Free Republic

It's one thing to live on stolen land, constantly looking over your shoulder to see if anybody noticed and might decide to do something about it. It's quite another to insist that "No one is illegal on stolen land" in front of 14.4 million viewers on live television, and have that clip played countless times for countless millions more all over YouTube and social media — all while living in a mansion that, well, sits on "stolen land." Billie Eilish did the latter on Sunday, and now one Los Angeles attorney plans to do something about it. But I haven't...

An appeals court overturned the conviction of a disgraced former UCLA gynecologist serving 11 years in prison for sexually abusing patients, after determining the trial judge failed to disclose that jurors had concerns that one of their own barely spoke English. James Heaps, 69, will be retried on the charges involving the two patients he was convicted of abusing in 2022, a three-judge panel of the California 2nd District Court of Appeal ordered on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported. John Manly, who represented more than 200 former Heaps patients in a lawsuit that resulted in a $243.6 million settlement,...

The Native American tribe that owns the land under Billie Eilish’s multimillion-dollar Los Angeles mansion said celebrities should “explicitly” reference the tribes if they want to use them to virtue-signal. The Tongva tribe confirmed the “Bad Guy” singer’s $3 million home does sit on its “ancestral land,” after the 24-year-old used her Grammys acceptance speech to rail against ICE and insist that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” The indigenous inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin, known as the “First Angelenos,” said they appreciate Eilish’s sentiment, however, they noted that the performer hasn’t contacted them directly — and insisted...

A suspected biological laboratory raided by Metro police and the FBI may be connected to a similar incident in California, where officials found infectious agents such as HIV and malaria, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned. Police and the FBI searched the home on Saturday, Jan. 31, finding a “possible biological laboratory,” including “refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids,” police said. Shortly before 6 a.m., a Metro SWAT team served a search warrant at the home on Sugar Springs Drive near Washington Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard to search for a possible “biological laboratory” inside the home. A second location...

Alex Pretti’s last words were, “Are you okay?” Renee Good’s were, “I’m not mad at you.” Both were fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers this month. Neither was holding weapons. They were observers, present to record, witness and alert their communities. We all saw what happened to them. ICE brutality is not new. The agency has instituted inhumane conditions and separated families for decades. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025, but that was also true in 2004. What has changed is not the violence. The change is that we can no longer pretend we do...

There’s a concerning new trend among burglars in the Bay Area, authorities say. Burglars are hiding surveillance devices like cameras at homes to monitor their potential victims, the San Jose Police Department announced Friday. “The suspects plant hidden surveillance devices, often posing as delivery service providers, to determine when homes are unoccupied before committing burglaries,” SJPD said. “As a reminder, remaining vigilant and reporting suspicious activity helps keep our neighborhoods safe.” Helicopters to fly at low altitudes around Bay Area ahead of Super Bowl LX, officials warn A resident in east San Jose called police Thursday after they allegedly found...

Perhaps the sickest thing about the rapid decline of blue states like New York and California, each rapidly shrinking in comparison to the rest of the country, is that the Democrats who dominate their governments can’t be bothered to stop the bleeding — but only to ensure their own turf remains whole. ... Yet the progressive Democrats who fully control both state government show zero sign of reversing their high tax, prodigious spending, crushing-regulation ways; their only response is to gerrymander ruthlessly so that their party retains its House-seat count. California’s climate remains as perfect as ever, yet it’s staring...

CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) — Two young children in Chula Vista are now in the care of a family friend after Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained both of their parents after school drop-off this week. The boys, ages 12 and 4, have not seen their parents since Tuesday morning when Reinaldo Chirino and Kris Estefany dropped them off at school. The parents never returned to pick up their children because ICE arrested them shortly after the school drop-off. Itzel Jimenez, a family friend, received a voicemail about the detention and stepped in to care for the children to prevent them...

Jane, who? Aging lefty actress Jane Fonda struggled to draw a crowd as she railed against the arrest of Don Lemon Friday outside a Los Angeles courthouse. The 88-year-old gathered with only a handful of sign-waving supporters for her full-throated defense of Lemon, who was charged for storming of a Minnesota church with a group of agitators. “They’ll make up all kinds of defamatory things to say about him. That’s what they’re doing. This is how autocrats act. We can’t fall for it,” Fonda said.

