Free Republic

California voters frustrated by the routine failures of state and local leadership look set to send Spencer Pratt and Steve Hilton to runoff elections for mayor and governor after the first few ballot drops. In a major rebuke of Democratic rule in both Los Angeles and the state, both Pratt and Hilton held their positions steady Wednesday night. Hilton remained in the lead for the governor’s race with 27.6% of the vote and Xavier Becerra was in second place with 25.6% with 56% of the ballots counted. Pratt remained in second place with 29.91% of the vote behind incumbent Mayor...

SAN DIEGO — A 21-year-old Arizona man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of his pregnant ex-girlfriend in San Diego, prosecutors said. Trevon Williams faces charges including first-degree murder, attempted murder of a fetus, and possession of a machine gun with an extended magazine in connection with the May 29 killing of 17-year-old Jariah Edwards. Family members of the victim broke down in tears during the emotional court hearing at the Central Courthouse downtown. Prosecutors say Williams and Edwards had "an on and off relationship filled with domestic violence and threats of violence on...

Explanation: What is happening inside this unusual nebula? Planetary nebula Tc 1, captured here in exquisite detail by the James Webb Space Telescope, is the celestial site where buckyballs were first identified in 2010. Buckminsterfullerene — as buckyballs are officially called — is a molecule with 60 carbon atoms (C60) arranged in the shape of a soccer ball. The molecule is named for architect Buckminster Fuller because of its resemblance to the geodesic dome he helped popularize. Webb’s new data reveal where the C60 molecules live in this nebula, and the geometry is striking: they populate a thin spherical shell...

A Boeing 787 plane bound for Los Angeles nosedived onto the runway while parked at Frankfurt airport after the landing gear unexpectedly collapsed. Footage shared on social media shows the moment the nose gear of the plane, which is operated by Lufthansa, gave way. 'Passengers had not yet boarded,' a Lufthansa spokesperson said in an emailed statement, but crew members and ground staff were on board the aircraft at the time of the incident. 'Several staff members were injured and are currently receiving medical treatment,' the company added. Their condition is not yet known. Images showed multiple emergency vehicles parked...

It is now so common for leftists, indeed most Democrats, to call Trump supporters Nazis that it's easy to shrug and move on. Unfortunately, as much as we would like to think it is a mere rhetorical flourish, it is not one at all. If you think that Democrats aren't serious when they propose what sound like insane measures, just remember what they did during COVID, what they are doing with alphabet ideology (literally sterilizing and mutilating kids and putting sex offenders into girls' locker rooms), and what they did to President Trump before his reelection. They are quite serious...

The European Commission has taken Ireland to Europe’s highest court over the alleged lack of enforcement of EU rules when it comes to peat cutting. Following years of friction between the Government and the Commission on the issue, the EU’s executive body today referred Ireland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failure to comply with EU rules on environmental impact assessments. In a statement, the Commission said Ireland had failed to comply with the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive. The statement claimed there was still “significant peat cutting activity” which was not subject to planning permission or environmental impact...

Social Security’s finances may be in worse shape than thought. The Social Security Trustees — who release a report each year on the health of the program that supports about 70 million retirees and people with disabilities — have been relying on overly optimistic forecasts for future fertility rates, according to a blog report from the Cato Institute. Those forecasts are at odds with projections from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — the nonpartisan federal agency that provides Congress with independent analysis of budgetary and economic issues — which both have much more sober forecasts...

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President Donald Trump is floating the possibility of keeping the UFC arena on the White House South Lawn -- built for a series of fights on his birthday and Flag Day -- permanently. In a video posted to his official TikTok account Tuesday evening, Trump sat in the Oval Office and said that the Eiffel Tower in Paris was supposed to be a temporary structure, but that France kept it up -- suggesting that the UFC arena is "quite attractive to a lot of people" so "maybe we'll never ever take it down." "People don't know that in Paris, France,...

The culprit behind all three eruptions from the sun is Earth-facing sunspot region 4455. The unstable region produced an M9.3 solar flare that peaked at 9:36 p.m. EDT June 2 (0136 a.m. GMT on June 3), followed by an M7.9 flare at 3:00 a.m. EDT (0700 GMT) and an X1 at 7:28 a.m. EDT (1128 GMT) — the most powerful category of solar flare. The trio of eruptions triggered radio blackouts across Earth. The M9.3 flare triggered a moderate R2 radio blackout across parts of East Asia and Australia, while the M7.9 eruption caused another R2 blackout affecting portions of...

The term for the political tactic of manipulating boundaries of electoral districts for unfair political advantage derives its name from a prominent 19th-century political figure -- and from a mythological salamander.The term, originally written as "Gerry-mander," first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette -- a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Gov. Elbridge Gerry.Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Democratic-Republican Party, it was Gerry who signed the bill in 1812. As a result, he received the dubious honor of attribution, along with its negative connotations.Gerry, in fact,...

