Free Republic

SH 36 in Temple has been reopened after a nearly 350,000-pound distillation column fell off the back of a semi-truck and onto a car Saturday morning, killing two people and sending one to the hospital in critical condition, according to the City of Temple. The column pinned the vehicle underneath after it was detached from the semi-truck and took a coordinated effort from several different departments to remove it, Temple Fire and Rescue Public Information Office Santos Soto said. "That load was bigger than anything that we had equipment for and we worked with several different agencies to get several...

The United States Embassy in Manila confirmed on Thursday that a fuel shipment is being transported from a US military facility in Hawaii to be stored in a “commercial storage facility” at Subic Bay. US Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay told reporters that the delivery was made through proper channels, using established logistics contracts with Philippine commercial entities. “We can confirm that the Yosemite Trader, a commercial tanker, is currently in the vicinity of Subic Bay, Philippines in order to transfer clean fuel from the US military facility at Red Hill, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to a commercial storage facility at Subic...

Over just a few years, Houthi rebels in Yemen have amassed a remarkably diverse array of anti-ship weaponry, incorporating both cruise and ballistic missiles, which they have recently used to threaten shipping in the Red Sea. The critical role that Iran has played in this build-up raises broader questions about Tehran’s regional strategy. Yemen’s Ansarullah (Houthi) movement has been threatening shipping in the Red Sea with an increasingly diverse and capable range of anti-ship missiles. The attacks are putting pressure on commercial cargo vessels on a vital trade route and the developing naval coalition that is trying to ensure freedom...

A U.S. Navy service member was sentenced today to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,500 fine for transmitting sensitive U.S. military information to an intelligence officer from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in exchange for bribery payments. According to court documents, Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, aka Thomas Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of conspiring with the intelligence officer and one count of receiving a bribe. “Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to defend his country and endangered those who serve in the U.S. military,” said Assistant...

A solemn ceremony was held for the K-564 Yasen-M class multi-purpose submarine at the Sevmash shipyard in the north Russian city of Severodvinsk on November 29. The Arkhangelsk was rolled out of the construction hall into a launch dock in a ceremony attended by Russian Navy Commander, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov. A bottle of champagne was smashed on the hull by the submarine’s commander, Captain Aleksandr Gladkov. Launching new submarines near the end of the year follows a long tradition back to Soviet days, as fulfilling annual plans ranks higher than assuring quality checks. K-564 will now be floated out on...

The Israeli military has uncovered Hamas’s biggest terror tunnel system since the ground operation began almost seven weeks ago. The underground terrorist network, built using tunnel boring machines, is large enough for vehicles to pass through, the Israel Defense Forces disclosed on Sunday. This deep and massive tunnels located in northern Gaza reached close to the Israeli border. “This massive tunnel system, splits into branches of tunnels, spans well over four kilometers (2.5 miles) and reaches only 400 meters (1,310 feet) from the Erez crossing,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported. “This subterranean tunnel system was a project led by...

The worsening bottlenecks at the drought-stricken Panama Canal are pushing at least one US diesel shipper to sail around the tip of South America en route to Chile for the first time since 2020. The vessel Green Sky is hauling ultra-low sulfur diesel loaded at Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s Clifton Ridge terminal in Louisiana to Valparaiso, Chile, according to Bloomberg vessel tracking and Kpler. Rather than traversing through Panama, the vessel is headed down the eastern coast of South America toward the Strait of Magellan, the first such voyage for a cargo of Gulf Coast diesel since 2020, according to Kpler....

Community members in an Arlington neighborhood are being told to shelter in place after police say a flare gun was fired inside a home, causing a massive explosion. Arlington County police put out the alert just after 8:15 p.m., saying the incident occurred in the 800 block of N. Burlington Street in the Bluemont neighborhood. Police say as officers were attempting to execute a search warrant at the residence, a suspect fired several rounds inside the home, which led to the explosion. Arlington Fire and EMS said units are at the scene working to put out the fire. They tell...

Over the last seven weeks, President Joe Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and many other Biden administration officials have hopscotched all over the Middle East meeting with heads of state focusing on getting the hostages home and raising the argument that Israel has the right to defend itself after the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7 when 1,400 were killed and 240 were taken hostage to Gaza. The Biden Administration has garnered attention speaking about the peace truce for the three to one ratio exchange of three Palestinian prisoners in Israel for every one Hamas-taken hostage. During the...

