Free Republic

Cracker Barrel is barreling toward yet another PR disaster, this time angering customers throughout the South for ditching a tradition on New Year’s Day. In early September 2025, Cracker Barrel fully retreated from its proposed plans to modernize and remodel its restaurants to a more minimalist, corporate look and replace its old trademark logo, featuring “old timer” Uncle Herschel, with a boring, stripped-down version. They didn’t have much choice, as customers were enraged and their stock price had plummeted You’ve shared your voices in recent weeks not just on our logo, but also on our restaurants. We’re continuing to listen....

The FBI said Friday that agents "thwarted a potential terror attack on New Year’s Eve in North Carolina." The FBI, in a post on X, wrote: “The subject was directly inspired to act by ISIS.” The FBI said it arrested a man who pledged loyalty to the ISIS terrorists and plotted an attack on a North Carolina grocery store on New Year's Eve. Christian Sturdivant, 18, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terror organization. Sturdivant was arrested by federal agents Wednesday. He remained in custody after an appearance before U.S. District Judge Susan Rodriguez on...

What does the future hold? Let’s turn back the clock to the end of a year over a century ago. Posting this article has become an annual tradition ever since the grim end of 2012. It’s a reminder that the end of each year ushers in unknowns, but also opportunities for heroism. History does not stand still, and we should never assume that we know how it will come out. The next year sweeps around the earth like the hand of a clock, from Australia to Europe and across the great stretch of the Atlantic it rides the darkness to...

This single page insert appeared in the New Year's edition of a local Poughkeepsie, NY newspaper in 1809. It summarized the world news of the past year in humorous poetry, concluding with a request for a tip in exchange. The newspaper insert was handed down in the family of Henry Livingston's descendants.

A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump. The center had previously promoted two New Year’s Eve performances by the Cookers as an “all-star jazz septet that will ignite the Terrace Theater stage with fire and soul.” But those performances, like an annual Christmas Eve jazz concert hosted by Chuck Redd, are now canceled. The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a...

“The alleged pyromaniac accused of igniting the deadly Palisades Fire – Los Angeles’ most destructive wildfire – chipped in a tiny donation to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, records show. Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, shelled out $2 to hybrid PAC ActBlue on two separate occasions just days apart in 2020 – $1 on Sept. 4 and another buck on Sept. 11, according to the Federal Election Commission. Records also show the alleged arsonist — born in France — was registered to vote in Florida, though he never declared a political party.”

Paris insists that the decision to cancel its New Year’s Eve open-air concert on the Champs-Élysées is merely a matter of crowd control. Officials speak of logistics, unpredictability and prudence. Yet few observers truly believe this is the whole story. The reality, uncomfortable though it may be, is that Europe’s great capitals are quietly recalibrating public life in response to a persistent and ideologically driven threat — one that has now asserted itself far beyond Europe’s borders. Seen in this light, Paris’s muted New Year feels less like administrative caution and more like an admission of reality – Europe’s Muslim...

A new report claims that two of five people arrested in connection with what the FBI said was a plot to unleash a wave of terrorist bombings in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve are transgender. The FBI said that the people arrested were a splinter group of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which federal officials said has a pro-Palestinian, anti-law-enforcement, and anti-government ideology, according to USA Today. The suspects were part of a Signal group chat calling itself “Order of the Black Lotus.”

The FBI claims to have thwarted a terrorist plot to carry out coordinated bombings in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, arresting five members of a pro-Palestinian extremist group accused of planning attacks in the City of Angels, The Post has learned. The “credible” threat came from radical members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), according to a law enforcement source. Four were collared in Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert, where the extremists allegedly were testing improvised explosives, while a fifth was apprehended in New Orleans. “After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our FBI,...

Six weeks before his deadly rampage at Trolley Square mall, Sulejman Talovic proudly showed three young relatives the 12-gauge shotgun, .38-caliber revolver and black backpack of ammunition he had collected. None of the three teenagers, skeptical of Talovic's claim that he was "hustling" for a local gang, thought to alert Talovic's parents or police. Talovic had invited the teens, all distant cousins, to his family's west Salt Lake City home on Jan. 1, and the four watched MTV in the basement. .......

