Free Republic

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday suggested migrants should be hired to fill the city’s lifeguard shortage — because “they’re excellent swimmers.” Hizzoner dropped the comment after being asked during a City Hall briefing about lifeguard staffing at the city’s beaches and pools, which have increasingly had issues in recent years, ahead of Memorial Day. Going off on a tangent, Adams indicated that Gotham’s lifeguard shortages could easily be fixed if migrant work visas were being expedited for those jobs that needed to be filled quickly. “How do we have a large body of people that are in our city, our...

Remarkable footage has revealed the moment police officers — dressed head-to-toe in hazmat suits — frogmarched a young woman up a beach in handcuffs after she went surfing after being diagnosed with coronavirus. A professional lifeguard was reported to police by her own colleagues in San Sebastian, in the Bay of Biscay in Spain’s Basque country on Monday after she was spotted surfing while placed on medical leave by her employer following a positive coronavirus test.

Video from AIR7 HD shows the harrowing moment when lifeguards pulled the shark from the water at Newport Beach. A shark was euthanized after lifeguards on Friday afternoon caught a 6-foot shark with their bare hands near Newport Beach's Balboa Pier. Dramatic aerial video from AIR7 HD shows the lifeguards approaching the shark about 1:30 p.m. after ordering all swimmers out of the water. The five lifeguards then pounced on the floundering shark and dragged it onto the sand. No injuries were reported. Lifeguards said two small thresher sharks came ashore, one at the Balboa Pier and the other in...

Former Vice President Joe Biden is being ridiculed over a journalist's retelling of Biden's seemingly heroic tale which he's repeated about taking on a Wilmington, Delaware gang leader named "Corn Pop" in the summer of 1962.

Joe Biden told a harrowing story during an event in 2017 about facing down a razor-wielding gang leader named Corn Pop in his youth by threatening to “wrap” a chain around the man’s head. The incident came back into the spotlight over the weekend when footage of Biden’s remarks began circulating social media. The former vice president, who has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for embellishing portions of his personal and political life, told the story when being honored with having a community pool named after him in a Wilmington, Delaware, historically black neighborhood. Biden had reportedly been the...

News outlet HuffPost — previously known as the Huffington Post — laid off 39 staffers on Wednesday, a move that follows parent company AOL's acquisition by telecom giant Verizon. ... The layoffs also included several reporters in HuffPost's Washington, D.C., bureau. HuffPost senior politics editor Sam Stein described the layoffs on Twitter as "a very difficult day." HuffPost is "also a business, with all that entails," Stein wrote.

Marquette Park Beach lifeguard sleeping on the job On July 25th, 2015 my family was on the beach when we noticed a lifeguard sleeping. I decided to film her to hold her accountable. Gary, Indiana. VIDEO ONLY ON LINK

A woman who was rescued by a lifeguard when she nearly drowned in a pool as a 5-year-old has found her hero, almost 50 years after her brush with death. Eady Rothstein, from Ramsey, N.J., was sitting on the edge of a pool at a club near Lido Beach on New York’s Long Island in 1964 when she suddenly slipped in. "I can picture being underwater, screaming," recalled Rothstein. A young lifeguard jumped in and gave the little girl mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for several minutes. He persisted until she regained consciousness, saving her life. "I've always said I wanted to thank...

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Seventeen-year-old John Clark, a senior at Hudson's Bay, says he didn't think twice about running into the ocean to save a drowning 12-year-old. But what he hasn't stopped thinking about, is the bill he received as a result of his effort. What started at Rockaway Beach The guardian angel is busy this week teaching Boy Scouts to tie knots. It's a far cry from the sand at Rockaway Beach nearly a month ago -- when John Clark heard screams for help from a 12-year-old swept out to sea. The call for help came just five days after...

The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously remarked that, "The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself." I've always liked that quote, but I think it misleads. That two plus two equals four is not a conservative truth or a liberal truth. It's simply the truth. (Moynihan himself recognized this when he even more famously said that people are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts.) Regardless, it's true that...

