Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., leads a committee on Capitol Hill that has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security. That agency has been under heightened scrutiny after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens who were protesting immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis last month. In letters to the heads of three federal immigration agencies, Paul wrote, “The Department of Homeland Security has been provided an exceptional amount of funding to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight of those tax dollars and ensure the funding is used to accomplish...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A federal judge has ordered a temporary restraining order restricting the ability of federal agents at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Portland from using tear gas and other chemical munitions at people unless there is an imminent threat of physical harm, according to court documents filed on Tuesday afternoon.“In a well-functioning constitutional democratic republic, free speech, courageous newsgathering, and nonviolent protest are all permitted, respected, and even celebrated. In an authoritarian regime, that is not the case. Our nation is now at a crossroads,” U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon wrote.Meanwhile, U.S. Sen....

Four Massachusetts residents are accused of using more than 100 stolen identities to get over $1 million in food stamps and pandemic-era unemployment benefits in a multi-state fraud scheme, federal prosecutors say. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said stolen identities from Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico were used to obtain $440,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The defendants also allegedly submitted fraudulent documents in order to receive more than $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and Nevada. --snip-- Three defendants charged...

A former Atlanta Housing Authority executive pleaded guilty Monday in a federal court to collecting more than $300,000 in federal housing and pandemic funds. Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Ashli Lincoln was in the courtroom as former senior vice president Tracy Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft of government funds, wire fraud and credit application fraud. She could face more than 20 years in prison. Jones spoke softly, answering mostly yes-or-no questions. In the end, she told the judge she agreed with the facts laid out in a 16-page plea agreement and told the court she was guilty of...

Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, have agreed to testify in the congressional investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It comes days before a vote on whether to hold the couple in criminal contempt for refusing to appear before the House Oversight Committee after a months-long standoff. Bill Clinton was acquainted with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, but has denied knowledge of his sex offending and says he cut off contact two decades ago. It's unclear when the depositions will take place, but it will be the first...

Pop star Billie Eilish has been hit with calls to either return her $3 million Los Angeles mansion to a Native American tribe or welcome migrants inside following her controversial Grammys declaration. The 24-year-old singer won a Grammy for her hit song Wildflower on Sunday, but it was her acceptance speech that got the country talking. 'As grateful as I feel, I honestly don’t feel like I need to say anything but that no one is illegal on stolen land,' Eilish said, referencing the colonization of the Americas by Europeans. As she stood alongside her brother Finneas, who co-wrote and...

A new poll released by the firm Cygnal has shown that Trump’s deportation agenda continues to grow more popular with the American people in spite of the best efforts of Democrats and the media to malign the administration. Swing voters and independents overwhelmingly agree that those who have illegally entered the country have broken the law at 82 percent and 70 percent, respectively. Overall, 73 percent of American voters agree with the sentiment, while a surprisingly high 48 percent of Democrats would say that illegal border crossings constitute a crime.

America's most millennial cities have been revealed - and the vast majority of them are liberal strongholds. Census Bureau data from 2024, crunched by the San Francisco Chronicle, identified counties nationwide with the highest concentration of residents from the generation. Millennials - people born between 1981 and 1996 - tend to be found in trendy, Democrat-led cities which are also often the most expensive metro areas to live. he same liberal cities are also favorites among the younger generation, known as Gen Z - people born between 1997 and 2012. According to a Gallup poll, 27 percent of Gen Z...

Bad Bunny used his acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards on Sunday to denounce U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and call for the end of the ongoing immigration crackdown."Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say ICE out," the Puerto Rican artist said as he accepted the Grammy for his album "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" in the música urbana album category. "We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans."His statement was met with applause and standing ovations. It came as protests against ICE took place across the country this weekend,...

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Sunday he will vote to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress so long as the lower chamber also votes on holding Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt. “I will vote yes on contempt against them and anybody else, as long as Pam Bondi is part of it,” Raskin told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Last month, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee advanced resolutions to hold the Clintons in contempt over their refusal to appear for depositions after being subpoenaed...

Democrats seem to be getting their mojo back as the midterm season heats up. Democrats topped Republicans on the generic congressional ballot by a considerable six points, 52% to 46%, scoring the highest of any party on that metric in the history of the survey commissioned by Fox News.The minority party also made massive gains on key issues, crushing Republicans on affordability by 14 points, health care by 21 points, helping the middle class by 14 points, transgender issues by 22 points, and even taxes by one point.<“Democrats are taking back the House in November,” a confident Democratic Congressional Campaign...

