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Panama City, Fla. - The teen who went missing from her home in Southport five years ago has been located and is safe, the Bay County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. Emily Paul disappeared five years ago. She recently wrote a letter to her parents saying that she was safe. In response, Captain Jason Daffin recorded a video message asking Paul to get in touch. He added that as an adult as long as she was safe he was under no obligation to let anyone know where she currently lives. ... "Emily stated that she was safe, she had a support...

- A dashcam recorded a police chase in Ohio but it's not exactly what you're thinking. A deputy in Miami County was forced to run after his cruiser when it started to roll away during a traffic stop. The video shows him speaking with the person he pulled over as the car slowly starts to drift backward.

<p>OROVILLE, Calif. - An immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered.</p> <p>A hazardous situation has developed with the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway. Officials say that operation of the auxiliary spillway has lead to severe erosion that could lead to a failure of the structure.</p>

President Barack Obama's nominee to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq withdrew his name on Monday after Republican lawmakers questioned his suitability following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair with a journalist who later became his wife. Brett McGurk, a long-time Iraq expert who had served on the Bush administration's National Security Council, wrote to U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that he was withdrawing "with a heavy heart." "I believe it is in the best interests of the country, and our life together, to withdraw my nomination and serve in another...

How big ARE New York's rats? Researcher catches one-and-a-half pound rodent three times the size of a normal beast "...'I've caught rats all over the city, and I've seen the ones that I didn't catch. I think it's among the biggest that live in New York City,' said Matt Combs of Fordham University. [snip] One of the largest rats ever reported in New York City was a huge beast dubbed Master Splinter by the Twitter user that first posted a picture of it. The enormous rat was found in a Footlocker store in the Bronx in 2012, according to Twitter...

He will not be participating in the FOX News debate and will instead host an event in Iowa to raise money for the Veterans and Wounded Warriors, who have been treated so horribly by our all talk, no action politicians. Like running for office as an extremely successful person, this takes guts and it is the kind mentality our country needs in order to Make America Great Again.

BREAKING NEWS: A JLENS blimp that has been tethered at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland has broken free Wednesday and is being tracked by two fighter jets traveling over Pennsylvania at 16,000 feet, a NORAD spokesman said.

Astronomers find runaway galaxies 21 hours ago Enlarge This schematic illustrates the creation of a runaway galaxy. In the first panel, an "intruder" spiral galaxy approaches a galaxy cluster center, where a compact elliptical galaxy (cE) already revolves around a massive central elliptical galaxy. In the second panel, a close encounter occurs and the compact elliptical receives a gravitational kick from the intruder. In the third panel, the compact elliptical escapes the galaxy cluster while the intruder is devoured by the giant elliptical galaxy in the cluster center. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-astronomers-runaway-galaxies.html#jCp We know of about two dozen runaway stars,...

Run, Mitt, run. Yes, run far, far away from the Republican primary season that starts in 2015. You may be a fine man, but you are not going to be president, and you are not the answer for the Republicans in 2016. You could have/should have been both perhaps, but you blew it. Now, I hate to even think about the 2016 election with the 2014 mid terms still weeks away, but this nightmarish Groundhog Day idea of Romney 2016 just will not go away. Most recently, the Washington Post chronicled how campaign events for Joni Ernst in Iowa and...

A prankster is getting points for creativity after hacking an electronic traffic sign in San Francisco warning of a “Godzilla Attack.” The sign was spotted on Van Ness Avenue Wednesday night, reading ‘Godzilla Attack – Turn Back.”

Los Angeles’ new mayor has vowed to help stanch the flow of film and TV production jobs out of Hollywood, starting with the appointment of a film czar at City Hall. But to make a real difference, Eric Garcetti needs to convince skeptical state pols to combat the lure of rich tax incentives from outside California. Two days after this year’s Oscars, Hollywood’s councilman Eric Garcetti, then running for mayor of Los Angeles, staged a media event at Sunset Gower Studios. Only a smattering of reporters and photographers showed up, perhaps because the gathering was to address “runaway production,” a...

