Free Republic

Windhoek (AFP) - A US hunter who paid $350,000 to kill a black rhinoceros in Namibia successfully shot the animal on Monday, saying that his actions would help protect the critically-endangered species. Corey Knowlton, from Texas, downed the rhino with a high-powered rifle after a three-day hunt through the bush with government officials on hand to ensure he killed the correct animal. Knowlton, 36, won the right to shoot the rhino at an auction in Dallas in early 2014 -- attracting fierce criticism from many conservationists and even some death threats. He took a CNN camera crew on the hunt...

A group of 14 Democrat senators has written a letter to President Obama urging him to “dramatically increase” the number of Syrian refugees being resettled into American cities and towns. They say the U.S. needs to take in at least 65,000 Syrians as permanent refugees over the next year-and-a-half. “While the United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees, we must also dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement,” says the four-page letter to Obama, copied to Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. More than 3.5...

A rare glimpse into Hezbollah's underground tunnels was provided on Friday by Lebanese publication As-Safir, which is associated with the militant organization. The report praised Hezbollah's activities and painted it as a strong army ready for battle. While it is difficult to verify the claims in the article, it contained a rare discussion of the tunnels by Hezbollah members. The reporter wrote that in order to meet Hezbollah fighters near the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, he travelled from the city of Tyre and was required to stop at a house known to locals as a Hezbollah headquarters, where he...

This Sunday, Oprah is sitting down with the renowned Al Sharpton to discuss how his work as a Civil Rights leader has changed over the years, why he made the decision to get healthy and his beginnings as a preacher. Stuff we probably already knew or wouldn’t be too surprised to learn about Al Sharpton. But in a surprising revelation, Sharpton talks about the moment that changed his life: his father leaving his family, taking Sharpton’s older, half sister with him and having a child with her. Yes, you read that correctly. And yes it was a complete a hot...

If someone’s pay suddenly doubles, she may lose rental assistance, child care subsidies, and more. In L.A., a worker who currently makes $9 an hour and works 40 hours a week (which is not a given, but that would be a full-time workload) will earn $360 a week, or about $1,440 a month and $18,720 a year, before taxes. If that worker is a mom with two children, she is below the poverty line. She qualifies for a bevy of federal and state programs like food stamps, rental assistance, child care subsidies, health care for her children, and Medicaid because...

A pizza shop owner in Seattle says the city's new minimum wage law is forcing her to close her doors. The new law says businesses have six years to phase into giving employees $15 an hour. Devin Jeran was happy to get a raise when Seattle's minimum wage went up to $11 an hour at the beginning of the month. “I definitely recognize that having more money is important, especially in a city as expensive as this one,” he said. He'll only enjoy that bigger paycheck for a few more months. In August, his boss is shutting down Z Pizza,...

~snip~ Maddow opened her show with heart-rending footage of the Aurora trial. She highlighted the testimony of Brenton Lowak, whose friend Jessica Ghawi -- a 24-year-old aspiring sports reporter -- died in the shooting. ~snip~ The parents unsuccessfully sued the retailers who made the firearm that killed their daughter. Colorado state law requires that plaintiffs who sue the manufacturers of gun products pay the companies' legal fees if they lose. “That’s not a typo,” Maddow said, adding, “The mother and father of the victim who died in the Aurora mass shooting have just been ordered to pay a quarter-million dollars...

The National Security Agency planned to infiltrate the Google and Samsung app stores to plant spying software on smartphones, according to new documents published from files leaked by Edward Snowden. The Intercept and CBC News jointly published the documents Thursday, which outline the snooping efforts designed by the U.S. and its “Five Eyes” alliance: Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. The intelligence agencies came up with the strategy as a potential way to hack smartphones. The pilot project was code-named “IRRITANT HORN.” Essentially, the agents sussed out smartphone Internet traffic by browsing through its Web traffic database created...

The Islamic State terror group now controls over half of Syrian territory after seizing the village and archaeological site of Palmyra Thursday, activists monitoring Syria's civil war said. Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the Associated Press the extremists overran the archaeological site, just to the southwest of the modern settlement on Palmyra, shortly after midnight local time. In Damascus, state TV acknowledged that pro-government forces had withdrawn from the town. A Facebook page close to ISIS published a statement Thursday, purportedly from the group, saying "the soldiers of the Islamic State" completed their control...

Boston University has reportedly been alerted of a new online exchange in which controversial professor Saida Grundy allegedly taunted a white rape victim and angrily told her to “go cry somewhere.” Ms. Grundy, a newly hired black sociology professor who recently apologized for tweeting that white males are a “problem population,” is now accused of mercilessly mocking Meghan Chamberlin in a Facebook thread on Feb. 25, Fox News reported. The woman who wrote, “my name is *Sai*, but you can call me Dr. Grundy,” posted the comments after Ms. Chamberlin took issue with an article on racism and sexism by...

