Free Republic

H. Wayne Huizenga, who built Waste Management, Blockbuster and AutoNation into powerhouse companies, died at age 80, the Sun-Sentinel of South Florida reported Friday. Huizenga honed expertise building fractured industries into conglomerates and dominated trash collection, automotive sales and video sales. In the early 1990s, he owned three of South Florida's professional sports teams: the Miami Dolphines, the Florida Panthers and the Florida Marlins. Under Huizenga, the Marlins won the World Series and the Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Finals. His net worth of $2.8 billion in 2017 made him the 288th wealthiest person in America, according to Forbes.

Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA, made an unannounced visit to CPAC on Thursday morning — where he promptly ripped the media, Democrats, and even the FBI in the wake “As usual, the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit for political gain,” LaPierre said. He added, “The breathless national media [was] eager to smear the NRA.” LaPierre’s appearance was not publicized on the published CPAC agenda — released earlier this week — so as to minimize public protest. But on the agenda given to attendees Thursday, LaPierre’s name was included. As millions of Americans searched for meaningful solutions...

CHICAGO — An Illinois sheriff's office said Wednesday that it has identified a Minnesota runaway as one of the victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. In a news release, the Cook County Sheriff's Department said that the remains of a person whose body was found under the crawl space of Gacy's Chicago area home in 1978 were those of 16-year-old James "Jimmie" Byron Haakenson. The teenager had left his home in 1976 and was last heard from in August of that year when he called his mother and told her he was in Chicago. Gacy was convicted of killing...

All this commotion over campaign signs? Proving that more often than not, Republicans are their own worst enemies, a Wayne, New Jersey, councilman has been hit with a harassment complaint after a profanity-laced tirade directed at a fellow party member. Passaic County Regular Republican Organization employee Susan Enderly filed the complaint against Councilman Richard Jasterzbski after a heated argument Sunday about campaign signs being removed from the PCRRO headquarters, according to The Record. Unfortunately for Jasterzbski, the exchange was captured on video… by the woman’s daughter, who was standing right there! “You would be so lucky if I were f—ing...

Wayne-Westland Community Schools has a policy that states that homeschooled students who want to attend a dance such as Homecoming would have to come from an “accredited” homeschool. That would effectively ban homeschoolers from attending dances held by the district since homeschoolers have no reason to be accredited and the state doesn’t require it. Karen Braun, a nationally recognized homeschooling activist in Michigan, said the school district is putting an unfair and unnecessary burden upon homeschoolers. Braun said parents contacted her and said their daughter, a homeschooling student, was invited to the upcoming Homecoming dance within the Wayne-Westland district. The...

It's a no-go for The Duke. A California lawmaker's bid to commemorate May 26, 2016, as "John Wayne Day" failed in the Assembly after lawmakers cited the actor's comments on race. In a 1971 interview with Playboy, Wayne called black people "irresponsible" and said Native Americans were "selfish" for not wanting to share their land with white colonists. "He had disturbing views toward race," said Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville), according to the Associated Press.

Actor Wayne Rogers died on Thursday from complications from pneumonia, his rep exclusively tells ET. He was 82 years old. Rogers, who hailed from Alabama, is best known for playing the role of Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre in the classic television series M*A*S*H from 1972-1975. He also had recurring roles in City of Angels, House Calls, and Murder, She Wrote.

A Cincinnati teacher has resigned in the wake of racist comments and abusive actions taken toward handicapped children. Intervention Specialist Pamela Bullock has left her position at Wayne Local Schools in Warren County, after four teaching assistants wrote a letter to administrators detailing her abuse toward students. In one incident, the assistants reported that Ms. Bullock was taking care of a handicapped, non-verbal student, when she became irate at him. Bullock threw a marker at the boy, hitting him in the head. Later the same day, "a racial comment was directed toward the same student," wrote the assistants. "After applying...

Hard-core Communists in Hollywood, and by that I mean those with party cards and whose allegiance was to Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union, not the United States, made a major effort to take over the movie industry and nearly succeeded. The much-maligned House Un-American Activities Committee, as even liberal Hollywood historians Larry Ceplair and Steven Englund acknowledge, uncovered over 200 party members in Hollywood. My dad, Morrie Ryskind, one of the few outspoken anti-Communist screenwriters in Hollywood, said the number was closer to 300. They were part of a broad conspiracy of subversives who had penetrated America’s most critical...

