Free Republic

An 8-year-old Virginia boy who died after falling from the roof of a moving vehicle was “car surfing” while his older sister was driving, police said. New footage reviewed by Hampton police revealed that the minor, who was not named, had climbed out of the window of a 2006 Ford Explorer while under the supervision of Enashia Futrell, 18, on Oct. 2. As the older sister drove around an apartment complex on Golden Gate Drive, the boy stood on the roof of the car, pretending to surf the streets for 1,000 feet until he was launched from the vehicle, 13...

When a researcher from a Chinese military academy applied to study with celebrated Boston University physicist Eugene Stanley, he said her affiliation didn’t raise red flags.“I’m not interested at all in politics. I’m a scientist,” said Mr. Stanley, whose wide-ranging research has included using artificial intelligence to decode financial markets and applying statistical physics to prevent diseases.The recent indictment of the researcher, who is accused of lying on her U.S. visa application to conceal she is a lieutenant in the Chinese military, shows how U.S. universities’ openness to international collaboration in cutting-edge research leaves them vulnerable to potential exploitation.Mr. Stanley...

Current and former staff at Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research, gave a scathing assessment of its leadership, fiscal management and inability to meet goals, in Thursday's student newspaper. "The Center has very, very much failed to deliver on its promise. It’s been a colossal waste of millions of dollars," Spencer Piston told the student newspaper, The Daily Free Press. Piston is an associate professor of political science, who works as the faculty lead in the Policy office at the Center for Antiracist Research "CAR." Staff and faculty spoke out after CAR recently laid off at least 15-20 employees. Boston...

In September of 2020, just weeks after Ibram X. Kendi launched the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, the school approved a $600,000 mortgage to an unnamed professor. The university won’t say which professor that loan went to, but it was doled out to a trust controlled by Ibram X. Kendi’s brother-in-law, Macharia Edmonds. The mortgage helped to cover the down payment for a $4.56 million luxury penthouse triplex that boasts the "best of sophisticated Boston living." Public real estate records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show the trust is controlled by Edmonds, a former Obama campaign official...

A couple’s recent trip from Grand Rapids, Michigan, became a nightmare after reaching crime-ridden and Democrat-controlled Portland, Oregon. Adrian Hammerle and Eleora Gouine were excited about the 2,300-mile journey to Portland, where Adrian previously lived for a few years, KATU reported Thursday. They'd heard about Portland's crime issues but understood it's something all big cities are going through. This understanding changed after their windows were broken out and all their belongings were stolen two different times in a matter of days.https://t.co/JFSyKvKaAQ — KATU News (@KATUNews) October 6, 2023 Eleora said they knew about the crime plaguing the city but were...

A California woman is being treated for 'multiple traumatic injuries' after being hit by a driver at a San Francisco intersection before becoming trapped underneath a Cruise driverless vehicle for 30 minutes. The woman, who has not yet been named, was strolling through downtown San Francisco when she was hit by a sedan near the corner of Fifth and Market streets around 9:30pm on Monday night. Footage taken by the Cruise vehicle and viewed by NBC, revealed how the car hit the woman in the left lane, throwing her into the path of the Cruise taxi which then ran her...

Barack Obama stayed silent when asked whether his wife Michelle might make a bid for the White House amid swirling rumors as he was spotted leaving a Beverly Hills restaurant. In photographs exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, the 62-year-old former president was seen surrounded by security guards after enjoying a meal at Funke on South Santa Monica Boulevard. Barack was dressed in a slick black blazer, open collar shirt and gray trousers for his outing at the Los Angeles hotspot - but one Secret Service car in his motorcade looked worse for wear. Onlookers can be heard gasping as the SUV...

Two thieves held an elderly Brooklyn man at gunpoint as they tried to steal his wallet, punching him multiple times before stealing his ride, police said. The victim, 76, had been washing his car at Evergreen Avenue and Palmetto Street in Bushwick around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 14 when he was approached from behind. A 16-year-old was busted for the crime later in the day, cops said.

A young couple was shot and killed on Labor Day while sitting in a car with their one-year-old baby in gun-controlled Los Angeles, California. FOX 11 reported the incident occurred in Harbor City around 6:40 p.m. The couple, 21-year-old Carlos Loera and 18-year-old Ashley Guzman, were simply inside the car with their baby when the shots rang out. Loera died at the scene and Guzman died at a hospital. The baby was in a booster seat and only suffered minor wounds from bullet fragments.

An armed gangbanger slammed his car into an Uber while speeding through Los Angles at up to 100 mph, killing two sisters and a friend — while he was free on a sweetheart probation deal for attempted murder. Gregory Black, 31, allegedly blew through several red lights early Saturday before he T-boned the Honda rideshare — which was hit so hard it spun five times before coming to a stop, police said. Videos showed the “well-known gang member” effectively “playing roulette” in his Mercedes-Benz by speeding at up to 100 mph in a 35-mph zone, Detective Ryan Moreno said. “Just...

