Free Republic

A transgender woman accused of being a serial killer is blaming the 1990 murders of three prostitutes in Washington State on Douglas Perry, the person she identified as before her transition. Donna Perry, 62, told police in 2012 in an affidavit filed in Spokane Superior Court that she had gender reassignment surgery in Thailand, and when a person transitions from male to female, "there's a great downturn in violence." She also told police that she intentionally had the operation, which she underwent in 2000, "as a permanent way to control violence." Perry is being held on $1 million bond in...

“Maybe we can reach a point of reconsideration” on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Kerry said during a forum at the State Department. The Ugandan president committed to meeting with American “experts” on homosexuality to try to change his mind about the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday during a forum at the State Department moderated by BuzzFeed. Museveni claimed to have signed the law, which imposes up to a lifetime prison sentence for homosexuality, after being convinced no one is “born gay.” “I talked personally to President Museveni just a few...

A riot Tuesday morning near Fairfield has raised concerns about a program that has brought thousands of Indian men to Iowa for meditation. More than 300 men, mostly from India, live in a fenced-off campus adjacent to Vedic City, north of Fairfield. The pandits, pronounced “pundits”, are religious men trained in meditating for peace. But when program leaders removed one of their members early Tuesday for undisclosed disciplinary reasons, more than 60 men swarmed a law enforcement truck, threw rocks at the sheriff and started a march down a public street. “I’ve never seen them this incensed before,” said Jefferson...

Michigan woman dead for six years found only after money runs out For six years the bills were paid, the grass was cut and no one noticed the body of the dead woman sitting in the back seat of a car in a garage of a residential Pontiac, Michigan neighborhood. Her mummified body was finally found this week by someone dispatched to check on the property that fell into foreclosure after the money ran out of her account and the mortgage payments stopped, police said on Friday. "It is kind of the perfect storm for a mysterious set of circumstance...

The King of Pop allegedly fathered a secret son with a DNA test claiming to give the truth Michael Jackson is alleged to have a lovechild after DNA evidence claimed to prove the superstar had a secret son - but who is he? Brandon Howard is a 31-year-old singer, songwriter and producer who goes by the stage name of B Howard. He's the son of 53-year-old singer Miki Howard, whom Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson represented back in the 1980s. Miki met Jackson in 1982 and her son was born soon after. In 2010 Brandon released his debut album Genesis...

Iranian teacher uses hi-tech robot to encourage prayers An Iranian schoolteacher has come up with a novel way of encouraging young children to learn their daily prayers. 27-year-old Akbar Rezaie, who teaches the Quran at the Alborz elementary school in Varamin, near Tehran, took a robotics course and applied his knowledge to help modify an educational robot kit. He says the aim is to provide pupils with a stimulating visual example of a variety of Shi’ite worship. “I used to pray hastily but now I want to pray more slowly like this robot,” said one student. Now, pupils in this...

John Key: 'I'm not a reptile' He's been to a doctor and a vet just to make sure, but Prime Minister John Key is adamant he's not a shapeshifting reptilian alien. Mr Key was unusually forced to deny any previously non-declared extraterrestrial connections to reporters after an Auckland man put in an Official Information Act (OIA) request asking for proof he might be one. "To the best of my knowledge, no. Having been asked that question directly, I've taken the unusual step of not only seeing a doctor but a vet, and both have confirmed I'm not a reptile," a...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Two math majors at Reed College lost control of a massive snowball that rolled into a dorm, knocking in part of a bedroom wall. No one was injured. The students began making the snowball last week during a rare snowstorm in Portland, Ore. Nobody weighed the object, but college spokesman Kevin Myers says it was estimated to weigh 800 pounds or more.

An explosion from a firecracker inside a moving Jeep blew off the driver's hand early Saturday and scattered debris over half a block in Spokane, prompting initial fears over the man's intent, police and neighbors said. Witnesses saw a flash of light from inside the vehicle, a red Jeep with a gray top, as it drove down a residential street, police said. Donald Wilkes, 61, said the blast rattled his house and woke up everyone inside. He initially thought someone had crashed into his parked truck, and when he ran outside, he found the street filled with smoke and the...

January 23, 2014 When The Moon Hits Your Eye Like A Big Pizza Pie, That’s Hillary Clinton Jessica Wakeman People who complained about the TIME magazine cover depicting Hillary Clinton’s gargantuan high heel sauntering past a tiny male rival, look what you have wrought: The New York Times Magazine has one-upped everybody in the weirdness department with Hillary-as-planet. A Times editor tweeted the intergalactic cover this morning, confirming in later tweets, yup, it’s for real.I’m sorry, did someone not tell the Times art department this image is CREEPY AS HELL?

