Free Republic

It's the stuff of mafia lore -- a doomed target thrown into the depths of the ocean, with his feet encased in cement. And yet, on an unseasonably cool morning in Brooklyn, a body with so-called "cement shoes" washed ashore this week, igniting the mystery of who committed the crime, and why. Authorities have identified the body as that of a 28-year-old suspected gang member named Peter Martinez. Martinez was found wrapped in "black plastic bags, his arms were tied behind him, and his feet were submerged in poured concrete," said New York Police Chief of Department Robert Boyce. Martinez'...

Come close. They won't bite though some have been gnawed upon, chewed, and bitten themselves (mostly by labs and golden retrievers, if social media is the source). Weirdly, the weathered boots piled into a bin, located in a far-off corner of the factory, don't smell so bad either. It's hard not to want to touch them, to trace their wrinkles. Each boot carries its own landscape of dings and dust, faded in its own peculiar shade, with its own particular history.

"Innovation at Nike is not about dreaming of tomorrow. It’s about accelerating toward it,” said Nike designer Tinker Hatfield at Nike’s Innovation Summit this week. “We’re able to anticipate the needs of athletes because we know them better than anybody. Sometimes, we deliver a reality before others have even begun to imagine it.” The shoes use something called “adaptive lacing” technology that allows the wearer to adjust the snugness of the shoe using two buttons on the side of the trainer. It is hoped the fitting mechanism will prevent slippage and will rid athletes of the distraction caused by laces...

Venezuelan socialists will no longer be starved for sneaker options thanks to a new piece of footwear unveiled by the country's president, Nicolas Maduro. The video comes from Saturday's grand unveil of the shoes that happened on state television. In it, Maduro calls the shoes "the boots of Bolivarian youth socialism,” in reference to the Bolivarian Revolution socialist movement. The sneaker's introduction was part of a speech honoring the country's youth socialist movement. Maduro went so far as to make sure the colorway on these tells a story, as sneaker brands so often do these days. According to him,...

A Memphis man has been charged with theft of property after driving away with a truck full of 7,500 pairs of the newest LeBron 12 Nike shoes with a retail value of approximately $1.5 million. In early November, police say Charles Jennings, an employee of cargo transportation company Intermodal Cartage Group, used his ID card to get into a secure lot and drive away with the valuable shoes.

An American family have unearthed an Aladdin's cave of mint-condition vintage shoes in an old building they inherited from their grandparents.The building operated as a shoe store from the 1940s until the 1960s, but the doors had been locked for decades.Until now.One of the family members posted the rare find to online noticeboard Reddit recently, but stopped short of revealing the location, so as to prevent any break-ins. Treasure trove: A family recently unearthed a shoe store that was opened by their grandparents in the 1940s but that had been closed since the 1960s Rare find: Many of the hundreds...

The woman demanded that one of the employees put cash in a plastic bag she was carrying. The worker complied, and the woman left through a back door. "I'm sorry, I have four kids," the woman said as she left, according to deputies.

The high-heeled shoe, or a shoe whose heel is higher than the toe, is a matter of contentious and heated discussion. Shoes in general have typically served as markers of gender, class, race, and ethnicity--and both the foot and the shoe have been imbued with powerful phallic and fertility symbols as evidenced in the contemporary practice of tying shoes to a newlywed couple’s car. No other shoe, however, has gestured toward leisure, sexuality, and sophistication as much as the high-heeled shoe. Fraught with contradiction, heels paradoxically inhibit movement in order to increase it, at least in appearance. Standing in heels,...

Some of the illegal immigrants surging across the U.S. border from Central America and creating a growing humanitarian crisis may be wearing tennis shoes emblazoned with images in praise of President Barack Obama, according to Dennis Michael Lynch at his website, DLM Daily.

Barack “Yes we can” Obama has already proven that he’s big on slogans. Leaving behind FORWARD, and of course ‘Hope and Change…We Can Believe In,’ the president’s newest catchphrase is “In the shoes,” which describes loafer-lover Barack Obama attempting to reconnect with everyday Americans by metaphorically slipping into other people’s shoes. To infuse added relatability into his plans to do future ‘in the shoes’ walkabouts, the White House is officially calling Obama’s planned encounters with the unwashed masses a “day-in-the-life” series, wherein the POTUS leaves his billionaire friends and devoted low-maintenance wife behind to venture forth onto the highways and...

