Free Republic

A former Bakersfield college basketball coach is headed to prison after admitting to possessing child sex abuse material while running a prostitution operation that spanned three states. Kevin Mays, a former assistant coach at Cal State University Bakersfield and one-time player for the program, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office said. Earlier this month, Mays pleaded no contest to felony charges of possession of child or youth pornography, pimping and possession of a controlled substance while armed with a firearm. The plea...

The F-47 program has entered its engineering and manufacturing development phase with unprecedented maturity. The F-47 program has entered its engineering and manufacturing development phase with unprecedented maturity. Kalawin/USAF =========================================================================== The United States’ next-generation fighter aircraft program has reached a significant milestone. Boeing has begun manufacturing prototype aircraft for the F-47, the U.S. Air Force’s future sixth-generation stealth fighter. According to Air Force officials, the program remains on schedule, with the aircraft’s maiden flight expected in 2028. The progress marks the transition from years of design, research, and technology demonstrations to the construction of physical aircraft that will undergo rigorous...

KAAN fighter jet prototype in powered taxi tests. Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. ========================================================================================= Turkey’s next-generation KAAN fighter has entered another key phase of development after Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) began powered taxi tests with the P1 prototype, bringing the stealth aircraft closer to its next flight milestone. Footage released by the company shows the twin-engine jet rolling down the runway under its own power as engineers assess braking, steering, engine response and ground handling. Those evaluations are a standard part of aircraft development and must be completed before a prototype is cleared for flight. The milestone carries added significance because...

Asteroid (44) Nysa seen by the SHARK-VIS instrument of the Large Binocular Telescope. It does look odd! Image Credit: Kate Minker et al./Large Binocular Telescope/Lowell Observator ================================================================== Asteroid (44) Nysa is bright, weird, and, it turns out, not alone. New observations reveal that this asteroid has an extremely peculiar structure. It's the first known asteroid in the Solar System with three lobes. Excitingly, it also seems to have its own moon. Several objects in the Solar System are known to be contact binaries, such as Comet 67P and Kuiper belt object Arrokoth. In those cases, a valley or neck is...

Kamala Harris on Friday signaled she’d support abolishing the Electoral College and packing the Supreme Court – an indication that the former vice president has moved further to the left since her disastrous 2024 presidential campaign. “I know this is going to be controversial coming from me, in particular,” Harris said in remarks at the National Urban League Conference in Nashville, Tenn., before laying out part of her potential 2028 platform. “We need to revisit the Electoral College. We need to revisit the point of expanding the court, to 13 justices like we have 13 district courts. We need to...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - More elected officials in St. Paul are speaking out about the ongoing sexual harassment investigation into Mayor Kaohly Her. The mayor is accused of making inappropriate sexual comments toward the city's police chief and staff. St. Paul city council members react to Mayor Her allegations What they're saying: In a statement on Thursday, Ward 3 council member Saura Jost says she’s deeply concerned about the allegations because every city employee deserves respect and a safe, welcoming and inclusive workplace. Jost said she respects the mayor's right to due process and will not be commenting...

The “Car Tunes” tour at the Savoy Automobile Museum took place from January thru May 2026. This video tour of vintage cars was originally televised in installments on Fox5, Atlanta. American passenger cars, sports cars and stock cars for drag racing 1903 – 1965 are featured.The Savoy, a fairly new museum in the central Georgia countryside north of Atlanta, is yet another good place for a car nut or a family to celebrate the USA's 250th anniversary! America's car culture helped define our country, especially since the 1950s, and changed the entire world, too.

Archaeologists have identified the oldest known library on the Iberian Peninsula inside a Roman villa in southern Spain, overturning decades of belief that the room was a sanctuary dedicated to the Roman god Mithras.The discovery was made at the Roman villa of Fuente Álamo in Puente Genil, in Spain's Córdoba province. Researchers concluded the room served as a space for reading, study, and preserving written works, making it the westernmost known library in the Roman Empire and one of its best-preserved private examples.The room contains several architectural features typical of Roman libraries, including an apse, rectangular niches that likely held...

WASHINGTON — Millions of parents refusing to pay child support may have their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility revoked after the US Department of Agriculture rescinded a Biden administration rule earlier this month, The Post has learned. The move, which revives a policy implemented during the first Trump administration, could save taxpayers billions of dollars per year in money that’s formerly gone to delinquent child support payees. “This is not about kicking people, who truly can’t afford to make payments, off SNAP,” said Alex Adams, assistant secretary for family support at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration...

Luigi Mangione’s radical supporters are leading the charge pushing for a rarely-used legal loophole that could let the suspected healthcare CEO killer walk free — even if the jury believes he is guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the cold-blooded murder. The December 4 Legal Committee, which has raised more than $1.5 million for Mangione’s defense fund, is raising awareness about jury nullification, a legal power by which a defiant jury can find a defendant not guilty if they believe the law the accused is charged with breaking is unjust, The Times reported. While rare since the 19th century, it’s used...

