and Democrats have never been so far apart on climate issues. "What was once a modest tendency for Congressional Republicans to be less pro-environmental than their Democratic counterparts has become a chasm—with Republicans taking near-unanimous anti-environmental stances on relevant legislation in recent years, especially 2015," the study said. This distance between the parties was further exacerbated by the rise of the Koch-funded Tea Party, which took the hard line of fully dismissing the climate change threat, often making climate change a lightning rod for voters who were...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin to host talks in Moscow between the Israeli leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu's office said on Monday. It said in a statement Netanyahu, at a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, "presented Israel's position whereby he is always ready to meet (Abbas) without preconditions and is therefore considering the Russian president's proposal and the timing for a possible meeting". A spokesman for Abbas, who is on a visit to Europe, declined immediate comment. The last Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in...

Multiple sclerosis patients who were severely disabled are walking, working and even downhill skiing again following a breakthrough therapy which completely destroys, then rebuilds, the immune system. The trial, which is the first in the world to show complete long-term remission from the debilitating disease has been hailed by experts as ‘exciting’ ‘unprecedented,’ and ‘close to curative.’ Although it is unclear what causes MS it is thought that the immune system attacks the protective coating which surrounds nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord leading to inflammation, pain, disability and in severe cases, early death...

It’s been compared to a subwoofer blasting Barry White’s greatest hits or an idling diesel truck. Others say the low, rumbling noise that has stalked residents in the Canadian city of Windsor for years sounds like Star Trek’s Enterprise gearing up for warp speed. “Very destructive,” is how Mike Provost, a 62-year-old retired insurance salesman describes the so-called Windsor Hum. “If you think of thunder, and you take that thunder and constantly repeat it for hours and days, weeks, that’s all it is.” Residents on the west and south side of Windsor – a city of 210,000 people that sits...

CALGARY, Alberta—Kinder Morgan Inc.’s proposed expansion of a crude oil pipeline connecting Alberta’s oil sands to the Canadian Pacific coast cleared a key hurdle on Thursday after a government advisory panel recommended it, subject to dozens of conditions. Canada’s National Energy Board urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration to approve the controversial project, known as the Trans Mountain pipeline, if 157 conditions are met. A cabinet decision isn’t expected until December. “The board found the benefits of the project would outweigh the residual burdens” on the environment and nearby communities, Robert Steedman, the NEB’s’ chief environmental officer said at a...

Wheelchair-bound multiple sclerosis patients able to walk again after stem-cell therapy A pioneering new stem cell treatment is reversing and then halting the potentially crippling effects of multiple sclerosis. Patients embarking on a ground-breaking trial of the new treatment have found they can walk again and that the disease even appears to be stopped in its tracks...

ATTENTION CENTRAL FLORIDA FREEPERS -- JOIN THIS PROTEST Public protest against Port Canaveral Authority and Gulftainer (GT USA) NO RAILS! NATIONAL SECURITY! We are staging a protest at Port Canaveral in Florida on Friday, June 12, the day Gulftainer GT USA and the Canaveral Port Authority will unveil GT USA’s cargo container terminal at Port Canaveral. We are reaching out to all, including vets who will protest with us, to stand with us for the protection of our national security nexus... Nuclear subs, Trident, our Navy, US Air Force, NASA — and our quality of life. Why? Because in a...

The Unknowns is a documentary film by U.S. Army Veterans Neal Schrodetzki and Ethan Morse.

~ New System Available on 2016 Volvo Drive-E Family Engines ~ VANCOUVER, May 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ - Westport Innovations Inc. (TSX:WPT / NASDAQ:WPRT), engineering the world's most advanced natural gas engines and vehicles, today announced the opportunity to view Westport's new combustion technology in Volvo Car Group's new Drive-E powertrain bi-fuel engine at the World Gas Conference (WGC) in Paris, France from June 1 to 5 (www.wgc2015.org). Volvo Cars is the first OEM to feature the new Westport system. It will be used on Volvo's new two-litre, direct injection, four-cylinder Drive-E powertrain family, which will be available on the Volvo...

Full headline: "Gulftainer shipping weapons to Iranian-backed terrorists in Iraq: Former senior official for coalition embassy in Iraq cites Iraq port authority officials’ leak to Iraqi media". (1776 Channel) Gulftainer, the UAE container terminal operator that was recently awarded a 35-year lease at strategically-important Port Canaveral, FL, adjacent to a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine base and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, has allegedly been shipping weapons through the Port of Umm Qasr to two Iranian-backed terrorist militia groups in Iraq, the Badr Brigades and Asaeib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), according to a leak from Iraq General Port Company officials in Basra to...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (May 23, 2015) – This week, the Alabama state Senate passed a bill that would end the practice of licensing marriages in the state, effectively nullifying both major sides of the contentious national debate over government-sanctioned marriage. Introduced by Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Bay Minette), Senate Bill 377 (SB377) would end state issued marriage licenses, while providing marriage contracts as an alternative. It passed through the Alabama state Senate by a 22-3 margin on May 19. “When you invite the state into those matters of personal or religious import, it creates difficulties,” Sen. Albritton said about his bill in...

Former CIA Director James Woolsey and T. Boone Pickens discuss global politics, oil prices, and the path America can take to achieve energy independence.