Free Republic

As it stands, liberal Arizona voting laws have paved the way for non-citizens, whether they are legal or not, to register for and cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election. U.S. Air Force master sergeant Nick Kupper, who is one of several state legislature candidates vying for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives’ District 25. While the voting laws do not affect his run for office, he is gravely concerned about the upcoming presidential race. “In Arizona,” Kupper said, “even if the state can’t verify whether you’re a citizen, people can still assert that they are citizens.”...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill Thursday that will allow universities in the state to pay athletes directly for NIL endorsements. Before putting his signature on the bill, Youngkin said HB 1505, which won't take effect until July 1, helps Virginia schools be competitive in athletics and provides a level of added oversight: ESPN's Dan Murphy noted it's the first piece of legislation by a state that would nullify the NCAA's rules regarding how athletes are compensated for NIL deals. Rather than schools paying student-athletes NIL money directly, they've often leaned on independent collectives in which major boosters and...

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said Wednesday he thinks President Biden can win his state in this year’s upcoming presidential election. “I believe President Biden can win North Carolina,” Cooper said at Semafor’s World Economy Summit. “And the campaign obviously believes that because they are investing. And they are there.” Biden’s campaign has set its sights on flipping the Tar Heel State in the’ next presidential election, after former President Trump won the state in both the 2020 and 2016 elections. “​​[T]his was President Biden’s closest loss in 2020,” Cooper said, pointing to the 1.3 percent margin. He added...

@elonmusk Given the relentless attacks on free speech, I am going to fund a national signature campaign in support of the First Amendment

Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts dies aged 80: Musician best known for group's hit song Ramblin' Man passed away 'peacefully' at Florida home. Guitarist Dickey Betts died at the age of 80 in his Florida home on Thursday. Betts wrote some of the bands most famous songs including Ramblin' Man. Betts is known for writing some of The Allman Brothers most famous songs including 'In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,' 'Blue Sky,' and their only Top Ten hit, 'Ramblin' Man.'

A Tory MP has been suspended after claims he made a late night call to ask for money to pay off "bad people". Mark Menzies "strongly" disputes the claims, but has had the whip removed amid allegations that he misused party funds and abused his position. The MP called an elderly party volunteer saying he was locked in a flat (apartment) and needed £5,000 as a matter of "life and death", the Times reports. An eventual sum of £6,500 was paid to secure his release, the paper says. The money is reported to have come out of local Conservative party...

U.S. officials say they will not pursue the death penalty against Julian Assange if he’s extradited from the UK to face charges related to his publication of documents highly embarrassing to the U.S. government, according to a report from Australia’s ABC News Tuesday. But that will be cold comfort to some in the British legal system who have argued U.S. prisons are so inherently cruel that sending Assange to America, even with such a guarantee, would still amount to an inhumane act.

A Haitian migrant, reportedly released into the United States via President Joe Biden’s parole pipeline, is now accused of double homicide in Orange County, New York. Kenol Baptiste, a 30-year-old Haitian migrant, was indicted in Orange County on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. On April 1, prosecutors allege that Baptiste stabbed his two roommates — who were also from Haiti — to death using a knife. Baptiste then allegedly sought to hide the knife he used and fled the scene. A report reveals that Baptiste had been released into the U.S. interior less than...

The inside story of how House Speaker Mike Johnson was flip-flopped on Ukraine aid starts with his top policy adviser...SNIP>>>> Johnson’s policy director, Dan Ziegler, was–until he joined the Speaker’s office as his top policy aide when Johnson won the Speakership last year–a lobbyist with the firm Williams & Jensen. He had previously worked for Johnson in other capacities, but left Johnson to become a lobbyist and accumulated a client list that included several top companies–some of which seem to have a financial interest in seeing Congress pass Ukraine aid. The lobbying firm for which he worked represents a number...

