Free Republic

Joe Biden as vice president hired one of his son Hunter’s investment-firm staffers as a personal assistant, emails from his son’s discarded laptop show. Anne Marie Person, 34, left Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca Partners in 2014 to join the veep’s staff — and stayed in close contact with her former bosses, keeping them apprised of visiting dignitaries and official events they might have interest in, according to the emails. Rosemont Seneca and its affiliates have come under scrutiny, as the US Department of Justice investigates Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings as part of a possible tax-fraud probe. Hunter Biden secured meetings...

"... both Irish and Welsh sources portrayed it as a tribal migration of the Irish Dessi or Deisi headed by their own king and, from the Irish viewpoint, a suitable 'expulsion' saga was adduced. The direct line of Irish rulers of Welsh Dyfed went on into the 7th and 8th centuries. An interesting mix arose; by 400 Irish and British were fully differing languages, and additionally Christians from both nations used different scripts (Latin and Ogham) for their memorials. Irish never replaced British in Wales the way it did in Scotland, but relative numerical strengths do not necessarily explain why;...

Lesley Perrett dances with her sheep once a year and this video is the most popular one yetA farmer in Bradworthy has found fame overnight after sharing a video of herself dancing with her sheep on Facebook. In the video, Lesley Perret, who runs Brexworthy Farm with her husband, dances to the song ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’' by the Scissor Sisters, while her sheep chew on hay and look bemused in the background. Lesley says that she shared the video to the Facebook group ‘Ladies who Lamb’ as part of an annual tradition where she uploads a video of...

He believes it had been closed up for more than 50 yearsA man who drilled a hole in his wall was stunned to find a secret 120-year-old tunnel underneath his house. Jake Brown was doing some work at his newly bought home when he realised that one wall had different textures. He inspected further and made an opening big enough to get his head through to take another look. To his shock, Jake discovered there was a huge area underneath his home in Plymouth, Devon, so he opened it up to investigate. Inside the tunnel he discovered items including paint...

Three boatloads of people will be allowed to explore tunnels and crumbling fortificationsEvery nook and cranny teems with history. The tales of war, adventure, death and crime are myriad but for 30 years the people of Plymouth have only been able to gaze across at Drake’s Island – but not set foot there. But on Sunday three boatloads of visitors will make the short hop from the Devon city to explore the crumbling fortifications, the bramble-covered barrack buildings and its mysterious tunnels. The island in Plymouth Sound has been off-limits since 1989 – when an adventure centre on the island...

Remainers are scrawling 'I love EU' on 50p coins with permanent marker and releasing them back into circulation, in a last-ditch attempt to anger Brexit voters. Karen Hoyles, from Devon, posted pictures of her defaced coins online, calling for others to follow suit. In an appeal to her Twitter followers, she hoped for people to 'get their creative juices flowing' and release '10million' 50ps with the phrase.

When the Bronze Age hit ancient Israel, the copper-rich region was able to quickly source seven of the eight ingredients needed to produce the alloy at Timna and other mines. But where tin -- another one-eighth of the metal's recipe -- came from has been a lingering mystery for scholars. A new paper from an international team of researchers proposes a surprisingly faraway source -- Cornwall. In a paper published in June on the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS One, the authors analyze 27 tin ingots, or blocks, from five sites bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea. For decades, researchers have...

One of the two students who opened fire on a school in Denver has been identified as 18-year-old Devon Erickson. An 18-year-old boy was killed and seven other students were injured when gunfire erupted at STEM School Highlands Ranch on Tuesday afternoon at 1.53pm local time. Police confirmed that the shooting was carried out by two people, one adult male and one juvenile. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office confirmed Erickson is the adult shooter. (Snip) The teen's social media pages indicate that he is an avid guitar player, youth theater actor and registered Democrat who has on occasion expressed disdain...

Cadbury has temporarily pulled its "real treasure hunt" ad campaign after archaeologists and the government accused it of advocating looting. The Treasure Island ads encouraged children to "grab your metal detector and go hunting for Roman riches", but failed to warn that digging without permission is illegal. It suggested a number of sites across the UK and Ireland where "treasure's fair game". The confectioner took the online ad site down on Monday after being inundated with messages from archaeologists who described the campaign as "irresponsible" - a view endorsed by the government. The arts minister, Michael Ellis, said the ad...

The discovery of one of the world's oldest shipwrecks shows that European trade was thriving even in the Bronze Age, according to experts. The vessel, carrying copper and tin ingots used to make weapons and jewellery, sank off the coast near Salcombe in Devon and is thought to date from 900BC. But it was only last year that the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, a team of amateur archaeologists, brought its cargo to the surface. The discovery was not announced until this month's International Shipwreck Conference, in Plymouth, Devon. It is thought that the goods - 259 copper ingots and...

