Free Republic

She’s the kiss of death for hospitals. The woke Veterans Affairs official who ordered hospitals take down the iconic Times Square V-J-Day kissing photo previously mismanaged a Missouri hospital so badly, she was condemned by both Democrats and Republicans alike. Smooch-bashing VA bigwig RimaAnn Nelson headed the department’s St. Louis hospital for more than three years, during which time the facility was rated worst in the country — with patients allegedly left in their feces for days, and more than 1,800 of our nation’s heroes being exposed to HIV and hepatitis from unsterilized dental equipment, reports said. “What happened in...

San Francisco voters passed a pair of law-and-order ballot measures on Tuesday night, including one that would require welfare recipients suspected of using drugs to undergo screenings to receive benefits. It marks yet another rebuke of progressive policies in the famously liberal city, following the recall of far-left District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022. The welfare requirement, called Proposition F, had 63 percent support as of Wednesday morning, according to the most recent election results online. Proposition E, which expanded some police surveillance powers and reined in some oversight, had support from 60 percent of voters. There are still votes...

Doritos absolutely did not learn anything from Bud Light’s failed attempt at promoting their product with a queer freak. Doritos just shot itself in the foot after hiring a transgender brand ambassador. Samantha Hudson, a biological man presenting as a very unattractive woman, was just hired to promote the triangular chips in Spain. Many are comparing this campaign to the failed Bud Light campaign after it hired transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote the beer last year. Hudson, whose real name is Iván González Ranedo, was featured on a show called “Crunch Talks.” In a 53 second clip which has...

TAMPA, Fla. — Cheryl Martin’s leg was amputated in 2022 after her car was hit by an Uber driver that crossed the median close to U.S. 19 and Alderman Road, sending her into a ditch. She agreed on a settlement for more than $1 million in damages and put more than $700,000 into a trust fund to replace her lost income from no longer being able to work and to pay for ongoing medical expenses. Martin, 59, hoped to also buy a home, “something very small, just for me.” But earlier this month, Martin was devastated when she received a...

AUSTIN, TX — Early last December, a billionaire named Daniel Lubetzky, who had moved to Austin, Texas, from New York City during the pandemic, hosted a meeting of civic leaders and businesspeople in the city. The number one subject on everyone’s mind was Austin’s troubling crime rate. According to FBI crime statistics, as of October 2023, crime was higher in the Texas capital than the average number of murders, aggravated assaults, and robberies in the rest of Texas—and the nation. Violent crime, for instance, was nearly 40 percent higher in Austin than the national average. Meanwhile, since 2021, felonies were...

An undocumented man wanted in Oregon for rape is now in federal custody after the Martin County Sheriff’s Office says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initially declined to hold him. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office says they were legally required to release 26-year-old Juan Jose-Sebastian from jail, even though they knew he was wanted in Oregon for rape charges. After Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Rep. Brian Mast got involved, the sheriff’s office was given the legal authority to rearrest Jose-Sebastian. Investigators say this all started over two weeks ago when deputies arrested Juan Jose-Sebastian, an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant...

The family that had wanted to build the world’s tallest flagpole in rural eastern Maine has agreed to pay a $250,000 penalty under a consent agreement following construction of more than 50 cabins without obtaining environmental permits from the state. The Board of Environmental Protection signed off Wednesday on the consent agreement signed late last month by Morrill Worcester, patriarch of the family whose company owns the land. The Flagpole View Cabins were built from 2019 to 2022 in sparsely populated Columbia Falls near the site where the family wanted to build a flagpole taller than the Empire State Building....

President Biden is struggling to overcome doubts about his leadership inside his own party and broad dissatisfaction over the nation’s direction, leaving him trailing behind Donald J. Trump just as their general-election contest is about to begin, a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College has found. With eight months left until the November election, Mr. Biden’s 43 percent support lags behind Mr. Trump’s 48 percent in the national survey of registered voters. Only one in four voters think the country is moving in the right direction. More than twice as many voters believe Mr. Biden’s policies...

The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the treacherous migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the capture of a number of boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek. The stoppage began when Colombian law enforcement captured two boat captains in the northern city of Necoclí on Monday. The companies that employed them halted all transport services in protest, effectively cutting off the officially estimated 2,000 people a day that enter the jungled passage hoping to reach the United States. It has led to a build up...

The chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission will propose a potential new rule Wednesday that would subject automakers that sell internet-connected cars to a telecommunications law intended to protect domestic violence survivors. Cases of technology-enabled stalking involving cars are emerging as automakers add ever more sophisticated features, such as location tracking and remote control of functions like locking doors or honking the horn. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last month wrote to nine large automakers and three telecom providers seeking more information about their policies involving internet-connected car technology and domestic abuse. The federal Safe Connections Act gives the FCC authority...

Two developments caught my eye like a fly on arsenic glue paper over the past few weeks. One was the arrival of Sora from Open AI, which generates video from text prompts. This can now create convincing, realistic footage, whether of a woman calmly walking through an idealised urban landscape or some sleepyhead being woken by their impatient, persistent yet affectionate cat. The uncanny valley – that unsettling feeling you get when looking at images with features that are human-like, but slightly off – if not closed entirely, is now barely a crack in the pavement. This leap forward in...

San Francisco's supervisors plan to offer a formal apology to Black residents for decades of racist laws and policies perpetrated by the city, a long-awaited first step as it considers providing reparations. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the resolution apologizing to African Americans and their descendants. All 11 members have signed on as sponsors, guaranteeing its passage. It would be one of the first major U.S. cities to do so. The resolution calls on San Francisco to not repeat the harmful policies and practices, and to commit “to making substantial ongoing, systemic, and...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) is an institution in Houston — so much so that although the Houston area may have three female members of Congress, only Jackson Lee is commonly referred to as “the Congresswoman.” Since she first defeated incumbent Rep. Craig Washington in the 1994 Democratic primary, Jackson Lee has been easily re-elected 14 times. However, on March 5, 2024 Jackson Lee faces her toughest re-election challenge ever from former City of Houston councilmember Amanda Edwards — a challenge that could end the storied congressional career of one of the 21 longest-serving current members of the U.S. House...

Former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan argues the death of a Georgia student is a result of the Biden administration’s immigration policy failures. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday confirmed that the Venezuelan national charged in connection with the murder of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and had previously been arrested in New York City. Fox News had previously reported that 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra, charged with the murder of Riley on the University of Georgia campus, had crossed into the U.S. illegally near El Paso in September 2022 and was paroled...

After states legalize the sale of weed for recreational use, on-the-job injuries rise among younger workers, new research shows. U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics for 2006 through 2020 show that legal "recreational marijuana sales were associated with a 10% increase in workplace injuries among individuals aged 20 to 34 years," the study authors concluded. They note that prior research involving older workers did not show this effect. In fact, older workers' injury rates typically decline after recreational weed is made legal in their state, perhaps because older folk are only using their marijuana to ease pain. In contrast, the rise...

The number of Chinese migrants crossing the southern border near San Diego has exceeded the number of Mexicans doing the same, new data shows. Since the fiscal year began in October, border agents have encountered 21,000 Chinese nationals in the San Diego sector, according to Customs and Border Protection data

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department said eight people were arrested Saturday during a 10-hour "protest and standoff" that stemmed from an Eritrean "cultural event." Clashes erupted between rival groups of Eritreans, and police confirmed that officers trying to disperse the unlawful crowds were attacked by people wielding sticks, rocks and other items. Crowds also set a tractor on fire in North Carolina's largest city, and police seized a total of two firearms over the course of several hours. Fox News Digital reached out to the department Sunday seeking the identities and more information about those eight arrested. The incident first...

Anyone else notice how the media has suddenly found Kamala Harris and is presenting her as a serious VP(they hope President)? During the past few days I have seen 5x the stories that I usually stories about her.

A group of 20 leading tech companies on Friday announced a joint commitment to combat AI misinformation in this year’s elections. The industry is specifically targeting deepfakes, which can use deceptive audio, video and images to mimic key stakeholders in democratic elections or to provide false voting information. Microsoft , Meta , Google , Amazon , IBM , Adobe and chip designer Arm all signed the accord. Artificial intelligence startups OpenAI, Anthropic and Stability AI also joined the group, alongside social media companies such as Snap , TikTok and X. Tech platforms are preparing for a huge year of elections...

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) addressed New York business owners in a new interview and told them there was “nothing to worry about” after former President Trump was hit with a $355 million fine and the inability to conduct business in New York for three years. Hochul joined John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM where she was asked if other New York businesspeople should be worried that if “they can do that to the former president, they can do that to anybody.” “I think that this is really an extraordinary unusual circumstance that the law-abiding...