Free Republic

The Wollman and Lasker rinks will not be closed after all, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio suddenly folding to pressure to keep the ice rinks open. Sunday was destined to be the last day of the season the rinks would be open in Central Park. The mayor wanted to shut them down because they are run by the Trump Organization, whose contracts he has been trying to cancel in the wake of the Capitol riot.

It's the middle of winter, so backyard rinks are in full bloom. Many you see are of the no frills variety -- some wood acting as the boards and a fresh sheet of ice with hockey equipment littered on top. But for Justin Lachapelle, a resident of St-Lazare, Quebec, he's taken his love for the Montreal Canadiens and his ability to build a backyard rink to an entirely different level. Not only does his 64-by-32 rink have re-used boards from a local rink, painted lines and face-off circles to make it look like Bell Centre, there's also a dressing room...

GRAND PRAIRIE (CBSDFW.COM) – A shooter opened fire at a skating rink during a private family event Saturday night, killing five and wounding four before turning the gun on himself, Grand Prairie Police spokesman John Brimmer said.

LifeNews and GatwayPundit report that President Obama has vowed to veto any bill that defunds Planned Parenthood. President Barack Obama would veto the House-approved long-term spending bill for the federal government that contains the Pence Amendment, a measure that would de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business...

By day, Pete Carlson is head honcho at the biggest indoor ice-skating complex in the country. In the evening, he's captain of one of the smallest. For the past six years, Carlson, operations and programs director at the eight-rink Schwan's Super Rink, has flooded his Circle Pines backyard to make a 24-by-48-foot rink for his son and daughter, Tait, 13, and Claire, 12.

SNIPPET: "New Abu Yahya al-Libi video released on 6 OCT – I havent had a chance to blog for awhile so I thought I’d go through the transcript line-by-line, pulling out anything that I find of note, and then annotate as I go through it. One quick note: Abu Yahya is no longer wearing his pinky ring, the one that he’s been wearing since late 2005 – this is the first video that I havent seen it (although it may just be at the shop getting cleaned) – here’s a screen cap:" SNIPPET: "Wow, could I be any more right...

A Portland man faces charges of burglary and drunken driving after his arrest atop a Zamboni machine at the Cumberland County Civic Center early Tuesday morning. Adam Patterson, 23, had inadvertently summoned the Portland Fire Department to the civic center by driving a forklift, with the forks raised, into part of the sprinkler system, setting off an alarm, police said. Firefighters responded at 2 a.m. to find Patterson trying to drive the large ice resurfacer, which was against an interior wall and not on any ice, police said. When officers arrived to arrest him, Patterson was sitting on the machine...

He has gone from accused minor criminal to community symbol. Let there be no mistake. As was confirmed after Tuesday’s court hearing, this is not just another harassment case. Charles Schmidl stands as a crusader for a cause. The cause is the right of an adult to defend himself — and his 5-year-old son — against the alleged abuse of an out-ofcontrol 10-year-old. It is a line in the sand against lax parenting and the obnoxious offspring that it produces. It is a voice for the rights of those wronged by every spoiled brat spawned by absent or permissive parents....