A former U.S. senator in Colorado sees parallels between billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer’s meddling in current Senate elections in the state and his hedge fund’s efforts to drain a small Colorado town’s water supply and sell it to the highest bidder. Former Sen. Wayne Allard (R., Colo.) ... In 1995 Tom Steyer descended on Colorado, standing to make millions by exporting the water under the San Luis Valley and selling it to the highest bidder. Draining this particular aquifer would have had disastrous consequences for farms, wetlands and the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Impact from Steyer’s plan would have...

DETROIT, MI -- Wayne State administrators are using Detroit's financial calamity to teach. A new course, "Detroit: Metropolis in Transition," will be offered by the the Department of Urban Studies and Planning beginning this summer. **SNIP** The lecture will cover Detroit's history up to present day and "issues such as the city's frustrated attempts at regionalism and its persistence as the largest metro are in the United States without a comprehensive, rail-based public transit system."

A middle school student in Kansas who wanted to promote a “See You At the Pole” prayer event was barred from doing so because the fliers she posted in the school had “illegal” Bible verses, according to a federal lawsuit. Officials at Robert E. Clark Middle School in Bonner Springs confiscated and destroyed the fliers the student had already posted, attorney Matt Sharp alleged.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Frustrated detectives are asking for help after a man was stabbed to death as he was leaving the Lil’ Wayne concert Friday night. **SNIP** Investigators say 25-year-old James Price had just left the Lil’ Wayne concert and was stabbed to death while defending his girlfriend in the gravel parking lot at the amphitheater. Price's girlfriend told detectives the fight actually started before the concert. “There was an altercation before the concert started where some individuals made some disparaging comments against the girlfriend,” Brisbon told reporters.

Several summer cookouts coming up.. and am looking for a large John Wayne Blanket. Having trouble finding a decent size one on the net. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Lil' Wayne's video for the song God Bless America features the outspoken star stomping on the American flag, according to footage taken during the video shoot. That's not all Lil' Wayne has to say about his homeland. The song's lyrics are equally blunt in their distaste for the country. "My country, tis of thee / Sweet land of kill them all and let them die / So God bless America, this so Godless America."

Clyde, N.Y. --- A Wayne County man is now facing four charges for Endangering the Welfare of a Child after he interrupted an act of vandalism at a home he was renovating for his father-in-law. The incident unfolded around 9 p.m. Saturday when Jesse Daniels said he told his wife to call 911 after he heard loud noises coming from the home next door and saw an individual striking a wall with a hammer. Daniels... ran next door and found four children, ages eight and ten, doing damage to the property. Daniels said he took a hammer from one of...

What some are calling a local high school prank left one school a smelly mess and students out of the classroom on Friday. A worker at Wayne High School said when staff arrived early Friday morning they found a mess in the school. Someone broke a window and opened a fire escape, then trashed a classroom. The school employee told 13News that deer urine was spilled all over the floor and a desk. Workers also found rancid dead deer parts in the hallway and blood on the floors.

WAYNE, Pa. — With the television in her pizzeria showing an endless loop of the Boston manhunt on Friday, Bessie Kontis glanced up at scenes of the quasi-military lockdown and shuddered. “After something like that happens, they should stop all visas, for crying out loud,” said Ms. Kontis, 58, who owns New Wayne Pizza with her husband, Alex. “It’s insane. It just angers me.” Ms. Kontis was born in Greece and immigrated to the United States as a child, but when two men of Chechen heritage were identified as the suspects in the fatal Boston Marathon bombings, her usually broad...

As the world watched the solemn state funeral for former President Gerald Ford on television, the family and friends of Maj. Gen. Guy C. Swan III were especially proud of the man in charge of those ceremonies. Swan, who grew up in Wayne, was the military escort for Betty Ford at the funeral ceremonies in California and in the nation's capital, where he is the commander of the Military District of Washington. "We're proud of the way he's handling himself," Swan's father, Guy Jr., who now lives in the Cedar Crest retirement village in Pequannock, said Sunday. "He seemed to...