Free Republic

A college professor suspected in a series of arson fires in remote forested areas of Northern California near the massive Dixie Fire has been charged in connection with one of the blazes in Lassen County and was ordered held Tuesday in the Sacramento County Main Jail. Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, is believed to have worked at a number of colleges in California, including Santa Clara University and Sonoma State University, where a Dr. Gary Maynard is listed as a lecturer in criminal justice studies specializing in criminal justice, cults and deviant behavior. ...Maynard was arrested Saturday following an investigation that...

You had to be there to remember – and to understand – so here’s a refresher. In 1964, group of young Pontiac engineers created the GTO by pairing an expensive big-car’s engine with an inexpensive medium-sized car – thereby creating the first mass-market muscle car. Which was mass-market because it wasn’t just about muscle. That had been done before, by Chrysler (letter series cars) and Oldsmobile, too. What made the GTO different – and dangerous, in the view of a certain kind of killjoy – was that it was cheap. Or at least, affordable. You didn’t have to be a...

House lawmakers want the Trump administration to investigate reports that a wealthy foundation used an offshore shell company to give millions of dollars to environmental activists opposed to U.S. energy development. “If you connect the dots, it is clear that Russia is funding U.S. environmental groups in an effort to suppress our domestic oil and gas industry, specifically hydraulic fracking,” Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith said Friday. Smith and Texas Republican Rep. Randy Weber asked Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to investigate whether or not environmentalists were funneling money to U.S. environmental groups through a Bermuda-based shell company. Republicans are pitching...

The first two production Pontiac Firebirds ever built are currently up for sale, but if you want them, you have to buy the pair, because the seller wouldn’t have it any other way. The 1967 coupe and convertible spent their early days as Pontiac show cars before being released for public sale and have reportedly been together ever since. They didn’t lead a pampered life, however, and by 2014 were in pretty rough shape and not in running condition. That’s when the folks at Gas Monkey Garage of “Fast and Loud” fame heard about them and bought the birds for...

How did Kevin and his business partner (and cousin) Don Emery score this very special Trans Am? It all started with an ad that is featured in every Ames catalog and on its website: "Wanted: Low Mileage Low Production Cars." One day Kevin received a call from a Don Larsen of Victorville, California. Don mentioned that he had a car that Ames might be interested in and said it was possibly the first production 1969 Trans Am ever built. "Don was thinking retirement and figured it was time to sell the TA," says Kevin. That's a pretty bold claim to...

Top jihadi forum list updated

Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman Corp. has quietly developed a new spy plane that can listen in on phone conversations, use high-powered radar and shoot live video footage as it flies at 30,000 feet above the Earth. And the spy plane, expected to be unveiled Monday, would operate with or without a pilot sitting in the cockpit. Until now, U.S. military aircraft have been designed to either have a pilot on board or be an unmanned drone. But Northrop's new plane, dubbed the Firebird, can switch from being a traditional aircraft to a drone with just a few modifications. The Century...

A couple of weeks ago, I had a brake line fail, no big deal in itself, but when the car was on the hoist, you could clearly see the carpeting coming through the rusted floorboard. One seat bolt had already rusted away and I figured that someday soon I may wind up sitting on the street. On top of that, the driver's side door was getting real hard to close so I thought I better get something before the door falls off. So I started looking: one Camaro was a real dog, one was great but expensive, and there was...