Free Republic

...Thomas Crooks, 20, who was killed by US Secret Service after he fired at the former president at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on Saturday, had searched online for various high-profile figures as he “scoped out” the target for assassination, including an unnamed member of the British Royal family. Vincent Taormina, who knew Crooks at school in 2016, told Fox News he was “smug” about politics and had mocked him for supporting Trump. “He just did not like politicians, especially with the choices that we had,” he said. “He did not like our politicians.” “I brought up the fact...

[T]he 20-year-old gunman once mocked him over his support of former President Donald Trump and had a general disdain for mainstream politicians across the political aisle. brought up the fact that I'm Hispanic and, you know, I'm for Trump. And he said, 'Well, you're Hispanic, so shouldn't you hate Trump?'" Vincent Taormina told Fox News Digital Tuesday. "No. He's great. He was a great president. He called me stupid – or insinuated that I was stupid."

The Mount Etna volcano erupted on Monday, spewing ash as several minor earthquakes hit the region, and prompting a partial closure of the Sicilian airspace around the mountain. Italy's national institute for geophysics and vulcanology (INGV) counted more than 130 seismic shocks in the zone, with the strongest reaching a magnitude of 4.0."The eruption occurred on the side of Etna," Boris Behncke, a vulcanologist at INGV, told AFP. "It's the first lateral eruption in more than 10 years, but it doesn't seem to be dangerous."Due to bad visibility because of the ash authorities restricted local airspace, allowing only four landings...