Free Republic

Nervous travelers have been worrying about taking to the air given the recent airplane crashes in the news. Even so, one man with aerophobia, or a fear of flying, believes there’s nothing to be afraid of — and he’s on a mission to help others address their concerns. Brian Morris of Salt Lake City, Utah, created “Flight Deck: Fear Of Flying Flash Cards” to help anxious flyers calm themselves about takeoff procedures and the travel experience. “In light of the recent flight incidents and accidents, I know firsthand how these events can evoke fear and uncertainty in many individuals,” Morris...

The data provided in the downloads via our map is from the Federal Election Commission. There are many anomalies in the FEC data and we continue to find more each week. For a few examples, the data should be the same if you download the same query via their website versus using an API. It is not. Another is there are transactions shown completed but dated in the future. A third example is they appear to be counting a transaction fee as a “contribution”. A fourth is they show a State as “ZZ”, we wonder where that is located in...

Shocking footage shows the moment a car exploded in Florida, killing a woman who police believe was targeted by her husband. Doorbell footage obtained by NBC 6 shows that the car was parked on a road in the Miami suburbs of Hialeah Gardens when it erupted into a fireball just before 6 a.m. on Feb. 1. The explosion was outside the home of Noel Ruiz Mestre, 50, who police now allege intentionally detonated a homemade bomb while his wife was sitting in the passenger seat. His wife, who has not publicly been identified, was killed in the blast.

The latest in a long line of winter storms is taking direct aim at the East Coast, threatening to dump heavy snow and some ice in several states. A storm that dropped snow in the Midwest was spreading across the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Wednesday, bringing more misery to some places just starting to clean up from deadly weekend floods. Up to 10 inches of snow was possible along the Atlantic Coast in Virginia and significant ice accumulations were forecast in eastern North Carolina, the National Weather Service said. Elsewhere, a polar vortex took over from Montana to southern...

A 16-year-old boy who has been charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a teenage girl inside a Queens home claims the gun went off by accident, authorities and sources said. Deaza Barkley, 17, who dreamed of one day joining the Air Force, was found with a fatal gunshot wound to her head inside the Clover Place home in Jamaica just after 5 p.m. Sunday, police said. The alleged shooter was taken into custody hours later and also faces gun possession charges, police said Monday. Cops revealed that the shooting may have been accidental. The teen told police he...

Gambling addiction has soared since the legalization of sports betting in most American states, reveals a new study. Researchers found a “dramatic” increase in sports betting and gambling addiction help-seeking since the landmark Murphy v. NCAA Supreme Court decision in 2018 paved the way for states to legalize gambling on sports. Since the ruling, researchers from the University of California San Diego Qualcomm Institute and School of Medicine found a “staggering” growth in the sportsbook industry. The number of states with operational sportsbooks grew from one in 2017 to 38 last year while total sports wagers skyrocketed from US $4.9...

Film director Spike Lee wore a jacket to the NBA All-Star Game with a message demanding slavery reparations. Cameras caught the message as Lee stood on the sidelines during Sunday’s game while he enjoyed his courtside seat, which reportedly ran for up to $57,000 per ticket. “We wan out 40 acres and a mule,” the message read. “Yes, reparations, no subterfuge.” The Do The Right Thing director has been an advocate of slavery reparations for blacks for years. Lee has even added the concept of slavery reparations into at least one of his films. The theme was reportedly a part...

Harsh weather moved west on Monday as a polar vortex was expected to grip the Rockies and the northern Plains after winter storms pummeled the eastern U.S. over the weekend, killing at least 10 people, including nine victims in Kentucky who died during flooding from heavy rains. The National Weather Service warned of “life-threatening cold” into Tuesday, with temperatures in northeastern Montana predicted to dip as low as 45 degrees below zero (-42.7 degrees Celsius) with wind chills down to 60 below (-51 degrees Celsius). Meteorologists said several states would experience the 10th and coldest polar vortex event this season....

Judge Joe Brown reveals the origins and foundations of current legal attitudes concerning property, revealing that the basic concepts have roots that extend back to the days of Absolutism. As one who always carried the notion that our legal system grew out of the enlightenment and the writings of John Locke, I find his commentary startling and now wonder how much I need to readjust my layman's prior conception of the law.

The United States is fighting a "quad-demic" this winter with four major viruses—COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and norovirus—with infants at particular risk, Dr. Ryan Fulton recently warned. "This year, we've seen earlier and more intense surges of RSV and the flu compared to what we're used to," Dr. Fulton, section chief of general pediatrics at Carilion Children's Hospital and faculty member at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, said in a statement. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported an increase in visits to doctors on a scale not seen in 15 years....

