Free Republic

Jamie Hammonds said city policies have pushed homeless into areas where the public can’t see them An Austin, Texas, resident is raising awareness of the city’s homeless problem and its unseen impact on greenbelt areas. Jamie Hammonds, an investigative filmmaker who runs the organization Documenting Austin’s Streets and Homeless, or DASH, shared videos Wednesday on Twitter, showing a homeless encampment in the Violet Crown Trail after roughly a year of neglect. “It’s destroyed. It will never be the same,” Hammonds tweeted. A real-estate agent concurred, saying the “environmental damage from these camps is immense.”

Fans at the Indianapolis 500 may have thought singer-songwriter Jewel's version of the national anthem was a little tone deaf. Instead of doing a by-the-book rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner', the Alaska-raised Folk artist, 49, put together a more nuanced version of the anthem. On a stage as big as 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing', the four-time Grammy-nominated artist put together a soulful version of the 200+ year-old song. It was similar in style and tone to the national anthem she sang at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game in Utah, where she was born. While it wasn't a complete departure...

House lawmakers are set to return to Washington on Friday to vote on a landmark climate, health care and tax bill. But even before its passage, the legislation is becoming a key component of Democrats’ midterm messaging strategy. After the Senate in a tightrope act over the weekend approved the Inflation Reduction Act – which just weeks ago would have been considered a miraculous feat as stalled negotiations made the spending package’s passage seemingly untenable – Democrats are preemptively looking to leverage their success into midterm gains. In a letter to Democratic colleagues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the “life-changing...

Brian Shephard had a long and storied career in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. From 1972 to 2006 he worked cases involving both domestic criminals and Soviet spies in the United States. One of the cases he worked on involving a whistleblower at Archer Daniels Midland Co. in Decatur, Illinois, served as the basis of the 2000 nonfiction book The Informant, which in 2009 was made into a movie starring Matt Damon, But some of the activities of the FBI in recent years have shaken him to his core. In an interview with WVW TV, Shephard pointed to two FBI...

The Florida Surf Museum in Cocoa Beach put it this way Sunday on its Facebook page, where Jack Roland Murphy had published so many recollections from his fabled surfing days: “Jack ‘Murf the Surf’ Murphy — surfing pioneer, jewel thief, convicted murderer, who spent the rest of his life ministering the word of Jesus in prisons across the world — has passed away. We will post more details when we get them ...” Murphy was 83. He and his wife had been living in the Citrus County community of Crystal River.

I’m an unabashed American. That’s an American without hyphens. Snowflake objections to our past don’t concern me. I’m proud of it all. All men are born equal, but not all nations. America is #1, every other nation is not, and that is that. I look down my nose just a little at foreigners, not as 1930s Untermensch, but more in pity along the lines of our homegrown 1980s P.J. O’Rourke.1 Americans are simply unequally better than the rest of the world. Thanks to extra-ordinary good luck, I hold a jewel that much of the rest of humanity wants and I...

A man whose face was left permanently scarred after the tables were turned on him when he and an accomplice tried to rob a jewelry store in Park Extension has been sentenced to a 12-year prison term. Richardson François, 31, received the sentence Wednesday afternoon during a hearing at the Montreal courthouse. Quebec Court Judge Hélène Morin mentioned the fact that François ‎remains heavily scarred by the nitric acid that was tossed in his face in January 2013 while reading from her judgment. But she did not list it as a mitigating factor when she explained how she reached the...

Eco-friendly singer Jewel is a bright green celebrity. As a clean water advocate, she has been helping improve living conditions around the world and in her home state of Alaska. As a famous humanitarian and eco-friendly celebrity, she’s also knocked gun-toting Republican guru Sarah Palin out of the top spot as a reality television star. Will Jewel use her star power wisely with her own family’s new reality TV show special feature on the Discovery channel about living a more sustainable lifestyle off the grid and being Alaskan? You can bet your caribou on it. Even though she lives in...