As it turns out, US president-elect Joe Biden is quite the petrolhead, with an enviable car collection. Apart from his glorious political run (and being the most important man in America right now), Biden’s also a self-proclaimed ‘car-guy’, and his rides prove it. It’s evident why he would have a taste for more seasoned cars; after all, they were icons from his youth. And they may not be so many, but they’re definitely noteworthy. A deeper dive into Biden’s past tells us that automobiles have played a major role in his upbringing. Biden’s father managed car dealerships in Delaware...

Coming out of stealth development is an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft by Applied eVTOL Concepts. The new eVTOL has thruster technology developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration via a multi-million dollar grant from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Applied eVTOL Concepts revealed the "Epiphany Transporter" last week, described as a "new mode of personal mobility." "The Epiphany Transporter can accommodate two people, their luggage, plus golf clubs! Intended to be simple and safe to operate, and about the size of a Tesla Model 'S' automobile, it fits into a standard one-car garage with its thrusters...

An Ohio teen is facing life in prison after being convicted of murdering her boyfriend and his friend by deliberately driving her car into a brick wall at 100 mph — with a judge calling her “literal hell on wheels.” Mackenzie Shirilla, 19, sobbed in court as she was found guilty of four counts of murder for the July 2022 crash that killed her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, as well as fellow passenger Davion Flanagan, 19, Cleveland.com reported. “This was not reckless driving. This was murder,” Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Nancy Margaret Russo told the court Monday. “She...

Wholesale used car prices dropped by 4.2 percent from May to June, marking the largest monthly decrease since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (MUVVI). The index, which is a measurement of wholesale prices of used vehicles, also saw a drop of 10.3 percent from a year ago. “The 4.2 percent drop is among the largest declines in MUVVI history and the largest decline since the start of the pandemic in April 2020 when the index plunged 11.4 percent,” Chris Frey, senior manager of economic and industry insights for Cox Automotive, said...

Tesla announced that it delivered 466,140 electric vehicles in its second quarter — “more than 80 percent higher” than the year before. This comes after Tesla CEO Elon Musk decided to lower prices in order to boost sales and rival competitive manufacturers, BBC reported. “We’re not ‘starting a price war’, we’re just lowering prices to enable affordability at scale,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

A California man died from extreme heat at Death Valley National Park amid the highest temperature recorded on Earth this year, park officials said. The 65-year-old man from San Diego was found dead in his vehicle on Monday morning, Abby Wines, a spokesperson for the park, told SFGATE. This came the day after Death Valley reached 126 degrees, the hottest temperature anywhere on the planet in 2023. A maintenance worker noticed the man’s vehicle just after 10 a.m. Monday about 30 yards away from North Highway, park officials said in a news release. The worker found the man unresponsive, prompting...

A shocking video shows the moment a gang of brazen thieves crashed a car into a Southern California jewelry store in broad daylight, before bashing the owner with a chair and stealing $300,000 worth of merchandise. The incident occurred around noon Saturday at Rodeo Jewelers, located in a busy strip mall on Foothill Boulevard in the Los Angeles suburb of La Verne Surveillance footage from inside the business obtained by ABC 7 shows a white Honda sedan barreling through the store’s windows, sending glass shards and debris flying everywhere. Four masked suspects brandishing hammers then jump out of the car...

Shocking video captured a 69-year-old California woman being dragged by a robber’s car as she tried desperately to prevent him from making off with her Gucci shades – later saying she’d do it all over again. The woman was enjoying a snack as she sat in her parked red Ford Mustang on Broadway in Alameda about 3 p.m. Sunday when a white car stopped behind her and the driver walked up to her, KTVU reported. He reached inside her vehicle, grabbed her purse – containing her pricey Gucci prescription sunglasses – and ran back to his car, according to the...

Why is it that greens want everyone to drive electric cars but don’t want people to have electricity? Or, it seems, the cars ... Fossil and nuclear plants are being taken offline (bye, Indian Point!) while their replacement with “renewables” like wind and solar lags and often fails to produce power when it’s most needed. Nothing has improved on that front. But the thing about electric cars is that they don’t just need electricity, they also need batteries to store it in. And electric motors. That’s awkward because those cars and batteries require lots of copper and other metals, plus...

The 20 car "Lost and Found" Ferrari collection includes: 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Spider ($5.0 million), 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe Speciale ($1.43M), 1956 Ferrari 410 Superamerica (record price - $3.3M), 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe (record - $1.14M) 1964 Ferrari 250 GT/L ($1.0 to $1.5M) 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB/6C Alloy ($4.6M) 1965 Ferrari 275 GTS ($2.4M) 1967 Ferrari 330 GTS ($3.3M), 1978 Ferrari 512 BB LM ($2.2M) and two Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytonas ($1.15M x 2). Prices quoted are records for each model at auction.Darin Schnabel ©2023 Courtesy o RM Sotheby’s has announced the sale of what may become...