And in Lovelock’s view, the Earth’s self-regulating system is seriously out of whack, thanks largely to our 150-year fossil fuel binge. “You could quite seriously look at climate change as a response of the system intended to get rid of an irritating species: us humans,” Lovelock told me in 2007 when I visited him at his house in Devon, England, for a profile in Rolling Stone. “Or at least cut them back to size.” By 2020, droughts and other extreme weather will be commonplace. By 2040, the Sahara will be moving into Europe, and Berlin will be as hot as...

A huge event featuring US and British World War II vehicles along with enthusiasts in uniforms has taken place at the site of a training ground where troops prepared for the D-Day assault on the Nazis. A convoy of a hundred and ninety war vehicles made their way onto Saunton Sands, at Braunton Burrows in North Devon, while in the skies above, a Spitfire was due to flypast. The two day event also features pitched battles between American GIs and German Panzer troops.

The discovery of a few muddy coins in a Devon paddock by a pair of amateur metal detector enthusiasts has led to the redrawing of the boundary of the Roman empire in south-west Britain. Previously it had been thought that Ancient Rome’s influence did not stretch beyond Exeter but the find has resulted in a major archaeological dig that has unearthed more coins, a stretch of Roman road and the remnants of vessels from France and the Mediterranean once full of wine, olive oil and garum -- fish sauce. The far south-west of Britain has long been seen as an...

A fragment of human jaw unearthed in a prehistoric cave in Torquay is the earliest evidence of modern humans in north-west Europe, scientists say. The tiny piece of upper jaw was excavated from Kents Cave on the town's border in the 1920s but its significance was not fully realised until scientists checked its age with advanced techniques that have only now become available. The fresh analysis at Oxford University dated the bone and three teeth to a period between 44,200 and 41,500 years ago, when a temporary warm spell lasting perhaps only a thousand years, made Britain habitable. The age...

The story of the leaked manuscript of former Palin aide Frank Bailey is getting a lot of traction as the mainstream media finds ways to maximize and defend the indefensible. Andy Barr and Ben Smith from Politico have taken it upon themselves (obviously without legal council) to run a story repeating distorted claims by a troubled ex-employee, with the goal of smearing Governor Palin in mind. Barr and Smith ponder why it is that no publisher has signed on to print Bailey's manuscript, which he has been trying to sell for almost 18 months. On top of the legal ramifications,...

Expert analysis has shed new light on the history of Cirencester. Scientists have examined the teeth of human remains found during an archeological dig. They believe the people were not local, but had travelled here from the far south-west -- probably Devon or Cornwall. Also, they lived here before the Romans arrived in the early first century BC. "This is of great regional significance, and it will generate national interest", said Edward Biddulph, senior project manager with Oxford Archaeology which conducted the dig. Mr Biddulph gave details of his find in a talk o Cirencester Archaeological and Historical Society at...

It was the practise run which would lead to the liberation of Europe from the tyranny of Hitler's Nazi empire. And it took place in Devon. Secret footage of U.S. soldiers training alongside British troops for D-Day in South-West England have been unearthed from a dusty archive and seen for the first time in 65 years. The 38 reels - lasting ten minutes each - show a variety of images including tanks rolling across beaches and soldiers wading through waves. In another sequence, troops are lined up in make-shift landing barges. Wartime leaders Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower are also...

War through the eyes of a PoW in Japan  Last Updated: 2:43am GMT 23/11/2007     Sketches by a Second World War Serviceman, tracing his experiences from RAF bases to a Japanese prisoner of war camp, are to be exhibited for the first time. Fred Goodwin began the war servicing aircraft. After the Battle of Britain he was sent to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) with 605 Squadron.     They were to try to halt the Japanese advance, but were under-prepared. Mr Goodwin was captured. As a prisoner he witnessed unspeakable horrors. However, throughout the war he made...

Oklahoma City (AP) - Officials from Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corporation are celebrating the success of an oil field off the coast of Brazil. The company says it has begun the first oil production from the field near Rio de Janeiro. More than 50 (m) million barrels of recoverable oil are thought to be in the field, which is in about 300 feet of water. Devon has a 60 percent stake in the field, while a Korean company holds the other 40 percent interest. Devon's senior vice president of exploration and production says the success of the field is the...

Former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger pled guilty on April 1 to smuggling five classified documents, including a highly secret memorandum. Two men walk into the National Archives [no this isn't a joke] one steals letters dating back to the civil war then sells them on EBay. The other steals classified documents related to terrorism then destroys them in order to deceive investigators. Which man receives the stiffer penalty.