An eyewitness said: "He told her she already had enough shoes, more shoes that she could wear in a lifetime, and it was pointless buying any more. She started shouting at him, accusing him of being a skinflint, and of spoiling Christmas. It was a really heated argument." The argument continued until Hsiao threw the bags on the floor and himself over the balcony, dropping seven stories to his death and smashing Christmas decorations on the way down.

Asked by The Wall Street Journal if she had any stories about her father she wished to share, 22-year-old Kathryn Lhota, daughter of New York City mayoral candidate Joe Lhota, praised his taste in footwear. The guy has an amazing sense of women’s shoes. I will say 80% of my shoes come from my dad, and I can’t wait for Christmas. And my birthday. My dad runs the gamut with shoes: high heels, boots, flats, slingbacks, everything. And he knows; he has a sense. He really has a gift. For those following the first-daughter race, Kathryn’s signature accessory — her...

An Army survey of sore-footed soldiers has led leaders to take on a new mission: finding the perfect boot that withstands the weather but properly cushions across long treks and rough terrains. And the Army has put a team of specialists on the job — footwear project engineers at the branch’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center in Massachusetts. “The soldier lives in his boots,” said Bob Hall, one of the footwear engineers, in The Boston Globe. “If he’s having problems with his boots, he’s having problems with everything.” Army researchers in Natick are winding down a two-year campaign...

A man was arrested in New York City's international airport with uranium destined for Iran hidden in the soles of his shoes, the US Justice Department said. Patrick Campbell, 33, who was arrested Wednesday as he arrived at the John F Kennedy airport from Paris, is accused of trying to act as an intermediary to sell Iran 1,000 tons of purified uranium, in violation of US law. The Sierra Leone-based Campbell had been under surveillance since May 2012, when he responded to an ad on the site Alibaba.com by someone looking to buy uranium 308, or yellow cake. The buyer...

Atlanta police said a man was shot and killed in Little Five Points early Saturday morning after he tried to rob a group of people waiting in line to buy the new, $180 sneakers, the Nike LeBron X EXT, which were released today. One man in the line pulled out a gun and shot the would-be robber, witnesses told police, who have charged no one and consider the shooting to be self-defense. The shooter then got back in line, according to Channel 2 Action News.

On Tuesday, April 16, Planned Parenthood will plaster the web with the Not In Her Shoes campaign for their Virtual Lobby Day. We need your help – yes, you! – to turn it around on them. Planned Parenthood is encouraging women to tweet and blog and otherwise post photos of their shoes, with pithy captions about how don’t nobody know what it’s like to walk in my shoes, m’kay? See, these people are still trying to convince us that it’s okay for them to get paid to take the lives of innocent humans, because they do it for really, really...

On Thursday, President Barack Obama spoke in Jerusalem – a city he once promised would remain undivided – about all of the shortcomings of the state of Israel. Lecturing Israel about its democracy, economy, foreign policy, and basic humanity, Obama harangued the Jewish State while stumping for a “possible” two-state solution. Obama led off with the usual bevy of platitudes, plus a few cultural jokes. “This is a nation of museums and patents, timeless holy sites and ground-breaking innovation,” he gushed. “[A]ny drama between me and my friend Bibi over the years was just a plot to create material for...

FORT PIERCE — Stuart attorney Willie Gary has filed a federal lawsuit with a "Twist." Gary and members of his law firm filed a lawsuit late Monday in federal court in Fort Pierce on behalf of Chubby Checker, the 71-year-old singer known for "The Twist," against Hewlett-Packard

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – A Fort Worth shoe store may think better of its first-come-first-serve policy after a small riot occurred surrounding the release of the new Retro Air Jordan shoes. The Shoe Palace at Hulen Mall decided to let people line up to buy the shoes. A line formed around 5:00 a.m. and at one point the pushing and shoving in the crowd knocked over a couple police officers working as security. “At that point the mall security officer sprayed a short burst of mace (pepper spray) into the crowd,” Fort Worth police Sergeant Pedro Criado explained. “The Fort...

The shoes were the stuff of legend: pairs upon colorful pairs of pumps, flats and other footwear that evinced the lavish lifestyle of Imelda Marcos, the woman wed to deposed Philippines strongman Ferdinand Marcos. Thousands of showy shoes were found at the Manila presidential palace and another Marcos home decades ago, left behind in 1986 when the couple fled the country in the throes of a popular revolt. The new government held up the high heels as the epitome of the ejected Marcoses’ extravagance as their nation was mired in barefoot poverty, an anti-Cinderella story warning of the dangers of...