On a recent Monday night at a Los Angeles karaoke bar, a meek-looking woman in a business suit and glasses was coaxed on stage by her co-workers. While the boozy crowd readied itself for four minutes of awkward singing, the woman — "Karen" — suddenly belted out exquisite, pitch-perfect renditions of the Jewel songs "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "Foolish Games." Astonished crowd members picked their jaws off the floor and cheered wildly. One person was heard comparing Karen to "an American Susan Boyle." Unbeknownst to them, they had been victims of "undercover karaoke." Karen really was Jewel,

Jewel: Palin Is A 'Can-Do' Woman Country and pop singer Jewel Kilcher has leaped to the defense of politician Sarah Palin, days after she lost the American vote as the potential vice-president elect. Jewel, who grew up in Gov. Palin's state of Alaska, is a staunch supporter of women's rights. And she's spoken out against attacks made by fellow musicians including Grace Jones that Palin wasn't ready to step into office. She tells the New York Daily News, "Alaskan women are very can-do women. We're the pioneer state! The women who settled (in) Alaska had a large role in shaping...

Jewel of the Magdalenian period A necklace and pendants made 15,500 years ago have been discovered in the Praile I cave; it is the most important Upper Paleolithic find in the Basque Country in recent years Mikel Lizarralde – DONOSTIA (San Sebastian) A Magdalenian treasure of the Upper Paleolithic has lain hidden for the last 15,500 years in the Praile I cave in Deba (Gipuzkoa). Excavations done over the last few years by a team led by the archaeologist Xabier Peñalver of the Aranzadi Society of Sciences have uncovered spectacular jewellery. Four stunning necklaces of smooth black stone, another one...

Minneapolis-based Target Corp.'s decision this fall to stop allowing Salvation Army bell ringers at its stores has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Lake County Salvation Army. Capt. Diana Williams said she lost three locations with Target's decision, and touched off a search prior to the start of the kettle drive to find replacement sites at other stores. She looked at corporations the Salvation Army already knew would allow bell ringers, and contacted the local stores. The result - seven new sites for a net gain of four. Salvation Army now operates 27 bell-ringer locations in...

HAMPTON - Gloria Dion wants her money back after being subjected to what she calls the worst Jewel concert ever. Dion, along with her two daughters Nicole and Kaitlin, went to last Saturday’s 8 p.m. Jewel concert at the Hampton Beach Ballroom Casino. The singer performed two concerts that evening at the Casino. People who saw the first said Jewel was at the top of her game and said it was a "rocking show." Those who had tickets to the second show saw something quite different, according to Dion. "People were literally walking out of the show," she said. "As...

<p>It's not quite man-bites-dog. But the day we have something nice to say about MTV sure comes close. And that day looks like today.</p> <p>While surfing through the news section of MTV's Web site, we happened to stumble across its "At War With Iraq" link, and it sure belies the cable network's spoiled, Generation Y image. For example, in an MTV poll attempting to distinguish between its viewers' support for the war and their support for the troops, the results were pretty amazing. An overwhelming 60% reported that they supported both the troops and the war. Some 37% answered that they opposed the war but nonetheless supported the troops. That left only a tiny 3% who oppose the troops as well as the war.</p>

"Black" (To be sung to Pearl Jam's "Black") Ahhh-aiiggghhh...yeh...yeah-ahhh!! Sleepy shady campsite...lovely FReepin' day... Tanned legs spread out before me...sun-drenched body shined wet. Lo...Beauty from the Heavens...I revolved around her Sun. [MUD's Earth to Jewel's Sun] Her warm scent I gasped, then I breathed...girrrrl's makin' me burn!! Ooooohh...o'er and o'er, I told the girl..."Kids can dream!!" Ooooohh...o'er and o'er, Jewel begged of MUD, "Love Meeeee, BOY!!" But MUD's gotta better half...with whom MUD lays down... GOODBYE...my FRagile flame!! Girl, Lib'ralism's DEAD!! Nation, washed with blood...LIES, the Lib'ral's Shame... I'll take the watch tonite...Left's surrounded by TYRANTS and HATE!! I still...