Free Republic

A former award-winning teacher has been sentenced to jail over a sexual assault of a student more than a decade ago. Leah Ruthann Queen, 44, pleaded guilty to having a sexual relationship with a student. Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren sentenced Queen to six years of state-supervised probation and 58 days in the Benton County Jail. She was also ordered not to have any contact with the victim.Queen was a teacher at the Gentry Intermediate School in Arkansas.

The return to in-office work has not gone well. As detailed by Entrepreneur, companies that have forced workers back into the office are currently facing a litany of issues ranging from employee dissatisfaction to difficulty hiring. “Unispace finds that nearly half (42%) of companies that mandated office returns witnessed a higher level of employee attrition than they had anticipated,” writes author Gleb Tsipursky. “And almost a third (29%) of companies enforcing office returns are struggling with recruitment.” For the companies who are considering returning to the office, the outlook isn’t great. “According to the same Greenhouse report, a staggering 76%...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) - This weekend, Pride events will be held in Morgantown. One event that was initially scheduled won’t be occurring though due to a “lack of appropriate” police staffing. The Morgantown Pride Parade was set to take place on Friday night at 6 p.m., but instead, it will now be a march of solidarity. The march will start behind the old Panera Bread building, which was located at 207 Willey Street, and will end at 123 Pleasant Street. “Morgantown Pride wishes to report that we have unfortunately been unable to receive confirmation that the Pride Parade can proceed...

School administrators in Burlington, Massachusetts, called the actions of students who resisted a middle school's Pride Month celebrations "completely unacceptable." They also said it was "demeaning" to other students while likening it to violence. According to Boston.com, on June 2, 2023, students at Marshall Simonds Middle School showed their obvious displeasure with the school's "spirit day" celebration. The event was requested and sponsored by the school's Spectrum Club, a student group for alleged LGBTQ+ students and allies, according to the outlet.

When Carl Kosak returned from work to his home in Greensburg’s Academy Hill neighborhood, he got something to eat and then headed down to the basement. That’s where he assumed his second identity — one long hidden from co-workers, neighbors and friends — as acclaimed mystery writer K.C. Constantine. “My father had a desk at the bottom of the basement stairs, and that’s where he wrote,” said Kosak’s only son, Chris Kosak of Moraga, Calif. “He wrote every single day — some days maybe that was only one sentence — but he put himself in that chair at that desk...

A mob reportedly beat and burned suspected gang members to death in the streets of Port-au-Prince, the capitol of Haiti.Gruesome videos of the vigilante action appeared on social media and showed the alleged gang members with burning tires around their necks.The incident began when members of the criminal gangs broke into homes early in the morning on Monday.“It was 3 am. The gangs invaded us. There was shooting, shooting. This neighborhood is a peaceful area, all the people in the surrounding area are peaceful citizens,” said a local resident to AFP.Later, the Haitian National Police rounded up several suspected gang...

A new study conducted by Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute has found that individuals who saved sex for marriage have significantly higher levels of marital satisfaction than those who had multiple sexual partners before marriage, confirming what numerous previous studies also found.“Our study confirms what other national studies have been finding the last few years, that sexually inexperienced dating couples are two to three times more likely to be in a highly stable marriage,” said Brian J. Willoughby, a Wheatley Institute fellow and co-author of the report.As Willoughby observed in an Institute for Family Studies article laying out the report’s...

Sorry for the shameless vanity but some of you may be able to offer advice for my situation. God designed women to last longer than men, I think, because they are better at carrying on with life after loss of a spouse.My loving wife of 38 years left me almost two months ago and I still have trouble going out by myself for more than short errands. She was a wonderful, sweet and very traditional lady. She was also a solid conservative who once told me she would never, ever vote for a Democrat even if they were better qualified....

If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will be immediately split between 314 Action and the 314 Action Impact Slate benefitting Mark Kelly in Arizona, Eric Sorensen in Illinois, Jamie McLeod-Skinner in Oregon, Dr. Yadira Caraveo in Colorado, and Tony Vargas in Nebraska.

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — More than 300 employees from five state agencies have resigned since Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Virginia’s new telework policy in early May, according to records obtained by 8News. This includes 183 Virginia Department of Transportation employees, 28 of whom cited “telework options” as the reason for leaving. Two VDOT workers who listed telework as the reason did move to another state agency, records obtained by 8News after filing a Freedom of Information Act request show.On May 5, Youngkin ordered all state workers to begin working in-person full-time by July 5, a change the governor said would...

