Free Republic

AMARILLO, TX—A local woman stunned critics Friday by successfully executing a record-breaking 37-point turn in front of Lawndale Elementary School on Bivins St. The driver, identified as Cheryl Alessa, only held up traffic for 12 minutes as she performed the daring expert maneuver. Alessa dropped her kids off for school on 25th Ave and then proceeded to make a wrong turn in a northward direction. To avoid a minor delay on her way to a yoga class she promptly initiated the 37-point turn on the packed street. Bystanders began laying on their car horns and raising their voices at the...

For close to 20 years now, I’ve been observing and reporting on a disturbing trend in law enforcement – the federalization and militarization of local police forces. Until recently, practically no one noticed what was happening. But with the focus on police shootings and the civil disturbances that have followed – sometimes involving tanks, military-style gear and Kevlar – it’s hard not to notice that local cops don’t exactly look like Officer Joe Bolton anymore. It was none other than Al Sharpton (I won’t call him reverend) who suggested recently that the answer to the use of excessive force by...

TACOMA, Wash. — State troopers are responding to an increased number of traffic collisions near an Interstate 5 construction zone in Tacoma. “We’re looking at a little more than two collisions that happen on this stretch per day,” Trooper Robert Royer with the Washington State Patrol said. The data provided by the agency, which covers the distance between milepost 132 (near state Route 16 exit) to milepost 136 (near the Port of Tacoma Road exit), shows traffic collisions are up 33% since 2019. With more than 400 collisions already reported this year (so far), troopers are responding to at least...

After years of snafus and miscues, a revamped Portland Marathon and its concurrent half marathon—under new management and with a new route through downtown—went off on Sunday and garnered largely positive reviews. But for about 15 to 20 of the race’s fastest runners—organizers don’t yet have an exact number who were affected—this edition of the 48-year-old race was another exercise in frustration. By mile 9, the eventual race winner, Kallin Khan, had already opened up a sizable lead. With a motorcycle guiding him, he was out of sight of the trailing pack. Runners were supposed to bear right from the...

Two women in South Carolina mistakenly got into a car over the weekend they believed was an Uber only to be driven down a dirt road by a man police have yet to locate. Early Friday morning, two women were waiting outside a Hilton Head Island restaurant in Reilley’s Plaza when a dark-colored SUV pulled up. According to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, the pair had called an Uber to take them back to their vacation rental and believed that the car that approached them was at least a driver for the ride-sharing app. “Although the women were aware that...

It’s Time To Stop Looking For Amelia Earhart On July 2nd, 1937, Amelia Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world came to an abrupt end over the Pacific Ocean. She lost radio contact with Itasca, the Coast Guard ship that was serving as her radio contact, and the plane supposedly went down near the tiny atoll of Howland Island. Now, 75 years and uncounted millions of dollars later, we haven't found a trace of Earhart, her plane, or Fred Noonan, her navigator. Today is Earhart's 115th birthday, and it's time for us as a society...

The Obama administration had hoped that this month’s town hall meetings would smooth the way for healthcare reform. Things do not seem to be working out that way. Across the country, loud and furious protesters have turned up. They accuse the White House of wishing, among other things, to bankrupt the nation, destroy the American way of life and bring in “death panels” to mitigate the excessive healthcare demands of the elderly. Unruly protest makes good television and is especially welcome in a slow month for news. The protesters have been dominating US newspapers and news programmes in recent days....