Free Republic

While many pro-lifers focus on preserving the Hyde Amendment to keep federal tax dollars from funding abortion, many Americans don’t realize that their state taxes are already funding it. A new report from Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) highlighted that 21 states are funding abortion through Medicaid. “Twenty-one states currently use their own funds to cover abortion services for Medicaid enrollees beyond the limits imposed by the federal Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortions in cases other than pregnancies that result from rape, incest, or are a life threat,” reports KFF. Using state taxes to pay for abortions, this...

The captain of a motorboat that capsized in New York Harbor and killed a mom and her baby was not licensed to operate the vessel – and was actually hired as a limo driver, new court documents reveal. Manuel Hernandez, 46, was allegedly running an illegal charter operation when he overloaded the 21-foot boat with 13 passengers on Saturday night, and lacked required safety standards that included child or infant-sized life jackets, federal prosecutors said. Sara Sanchez, 27, and her 5-month-old daughter, Antonella Garcia, drowned shortly before 10:30 p.m. when the boat was struck by a swell while making a...

Taxpayers are unknowingly paying private consultants a cut of the Medicaid money the consultants help states claim for school-based health services. Federal auditors have flagged more than $1.5 billion of those claims as improper or unsupported across four states, and the consultant was the same in every one: Boston-based Public Consulting Group (PCG). New Jersey’s audit states the firm was hired “on a contingency fee basis,” and the Government Accountability Office has found consultants building school Medicaid claims collected fees of 3 to 25 percent of the federal reimbursement. The more school-staff time coded as “Medicaid,” the bigger the check....

AUSTIN, Texas - An immigration enforcement operation unfolded directly outside Austin City Hall on Thursday morning, interrupting a city budget meeting and drawing sharp condemnation from local officials and community advocates. The backstory: Texas DPS said on Friday, August 7, around 9:30 a.m., troopers initiated a traffic stop at the intersection of César Chávez and Guadalupe Streets. The driver they pulled over was driving the wrong way down a one-way street. "The troopers on scene were federally certified Designated Immigration Officers under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. After determining the driver lacked proper identification and that all...

Former DNC fundraiser Lindy Li joins 'My View with Lara Trump' to discuss the internal division within the Democratic Party. Li warns about donor dissatisfaction, falling approval ratings and a cash shortfall as the midterm elections approach.Democrat concerns grow as former DNC fundraiser Lindy Li joins 'My View with Lara Trump' to expose the party's escalating financial crisis and internal division. Li warns that far-left candidates are driving away moderate donors and depressing approval ratings among key voting blocs.

Three people are facing murder charges in the death of a young boy in the Oakley neighborhood on Thursday. Cincinnati police officers, along with Norwood police officers, were called to the 2800 block of Madison Road around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. When officers arrived on scene, they found a young boy had died inside the home. The Cincinnati Police Department identified the victim as 7-year-old William Evans. Three women are now facing charges in connection with Evans' death. CPD has identified the suspects as Nessa Keaney, 23, Kaitlin Evans, 38, and Kirby Rankin, 33. According to court documents, some of the...

COOK COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is threatening to have Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart criminally charged. In letters obtained by ABC7 I-Team through the Freedom of Information Act, ICE requested Sheriff Dart serve immigration subpoenas. The federal agency said failing to serve them could result in prosecution for tampering with a witness. The Cook County Sheriff's Office says it cannot release an individual in custody to any law enforcement agency or federal agents for an interview. The sheriff's office also says three of the individuals named in the letters were released before the office received...

The investigation of Joe Shymanski's murder began as a missing persons case. It was Sept. 4, 2023, at 7:47 p.m. when sheriff's deputies in Calvert County, Maryland, were called to the home of the well-known photographer. His ex-wife, Heather Snyder, met them in the driveway. She would tell authorities she had arrived by car at about 7 p.m. from her home in Pennsylvania to hand off custody of their then-8-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam video): Um, I was supposed to return the kids to him. DEPUTY: OK. HEATHER SNYDER: At 7 o'clock tonight ... HEATHER SNYDER (bodycam...

She’s unplugged from reality. A rent-striking, rising-star radical orchestrating the Mamdani administration’s socialist housing agenda is the daughter of a famed music studio owner who recorded rock legends like David Bowie, the Ramones, Blondie, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, the Foo Fighters and Coldplay, The Post has learned. While framing herself as a champion of the proletariat, Tracy Rosenthal grew up in a trendy $1.7 million NoMad pad with elite access to the music industry — attending the Grammys at least twice with her dad, four-time winner Steven Rosenthal.

