Free Republic

More than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered in the besieged port of Mariupol, Russia’s defense ministry said on Wednesday of Moscow’s main target in the eastern Donbas region which it has yet to bring under its control. If the Russians take the Azovstal industrial district, where the marines have been holed up, they would be in full control of Mariupol, Ukraine’s main Sea of Azov port, which would allow Russia to reinforce a land corridor between separatist-held eastern areas and the Crimea region that it seized and annexed in 2014.

WASHINGTON - The admission rate for those who seek treatment for marijuana use nearly tripled between 1992 and 2002, according to the latest data compiled by the federal government. The numbers released Friday reflect a growing use of marijuana in the 1990s and an increase in the potency of marijuana, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. "This report makes clear what people in the public health community have known for years, which is marijuana is a much more dangerous drug than many Americans realize," Riley said. "This report is a wake...