Free Republic

An Italian American civil rights group lashed out at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, dubbing him an “enemy” of the community and imploring him to drop out of the race, according to its board member. The Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL), which was founded in New York City and endorsed former President Donald Trump for the 2024 election, blasted Walz over his approach to rioters who tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus. “Tim Walz did nothing to stop radical vandals from targeting the most prominent symbol of Italian-American culture in a flagrant hate crime,” IACRL board member Mike Crispi...

A young Ohio mother was brutally killed by three black thugs during a carjacking as she tried to protect her young child. In a tragic turn, she was run over by her own car, with her 6-year-old still inside. ... Alexa Stakely, 29, was slaughtered during a carjacking in Columbus, Ohio. Thugs stole her car and ran then her over with it while her 6-year-old son was still in it. She was a speech therapist for Canal Winchester Schools. Police hunting for three Black males caught on video. ... Columbus police are looking for two male suspects in connection with...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Police arrested a man who they said allegedly broke into several businesses in the far west side of Columbus, Ohio — including a pet store where multiple animals were set loose early Tuesday morning. According to Columbus police, officers arrived at the Petland store in Hilliard Station at 3:45 a.m. and found an open door. Many animals were roaming free, including birds, dogs, rabbits, gerbils and ferrets. Officers at the scene were able to recover most of the animals save for a few gerbils, ferrets and rabbits. Police said they were looking for a homeless man...

Ten people were shot, with one person critically wounded, early Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, police said. The shooting happened in the Short North Arts District near downtown around 2:30 a.m., with victims from 16 to 27 years old, according to the Columbus Police Department. All of the victims in Sunday’s shooting appeared to be men, according to NBC affiliate WCMH of Columbus. Nine of the victims were listed as stable Sunday morning, Columbus police said. Columbus Police Sgt. Joe Albert said a male suspect was found shortly after the shooting but officers lost him during a highway pursuit, according to...

Several children have been arrested and charged for the death of a 15-year-old boy, who was found floating in a retention pond. Zahmere Greene, 15, of Columbus, Georgia, was found dead in a retention pond less than a mile from the Chattahooche River just before 2:30 pm on May 29. However, he actually drowned on May 23 and his death was not reported until six days after, according to authorities. Greene's death was ruled as a homicide by the medical examiner at the Muscogee County Coroner's Office, police spokesperson Brittany Santiago told USA TODAY Friday. After further investigation, police discovered...

Disturbing footage shows a terrified autistic 19-year-old desperately asking cops to listen to him before he hit his head repeatedly and died in custody. Isaiah Trammell, was taunted, belittled and threatened by nine guards as he begged for his medication at the Montgomery County Jail in Ohio in March, 2023. In surveillance videos obtained by The Columbus Dispatch, officers are seen telling the autistic man he was 'ridiculous,' 'embarrassing' and 'acting like an a**.' Trammell was strapped into a restraint chair twice and threatened a third time if he did not calm down. Unable to calm himself, Trammell proceeded to...

A security guard at the Amazon warehouse facility in West Jefferson — whom police say shot twice at close range at his supervisor and missed and later shot a Columbus police officer's bulletproof vest before he was fatally shot by law enforcement — was not supposed to have a gun on duty, police said at a press conference Monday. Ali Hamsa Yusuf, 22, was fatally shot by law enforcement after he shot a Columbus police officer during a confrontation with law enforcement at Georgesville and Clime North roads on Columbus' West Side. That shooting and another one Saturday evening in...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A former Columbus police vice detective who pleaded guilty to kidnapping sex workers under the guise of an arrest was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Thursday. Andrew Mitchell, 60, of Sunbury, will receive credit for the roughly five years he has been in custody since his arrest in April 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. He had pleaded guilty in December to two counts of depriving individuals of their civil rights while acting under color of law and one count of obstructing justice. Mitchell spent more than 30 years...

The wife of the “ migrant influencer ” who urged people to “invade” the United States grew emotional Saturday as she revealed she’s not allowed to see her jailed husband. Veronica Torres was spotted crying outside the Sonesta Simply Suites Columbus Airport long-stay hotel in Gahanna, a suburb of Columbus, a day after her husband Leonel Moreno was booked into jail . Brigitte Stelzer Moreno became popular online after posting videos to social media encouraging other migrants to invade the country and invoke squatter’s rights. In many videos, he waved around loads of cash that he claimed was from government...

