Free Republic

President Donald Trump’s revamp of the H-1B white-collar outsourcing program has prompted cautious approval from advocates for American professionals and college graduates. “It does not end H-1Bs, but it fundamentally reshapes who benefits from them,” said Hany Girgis, a tech-training CEO. Employers and their lawyers are expected to file lawsuits against the new rules, which somewhat shift the distribution of new H-1B workers towards employers who offer higher wages. That shift will modestly pressure companies to hire young American graduates — but will not restrict the huge inflow of foreign workers via other programs, including the “cap-exempt” H-1B, J-1, L-1,...

A former university football player who sexually assaulted two women has been sentenced to just two years in prison because he is black and was feeling intense pressure around the time of the attacks, the judge said. Omogbolahan Jegede, 25, had choked one of the women almost into unconsciousness. “It should be noted that but, for the contents of the Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA), the pre-sentence report and all the mitigating factors surrounding Omogbolahan (Teddy) Jegede, this sentence would have been much higher,” Justice Frank Hoskins said in his Nova Scotia Supreme Court decision on Wednesday.

The Trump administration has barred five Europeans from entering the U.S., accusing them of pressuring American tech companies to censor or suppress American speech online. The individuals—Thierry Breton, Imran Ahmed, Josephine Ballon, Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, and Clare Melford—are all leading figures in European efforts to regulate harmful or illegal content on social media platforms. The five were barred under a May policy targeting foreign nationals deemed responsible for suppressing speech protected under U.S. law.

WASHINGTON — The Democratic Party’s principal fundraising committee saw donations slump in the second-to-last month of the year, recording just a $12 million campaign war chest and almost $16 million still in debt due to a loan taken out the previous month, Federal Election Commission filings show. The fundraising doldrums come amid party infighting over whether to release a 2024 autopsy report on the failed Biden-Harris campaign and pressure ahead of the critical 2026 midterms, in which Democrats want to retake Congress. The Democratic National Committee listed a little more than $12.6 million cash on hand, $10.7 million raised, and...

Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, and Chairman of The Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, Mark Wilf, have sent a strongly worded letter to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese following the deadly terrorist attack at the Sydney Jewish community’s Hanukkah celebrations. In the letter, the leaders of The Jewish Agency called on the government of Australia to act decisively to eradicate antisemitism through education, legislation, and law enforcement. They expressed their deep condolences to the Jewish community in Australia and to the Australian people, emphasizing that their hearts are with the...

The Justice Department said Wednesday that it's received a new tranche of records — more than 1 million documents — "potentially" related to Jeffrey Epstein's case, requiring additional time to process them before release. The DOJ said it "may take a few more weeks" to review the files produced by the FBI and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. "The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI have informed the Department of Justice that they have uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case," the Justice...

There will be no criminal charges filed against Hawaii Police Department Officer Sidra Brown, the handler of K-9 Archer, the narcotics detection dog that died Sept. 4 after being left unattended in a police vehicle in Kona. Archer was a 6-year-old narcotics detection dog. The Dept. of the Attorney General said, “After careful consideration of the evidence associated with this case, examination of the scene, and possible applicable law, our office has declined to prosecute this matter due to insufficient evidence of a crime.” Hawaii has both misdemeanor and felony charges for animal cruelty. First- degree animal cruelty is a...

Libertarian National Committee Chair Steven Nekhaila has issued a statement applauding President Donald Trump’s move to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance, calling the previous classification “nonsense” that was overdue for a change. In a December 18 statement shared by the Libertarian Party, Nekhaila said the move is a positive step that could expand medical access and scientific research, but added that broader cannabis reforms are still needed. The statement came in response to an executive order signed by Trump that same day directing federal agencies to accelerate efforts to reclassify marijuana under the...

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul over the state’s new law aimed at limiting immigration enforcement in courthouses. The law, signed by Pritzker this month, bars immigration enforcement from courthouses and opens the door for easier legal action against federal agents over alleged civil rights infractions. It follows the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation campaign that has targeted the state, specifically the Chicago area, for months. The lawsuit claims that the law is unconstitutional and states have no regulatory authority over federal actions, such as immigration enforcement.