At last report, there were three confirmed fatalities in the landslide, one known survivor and three people still missing. A massive landslide took out three homes on a highway outside of Wrangell late Monday. Three people had been found dead as of Tuesday night, and search and rescue efforts continue, along with an outpouring of community aid. KTOO’s Anna Canny is in Wrangell and says the most recent update from authorities is that three people are still missing. Anna Canny: So right now, we still don’t know any of those names that have been released publicly. But we do know...

What’s a Claim File? Why Should I Request One?A claim file is a collection of the information your insurer used to decide whether it would pay for your medical treatment or services. Most people in the U.S. facing a denial have the right to request their claim file from their insurer. It can include internal correspondence, recordings of phone calls, case notes, medical records and other relevant information.Information in your claim file can be critical when appealing denials. Some patients told us they received case notes showing that their insurer’s decision was the outcome of cost-cutting programs. Others have gotten...

In North Carolina, lawmakers outraged that breast cancer patients were being denied reconstructive surgeries passed a measure forcing health insurers to pay for them. In Arizona, legislators intervened to protect patients with diabetes, requiring health plans to cover their supplies. Elected officials in more than a dozen states, from Oklahoma to California, wrote laws demanding that insurance companies pay for emergency services. Over the last four decades, states have enacted hundreds of laws dictating precisely what insurers must cover so that consumers aren’t driven into debt or forced to go without medicines or procedures. But health plans have violated these...

When a stubborn pain in Nick van Terheyden’s bones would not subside, his doctor had a hunch what was wrong. Without enough vitamin D in the blood, the body will pull calcium from the bones. Left untreated, a vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteoporosis. A blood test in the fall of 2021 confirmed the doctor’s diagnosis, and van Terheyden expected his company’s insurance plan, managed by Cigna, to cover the cost of the bloodwork. Instead, Cigna sent van Terheyden a letter explaining that it would not pay for the $350 test because it was not “medically necessary.” The letter...

China's People's Liberation Army - Navy ship "Longushan" is reportedly ablaze just off the coast of China tonight. The vessel is reported to be "China's most advanced warship." No OFFICIAL word on what caused the fire. I am not sure if China has acknowledged the fire yet ... All mention of this is being rapidly scrubbed from China social media networks, and no official information is coming out of Beijing. The vessel bears Hull Number 980 and is described as a Type 071 landing ship. China's fifth Type 071 amphibious transport dock (LPD) Longhushan; with hull number 980) was commissioned...

I have been writing a lot on Israel, and thought I should write about another one of my lifelong interests: Spain Spain is undergoing its greatest crisis since the death of Franco, and the struggle began to develop a parliamentary system of governance. We see the reemergence of themes from Spain's complex and endlessly fascinating past. While in theory, and mostly practice, Spain has been a unified kingdom/state for some 500 years, under the surface separatist forces continue to work. Very quickly, and others can fill in more details. This, after all, is just a humble vanity blog. In October...

On November 13, 2022, about 1530 local time, a fire started on the bridge of the oil tanker S-Trust while the vessel was docked at the Genesis Port Allen Terminal in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.1 Fire teams from the vessel’s crew extinguished the fire about 1550. There were no injuries, and no pollution was reported. The damage to the vessel was estimated at $3 million. 1.1 Background The S-Trust was a Liberian-flagged, 800-foot-long, steel-hulled liquid bulk cargo vessel (oil tanker) owned by New Trend Ltd and operated by Stalwart Management Ltd. The vessel was built in 2005 and had a cargo...

Lee Richard, a speedy utility infielder who played for the Chicago White Sox from 1971-1975, and for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1976, died back on August 6 at age 74 (per Baseball Player Passings). According to his B-Ref bio page, the Lafayette, Louisiana native was at the plate in 1974 when Nolan Ryan threw what was believed to be the first pitch clocked over 100 mph by a radar gun.

In what is suspected to be the biggest data leak case in the country so far, details of 81.5 crore Indians with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) are on sale. Given the grave nature of the incident, India’s premier agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to probe the matter once ICMR files a complaint. A ‘threat actor’ with a handle on X, formerly Twitter, has advertised the database in the breached forum on dark web which involves records of 815 million Indian citizens — Aadhaar and passport information along with names, phone numbers and addresses. The...

A major gas and oil processing station in the Fuman oilfield, located in the Tarim Basin, was put into operation on Sunday evening, according to the Tarim oilfield branch of PetroChina, China's leading oil and gas producer. The Fuman oilfield, China's largest ultra-deep oilfield, boasts more than 1 billion tons of oil and gas resources, which are mainly detected underground at 7,500 meters to 10,000 meters deep, the company said. According to the company, the Fuman oilfield is expected to produce 5 million tons of oil and gas equivalent annually by 2025. Construction of the station in the Fuman oilfield...