Free Republic

“The pitchfork was erected into the air, anchored into his head,” police said.A Fall River man is facing murder charges in connection with the deaths of two men Wednesday night, after victims were fatally beaten with cobblestones and one was found with a pitchfork impaled in the back of his head, authorities said. Vitor Francisco Gomes, 28, is charged with two counts of murder for the double homicide, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn announced in a press release. Shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to 90 Aetna St. in Fall River after receiving reports of three shots fired....

What do a plastic surgeon with links to Al Qaeda, an oyster fisherman with a Nazi tattoo, a former bandmate of a child sex offender, and a Lutheran minister who took part in a satanic wedding have in common? They’re all Democrat candidates for Congress in this November’s midterm elections. Undoubtedly the most notorious Democrat this cycle is Graham Platner, the first-time candidate in Maine’s U.S. Senate race who defeated establishment favorite Janet Mills and is set to take on incumbent Republican Susan Collins this November. Platner first made headlines after it was revealed that he had a chest...

MR. SPEAKER: Some time since a Senator from Massachusetts allowed himself, in an elaborately prepared speech, to offer a gross insult to my State, and to a venerable friend, who is my State representative, and who was absent at the time. Not content with that, he published to the world, and circulated extensively, this uncalled for libel on my State and my blood. Whatever insults my State insults me. Her history and character have commanded my pious veneration; and in her defence I hope I shall always be prepared, humbly and modestly, to perform the duty of a son. I...

A Bristol County man will stay behind bars after disturbing cries against children. According to the Parole Board, in 2003-2004, then 43-year-old Paul Hawksley of Mansfield was one of the leaders of a youth group affiliated with the Fellowship Church in Easton. During this time, Hawksley repeatedly raped a 12-year-old boy (hereinafter the victim), who was a member of the youth group. The victim moved to Easton in 2003 and became involved in the youth group to meet new friends. Hawksley groomed the victim over a period of time-calling him multiple times a day, inviting him to sleepovers, and singling...

Graham Platner, Maine’s likely Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate, was hand-plucked by a pair of socialist political operatives who sought him out after catching wind of him through the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) network. After being accused of abusive behavior by women he has dated, wearing a Nazi tattoo for 18 years, sexting several women while married, and a host of other scandals, Platner is now being criticized for the Ivy League-educated radicals behind him. Daniel Moraff of Yale Law and his fiancée, Leanne Fan of Harvard and University of California-Berkeley, met while working for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)...

The term for the political tactic of manipulating boundaries of electoral districts for unfair political advantage derives its name from a prominent 19th-century political figure -- and from a mythological salamander.The term, originally written as "Gerry-mander," first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette -- a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Gov. Elbridge Gerry.Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Democratic-Republican Party, it was Gerry who signed the bill in 1812. As a result, he received the dubious honor of attribution, along with its negative connotations.Gerry, in fact,...

The newly elected vice president of Massachusetts's top teachers' union is a longtime left-wing activist who has denounced the United States as a "fascist oligarchy," objected to national borders as a "construct of colonizers," and pushed resolutions condemning Israel as "genocidal." The Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)—an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States—earlier this month elected Deb Gesualdo as its vice president. The new leadership team will take over from outgoing MTA president Max Page in July. Gesualdo, along with the MTA’s newly elected president, Matt Bach, is a member of Educators...

With so-called Pride festivities set to kick off in three days, the LGBTQ3.14… community in Boston has been confronted with a turd in their punchbowl, in the form of an outbreak of the monkeypox virus. Monkeypox (or mpox, as racist people who can't help themselves from associating monkeys with certain minorities call it) causes symptoms that include "a skin rash or mucosal lesions which can last 2–4 weeks accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes," the World Health Organization informs us. WHO warns that monkeypox can spread: ...from person to person mainly through...

Racial justice advocates descended on Capitol Hill to slam the Trump administration’s policies that they say are an “attack on the Black economy,” as Black Americans see rising unemployment and disproportionate impacts of America’s affordability crisis. “The state of the Black economy is under attack,” said U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who hosted a press conference on Wednesday with coalition groups, including the NAACP, Color of Change, the National Urban League, and The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “We are plagued by an economic crisis that is a direct result of Trump’s reckless financial policies that are...

Reports of an explosion from people across New England on Saturday afternoon sent police agencies and others scrambling to understand what caused a double boom that shook buildings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The American Meteor Society said that the booms people heard were actually caused by a meteor about 3 feet (nearly 1 meter) wide entering the atmosphere around the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts, north of Boston. NASA officials confirmed that the meteor was natural material, not a satellite or space debris, and that it entered the atmosphere at 2:06 p.m. American Meteor Society program monitor Robert Lunsford...

