Free Republic

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio—"If we only had 5,000, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now," says Reverend Barron—real name Kenneth Selig—in what’s become a common refrain in the embattled city of Springfield, Ohio. Barron, a street preacher, food truck owner, and former warehouse manager, has emerged as a colorful champion for the small city as it struggles through an unprecedented transformation. As many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants, city officials say, have arrived in Springfield since the pandemic, swelling its population to almost 80,000. Times were already tough before the rumors started swirling about migrants eating cats, dogs, and geese. "Look man,...

The three teens who are accused of kidnapping, murdering and eating a New York town's beloved swan, Fay, for dinner last week were refugees from Myanmar, The Washington Free Beacon reported. The swan and her four babies were kidnapped from Manlius swan pond in Manlius, New York, last Saturday. Eman Hussan, 18, and his two accomplices were charged with felony grand larceny and criminal mischief. Hussan was seen smiling proudly at reporters when police took him into custody. The three criminals are refugees from Myanmar and attend high school in the Syracuse area, Manlius Police Sgt. Ken Hatter told the...

'These inhumane degenerates need to face real consequences' The three teens accused of killing and eating a beloved swan in an upstate New York village are refugees, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Manlius Police reported Faye the Swan and her four cygnets missing from the town pond last Monday, which prompted horror from the Manlius, New York, residents. Locals flooded Manlius police with tips the next day, which ended in the arrest of 18-year-old Eman Hussan of Syracuse, New York, and two minors, aged 16 and 17. The posse are refugees from Myanmar and attend high school in the...

The theory: a cargo ship with a "dirty bomb" was just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. The notion came to life during a live YouTube broadcast Wednesday evening. During the broadcast, conspiracy theorist George Webb initially claimed a "source" had told him that there was "a dirty bomb planned for a major city." Based on the information from the "source," Webb said he believed Memphis might be the target. The Coast Guard said in a further statement provided to CNN that the source of the threat had been detained by authorities for further questioning. The statement did not mention Webb's...

Weight-watching tyrant Kim Jong Un has reportedly come up with an unexpected solution to North Korea’s food crisis — getting his hungry citizens to eat ornamental black swans. The Hermit Kingdom has been pushing the ornamental birds as a protein-packed superfood while opening industrial-scale breeding plants. “Black swan meat is delicious and has medicinal value,” the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said on Monday as it pushed the bird meat, which is rarely eaten anywhere in the world.

VIDEOOn September 5, 2021 a black swan appeared in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and attracted a lot of attention as you can see. Does this very rare appearance of a black swan in the very center of China portend a Black Swan event? By strange coincidence, on the very same day the black swan appeared in Tiananmen Square, a fascinating documentary about Black Swan Events, "The Worst Kind of Surprise: Black Swan Theory," was uploaded to YouTube. You can see a few excerpts of it in this video but I highly recommend you watch the entire documentary in the link below.The...

Two cygnets later recovered by Orlando policeOnlookers watched in disbelief as a man batted away a mother and father swan at Lake Eola, grabbed their recently hatched babies and tossed them into a red cooler, according to witnesses and video of the incident. Frank Howard said he and his fiancé were at Lake Eola Park Sunday evening admiring the swan family with two babies, known as cygnets, when a man approached carrying a red cooler. The man, wearing athletic wear and sneakers, told Howard he worked for “Lake Eola Park” and was taking the cygnets to protect them from wildlife....

...Although the cases of swan deaths in Cumbria have not been directly linked to avian flu at this point, a number of dead swans in Dawlish, Devon — around 250 miles south of Ulverston — were confirmed to have contracted H5N8, the latest strain of avian flu. Cases of the virus have been seen across Europe, with France, Germany, Belgium, Norway and others reporting instances of H5N8.

A villainous pair of swans have been tormenting the good citizens of Brimscombe, a tiny village in the Cotswolds, with such viciousness that it's become national news. According to Metro UK, the two swans have vandalized property, harassed vehicles on public thoroughfares, and even attacked children. Local residents, Metro reports, have been forced to go about armed with water pistols because the authorities refuse to step in. Swans, local officials inform the fearful residents, are "protected animals."

