Free Republic

Thomas Francis holds up the record pike he pulled from Hayden Lake on Tuesday. Photo by Taylor Hale. Thomas Francis knew it was no ordinary pike at the end of his line in Hayden Lake on Tuesday. “It was like a freight train,” he said. “She hit it good.” He was used to catching 20 or 30 pounders and they put up a good fight. But this was different. “She dug herself into the bottom and didn’t want to come up,” Francis said. Slowly, she did. In another five minutes, the pike was netted and on board. Francis took...

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has updated its database on tap water in the United States, revealing where testing has detected potentially deadly pollutants in the nation’s water systems. First published in 2005, the database was most recently updated in 2018. “We’re collecting testing data from almost 50,000 water utilities nationwide,” said Sydney Evans, a science analyst with EWG, in an interview with The Epoch Times. In just one state—Illinois—EWG’s database shows that many water utilities exceeded the legal limits of arsenic, radium, and total trihalomethanes (TTHMS), among other chemicals. In its entry for the City of Chicago’s water system,...

The mayor, more than half of the D.C. Council, and the D.C. attorney general have joined activists in calling for the removal of a statue of a Confederate general from federal land in Judiciary Square. "Albert Pike was a strong proponent of slavery and fought to try to preserve that in this country. Regardless of what he did in other parts of his life, it's inappropriate to honor him," says At-large Councilmember David Grosso, who sent a letter today to the acting director of the National Park Service calling for a statue of Pike at 3rd and D streets NW...

SHOULD CHRISTIANS FIGHT COMMUNISM? Yes or No? By: Henry R. Pike Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. (Pas. 33:12) Before any attempt is made to answer this question, we must first clearly understand the term "Christian." Let's see what a Christian is not, then what a Christian is. A true Christian is not a "non-Jew, a do-gooder, a nice guy, one who goes to a church building, pays dues, sings hymns, provides for his family, etc." You should go to a place where God's word is faithfully preached and practiced, but going into a church building wil...

Despite accounts to the contrary, Pike County Commissioner and Marine veteran Richard Caridi never served in Vietnam. In the heart of political season, papers have surfaced detailing his record of service in the Marines. Caridi is running for reelection as a Republican Pike County commissioner....

The Greentown man who used duct tape to bind his dog's feet together and tightly tape her muzzle shut is still a Pike County employee. Russell Seese, 27, is a resource conservationist at the Pike County Conservation District, earning $32,350 a year. He was hired June 2011. On March 1, a Pennsylvania Humane Society police officer was called to Seese's home by a state police trooper. Seese had admitted to police that he had tortured his dog, Lexi, a tan, female Labrador mix. On Feb. 28, Seese used duct tape to bind together the dog's front legs and back legs,...

Recently, I made a big deal out of the fact that on Tuesday, March 21, 2012, Pike County, Illinois passed a voter initiative that rejected the concealed carry restrictions of state law-in Pike County. When that story ran, several readers - including a some very irritated Illinois attorneys, were quick to point out that a voter initiative had no force of law. Until today, their point hasn't been addressed. That's because we couldn't get any insight into the whole state/local law point. First, let's shuck this down to the cob on a key question: can I now carry a concealed...

A former Cayuga County resident serving an 18-to-40-year state prison sentence for rape and sodomy is on a heart donor list and is undergoing a heart transplant evaluation at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Coxsackie Correctional Facility inmate Kenneth L. Pike was flown from Albany to Rochester Monday, and hospital officials confirmed that a Kenneth Pike is at the hospital and is listed in guarded condition. Pike is being evaluated for a heart transplant, is on the donor list and will most likely die without the procedure. the average first-year cost of a heart transplant comes in at $787,700. In...

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A California non-profit is urging sponsors to pull their ads from Fox News Channel, because of "a would-be assassin inspired by" Fox personality Glenn Beck. The Tides Foundation, which says it promotes human rights, justice, and a healthy, sustainable environment, has come in for frequent criticism on Beck's show. A suspect in a July 28 shootout with police, Byron Williams, told police in an affidavit he had intended to go to the Tides Foundation's office in San Francisco and kill founder and Chief Executive Officer Drummond Pike.

A mysterious predator which devours adult ducks by pulling them beneath the water at a popular beauty spot has been nicknamed the "Lough Ness Monster" by locals. The creature is believed to have killed at least three fully-grown birds at the lake, leaving only a smattering of feathers as evidence of the crimes. Witnesses have so far been unable to identify the perpetrator, although pike, catfish and even mink have been suggested as possible culprits. Local councillors are now warning schoolchildren not to go paddling at the site, and dog owners have been being asked not to let smaller animals...

