Free Republic

The Biden administration has saddled the U.S. economy with more than $1 trillion worth of final rules and regulations thus far in 2024, according to analysis conducted by the American Action Forum (AAF).The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final emissions regulations for light- and medium-duty vehicles, which some have characterized as an electric vehicle (EV) mandate, pushed the costs of the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda over the $1 trillion threshold for 2024, alone, according to AAF’s analysis. Across all agencies and regulatory actions last week, the federal government published regulations imposing $103 billion worth of total costs and 11.6 million annual...

NYC Mayor and NYPD PC have released new information showing that approximately 48% of individuals arrested on Tuesday evening at Columbia and City College NY protests were unaffiliated with the schools.

Business groups are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration to delay regulations that would significantly restrict widely used coolant chemicals — a priority under the state’s sweeping climate law — that they say could wreak financial havoc on stakeholders ranging from grocery stores to hospitals. The mandates have stoked concerns from trade groups ranging from the Business Council to the New York Farm Bureau. A broad coalition of business interests sent a letter to Hochul and the state Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday arguing that the state’s timeline is not feasible. DEC’s proposed phaseout of chemical compounds known as “hydrofluorocarbons,”...

Six months ahead of the November election, former President Donald Trump is leading Democrat incumbent Joe Biden by a whopping 15 points in Michigan, a key swing state. According to a Kaplan Strategies survey, the former president polled 51 percent to 36 percent in the battleground state. The margin of error for the survey was plus/minus 3.5 percentage points. The pollster reports Trump's success is rooted in maintaining the stability of his favorability ratio, writing: Key to Trump’s dominance in our poll has been his campaign’s ability to stabilize his favorable to unfavorable ratio to a degree better than Joe...

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., posted a video on Thursday of a former prosecutor who investigated former President Trump pleading the fifth under questioning about his actions.The video was recorded during a closed session of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in May 2023, according to a congressional source.Mark Pomerantz, former special assistant to the New York County District Attorney, can be seen in the video declining to answer several questions, such as, "Did you knowingly break any laws when investigating President Trump?" and "Did you misuse any federal funds when investigating President Trump?"His counsel appeared to...

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) popularity is soaring among the wrong party as he prepares to face a historic vote next week led by Republicans to remove his gavel and strip him of the Speakership. According to a RealClearPolitics poll average, Johnson has a 3.5 approval rating-- with 31.4 percent disapproving of his job as House Speaker and 27.6 percent approving. His approval rating continues to plummet among Republican voters as he gains favorability with Democrats— mostly due to his support of additional funding for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. At the same time, several Democrats suggest they...

The Biden administration hasn’t hesitated to rule by fiat, especially when it comes to environmental regulations. Separation of powers? Who cares? Why worry about constitutional processes when you can ramrod your agenda through the bureaucracy? Congressional Republicans are taking on the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest rule that seeks to govern greenhouse gas emissions for heavy-duty trucks. The rule is set to take effect on June 21. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) introduced a resolution in their respective chambers on Wednesday that would invoke the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to allow Congress to vote to nullify the...

Former President Donald Trump was back in New York City Thursday for his criminal trial, and it's been a pretty good day for him. During Thursday's proceedings, Keith Davidson, the lawyer representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels, gave revealing testimony that completely undermines Bragg's charges against Trump. For starters, Davidson argued that the $130,000 payment to Daniels should not be construed as "hush money" but rather as a legitimate "consideration" payment. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Johsua Steinglass pressed Davidson on the witness stand about Daniels’ statement in January 2018, which Davidson prepared for his client, that denied any relationship with...

An executive order signed by President Joe Biden has focused on registering convicts to vote and exclusively involved left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), an investigation from the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project revealed.In March 2021, Biden signed an executive order titled “Promoting Access to Voting,” which he billed as a “nonpartisan” government-wide effort to “expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.”Two months after the order was signed, the Biden administration held a “Listening Session” with several NGOs — all of which identified with the Democrat party or left-wing policy initiatives, according...

President Trump filed an unsealed motion to dismiss Jack Smith’s classified documents case for vindictive and selective prosecution. The motion was originally filed under seal in February. Judge Cannon authorized Trump to file an unsealed version of the motion to dismiss Jack Smith’s case. Trump’s legal team in February filed several motions to dismiss Jack Smith’s classified documents case. Judge Cannon previously denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the classified docs case on ‘unconstitutional vagueness’ of the Espionage Act, however, a third motion based on selective prosecution is still pending. In his unsealed motion to dismiss, Trump highlighted how others such...

