Free Republic

At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, computer science student Jaylen Carroll found an unexpected connection between artificial intelligence (AI) and horticulture. Drawing on his academic interests, he helped develop a digital visitor experience for the university’s Botanical Gardens. The project proved useful enough that the gardens hired him to continue the work. It is a modest success story, but perhaps a more revealing one than another billion-dollar AI announcement. A student applied technology to a real problem, discovered its practical value, and earned the opportunity to further develop his skills. This is what workforce readiness should look like....

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Tuesday moved its ratings of the gubernatorial races in Nebraska from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican” and in Kansas from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up,” another positive sign for Democrats running in red states. The more favorable ratings for Democrats help boost the party’s odds of having a majority of state leaders after the midterms for the first time since 2010, Cook said. In Kansas, Democratic State Sen. Cindy Holscher and Republican Senate President Ty Masterson are running to replace Gov. Laura Kelly (D), who is term-limited. Holscher is running hard on opposing data...

... Mr. President, I would like to report a massive Election Fraud scheme against which I have fought for many years. I was present at the preliminary release of the findings of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s volunteer Cold Case Posse investigation into Obama. Sheriff Joe mentioned that you had only hours earlier sent him a FAX wishing him well with the investigation. It is my contention that Barack Hussein Obama did in fact criminally usurp the office of POTUS by fraud. That Mr. President is ELECTION FRAUD. Though now unseated, I would not want the American people to pay many millions...

Early voting in Texas is up about 50% compared with the same point in the 2022 midterm elections, with particularly strong participation among voters with Democratic primary histories, The Texas Tribune reported Tuesday. Nearly 4.5 million Texans cast ballots during the first seven days of early voting, representing 23.4% of registered voters, according to Texas secretary of state figures cited by The Texas Tribune. The surge comes as Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton faces Democrat state Rep. James Talarico in a closely contested U.S. Senate race that could help determine control of the chamber. Texas Democrats hope to win...

Other recent polling has supported “toss-up” ratings for the race from election handicappers, like the Cook Political Report. Another survey, released last week by Fox News, showed the two candidates tied in their support from likely voters in the state, while a Suffolk University poll conducted earlier this month similarly found the Democrat with a 2-point advantage. Collins is running for a sixth term in Congress. If she is successful in the general election, she will become the longest-serving senator in the state’s history. Despite Jackson’s lead in the Marist poll, 58 percent of respondents said they believe the Republican...

Booster 22 fired up on Pad 2, and SpaceX wants to catch both halves of Starship on Flight 15. But to reach the tower, the ship has to fly home over land, something no Starship has ever done. Also: where Flight 16 really launches from, Ship 43 at Massey's, Starbase's 456-launch plan and the Louisiana spaceport, NASA's Artemis Acceleration briefing, and Blue Origin's New Glenn date. Booster 22 Just Fired! SpaceX Goes for a Double Catch | 23:36 What about it!? | 674K subscribers | 138,119 views | October 27, 2026

Well, would you look at this… A new group of former federal prosecutors and so-called “human rights” activists has decided that America’s Justice Department isn’t doing its job, so they’re going to step in and start building criminal cases against government officials themselves. And as you’d expect, they’re funded like a well-oiled left-wing machine. And guess who’s high on their list of targets… ICE agents, of course. The organization calls itself the “Rule of Law Project,” and it’s promising to investigate alleged corruption and misconduct that it claims President Trump’s Justice Department has been ignoring. Sounds awfully official, doesn’t it?...

You’re arguing with psychosis. They’re screaming about things that aren’t there. The first task of defeating political opponents is to understand who they are. What is it that Democrats think they’re doing? And what they think they’re doing in 2026 amounts to a relentless ritual hallucination in the service of an institutional status quo. They’re making up a fake world in their heads to protect their paychecks: in media, in academia, in government, in the results-not-required world of the nonprofit organization. If you doubt that, go read the opinion pages of The New York Times, the agenda-setting newsletter of the...

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) is a premier member of the leftist establishment, and so she is unlikely to suffer any serious penalties for her misdeeds, but the evidence for those misdeeds is piling ever higher. Omar has not handled this very well, responding “Not to my knowledge” when asked if she actually married her brother in order to commit immigration fraud and playing her torn and frayed “racism” and “Islamophobia” cards against other allegations, and now she has gone even farther in her efforts to project a serene and untroubled business-as-usual front. This time, however, her gambit could easily backfire....

UPDATE (Oct. 21): Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis said the city scam that led to the transfer of $15 million to a “fraudulent entity” involved the new Regions Arena. PREVIOUS REPORTING MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — The City of Mobile transferred $14.7 million to a ‘fraudulent entity’ after it was the target of a criminal scam. According to a city news release, the city has notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service. “We are cooperating fully with investigators and taking every available step to recover the funds and bring the responsible party to justice,” the release read. City officials...

