Free Republic

Egg farmers are starting to worry that the fight against the avian flu is unwinnable. Producers across the country are bleeding millions of dollars to invest in biosecurity efforts to rebuild their rapidly dying flocks — all while protecting humans from catching the deadly disease, according to a report. “I call this virus a terrorist. And we are in a battle and losing, at the moment,” Greg Herbruck, the CEO of Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch in Michigan, told the San Antonio Express-News. Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch — one of the largest egg producers in the nation — was first hit by the...

Michael Skakel — the Kennedy cousin who spent more than a decade in prison for the 1975 murder of his teenage Connecticut neighbor before he was sprung on procedural grounds — is suing the town of Greenwich and its lead police investigator over claims he was locked behind bars in a targeted attack. The lawsuit claims investigators pinned the slaying on Skakel for their own personal and financial gain. Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, was convicted of 15-year-old Martha Moxley’s murder in 2002 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, but was released...

Birds are dying in record numbers this autumn by flying full-speed into Big Apple buildings, lured to their deaths by glassy skyscrapers — with the sleek Battery Park City corridor among the city’s biggest death traps. There are almost 1,000 known cases of migratory birds obliviously smashing headfirst into the mirage-like reflective buildings since August — a whopping 53% increase from last year’s strike toll. But experts warn the vast majority of bird strikes go uncounted — as unusually high winds and low clouds this year had the migrating flocks flying faster and at lower altitudes than normal. “Fall of...

Former First Lady Melania Trump was snapped running around New York City with an extravagant handbag on her arm Tuesday, while her presidential hopeful hubby campaigns more than 1,200 miles away in Wisconsin. Melania, wearing a head-to-toe all-white ensemble, was flanked by Secret Service guards as she ducked into Trump Tower. The former model’s wedding band was on full display as she sported a matching white Hermes Birkin bag — which can fetch as much as $33,000 on the resale market. The fashionista also appeared to be wearing Christian Louboutin flats, which retail for a comparatively reasonable $700.

An aspiring medical student was left brain dead last month when his friends pushed him into a Louisiana lake knowing he couldn’t swim — and then looked on while doing nothing to save the drowning man, according to a report. Shocking video shows the group casually peering into the water moments after they shoved Christopher Gilbert off the dock at Lake D’Arbonne in Farmerville on April 14. At least one woman can be seen slowly entering the water before abandoning the rescue mission. It was another 10 minutes before a patron at a nearby restaurant intervened and yanked Gilbert back...

Newly released video shows the 16-year-old nonbinary student who died the day after a fight in an Oklahoma high school bathroom recounting the events leading up to the brawl to a cop — who said the teen “essentially started it.” Nex Benedict appeared conscious and alert in the police bodycam footage as they sat in a hospital bed during police questioning after their bullies allegedly bashed their head against the floor. The sophomore and their mother told an Owasso school course officer that a group of girls that had been “antagonizing” them in the days before had been picking on...

An alleged victim of deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein celebrated Wednesday after it was revealed that more than 170 people with ties to the accused sex trafficker will soon be exposed — calling the reveal an early Christmas gift. Virginia Giuffre — who settled a $12 million lawsuit over allegations Epstein sex-trafficked her to Prince Andrew — appeared to taunt the dozens of associates and ex-employees whose names will be dredged up in a trove of court documents to be unsealed in the coming weeks. “There’s going to be a lot of nervous ppl over Christmas and New Years, 170 to...

A Philadelphia man canvassing for a progressive organization was fatally shot by a fellow campaign staffer Monday while the two were handing out flyers ahead of the city’s mayoral primary election. Eddie Brokenbough, 46, was struck once in his left armpit by an unidentified 22-year-old staffer around 4 p.m. in the East Germantown neighborhood, police said. Brokenbough was rushed to a nearby hospital but died 15 minutes after he was shot. It is unclear what kicked off the deadly fight, but police believe it stemmed from a prior dispute between the pair, who were both campaigning on behalf of the...

An elderly Missouri man died with his wife in a house fire Thursday after he refused to escape to safety without her. Dispatchers told Kenneth Zerr to flee his New Melle home that was quickly becoming consumed by flames, but he opted to stay inside to find his wife, Phyllis, the couple’s son told KSDK. “The dispatch told my father to come out of the house and my father said, ‘I’m not leaving my wife’ and stayed with her. Until the end,” Andy Zerr said as he fought back tears. Phyllis had fallen from her wheelchair onto the floor of...

An Army vet who once did time for killing a commanding officer was arrested for a decades-old double murder of two teenage boys in Oregon, officials said. Steven Paul Criss, now 65, allegedly gunned down 16-year-old Donny Bartron and 18-year-old Pete Zito, Jr. in an execution-style shooting in a rec center parking lot in 1974, cops said this week. The boys’ bodies were found the following morning by an Oregonian newspaper delivery driver.