A Democratic National Committee staff member is believed to be behind a profane X post targeting White House adviser Stephen Miller that was published from the DNC’s official account. Paulina Mangubat, 30, a DNC senior digital strategist who previously worked as digital content and creative director for the Democrats, serves on the team responsible for managing the party’s @TheDemocrats X account, which has 2.4 million followers. Her LinkedIn profile says she graduated from Barnard College in 2017 and previously worked as digital and creative director for woke Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, a whistleblower revealed a welfare scam that the Dominican community has been running for over a decade. Here is how it works: Dominican immigrants buy food with EBT cards or take it for free from food banks. They then load it into shipping barrels and send it to the Dominican Republic, where it is sold for profit in local bodegas. We tracked the entire pipeline, from corner stores in Massachusetts to shipping hubs in New York to bodegas in Santo Domingo that are stocked with food paid for by the American taxpayer. We are prepared to share...

The city of Cambridge in Massachusetts has disabled its gunshot detection system--ShotSpotter--under pressure from leftist political activists. Stephanie Guirand, a member of the group "The Black Response" pointed out that "it disproportionately affects racial and ethnic groups that have higher propensities to commit crimes using guns than white folks. This is intrinsically racist and should not be allowed. Let the police use the investigation techniques they used before this technology existed." Spencer Piston, a Boston University political science professor, said "this technology could lead to more arrests of undocumented immigrants. Arrests mean fingerprints, mug shots, and addresses will be recorded...

A duck in Massachusetts is recovering after rescuers` found an arrow lodged through its bill. Dig deeper: Steven Salowsky of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue said he was notified after a Salem resident spotted the duck, later named Horace, at a local pond. The following day, Salowsky and other rescuers responded to help the injured bird. The duck was taken to a clinic, where staff determined the wound was superficial. Rescuers were able to safely remove the arrow using lubricant, and no additional complications were found.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the home of Harvard University. This was Cambridge last week: And this was Cambridge on Monday: A slew of liberal activists descended upon the Cambridge City Council in recent weeks to get the city to disable its gunshot detection devices, which help police pinpoint where gunshots are coming from to better respond to shootings. Police Commissioner Pauline Wells begged the council on Monday not to deactivate the devices, citing multiple recent cases where lives have been saved due to the system, but to no avail. More from the Harvard Crimson on April 30: In a presentation Wednesday,...

An incredible outpouring of love and respect as hundreds of strangers filled St. Joseph the Worker Church in Hanson to bid farewell to World War II U.S. Navy veteran John Bernard Arnold III. A veteran group put out the call for the public to attend the funeral to help honor Arnold, an East Bridgewater man who had no known family. "When the veterans service officer from Hanson put out the call that he had outlived everyone, he didn't even imagine this level of support. It's just fantastic," said Dr. Andrea Gayle-Bennett, the deputy secretary for the Executive Office of Veteran...

A stomach-churning viral video appears to show a McDonald’s employee shoveling french fries in her mouth and then putting them back in a box, possibly to serve to customers — and police are investigating. “So you want french fries today, right?” the woman says to the camera, before placing the fries in her mouth while a co-worker laughs behind her in the kitchen of the East Main Street McDonald’s in Southbridge, Mass., according to the disgusting video obtained by Boston 25 News. The employee then puts the fries back in the box, the vile video shows. “That’s disgusting, are you...

Massachusetts prosecutors scolded a judge over the sweetheart deal she handed to serial criminal Tyler Brown — who is accused of opening fire on random drivers on Monday — after he was convicted of trying to kill a cop years earlier. Brown, 46, pleaded guilty to armed assault with intent to murder in 2021, one year after he fired 13 rounds at Boston officers, including firing a .40 Glock semi-automatic at close range at one officer’s chest. Prosecutors recommended a 12-year prison sentence followed by five years of probation; however, Judge Janet Sanders handed out a five- to six-year sentence...

A gunman who opened fire at cars on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monday afternoon was shot by a responding State Police trooper and a civilian. Two men in separate cars were shot and have life-threatening injuries. The suspect, 46-year-old Tyler Brown, is in custody and is being treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital. It happened around 1:30 p.m. near the intersection of River Street. Videos from witnesses show the gunman walking down the middle of the street firing and waving a rifle. According to I-Team sources, a photo of Brown was included in an officer safety bulletin that...

Memorial Drive in Cambridge is closed amid a large emergency incident involving a reported shooting outside an apartment building near the River Street Bridge. A 911 call received at approximately 1:30 p.m. reported the gunshots, according to Cambridge spokesperson Jeremy Warnick. "There remains an active scene, however, there is no ongoing danger to the public. Units are on-scene along with the State Police," Warnick said. Massachusetts State Police confirmed that at least one person was treated for a gunshot wound. Flying overhead, Sky5 saw two people being loaded into waiting ambulances by paramedics. A rifle was seen on the grass...