Free Republic

There are a lot of woolly, fabulous tales out there about Howard Hughes, the famously reclusive, eccentric billionaire. And the Wikipedia version of his life is not the only one that "needs additional citations for verification." The Martin Scorsese movie "The Aviator" recently advanced the images and legends of Hughes and his obsessive compulsions. Hughes officially died in April 1976, an emaciated, drug-addicted, long-haired, tragic, lonely old man who proved to some people money couldn't buy happiness. But not really, according to a new book, "Boxes: The Secret Life of Howard Hughes," by Douglas Wellman, assistant dean of the School...

Fewer than one-third of voters casting ballots in last year’s U.S. presidential election did so at a polling place on Election Day as the coronavirus pandemic led states to greatly expand mail-in balloting and early voting, according to a federal report released Monday. The report by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission captures just how much the electorate embraced non-traditional voting methods despite repeated attempts by former President Donald Trump to undermine mail voting. While voting by mail has been on the rise in recent years, the 2020 election marked a major shift in the way people cast ballots, at least...

Fired sheriff’s deputy Zachary Wester was convicted in three of 12 cases for planting drugs in people’s vehicles during traffic stops. His typical M.O. was to say he smelled marijuana as a pretext for a search, and then pretend to find drugs such as meth or marijuana, prosecutors said. The state presented a dozen people as victims. One of them, Benjamin Bowling, lost custody of his daughter because the defendant arrested him, authorities said. Body cam footage in one instance showed Wester palming an item–meth–while beginning to search the vehicle of another victim Teresa Odom, authorities said. Wester was only...

MOBILE, Ala. - Federal wildlife officials have designated 6,200 acres in coastal Alabama and the Florida Panhandle as critical habitat for three endangered beach mouse species. Property owners or developers could be required to survey property for the protected mice before construction or to redesign a project that would harm the nocturnal creatures, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in a ruling Thursday. The acreage, most of it in Florida, includes a mix of federal, state park and private land. The wildlife service estimates the cost of saving the three subspecies of beach mice at $93.4 million to...