Free Republic

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul has pulled back the big guns in her subway safety surge, ordering the National Guard not to carry military-grade assault rifles when they check riders’ bags for weapons. Many of the 750 troops Hochul deployed Wednesday to check riders’ backpacks hauling laptops or school books or bags carrying groceries carried M4 carbines, military assault rifles whose 5.56mm rounds can defeat some body armor.

Thursday, during an appearance on FNC’s “The Story,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) blasted President Joe Biden’s record, citing several metrics calling into question the economic health of the United States. The Louisiana Republican suggested he would be ashamed if he had a record comparable to Biden’s record. “I think that President Biden is the only person in the Milky Way who thinks our country is headed in the right direction,” Kennedy said. “Look at the facts. Last year, our economy grew at 1% — 1%. China’s economy was shut down. It grew at 3%, 13.5% inflation cumulatively. That’s what President...

A woman wrapped herself in a plastic bag when eating a banana on a recent subway trip in China. South China Morning Post compositeA woman in China sparked a public discussion when she wrapped herself in a big plastic bag before eating a banana on a subway train. Another passenger surnamed Wang recorded her behaviour on the train in Wuhan, in Hubei province, central China, according to the mainland news portal Thepaper.cn. Wang said he was shocked when he saw the woman wrapped in the big plastic bag, so he used his mobile phone to film the scene, which took...

Nicole Kramaritsch of Roxbury, New Jersey, has 46 bags just sitting in her garage. Brian Otto has 101 of them, so many that he’s considering sewing them into blackout curtains for his baby’s bedroom. (So far, that idea has gone nowhere.) Lili Mannuzza in Whippany has 74. “I don’t know what to do with all these bags,” she said. The mountains of bags are an unintended consequence of New Jersey’s strict new bag ban in supermarkets. It went into effect in May and prohibits not only plastic bags but paper bags as well. The well-intentioned law seeks to cut down...

As of Wednesday, cashiers at the store will no longer be bagging bottles for them, though they might supply empty boxes when available. All New Jersey retail, grocery, and pharmacy stores, along with restaurants and other food service businesses, are banned from giving out single-use plastic bags, as well as foam containers, though there are some exceptions. What about switching to paper bags? Supermarkets can no longer provide those either. “We have long-term customers that still probably don’t know there is going to a be a bag ban,” Millington said. “So we’re trying to educate everybody as they come in....

A man was arrested trying to clear security at a congressional office building with a gun in his bag Thursday, prompting the U.S. Capitol Police to warn staffers to take safety precautions. The U.S. Capitol Police sent a security alert just before 8 a.m. ET Thursday telling staff to get inside the nearest office, stay away from external windows, remain quiet and to refrain from entering or exiting the building until given the go-ahead from police.

An international team of anthropologists and bioarchaeologists has found the primary ingredients of ayahuasca — a plant-based drink that is reported to induce hallucinations and altered consciousness — in a 1,000-year-old leather bundle from a rock shelter in the Bolivian Andes.

The messages convey a sense of urgency, and are coming with increasing frequency. They are short, focused reactions to the latest “outrage” committed by President Trump. Some end by asking for money, some urge participation in protests. All read as if they are sent from the official headquarters of the resistance. Hillary Clinton is up to something. Five times in the last month alone, she sent e-mails touting her super PAC’s role in combating President Trump. Most seized on headline events, such as the family-separation issue at the southern border. Under the message line, “horrific,” she wrote June 18: “This...

In the battle against litter in the Garden State, plastic bags have been public enemy number one. Several municipalities, mostly along the Shore, have acted on their own to limit plastic bag use either through fees or bans. But for years, efforts for statewide regulation of the bags has failed to gain traction. Now, state lawmakers have decided that it is time to move forward. A new fee on plastic and paper shopping bags is being pushed through the state legislature: The bill cleared budget committees in both the Assembly and Senate on Tuesday and could be passed as early...

For the mega-rich, clearly, a regular plastic grocery bag is too drab. Céline, a France-based luxury clothing brand, unveiled a transparent plastic shopping bag during Paris Spring/Summer 2018 fashion week in January. The bag has since been spotted in a Nordstrom pop-up store in Seattle, retailing for $590. (That is approximately $589.95 higher than what a regular plastic bag costs to produce.)

