Free Republic

It seems, therefore, the answer to "What happened to Kamala Harris' face?" is simple: nothing. A low-quality recording of the MSNBC interview seems to have distorted the senator's face. Because if you look at a clearer video of the same interview, Harris looks perfectly like herself. This combined with less-than-ideal lighting can explain why so many viewers did a double take on July 18 — and why they were all but convinced Botox was to blame for Harris' drastically different-seeming face.

ROME – Topless protesters assailed the cathedral of La Plata, Argentina, this weekend, hurling Molotov cocktails and human excrement at the church building while demanding legalized abortion. The “tetazo,” or topless protest, was a spin-off from Argentina’s annual “National Encounter of Women” taking place Sunday in La Plata, home to one of the world’s largest Catholic cathedrals. The activists called for “legal abortion now, unobstructed, safe, and free in the hospital” while also shouting insults against the Catholic Church. Chanted slogans included: “Abort your heterosexuality,” “‘Death to the macho’ is not a metaphor,” “The only church that enlightens is the...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take the case of a public school teacher who required her students to recite the Islamic "conversion prayer" or receive a failing grade. The Thomas More Law Center is defending Caleigh Wood, a Christian student in 11th grade at La Plata High School in La Plata, Maryland. Wood refused to deny her faith "by making a written profession of the Muslim conversion prayer known as the shahada – 'There is no god by allah and Muhammad is the messenger of allah,'" Thomas More said. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled...

Malcolm X’s daughter and granddaughter were busted this week on animal cruelty charges, when injured pooches subjected to “inhumane conditions” were found inside a stolen U-Haul truck they were driving. Malikah Shabazz and her daughter Bettih Shabazz, 19, were arrested Wednesday night in a parking lot of a La Plata, Maryland, Wal-Mart, cops said. Seven injured pit bulls were found inside stacked crates in the back of the rental truck, cops said. The truck was reported stolen earlier in the day to Vermont state police. The women were charged with seven counts of animal cruelty and vehicle theft and released...

A daughter and granddaughter of slain black nationalist Malcolm X have been charged with stealing a rental truck that was found in southern Maryland carrying seven pit bulls in what police described Friday as inhumane conditions. Malikah Saban Shabazz, 51, of Berlin, New Hampshire, and her daughter Bettih Bahiyah Shabazz, 19, of Stark, New Hampshire, were released in Charles County on Thursday after posting bond of $2,000 each, according to online court records. The records do not list defense attorneys, and calls to the women’s possible telephone numbers were either not answered or not returned. The women were arrested Wednesday...

A public high school has been accused of radical Islamic indoctrination by forcing non-Muslim children to profess the Muslim statement of faith (the same statement used to convert people to Islam), ordering them to memorize the Five Pillars of Islam and teaching that the faith of a Muslim is stronger than the average Christian, according to a federal lawsuit just filed. A Maryland high school punished a student for refusing to profess faith in Islam, gave her failing grades for a series of assignments that violated her Christian beliefs then threatened her father with arrest for complaining, a federal lawsuit...

LA PLATA, Md. — Police in La Plata say a 20-year-old man has been charged after he tweeted about killing “all the white people” in the town. Charles Hollins was charged on Wednesday with making a threat of mass violence. He’s being held on $250,000 bond. Online court records do not list an attorney for him. According to police, the tweet read, “TONIGHT WE PURGE! KILL ALL THE WHITE PPL IN THE TOWN OF LA PLATA.” Police say it was posted on Wednesday afternoon. The account that posted the message appears to have been deleted. Hollins, who is black, was...

Maryland resident Carlos Anthony Hollins has been arrested and charged for allegedly issuing deadly threats against La Plata residents via his personal Twitter account. “IM NOT GONNA STAND FOR THIS NO. MORE. TONIGHT WE PURGE ! KILL ALL THE WHITE PPL IN THE TOWN OF LAPLATA. #BLACKLIVESMATTER,” Hollins’ now-suspended Twitter account read.

A man who allegedly tweeted a threatening remark against La Plata residents Wednesday afternoon was taken into custody at about 8:47 p.m. without incident by the Charles County Sheriff's Office. Carlos Anthony, 20, of Waldorf was identified as the suspect who reportedly posted the threat of violence on Twitter by the La Plata Police Department. Twitter post stated: “IM NOT GONNA STAND FOR THIS NO. MORE. TONIGHT WE PURGE! KILL ALL THE WHITE PPL IN THE TOWN OF LA PLATA!”

Contact: José Iriarte iriartej@si.edu 202-786-2094 x8350 Smithsonian Institution A complex agricultural society in Uruguay's La Plata basin, 4,800-4,200 years ago A complex farming society developed in Uruguay around 4,800 to 4,200 years ago, much earlier that previously thought, Iriarte and his colleagues report in this week's Nature (December 2). Researchers had assumed that the large rivers system called the La Plata Basin was inhabited by simple groups of hunters and gatherers for much of the pre-Hispanic era. Iriarte and coauthors excavated an extensive mound complex, called Los Ajos, in the wetlands of southeastern Uruguay. They found evidence of a circular...