The president of Uzbekistan on Wednesday offered his country's assistance in investigating the deadly terror attack in the lower Manhattan area of New York City. The suspect in the attack was identified as an Uzbek national, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, but the country has been linked to at least three other terrorist incidents over the last year. In April, Uzbek national Rakhmat Akilov drove a truck into pedestrians in Stockholm, Sweden, killing five people. Earlier that same month, Akbarzhon Jalilov, a Russian citizen who was born in Kyrgyzstan...

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Friday the U.S. should prepare for a “hard slap” if it dares challenge Tehran, after President Donald Trump warned of possible military action against the Islamic republic. “The Americans should know threats will get them nowhere when confronting Iran,” Khamenei said in his live annual televised speech marking Nowruz, the Persian New Year. AFP reports he said Americans “and others should know that if they do anything malign to the Iranian nation, they will get a hard slap.” The warning echoes a long standing Iranian opposition to everything the U.S. is involved in...

Police arrested a total of six people in connection with a deadly explosion of illegal fireworks in a Honolulu neighborhood on New Year’s Eve and confiscated 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of unused fireworks from the scene of the blast, authorities said Thursday. Police arrested two couples on Wednesday and one couple last Friday, said Honolulu police homicide Lt. Deena Thoemmes said. Police expect to arrest more people, she said.The explosion killed three women, one man and a 3-year-old boy and injured about 20 others. The tragedy occurred when a lit bundle of mortar-style aerials tipped over and shot into crates...

90,000 members of French law enforcement mobilized to bring in the New Year. There was plenty of crime for them to confront according to statistics compiled by the Ministry of the Interior. 984 cars burned overnight into New Years Day... In his New Year's Eve message President Emmanuel Macron acknowledging his decision to hold snap elections last summer has led... The French Foreign and Defense ministers in Lebanon on Monday... A few dozen Yellow Vests protesters today in Paris many... Police in France have arrested an Algerian influencer accusing him of glorification of terrorism in a TikTok video. 25-year-old Zazou...

CLEARCREEK TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WXIX) - More details have been released after a woman was arrested for shooting a man at a New Year’s Eve party. Olivia Clendenin, 28, faces five charges, including attempted murder, according to the Clearcreek Township Police Department. The charges stem from what was originally called in as a drive-by shooting on Dearth Road at 5 a.m. on New Year’s Day. “The initial call was the belief that it was a drive-by shooting,” explained Clearcreek Township Police Chief John Terrill. “When officers got there, they did find one individual had been shot in the stomach.” Inside the...

…….Federal investigators examining the [New Orleans] attack say that Jabbar used a very rare explosive compound in the two devices...Authorities are investigating how Jabbar acquired the knowledge to create this homemade explosive...the explosive has never been used in a U.S. terror attack or incident, nor in any European terror attack. A key question for investigators is how Jabbar learned about the compound and how he managed to produce it

Ten people were injured in a New Year's Day mass shooting in New York City when a group of men opened fire on a crowd of people standing outside a nightclub in Queens, according to police. The nightclub is called Amazura, according to reports by ABC7, Fox5, and other outlets.

Two men were stabbed within the city’s subway in separate Wednesday morning attacks as transit violence spilled over into the new year, cops said. A 30-year-old man got into an argument with another commuter on the No. 1 train platform at 110th Street-Cathedral Parkway around 9:30 a.m., when his rival knifed him once in the arm, authorities and sources said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside, where he was listed in stable condition. It’s unclear whether the two men knew each other. The attacker took off and no arrests have been made.

The Sugar Bowl matchup between Georgia and Notre Dame has been postponed following a terrorist attack that left 10 people dead in New Orleans on New Year's Day. New Orleans NBC affiliate network WDSU-TV reports the College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup will be played at a later date as law enforcement investigates the attack, which left 10 dead and 35 people injured in the early hours of Wednesday morning

Sources confirm to WDSU that the Sugar Bowl has been postponed to Thursday after a terror attack happened in the New Orleans French Quarter. As tourists descended on New Orleans to attend the Sugar Bowl at Caesars Superdome New Year's Day, police swarmed Bourbon Street. At least ten people were killed and 26 injured when a pickup truck "intentionally" plowed into a crowd. The FBI is calling it an act of terrorism. NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said she wanted the community and visitors to "continue enjoying" New Orleans, despite the tragedy. Officials with the Sugar Bowl issued the following statement...