Free Republic

“It felt like forever, just looking at him … We stood there in, like, shock just going, ‘He has to be dead,'” said Amber Sweet-Smith, who saw the injured skydiver in her yard in Oceanside moments after he fell last week. “We usually hear the screaming or, you know, people laughing — just in the air, and he heard like an unusual scream, looked up, saw the guy and went, probably in his head, ‘Oh ****, he’s going to hit our house,'” “It felt like the whole wall shook. … It was scary,” “One of the other parachuter guys said...

A former American Navy SEAL was killed this week during Russia’s assault on eastern Ukraine while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, a Navy official tells TIME.Daniel Swift, a Navy Special Warfare Operator First Class who had gone AWOL, died Jan. 18 after suffering injuries with a unit under attack by Russia, the official said.

A woman plummeted 1,000 feet to her death after slipping off the edge of a cliff while hiking on a mountain in Italy. “The news that arrived this evening of the tragic death of the young Maria Cristina Masocco, which took place in the afternoon in the mountains, strikes us in a truly profound way,” lamented Viviana Fusaro, the mayor of Feltre, Belluno, located in the region of Veneto, where the accident took place. The disaster occurred around 4 p.m. on Sunday while Masocco, who lived in Feltre, was hiking with three friends in the Dolomites, the highest peak in...

City ordered to cut power after dispatcher at Northern California Power Agency misunderstood directive from grid operatorWhen the city of Palo Alto shut off power to about 1,700 customers in the Midtown, Old Palo Alto and Industrial Park neighborhoods on Tuesday afternoon, utilities officials believed they were following an urgent order to conserve power from a state agency that oversees independent utility operators. Now, however, it appears that the power outage was premature, unnecessary and based on a dispatcher's misunderstanding. The outage, which came in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, hit Palo Alto customers at about 6:30 p.m....

A reactor at Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in southern China's Guangdong province has been shut down because of fuel rod damages, the company that runs the plant said in a statement on Friday. State-owned China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) said in the statement that "a small amount of fuel damage" had occurred during operation, but it's still "within the limits allowed by the technical specifications." It added that "after thorough discussions between French and Chinese technicians, Taishan Nuclear Power Plant decided to shut down Unit 1 reactor for maintenance, and to examine the reasons of fuel damage ....

Police just released bodycam footage of the Daunte Wright shooting. The cop thought she was firing her Taser, not her gun. Police have released bodycam footage of the shooting of Daunte Wright -- AKA the young man who was killed by police and who protesters are currently using the latest excuse to riot and loot. The officer thought she had pulled her Taser. Not her gun. She thought she was tasing him, not shooting him. Watch for yourself [Warning: Graphic]: WARNING GRAPHICBrooklyn Center, MN police release bodycam footage of the moments leading to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian authorities rushed to evacuate people from more than 10 villages in the region of Ryazan on Wednesday after a blaze broke out at an ammunition depot, sending thick smoke belching into the air, the Interfax news agency reported. Munitions could be heard detonating at the depot in footage circulated on social media. A witness in one of the videos said shrapnel and ash was falling from the sky.

You are all freaking low class jerks. The Heidi thread has been pulled multiple times. Free Republic has become trump derangement central. I HAVE NEVER SEEN A BUNCH OF CONSERVATIVES SO PICKY, PETTY AND STUPID - STUPID FREAKING LOSERS YOU DAMN DEFEND TRUMP AS IF HE WERE A FREAKING BABY BECAUSE HE IS! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL.

Clinton rules mean they feel entitled to …well…everything. Now that Hillary Clinton has announced her candidacy, even the mainstream media has started to raise questions regarding the Clinton Foundation. In the wake of reports of pay-to-play donations made to the foundation from rogue nations and Iranian sanction busters, Reuters has investigated the disclosures made by the foundation for years and found them wanting. From Jonathan Allen: Hillary Clinton's family's charities are refiling at least five annual tax returns after a Reuters review found errors in how they reported donations from governments, and said they may audit other Clinton Foundation...

A toy grenade that Curt Schilling’s son mistakenly packed in his carry-on luggage caused a security scare at Logan Airport this morning. The former Red Sox Ace posted on his Facebook page: “Want a good one to start your day? We are at Logan getting ready to fly. Heading through security when one of my sons looks at me in panic....”DAD!”.....OMG I THINK I LEFT MY FAKE GRENADE IN MY BAG!!!” Schilling posted to his Facebook page at about 7 a.m. “3 seconds later the belt stops, every tsa person is on their walkie talkies. Then, they shoo everyone in...

