Free Republic

DEARBORN, Mo. (KCTV) - An unknown man was shot and killed when he attempted to force his way into a rural Missouri home after he prayed to a horse and attacked a dog. The Platte County, Missouri, Sheriff’s Office says that around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18, emergency crews were called to the 15000 block of Masonic Dr. in Dearborn with reports of a suspicious individual. The homeowner reported a partially clothed man had arrived at their home and began to pray to a horse before he attacked their dog. When he attempted to force his way into the...

Writing about firearm issues is fraught with peril. One’s experience, ability and knowledge matter little to at least some portion of the gun-interested public. No matter what an author writes, even if it’s non-controversial, someone will attack their man—or woman—hood, and suggest they’re less intelligent than an order of packed sardines. With that in mind, are shotguns the ideal home defense weapon? Ideally, in any armed confrontation, one should employ a weapon with ease of use, exceptional accuracy, overwhelming power and significant ammunition capacity—many home invaders these days run in packs—and excellent reliability. That means, in general, a rifle or...

Three Brooklyn residents were bound and beaten up by a group of greedy goons in a violent home invasion where thieves stole watches, handbags and $20,000 in cash on Thursday, cops said. The four bullying bandits broke through a front window of a house in Bensonhurst near 20th Avenue and 78th Street then zip-tied three residents and snatched the loot around 4 a.m., according to authorities. A 34-year-old man was pistol-whipped and a 41-year-old man was punched multiple times in the face during the terrifying encounter, police said. The robbers — all wearing dark clothing — also tied up a...

Homebuyers desperate for a deal might be curious to learn more about a tiny town in Arkansas where homes are selling for just over $400. In Pine Bluff, just 45 miles outside of Little Rock, a home was recently sold for $402.74 at a tax auction. The city found itself thrust into the spotlight when a documentary titled “The City Left Behind: $400 Abandoned Homes in Pine Bluff” got 1.6 million views in the past three weeks on YouTube. “There is a surplus of properties—cheap!—that are prime for restoration and redevelopment,” filmmaker Michael Schwarz told Realtor.com®. “But not enough people...

A former aide to Gov. Kathy Hochul was arrested along with her husband Tuesday morning after their Long Island home was raided by the feds earlier this year, the FBI said. Linda Sun and her husband, Christopher Hu, were arrested on Long Island, the FBI confirmed to The Post. The charges remained under seal. Sun and Hu are set to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon. Law enforcement sources say the arrest was part of a corruption probe unrelated to the governor. Sun was first hired to work in the governor’s office by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government will restart its free at-home COVID tests program in September as officials prepare the country for the upcoming respiratory virus season. Dawn O'Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that this is the seventh time the Biden-Harris administration has allowed Americans to order over-the-counter tests at no charge. It's not clear when the website, COVID.gov/tests, will come back online. The website stopped accepting orders in early March. "As families start to move indoors this fall and begin spending time with their loved ones, both very...

Home prices reached a new record in May amid an ongoing housing shortage, even as high mortgage rates continued to push affordability out of reach for millions of Americans. Prices increased 5.9% nationally in May when compared with the previous year, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed on Tuesday, down from the 6.4% pace recorded the previous month. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3%, according to the index. "Home prices hit a new high in May," said Lisa Sturtevant, Bright MLS chief economist. "But with affordability a growing challenge for homebuyers and more new listings coming onto the market,...

The dreams of homeownership in the United States are moving further out of reach for middle-class Americans. Affording even the down payment for a typical US home can be a burden, as home prices rise, interest rates remain high, and inventory lags demand. Now imagine what it’s like in metro Boston. A median-income household needs to put down 35.4 percent to afford the typical monthly mortgage payments in the United States, according to a June 20 analysis by Zillow. In Boston, that number soars to 61.7 percent, since the typical home value here is $701,349, according to the real estate...

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that a 156-year-old ban on at-home distilling is unconstitutional, siding with a group that advocates for legalizing the ability of people to produce spirits like whiskey and bourbon for their personal consumption. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump in Fort Worth, on Wednesday agreed with, opens new tab the Hobby Distillers Association's lawyers that the longstanding ban exceeded Congress's taxing power and ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.

People moving to New York City should come with a dream, a good pair of walking shoes—and, depending on where they plan to live, a million-dollar salary. Six neighborhoods in the city require homebuyers to earn seven figures to even consider making an offer on a tony address, according to new research compiled by Realtor.com®. The most expensive neighborhood in the five boroughs is Nolita, where the median home costs an eye-watering $5,351,875. Any aspiring or current New Yorker who wants to live in the four-block-wide Manhattan neighborhood—which is now the center of trendy boutiques and chic restaurants—needs to earn...

