Free Republic

A newly-opened boutique store in Seattle has suffered two 'crash-and-grab' burglaries within four days as the worrying trend spreads across the state. Rush Hour, which specializes in buying, selling, and trading sneakers, streetwear, and vintage items, was smashed into just before 5am on November 17 using a stolen Chevrolet Silverado. The thieves then ran inside to steal their merchandise but the owners of the store were optimistic this would not deter them and hoped to recoup some their losses on Black Friday. But they were again targeted by thieves on November 20 who used a stolen Kia Sedona to crash...

The suspected human smuggler who caused a deadly car crash that killed him along with seven others, including two Americans, has been identified as a 17-year-old boy from Honduras, authorities say. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the accident on Wednesday occurred when the smuggler, who was carrying five illegal immigrants in his vehicle, was fleeing from the Zavala County Sheriff’s Office in Batesville, Texas, when he tried to pass an 18-wheeler in a no-passing zone. He reportedly went into oncoming traffic and collided with the SUV occupied by two Americans from Georgia. The collision killed the Americans from...

The Treasury-bond rout that's rattled US markets this month is forcing investors to zero in on the government's spiraling debt. The accelerated increase in America's indebtedness has already sparked concern for investors in 2023, with lawmakers only narrowly avoiding a catastrophic default in June thanks to President Joe Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy brokering an 11th-hour deal to raise the federal borrowing limit. Now, some of Wall Street's best-known names are raising the possibility that so-called "bond vigilantes" – who dump fixed-income assets in a bid to stymie what they see as imprudent policymaking – have helped fuel the...

A startling video showed a group of brazen car thieves rob a man on the side of a Los Angeles highway in broad daylight after intentionally running the victim off the road. Four criminals wearing dark clothing and masks were captured racing out of a black Dodge Caravan toward a wrecked black Alfa Romeo sedan on the eastbound side of I-10 around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to KTLA. “Hands up,” one of the highway robbers yells at the victim as the robbers rush toward him. The unidentified victim put his hands over his head and got on his knees as...

A Florida biker says he has 'learned his lesson' after posting heart-stopping footage of the 140mph crash that nearly killed him. The motorcyclist who calls himself 'Street Demon PC' won a fanatical online following with tailcam videos of his highly illegal speeding through traffic-choked roads at speeds in excess of 100mph. His audience feared the worst after he went silent for months before he told them he had only just recovered enough to post film of the crash that cost him more than 20 broken bones. 'I'll be back to ride again one day, but not like I used to,'...

There's no ducking it now. The widespread, serious negatives have reached a critical level. There are no cures available except a major reset of investor beliefs, rationale and expectations. Importantly, this reset is not of the "typical" overoptimistic, fad-driven, easy-money booms. Instead, it is the return to traditional capital market operations that had been skewed by the Federal Reserve since 2008 — 15 years! Never has there been such an extended period and enormous, anti-capital market actions. The Fed's two primary actions were near 0% interest rates that produced dramatic inequities, and $trillions of money creation that has led to...

North Dakota state senator Doug Larsen, his wife and their two young children died when the small plane they were traveling in crashed in Utah, a Senate leader said Monday, according to The Associated Press. Larsen’s death was confirmed in an email that Republican Senate Majority Leader David Hogue sent to his fellow senators and was obtained by AP. The plane crashed on Sunday evening shortly after taking off from Canyonlands Airfield about 15 miles north of Moab, according to a Grand County Sheriff’s Department statement posted on Facebook. The sheriff’s office said all four people on board the plane...

UPDATED 9/18/2023 at 7:24 pm ET with Joint Base Charleston’s announcement that the F-35’s “debris field” was located in South Carolina. WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump once referred to the F-35 as “invisible.” At least as far as officials in South Carolina are concerned, he might have been right. On Sunday, a pilot from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort punched out of his F-35B near Charleston. The pilot is safe, a spokesman for the station told Breaking Defense, but what’s unusual is that his Joint Strike Fighter wasn’t found until a full day later, with officials announcing its recovery Monday...

Two pilots, including one out of Van Nuys, were killed Sunday after their planes collided during an air race competition in Reno, Nevada, the Reno Air Racing Association announced.

The ABC has confirmed multiple military personnel have been rescued from an aircraft crash site on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin. There are no reports of fatalities. CareFlight and NT Police have confirmed they are both responding to the incident on the remote Melville Island, 60km off the coast from Darwin. The Northern Territory government's fire incident map shows emergency services were notified about the aircraft crash at 9.43am this morning. A Defence spokesperson said the "aircraft incident" occurred during Exercise Predator’s Run 2023. "Initial reports suggest the incident involves United States defence personnel and that Australian Defence Force...

