Free Republic

During his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden reached for one of his top recent peeves: shrinkflation. "Too many corporations raise prices to pad the profits, charging more and more for less and less," Biden said. He complained about skimpier Snickers bars and added: "The snack companies think you won't notice if they change the size of the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer — same size bag — put fewer chips in it." Less coffee in a can, more air in a bag of cereal, fewer sheets in a toilet-paper roll — shrinkflation lets...

Rochdale By-Election 2024: Results A by-election on Thursday 29 February was called following the death of Sir Tony Lloyd MP. Election Results: (Turnout: 39.7%) (Majority 5697) Votes Workers Party of Britain George Galloway (Elected) 12335 Independent David Tully 6638 Conservative Paul Ellison 3731 Labour Azhar Ali 2402 Liberal Democrat Iain Donaldson 2164 Reform UK Simon Danczuk 1968

SILVER SPRING, MD — A teenage girl died Friday while riding on the outside of a train car en route to a Silver Spring Metro station, the transit agency confirmed. "We are deeply saddened to learn that a teenage girl lost her life this morning while riding outside of a train car en route to the Silver Spring station. Our thoughts are with the victim’s family," Metro said in a statement. It's unclear what caused the girl to die or where authorities located her.

Amish people go into Lancaster County Courthouse for a hearing regarding farmer Amos Miller's raw-dairy business on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Upper Leacock farmer Amos Miller cannot sell raw milk or dairy products made from it to the public under an order issued by a Lancaster County judge Friday afternoon. Judge Thomas Sponaugle’s order also allows the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to inspect any location where Miller packages or distributes raw milk and to test Miller’s dairy products. The ruling is a win for the agriculture department, which sought to prevent Miller from producing and selling raw milk and products...

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A family is seeking answers after they said just days after Thanksgiving, Miami-Dade police shot and killed a grandfather of three young children. Loved ones say it happened while he was with his teenage son, trying to protect their property from intruders. “We were on our property, trying to protect our property because someone was trying to rob us,” said Osvaldo Cueli III, the victim’s son. “They are covering up my dad’s death,” added Gabriela Cueli, the victim’s daughter. They are siblings gripped by the trauma of seeing their father, Osvaldo Cueli, shot dead in their...

The search is on in Keego Harbor for a couple who left a restaurant without paying then hit their waitress with their car as they fled. It happened during the dinner rush Friday night outside of El Camino restaurant on Orchard Lake Road. The suspects drove off in in a 2005-2009 dark colored Mercedes C Class. “I'm just extremely sore," said Keirah Stack, the waitress and victim. "I have an infection in my knee now, basically learning to walk all over again.” With visible bruises and cuts on her ankles and knees, Stack says it’s a miracle she has no...

Two people, “tentatively” identified as the pilot and second-in-command, were killed when a small plane crashed Friday afternoon on Interstate 75 near the Florida city of Naples and collided with a vehicle, authorities said – a wreck that came shortly after a pilot reported an emergency to an air traffic controller. Five people were onboard the Bombardier Challenger 600 when it crashed around 3:15 p.m. ET, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

A 12-year-old boy has been placed in juvenile detention after he stole a forklift truck and led police on an hourlong chase in Michigan. The boy, identified only as an Ann Harbor local due to his age, stole a Construction Genie GTH-636 Telehandler at Forsyth Middle School on Saturday, the Ann Arbor Police Department said in a release Monday. The authorities also stated that the boy hit ten parked vehicles during the pursuit, which happened after officers responded to a call reporting an attempt to steal the truck and found him driving the vehicle — which weighs up to 35,000...

ATLANTA -- If you’d been paying attention to the American League Wild Card Series in Minnesota last week, there was likely a feeling of déjà vu when you saw Phillies manager Rob Thomson pacing out to the mound in the fourth inning of Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night at Truist Park. Akin to the Blue Jays’ decision to pull starter José Berríos against the Twins, Thomson made the long walk to remove Ranger Suárez from his start vs. the Braves after just 3 2/3 innings. Suárez was yanked at the first sign of trouble...

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A 78-year-old DeLeon Springs man is in jail without bond, accused of shooting and killing his neighbor during a dispute over trees. Edward Druzolowski is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 42-year-old Brian Ford. 911 calls released Monday reveal it was the suspect's wife who called for help. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office also released body cam video showing Druzolowski's arrest. “My husband had it in his hand. He meant to scare him, and he hit him. He was on our property,” she said. The victim’s mother tells a harrowing story. Her son was...