Alessandra Coote was walking on a trail with her 2-year-old daughter and dog two-and-a-half years ago when a man began yelling at her and threatened to kill her dog. When the petite single mom made it back to her Utah home, she decided she needed a firearm for protection. A few months later, while living in what she described as a “shady part of town,” a homeless man threatened her. After that encounter, she began regularly carrying a firearm under Utah’s Constitutional Carry law. Coote, who just graduated this spring from the University of Utah, says carrying the gun has...

California’s decline is no mystery: decades of one-party rule have turned America’s golden state into a warning about the costs of ideological governance. The recent California gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral elections—where, remarkably, Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt both appear to have advanced to the general election in November—offer a glimmer of hope. Could it be that some on the Left, along with a number of Independents, have finally realized that neither wealth nor an upscale ZIP code can protect them from the Left’s vindictive socialist madness? California gas prices, even prior to the Iran war, had reached the highest...

Quentin Tarantino is not a fan of the majority of movies coming out of Hollywood these days. Writing for Sight & Sound magazine, the Oscar winner revealed that “it’s almost impossible” for him these days to watch a new movie and not pick it “to death.” “Flaws, implausibilities, audience pandering, miscast performers or just plain stupid shit usually torpedoes every new movie coming out of the flavorless sausage factory that used to call itself Hollywood,” the director explained. “These days, the entire concept of what is a movie is more inclined to inspire contempt in me than generosity. Which is...

Democratic socialists are not just campaigning in so-called flyover states; they are winning. Over the past decade, the rise of democratic socialism in America has been most acute in coastal states like California, New York, and Washington. Generally, America’s heartland has refrained from embracing the democratic socialist grievance agenda. However, as the 2026 primary season heats up, we are seeing several democratic socialist candidates running for office in places across the heartland. Democratic socialists are not just campaigning in so-called flyover states; they are winning. In Pennsylvania, democratic socialist Chris Raab cruised to victory late last month in the state’s...

The remaining three correspondents at “60 Minutes” huddled this week to discuss their futures following the firing of Scott Pelley, according to a report, as former star Steve Kroft warned that the iconic newsmagazine “no longer exists” in the form viewers have known for decades. Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl and Jon Wertheim met on Wednesday for more than an hour amid growing turmoil at CBS News following Pelley’s ouster and the sweeping shakeup orchestrated by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, the Status newsletter reported on Thursday. The meeting came just hours after The Post reported that CBS insiders believed Whitaker...

The Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Robert McElroy, on Wednesday removed a well-known priest as an exorcist of the archdiocese after he made public comments suggesting that UFO sightings were the work of demons. McElroy said the archdiocese also was cutting ties with the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a Washington-based nonprofit headed by the priest, Monsignor Stephen Rossetti. The archbishop said Rossetti’s statements “linking UFOs to demonic presence and the Center’s recent use of social media gravely undermine the Church’s very precise teaching on the devil, demons and exorcism.” “There’s a danger here,” Rossetti said Friday in...

On June 4, 2004, Marvin Heemeyer used a homemade armored bulldozer to destroy 13 buildings in Granby, Colorado, during a 90-minute rampage that caused $7 million in damage. Heemeyer’s modified Komatsu bulldozer—later dubbed the “Killdozer”—came loaded with steel armor plating, cameras, and gun ports, making it almost impossible to stop. It all started with what seemed like a regular business dispute over zoning and sewer connections. Heemeyer, who ran a muffler shop, felt local government decisions had boxed him in. Over a year and a half, he quietly turned his bulldozer into an armored juggernaut and mapped out his attack...

The open betrayal of Western Civilization and British tradition by Muslim Labour Backbenchers and Green Party representatives. The edifice of Western civilization, forged in the crucible of Judeo-Christian values—individual dignity under a transcendent moral law, ordered liberty, the sanctity of the vulnerable, and a commitment to truth over tribal expediency—is imperiled not by external conquest alone, but equally by internal subversion. In a world ravaged by unrest, Britain used to be a model of institutional stability, political pragmatism, and academic excellence. Now, however, it is being torn apart by ideologically inflamed barbarians. Thus, in contemporary Britain, a betrayal on a...

FAIRFIELD, Calif. (KGO) -- An 18-year-old was killed and three others, including an 11-year-old child, were injured when gunfire erupted at the Fairfield High School parking lot following a graduation ceremony Wednesday evening, police said. The shooting happened around 7:15 p.m. near Schafer Stadium as the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District was holding a commencement ceremony for Sem Yeto High School. School officials confirmed the violence broke out just after the event ended, prompting police to declare a "large-scale incident." The unidentified 18-year-old died at the scene. Police have not confirmed whether the victim was a student. Emergency responders transported the...