The F/A-18D Hornet crashed near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California late last night. An F/A-18 Hornet crashed in the vicinity of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, in the northern part of San Diego, California, last night. As of 8:00 a.m. local time (PST), the base confirmed to The War Zone this morning that a search and rescue operation was ongoing.Although the fighter crashed at 11:54 p.m. local last night, the incident was not announced by the Marine Corps until earlier this morning, when the base issued a statement. Even though the location of the crash is...

President Biden on Wednesday suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin could be behind the plane crash in Russia that had Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin listed as a passenger. “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind,” Biden told reporters. President Biden on Wednesday suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin could be behind the plane crash in Russia that had Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin listed as a passenger. “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind,” Biden told reporters.

Russia’s first lunar mission in nearly half a century came to a violent end when its unmanned Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after encountering a problem when it began preparing for pre-landing orbit. Russian officials had hoped the prestige mission would show they can still compete in space despite their post-Soviet decline and the extreme loss suffered in the Ukraine war. Its failure highlighted the intense decline of Russia’s authority over space since the days of the Cold War, when Moscow was the first to launch a satellite — Sputnik 1 — to orbit...

A Florida mom was arrested after she intentionally hit another parent's car in a road rage fit while dropping off her child at an elementary school, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Jennifer Perez was arrested and charged with felony aggravated battery using a deadly weapon, according to an affidavit. The incident happened Monday morning at Reddick-Collier Elementary School in Reddick, a town about 14 miles north of Ocala. A Marion County Sheriff's Office deputy arrived at the scene to assist Florida Highway Patrol, who said a car collision occurred – but it was intentional, according to the affidavit....

In a study earlier this year (Abdelrahman and Oliveira 2023), we examined household saving patterns since the onset of the pandemic recession. Our study showed that households rapidly accumulated unprecedented levels of excess savings—defined as the difference between actual savings and the pre-recession trend—relative to previous recessions. Our analysis suggested that some $500 billion of the $2.1 trillion in total accumulated excess savings remained in the aggregate economy by March 2023. Since then, data revisions show noticeable changes in household disposable income and consumption, while new data releases indicate that consumer spending picked up in the second quarter. Our updated...

Michael Burry, the “Big Short” investor who became famous for correctly predicting the epic collapse of the housing market in 2008, has bet more than $1.6 billion on a Wall Street crash. Burry is making his bearish bets against the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, according to Security Exchange Commission filings released Monday. Burry’s fund, Scion Asset Management, bought $866 million in put options (that’s the right to sell an asset at a particular price) against a fund that tracks the S&P 500 and $739 million in put options against a fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100. Burry is using...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two people died early Wednesday morning when a gray BMW lost control on University Boulevard South and slammed into a Firehouse Subs building before catching fire, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said. Police said around 1:20 a.m. the BMW was headed north near Terry Road and the driver, who was speeding, lost control at the curve, sending the car careening into the Firehouse Subs building.

Russia’s central bank on Tuesday hiked interest rates by 350 basis points to 12% at an emergency meeting, as Moscow looks to halt a rapid depreciation of the country’s ruble currency. The ruble slumped to near 102 to the dollar on Monday, as President Vladimir Putin’s economic advisor, Maxim Oreshkin, penned an op-ed in Russian state-owned Tass news agency that blamed the plunging currency and the acceleration of inflation on the “loose monetary policy” of the central bank.

President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser rebuked the central bank on Monday as the rouble slid past 101 per U.S. dollar, blaming its 30% year-to-date slump on loose monetary policy and revealing growing discord among Russia's monetary authorities. The rouble, which has lost around a quarter of its value against the dollar since Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, hit 101.04 per U.S. dollar, its weakest point in almost 17 months. As the rouble tumbled, Putin's economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin said in an op-ed for the TASS news agency that the Kremlin wanted a strong rouble and expected a...

Currently multiple authorities are responding to a significant incident involving an aircraft that collided with an apartment complex during the course of an air show recognized as "Thunder Over Michigan." This incident occurred within the bounds of Van Buren Township, Michigan. The two pilots successfully ejected from the jet and subsequently landed in a nearby lake before the jet aircraft crashed Into the apartment complex Reports indicate of significant flames engulfing the building complex, as well as affecting multiple vehicles its currently unknown no word on injuries at this time