Free Republic

President Biden commemorated the 25th anniversary of his tragic death by celebrating legislation passed in Shepard's name. But it was based on a major falsehood.In the fall of 1998, a man named Matthew Shepard was savagely beaten, strung out on a fence like a scarecrow, and left to die as the Wyoming night temperatures plunged. Over the last two and a half decades, the killing has been called many things. But a BBC headline from 2018 perhaps captures best: It was "the murder that changed America." A statement from President Joe Biden helps explain why. "Twenty-five years ago today, Matthew...

It was a cold Wednesday evening in late January, and Curtis Lyons of Maywood, age 37, was allegedly in the nearby west suburban Chicagoland town of Villa Park to sell drugs, with $7000 in cash and a supply of controlled substances at hand, along with a 9mm Glock that had been modified to allow automatic fire. For reasons not yet clear, during his Wednesday visit to Villa Park, he allegedly sprayed the neighborhood with bullets, firing at least 30 shots in a matter of seconds, at least one round entering a residence. Curtis Lyons has a rap sheet. A quick...

A fiery Ukrainian women went viral for her reaction to a Russian soldier patrolling a Ukrainian street earlier this week. What are the details? The unnamed woman — dressed in nearly all black and wearing a white winter hat — was seen in a video shared to social media telling off a Russian soldier and suggesting he carry sunflower seeds in his pockets — so that when he is killed on foreign soil, flowers will sprout from his decomposing body. “Put them in your pockets,” she stoically told the soldier during one point of the interaction, “so at least sunflowers...

FULL TITLE: Bolton wanted White House lawyers alerted to Ukrainian efforts, called it 'drug deal,' witness tells Congress ============================================ Former national security adviser John Bolton was so disturbed by the efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate President Donald Trump’s political opponents that he called it a “drug deal,” former White House official Fiona Hill reportedly told Congress on Monday. Hill, the former top Europe expert in Trump’s White House, testified that Bolton told her he wanted no part of the effort that involved acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a person in the room for Hill’s testimony...

Former national security adviser John Bolton told a former aide to President Trump on Russia to call White House lawyers to warn them about a pressure campaign on Ukraine, House investigators were reportedly told Monday. Bolton told Fiona Hill, the senior director for Russian and Eurasian affairs, to contact the lawyer for the National Security Council and say that the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was involved in the efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Democrats, the New York Times reported Monday night. “I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton told Hill...

HOUSTON, TEXAS — A man fought for his life against not one, not two, but five armed men who broke into his home. This gun owner was prepared for a fight, and utilized his AK-47 to defend his home and his life. Two masked men went into the home where the 20-year-old resident was. At first, he though it was a joke, but quickly realized that these armed men meant business. When they demanded cash, the resident complied. At least, that’s what he wanted them to believe. He said that he was going for what they wanted and reached under...

Shepard's ashes will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral following a remembrance service It's been 20 years since Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old openly gay college student, was abducted and killed in Wyoming. On Oct. 26, he will finally be laid to rest. Shepard's ashes will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral after a service to celebrate and remember his life. Shepard's parents picked the Cathedral as his final resting place because he loved the Episcopal Church and felt welcomed at one he attended in Wyoming.

On August 9, Denver experienced its first triple homicide since the summer of 2016, when a drug deal went bad in Park Hill. On Thursday, three bodies were discovered near the RTD light-rail station on South Broadway near the I-25 overpass. And according to the Denver Police Department, there's an added dimension to these latest murders: The three victims were all homeless. The DPD has yet to announce the names of the three victims, their causes of death or any suspects in the crime. But the gravity of the murders and the fact that the victims were homeless has many...

LAKE CITY, Fla. - A man doing construction outside a Lake City restaurant Sunday night told police he fired a shot at a teenager who tried to rob him. The man said the person, believed to be in his late teens, approached him outside a restaurant on Duval Street and asked for money. When told no, the person went away, but returned a short time later, pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and said, "Put your hands up." Instead the victim pulled his own weapon, which Lake City police say he carries with a valid permit, and fired two shots. The...