"In the John Waters-esque sector of northwest Baltimore -- equal parts kitschy, sketchy, artsy and weird -- Gerry Mak and Sarah Magida sauntered through a small ethnic market stocked with Japanese eggplant, mint chutney and fresh turmeric. After gathering ingredients for that evening's dinner, they walked to the cash register and awaited their moments of truth." Those are two "hipsters", and the punchline is that they pay for their foodie porn with foodie stamps, which sounds like it should be a terrible thing, except it's in Salon.com, which means they're going to try and tell you how it's a good...

Three lapdancers dressed in ‘miniskirts, stilettos and Daisy Duke shorts’ kidnapped a club boss, a court was told. Curtis Woodman said he was outside his office when the women, their female manager and two men drove up in two BMWs. Mr Woodman said they ‘surrounded him’ before bundling him into one of the cars and driving off. The women claimed he owed them more than £20,000 for working at his pop-up nightclub during the Cheltenham Festival in March 2012. It is alleged that Mr Woodman was kidnapped, robbed of £60 cash and his £4,650 Breitling watch, and assaulted during a...

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but a guy walked into a Miami-area convenience store with quite a surprise in the box. A clerk at the Santa Ana Market in Allapattah was approached by customer Fernando Caignet Aguilera, 64, to buy some beer recently. “I just picked it up here,” Aguilera said of the alligator. “I seen it here in the grass and I tied it up.” When the subject of payment was brought up, the customer offered up a live alligator. “I went into the store to try to exchange it for a beer,” Aguilera told CBS4′s...

SEATTLE -- A man was taken into custody Sunday morning after the Victoria Clipper was taken from its mooring and out into Elliott Bay. Darrell Bryan, president and chief executive officer of Clipper Vacations, was in his office and saw the boat leaving. "I looked out my window - I'm not normally here on Sunday mornings - but I got here about 5:20 and about 6 o'clock I saw the Clipper IV 100 feet off the dock, headed in a southerly direction and we didn't have it scheduled to sail today," he said. "We identified pretty quickly that all our...

<p>According to CBC.ca, two Newfoundland men saved a shark from choking on a moose.</p> <p>Derrick Chaulk was driving by the Norris Arm North harbor and thought he saw a beached whale. But when he went closer to investigate, Chaulk realized it was a Greenland shark.And it was choking.</p>

<p>OKLAHOMA CITY -- A burrito caused a minor scare at an Oklahoma City police briefing station after a man brought the foil-wrapped object in for analysis.</p> <p>Oklahoma City Police Capt. Dexter Nelson says a man discovered a Thermos-type container in his lawn Thursday afternoon and brought it to a police briefing station.</p>

Two Egyptian sisters hurl mum to death from train 50-year-old mother had rebuked one daughter, 21, for misbehaving Two Egyptian sisters in their 20s hurled their mother to death under the train on which they were travelling after a heated argument with her. The 50-year-old mother had rebuked one daughter, 21, for misbehaving inside the train in the northern province of Dakhaliya, triggering an argument between the two. Newspapers in the Arab country said another daughter, 23, sided with her sister and joined hands in carrying their mother and throwing her out of the window. The mother died instantly under...

A 37-year old man from Cumbria died from unexplained causes after allegedly opening a box in his bedroom that was mysteriously labeled “Pandora’s Box”, reports the Huff Post. The term refers to a legend from Greek mythology in which Pandora received a container said to hold all of the world’s sorrows, troubles and evils, with a mandate to open it at her own risk. Police officials say they are stumped as to why Jason Airey’s heart failed after he opened a container that held synthetic cannabis. Airey was found unconscious in his bedroom and rushed to a nearby hospital. But...

An Edinburg man filed a lawsuit against Georgia Nut Company and Dollar General after he lost his tooth while allegedly eating Sweet Smiles chocolate covered almonds. The civil lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by Jesus Castaneda The lawsuit alleges that Castaneda had the intent of consuming the chocolate covered almonds, and when he was biting down on one, he felt a sharp pain to the left side of his mouth. He then went to a dentist, where he found out his tooth was fractured and non-restorable, the lawsuit alleges. According to the lawsuit, the product was defective, unreasonably...

Even amid the "government shutdown" Camp David is open for business! Most of the employees are still on the job there and will stay on the job despite whats going on in Washington. That includes chefs, gardeners, electricians -- everyone who keeps the place up and running. The estimated number of employees who are still working there is over 250! For those who don't know, Camp David is in Catoctin Mountain Park (in Frederick County, Maryland) and is a 180 acre compound built and run specifically for Presidential R&R. It is absolutely beautiful with a pool, tennis courts, a skeet...