Scott Anthony Burke is facing a slew of drug and firearms charges after officials allegedly found cocaine, ketamine, guns, and ammunition aboard his yacht. Scott Anthony Burke appeared in Plymouth District Court Thursday for a detention hearing. He is facing several firearms and drug charges after a Sept. 5 incident aboard his yacht off Nantucket. A retired surgeon from Florida was ordered held on $200,000 bail Thursday after Nantucket officials allegedly recovered cocaine, ketamine, guns, and ammunition from his yacht earlier this week. Scott Anthony Burke, 69, appeared in Plymouth District Court for a detention hearing days after Nantucket police...

A New Jersey business owner used a drone to drop damaging dye into pools at homes and a motel in Atlantic County in recent weeks, authorities said. Patrick Spina IV, 45, of Absecon, was arrested at his business in Galloway on Friday after Absecon police and other law enforcement agencies tracked the drone back to Comfort Solutions Heating and Cooling, officials said. Absecon police began investigating Aug. 13 after homeowners called to say a drone hovering over their pool dropped a dye into it. The dye turned the pool water “an alarming shade of green.” Police then got reports from...

UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Protests concerning the migrant crisis turned violent over the weekend outside Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side. Groups on opposite sides of the issue clashed with some even throwing punches. In all, five people were arrested, including the Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa criticized Mayor Eric Adams, who earlier this summer said he would welcome a few families at Gracie Mansion if allowed. "The next day he flipped his script and said he can't do that. Who told you you can't do that? You're the mayor," Sliwa said. The crowd was in...

Police have announced the arrest of a driver who ran a red light and struck an Uber carrying four passengers early Saturday morning in South Los Angeles, killing three. Gregory Black, 31, has been taken into custody and faces charges of vehicular manslaughter after he police determined that he was allegedly behind the wheel of the speeding Mercedes Benz that ran a red light at the intersection of S. Vermont Avenue and W. Century Boulevard, T-boning the Uber driving through the area. The crash happened around 5:30 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. Witnesses said the white Mercedes-Benz, with...

Mackenzie Shirilla was 17 when she killed Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan She drove the car carrying all three into the side of a building at 100mph Prosecutors said she wanted to kill them and herself to escape her turbulent relationship with Russo She was jailed for life in prison with her earliest chance of parole in 2038, when she will be 34 Months before she was convicted of his murder, Ohio teenager Mackenzie Shirilla paid tribute to the boyfriend she killed online, saying: 'You are the last person who deserved this... you had such a perfect life ahead of...

The North Texas area has quietly become the new frontier for the development of self-driving trucks, with several companies from around the world setting up operations — and using North Texas highways for real-world testing. For now, these delivery trucks making stops at Sam’s Club, Kroger and other destinations do have a human behind the wheel — a safety driver in case of emergencies or technology glitches. In the not-too-distant future, that will no longer be the case. Several companies are competing to bring to market a dominant driverless technology for the future of moving goods on the nation’s highways....

For the last two years, the online land records page in the town of Fairfield has offered a “fraud alert” service. Anyone can sign up to see legal filings on their property. It’s part of the careful new world – but no one could anticipate the situation that’s unfolding on Sky Top Terrace, near Sacred Heart University. Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg grew up in a house his parents bought on the semicircular street in 1953, when he was a 1-year-old. After medical school in New York and residency in Maryland, he and his wife raised their two children on Long Island,...

The National Park Service (NPS) is advising visitors to proceed with extra caution as two people were recently injured after interactions with wild bison at both Yellowstone National Park, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. On Monday, a woman from Arizona was charged and gored by a bison at Yellowstone National Park. “The female was walking with another individual in a field in front of the Lake Lodge when they saw two bison," the NPS explained of the incident in a release the NPS shared. "Upon seeing them, the visitors turned to walk away from the bison. One of the bison...

“Sound of Freedom,” the movie of the moment, has a message first, and a story second. Its message is to get us to care more about the horrors of child sex trafficking. It does that by showing queasy sequences of kids in danger, being carted around by slimy adults, and making us remember everyone’s faces. Then it gives us a weary hero, Tim Ballard, an American man whose superpower is that he cares. This father and husband cares so much that he leaves his job at Homeland Security ten months before earning a pension. Instead of only catching pedophiles, as...

When I learned that an alleged shoplifter was stabbed to death Thursday by a drugstore clerk in Times Square, I was surprised only that the killing had happened at the CVS at Broadway and 49th Street, not at the Duane Reade at Broadway and 50th Street. Over more than three years, since New York’s criminal-justice “reforms” collided with pandemic dislocations, this stretch of Broadway and the surrounding blocks and subway stations have become a magnet for disorder and danger. That a nearby resident—me—must weigh up the relative dangers of shopping at or even walking by one store rather than the...