Free Republic

UPS is firing 250 Queens drivers for walking off the job during a 90-minute protest in February. The company dismissed 20 of the workers after their shifts Monday and issued notices of termination to another 230 employees, notifying them that they will be fired once the company has trained their replacements, UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told Business Insider. The workers were protesting the dismissal of long-time employee and union activist Jairo Reyes, who was fired over an hours dispute, according to Gaut. The New York Daily News first reported on the firings. The local branch of the Teamsters union that...

Windows XP is dying. On April 8, Microsoft will stop supporting the ancient operating system that was released in 2001 — and at one point was used by 400 million people. You might think that an operating system that was actually engineered in the late 90s would be fully obsolete and unused by now. After all, since XP came out, Microsoft has released several major replacement versions: Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 (recently upgraded to Windows 8.1). But there’s something about Windows XP. It’s basic, stable, fast enough, and good enough for a lot of people. It’s still...

The snake-handling pastor starring on the reality show "Snake Salvation," has died from a snake bite, according to Middlesboro Police. Police believe Jamie Coots died after a rattlesnake bit his right hand during a church service Saturday night. Coots was found dead in his home about 10 p.m. after refusing medical help, according to police. "The snake that bit him, we've been carrying it for four months. It's been carried hundreds of times and handled at all kinds of times," said Cody Coots, Coots' son. "When it's your time to go. It's just your time to go. " Coots was...

Hackers breached the websites of all Las Vegas Sands Corp. websites Tuesday morning, and the home pages of some of the world's largest casinos remained down through the day. The Nevada State Gaming Control Board was investigating the breach, and the FBI was also aware of the matter. Patrons got error messages when they tried to visit the home pages of the Venetian casino, famous for its ersatz canals, and the Palazzo casino, which is next door on the Las Vegas Strip. The company's corporate site was also hacked, as were websites for Sands casinos in Bethlehem, Pa., Singapore, and...

CLEVELAND, Ohio – United Airlines confirmed Saturday that departures from Cleveland will be cut by about 60 percent due to unprofitable operations in the city. Northeast Ohio Media Group spoke with several travelers to get their feelings on what the cutbacks will mean. Here’s what they had to say: Omar Garcia of Cleveland uses United to fly to Puerto Rico. It’s what he’s flown since he came to America five years ago from Bayamon, Puerto Rico. It’s the same airline his mother, brothers, sisters and their families used to move to America. He was at the airport Saturday to pick...

Any pilot flying holidaymakers between Manchester and Ibiza must be prepared for outlandish sights. But perhaps nothing so apparently unworldly as this. The captain of a Thomas Cook airliner flying tourists back from the Spanish holiday island to the north of England reported a "near miss" with a "rugby ball"-shaped UFO, which passed within feet of his jet. The encounter, over Reading, Berks, was reported to the aviation authorities, who launched an investigation. But no earthly identity for the object could be established. The encounter was disclosed earlier this month by the Telegraph, following the publication of a report into...

A 55-year-old man was sentenced to jail and 400 hours of community service after previously admitting to stealing a Salvation Army donation kettle in Painesville Township the week before Christmas. Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti sentenced Jeffrey L. Gregg to 180 days in jail, with 175 suspended. He also must complete 200 hours at the Salvation Army or another local food kitchen and 200 hours at the court’s garden, which grows and distributes food to local charity organizations, by Sept. 1. Additionally, Gregg must repay the money that was stolen and wear a Santa hat during his community work....

An Ohio school superintendent, two coaches and a principal were charged by a grand jury that investigated whether other laws were broken in the rape of a drunken 16-year-old girl by two football players, the state's attorney general said Monday. The special grand jury convened in Steubenville had investigated whether adults like coaches or school administrators knew of the rape allegation but failed to report it as required by state law. < snip >

Several leading GOP members of Congress are asking Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, under whose watch the Healthcare.gov website rollout has experience one fiasco after another, to explain the $2 billion in taxpayer money loaned to various interests to get health insurance CO-OPs up and running – and whether the taxpayers will get any of that back. Just when the Obamacare experience appears to be able to go no lower – the website malfunctions, millions of policies are canceled outright, only thousands are able to sign up via online offerings, prices for policies are skyrocketing, and more –...

