Free Republic

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to caution the Democratic Party Sunday against automatically naming Vice President Kamala Harris its new presidential nominee. President Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the race in a letter shared to X Sunday. The president noted while he always intended to continue his campaign, he has realized stepping aside is best for both the Democratic Party and the U.S. as a whole. In a follow-up post, Biden also formally endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket. Kennedy wrote on X shortly after...

The Biden administration designated a Venezuelan gang a transnational criminal organization on Thursday. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control accused Tren de Aragua of human trafficking, gender-based violence, money laundering and drug trafficking. It is offering up to a $12 million reward for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Tren de Aragua’s leaders. Any property or interests in property that Tren de Aragua has in the U.S. or that are in possession of people from the U.S. “must be blocked and reported” to the Treasury Department, as a result of the sanctions accompanying the group’s...

Sean Burroughs, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist, Little League World Series winner and former first round MLB pick, died Thursday, the California-based Long Beach Little League organization announced Friday. He was 43. Burroughs died of a cardiac arrest, his mother, Debbie, told the Southern California News Group via text, the San Bernardino Sun reported. According to Doug Wittman, Long Beach Little League president, Burroughs was found unresponsive next to his vehicle at the Long Beach complex after dropping his son off for a game Thursday, The Sun reported.

Even as Mexican-made fentanyl continues to flood into the United States, Mexico’s efforts to seize the drug have declined dramatically, according to figures released Tuesday by the Defense Department. Figures for the first half of 2024 show that Mexican federal forces seized only 286 pounds (130 kilograms) of fentanyl nationwide between January and June, down 94% from the 5,135 pounds (2,329 kilograms) seized in 2023. The synthetic opioid has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths annually in the United States, and U.S. officials have tried to step up efforts to seize it as it comes over the border, often...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 103 people have been shot, 19 fatally, in gun violence across Chicago since Wednesday evening during the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, police said. Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Superintendent Larr y Snelling will hold a press conference Monday morning to address the violence. The latest shooting took place in the West Chesterfield neighborhood. Two people were shot, one fatally at about 11:51 p.m. in the 700-block of East 89th Place. Minutes before that, one person was shot an killed in the 200-block of North Central Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood.

UPDATED Sunday, July 7, 2024 4:39PM CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 98 people have been shot, 17 fatally, in gun violence across Chicago since Wednesday evening during the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, police said. A security alert was issued by the University of Chicago Sunday morning after three men were shot on a sidewalk in front of the adult hospital's emergency room right after 5 a.m. Witnesses reported that the gunshots were fired from a dark-colored SUV. The shooting is one of several that happened overnight. A man died in an exchange of gunfire Saturday night in South...

CHICAGO -- At least 87 people have been shot, 16 fatally, in gun violence across Chicago since Wednesday evening during the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, police said. The violence includes three mass shootings, one in which two women and an 8-year-old boy were killed and two young boys were left in critical condition after multiple shooters opened fire into a Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood home on the South Side. At least 19 of those shot were in mass shootings in Austin, Greater Grand Crossing and Little Italy. About 12:15 a.m. Friday, police responded to calls of shots fired...

CHICAGO -- At least 71 people have been shot, 11 fatally, in gun violence across Chicago since Wednesday evening during the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, police said. The violence includes three mass shootings, one in which two women and an 8-year-old boy were killed and two young boys were left in critical condition after multiple shooters opened fire into a Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood home on the South Side. At least 19 of those shot were in mass shootings in Austin, Greater Grand Crossing and Little Italy.

A Mexican woman believed to be a witch with cartel ties, was killed after she tried to snatch an 18-month-old out his parents' arms with the stated intent of killing the child as sacrifice to the patron saint of cartels. Before Maria Guadalupe R.M., 33, tried to kidnap the child, she had made it known to her nephew, also the father of the child, that she believed a dead family member had been reincarnated as his son, reported local newspaper Norte Digital. Sunday, she broke into her relatives' Ciudad Juarez home as her nephew slept with his wife and son...