"Take a good look at them," I said, "because the state plans to exterminate them." I kind of agree with the department's main reason for exterminating New York state's resident mute swans (by the way, that's the species' name, because they're usually silent). Non-native species often pose problems. I just have two problems with the plan. One, I don't think mute swans are really too much of a threat to anything or anyone in New York state. They live mainly on Long Island and the lower Hudson, with a few on the Great Lakes. They number just around 2,200 birds,...

IN Britain, wild swans may be prized for their beauty and protected by the Queen, but the US state of New York has declared war on them, branding them a violent menace. Draft proposals to kill or resettle the state's 2200 wild mute swans by 2025 may be supported by some conservationists but have sparked uproar among animal rights activists. Mute swans were brought to North America by European settlers to adorn their estates in the late 1800s but the authorities no longer consider them a beauty worthy of roaming free. The New York state department of environmental conservation says...

The yuletide song counts 'seven swans a-swimming', but four black swans appear to have taken their Christmas antics to another level

Yet early this morning, five of these black and beautiful swans were found floating lifeless on the surface of the pond. The latest instance of floating dead animals in China – first pigs, then ducks, and now black swans – these mere five black swans became an object of heated discussion on the Internet right after the announcement was made. How did they die? Was it a natural disaster or another man-made one? As Star News tells us today, upon hearing of the news yesterday it immediately sent a journalist to the scene to find out exactly what happened. What...

It was typical of Sheila Lawrence that she didn't take her leave of Monticello until after her beloved trumpeter swans, nurtured and fattened all winter long on the Mississippi River below her house, were on their way north once again. Lawrence, 65, died Saturday after an eight-month battle with cancer. She left a legacy for her river town in the large graceful birds that now winter there, thanks to the "Swan Lady" who fed them for more than 20 years. "Maybe she was the bird whisperer. Some people have it," said her husband, Jim, who took over the feeding for...

Today I read an obscure book which is addequately written. Its subject is not of front-burner importance, all things considered. And yet, it tells a story that entirely too many Americans are unaware of, but should be. The book is “Legacy of Honor, the Values and Influence of America’s Eagle Scouts,” by Alvin Townley. There are now about two million people in the US who hold the rank of Eagle Scout, of the 110 million Americans who have ever been part of the Boy Scouts of America. The Eagles are a small fraction of Scouts, a tiny fraction of the...

LONDON (Reuters) – Quiet please -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth is preparing to have her swans counted. Buckingham Palace has announced that the annual Swan Upping, a tradition dating back to the 12th century which involves a census of the swan population on the River Thames, will be conducted by the queen's official Swan Marker from July 20-24.

<p>Three miles south of Highlands, North Carolina, the road to Dillard, Georgia, goes through a golf course. It is not just any golf course. It is the one that the great Bobby Jones designed just before he created his masterpiece at Augusta.</p>

<p>Dow Jones- U.S. government officials are waiting to see whether the discovery of bird flu in a pair of Michigan swans will disrupt exports by the U.S. poultry industry.</p> <p>While genetic screening by U.S. government scientists has determined that the virus found in the wild birds isn't the deadly Asian form of the H5N1 virus, countries such as Russia and Japan have clamped down before on imports of U.S. chickens when other forms of bird flu were detected in the U.S. These countries want to protect their domestic flocks from the highly-contagious respiratory disease.</p>

WASHINGTON -- Scientists have discovered the possible presence of bird flu in wild mute swans in Michigan -- but it does not appear to be the worrisome, highly pathogenic strain, the White House announced Monday. "They believe it is a strain of low pathogenicity, similar to strains that have been seen before in North America," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. Testing still is being done to confirm the presence of the virus and its type, officials said. Scientists had feared that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu would reach North America sometime this year. Just last week, the...