Dude flipped cop off to test his 1st amendment rights to freedom of expression = not a good idea Saratoga Springs police released the camera they had confiscated on Saturday, showing officer Nathan Baker pepper spraying a man sitting in his car before grabbing the man’s arm and twisting it out the window. Officer Baker claimed he was arresting Adam Rupeka for disorderly conduct. Rupeka had flipped him off while driving past him. And while the New York statute for disorderly conduct includes a line about making an “obscene gesture,” the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompasses New...

Barack Obama says,“We’re not losing,” the war against ISIS in Iraq. Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, May 21, 2015, 10:54 PM Barack Obama says,“We’re not losing,” the war against ISIS in Iraq. Baghdad Barack Tell that to the Ramadi refugees. After ISIS takes Ramadi, Iraq and Palmyra, Syria, Barack Obama insists we are not losing. Yahoo reported: US President Barack Obama has described the loss of key Iraqi territory to Islamic State as a tactical setback, while insisting the war against the jihadist group is not being lost. “I don’t think we’re losing,” Obama said in an interview with...

NAPA (CBS SF) — A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck Napa County Thursday evening, the largest quake to hit the Wine Country since a magnitude 6.0 struck the area. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck at 7:53 p.m. about 9 miles north of Napa and 6 miles east northeast of Yountville, at a depth of 9.3 miles. Calls flooded into the KPIX 5 newsroom from all around the Bay Area to report feeling the earthquake, including calls from El Sobrante, Pinole, Colma, and Fairfield. The quake was mostly felt in the North Bay and Napa County, but people...

Why Do Some People Accept Dependence? I had a thought I wanted to share regarding why some people accept dependence on government handouts as a way of life. My idea of success is for a person to go through life without becoming a burden on their fellow citizens. This is not always possible but once you do become a burden, your every sense should be to unburden your fellow citizens. Explaining the benefits to mind and body rooted in independence isn’t enough to cause some people to risk the comfort of a handout for the difficult path to independence. The...

Flickr's new auto-tagging feature is generating some pretty offensive results. The photo sharing site, which is owned by Yahoo (YHOO, Tech30), launched image-recognition software two weeks ago that automatically creates tags for photos. The purpose was to make images more searchable in the system. Some concentration camp photos received inappropriate tags, including "sport" and "jungle gym." Flickr had also been tagging some images of people as "ape" and "animal," including a photo of a black man named William taken by photographer Corey Deshon, according to the Guardian.

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. I'm thinking something cold and tangy. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. Remember those who gave all this weekend.No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup and start a conversation. You...

Josh Duggar, of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," resigned his position at the Family Research Council Thursday after reports surfaced that he allegedly sexually assaulted four female siblings in the large family, plus an additional female victim. The 2006 police report obtained by In Touch Weekly magazine revealed that one of the Duggar siblings, who In Touch Weekly identified as Josh Duggar allegedly committed the assaults. The incidents date back to 2002 when Duggar would have been 14 years old. In the 33-page police report that FOX411 viewed, the name of the Duggar family members in question are redacted throughout.

A Boston University professor has defended to WND his creation of a Common Core-compliant lesson plan that uses role-playing workshops to teach students to sympathize with Hamas, create a Palestinian state and divide the city of Jerusalem. Professor Carl Hobert’s “Whose Jerusalem?” project has been lauded by those at the pinnacle of the education establishment as an important work that will, in the words of Boston University School of Education Dean Hardin Coleman, “help students acquire the skills they need” in conflict resolution “to be successful in the 21st century.” But the role-playing exercises have also come under fire recently...

Working on a thesis for an essay. The title pretty much is the entire thing in a complete nutshell. This applies mainly to the recent actions of the HomoFascist movement, but is true across the board. Thoughts?

Pamela K. “Pam” Rice Hahn, 63, of Wapakoneta died at 4:54 a.m. Tuesday May 19, 2015 at St. Rita’s Medical Center, Lima. She was born in Celina, OH on September 30, 1951 to Homer Hamilton Jr. & Patricia (Emans) Rice. Her father preceded her in death and her mother survives in Indiana. She was married to Michael L. Frank and Carl C. Hahn and both of them preceded her in death. She is survived by a daughter; “Lara” (Randy) S, 3 grandchildren Taylor, Charlie and Courtney S. all of Wapakoneta, a brother Dennis (Ann) R. of Celina, Tam (Rick)...