CHICAGO -- At least 56 people have been shot, 11 fatally, in gun violence across Chicago so far this weekend, police said. The shootings happened across the city since 6 p.m. Wednesday, during the extended July 4th holiday weekend. The violence includes three mass shootings, one in which two women and an 8-year-old boy were killed and two young boys were left in critical condition after multiple shooters opened fire into a Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood home on the South Side. At least 43 shot, 6 fatally, in Chicago in less than 12 hours.

Mexican drug cartels are inundating American communities with the world’s deadliest drug in record-busting numbers, and it’s only getting worse. Fat Man and Little Boy killed perhaps 236,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Spanish Flu killed some 675,000 Americans from 1918–1920. And 1.2 million U.S. soldiers died fighting from World War I to the War on Terror. Yet in the span of a single month, our country imported enough ultra-deadly fentanyl to kill between 54 and 127 million Americans—and that’s just the stuff we caught. For reference, that’s easily enough to kill the combined populations of California, Texas,...

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Drug cartels from Mexico are operating in Hawaii, making and pushing deadly drugs including methamphetamines and fentanyl. New tougher penalties akin to murder charges are aiming to take them down. Authorities told KHON2 that the big cartels are ramping up business not just south of the border but right here in our island state. The top federal law enforcement official in Hawaii warns of the dangers not just to drug users, but to drug pushers once caught. Authorities have seen a big shift in recent years to Hawaii’s most dangerous drugs methamphetamine and fentanyl especially coming mostly...

How FUBAR is Afghanistan? More FUBAR than ever. Details in video. Transcript at link below video.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 35 people have been shot, four fatally, in gun violence across Chicago so far this weekend, police said. A concealed-carry license holder shot and critically injured a man during a shootout on Chicago's South Side early Saturday morning, police said. Police said the shooting happened in the Englewood neighborhood's 200-block of West 63rd Street at about 1:40 a.m. Two men, 36 and 49 years old, were arguing at a gas station when the 36-year-old got a gun out of his vehicle and fired at the 49-year-old, police said. The 49-year-old, a CCL holder, returned fire...

The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking. The case is the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the issue and comes as a rising number of people in the US are without a permanent place to live. In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the high court reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition does...

MARIA BARTIROMO: Ronny Jackson says that Biden will have been at Camp David for a full week before the debate and they're probably experimenting with getting doses right, giving Biden medicine ahead of the debate. Is that what you think? REP. ERIC BURLISON: Yeah ... whether they're gonna jack him up on Mountain Dew or whatever it is.

WASHINGTON — At Camp David, a movie theater and an airplane hangar have been outfitted with lights and production equipment to create a mock debate stage. At least 16 current and former aides, summoned from Washington and Wilmington, Delaware, whiz back and forth on golf carts to join President Joe Biden in strategy sessions. Biden is entering his fifth day of preparations at the presidential retreat in the woods of northern Maryland for Thursday’s debate against Donald Trump. Camp David has become the epicenter for an administration and campaign effort to help Biden shake off the rust that often comes...

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to let voters decide on a potential sales tax hike to fund affordable housing and homeless services. According to the Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions & Prevention Now initiative put forward by the Our Future Los Angeles Coalition, the proposed tax increase would fund a “comprehensive homelessness response program” and invest in new strategies to address encampments and create affordable housing. Supporters of the initiative, who submitted more than 400,000 signatures to the county Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk last month, held a rally Tuesday before the Board’s vote. “We can no longer...

President Donald Trump suggested President Joe Biden should be drug tested before their debate and agreed to take one himself. Trump and Republicans have long accused Biden of using performance-enhancing drugs to appear more agile, allegations the White House has repeatedly denied. The former president usually limited these suggestions to jokes, but he upped the ante Monday when he suggested that he and Biden should undergo drug tests before their debate Thursday. “DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. The Biden campaign dismissed Trump’s accusation, referring...