Free Republic

Keith Olbermann offered ESPN an ultimatum: silence Stephen A. Smith or fire him. Olbermann uploaded a video detailing his orders Monday, including a meandering 393-word caption. In short, he called upon ESPN to take immediate action after Smith appeared on Fox News last week. "WHY ESPN MUST EITHER SILENCE OR FIRE STEPHEN A. SMITH: Its longstanding policy - no, you can't be a sportscaster on one station and an advocate for a presidential candidate on another station - is right. I know: I helped to author it because the day when you (or I) could straddle both worlds is long...

Warning: Disturbing video: A horrific scene occurred on Friday outside the Manhattan courthouse where the trial of former President Donald Trump is underway. A man doused himself with a flammable liquid before setting himself on fire near the courtroom on day four of the criminal trial, just moments after a full jury of 12 was impaneled. The video captures distressing images of a man twitching on the ground while engulfed in flames. Another individual rushed in with a fire extinguisher to help, as law enforcement stripped off their jackets and took other measures in an effort to extinguish the flames....

Friday, during a CNN live broadcast reporting on the jury being seated in former President Donald Trump’s trial, a man set himself on fire in front of the Manhattan courtroom. Anchor Laura Coates said, “We have a man who is literally set fire to himself. A man hasn’t plays into himself outside of the courthouse just now, our cameras are turning right now, a man has now let himself on fire. Hi, are outside of the courthouse in Manhattan where we’re waiting history to be made. A full jury panel is done. We are watching a man who was fully...

A suspect who allegedly opened fire on an Albany, New York, police officer Wednesday morning died from gunshot wounds after the officer returned fire. Syracuse.com reported the officer approached the car during a 12:30 a.m. traffic stop and the suspect stepped out from behind it and began shooting. The officer shot back, killing the suspect. The officer was wounded during the exchange of gunfire but remained conscious and is expected to survive. Breitbart News reported that a Syracuse police officer and a Onondaga County sheriff’s deputy were shot and fatally wounded Sunday night in Salina, New York. The suspect who...

Medieval fire arrows were real! So I followed the old books, made some and tested them in every way I could think of. We have loads of old manuscripts, pictures, drawings, fire arrow heads and recipes of fire arrows but because some people haven't looked at the old information and can't make them work, lots of people think they were a myth. You see them everywhere in films and computer games so it is easy to dismiss them as a modern popular culture affectation - they were as real as you are. So this film is an exhaustive description of...

Massive fire at Copenhagen's stock exchange building.

LEANDER, Texas — Leander resident Shaun Noll never expected to spend Easter morning going through the wreckage of his home. But that’s where he found himself after a battery for his cordless vacuum exploded. On Thursday, Noll’s two young sons were in his living room when a battery that had been plugged into the wall charging a cordless vacuum exploded. --- end excerpt ---

Investigations are underway after a suspicious trailer fire in Wilson County on Easter Sunday. The Wilson County Sheriff's Office published a statement about the incident around 9:00 a.m. on Facebook. According to officials, the fire began around 6:00 a.m. and caused a road closure at the Old Lebanon Dirt Road and Chandler Road intersection. Mt. Juliet Police Department swiftly responded to the scene, accompanied by the Mt. Juliet Fire Department who worked quickly to extinguish the blaze. Early investigations, led by the WSCO, show that the trailer was full of Bibles. Officials believe that the trailer was intentionally dropped off...

One alleged intruder is dead and a second one injured Friday after a Philadelphia woman discovered them inside her apartment and opened fire. WPVI reported that the woman returned to her apartment in early morning hours, discovered the alleged intruders, and shot them around 2 a.m. She allegedly fought with one of them before firing a total of 13 rounds.

The Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed its ambition: to phase out gas-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles (EVs). Incredibly, this announcement comes as we are flooded with overwhelming evidence that EVs are a market loser. Indeed, the artificial boom and then meltdown of the EV market is a modern industrial calamity. It was created by government, social media, wild disease frenzy, far-flung thinking, and the irrational chasing of utopia, followed by a rude awakening by facts and reality. CEO of Hertz Stephen Scherr has been booted out due to a vast purchase of an EV fleet...