Idaho's Democrat Senator Frank Church[i] was one of my heroes when I was in high school. Church wrote a letter of recommendation for me to Harvard and offered to nominate me to an appointment to any of the U.S. military academies. In the summer of 1971, he took me to lunch in the dining room of the United States Senate, where, for the first time in my life, I tasted French onion soup[ii]. He asked me if I would like to serve as an intern in his office in Washington, D.C. when I graduated from high school. (It was an...

(Frankfort - September 24, 2009) State Auditor Crit Luallen today released the 2008 Pike County Fiscal Court audit, which refers an issue concerning a county employee to the US Attorney’s Office, Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, Kentucky Retirement Systems and county attorney. The audit found that the county’s financial statements, in all material respects, fairly present the county’s assets, liabilities, and equity arising from cash transactions and revenues received and expenditures paid in conformity with the modified cash basis of accounting. As part of the audit process, the Auditor must comment on non-compliance with laws, regulations, contracts and grants. The Auditor...

While the exact route of the Great Wagon Road has not been preserved, as such, we know that in Virginia and West Virginia, from the Potomac to the Roanoke Valley, it is either under or parallel to Route U.S. 11. Because the highway has been regraded, straightened, widened, and sometimes relocated and sometimes expanded to three and four lanes, it is often hard to know whether you are on, or simply driving parallel to, the Great Wagon Road. Except . . . there are places where you can be relatively certain that you are on the old road. [Pictures]

A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related administration deliberations. The administration's discussion of Wilson's link to the CIA was meant to undermine criticism by her husband of administration allegations that Iraq attempted to acquire uranium, a matter that her husband had probed for the CIA, according to testimony presented in a 2007 trial. *snip* He mentioned in...

If you believe the White House, there are 30 million Americans who support a government health care takeover. But if you look at the funding behind the Obamacare campaign, it's the same few leftist billionaires, union bosses and partisan community organizers pushing the socialized medicine agenda. Let's connect the dots. On Thursday, a national "grassroots" coalition called Health Care for America Now (HCAN) will march on Capitol Hill to demand universal health care. The ground troops won't have to march very far. HCAN, you see, is no heartland network. It is headquartered at 1825 K Street in Washington, D.C. --...

Prominent voices on the left are divided over how to address the unfolding scandal at ACORN, the nationwide community organizing, housing and voter registration group. This scandal is not the one that concerns fraudulent voter registrations by ACORN workers. And it’s not the scandal concerning the Bush Administration’s agreement to allow taxpayer money for the Fannie/Mae Freddie Mac bailout to go to ACORN housing nonprofits. This is the scandal concerning the embezzlement of almost $1 million by ACORN’s financial officer, the cover-up engineered by his brother, who is ACORN’s founder and longtime leader, and the reaction of ACORN’s supporters in...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

Iran makes no secret of the fact that it manufactures weapons for export, including mortar bombs of the general type found in Iraq. Customers from around the world can log on to the Web site of the government-owned Defense Industries Organization and view a wide array of Iranian-made munitions. If they decide to order, they apparently can pay by credit card, as a VISA logo suggests. The site - which promises "best quality and fast service" - is an example of the vigor with which Iran has moved into a global arms market long dominated by the United States and...

PORTOLA The state Department of Fish and Game says it wants to poison a Sierra Nevada lake next year to rid it of voracious northern pike before the invasive fish can spread downstream and devastate wild fish stocks. The department proposes to drain Lake Davis in Plumas County to about a fifth of its current size, then poison the remaining water along with the lake's tributary streams, springs, and ponds. A final decision is expected in January so that the department can begin draining the lake. The poisoning would take place next September. This would be the second time the...

Kevin Moloney for The New York TimesMelissa Bechhoefer, registrar of the Colorado Historical Society, with a sword and scabbard that belonged to Zebulon Montgomery Pike. Kevin Moloney for The New York TimesIn spiffying up to attract tourism, Pueblo, Colo., settled on the idea of a River Walk to anchor downtown. Much of the attraction, along the Arkansas River, offers themes related to Pike’s Southwestern expedition. PUEBLO, Colo., July 13 — All over tourist country, there’s an invisible borderline where people stop and shut their wallets, as if halted by a sign: nothing beyond here to see. snip... Now Pueblo...