Free Republic

DETROIT (WJBK) - A 12-year-old girl from Detroit is in the hospital recovering from severe burns after taking part in a disturbing trend called the Fire Challenge. "I can't help my baby. I can't help her," said Brandi Owens. Brandi is trying to be strong, but can't bear seeing her daughter bandaged from head-to-toe and in intensive care with burns over 49 percent of her body. Timiyah Landers and her two girlfriends were hanging out at her Detroit home on Friday after mother Brandi made them pancakes and went to take a nap. Minutes later, Brandi said she heard a...

If you’ve managed to make it this far in life without quite figuring out what demographic boxes to tick on the Census form, a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research might have some clues for you. According to the Washington Post, University of Chicago economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica “taught machines to guess a person’s income, political ideology, race, education, and gender based on either their media habits, their consumer behavior, their social and political beliefs, and even how they spent their time.” The results are, at times, surprisingly granular and seemingly nonsensical: Owning...

A new internal document obtained by CNN shows the Transportation Security Administration's proposal to eliminate screening at more than 150 small to medium sized airports is just one of several cost-saving measures the agency is discussing. The document, which an agency source says TSA Administrator David Pekoske was briefed on last month, shows how the TSA could save more than $300 million in 2020.

The President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) Gianni Infantino has praised the 2018 Football World Cup in Russia as the most successful in history. “Since [a] couple of years I was saying that this would be the best World Cup ever; today I can say it with even more conviction because I lived it and you lived it. It is the best World Cup ever. Thank you Russia!”....... FIFA’s head also stated,......“The legacy of this World Cup will put Russia on the top of the countries in terms of football around the world”. The presence of teams...

“The World Needs More Cowboys.” This proposed new slogan for the University of Wyoming was meant to be “inclusive, by design,” according to the marketing campaign flier that was obtained by The Chronicle of Higher Education. “This is not a campaign to reinforce regressive stereotypes of Cowboys from the pop-cultural past,” the flier states. “This is a campaign to rewrite them.” The flier goes on to explain how this campaign is an opportunity to “celebrate people in every corner” because “Cowboys come in every sex, shape, color and creed” at the University of Wyoming.

Anthony Avalos came out as gay in recent weeks, and authorities are now investigating whether homophobia played a role in the death of the 10-year-old Lancaster boy, a county official said. Anthony was found mortally wounded at his home last week with severe head injuries and cigarette burns covering his body. --snip-- Nichols said that his department’s caseworkers documented years ago that Leiva was allegedly a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, but that information was not classified by the workers as a safety threat necessitating Anthony’s removal from the home, and the department never moved to have him permanently...

The Trump administration proposes to reform and reorganize government by streamlining food regulation, merging two Cabinet departments, and consolidating housing programs.Combining the Education and Labor departments is among 32 proposals in a plan released Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget in response to a charge President Donald Trump issued 14 months ago.“We wanted to change the dialogue in Washington, to say it’s not acceptable to have things that just don’t make sense,” Margaret Weichert, OMB’s deputy director for management, told The Daily Signal.Weichert did not provide an estimate of savings, but said it would be clear in the...

The Left's obstructionism, financial irresponsibility, vulgarity, sincere ignorance, and conscientious stupidity Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.—MLK Jr. Liberals are sincerely ignorant. By which I mean that they are committed to, and passionate about, their ignorance—truly they are. And they are conscientious about their stupidity—that is, they are painstakingly precise when it comes to being dim-witted. Ignorance: Lack of knowledge or information. Conscientious: To do one’s work or duty well and thoroughly.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says states can force online shoppers to pay sales tax. The 5-4 ruling Thursday is a win for states, who said they were losing out on billions of dollars annually under two decades-old Supreme Court decisions that impacted online sales tax collection. The high court ruled Thursday to overturn those decisions. snip “Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States. These critiques underscore that the physical presence rule, both as first formulated and as applied today, is an incorrect interpretation of...

