Free Republic

PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – After 14 incumbent South Dakota lawmakers lost their seats in the 2024 Republican primary, 16 lost on Tuesday, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office. The 2024 shakeup was described as “an earthquake” by Spearfish Rep. Scott Odenbach, a Republican incumbent who won his own primary that year and was elevated to majority leader of the House of Representatives with support from the newcomers. In the 2026 primary, those former newcomers made up the majority of the ousted incumbents. snip Several of the lawmakers who lost their seats in the 2024...

Hawaii Island police report that a 47-year-old fisherman died Friday in Kailua-Kona during a fishing accident. Responding to a 10:48 a.m. call, police learned that a swordfish had been observed in Honokohau Harbor and that fisherman Randy Llanes of Kailua-Kona had jumped into the water with a spear gun. The fish was then seen thrashing about, leaving a puncture wound to the man’s upper chest. Hawaii County Fire Department personnel responded to the scene and attempted CPR. They took Llanes to Kona Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:30 a.m. Acting Sgt. David Matsushima of the Kona patrol...

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida diver shot a large grouper with a spear gun then apparently drowned when the fish sped into a hole, entangling the man in the line attached to the spear, investigators said on Monday. The 42-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was free-diving in about 25 feet (7.5 metres) of water off the lower Florida Keys on Saturday and speared a Goliath Grouper, Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Mark Coleman said. "It looks like the fish wrapped the line attached to the spear around the victim's wrist. The fish then went into a hole in a coral...