Free Republic

The LEGO store in the San Francisco Centre mall has officially closed, right in the middle of the Christmas retail season, joining a retail exodus from the city that is driven by crime, homelessness, drugs, and the nation’s slowest post-pandemic recovery. As Breitbart News has noted, Westfield stopped making mortgage payments on the San Francisco Centre mall in June, after losing Nordstrom, which was its anchor tenant. Many other retail businesses, small and large, boutique and chain, have left.

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

Fall is coming.

Pelosi leaves room to delay infrastructure vote © Getty Images Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday said the stonewalling by Senate centrists has "completely" disrupted the Democrats' timeline for moving President Biden's domestic agenda, leaving open the possibility that the House will punt once again on an infrastructure vote scheduled for Thursday. Pelosi said she still intends to stage the infrastructure vote on Thursday, but acknowledged her power as Speaker to delay it, if need be. "We take it one step at a time," Pelosi told reporters after huddling with members of her caucus in the basement of the Capitol,...

An elected Virginia sheriff is quitting the Democratic party, citing its “relentless attack on law enforcement.” Smyth County Sheriff Chip Shuler, who has been twice elected as a Democrat, said he filed Monday to join the GOP — which his application unanimously accepted by the party, according to WJHL-TV.“I am changing to the Republican Party because of the relentless attack on law enforcement by Democrats in Richmond and Washington,” Shuler said in a press release.“My deputies work hard to serve and protect the citizens of Smyth County,” he said. “As sheriff, it has been difficult to watch my deputies try...

 Leaf pile connoisseur enjoying herself:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3HN-MmJc4 

Steve Bannon stepped down from his post as the executive chairman of Breitbart News Tuesday.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (left) and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu Germany will have to pull its forces out of the Incirlik air force base in southern Turkey because of Turkish government restrictions on German lawmakers seeking to visit troops there, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday.Gabriel was speaking after a meeting in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, which had aimed to address the standoff over Incirlik and other diplomatic tensions between the two NATO allies.“My Turkish colleague explained to me that in the current situation, Turkey is not able to allow every visit by German...

Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren has left her post after 14 years on air, the network's new co-presidents Jack Abernethy and Bill Shine announced Tuesday. Van Susteren's departure came hours after ousted Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes reached a $20 million settlement with former anchor Gretchen Carlson, who accused him of sexual harassment before she left the network earlier this summer. The network also offered Carlson a public apology "for the fact that [she] was not treated with respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve," according to Vanity Fair.

The president of the University of Missouri system resigned Monday amid criticism of his handling of student complaints about race and discrimination. President Tim Wolfe said Monday that his resignation is effective immediately. The announcement came at a special meeting of the university system's governing body, the Board of Curators. The complaints came to a head over the weekend when at least 30 black football players announced they would not participate in team activities until Wolfe was removed or stepped down. For months, black student groups have complained of racial slurs and other slights on the overwhelmingly white flagship campus...

A Dutch company and an American ethanol producer hope to put a new kind of fuel in your gas tank — whether it makes economic sense or not. Thanks, Washington. Amid the cornfields of Emmetsburg, Iowa sits an ethanol plant that takes in 20 million bushels of corn and churns out about 55 million gallons of corn ethanol a year. Rising next to it is a revolutionary new facility. It will make ethanol as well, but instead of using juicy kernels of corn, its feedstock will be 285,000 tons a year of corncobs, leaves and husks. Although its 25 million...

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to leave the G20 summit early after Western leaders lambasted him Saturday over the crisis in Ukraine and threatened further sanctions. “I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Putin, according to his spokesman Jason MacDonald, Reuters reports. President Barack Obama said the United States was at the forefront of “opposing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17.” German Chancellor Angela...

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is allowed to enter the country’s territory. The whistleblower has been granted temporary political asylum in Russia, Snowden's legal representative Anatoly Kucherena said. “I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone,” he added. Snowden has already left the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, an RT crew at the scene has confirmed. His present location has not been made public nor will it be disclosed, Kucherena said, adding that Snowden is among the...

(Reuters) - Egyptian police battled thousands of protesters outside President Mohamed Mursi's palace in Cairo on Tuesday, prompting the Islamist leader to leave the building, two presidential sources said. Police fired teargas at demonstrators angered by Mursi's drive to hold a referendum on a new constitution on December 15. Some broke through police lines around his palace and protested next to the perimeter wall. Several thousand people had gathered nearby in what they dubbed "last warning" protests against Mursi, who infuriated opponents with a November 22 decree that expanded his powers. "The people want the downfall of the regime," the...

Laurie Robinson, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) under Attorney General Eric Holder, is leaving the Department of Justice (DOJ), according to an announcement released just before the start of the Iowa caucuses. "Laurie Robinson has helped transform OJP’s role in the criminal and juvenile justice field, bringing scientific rigor, a true sense of partnership, transparency, and accountability to the agency," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement on her departure at the end of February. "I am proud of her service to OJP’s constituents, the Department of Justice and the Obama Administration and personally...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Stunning accusations that a top California Democratic campaign treasurer looted the war chests of her big-name clients have left candidates across the state scrambling to raise more money as election season looms. Kinde Durkee, who controlled the funds of roughly 400 candidates and groups, ranging from Senator Dianne Feinstein to local Democratic youth clubs, was arrested in September and charged with fraud. While the extent of the losses isn't yet clear, the coffers of dozens of Democratic politicians have been frozen, prompting the crippled campaigns to ask the California Fair Political Practices Commission to permit further...

These versions are not clickable to be bigger; if you go to Mangelsen's Web site, you can click on them and see larger versions. I found these in the Online Gallery, either New Releases, or Landscapes/Flowers/Trees.

(CNN) -- A New York imam who pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents as they investigated an alleged terror plot left the United States on Monday as part of his plea deal, a government spokesman and the imam's attorney told CNN. Imam Ahmad Afzali and his wife left on a 2 p.m. flight to live in Saudi Arabia, said Afzali's attorney, Ron Kuby. A government spokesman confirmed Afzali's departure. After his guilty plea earlier this year for lying to federal agents in the case involving Najibullah Zazi's alleged subway bombing plan in New York City, Afzali had 90 days...

And another member of the media is leaving the world of reporting for a left-leaning advocacy job. Ed Chen, a Bloomberg reporter covering the Obama administration who was most recently the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, will rejoin the Natural Resources Defense Council to do the “Lord’s work,” he said in a departure e-mail. It’s not Chen’s first time leaving journalism for the NRDC, a powerful green group known for clashing with industry by filing pro-environmentalist litigation. Chen, once a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, left the news business in 2006 to work for the environmentalist group,...