The Supreme Court ruled that the government can’t ‘prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive.’Those in uproar over anthem should know about high court ruling on flag burning~The current brouhaha ignores one of our fundamental rights, the freedom of expression (speech). In its 1989 decision, Texas v Johnson, the Supreme Court ruled, “Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” The court determined that publicly burning the American flag was protected speech. It would surprise and shock conservatives to learn that Justice...

The Constitution of the United States of America is the most important document in the country. It lays the groundwork for our entire system of government, protects our natural rights as human beings, and sets limits on what the government can do. When you look at the history immediately proceeding its adoption, everything makes perfect sense. After all, they’d just fought a war to get away from what they saw as a tyrannical government that wasn’t accountable to the people. They damn sure didn’t want to replicate those mistakes in their new country. Yet now, a couple of centuries later,...

New York has a major opportunity to lead the nation in reducing emissions and to strike a blow against inequality by making significant and bold investments in public transit across the state. Transportation is now the top climate culprit in New York state, responsible for more greenhouse-gas emissions than power plants. While our state is ramping up investments in renewable energy, moving people cleanly and efficiently is absolutely critical too. We must address this need by expanding public transit in ways that will also create family-sustaining employment options, improved public health, safety and mobility. The climate crisis and the transportation...

Connecticut’s legislature has passed a bill that would give the state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote nationally. The state Senate voted 21-14 on Saturday to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which includes 10 states and the District of Columbia. The state House passed the measure last week, 77 to 73. The compact requires its members to cast their Electoral College ballots for the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote. The agreement goes into effect once states representing at least 270 electoral votes — the number needed for a candidate...

The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners has approved the lengthening of the firearm purchase waiting period. Commissioners voted 5-2 Critics insist "cooling off periods" pointless Gun store owners say move will drive business to other counties On Wednesday, commissioners voted 5-2 to extend the waiting period from 3 days to 5 days. The move comes in the wake of emphasis on the state's gun laws after a school shooting in Parkland killed 17 students and administrators are Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The increased wait time proposal came from Commissioner Les Miller shortly after the Parkland massacre. "Maybe someone having...

abies are so passe, even royal ones. The hip new thing to have is a “theyby”, according to a trend spotted by New York magazine that sees parents bringing up their offspring in a gender-neutral fashion. There was of course nothing gender-specific about the “ba-“ part of “baby”, which is already a diminutive form of the original English word “babe”. The Oxford English Dictionary says that its origin is probably onomatopoeic – two syllables of “ba”, which is a typical “early infantile vocalisation”. So while a baby can call itself a baba, even if by accident, it will take much...

When you don’t know what else to do, sue. To critics in both major national parties, the Democratic National Committee seemed to be following that dubious legal advice by filing a lawsuit last week that alleges collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Some from both parties ridiculed the suit as a distraction from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and the cash-strapped DNC’s rebuilding efforts as midterm elections approach. Trump has a long record of threatening more court fights than he actually wages. You might recall his similar promises to sue the publisher of Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury”...

Patriotic supporters of the Second Amendment will be staging rallies across the nation on Saturday as the push to strip law-abiding Americans of their right to bear arms has never been more relentless nor the threat more perilous than it is now. The group calling for the rallies at state capitals is called National Constitutional Coalition of Patriotic Americans (NCCPA) and they want to stress the urgency of having the voices of pro-constitutional patriots to have their voices heard instead of being drowned out by the anti-gun lobby, the activist media and hypocritical celebrities who have used their money, names,...

Fielding questions over whether President Trump wants to go after Amazon and it's tax treatment, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday that Trump is "always looking to create a level playing field for all businesses and this no different." But she added that the president has no specific policies to address that at this time. The backdrop: Axios' Jonathan Swan reported earlier today that Trump hates Amazon, which led Amazon shares to drop 6% at market open.

“President Trump on Wednesday voiced support for confiscating guns from certain individuals deemed to be dangerous, even if it violates due process rights,” thehill.com reports. ‘I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,’ Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers on school safety and gun violence. ‘Take the guns first, go through due process second,'” This he said despite . . . Vice President Pence’s caution on gun confiscation. Trump was responding to comments from Vice President Pence that...