Free Republic

TAMPA, Fla. - Police say a Florida man asking if a bulletproof vest "still worked" was fatally shot by his cousin. A Tampa police report says Joaquin Mendez, 23, put on the vest late Saturday and "wondered aloud whether it still worked." Police say his cousin, Alexandro Garibaldi, 24, pulled out a gun and responded, "Let's see." Officers found Mendez outside the house with a gunshot wound in his chest. Mendez died at a hospital.

BUTLER, Pa. — A woman who was drunk on beer crashed into a beer distributor Thursday, Channel 11’s news exchange partners at Inside Butler County reported. Lynly Broge, 53, of Butler crashed her car into the side of O’Donnell’s Beer Distributor on Route 68 in Oakland Township. According to Inside Butler County, Broge’s vehicle crossed the center line, traveled into the parking lot and struck a block wall. State police said in a criminal complaint obtained by Inside Butler County that the entire front end of the vehicle went through the building’s wall. The complaint said Broge admitted to drinking...

Earth's flora is responsible for the glaciers and rivers that have created this planet's distinctive landscapeAstronomers are finding lots of exoplanets that are orbiting stars like the sun, significantly raising the odds that we will find a similar world. But if we do, the chance that the surface of that planet will look like ours is very small, thanks to an unlikely culprit: plants. We all know how Earth's landscape came about, right? Oceans and land masses formed, mountains rose, and precipitation washed over its surface; rivers weathered bare rock to create soil and plants took root. Well, new research...

Centuries ago, a native Central American people terrified of a witch believed to live deep in the earth used to sacrifice children and young women to Nicaragua's Masaya volcano. Today, the crater southwest of the capital Managua is an international tourist magnet, where photo-snapping visitors scramble among sulfurous fumes to get views of its bubbling lava—a rare sight. The only volcanoes in the world to boast lakes of incandescent magma are Masaya, Hawaii's Kilauea and Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo, explained a Nicaraguan geographer and environmentalist, Jaime Incer.

A Merrill Lynch analyst ate a handful of magic mushrooms in his Manhattan apartment Sunday morning - and then plunged to his death out of his 26th floor window. Alex Lagowitz, 23, was found dead on a third floor, outdoor patio around 10 a.m. - directly below his bedroom window at Windsor Court on East 31st Street and Lexington Avenue in Murray Hill. It’s still unclear if he purposely jumped or lost his balance and fell out of the window.

Fremont Burglary Suspect Who Entered Fumigated Home Dies FREMONT (CBS SF) — A burglar who was caught on video breaking into and stealing from a home being fumigated with a hazardous chemical collapsed and later died after leaving the property, police said. The apartment building located in the 39800 block of Fremont Boulevard was being fumigated for bed bugs and was covered with a tent. The residents shared the surveillance footage from the camera they purchased just days earlier out of fear one of the fumigation workers might steal from them. What they wound up seeing was even more shocking.

Police in Tobermory, Ont., pulled a red car from the harbour early Friday morning after a Kitchener woman followed instructions from her GPS and drove down a boat launch and into the water. Ontario Provincial Police said the woman was following her GPS "when she took a wrong turn into Little Tub Harbour" late Thursday night. It was raining, dark and foggy at the time. Combining "weather conditions and the driver being new to the area, a fully submerged vehicle was the result," police said in a release.

CONCRETE, Wash. — Skagit County deputies say a man taking selfies while posing with a gun died after he accidentally shot himself in the face on Sunday. The Skagit County Herald says it happened in front of the 43-year-old man's girlfriend at a home on Baker Loop Road in Concrete. The Herald said the two had reportedly been taking pictures of themselves with the gun, with the man unloading and reloading the gun several times throughout the day, when he fired the deadly shot. The death is being investigated as accidental.

Given its huge success in describing the natural world for the past 150 years, the theory of evolution is remarkably misunderstood. In a recent episode of the Australian series of "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here", former cricket star Shane Warne questioned the theory - asking "if humans evolved from monkeys, why haven't today's monkeys evolved"? Similarly, a head teacher from a primary school in the UK recently stated that evolution is a theory rather than a fact. This is despite the fact that children in the UK start learning about evolution in Year 6 (ten to 11-year-olds),...