This interview features Melania Trump discussing her relationship with Donald Trump, from their first meeting to their life together. Key Highlights: How they met: They met at a fashion party in New York City in September 1996 (0:13-0:28). Melania noted his charm and energy despite him arriving with another date. The courtship: Melania famously took the initiative, asking for his number so she could call him herself rather than the other way around (1:11-1:43). They went on their first date to a place called Mumba in downtown New York (1:46-2:00). Commitment: They dated for seven years before getting married, with...

Archaeologists excavating in the famous prehistoric Hohle Fels cave in Germany have uncovered two bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory. ‪‪The thumbnail-size carvings add to the existing ‬‬evidence that ice age humans had a sophisticated artistic sense 40,000 years ago...When the birds were found in 2025, they were lying just 5 feet (1.5 meters) from each other in a layer dating back 40,000 years, according to the statement. The sculptures bring the total number of bird figurines from Hohle Fels up to three; a small water bird was found there in 2001. Hohle Fels was occupied by early Homo sapiens...

“Squad” Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s husband, Conan Harris, is still involved with a real estate firm that locked down a controversial $2 billion deal for the development of a new courthouse in Massachusetts despite a key partner divesting from that company due to ethical concerns. Harris had been partners with John Barros in CoJo Real Estate, which was involved in clinching the winning bid for a 40-year lease to build a new courthouse in Springfield, Mass. On Wednesday, Barros, the interim executive director for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, announced he was divesting from the firm due to an ethics controversy....

They aren’t showering Zo with compliments. Steamed tenants in an Alphabet City apartment complex haven’t showered in two months after Legionnaires’ disease-causing bacteria were found in the water system — with many raising a stink over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s focus uptown and beyond. The residents at Haven Plaza — alongside local lawmakers — held a rally Thursday blasting the confused, plodding response by city health officials and the five-building Avenue C complex’s management. The slow-motion effort not only overlapped with a separate outbreak on the Upper East Side, but also unfolded at the same time as Mamdani’s attention-grabbing call to...

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman vowed to undo Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “oppressive” and “reckless” pied-à-terre tax if elected – as it was revealed the Big Apple plans to hire dozens of employees just to process the new fee. Blakeman, who’s currently serving as the elected Nassau County executive, issued a dire warning Thursday saying state Democratic Party policies will drive more New Yorkers out of the city, which already carries a 12.5% local tax burden, the third highest in the country. “This reckless tax will drive even more families, jobs, and investment out of our state, and middle-class New Yorkers...

People Incorporated, formerly known as IAC, is exploring a possible sale of The Daily Beast as it looks to focus its portfolio around People Inc. and MGM, sources told Axios. Why it matters: The company was looking to sell the outlet several years ago, but instead installed new leadership to try to turn the business around. State of play: Now that the site is profitable, it's taking the venture back to the market. Conversations about a sale are serious but not necessarily immediate, a source said. Catch up quick: Barry Diller, People Incorporated's founder and chair, tapped Ben Sherwood, the...

The Moon is about to get a new crater courtesy of Elon Musk, and astronomers are ready to watch it happen. ============================================================= A topographical map of the Einstein crater on the Moon, near where the rocket stage is expected to hit. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) ===================================================================== VIDEOS AT LINK.............. Astronomers are poised to watch an artificial impact on the Moon, in a collision that is expected to leave a 20-30-meter (66–98-foot) crater on the lunar surface. As well as professional astronomers wishing to study the impact and resulting debris, amateur astronomers may be able...

WC21 (UK) Productions Ltd explores the village of Hincaster, historically rumored to have Roman origins despite lack of evidence. By analyzing historical maps, LiDAR data, and local archaeology, they investigate a potential site for the long-lost settlement. Lost Roman Castrum Found by COMPLETE AMATEUR | 28:24 WC21 (UK) Productions Ltd | 33.4K subscribers | 56,455 views | July 20, 2025YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.

From politics to 'a very exciting event' As March Madness heats up we are more than likely going to encounter a peculiar word that is much beloved by sports writers and political pundits alike: barn burner. barn burner The 'Barnburners' were one of two competing factions in the New York State Democratic Party in the middle of the 19th century. The name was “in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman who relieved himself of rats by burning his barns which they infested.” In the modern parlance a barn burner is defined as "a very exciting game, event, etc."...

The ruling does change the fundamental nature of what the books were intended for: they were intended to be read by human beings, not used as training for machines to replace human thought and ingenuity. ============================================================== AI companies are buying old books, scanning them, then destroying them. Anthropic has been buying the books to feed the machine with human knowledge and ideas written down before the AI era, so only books with publication dates before 2022 will do. Once they have the books, they rip off the spines, feed them through a scanner, and then on into the gaping maw...