Free Republic

Imagine you are dropping your child off for the first day of college, and when you get to his dorm it is surrounded by mountains of garbage and homeless people living in sidewalk tents. That's exactly what happened to one woman who also happens to work in journalism and decided to break out her phone to document the experience. If you're from out of state, tuition at UC-Berkeley can run up to around $50,000 per year with room and board. Who would expect to see homeless encampments and garbage on the streets at those prices? The New York Post reports:...

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Crews in Rhode Island had quite a mess to clean up after a tractor-trailer carrying 20 tons of squid was involved in a crash, spilling its load. The crash happened in Narragansett, Rhode Island, WFXT reported. Narragansett Police said the tractor-trailer had been “negotiating” a turn when the trailer dislodged from the cab and flipped on its side, ABC News reported. The squid covered parts of the road as crews had to clean up the slippery, and possibly worse, smelly mess on Aug. 16. “At the time of the incident, the fully loaded trailer was transporting squid...

Take a good look at the beach in Ceuta before all hell breaks loose. Blue Mediterranean water, swaying palm trees, lovely stretches of sand… it was the kind of place where you’d throw down a towel, order an ice-cold spritz, and wonder why you don’t live there. Now look at it… VIDEO AT LINK................... After more than 70,000 Moroccan migrants stormed the beaches at the end of July, thousands were left stranded in Ceuta. Now, they’ve turned the once-gorgeous beach into a shanty town, complete with cardboard houses, old blankets, tents, clothes strewn everywhere, and garbage all over the place,...

A NASA spacecraft circling the moon is providing the sharpest views yet of the crater carved by a crashing SpaceX rocket. The space agency released before-and-after photos of the impact area on Tuesday. The Falcon rocket’s upper stage plowed into the moon at 5,400 mph on Aug. 5 after drifting through space for more than a year. It launched a pair of private moon landers with experiments and even a tiny rover in 2025 as part of NASA’s push to commercialize lunar exploration. Based on these new photos by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the fresh crater appears to be 60...

President Donald Trump welcomed 16-year-old lifeguard Ryder Williams and 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai to the Oval Office to honor Ryder’s heroic rescue of Nathaniel, who nearly drowned in the Santa Cruz, California, surf last month. The rescue, which was caught on camera and went viral, showed Nathaniel clinging to Ryder as the lifeguard struggled to bring them both safely back to shore. “And he saved this young gentleman,” Trump said, referring to Nathaniel. “Who I had a long talk with. I said, when you have made it without him? And he said, not really. Right? Not really. It was trouble.” During...

The earthworm eels look, well, just like an earthworm. Image credit: Ishan Agarwal (CC BY) ========================================================================== Avideo of an unusual earthworm-like fish posted on TikTok has resulted in the description of an entirely new species. Named Gangaichthys indonepalicus, the fish is thought to live deep underground in aquifers, making studying these animals almost impossible. “We came across a video posted on the social media platform TikTok in 2024 from the India-Nepal border area that showed a tiny, apparently stygobitic fish, with little melanin and reduced eyes, that had emerged from a borewell (a machine-drilled shaft used to access groundwater from...

At least one person was killed in a storm-related car crash on Hawaii’s Big Island as Hurricane Lala struck late Saturday night. Gov. Josh Green confirmed the death, along with 19 roofs ripped off buildings after what he described as an “enormous storm.” Powerful waves pounded the Big Island’s coast as Lala slowly passed by. Howling winds whipped palm trees and waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff from relentless rain that blew nearly sideways. Lala was downgraded to a tropical storm as of Sunday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. More than 130,000 households were without power Sunday morning across...

Fire crews beg: stop the snitching as emergency system faces “crying wolf” backlash Millions of phones across England and Wales blared a sudden siren on Friday evening as the government unleashed its emergency alert system over ‘wildfire risk’. What followed was a wave of neighbour-on-neighbour reporting that left fire services and police inundated with non-emergency calls about barbecues in gardens and parks. The same compliant instincts that flourished during COVID appear alive and well. The alert, described by First Secretary of State Louise Haigh as “the most extensive use of the UK’s emergency alert system in response to an active...

One person’s trash dramatically turned into another’s treasure as workers in Belgium happened upon a gold hoard worth more than $10 million while installing a sewer line in a building they were renovating. “Our first reaction was actually disbelief,” Kobe, an 18-year-old student worker, told Belgium outlet VRT. “Of course, we hadn’t expected to find gold.” At the time, the construction crew was renovating a building in the city center of the Flemish community of Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, located about 40 miles from Brussels. During the building rehab, workers were removing the foundation to make way for a sewer pipe when they...

Researchers are shell-shocked at the latest marine discovery. Dolphins have been filmed using shells to ensnare their prey off the coast of Australia, marking the first time this clever tactic has been caught on camera, per a bombshell paper in Marine Mammal Science. “The second I saw that shell in the air, I immediately knew what was happening,” the study’s head author, Alexis Levengood, a marine mammal biologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, told ScienceAlert. Levengood said she and her team were on a research vessel off Hervey Bay when they spotted a female Pacific bottlenose...

