Free Republic

WATER VALLEY, Miss. (AP) — A former Mississippi lawmaker was found shot to death during the weekend in a rural area outside the burned home where her sister-in-law was found dead after Christmas. Ashley Henley, 40, was a Republican who served in the state House from January 2016 to January 2020 from a district in DeSoto County....Henley had been mowing grass at the home before she was killed.

Biden’s neglect of border security is feeding the money-making machine of the Mexican cartels, a criminal enterprise that exploits immigrants by taking their money—and sometimes their lives.“[The cartels] have the northern border of Mexico sealed,” Jay Whetten, a rancher residing in Cochise County, Arizona, told me in an interview. “Nobody comes through that border illegally without their authorization.”*snip*The officer, who wished to remain anonymous, has extensive border experience and estimates the number to be 20% higher. He told me in an interview, “The cartel makes more money on people than they do on dope.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors urged a judge Wednesday to impose a “very substantial” prison sentence on Michael Avenatti for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike. Prosecutors noted in a Manhattan federal court submission that Probation Office officials recommend an eight-year prison term for the California attorney who gained fame three years ago through his representation of porn star Stormy Daniels against then-President Donald Trump. “The defendant, a prominent attorney and media personality with a large public following, betrayed his client and sought to enrich himself by weaponizing his public profile in an attempt to extort...

Gunman targeted white men in 2-day shooting spree that injured 5: Police by Jacquelyn Gray June 16, 2021 Investigators said a shooting spree that occurred on Friday and Saturday in Georgia and Alabama that left five people injured appears to have been motivated by race. Justin Roberts, 39, allegedly committed two shootings in Columbus, Georgia, and one in Phenix City, Alabama, in a 20-hour span. AL.com reported that a victim was shot multiple times during the first shooting in Phenix City on Friday night, two hours before the second shooting in Columbus that left three people wounded.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal asked for by Ford regarding import duties on some Ford Transit Connect vans. The decision could cost Ford up to $1.3 billion in penalties. The vans were built in Turkey and imported into the U.S. The problem, though, is that Ford declared that they were passenger vans. That meant that the company only had to pay 2.5% import duty on the vehicles, rather than the 25% duty levied against cargo vehicles as part of what is commonly referred to as the “chicken tax.” * snip * It [the Justice Department]...

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the planned executions of two inmates by electrocution, saying they cannot be put to death until they truly have the choice of a firing squad option set out in the state's newly revised capital punishment law. The high court halted this month's scheduled executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, writing that corrections officials need to put together a firing squad so that inmates can really choose between that or the electric chair. The state's plans, the court wrote in an unanimous order, are on hold “due to the statutory right of...

A grand jury charged a Portland, Ore., police officer with assault Tuesday after he was filmed hitting a protester in the head with his baton during last summer’s demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd. Officer Corey Budworth, who has been with the Portland Police Bureau for more than five years, is accused of “unlawfully, knowingly and recklessly causing physical injury” to the protester, who said the blows left her with head and back pain. Budworth faces one count of assault in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor that carries up to a one-year jail sentence. He has been placed on...

The history of the son of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong is being rewritten under Xi Jinping, according to a recent press report. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Chinese Academy of History, first established under Xi in 2019, is challenging long-held beliefs about the circumstances surrounding the death of Mao Anying, who was killed during a United Nations airstrike during the 1950-53 Korean War. Conventional wisdom in China regarding Mao's death states that Mao was killed when he gave away his hideout by turning on a stove to cook egg fried rice. The Chinese Academy has suggested...

So-called “reporters” have been sending threatening messages to people, demanding they invent fake stories about Congressman Matt Gaetz in exchange for their names being kept out of the news. The office of Rep. Gaetz (FL-1) released the messages to John Solomon’s Just The News on Tuesday, appearing on the veteran reporter’s podcast on the same day. “[T]ime and time again, what a reporter will do is contact someone that maybe I’ve had a relationship with, maybe I haven’t had any relationship with, maybe I’ve only been in the same room with one time,” Gaetz told the John Solomon Reports podcast....

While questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in a hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said Ashli Babbitt, who was killed as she attempted to breach a set of doors in the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, was "executed" and that the officer who shot her was "lying in wait."