Reps. Andy Ogles (R-TN), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), and Scott Perry (R-PA), as well as dozens of Senate Republicans, are moving to prevent President Joe Biden from resettling Palestinians in American communities.In a letter to House Appropriators, Ogles, Tiffany, and Perry ask that a provision be included in the Fiscal Year 2025 spending bill that prohibits expenditures “of any funds to issue a visa or grant parole to any alien holding a passport issued by the Palestinian Authority.”The House Republicans write:Whatever fanciful leftist notion to the contrary, the United States of America cannot be expected to absorb the rest of the...

“We hold that the attorney fees award was improper because Petitioners’ claim was not groundless, thus obviating any need to determine whether the claim was made in the absence of good faith,” Justice John Lopez writes in the court’s opinion.“During times of social and political contention and strife, we must be mindful that our courts provide a means of resolving such conflicts when issues are legitimately presented.By sanctioning parties and their lawyers for bringing debatable, long-shot complaints, courts risk chilling legal advocacy and citizens raising ‘questions’ under the guise of defending the rule of law.Even if done inadvertently and with...

DOWNTOWN — Mayor Brandon Johnson is putting $30 million more in federal pandemic relief dollars toward a revived guaranteed income program that will give more Chicagoans $500 monthly cash payments. Johnson is also committing more money for violence prevention, rapid rehousing and other initiatives as he revamps the city’s approach to spending what remains of the $1.9 billion in pandemic financial aid the city received in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Migrants — not voting Americans and their children — “are what makes us [economically] strong,” President Joe Biden told a May 1 fundraiser for pro-migration groups at the elite Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. Biden’s statement spotlights his policy of inflating the national economy with Extraction Migration — not by raising U.S. exports to developing countries or by growing Americans’ all-important productivity with more investment in workplace automation and innovation.

Former President Donald Trump gave a substantially different answer when asked on May 2 whether he would testify in his own defense at trial. “Well I’m not allowed to testify, I’m under a gag order,” he told reporters before leaving court on Thursday afternoon. On several previous occasions, President Trump’s response was an emphatic “yes” when asked the same question. This change came the same day New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan held a second hearing over whether President Trump violated his gag order. “We’re going to be appealing the gag order. I'd love to answer that question, it’s...

Jewish comedian Michael Rapaport has had at least two of his shows canceled in Wisconsin as the state's flagship university struggles with an encampment supporting Gaza. Rapaport, who has been outspoken about his support of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, confirmed the cancellation of his shows in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday and he called the decision "Very very very F***ed Up!"Rapaport was scheduled to perform at Comedy on State in Madison on Thursday, but the show was canceled. The venue has not responded to Just the News' request for comment about why the show...

A whistleblower organization has initiated a court action to force the Department of Justice to disclose why it spied on congressional staff, setting up a landmark legal battle on an issue that has rankled both Republicans and Democrats.Last fall, several current and former congressional oversight staff were belatedly informed that the Justice Department seized phone and email records in 2017 in an internal investigation, raising concerns about separation of powers between two branches of government.Jason Foster, who is now the founder and chair of Empower Oversight, the group which sued in court this week to unseal the court documents in...

Sure, Clarke lies. But she has also weaponized the DOJ. According to The Daily Signal, there is a strong indication that Kristen Clarke, who now leads the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, lied during her confirmation process in 2021. In written questions, Sen. Tom Cotton had asked Clarke: “Since becoming a legal adult, have you ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person.” Her answer was “No.”Clarke, who was arrested in July 2006, allegedly attacked her husband with a knife, “deeply slicing his finger to the bone.” Her pedantic argument is that her record was...

Last December, the Biden White house welcomed leaders of the Climate Defiance group, including co-founder Michael Greenberg, for consultations with Biden’s clean energy czar John Podesta. On April 18, Climate Defiance disrupted a Washington event for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, accused of being an “ecocidal pyromaniac.” Climate Defense now aims to “shut down” the annual congressional baseball game at Nationals Park on June 9. While that awaits, legislators might dial it back to June 14, 2017. As Republicans practiced for the game, James Hodgkinson opened fire, wounding Rep. Steve Scalise and three others, including two police officers. Nothing about the attack...

An executive order signed by President Joe Biden has focused on registering convicts to vote and exclusively involved left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), an investigation from the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project revealed. In March 2021, Biden signed an executive order titled “Promoting Access to Voting,” which he billed as a “nonpartisan” government-wide effort to “expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process. Two months after the order was signed, the Biden administration held a “Listening Session” with several NGOs — all of which identified with the Democrat party or left-wing policy...