It’s an old story: When people are allowed to get their way for too long, when they’re never told “No!” they may get too big for their britches. They may develop a sense of entitlement and even become narcissistic. And proving that judges are no exception are a number of recent court “opinions” designed to scuttle President Trump’s agenda. One disallows DOGE from scrutinizing Treasury Department data.

CHICAGO — A woman accused of shooting a man who became “disrespectful” on a Red Line train in downtown Chicago was given a four-year sentence on Monday. Erica Berry, 39, pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated discharge of a firearm before Judge James Obbish. Prosecutors dropped four counts of attempted murder, a more serious charge that Berry faced. In May 2023, prosecutors said Berry was sitting alone on a northbound train when a 35-year-old man strolled over and started a conversation around 8 p.m. Berry later told police that the man was flirting with her and that she “tried...

Girl Scout cookie season—generally a six- to eight-week period between January and April—is pretty much its own holiday. Once those tables with green tablecloths hit supermarkets nationwide, we start dreaming about towering stacks of coconut-flecked Samoas. Or are they Caramel DeLites? (Wondering why some cookies have different names? Check out 9 Things You Didn't Know About Girl Scout Cookies.) Enthusiasm for their cookies is matched only, we think, by the ferocity of fans' opinions on the best varieties. Which is to say: We know we're playing a dangerous game by picking the best (and worst) Girl Scout cookies. But here...

The younger brother of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was busted in Virginia after trying to break into three different schools, according to police. Zachary Cruz, 24, was caught on security cameras at the schools “peering inside, indicating efforts to gain unauthorized access,” according to the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office. He allegedly attempted to get into the Wilson Middle School, Wilson High School, and the Valley Career and Technical Center late on Jan. 25, and was arrested “without incident” last Tuesday. The younger brother of the Florida school shooter — who massacred 17 people in 2018 — was charged with...

In 1771, French author Louis-Sébastien Mercier published the novel "The Year 2440: A Dream If Ever There Was One" Written from the perspective of an 18th century man who falls asleep and wakes up in Paris nearly 700 years later, the book is a fascinating example of utopian retro-futurism. Mercier imagines a world transformed by philosophy and reason, with an agrarian society that has invented hologram-like technology. The video delves into Mercier's depictions of the future city of Paris, advancements in science and culture, changes in religion and education, and his ideas for an ideal government led by an egalitarian...

I have posted clips from my documentary before on YouTube and have been asked many questions in the comments about it. So I decided to tell the background story. My video presents the entire interview. It is a strange and sad story and my doc details the efforts that my team over a nine-month period to investigate it. We concluded that, even with the minor errors that Nettie Mitchell may have made in telling it, the basic story was true. I took the interview that you are watching here to the executive producer of PBS American Experience series and she...

0:00 Introduction 1:35 Rowena (Belle's Niece) Speaking 2:25 Belle Buford Thom Collins Speaking This is Belle Buford Thom Collins, born in 1878, speaking about her childhood in 1880s Los Angeles. Her father, Cameron E. Thom, was the Mayor of Los Angeles between 1882 and 1884. Mrs. Collins' niece, Rowena, is the person speaking in the beginning of the recording. Audio has been remastered. This was recorded on November 26, 1964. The original tape contained several gaps, so some areas begin in mid-sentence. All photographs are of early Los Angeles, between the 1870s to the late 1890s.

March 21, 2024 Press Release WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland opening an inquiry into the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) use of artificial intelligence (AI) to surveil Americans' financial information. The Committee and its Select Subcommittee have reason to believe that the IRS and Department of Justice (DOJ) are actively monitoring millions of Americans' private transactions, bank accounts, and related financial information—without any legal process—using an AI-powered system. This AI-powered warrantless financial surveillance is highly concerning and raises serious doubts...

Sunk deep into shaven and elaborately tattooed skulls, a hundred pairs of eyes – hollow and dark –are boring directly into mine. The men they belong to have committed crimes evil almost beyond comprehension. Members of two of the most savage rival gangs the world has seen, El Salvador’s Ms-13 and Barrio 18, they raped and tortured, murdered and mutilated, cut bodies to pieces and strewed them around the streets to strike terror in the neighbourhoods they controlled. On my journey to the world-renowned prison that holds them, the Latin American country’s new Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), my government escorts...

In a previous video I introduced the oldest voices that can still be heard through recordings made on Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s phonautograph and Thomas Edison’s early tinfoil phonograph. This time, we look at how efforts to promote Edison’s new “perfected” phonograph in Britain led to the preservation of the voices of many famous Victorians - from poets and composers like Robert Browning and Arthur Sullivan, to major political figures like William Gladstone. We will also see how his rivals finally succeeded in recording the voice of Queen Victoria.