Free Republic

Animal-rights protesters, some chained together on the racetrack, disrupted racing and COVID-19 vaccinations on Thursday at Golden Gate Fields. A group called Direct Action Everywhere set up pickets around the track, and four members chained themselves together and lay down on the track near the five-sixteenths pole at noon, about 45 minutes before the first race. The people on the track also set off purple smoke flares, while another group of protesters waved signs near the entrance that said, “Shut Down Golden Gate Fields.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, there were no spectators at the track for the day’s card....

Bad News For Hillary's African American Vote: 50% Of Blacks Say Nothing To Lose With Trump, 75% Say Nothing To Gain With Clinton.

Richard Warren recalls the heyday when celebrities such as Cary Grant, Lucille Ball and Fred Astaire would linger in the box seats, but on Saturday the buzz will be a bit restrained, even for the $750,000 CashCall Futurity... With the track's final day, Dec. 22, looming, he has become, for the thousands who know him, a sort of symbol of past joy and current sadness...

A year ago J Street — the putatively progressive fledgling counter to the Israel lobbying group AIPAC — was riding high. They had just received a write up in the New York Times Magazine that was somewhere between a press release and a love poem and, with a complaisant Obama in the White House, the tiny organization seemed poised to be a significant player in the Middle East discussion. My, as grandma said, have times changed. For starters, J Street’s director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, has shown himself to be a Junior Beltway Pinocchio, serially denying his organization had the financial backing...

SNIPPET: "The attack took place at a hippodrome in the city of Nalchik, capital of Russia's North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria." SNIPPET: "A law enforcement source told the RIA Novosti news agency the explosive was a time bomb, equivalent to about 5 kg of TNT. The ministry officials said the attack was aimed at civilians and was designed to hit as many people as possible." Posted by Robert on May 1, 2010 5:21 PM

HONG KONG: It was a device worthy of Rube Goldberg or Wile E. Coyote: a dozen remote-controlled launching tubes secretly buried in the turf at Hong Kong's most famous horse race track last week, armed with compressed air to fire tiny, liquid-filled darts into the bellies of horses at the starting gate. No horses were hurt, because the track supervisor noticed something underfoot before racing started, discovered the elaborate mechanism concealed by grass-colored tape and called in a police bomb squad to remove it. But the discovery of the device, equipped with elaborate electronic controls, has raised concerns about security...

Philadelphia Park opened southeastern Pennsylvania's first slot-machine parlor and the second statewide yesterday, attracting gamblers who said they were happy for a local alternative to the casinos in Atlantic City. Hundreds of people poured in when the doors opened shortly after 11:30 a.m. and began stuffing bills into the machines, and the ca sino enjoyed a brisk business in its first hours of operation. Ines Beiez, 47, a North Philadelphia woman who was one of the first to sit down at a machine, said Philadelphia Park would become her gambling destination of choice. Although she was a frequent patron of...

Blount County authorities say an alcohol-induced decision to try a couple of laps at the Smokey Mountain Speedway led to a strange getaway. A police report says officers responding to a call at the speedway found Dana Marie Gragin sitting beside a pickup truck, which was on its side. Gragin told officers she wanted to drive on the race track. On her second lap, the truck went into the wall and overturned. Deputies say Gragin smelled strongly of alcohol. She also had a companion. He wasn't around, but his wallet was and it identified him as Dennis Maynard Kimsey, also...

BADEN-BADEN, Germany — Who was the man hanging around the roulette table in the casino in this historic hot-springs resort? He had a black shirt, tie and jacket over black jeans and a two-day stubble, like some of his companions. He looked like a member of the Russian mafia. Or, he might have been a Russian pediatrician escaping his family for a few days, or one of Moscow's new tycoons, or a tycoon's bodyguard. Anyway, he was speaking Russian with his friends, and therefore exemplified a new trend in Baden-Baden, whose image seems inconsistent with anything new. After the better...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 April 10 Unusual Rocks in Death Valley Credit & Copyright: Joe Orman Explanation: How did those big rocks end up on that strange terrain? One of the more unusual places here on Earth occurs inside Death Valley, California, USA. There a dried lakebed named Racetrack Playa exists that is almost perfectly flat, with the odd exception of some very large stones, one of which is pictured above....