The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request to allow the president to proceed with immediately deploying National Guard troops to Chicago — delivering a blow, if temporary, to President Donald Trump as he seeks to expand his federalization push across the U.S. The justices declined the Trump administration’s emergency request to overturn a ruling by U.S. District Judge April Perry that had blocked the deployment of troops. An appeals court also had refused to step in. The Supreme Court took more than two months to act.

CROSSLAKE, Minn. (KTTC) – In a letter penned by the mayor of Crosslake, and signed by 97 other mayors across the state of Minnesota, top city officials expressed their “deep concern and growing frustration” with the direction the state is heading in. Crosslake Mayor Jackson Purfeerst claimed that fraud, unchecked spending, and inconsistent fiscal management at the state level is making it more difficult for cities and towns to plan responsibly and continue offering core services to local taxpayers. “Minnesotans watched an historic $18 billion in surplus disappear in a single biennium, only to now face an updated projected $2.9...

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele responded to allegations by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the conditions at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), the country’s maximum-security prison that has received migrants deported from the United States. Bukele was responding to a post on X by Clinton that was accompanied by an 11-minute video of the PBS Frontline documentary titled: “Surviving CECOT.” “Curious to learn more about CECOT?” she wrote. “Hear Juan, Andry, and Wilmer share firsthand how the Trump administration branded them as gang members without evidence and deported them to the brutal El Salvadoran prison.” […] In response,...

The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose. These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states—in each case targeting American speakers and American companies. As such, I have determined that their entry, presence, or activities in the United States have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. Based on these determinations, the Department has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on agents of the global censorship-industrial complex who, as a result, will...

https://x.com/nicksortor/status/2003596864579424515 Nick Sortor @nicksortor 🚨 JUST IN: Brown University has hired FORMER, pre-DEI Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements, to be the interim head of Public Safety at Brown He’s replacing the DEI Head of Public Safety It SHOULD NOT take 11 students being SHOT for DEI to be axed GET RID OF IT EVERYWHERE, before MORE students are kiIIed

A salacious letter purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein that directly referenced President Trump is fake, the Justice Department said Tuesday. “The FBI has confirmed that this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE,” the DOJ wrote on X hours after it pledged it was “looking into the validity of this alleged letter.” Epstein purportedly wrote the letter to fellow jailed sex offender Larry Nassar — the disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor who is serving hundreds of years of prison for abusing girls under his care.

The Trump administration will start garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers in default in early January, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed to CNBC on Tuesday. More than 5 million student loan borrowers are currently in default, and that total could swell to roughly 10 million borrowers soon, the Education Department said earlier this year.

Turkish authorities closed Ankara’s airspace as a precaution after it lost contact with the plane and diverted multiple commercial flights away from Esenboga Airport. The commander's death was later confirmed by Turkish and Libyan officials. ============================================================= urkish officials temporarily closed down airspace over its capital of Ankara on Tuesday night after a business jet that carried Libya’s top military commander crashed near the city after he concluded an official visit to the country. The plane carrying Chief of the General Staff of Libya’s armed forces Muhammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad and four others lost contact roughly 30 minutes after departing Esenboga...

TRUMP'S MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT. Experts estimate that during the Biden administration, around 9 million migrants crossed illegally into the United States and remained in the country. As illegal border crossers, they are what immigration officials call "removable," that is, subject to expulsion from the country on the grounds that they entered without authorization. The wild influx during the Biden years strained communities nationwide, burdened government budgets, caused social disruption, led to an alarming number of violent crimes, and, in general, made a mockery of U.S. immigration law. Plus, the situation is difficult to reverse; it would be exceedingly difficult, if...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuffed the Trump administration over its plan to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois over the strenuous objections of local officials. The court in an unsigned order turned away an emergency request made by the administration, which said the troops are needed to protect federal agents involved in immigration enforcement in the Chicago area. In doing so, the court at least provisionally rejected the Trump administration’s view that the situation on the ground is so chaotic that it justifies invoking a federal law that allows the president to call National Guard troops into federal service...

Key Points * The Trump administration will start garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers in default in early January, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed to CNBC on Tuesday. * More than 5 million student loan borrowers are currently in default, and that total could swell to roughly 10 million borrowers soon, the Education Department said earlier this year. ============================================================== The Trump administration will start garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers in default in early January, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education confirmed to CNBC on Tuesday. It will be the first time...