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the regulatory agency that manages Texas’ power grid, said tight grid conditions are expected this week due to high number of forced generation outages, and urged Texans to conserve energy. The announcement came one month after it published its latest seasonal assessment projecting a less than a 1% chance of blackouts occurring this summer. It also came just four months after the state’s historic power grid failure left millions of Texans in the cold and dark. Without heat and water during sub-zero temperatures in mid-February, 111 Texans died. On Monday, ERCOT asked Texans...

With the 2021 Colorado regular legislative session concluded, lawmakers have approved tax and fee increases on Coloradans of up to $617 million annually without voter consent. The new revenues are enough to give every schoolteacher in Colorado a $11,343.65 per year raise. The tax and fee increases amount to an average of $430 per year for a family of four. New and Net Revenue.. This session, 83 bills passed by the legislature would increase state revenue. Senate Legislative Council (SLC) included revenue projections for 45 of these in fiscal notes for each. Some fiscal notes provide an estimated range rather...

Mr. Schiff, please spare me the pious lecture and phony indignationSpare me the pious lecture and phony indignation. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., threw an apoplectic fit the other day when he learned that what he did to others was done to him. There is some perverse irony in all of this. But, of course, Schiff neglected to mention his own hypocrisy. Schiff’s tantrum was triggered by the recent disclosure that the Trump Department of Justice obtained his phone records, along with another California Democrat, Eric Swalwell and several journalists. Their data was seized pursuant to grand jury subpoenas served on...

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday on “CBS This Morning” that it was “a bit of a distortion to say that we deliberately suppressed” the so-called lab leak theory that coronavirus originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. Co-host Tony Dokoupil said, “We also asked Dr. Fauci about competing theories on the origin of the coronavirus, including the idea that it started not in nature but in a lab in Wuhan, China.”

"CBS This Morning" co-host Tony Dokoupil gave a perplexing excuse Wednesday for a man seen in a viral video stealing multiple items at a San Francisco Walgreens before exiting the store on a bicycle. Dokoupil claimed the man was probably getting something he needed and suggested that nothing should have been done to stop the crime as it was taking place. "So crime is never justified of course," Dokoupil said after CBS' Vlad Duthiers played the video of the theft. He was interrupted by co-host Anthony Mason, saying, "I will say that I think they could have made a little...

Traitor!.. A video clip shows BBC political editor Nicholas Watt being chased down and confronted by anti-lockdown protesters outside Downing Street. Protests are once again growing after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yet another delay to the lifting of the UK’s lockdown restrictions. As we highlighted yesterday, the public was already being prepared for an extension to the extension before the first extension was even announced. Demonstrators are once again gathering around Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament in London to express their fury. BBC Newsnight editor Nicholas Watt was caught in the crossfire of their ire as he...

GARRY KASPAROV: "Putin already got what he wanted – a summit. He might get even more, but the main exchange has already happened. Biden gave the credibility of the United States to a brutal dictator. And I heard a lot from those who defended the idea of the summit that Biden would go to Geneva to deliver a message, he’ll talk tough. ... But if Biden wanted to send a real message to Putin he would meet with Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, would go to Kiev, that’s a message… He would meet with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the real President of...

A local company is working to make workplaces and schools safer as more people return to normal activities. Athena Security, an Austin-based technology company, uses a heat source reference point (HSRP) blackbody device and a thermal camera to help detect a concealed weapon. The system can also detect body temperature, check for a face covering and ask health screening questions... An Austin employment attorney said there are not legal concerns when it comes to companies using the technology. "Texas law, in general, affords employers broad latitude to monitor employees’ actions in the workplace. The key is that they just have...

A woman who poured a mix of boiling water and sugar over her husband to "extract vengeance" after a family row has been found guilty of his murder. Corinna Smith, 59, attacked 81-year-old Michael Baines while he was in bed at their home in Highfield Road in Neston, Cheshire, on 14 July 2020. He suffered extensive burns and died five weeks later in hospital. Smith denied murdering her husband of 38 years but she was found guilty by a jury at Chester Crown Court. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Smith, who was also her husband's carer, had been involved...

The affidavit says as the group Tabb was in walked by the other group, Tabb said, “What y’all wanna do? Y’all wanna fight?” A minor from the other group replied with, “it’s whatever,” and then the affidavit says that’s when Tabb pulled out his gun and started shooting. The same juvenile said Tabb shot him in the leg a few days before in Killeen, the affidavit said. A police report from Killeen police supported the juvenile’s claim that Tabb was the primary suspect in that shooting, as well. Another minor police interviewed said the group immediately starting running away and...