Free Republic

The driver of former First Lady Michelle Obama, who is also a U.S. Secret Service employee, has been charged with witness intimidation and criminal harassment. According to a report filed by the Oak Bluffs Police Department last month, Douglas Vines, 53, was involved in a relationship with a woman which allegedly ended up with the latter’s harassment. The woman told police that she had been dating Vines for about two months when an uncomfortable situation came up one evening when Vines asked her to have sex with him, which she declined. The Secret Service employee is said to have gone...

A North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper is being credited for saving lives by putting his own life on the line to stop a suspected drunk driver from entering an interstate going the wrong way. North Carolina State Highway Patrol said Trooper Cody Thao used his own patrol car as a barrier to stop the driver who was speeding up an exit ramp the wrong way. The dramatic crash was caught on dashcam video.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday commuted the prison term of a truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years after a fatal accident in 2019, reducing the sentence to 10 years. The man, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, killed four people on April 25, 2019, after, he said, his brakes failed on the downhill grade on Interstate 70 eastbound outside Denver. Prosecutors argued that Aguilera-Mederos acted recklessly and made a series of poor decisions before the wreck

WILTON MANORS, Fla. – At least 2 children were killed and three others were injured after the driver of a vehicle mowed them down in Wilton Manors Monday afternoon, officials said. The crash occurred in the 2400 block of Northwest Ninth Avenue in Broward County. Fort Lauderdale Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan told WPLG in addition to the 2 fatalities, three other kids were taken to Broward Health Medical Center — with one child listed as critical and the others in stable condition. Residents were being asked to avoid the area as police conducted an investigation.

A driverless car startup based out of Silicon Valley and Guangzhou, China has had its driverless testing permit suspended after one of its vehicles crashed in Fremont. According to a DMV report, the Pony.ai vehicle was in autonomous mode when it turned right onto Fremont Boulevard from Cushing Parkway and hit a center divider and traffic sign. The vehicle suffered "moderate damage" to the front of the vehicle, but there were no injuries and no other vehicles involved, the report says. Fremont police arrived at the scene of the crash, and the startup reportedly reached out to authorities to resolve...

I'm transferring to a newer computer and having difficulty with various things. I've got everything fixed now except my sound. The computer was working before but I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10 and added a new video card to feed 3 monitors, About the time I put the 2nd video card in I noticed the noise in my speakers. I've tried headphones and the noise is there. I've tried USB speakers and the noise is there. I used a Bluetooth speaker and the noise is gone. I've changed the sound drivers 3 times with and older driver and...

A notable mandate tucked into President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill could go a long way in making roads safer. Part of the bill includes the HALT act and RIDE act, which require all new cars sold to be equipped with technology that can sense a drunk driver and keep them off the road. It could become a standard feature as early as 2026.

A suspected drunk driver asked New Mexico police if she could “smoke a cigarette” just moments after she allegedly caused a crash that killed a mother of four, bodycam video shows. Jennifer Munoz, 26, is accused of crashing into and killing 41-year-old Janelle Katesigwa in Albuquerque in May, KRQE reports. According to bodycam video released Wednesday, the first thing Munoz said to police after the fatal crash was: “Can I just smoke a cigarette?” Munoz’s friend could be heard screaming in pain in the passenger seat. “I would not do that right now … Let them try to help your...

A Texas (San Antonio) driver ended up dead Wednesday night after crashing her vehicle and then firing shots at three people who tried to come to her aid, according to a report. As for the gun-wielding driver, who was in her 20s or 30s, a nearby neighbor shot her dead after coming to the defense of the three Good Samaritans who were fired upon, FOX 29 reported. Those shot by the suspect were a 50-year-old man who died at a hospital, a woman in her 50s and a male in his late teens, the report said.

Alcohol caused a car accident — but not in the way you might expect. A car burst into flames Thursday after a Maryland motorist unwisely used hand sanitizer while smoking. A harrowing video taken from a news chopper shows the vehicle smoldering in a parking lot as firefighters rush to douse the blaze. “Using hand sanitizer and smoking a cigarette is a bad combo in unventilated areas like a car,” a Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service official told the local ABC affiliate. The crew responded to the freak inferno, which occurred around 5:30 p.m. at the Federal Plaza Shopping...

David Parker is the CEO of Covenant Logistics and he was blunt with analysts who follow the company on its earnings call Tuesday.“How do we get enough drivers?” he said in response to a question from Stephens analyst Jack Atkins. “I don’t know.”Parker then gave an overview of the situation facing Covenant, and by extension other companies, in trying to recruit drivers. One problem: With rates so high, companies are encountering the fact that a driver doesn’t need to work a full schedule to pull in a decent salary.“We’re finding out that just to get a driver, let’s say the...