Long-time readers may remember a piece I wrote two years ago on how Schleswig-Holstein sold their reliable diesel ferry for a song, spent 3.3 million Euro for a new emissions-free solar ferry that doesn’t work and increased carbon emissions on top of it all. Basically, the State Office for Coastal Protection in Schleswig-Holstein embarked upon a project some years ago to replace the Missunde II, an old diesel automobile ferry that connects the towns of Missunde and Brodersby … Missunde II: An ordinary diesel ferry. … with the hypermodern superclever very progressive Missunde III, which runs entirely on solar power...

A father-son fishing trip at Ridley Park Lake in Delaware County is now gaining national attention. 69 News Reporter Julianna Furfari spoke with Michael Coffey about his son's surprising catch. Coffey says his 8-year-old son Seamus is an avid fisher. The pair always goes to the same spot on Ridley Park Lake; this time they were using shrimp in an attempt to catch catfish.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has made at least $174,000 annually for nearly eight years as a member of Congress, but like many of her “Squad” colleagues, she has yet to put a substantial dent in her student loan debt, according to House financial disclosures. The Bronx and Queens Democrat has owed between $15,001 and $50,000 in federal student loan debt since her election to the House in 2018. That’s the same amount she owes now, according to her August disclosure, where lawmakers report ranges for debt and income. The “Tax the Rich!” pol reported less than $81,000 in...

A “Karen” has had a hands-on lesson in following police instructions. It all followed a New Jersey officer’s traffic stop of a woman for speeding. Her antics include: Getting out of her car when ordered to stay in. Demands, multiple, to be taken to the hospital. Threats to do “crazy.” Explains, “They probably miss me in Lollie world.” Claims she has PTSD. Explains speeding because “I gotta get outta here.” “I have somewhere to be.” “Will the pretty lady officer take the cuffs off and let me leave?” Claims she’s “losing money.” Wants to call “mommy and daddy” so they...

A taxpayer-funded swimming pool in Germany promoted an event “exclusively” for black people on Friday — sparking a torrent of outrage that forced it to be scrapped at the last minute by unapologetic organizers. The newly opened $346,000 public pool Volksbad — German for “people’s bath” — was due to host the divisive summer event organized by the anti-discrimination charity Each One Teach One, the German outlet Bild reported. Swimmers were told the pool “doesn’t open to the general public until 6:00 p.m [Friday]; before that, it is open exclusively to black communities.” It sparked widespread disgust, but was only...

President Trump said Friday that he plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz “a territory of the United States” after the Iran war. “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said during a Long Island rally for Republican candidates in the gubernatorial and congressional elections. Trump’s preliminary peace deal with Iran — signed June 17 — fell apart last month after Iran attempted to assert control over the strait, including by opening fire on commercial ships that used a sea...

PCU John F. Kennedy departs Newport News for acceptance trials. (Image credit: HII) The John F. Kennedy, the second Gerald R. Ford class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, left Newport News on Aug. 12 to commence acceptance trials before its handover to the U.S. Navy. Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) John F. Kennedy, soon to be the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) will now have its systems and equipment evaluated in these final manufacturer trials to prove it is up to specification before delivery. Previously scheduled for delivery in 2025, the 100,000 ton aircraft carrier was delayed by issues with the new Advanced...

Armed with new technology and a major mining partner, Visionary Metals is ready to probe just how big — and how valuable — a nickel discovery at Jeffrey City is. If realized, it will be a first of its kind in the Western U.S. since the 1940s. Visionary Metals made Wyoming’s first nickel sulfide discovery in the Granite Mountains north of Jeffrey City in 2024. This year, it’s moving into a decisive drilling phase as it tries to turn that find in the under-explored greenstone belt into Wyoming’s first and only nickel mine, producing a metal the federal government has...

VIDEOS AT LINK.................... An American Airlines airplane was forced to make an emergency landing in South Carolina after flames shot from one of its engines after the aircraft reportedly struck birds while taking off in Myrtle Beach. “Mayday, mayday, mayday. We’ve got a engine problem here,” the pilot said shortly after takeoff, according to CNN. “I saw he took up birds, it looked like, at least in the left side engine,” another pilot who saw the bird strike said on radio. The Boeing 737 carrying 181 people landed safely. Watch below: CNN shared further: Patrick Gotwalt was a passenger on...

A small cruise ship operating in Southeast Alaska made an unexpected detour on Monday night to help a 21-foot skiff that ran out of fuel between Petersburg and Juneau. Michael Love, a software developer from New York City, was a passenger aboard the cruise ship and described the event on social media. What got his attention the most wasn’t the rescue itself — it was when the captain announced that the yacht of billionaire Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg was closer and hadn’t answered the radio call for help. “There was near unanimous booing when the captain announced this,” he said...