Six Florida lifeguards have lost their jobs for backing a coworker's decision to save a man struggling in the surf but outside their jurisdiction. Tomas Lopez , 21, was fired Monday for vacating his lifeguarding zone to save a man drowning in unprotected waters 1,500 feet south of his post on Hallandale Beach, Fla. "I knew I broke the rules," said Lopez, who ran past the buoy marking the boundary of his patrol zone to help the man. "I told the manager, I'm fired aren't I?" Lopez said he jumped into the water and "I double underhooked him…I was worried...

Roy Lester is out to prove that no man above the age of 50 has any business wearing a skimpy, form-hugging Speedo. In 2007, Lester was forced out of the Jones Beach lifeguard job he had held for four decades when he was told he had to squeeze into a Speedo for the annual swim test. The 61-year-old Long Island man, who preferred his slightly more modest pair of biking shorts, refused and lost his job.

High pay and benefits for lifeguards in Newport Beach is the latest example of frustrating levels of compensation for public employees. More than half the city’s full-time lifeguards are paid a salary of over $100,000 and all but one of them collect more than $100,000 in total compensation including benefits. When thinking about career options with high salaries, lifeguarding is probably not one of the first jobs to come to mind. But it apparently should. In one of Orange County’s most desirable beach destinations, Newport Beach, lifeguards are compensated all too well; especially compared with the county annual median household...

The new captain jumped from the cockpit, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the owners who were swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar. “We’re fine, what is he doing?” she asked, a little annoyed. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard. ”Move!”...

OC Family Grateful Editor: Saturday, April 25, 2009 was a beautiful day, and it was made even more wonderful by the outpouring of affection expressed toward Captain Robert S. Craig at his Beach Memorial Service. The Craig children and family appreciate all that was done to honor our “Pop,” a man so many in Ocean City have known and loved for so many years. The Beach Memorial was truly memorable and more special than we could have possibly imagined. We have many people to thank for their efforts in making it happen. We learned very quickly that organizing such an...

(At right) Flanked by friends and family members, a wreath is carried down the beach to be released into the ocean in memory of Craig, "founding father" of the Beach Patrol. Carrying the wreath is the current head of the organization, Capt. Butch Arbin, who is flanked by Craig's son, Robert Craig, and grandson, Christopher Craig. (Above) Sean Williams pushes a surf board, carrying the wreath and the ashes of Capt. Craig, toward a Coast Guard boat, which released the wreath farther from the shore.

News Release: April 8, 2009 Memorial Service planned to honor Captain Robert S. Craig Ocean City, MD – A memorial service for Captain Robert (Bob) S. Craig will be held 3 p.m. Saturday, April 25 on the beach at North Division Street. Captain Craig passed away on Saturday, March 28 at the age of 90. Captain Craig joined the Ocean City Beach Patrol in 1935 and served as its captain from 1946 until retiring in 1987. Captain Craig is credited with building the Ocean City Beach Patrol into the professional organization it is known as today. When Captain Craig turned...

(April 3, 2009) The man who not only epitomized the Ocean City Beach Patrol, but also built it into a serious and professional organization, passed away Saturday. When Capt. Robert (Bob) S. Craig turned 90 last July, a competition, dinner and slide show honored him for his 52 years as a town employee and member of the Beach Patrol. Thousands knew Craig from his years guiding the Beach Patrol and taking it from a small, relatively unskilled group of young men to a large group of highly skilled young men and women. Capt. Butch Arbin, the current head of the...

OCEAN CITY – Ocean City lost a treasured icon this week when Captain Robert S. Craig, who shepherded the Beach Patrol through decades of change and inspired his young charges for half a century passed away at the age of 90. Captain Craig, as he was known for decades not only by the thousands of lifeguards who worked with him and for him but also by the countless millions of local residents and visitors to the resort area, passed away last Saturday at the Coastal Hospice in Salisbury at the age of 90. A former schoolteacher and coach, Captain Craig...

A lifeguard dog banned from patrolling a Cornish beach because of health and safety rules is to be reinstated after hundreds of people signed a petition. Bilbo, a Newfoundland, patrolled Sennen with his lifeguard master and got round a dog ban on the beach by sitting in an all terrain bike (ATB) during patrols. However, the RNLI said passengers were not allowed on ATBs and banned him.