In a startling development, a Minnesota building that was originally a linen factory is allegedly now housing around 400 Medicaid billing businesses. In a social media clip, Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), revealed that these businesses billed approximately $380 million (£278 million) to Medicaid. ‘Behind me is the Griggs Midway building. It looks like a factory because it was a factory. Roughly 400 Medicaid businesses were started in the building behind me over the last several years,’ Oz said while standing alongside acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill outside the building in St. Paul....

SALEM, Ore. (KATU) — Two Democratic Oregon Senators will introduce a bill that would change how the state’s personal income tax “kicker” is distributed when revenues exceed forecasts. The resolution would amend the Oregon Constitution. Under current law, when state revenues exceed projections by at least 2%, most of the excess personal income tax revenue is returned to taxpayers as the kicker. Under the resolution, that system would largely remain in place, but with a new threshold. If the total personal income tax surplus exceeds $300 million in a biennium, only half of that excess would be returned to taxpayers....

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) compared Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to fictional villains on Friday, calling them both a “sycophant” as tensions rise over the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. “A sycophant is more than just a ‘yes-man,’” Tillis wrote in a lengthy post on social platform X. “It refers to someone who acts excessively servile toward someone important in order to gain an advantage.” He added, “They aren’t just being nice, they are using excessive flattery, often insincerely, to get what they want, whether that’s a promotion, social status or favor.”...

As the Trump administration slashes funding and exits multiple international bodies over criticism that the U.N. has failed to promote U.S. interests, the United Nations is warning it could face a cash crisis by July.In a Jan. 28 letter from U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to ambassadors, he cited record unpaid dues and rigid budget rules that have left the organization exposed.Guterres said the U.N. is trapped in a "Kafkaesque cycle" in which rigid budget rules force it to return "unspent" funds even when those contributions were never paid. He said outstanding dues reached a record $1.568 billion at the end...

“The ICE derangement syndrome is off the charts because we are amidst a pandemic of progressive leftist mental illness, which is an extremely disproportionately female problem.” —JD Haltigan on "X" James Howard Kunstler Jan 30, 2026 It has come into focus now and you no longer need to be perplexed, mystified, bewildered, or bamboozled by events unspooling in Minneapolis and other hotspots of Woke-Marxist-Jacobin delirium. You are seeing the infernal machine of a sponsored revolution. Its parts are visible. They can be named and clearly understood. I will tell you how this works. You realize, of course, that there has...

A freelance journalist reported on billions of dollars stolen from welfare programs in Minnesota. Congress did not uncover this scandal; a member of the public did. How did Congress respond? Did they open their own investigation, or claw back money from Minnesota? No, they simply decided to spend another $5 billion on welfare. If Congress cared so much about addressing welfare fraud of the kind found in Minnesota, why is the Senate considering a spending package that includes yet another $5 billion in taxpayer funded welfare for refugees? Can Democrats and big government Republicans be so obtuse as to propose...

(The Center Square) – A King County jury on Thursday found the city of Seattle negligent in its handling of the 2020 Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or CHOP, zone, awarding nearly $31 million to the family of 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr., who was fatally shot during the protests. Mays was shot by an unknown person(s) on June 29, 2023, in the chaotic, barricaded zone that was set up in Seattle in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin the previous month. No suspects have been officially identified or arrested for May's murder. A...

Sen. Thom Tillis said Friday that he will oppose President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair until the criminal probe of the current Chair Jerome Powell is “fully” resolved. “Protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve from political interference or legal intimidation is non-negotiable,” the North Carolina Republican said in a statement on X. Tillis, who is set to retire, vowed earlier this month to oppose any new nominee for the Fed until the Department of Justice’s controversial investigation of Powell is completed. Tillis is a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee,...

The Senate’s race to avert a shutdown hit the skids late Thursday night as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) placed a hold on the government funding package, forcing leaders to punt the vote. Senators had been hoping to vote on the so-called minibus after leaders struck a deal earlier in the day and President Trump endorsed it. Under the agreement, the Senate was set to vote on a package of five full-year funding bills and a stopgap measure funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for two weeks. But as lawmakers awaited word on the vote late Thursday, a fired-up Graham...