Free Republic

A RETIRED couple wiped out an entire village's internet every day for 18 months by turning on their second-hand TV to watch Piers Morgan. Alun and Elaine Rees snapped up the £30 16" Bush set three years ago on Facebook so their grandchildren could watch DVD films. But the retired couple had no idea the flatscreen TV was cutting the broadband signal for everybody in the tiny village of Aberhosan, Powys, Mid Wales. Puzzled locals in the 400-strong village spent a year-and-a-half complaining to Openreach about the dreadful signal which cut out like clockwork every day. Engineers replaced large sections...

Bill Shine resigned as White House deputy chief of staff and communications director on Friday, after nine months in the position. According to a statement released by the White House, Shine will join President Donald Trump‘s 2020 campaign as a senior adviser.

There is no scientific link between vaccines and autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Darla Shine, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine, is arguing that serious diseases like measles can help fight cancer. Shine’s screed against vaccines came on Wednesday after CNN reported on a measles outbreak in Clark County, Washington and Oregon. “Here we go LOL #measlesoutbreak on #CNN #Fake #Hysteria,” Shine, a former Fox News producer, tweeted, slamming CNN’s coverage of the disease. “The entire Baby Boom population alive today had the #Measles as kids,” Shine — who, along with...

The wife of Bill Shine — former Fox News co-president who just joined the Trump administration as White House communications chief — has a lengthy history of defending racists, promoting unfounded anti-vaccination conspiracies, writing about “Islamic Insanity,” and making racially-charged remarks on her social media pages. Darla Shine made these remarks primarily on her Twitter account, @darlashine, which was deleted as soon as the White House announced that her husband was officially joining the Trump administration. But not before Mediaite took screenshots. On her personal website, Shine (who, like her husband, did not respond to requests for comment) says that...

The White House announced Thursday that Bill Shine, former co-president of Fox News, will be joining the administration in a dual role as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications. The announcement came from the office of Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “President Donald J. Trump announced today that Bill Shine will join the White House staff. Mr. Shine will serve as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications,” the statement reads. “He brings over two decades of television programming, communications, and management experience to the role. Previously, Mr. Shine served as...

Bill Shine, former co-president of Fox News, is in talks with the White House about a post in President Donald Trump’s communications team, according to the New York Times. Shine, 54, resigned from Fox News in May amidst pressure when he was named in sexual harassment lawsuits related to founder Roger Ailes. Trump fired his communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, July 31, after 10 days on the job. Scaramucci and Shine know each other from Scaramucci’s days as a Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network host. Press secretary Sean Spicer left the White House communications corps last month. An email...

HOUSTON, Sept. 25, 2006 -- The National Football League's Houston Texans honored American servicemembers during its salute to the military at the game against the Washington Redskins at Reliant Stadium here yesterday. Army Staff Sgt. Santantoniano Smith from the Houston Recruiting Battalion sings the national anthem in front of a joint color guard from Houston at Reliant Stadium prior to the Houston Texans and Washington Redskins National Football League game Sept. 24. The Texans honored servicemembers in their Salute to the Military day. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Ben Gonzales, USAF  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Starting with pregame...

Photo : AFP LONDON (AFP) - US pop star Madonna made a rare foray into politics, calling for her home country to withdraw its troops from Iraq during an interview with British radio."I just don't want American troops to be in Iraq, period," she said on BBC Radio."My feelings are 'can we just all get out?'," said the 46-year-old star, who lives mainly in London with British film director husband Guy Ritchie, who said she believes the US-led war will not help in the fight against terrorism.

On his last night in the anchor chair at a political convention, Tom Brokaw of NBC was feeling resigned. The conventions, he said in an interview on Thursday, were mere "infomercials," with little to interest anyone beyond political partisans. "These events are managed down to the last semicolon," said Mr. Brokaw, who is retiring after the election. "That's why I find it hard to climb those stairs and get into the anchor chair anymore." Like Mr. Brokaw, a number of television executives yesterday blamed the Republicans and Democrats for the networks' dwindling convention viewership. But as the Fox News cable...

Pop superstar Madonna's Re-Invention tour has been slammed by American critics - for overloading the show with "naive" political statements. The "American Life" singer, 45, kicked off the US leg of her tour in California on Monday but failed to impress critics with her attempts to "wipe the slate clean" by ditching her trademark raunchy routines. The Los Angeles Times sniped, "This promised to be Madonna's tour de force, a reappraisal that put her work in new and revealing contexts. But time and again she fell short of the challenge." Many critics were unimpressed by the images of the Iraq...

Astronomy Picture of the DayDiscover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 28 1006 AD: Supernova in the Sky Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel Explanation: A new star, likely the brightest supernova in recorded human history, appeared in planet Earth's sky in the year 1006 AD. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion is still visible to modern astronomers, but what did the supernova look like in 1006? Astronomer Tunç Tezel offers this suggestion, based on a photograph...