Free Republic

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Wednesday appeared briefly unable to respond to reporters’ questions at a press event, marking the second time in weeks that the Republican leader has abruptly stopped speaking and required help from people around him.

DNA helped police solve a 32-year-old cold case and track down the mother of a newborn boy who was found dead in a Connecticut parking lot in January 1988. The baby, whom police named David Paul, was found abandoned and frozen to death at the base of a tree in a wooded section of a parking lot in Meriden, about 22 miles southwest of Hartford. A medical examiner found that the baby, who was a few days old, died from exposure to frigid temperatures, Meriden Police Chief Jeffry W. Cossette said at a news conference on Tuesday. His mother was...

CIA-coordinated military aid for rebels in northwest Syria has been frozen since they came under major Islamist attack last month, rebel sources said, raising doubts about foreign support key to their war against President Bashar al-Assad. Rebel officials said that no official explanation had been given for the move this month following the jihadist assault, though several said they believed the main objective was to prevent arms and cash falling into Islamist militant hands. But they said they expected the aid freeze to be temporary.

As reported by TheBlaze’s Pete Kasperowicz, “Senate Democrats blocked legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the fifth time on Monday, leaving just four days before DHS funding expires, and with no apparent way forward to break the deadlock.” But CNN’s critics were apparently surprised that the news organization’s headline and story didn’t contain any spin to deflect blame from Democrats.

FULL TITLE: Six-year-old girl who froze to death outside Minnesota home identified as her cousin is arrested for manslaughter Police have arrested a Minnesota woman in connection to the death of her 6-year-old cousin, who was found frozen outside her home last month. Rachel Downer, 22, was taken into custody Friday and charged with second-0degree manslaughter and felony neglect of a child. Downer's cousin Mercedes Mayfield was discovered unconscious in the entrance to an apartment building in Bemidji on the morning of February 27 after spending hours in temperatures that fell to nearly 30 degrees-below-zero with windchill of -40.

Eighteen Hundred and Froze To Death The Infamous "Year Without A Summer" Of the cold summers in the period 1811 to 1817, the year 1816 has gone down in the annals of New England history as "The Year There Was No Summer," the "Poverty Year" and "Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death." The year began with a moderate but dry winter. Spring was tardy and continued very dry. The growing season from late spring to early fall, however, was punctuated by a series of devastating cold waves that did major damage to the crops and greatly reduced the food supply....