Free Republic

Dominique Albert, 27, armed with a steak knife, approached an unmarked car in an alley Thursday night around 9:45 p.m. After he opened the door, he realized there were two officers inside who were in the area on a stakeout for street crimes

Global warming isn’t happening. The climate really isn’t changing that much. This inconvenient fact was marginalized by describing it as a “pause” or “temporary lull” in global warming – which might have been a defensible position in the early days of the “pause,” but is a very tough sell when that “temporary lull” has been running for eighteen years.

Frequent experiences of racism are associated with a higher risk of obesity among African American women, a new study claims. Scientists found that women who were more frequently victimized for their race, were more likely to be obese.

The push by 50 western Virginia counties to secede in 1863, forming West Virginia at the height of the Civil War, was led by a charismatic store-clerk-turned-lawyer who famously urged his supporters: “Cut the knot now! Cut it now! Apply the knife.” West Virginia was the last state to break off from another. Now, 150 years later, a 49-year-old information technology consultant wants to apply the knife to Maryland’s five western counties. “The people are the sovereign,” says Scott Strzelczyk, leader of the fledgling Western Maryland Initiative, and the western sovereigns are fed up with Annapolis’s liberal majority, elected by...

Jody Payne, longtime guitarist for Willie Nelson, died of heart complications at age 77.

Sidebar is no longer on my FR page. How do I get it back?

Fonda said she knew immediately that she had made a mistake and has apologized repeatedly, both privately and publicly. She told OWN program “Oprah’s Master Class” that the event happened on the last day of her visit. She was tired, she said, and didn’t want to attend.

For the past four years, American taxpayers have paid nearly $400,000 so that Yale University could study the sexual conflict of waterfowl and “plasticity in duck penis length.”

Boehner also leveled a challenge to Obama, calling on him to take the lead in finding compromise. “Mr. President, this is your moment,” he said. “We’re ready to be led. Not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans.”

Johnson is charged with first-degree misdemeanor domestic battery in the alleged head-butting last month of his new wife. The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail, according to the Broward State Attorney's Office.

All lanes are now open on northbound Interstate 270 after an overturned beer truck put the suds on the street and backed up traffic during the Thursday morning commute.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) took to the Senate floor today to draw attention to a video of a top EPA official saying the EPA’s “philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make examples” of oil and gas companies - just as the Romans crucified random citizens in areas they conquered to ensure obedience. Inhofe quoted a little-watched video from 2010 of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, admitting that EPA’s “general philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make examples” of oil and gas companies. In the video, Administrator Armendariz says: “I was in a meeting once and I gave...

He wants to keep his iPad 2, naturally, and not share it with the shiftless vagrants fighting over access to one of the three Porta-Potties recently delivered to the now-evacuated camp site in lower Manhattan.

As an activist move, we should each send a can of peas to the White House.

Gene Ludwig of Monroeville, PA, billed as "relentless" in the energy he brought to his music, died Wednesday at West Penn Hospital Forbes Regional Campus. He was 72. The native of Twin Rocks, Cambria County, was a well-known jazz performer in this area, but was known nationally as a frequent guest at clubs in New York City and San Francisco and at international events, such as the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Marty Ashby, executive producer of MCG Jazz at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in the North Side, called Mr. Ludwig "one of a kind" in his dedication to the...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officials are reviewing security tapes to find out who used a southern New Jersey store's public-address system to tell "all black people" to leave. Shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday at the Washington Township store, a male voice calmly announced: "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now." Witnesses say customers and store employees looked stunned. Management later apologized. Company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie says the incident was "unacceptable." The retailer is looking to prevent it from happening in the future. Washington Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office also are investigating.

Atheists recruited to be part of a lawsuit that is trying to rid government ceremonies such as the inauguration of a president of any invocation or other prayer have claimed they are made physically ill by prayer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAITH UNDER FIRE Atheists say prayer makes them physically sick 'My stomach did a somersault with disgust' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: October 07, 2009 10:30 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2009 WorldNetDaily Michael Newdow Atheists recruited to be part of a lawsuit that is trying to rid government ceremonies such as the inauguration of a president of any invocation or other prayer...

Rarely does the Peter Principle present us with an officeholder who has skipped all the levels in-between and risen as a result of one desperate act of temporary insanity by the voters, to be propelled well beyond his or her level of incompetence. That, of course, is precisely what has happened to Barack Obama.

She thinks the school was looking for a reason to fire her

This was certainly not what these aspiring actresses expected when they dropped by for an audition. Joseph Brooks, the 71-year-old director, producer and songwriter who scored an Academy Award and No. 1 hit for penning the 1977 ballad "You Light Up My Life," was indicted Tuesday on charges of raping and sexually assaulting 11 women in his Upper East Side apartment. His personal assistant, 42-year-old Shawni Lucier, was also indicted on charges of knowingly facilitating the crimes, which occurred between March 2005 and April 2008. The victims ranged in age from 18 to 30 and were allegedly lured to Brooks'...