Ministering angels are coming your way,(Heb1:14) To strengthen you and bring you hope for a new day ,(Matt 4:11) For just as I received them I now send them to you ( Exodus 23:20-22) To assist you in all you do,(Heb 1:14) To lift and surround you guarded from all harm(Psalm 91:11-12) Before disaster they shall sound the alarm(Gen 19:12-13) Wings of comfort from on high(Heb 1:7) My ministers to refresh and guide(Num 22:35) For I have created a team for you and me(2 Kings 6:17) The angelic Hosts are with you open your eyes and see! (2 Kings 6:17)...

Ken Ham, a biologist and supporter of young Earth creationism, said evolution is a "belief," not a "theory" -- a "fairy tale" for people who "try to explain life without God" -- and he added that the secular State has established a church, the "Church of Evolution, with Darwin as the High Priest," and teachers and professors as "priests" who push the Darwin religion in the schools. In an interview on VCY America on Feb. 10, two days before the international Darwin Day, host Jim Schneider said to Ken Ham, "I was disturbed in my spirit to hear we have...

Lauren Mann was an American music and arts student who loved playing the piano and went to Austria specifically to focus on her music studies while working as an au pair. All her friends say that she had a generous heart for the poor and needy. Being 23 years old and living amidst this "refugee" crisis, out of the goodness of her heart, she wanted to help these "migrants," many of whom were homeless and living near her. She would go out and give them food, drink, and little treats such as cigarettes. One of the people she helped was...

The pursuit of happiness is to enter into obedience and not leave. Many of My children are doing their own thing which truly has nothing to do with My Kingdom or The Father's will and in such manner have heaped upon themselves coals of futility weighing themselves down with yokes of bondage. However where My Spirit is there is freedom and in this place you will find My Vessels filled from My Spring of Life within them for there is a well flowing freely that need not be dug again. . . 2 Corinthians 3:17 17 Now the Lord is...

The Michigan State Police Department said Tuesday that a man died after rolling his car on the ramp from the Lodge to I-75 was watching pornography while driving. The accident happened early Sunday morning just after 3:30. Michigan State Police troopers were called to the ramp from the Lodge to southbound I-75 on a one-car accident. The preliminary investigation revealed the driver of the car was watching a movie while behind the wheel, police said on Monday. The driver was not wearing a seat belt when he lost control and rolled the car. He was partially ejected through the sunroof...

It may sound crazy to some, but it's not the first time James Twyman has gone to a war torn area to sing and pray for peace. While it might be dangerous, James feels he has to do it. Twyman sings the Muslim prayer. It's just one of many prayers he puts to music from various religions when he sings for peace around the world. In the late 90's, Twyman performed in Baghdad amid fallout from Dessert Storm and he played in Syria a couple years ago. On Jan. 20, Twyman will travel to the Israeli-Syrian border to hold a...

The White House says Australia's prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will meet with President Barack Obama on Jan. 19 as he makes his first trip to Washington since being sworn in last September. The White House says the two leaders will highlight the wide scope of the U.S.-Australia alliance. They'll talk about a wide range of issues that include the conflicts with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Australia has provided air power to the coalition efforts. ...

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, America's largest association of atheists and agnostics, began a campaign Monday to rid all hotel rooms of Bibles distributed by The Gideons International and replaced with copies of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." The Gideons International is well known worldwide for their work with hotels but according to their website, they predominantly share Scriptures in schools and colleges, prisons and jails, hospitals, and medical offices. The group is also an association of Christian business and professional men and their wives dedicated to telling people about Jesus through sharing personally and by providing Bibles...

A teenage Austrian girl who fled to Syria along with her friend is believed to have been beaten to death after being caught trying to flee the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa. Samra Kesinovic, 17, and her friend Sabina Selimovic became 'poster girls' for ISIS after they arrived in Syria in April 2014. A number of Austrian newspapers have reported that Samra has been beaten to death for attempting to leave Raqqa, although official government sources are refusing to comment on individual cases.

He continued, “Darwin said his whole theory depended on the fossil remains. He said we should be able to line up from a single-cell organism to man, several miles long and just walk right down the fossil trail and see how everything evolved.” “He [Darwin] said the only reason they didn’t have the fossils was because they were not geologically sophisticated enough, but that we would be in 50 to 100 years,” said Dr. Carson. Well, that was 150 years ago. We still haven’t found them. Where are they? Where are the fossil remains?” Carson continued, “When you ask the...

Breaking into a Nebraska zoo to "pet" a tiger has left a woman with injuries from the big cat and a citation for criminal trespass. Jacqueline Eide, 33, apparently evaded security to sneak into Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo on Halloween night.