Heritage Foundation President and former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint tells Newsmax that the House should defund Obamacare no matter what the risk to the Republican Party, even if it leads to a government shutdown. The South Carolina Republican also says the Affordable Care Act will do more damage to the nation “than anything I’ve seen pass in my lifetime.” And he insists, in an exclusive interview Thursday with Newsmax TV, that a path to citizenship for illegals constitutes amnesty and opposing immigration reform won’t necessarily hurt the GOP. …

It’s being billed as “the largest global event of the decade to focus on the health and empowerment of girls and women.” But it is also very obviously a conference designed to reduce populations of developing nations by promoting a Western-style sexual revolution via chemical contraceptives, access to abortion-on-demand including, the promotion of the chemical abortifacient misoprostol in countries where abortion is illegal, and sex education for youth. On Tuesday more than 4,000 delegates from 145 countries attended the launch of the third Women Deliver conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Featured speakers over the three-day event include Melinda Gates, of...

Full Headline: 'Run, hide, fight': Homeland Security releases public service video on how to get to safety and survive a mass shooting Following last Friday's mass casualty shooting in Aurora, Colorado, the City of Houston has released an instructional video on what to do in case of a similar emergency. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the city hopes that the video can help people prepare people for the worst. Entitled Run.Hide.Fight. Surviving an Active Shooter Event, it depicts a fictional shooting incident in a crowded office building. In the six-minute video, a narrator warns that all shooter events...

SAN ANTONIO—U.S. Border Patrol agents opened fire Saturday along the Rio Grande on the Texas-Mexico border after being pelted by rocks and having a gunman point a weapon in their direction on the Mexican side of the river, an agency spokesman said. Spokesman Henry Mendiola said no Border Patrol agents were injured in the incident Saturday near Brownsville. He did not know if anyone else was hurt. He said the Mexican government had been notified and was responding to the area. The FBI also was investigating. The Border Patrol released little details about the morning gunfire, including what the suspects...

Roanoke police are seeking the public’s help to find a 17-year-old girl who was reported by her family as a runaway. The police department was contacted March 23 by a family member of Katelyn Anne Ellison, who said the girl was last seen March 22 leaving Patrick Henry High School at the end of the school day. Investigators have been following up on various leads since the report was filed, Roanoke police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said. “The detectives the people have spoken to say they have not been in contact with her, which raises more concern than was already there,”...

Iowa House Democrats left the Capitol in protest Wednesday, saying they were betrayed by the Republican majority that decided this morning to debate controversial gun rights legislation. “We’ve been doubled-crossed,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, just before he lead his 40-member caucus out of the Statehouse. Democrats had been led to believe a constitutional amendment spelling out Iowans’ right to bear arms and the so-called “Castle Doctrine” giving Iowans the right to defend themselves would not be debated Feb. 29, McCarthy said. However, he was told after both parties went into their routine closed-door meetings to discuss...

Saw this promoted on Twitter. Looked interesting and am sharing it with FReepers.... A movie about black conservatives, made by a black conservative.

A missing girl may be in the company of a former Bedford County school resource officer. Authorities are looking for Audrey Marie McCombs. She is 16 and from Bedford County. Investigators believe she may be in the company of Earnest Grubbs. Mr. Grubbs, a former Bedford County Sheriffs deputy, is on bond awaiting prosecution on numerous felony charges in Bedford County. Grubbs was a school resource officer at Liberty High School. He was fired after being accused of having inappropriate contact with a student at Liberty High School.

A missing girl may be in the company of a former Bedford County school resource officer. Authorities are looking for Audrey Marie McCombs. She is 16 and from Bedford County. Investigators believe she may be in the company of Earnest Grubbs. Mr. Grubbs, a former Bedford County Sheriffs deputy, is on bond awaiting prosecution on numerous felony charges in Bedford County. Grubbs was a school resource officer at Liberty High School. He was fired after being accused of having inappropriate contact with a student at Liberty High School.