Federal authorities arrested six people associated with Community Home Health Care on fraud charges following a federal grand jury indictment, months after The Maine Wire visited the company’s South Portland office and the state suspended its ability to bill MaineCare. “Today’s arrests have dismantled an elaborate alleged fraud ring dedicated to fleecing a system meant to help those in need. Instead of taxpayer funds paying for the care of our friends and neighbors, these six individuals are accused of fabricating services and pocketing the money to enrich themselves,” said Homeland Security Investigations acting Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Grimming. A...

A nonprofit daycare that claims to have “over 40 locations” across California and received an $18.2 million award “for more [than] 1,048 children in at-risk" communities” actually has just one facility providing care for no more than six children, an investigation by The Center Square found. The William Law Foundation did not open its first daycare until October 2026, according to Executive Director William Edwards — more than three years after the nonprofit was awarded $18,216,131 through the California Department of Social Services’ 2022-23 General Child Care and Development Program grants. "It's been a slow start," Edwards conceded to The...

A Chicago man has been put in the slammer for two years for conducting a fake robbery scheme to help noncitizens obtain U-visas, which can be offered to those in the US if they are victims of specific types of crimes. Parth Nayi, 29, of Woodridge, has been sentenced for organizing hundreds of these fraudulent robberies between 2022 and 2024, and was found out after one of them took a turn for the worse, and a "suspect" accidentally shot a store clerk in the abdomen, critically injuring the victim. Nayi recruited people to pose as "victims," would pay the store...

A Nashville judge temporarily blocked Tennessee health officials from requiring immigration status checks of HIV-positive individuals enrolled in a healthcare safety-net program. Chancellor I’Ashea L. Myles issued the temporary restraining order late Wednesday. The order prevents the Tennessee Department of Health from moving forward with a demand that organizations revise their contracts to include immigration status verification as a condition of serving patients in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. The order extends to a companion program known as HOPWA, or Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS. Myles set a Nov. 4 hearing in the case.

Voter Protection Corps wants social-media monitoring treated as core election infrastructure, backed by lawyers and networks that deliver rebuttals before voters encounter the claims. ======================================================================= A group founded by an Obama campaign veteran has built a program to recruit lawyers to help get election posts removed from social media ahead of the 2026 midterms. The organization, Voter Protection Corps, is combining volunteers who flag election content with attorneys who review posts and help prepare requests for platforms to take them down. Its September 8 recruitment notice spells out why it wants lawyers involved: “lending legal credibility to formal removal requests.”...

A Michaels arts and crafts store is facing accusations of political discrimination after an employee reportedly refused to frame a photograph of President Donald Trump, patriotic artwork and even a newspaper commemorating the historic Apollo moon landing. The confrontation, captured on video and shared on social media, has sparked questions about whether the national retailer allows employees to reject custom framing orders based on political content. . @MichaelsStores refused to custom frame three things for me: my favorite image of President @realDonaldTrump, a @McNaughtonArt piece, and an original moon landing newspaper. Apparently "custom framing" now means the clerk approves your...

Florida Democrat Senate candidate Angie Nixon stunned viewers during a recent interview when she was asked a straightforward question about whether Cuba is a dictatorship. Somehow, she couldn't answer. Instead of offering a clear response, the challenger to Republican Sen. Ashley Moody responded with all the energy of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She of "I'm not a biologist" fame. "Do you consider that Cuba is a dictatorship?" she was asked in an interview with CBS News. "You know, that is what people have told me," she replied. "I have never been to Cuba, and so I will have...

I used to watch the Super Bowls for two reasons no matter who is playing: the commercials and the halftime shows. Having the commercials release on YouTube a few days before the game has ended that particular anticipation for the most part. I can't stave off the temptation. Especially for the spots of upcoming movies even if those films are ten whole months out. That leaves the halftime show. A spectacle that has long entertained folks regardless of the competing teams. But let's face it: the halftime shows of the past several years have been too bereft of real engaging...

Far-left insurgent group’s "energy, desire, demand for bold change" is "going to be dominant." California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave unvarnished thoughts to an undercover journalist about the future of the Democrat Party recently, and believes the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is “going to be the dominant” force, spotlighting the fissure in the party that is only going to grow heading into the 2028 presidential election. “I am a younger voter, and a lot of us, we want to see the Democrat Party move forward,” the person in the video obtained exclusively by Townhall said to Newsom. “You know, we...

The largest children's hospital in Texas officially opened the first-ever detransition clinic on Monday, providing care for patients up to age 21 who have undergone so-called gender affirming care. The grand opening comes five months after Texas Children's Hospital settled a lawsuit with the Trump administration, which included the clinic and an agreement to pay more than $10 million in damages and civil penalties to resolve allegations it submitted false billings to public and private payors to secure insurance coverage for medicalized pediatric gender transitions. "Today, Texas Children’s Hospital has officially launched their Detransition Clinic," Vanessa Sivadge, founder of Protect...