DEFIANCE, Ohio (WANE) — An area of southeast Defiance has been shut down due to an explosion at an oil refinery Wednesday afternoon. The explosion happened at the Glycerin Traders oil refinery plant in southeast Defiance. Around 4:15 p.m., the Defiance Police Department posted on Facebook warning residents to avoid the area of Columbia Street near Ottawa Avenue, Greenler Street and Sauers Avenue due to an “emergency situation.” An employee at Clifford R. Hunt Inc., a business located across the street from the explosion, told WANE 15 he could feel the explosion from his office and could see flames at...

Elon Musk’s Tesla has suffered another safety setback after a tenacious lithium-ion fire battery suddenly hit a Tesla EV driving on an Ohio highway which led to a three-hour closure of the northbound lanes of Route 255 in Bethalto, Illinois on Sunday. Thankfully, the driver and their passengers safely escaped the burning vehicle before it was too late. The Alton Telegraph reports that a Tesla electric vehicle caught fire while traveling northbound on Route 255 in Bethalto, Illinois on Sunday, prompting a major response from multiple fire departments and the Madison County Hazmat Team. The incident, which began around noon,...

CLAYSBURG, Pa. (KDKA) -- A massive fire broke out at a lumber yard in Blair County on Monday night. The fire started at U.S. Lumber, a lumber yard and distribution center in Claysburg, around 20 miles south of Altoona. We're told that everyone got out safely. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

A beloved father of 13 children who saved his family from a house fire started by their landlord was gunned down outside of a Brooklyn brownstone early Sunday morning in an apparent targeted attack. Lavel Fraiser, 40, known by friends as “Flip,” was ambushed and fatally shot in the torso by a group of gunmen who were “waiting for him,” neighbors and police said. Fraiser was found in the backyard of a building at 673 Sterling Place just after 1 a.m., police said. “He got shot outside in front. He staggered in all the way to the back. He was...

Fischer: Last year the University of Nebraska at Lincoln campus conducted a first of its kind crash test of an electric pickup truck to study whether current Highway guard rails adequately protect against the growing number of those heavy EVS that are on our roads. At 60 miles per hour the 7,000 lb electric truck tore through the barrier without offering any protection to the traveling public or reduction in speed. I've recently heard from First Responders that are also concerned about responding to electric vehicle fires. 40% of firefighters have never had EV fire safety training and I've heard...

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A fire raging at an industrial facility caused multiple explosions that rocked suburban Detroit on Monday night and sent debris shooting far into the air, prompting police to implore residents to stay inside. The debris fell as far as a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, the Clinton Township Police Department said on Facebook. Authorities said they didn’t know exactly what was burning or the potential health effects from it. “We can not stress enough the danger that is happening right now,” one police post said. “Please, please, please stay inside and out of the vicinity.” Police said...

Actual data and various lines of hard evidence show that there is no connection between climate change and the wildfires now ravaging parts of north Texas and Oklahoma...Sadly, once again the media is pushing the "climate catastrophe" narrative in which every extreme weather event or natural disaster is caused by climate change, despite the clear evidence that this is false

According to a new poll from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment organization, nearly a third of Americans, including similar numbers of Republicans and Democrats, say that the First Amendment goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. More than half agreed that their local community should not allow a public speech that espouses a belief they find particularly offensive."Those results were disappointing, but not exactly surprising," said FIRE Chief Research Adviser Sean Stevens in a Tuesday press release. "Here at FIRE, we've long observed that many people who say they're concerned about free speech...

Since 2017, hospitalizations due to e-bike injuries have risen 43-fold, ... Over 45,000 Americans were injured as a result of e-bike injuries between 2017 and 2022, indicating a 30-fold rise in the number of injuries caused by the popular mode of transportation. Nearly one in 10 of those injuries required hospitalization. ... 2022, e-bikes accounted for 4 percent of the bike market in the United States, up from 0.06 percent in 2015. ... between 2017 and 2022, the number of injuries rose from 751 to 23,493—over a 108 percent annual increase. Men were those most often injured, receiving between 69...

Texas governor issues disaster declaration From CNN’s Joe Sutton Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties in response to wildfire activity, saying more counties could be added. “The State of Texas stands ready to provide support to our local partners and deploy all resources needed to protect our fellow Texans and their property. Hot and dry conditions caused by high temperatures and windy conditions are expected to continue in the region in the coming days," the governor said in a statement. Those conditions could mean the wildfires continue to grow larger and more dangerous,...