As scary as the Cleveland Browns' performance on the field against the Cincinnati Bengals was on Sunday, it sounds like the team's plane ride back to Cleveland was even scarier. Browns guard Jason Pinkston said that the team is "lucky to be alive". Following their 41-20 loss to the Bengals and facing heavy rain and 50mph winds, the Browns made plans to take a bus home. However, they instead boarded a plane when it was deemed safe to make the 45-minute flight home. Speaking of the flight, Pinkston said: “It was terrifying. It was the real thing. The weather was...

A review of a deadly police chase in Cleveland nearly a year ago has led to suspensions for 63 patrol officers who violated orders and department rules, the city's police chief said Tuesday. Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/23695543/cleveland-police-suspend-63-officers-over-deadly-chase#ixzz2hp9KPk00

<p>CLEVELAND– A Cleveland priest was arrested Friday afternoon, accused of soliciting sex at Edgewater Beach, according to Cleveland Metroparks Rangers.</p> <p>Spokesperson Monica Banks Hines told FOX 8 that the suspect signaled over a man to his car and offered him $50 for oral sex.</p>

Lewisburg, PA (WOIO) - A deadly crash on I-80 early Wednesday morning involving a Greyhound bus from New York City to Cleveland. Greyhound spokesperson Alexandra Pedrini tells 19 Action News the bus and a tractor trailer collided near Lewisburg, PA around 1:45 a.m. A woman was killed in the accident, and several others injured. One passenger, Shara King said, "Blood was dripping from my face and I heard people screaming." The injured passengers were taken to five local hospitals. Of the 49 passengers who were transported to area hospital, 38 have been treated and released. After passengers were treated and...

<p>An unidentified woman at Houston’s Minute Maid Park only now is making a splash on social media and YouTube — but she probably wishes she weren’t. A video from a 2011 Astros-Diamondbacks game shows her snatching a baseball from the hands of a little girl as the stadium announcer expresses shock and awe.</p>

Across the Everglades, all our Western neighbors in Naples are talking about is a purported UFO sighting this week at a condo building pool. Because if advanced life forms traveled from billions of light years away, their first stop would undoubtedly be a condo building pool in Naples. The spotting was made on security camera footage and first reported by security officer Debralee Thomas. She took her story to NBC 2. "It was down on the ground but some of that webbing was longer and it made a funnel down into the pool. Whatever it was doing in the pool,...

<p>A powerful thunderstorm blasted through Las Vegas and nearby communities Friday evening, flooding streets, toppling trees and trapping tourists inside casinos.</p> <p>Torrential rains and 70-mph winds also knocked out power in more than a dozen locations, including Primm, the town that sits on Interstate 15 at the California-Nevada border.</p>

Ordering a pizza in 2015 You'll never want to order another pizza if we give away all of our civil liberties in the name of security!

Can you hear me now? The National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon customers – right down to local call data – under a top-secret court order issued in April, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported late Wednesday. Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) order, the Guardian reported, Verizon Business Services must provide the NSA “on an ongoing daily basis” with information from calls between the U.S. and overseas – but also with calls entirely inside the United States. Calls made entirely overseas were not affected. It was unclear whether phones in other Verizon...

Middlefield Police have released the dash cam footage of the deadly March 10 officer-involved shooting in which a Mentor-on-the-Lake man was killed and two officers were injured. The nearly 2 1/2 minute video begins by showing Officers Brandon Savage and Erin Thomas driving southbound at about 5:55 p.m. on Route 608, when a green Saturn failed to stop at the intersection of 608 and East High Street. The officers enacted the traffic stop a short distance north of the intersection. As the officers prepared to approach the vehicle, the video appears to show the officers discussing movement in the Saturn....

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents on Monday locked down the headquarters of Pilot Flying J, the truck stop business owned by the family of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and his brother, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. FBI spokesman Marshall Stone told The Associated Press that the move was part of an ongoing investigation, but he would not provide additional details. FBI and IRS agents were expected to remain in the building into the evening, he said. The FBI was keeping all traffic away from the company property, and Knoxville police patrol cars and officers could be seen outside the...