That’s my wife! Assuming that the lady in the mall was his wife, a Jordanian man slapped her, only to realise he had attacked the wrong woman. Arabic daily Al Sawsana reported that a mall in Jordan was shocked when a man barged in and charged at a woman. The astonished woman began screaming for help. The man who was passing by the mall thought he had spotted his wife shopping without his permission. Without a second glance, the man rushed in and hit the woman. The woman began screaming for help. Soon, however, there was pin-drop silence in the...

If Wisconsin turns into the Left’s Waterloo two weeks from today, Mitt Romney’s campaign may take a fresh look at making it Barack Obama’s as well. The Wall Street Journal analyzes the impact that a defeat in the Badger State will have on Democrats and the unions, and the new talk of Wisconsin being the kind of swing state that could decide this election: From the start, some in the Democratic Party worried that a Wisconsin recall could drain needed resources, fire up the conservative base and ultimately make it more difficult for Mr. Obama to win the state. Mr....

Minding my own business and this black hole opens up right in my living room and snapped shut again right away, leaving a few sheets of paper floating crazily around my head. By the time I'd gathered my wits (both of them!), they were reposing gently on the floor...I picked them up and, noticing their contents and the fact the seemed to be undergoing gradual existence failure, I put them on my scanner.... Unfortunately the last one didn't make it--disintegrated completely just as I was putting it on the scanner. It seemed to consist largely of sports scores...horse-racing, mostly...

The head of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS department has officially admitted for the first time that there will be no global epidemic of the disease among the heterosexual population outside Africa, The Independent reported.Kevin de Cock said global prevention strategies to address AIDS as a risk to all populations, among the WHO and major AIDS organizations, may have been misdirected. It is now recognized that, with the exception of sub-Saharan African, it is confined to high-risk groups.These groups include men who have sex with other men, drug users who inject with needles, and sex workers and their clients,...

LEESBURG, Va. A 28-year-old woman crashed into the Department of Motor Vehicles during a driving test Saturday morning in Leesburg. Nita Sureka of Ashburn was attempting to park a 2000 Volkswagon at 9:35 a.m. when she accidentally accelerated into the side of the building while attempting to park. The building at 945 Edwards Ferry Rd. sustained damage and was closed for the reminder of the day. There were no injuries inside the building and a passenger in the vehicle was treated for minor injuries on the scene. -snip-

<p>Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.</p>

Read TNR's accounting. It is as I predicted: honorable and, except for one small inaccuracy, it checks out. All the aspects aggressively challenged by the usual propaganda organs have been verified and corroborated. The military is now conducting its own investigation. Given the record of such formal investigations, I'm not as confident in the Pentagon as I am in TNR. Can we now expect apologies from the people who smeared and maligned the magazine and its soldier-reporter? I doubt it. The attackers are not the kind to acknowledge their own errors.

Call it 1-800-OOPS. Seven Nassau Republican legislators, led by Minority Leader Peter Schmitt, had good intentions when they urged constituents to call a toll-free number to be notified when convicted sex offenders move into their neighborhoods. "Nassau County Legislator Peter J. Schmitt wants you to be protected from sexual predators," said the headline on the postcard his office mailed in cooperation with Parents for Megan's Law, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of sex abuse. Unfortunately, the 1-800 number printed on the card prompts callers to another 800-number -- a sex chat line. "Hey there, sexy guy,"...

Checkpoint security screeners at Denver International Airport last month failed to find items simulating dangerous weapons and explosive materials carried on by undercover agents, sources told 9News. The Transportation Security Administration screeners failed most of the covert tests because of human error, the sources said. Alarms went off on the machines, but screeners did not follow TSA standard operating procedures, such as hand-searching luggage, wanding or patting down the undercover agents. "The good news is we have our own people probing and looking and examining the system," said U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., who sits on the House homeland security...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A US Airways passenger faced charges of interfering with a flight crew Thursday after he apparently unknowingly slapped an undercover federal air marshal, said an official familiar with the case. The man, who'd been drinking liquor, threw a mid-air temper tantrum Wednesday night after attendants refused to serve him any more alcohol during his flight from Washington's Reagan National Airport to Fort Myers, Florida, the official said. The passenger then slapped a fellow passenger, who happened to be an undercover air marshal assigned to the flight, said the official.