Free Republic

Here are the rankings: 1 Thomas Waerner - Total race time: 9d 10h 37m 47s 2 Mitch Seavey - Total race time: 9d 16h 15m 38s 3 Jessie Royer - Total race time: 9d 17h 47m 16s 4 Brent Sass - Total race time: 9d 18h 57m 47s 5 Aaron Burmeister- Total race time: 9d 19h 18m 53s 6 Joar Leifseth Ulsom - Total race time: 9d 19h 48m 41s 7 Paige Drobny- Total race time: 9d 19h 54m 35s 8 Ryan Redington - Total race time: 9d 20h 40m 58s 9 Jessie Holmes - Total race time: 9d 21h...

Heroes can emanate from all walks of life, but this particular hero is the gift that just keeps on giving. Army Staff Sergeant Earl Granville is receiving a ton of attention, and rightfully so, for what he did during the Boston Marathon on Monday. Granville could be seen around mile 26 carrying a woman on his shoulders, along with an American flag, so that she could cross the finish line. There hasn’t been word yet on why the woman needed to be carried, but when it comes to marathons, injuries and cramping are commonplace. Regardless of the reason, Granville decided...

Major retailers in the United States are shutting down hundreds of stores, and shoppers are reporting alarmingly bare shelves in many retail locations that are still open all over the country. It appears that the retail apocalypse that made so many headlines in 2015 has gone to an entirely new level as we enter 2016. As economic activity slows down and Internet retailers capture more of the market, brick and mortar retailers are cutting their losses. This is especially true in areas that are on the lower portion of the income scale. In impoverished urban centers all over the nation,...

The heart-wrenching photographs taken in the moments after the Boston Marathon bombings show the blue-and-yellow jackets of volunteers, police officers, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians, even a three-foot-high blue M&M. Conspicuously absent are any clerical collars or images of pastoral care. --SNIP-- When the priests at St. Clement's, three blocks away, heard the explosions, they gathered sacramental oils and hurried to the scene in hopes of anointing the injured and, if necessary, administering last rites, the final of seven Catholic sacraments. But the priests, who belong to the order Oblates of the Virgin Mary, weren't allowed at the scene. The...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards closed out a long, grueling Iowa caucus campaign Wednesday night with statewide television appeals, each seeking an early triumph in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Leading Republicans exchanged routine unpleasantries on a final day of campaigning. "You just don't know what is going to happen," confessed Mitt Romney, unwilling to forecast success over Republican rival Mike Huckabee in Thursday's first contest of the race for the White House. "This country is ready for a leader who will bring us together," Obama said in a two-minute...