Two teen girls are accused of a botched carjacking in Washington, D.C. that ended with the death of a 66-year-old man, police said. Mohammed Anwar, of Springfield, Va., died in a crash on N Street in Southeast D.C. near Nationals Park. Police said the two teen girls assaulted Anwar with a taser about a block away from the crash scene around 4:30 p.m. The man was dragged and killed in the 1200 block of Van Street, SE, FOX 5 DC reported. Members of the First District arrived on the scene and located an adult male suffering from life-threatening injuries," police...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - When massive demonstrations against racial injustice erupted across the nation last summer, protesters used an increasingly common tactic to draw attention to their cause: swarming out onto major roads to temporarily paralyze traffic. This method sometimes resulted in searing images of drivers plowing through crowds, causing serious injuries and in some cases, deaths. Now, Republican politicians across the country are moving to stop the road-blocking maneuver, proposing increased penalties for demonstrators who run onto highways and legal immunity for drivers who hit them. The bills are among dozens introduced in Legislatures aimed at cracking down on...

MILWAUKEE—A driver survived when his pickup truck plunged about 70 feet off a slippery interchange exit ramp in Wisconsin.A Wisconsin Department of Transportation camera captured the Milwaukee-area crash. The video shows the pickup hitting snow on the right shoulder before flipping over the barrier wall and plummeting to Interstate 94 below as cars pass by.When deputies arrived, they found the pickup upright in the right shoulder of the westbound I-94 lanes, the sheriff’s office said. Two people were already trying to help the driver, who was conscious and breathing.The man was taken to a hospital to be evaluated, sheriff’s officials...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) - A Roseburg man faces 29 separate charges connected with a series of random shootings along I-5, including one on Wednesday. Kenneth Ayers was arrested Thursday by the Oregon State Police hours after a motorist was shot near milepost 37 in Jackson County. She was taken to a hospital where she was treated and released. At a Friday afternoon press conference, authorities revealed Ayers is a UPS driver who is now tied to 7 different shootings in Douglas, Josephine and Jackson counties: May 12, June 2, June 15, June 22, July 7, July 9 and August 19....

Liberal activist charged with attempted murder and assault  A liberal lawyer from Colorado is being charged with attempted murder and assault after he shot a driver in the head while the motorist tried to creep through a line of protesters blocking the road.A nearby security camera captured the incident on tape.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AMqJ2C4K4g&feature=emb_titleObtained by KRDO NewsChannel 13, video shows about a dozen protesters swarm the middle of the street before a truck approaches very slowly and attempts to make its way through the small group.Despite driving extremely slow, not hitting anyone or even putting any of the protesters in danger, attorney James Marshall,...

The Trump administration eased rules Thursday that limit working hours for truck drivers, and the changes brought immediate protests from labor and safety groups. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration extended the maximum working day for short-haul drivers from 12 hours to 14 hours and expanded how far they can drive in a day. The agency said this will let truckers make more deliveries. For long-haul drivers, the regulator will let work other than driving - such as loading or unloading, filling out paperwork, or communicating with an employer or customer - count toward a mandatory 30-minute break after eight...

A FedEx driver was robbed/shot while making a delivery on the 600 block of Unruh. Police say the driver was armed and exchanged gunfire with the robbery suspect. FedEx driver is stable, Suspect was located and is critical. -snip It should have been a routine delivery with the 32-year-old FedEx driver dropping off a package to a home in the area, but that’s when police say, an armed gunman approached and robbed the driver, perhaps not anticipating that the FedEx driver was also armed. “He was able to tell police that he was making a delivery on the 600 block...

Uber has removed from its app a driver who kicked two Camden County women out of her vehicle after they kissed. One of the women recorded the incident and had posted it on her personal Facebook page in a post that went viral, and said the driver told them to get out of her car because their lifestyle violated her beliefs. The transportation company on Sunday confirmed that it no longer works with the unidentified driver. “Uber does not tolerate discrimination in any form and we have been in contact with this rider,” spokesman Grant Klinzman said. "We removed the...

An Uber driver in Los Angeles who said he was Palestinian kicked two Jewish women out of his car after learning they were coming from an Israel Independence Day celebration. The incident occurred on May 19, the Los Angeles Jewish Journal reported. The driver, named Mustafa, asked the women where they were coming from after they sat in the back seat. The women were reluctant to say, but then told the driver after he did not start the car. Mustafa then ordered the passengers out of his vehicle. “He started laughing and he looked us dead in the eye and...