Free Republic

Ukrainian lawmakers voted Thursday to ratify a controversial economic partnership with the U.S. that gives America access to profit from the Eastern European country’s vast mineral resources. After a tense debate that included criticism from the opposition, 338 MPs out of 400 officially voted to establish the American-Ukrainian Reconstruction Investment Fund that will be filled equally by both sides via a series of opaque means, but including mining and energy profits.

Panera Bread has closed its sole location in downtown Denver after 10 years. The St. Louis-based chain’s store at the corner of Market Street and the 16th Street Mall was closed as of Thursday morning. “We’ll miss serving you from this bakery cafe,” notices posted on the doors read. The company didn’t respond when asked the reason for the closure. Restaurants and retailers along the 16th Street Mall have been struggling amidst renovations to the pedestrian and transit corridor. But Panera had made it through that — its block was one of the first to reopen. The store sits at...

Citizens in a residential area of San Francisco are bolstering their homes with chicken wire in a bid to keep out intruders. Happening in the city's Richmond District, the safety measures come amid a recent jump in burglaries, robberies, and homicides in the affluent neighborhood. Headline-grabbing incidents like thieves making off with a Bank of America ATM earlier this year have even longtime residents on edge - with some installing cameras and safety locks along with the unconventional farm equipment. Several have attended community meetings and made posts on social media as the rampant crime wave persists. In interviews with...

Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties have reported 45 cases of the bacteria in December, with nine different strains observed in the Portland metro area since October. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Multnomah County is encouraging residents to watch their hygiene after a boost in shigella cases was observed in Old Town Portland. Shigella is a bacteria that spreads via fecal matter, and creates symptoms that include fever, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. It can last anywhere from three to 10 days. “Shigella spreads when one person’s infected poop gets into another person’s mouth through food or water, from objects or surfaces with shigella bacteria...

Disney World may have earned the moniker 'the happiest place on earth' - but visitors and employees alike aren't feeling the magic after witnessing people defecating and vomiting in line. The r/WaltDisneyWorld subreddit is not just a place for fanatics to come together. It fields plenty of complaints about the park's unsanitary conditions, which are corroborated by past and current 'cast members.' 'I am in the queue for Rise of the Resistance - someone let their kid take a dump on the floor and then they just walked out and left it - WTF?' a user wrote in a thread...

Four US citizens were assaulted and kidnapped after crossing the border into northeastern Mexico on Friday, according to the FBI, which is working to locate the missing Americans. Soon after the US citizens drove into the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, on Friday they were fired upon by unidentified gunmen, a release from the FBI in San Antonio said. The agency did not identify the victims. “All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the release said.

Three armed suspects reportedly used the subway to commit a multi-borough robbery spree on Thursday, allegedly victimizing four individuals in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the New York Post reported Saturday. The incident began just prior to 8:00 p.m. at the Lafayette Avenue station in downtown Brooklyn, according to law enforcement. Video footage showed the suspects, one wearing a yellow hoodie and yellow shoes, another in what appeared to be a black hoodie and white shoes, and another individual wearing a dark colored hoodie and red shoes. The Post article continued: The masked suspects approached a 33-year-old man on the C train,...

San Francisco experienced a 43% year-over-year decline in sales tax revenues during the pandemic, which has been credited to an exodus from the expensive city. San Francisco’s chief economist Ted Egan attributed the drop in revenue that occurred between April and June to a flight of individuals from the city, rather than a decline in activity due to the pandemic. Egan told Fox News that while areas throughout California experienced a decline in sales tax revenues, other cities saw an uptick in online sales – but San Francisco did not. “In San Francisco, we saw a big drop in brick-and-mortar...

Ten people died and 39 others were wounded in weekend shootings in Chicago — the deadliest Memorial Day weekend since 2015, when 12 people were killed. Despite the state’s stay-at-home order, the weekend’s death toll already surpassed last year’s holiday weekend, when seven people were killed and 34 were injured during the period from 5 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Tuesday. In 2018, seven people died and 30 others were wounded. In 2017, six people were killed and 44 others were wounded. In 2016, six people were killed and 56 wounded.

rumor at this point, but completely believable: Rumor has it that city considering doubling water, garbage, city sticker and neighborhood parking permit fees. This on top of much higher tax levy on all home values. They have been told that about 1/2 of the canceled conventions will not be booking in the city any longer. They have found better less costly facilities and much better weather. But no worries the city will make up the lost revenues by their new taxing policies. Budget cuts, head count cuts, furloughs or buyouts were never discussed at the round table. First shoe to...