Homework clubThe pandemic turned the world upside down. People stockpiled toilet paper, did yoga over Zoom, baked banana bread, bought Pelotons, went crazy for online shopping, and anyone who was even thinking about buying a pool went and got one. Pretty much all of those trends have since returned to normal, but a major one has remained: working from home.According to new data published in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Time Use Survey for 2023, ~35% of all employed persons in the US spent the average working day doing at least some of their work from home — up from...

Former Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel — who is 94 years old — wondered whether President Biden belongs in a nursing home instead of the White House following last week’s debate disaster. “I have never been more shocked and embarrassed by any presidential debate than I was last Thursday,” Rangel, who served in Congress from 1971 to 2017, said Sunday on 770 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable.” “One [candidate is] a convicted felon who has no respect for the truth, for morality. The other seemed so damned confused I didn’t even know whether he knew where the hell he was at...

A group of around 40 pro-Palestinian protesters descended upon Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider’s (D-IL) north suburban Chicago area home in the early morning hours on Saturday, worrying neighbors and causing the police department to step up patrols in the neighborhood. Neighbors reported being shocked when the protesters began making noise and shouting slogans at around 3 a.m. on Saturday morning. A group of around 40 pro-Palestinian protesters descended upon Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider’s (D-IL) north suburban Chicago area home in the early morning hours on Saturday, worrying neighbors and causing the police department to step up patrols in the neighborhood....

The current owners of Marilyn Monroe’s former Los Angeles home, a wealthy real estate heiress and her reality TV producer husband, are suing the city for the right to demolish the abode where the star died. Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank filed the lawsuit Monday as an ongoing landmark designation process has stopped them from razing the iconic Brentwood residence, which they purchased for $8.35 million last summer, KCAL-TV reported. The couple, who live next door and bought the sprawling Spanish colonial as a tear-down so they could extend the size of their house, were initially granted a demolition permit...

The minimum income required to buy a home now hovers at $116,000 nationwide, according to a new Realtor.com® report—but this threshold varies greatly based on where you live. On the high end is San Jose, CA, where homes are listed at a median of $1,467,000 and homebuyers need a salary of $361,000 to comfortably cover these massive mortgage payments. On the low end, homebuyers in Pittsburgh need to make just $67,000 to snag a property at a more modest median of $250,000. In April, mortgage rates started rising again, pushing up the cost of buying a home by 6.9% compared...

It is more expensive than ever to buy a home in the U.S., according to a new report from the real estate company Redfin. The median home price hit a record $383,725 during the four week period ending April 21. That’s up 5.2 percent from a year ago, Redfin found, one of the largest leaps in home prices since October 2022. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 7.1 percent this week, the highest it’s been since November 2023. Mortgage rates dipped briefly at the end of last year after the Federal Reserve signaled it would cut interest rates this...

An UdeM study unveils fresh insights into how Neanderthals and Homo sapiens organized their living spaces at the Riparo Bombrini site in northern Italy.How did our Paleolithic ancestors go about organizing their living spaces?...far from being more primitive, Neanderthals did much the same as their Homo sapiens successors: made themselves at home.Analyzing artifacts and features of the Protoaurignacian and Mousterian levels of the Riparo Bombrini site in northwestern Italy, the scientists uncovered common patterns of settlement between the two populations.By mapping the distribution of stone tools, animal bones, ochre, and marine shells across the surface of the site, they were...

(NEXSTAR) — Decades ago, buying a home for $100,000 or less was the norm. Today, you need to earn at least $100,000 just to afford a “typical” home, according to a new analysis. Data tracked by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows the average sales price for homes sold in the U.S. was $492,300 last quarter, down from $552,600 a year prior. While there are signs of improvement, home sale prices are nowhere near where they were 40 years ago: in Q4 of 1984, the average sales price for houses sold nationwide was $97,800.

The Democrat mayor of Atlantic City’s home was raided by armed police officers last week in what he now calls a “political” attack as police investigated a “family matter.” Mayor Marty Small Sr. said Monday he was approached by two Atlantic City Prosecutor’s Office officers while he was helping his mother-in-law into the car so his wife could take her to get bloodwork done at around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Fox 29 reports. The officers then presented him with five search warrants on Small’s home and vehicles as part of an ongoing investigation the mayor said he had been aware...

New York’s most notorious squatting story is taking a new twist: The “squatter” at the center of it says he’s the victim — and will get out once he is paid for “upgrades” to the house. Range Rover-driving Brian Rodriguez told The Post he wants $18,000 to hand back the home in Flushing — and claimed all he was doing was trying to start a “side hustle” to cash in on the migrant crisis. The bizarre saga began when Adele Andaloro was handcuffed by police after a fiery caught-on-camera standoff as she tried to throw out squatters from the $1...