A City Council member wants to rename Columbus Drive in downtown Chicago after former President Barack Obama, but an Italian American civic leader wants the street to be left alone. At Wednesday's City Council meeting, 4th Ward Ald. Lamont Robinson introduced an ordinance to rename Columbus Drive Barack Obama Drive. The road stretches through the Loop from East Grand Avenue south to DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

In a controversial decision, the Stamford Board of Education has voted to remove Columbus Day and Veterans Day from the list of school holidays, requiring students to attend school on these dates. The decision, passed with a 5-3 vote, overruled previous years’ push-back from local veterans and Italian-Americans. The motion’s supporters, Joshua Esses, Michael Hyman, Gabriela Koc, Versha Munshi-South, and Antonia Better-Wirz, advocated for a shorter school year, arguing that a 181-day calendar extending into mid-June was too long.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Monday, shelves at Puff Palace on North High Street look a lot different. The store can no longer sell flavored menthol cigarettes or flavored vapes because of the city of Columbus’ ban on the products went into effect. Moe Ismail, the manager of Puff Palace said their business will suffer and they are projecting a 65% loss Ismail doesn’t understand why the city of Columbus decided to ban the flavored products. “Why do they get to limit what kind of things we do if they don’t want to do it on different products like alcohol?” said...

Three teenagers have been arrested for beating an Ohio father of three to death, police say. Columbus police said the incident happened at 7 p.m. on Dec. 6. The three young men allegedly engaged the victim, 53-year-old Donnie Smith, inside a Kroger grocery store, WSYX-TV reported. The suspects were asked to leave by security after getting into an altercation with patrons inside the store, and then the fight continued outside, police said. Smith was taken to a hospital in critical condition and later died.

Three teenagers have been arrested for beating an Ohio father of three to death. Columbus police say the incident happened at 7 p.m. on Dec. 6. The three young men allegedly engaged the victim, 53-year-old Donnie Smith, inside a Kroger grocery store, WSXY-TV reported. The suspects were asked to leave by security after getting into an altercation with patrons inside the store, and then the fight continued outside, police said. Smith was taken to a hospital in critical condition, where he later died. One of the friends who was with Smith at the time told WSXY the group was “trying...

A 61-year-old straphanger was stabbed in the head by a screwdriver-wielding maniac in a random attack onboard a Manhattan subway Thursday night, police and law enforcement sources said. The man was randomly stabbed with the tool twice – in the head and face – while seated on a southbound 1 train around 9:40 p.m. at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle subway station, authorities said. The victim was taken to Mount Sinai West and is in stable condition.

The real Columbus, whom few today know much about, is an exemplary figure worthy of celebrating for many reasons. He was born in 1451 in the port city of Genoa, in what is now Italy, and was named Cristoforo Colombo. It has been said that he chose to call himself Christopher Columbus because he liked what this name meant. In Latin, Columbus means “dove” while Christopher means “Christ-bearer.” Some modern-day revisionist historians have taken cheap shots at Columbus, taking a chapter out of Lenin in charging him with being an imperialist. ...Seen from the big picture, Columbus Day is worth...

As leftists look to cancel Christopher Columbus and today’s annual holiday commemorating him — that is, the man who discovered this land that is the United States of America — they’re also looking to replace the great explorer with a day of their own. That new day for these cultural revolutionaries, celebrated all the way up to the level of their president, one Joseph Robinette Biden, is something called Indigenous Peoples’ Day.How ironic this is.Among the sins that leftists try to peg on Columbus is slavery. And yet, many of their indigenous peoples, including the so-called “civilized” among them, in...

Should we or shouldn’t we celebrate Columbus day? Every year the debate rages around this time whether the expansion of European civilization into the western hemisphere was a positive or negative development in human history.Of course Columbus himself was a complex figure, and there is much to love or hate about him depending on one’s point of view. The leftward side of the debate points out Columbus’s greed, ambition, pride and at times cruelty.And yet on the other side , one must admire the bravery, tenacity, and Columbus’ willingness to venture at great risk. Columbus also had a pious side...

In short, March 14, 1891 there were several Italians on trial. They were found "not guilty" which sent a mob of thousands in a frenzy (along with government). In the end, 11 Italians were lynched and numerous others treated harshly. As a consolation to this tragedy, our government gave them a day---Columbus day. A mob of tens of thousands of angry men surrounded a New Orleans jail, shouting angry slurs and calling for blood. By the time they were done, 11 men would be dead—shot and mutilated in an act of brutal mob violence that took place in front of...

A Man of Faith Who Changed HistoryColumbus's religious faith motivated his triumphant voyage.TToday, we celebrate the great legacy of Christopher Columbus. With a deep and abiding faith in God and against seemingly insurmountable odds, Columbus led a voyage of three ships across the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America. The result of his brave expedition led to subsequent expeditions to America and, ultimately, the formation of the United States.Slavery, war, and cannibalism were rampant in America before Columbus or the Spanish landed in the New World.Leftist activists seek to destroy Columbus’s legacy and, by extension, damage America’s moral legitimacy. Decrying racism...