The City Hall of Villa Union is riddled with bullet holes after a gun battle between Mexican security forces and suspected cartel gunmen on Saturday. At least 21 people were killed, four of them police officers when an armed group in a convoy of trucks stormed the town 40 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas. (Gerardo Sanchez/AP) MEXICO CITY — Gunmen attacked a town hall in northern Mexico, authorities said Sunday, triggering a series of clashes with security forces that left 21 dead — most of them suspected members of an organized crime group.The attack started at around noon on Saturday, when men...

Two women involved with a group called Mothers Against Senseless Killings were shot dead Friday on a South Side Chicago block where moms gather to help curb gun violence. Police say they don't believe the two young mothers were the intended targets. The deaths of Chantel Grant, 25, and Andrea Stoudemire, 35, in the Englewood neighborhood served as a grim reminder of the kind of violence that led them to participate in neighborhood activities organized by Mothers Against Senseless Killings. The anti-violence group launched five years ago following the shooting death of another young mother at the same corner. The...

New York City mayor Bill De Blasio continued his attacks on President Trump on Thursday, calling for a debate between the two and indicating that Trump's home city will not welcome him back after he leaves the White House. "When his presidency is over, really soon, he will not be welcome back in New York City!” the longshot 2020 candidate told BuzzFeed. De Blasio also argued that Trump, a Queens native who has built his real estate empire in the Big Apple, didn't "understand the city."

A transgender woman claimed to be drugging attendees of a conservative conference in Phoenix, Arizona on Friday morning. The biological male and Starbucks employee — identified on Twitter as “Lauren” — claimed to be slipping estrogen pills into the drinks of unsuspecting customers at the conference. “I love my job at the phoenix convention center starbucks and i love slipping my spare estradiol pills in the coffee of anyone wearing a #WesternConservativeConference lanyard,” Lauren tweeted. Estradiol is an estrogen steroid hormone and the major female sex hormone.

The study, which focused on the ancient settlements of Shivta and Sa'adon, found archaeological evidence that the Byzantines in the Negev did not raise their pigeons for food, but to fertilize the dry loess soil and making it more suitable for intensive agriculture. Loess is made up of fragment of geological detritus, formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. But despite its lowly origins, loess tends to develop into very rich soils. Under appropriate climatic conditions, it forms some of the most agriculturally productive terrain in the world. "The pigeon droppings are rich in phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, which are...

An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous concoction of drug needles, garbage, and feces lining the streets of downtown San Francisco. The Investigative Unit surveyed more than 150 blocks, including some of the city’s top tourist destinations, and discovered conditions that are now being compared to some of the worst slums in the world.

Californians love sermonizing on the plight of America’s poor and disenfranchised—if only penny-pinching republicans would shell out for a bigger welfare state then all our problems would be solved. Why not build more homes for the homeless, or invest in better education for our kids? The state can solve the problem of poverty, they argue. And to be fair, they’ve put their money where their mouth is: over the last few decades California has built one of America’s most lavish welfare states. There’s just one problem: it’s not working. The sad truth of the matter is that California’s poverty rate...

Trump administration appointee Carl Higbie resigned Thursday as chief of external affairs for the federal government's volunteer service organization after a CNN KFile review of racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT comments he made on the radio. "Effective immediately, Carl Higbie has resigned as Chief of External Affairs at CNCS," Samantha Jo Warfield, a spokesperson for CNCS, said in a statement. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Higbie's resignation. Higbie, a former Navy SEAL and conservative media personality, was a surrogate for Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, appearing on cable news and serving...

Aideen Strandsson, a Christian woman from Iran, is facing deportation from Sweden after her asylum application was denied by authorities. The woman converted from Islam to Christianity, after having a dream about Jesus and has already received threats from Muslims because of her conversion. Aideen came to Sweden in 2014 and received a public baptism. When she pleaded that she could face the death penalty in Iran as an apostate, she got told by Swedish officials that “it’s not our problem if you decided to become a Christian, it’s your problem”.

Canadian police say an alleged scissor attack on an 11-year-old girl's hijab never happened. The girl made headlines last week after she said a man came up to her and tried to cut her hijab off. Toronto police now say the incident, which they were treating as a hate crime, "did not happen". The investigation sparked a national outcry, including from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who expressed his concern on Twitter. "After a detailed investigation, police have determined that the events described in the original news release did not happen," the police said in a brief press release on...