Cambridge University is England’s second-best university, but it’s now bottom of the class. As the case of Jason Arday confirms, no one does dumb like the smart people. In 2023, Cambridge made Arday a professor. He became the professorial chair of sociology and education. These fields produce politicized gibberish and call it scientific research.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine is reportedly quietly working toward an exit from Donald Trump’s Iran war, even as the president appears to believe more air strikes could force a deal. As the war enters its sixth month, CNN reported Friday that Caine has privately discussed the limits of further military action with other top Trump advisers, warning that continued bombing may not be enough to secure a ceasefire. “Caine is looking for an off-ramp,” one source familiar with the matter told the outlet. The 57-year-old general has discussed the matter with CIA Director John...

The serial sex attacker Simon Levy now faces whole life prison sentences after he was found guilty of murdering two women and raping a third woman. The police watchdog has put two officers under investigation as it looks into why the Metropolitan Police, the British Transport police and the courts left Levy free to kill - despite a string of convictions.

AURORA | An Aurora police officer faces a murder charge for the fatal shooting of a Black man during a traffic stop last year. On Monday, an Arapahoe County grand jury indicted Aurora Police officer Matthew Neely, 54, on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter related to the 2025 fatal shooting of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield. Neely is on unpaid administrative leave, according to the Aurora Police Department. Neely is not being held in jail, having posted a $200,000 bond. His next court date is Aug. 17. Neely was previously called out by an Arapahoe County judge for mishandling a burglary case...

“. . . it’s subversion and nothing about it is accidental. it’s a well worn playbook to use the democratic institutions of a high trust state to destroy a civilization.” —El Gato Malo on Substack The days might still be long, but this is a dark season in our country’s politics. Everybody’s nervous and many are furious, and yet all that emotion goes nowhere, just eats you up while you watch and wait for signs that help is on the way. What would that help even look like? Maybe a concerted effort to bum-rush a whole lot of bad ideas...

The NYPD is searching for a masked suspect seen on surveillance video vandalizing a church in Long Island City, Queens. What we know: Video shows the suspect jumping a fence into the courtyard of St. Rita's Roman Catholic Church on 11th Street, then taking a hammer from his pocket and smashing a Mother Mary statue. The statue was knocked off its pedestal and broke during the incident just after 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 1, police said. The suspect jumped back over the fence and fled the scene, police said. Local perspective: According to officials, this marked the fourth time since...

An Islamic center in Westwood is working to rebuild trust after burglars broke in and vandalized its main hall with a hateful message, even as leaders say the center’s mission to serve the neighborhood will continue. The Cincinnati Islamic Community Center is a modest building in the neighborhood that holds a biweekly food pantry and a trauma workshop with young people in the inner city. Members said the break-in was not the first at the center, but the shock this time was not what was taken; it was the damage left behind. An Islamic center in Westwood is working to...

When cisplatin came on the market in 1978, it revolutionized cancer care. Carboplatin, a related chemotherapy drug with fewer side effects, soon followed in 1986. Together, these two drugs have saved countless lives and are prescribed for up to 20% of cancer patients to treat ovarian, bladder, breast, lung, and other types of cancer. “They're the backbone for treatments for a lot of different types of cancer,” says Dr. Jacob Reibel, a medical oncologist at Dartmouth Cancer Center. And yet, in recent years, when some hospital pharmacists have gone to source these chemo drugs for patients, they’ve had difficulty. They’ve...

Threats, harassment and graffiti have all been reported to policeAn Islamic centre in Gatineau, Que., says it's been targeted for weeks by threats, harassment and graffiti. The Centre islamique de l’Outaouais, which includes schools and mosques around the city, condemned what it called hateful intimidation in a social media post on Thursday night. It said the campaign started with threats, then progressed to in-person and online harassment against families. More recently, it's been dealing with graffiti suggesting Muslims don't belong in the area. The centre said whoever is leaving the graffiti is returning to rewrite it after city workers remove...

A man wanted in connection with the sexual assault of a child in Canada more than 30 years ago was arrested in Santa Cruz, according to ICE San Francisco. Charles Peter Billone, 64, was found hiding in Santa Cruz after decades on the run from Canadian law enforcement. He has been wanted since 1991 for allegedly sexually assaulting a child. According to ICE San Francisco, Billone also has previous convictions for possession of stolen property, assault and drug-related offenses. He is currently in ICE custody pending removal. Articles published by Canadian news outlets in 2014 reported that Billone had been...

For the first time ever, scientists have used artificial intelligence to design complete viral genomes that were physically synthesized and turned into 16 new functional viruses capable of replicating. The work was published in Science, one of the world’s most prominent scientific journals. Disturbingly, the study’s senior author, Brian L. Hie, who conceived, designed, and supervised the research disclosed funding from the Gates Foundation. This was not a computer simulation. Researchers generated hundreds of AI-designed viral genomes, physically manufactured the DNA, assembled the genomes, introduced them into susceptible E. coli, and recovered 16 functional bacteriophages that successfully propagated. The viruses...