Except for Ukraine and Israel He Kept His Pledge to Reduce the Chance of War https://vimeo.com/showcase/10565484/video/936352798 Say Hello to Oyster Bunnies https://vimeo.com/showcase/10566896/video/936352855 Just Read the Teleprompter Joe https://vimeo.com/showcase/10566896/video/936352758 Believes He Prevented Israelis from Attacking Themselves https://vimeo.com/showcase/10566920/video/936358834

The global security system will be destroyed if Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, leading to “many” new conflicts and a Third World War, that country warns while calling the U.S. to pass a major aid package. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal visited Washington D.C. to drum up support for the forthcoming votes on the “$100 billion foreign aid package” , and brought a message of looming disaster if it isn’t passed. Speaking to British state broadcaster the BBC in Washington, Shmyhal cautioned that allowing Russia to win would signal the multilateral international rules based order had collapsed which...

TACOMA, Wash. — The trial for a woman facing first and second-degree murder charges and 17 counts of arson will begin with opening statements on Monday in Tacoma. The defendant, identified in court documents as Sarah Jane Ramey, is accused of setting a string of fires in Tacoma and Ruston between late December of 2021 and late January of 2022. A fire, which Ramey is accused of setting on New Year’s Eve in 2021, resulted in the death of James Elliott. Elliott died of smoke inhalation after a fire ignited at his home on Rosemount Way in North Tacoma. The...

“Not to have a correct political orientation is like not having a soul.” -Mao Zedong.Mao Zedong took over China with a strategy that will sadly feel unsettlingly familiar to us. Because he was able to mobilize hundreds of millions of people to comply, often enthusiastically, with his catastrophic programs, an adequate name for that strategy would be the politics of compliance. Understanding the basic premises and mechanisms of the politics of compliance is necessary for us today because these same methods are being used maliciously on us, thus require resisting, and because familiarity with these tactics at least partially inoculates...

New video was resurfaced showing NPR’s new CEO Katherine Maher complaining about the first amendment on a panel hosted by the Atlantic Council. According to the Daily Mail: Maher called the First Amendment the “number one challenge” in American journalism during a panel discussion. Maher noted the First Amendment provides a “fairly robust protection of rights,” making it “a little tricky to address some of the real challenges of where bad information comes from.”

An unpublished op-ed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer discovered through a public records request reveals that he believes the First Amendment is “the biggest threat to elections and Democracy,” Americans ‘ opinions are “disturbing,” and that “it may be time to revisit our First Amendment jurisprudence.” The election official in Arizona’s largest county also refers to his constituents and Trump supporters who know that Joe Biden didn’t legitimately win 81 million votes as “gullible,” “crazies,” and “idiots.” He even suggests that suing citizens for defamation would be a remedy to his problems if it weren’t for the First Amendment....

Two jurors in the Donald Trump hush money trial were excused Thursday, one after telling the court she was too scared and intimidated to serve, as prosecutors renewed their request to hold Trump in criminal contempt over alleged gag order violations. The first juror, one of seven initially chosen to serve on the case, told Merchan that she was too scared to proceed after her friends, family, and colleagues guessed that she had been chosen. Merchan has ruled that the panel will be anonymous to protect their safety and privacy. The second juror was excused after prosecutors raised questions about...

Iran could review its “nuclear doctrine” following Israeli threats to strike the country, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander said on Thursday, as the world braces for an Israeli response to Tehran’s unprecedented April 13 drone and missile attack on it. Tehran has always insisted its nuclear program was strictly for peaceful purposes, a claim Israel and much of the Western world doubt.

At today's Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas about the alleged killer of Laken Riley. YouTube Video 7:44 seconds long

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced it has awarded $2 million to three different organizations to provide training that will increase access to safe, high-quality abortions across the state. The Abortion Provider Capacity Building Grant Program awarded grants to the Midwest Access Project (MAP), Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL), and the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing. The first-of-its-kind in Illinois, state-funded training effort follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in the United States and allowed states to restrict access to...

A man involved in a hit-and-run accident that killed a top Democrat staffer entered the United States illegally, federal immigration authorities have confirmed. Elmer Rueda-Linares was arrested on hit-and-run charges following a two-vehicle crash in the early morning of April 6 in Reno, Nevada, that resulted in the death of Kurt Englehart, a senior advisor to Nevada Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed that he entered the United States illegally. “Officers with Enforcement and Removal Operations in Reno, Nevada, placed an immigration detainer April 8 on Honduran national Elmer Rueda-Linarez, 18, who is being...