Snips from excerpt only website: His body was found in an extra-large North Face bag, a type which is favoured by explorers because of its 140 litres of storage capacity, durable material, double stitching, twin haul handles and locking zips.  Erotic asphyxiation is defined as the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal. There were also rumours that Mr Williams was the victim of a professional ‘hit’. Other theories included the suggestion that he had been murdered by Russian agents.  Tests on his body were ordered to establish whether he was poisoned, as happened when Polonium 210...

MI6 agents could be asked to volunteer DNA as part of a renewed bid to discover how Gareth Williams died, the head of the Metropolitan Police confirmed yesterday.

Silicon Valley is the capital of disruption. It’s the epicenter of the innovation earthquake. It’s the leader of the new way forward. And Apple, as the industry’s Think Different darling, is at the forefront of the revolution. So much so, in fact, that it decided a patent a sweet bag. The patent was filed in March and published by the US Patent and Trademark Office last week. The retail vessel carries a beautifully simple name—“bag”—and Apple describes it thusly: A paper bag is disclosed. The paper bag may include a bag container formed of white solid bleached sulfate paper with...

Rosie O’Donnell fanned the flames of her longstanding public feud with Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying that American voters’ “innate humanity” will ultimately ensure that Trump is never elected President of the United States. “I believe in the innate humanity and sensible nature of Americans,” O’Donnell told Variety on Tuesday. “Do not give up, he will never be president.” O’Donnell participated in a SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations panel on Monday, where she discussed her role as a lesbian character on the CBS comedy Mom. During the question and answer portion of the panel, O’Donnell hurled a few personal insults at the...

Economists find bikers, motorcyclists and pedestrians are most at risk. (Inside Science) -- When gasoline prices fall or the economy grows, people may have more money to spend, but there can be an unexpected downside. Traffic fatalities often increase because additional drivers take to the roads. Now, economists have established that another seemingly auspicious occurrence has a dark side: nice weather. That's the surprising finding from a pair of economists, who investigated how climate change may affect traffic accident rates in the United States over the next century. In their analysis, the researchers predict that as the planet warms, there...

Scotland Yard on Wednesday reversed a coroner's finding of foul play in the 2010 death of British spy Gareth Williams, concluding that an accident was likely responsible for the death of the code-breaker whose naked, decomposing body was found stuffed inside a zipped and padlocked gym bag. London Metropolitan Police investigators had undertaken a review of evidence in the case 16 months ago, after initial restrictions on homicide detectives' access to details of Williams' intelligence work were lifted by the British secret service, MI6. Deputy Asst. Commissioner Martin Hewitt told journalists in London that investigators only had access to Williams'...

<p>London, England (CNN) -- Metropolitan police in London, England, appealed Monday for further information about last month's death of a man who worked for a British intelligence agency and whose naked body was found in a padlocked duffel bag in his bathroom.</p>

Plastic bags will soon be free again in Dallas. In a vote of 10 to 4, Dallas City Council members voted to repeal the bag fee passed in 2014. Grocery Bag Makers File Lawsuit Over Dallas Fee Last year's resolution added a $.05 fee for each single-use plastic bag used by shoppers to encourage people to use reusable bags and to reduce litter. The ban went into effect Jan. 1. "We're gonna take this nick on the chin," said Dallas City Councilman Dwaine Caraway, who originally pushed for the ban, after Wednesday's vote. "Y'all celebrate. Just celebrate. But when it's...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) — A trade group has turned in enough signatures to qualify a referendum on California’s plastic bag ban law, suspending implementation of the nation’s first statewide ban until voters weigh in on the November 2016 ballot, state elections officials said Tuesday.</p>

So, I recorded this program "The Company You Keep" A former Weather Underground craptivist goes on the run after a journalist uncovers his real identity. So! My question: I have the option of watching: 40 something (I think it's hilarious, no matter I've seen it 10+ times) Jubal - A western, 1956, starring Glenn Ford. The Big Red One - Awesome WWII film with Lee Marvin. Luv this one too. Or, bonus movie.... Get Carter w/ Stallone and finally atman Begins w/ Christian Bale. So, which should I watch? I recorded the Undergroung thingy a month ago and keep finding...