I’m worried. Florida just passed their disgusting "Don’t Say Gay" bill on Monday. When I said that they’ve revamped their anti-gay attacks, I wasn’t joking. I’m gay. I’m proud to be gay. But I am terrified. I need your help. The Senate MUST pass the Equality Act NOW. Even if you’ve already signed a similar petition, please sign again and read why it’s so important below: Sign the Petition >> Rachel M.

Trump is on the hook for FELONY tax fraud in New York RIGHT NOW. And if he’s convicted, the REAP Act would strip Trump of ALL Presidential perks. This bill is AMAZING. Just take a look: The REAP Act WILL: 1. Strip Trump of his $220,000 annual pension 2. End taxpayer funding for Trump’s staff 3. Take away his taxpayer-funded budget for cushy D.C. office space

The world is watching anxiously as the Russian military moves deeper into Ukraine, expanding an invasion that began Wednesday night. Although the human cost of military action is incalculable, global stock markets in general reacted to the invasion with wide swings before closing modestly lower. This is consistent with their response to previous similar events that we outlined in articles on the conflict published on January 31, February 22 and February 24. The potential for global economic disruption from an invasion was most likely to come from sanctions. The chaos on the ground in Ukraine contrasts with the clarity on...

History will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a leader, fearless, and trailblazing. She truly was an inspiration. Yet Donald Trump rushed to REPLACE her with a THIRD arch-conservative on the Supreme Court just weeks before the election. It was a DISGRACE to her memory!! That’s why we’re collecting 75,000 signatures today to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s AMAZING legacy by demanding “DONALD TRUMP STATE PARK” be renamed to “RUTH BADER GINSBURG STATE PARK”.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Pittsburgh Public Schools has informed families that several schools will be moving to remote learning today following a bridge collapse in the East End. “Due to the impact of a bridge collapse in the East End and high call-offs among bus drivers, all K-5, K-8 and 6-8 and Special Schools will transition to remote learning,” Pittsburgh Public Schools Director of Public Relations Ebony Pugh told KDKA in an email. High schools and 6-12 schools will continue in-person learning. The district will still operate on a two-hour delay schedule. However, Pittsburgh Public Schools transportation is canceled for those...

The judge presiding over the custody case of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sean Parnell on Monday awarded primary custody of his three children to his estranged wife. Laurie Snell and Parnell separated in 2018. They have three children, ages 12, 11 and 8. During her testimony on the first day of the Butler County custody trial on Nov. 1, Snell alleged that Parnell had physically abused both her and her children. During his testimony the next week, Parnell denied he’d ever struck anyone in his family. A court docket in the case showed Senior Judge James Arner awarded primary physical...

For the first time in more than a quarter century, Westmoreland County will have a new top prosecutor. With 100% of the county’s 307 precincts reporting Wednesday morning, Republican Nicole Ziccarelli erased an early lead held by six-term Democratic incumbent John Peck and claimed the race for district attorney. Peck moved out to an early 6,000-vote lead by virtue of first 12,700 mail-in ballots reported by county election officials. Totals from votes cast in person on Election Day saw Ziccarelli steadily narrow the gap and with more than a third of the vote counted moved into the lead.

A student at Oberlin College in Ohio described being "scared" and "angry" after the school announced a work crew would be installing radiators in a "safe space" dormitory for women and trans students, explaining the crew would likely be "cisgender men." "I was angry, scared, and confused. Why didn’t the College complete the installation over the summer, when the building was empty? Why couldn’t they tell us precisely when the workers would be there? Why were they only notifying us the day before the installation was due to begin?" Oberlin student Peter Fray-Witzer wrote in an op-ed published in the...

Sen. Mitt Romney called the Biden administration’s immigration policy a “monumental disaster,” and said that alone would be enough to leave the federal government “hanging on by a thread,” even if there were not so many other disasters. The Utah Republican also condemned a Democratic proposal to send monthly checks to undocumented parents for each of their children, which he says would encourage more people to enter the country illegally. “It’s outrageous,” Romney said on Twitter. “I can’t think of a more enticing reason to enter our country illegally-at the expense of American tax payers.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas...

The attacks on the Capitol were DANGEROUS and Mitt Romney understands that. But the NRA is dead set on making this go away. They’re forcing their cronies in Congress to turn a blind eye!!! So we need to know what [15] activists in 15601 think about the Capitol riots -- your input could be what convinces Congress to take this seriously!!