Who could have guessed that prices have anything to do with supply and demand? Not me. I used to think so, but after I got into an argument with a liberal friend of mine after I suggested that the housing crisis was related to the surge in illegal immigration, and he exploded at me, I changed my mind. His emotional response was very convincing. Well, it turns out that reality really doesn't respond as one would expect to emotional outbursts, and when demand drops due to fewer people seeking limited resources, prices really do fall. Los Angeles is one of...

A Paramount man has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge alleging he threw pieces of cinderblock and injured a Border Patrol officer when a protest against immigration enforcement turned into a riot in June, according to court papers obtained Monday.Jacob Terrazas, 30, will enter his plea on a date to be determined to simple assault on a federal officer, a Class-A misdemeanor carrying a possible sentence of up to a year behind bars, his plea agreement states. Terrazas was initially charged in Los Angeles federal court with a felony count of assault on a federal officer making physical...

Things are getting tense in downtown Los Angeles Friday evening as anti-ICE protesters are at it again, attacking law enforcement, blowing whistles, and throwing water bottles. Video journalist Anthony Cabassa is on the scene:BREAKING 🚨: Chaos is unfolding as the protests turn violent. Water bottles and rocks being thrown at federal agents retreating, protestors pepper sprayed as agents attempt to keep control.Agents are vastly outnumbered, no local police presence after over an hour of turmoil. pic.twitter.com/oCli2wCuoI— Anthony (@anthonycabassa) January 31, 2026The Los Angeles Police Department declared a tactical alert after protesters refused to disperse.⚠️Community Advisory⚠️Due to violent agitators on Alameda...

The National Park Service is on the hunt for a boneheaded driver who ripped rare plants during a joyride through Death Valley last month. The suspect left behind more than five miles of tire tracks throughout the heavily protected Eureka Dunes while destroying at least 74 plants crucial to the park’s ecosystem. Officials say at least two people were in the car during the Dec. 17 off-roading incident.

Los Angeles police do not plan to enforce recently enacted state and local bans that prohibit federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks during enforcement operations, the police chief said Thursday. Chief Jim McDonnell, when asked at a news conference about mask bans, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in September and which separately won approval by Los Angeles County supervisors, said he disagreed with the policies, citing the possibility of conflict between police and other agencies if they were to be enforced. “The reality of one armed agency approaching another armed agency to create conflict over something that...

Alphabet-owned Waymo has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that one of its driverless vehicles “struck a child near an elementary school” in Santa Monica, California The Jan. 23 incident is now being investigated by the U.S. vehicle safety authority. According to records posted to the NHTSA website, the child sustained minor injuries. The Waymo collision occurred within two blocks of an elementary school during normal school drop-off hours, while other children, a crossing guard and several double-parked vehicles were nearby. “The child ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV towards the school and was struck by...

A large mob of protestors surrounded a restaurant in Los Angeles after mistaking airport security workers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The demonstrators gathered outside of Ten-Raku, a Korean BBQ spot in Lynwood, on Wednesday night after hearing reports that federal officers were allegedly inside. In reality, they blared airhorns and whistles and shouted at off-duty TSA officers who were just trying to enjoy dinner, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office told the Daily Mail. When confronted about mistaking the airport staff for ICE, one irate demonstrator gave the excuse that people get 'emotional' and make 'mistakes,' noting...

Two lawsuits alleging antisemitism—one involving Stanford University and another tied to the spring 2024 anti-Israel encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles—will move forward, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law announced on Jan. 22. The Stanford case stems from a July lawsuit filed by the Brandeis Center on behalf of Shay Laps, a Jewish Israeli researcher who alleges that he faced “discrimination and insidious, malicious conduct intended to permanently tarnish his reputation and career” at a Stanford lab, including tampering with his research, being locked out of a lab and a fabricated sexual harassment complaint...

Hundreds of students across the Bay Area walked out of their classes Wednesday to protest the recent killings of two people in Minneapolis by federal agents and President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown. The local walkouts — which included a march through the streets of downtown San Jose, along with other walkouts near San Leandro — added to a growing number of protests across the nation following the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents over the weekend in Minneapolis. The killing came just weeks after another federal agent fatally shot a mother of three, Renee Good,...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Bay Area lawmaker has introduced a bill that would disqualify someone from being a teacher or police officer if they worked for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration.

ccording to documents posted online by a family who formerly lived in California, the Golden State is trying to collect income taxes years after the family moved to Florida. The documents, sent on Jan. 6, 2026, asked for receipts, invoices, canceled checks and other documentation showing that the family moved from California to Florida nearly four years ago. The California Franchise Tax Board, which sent the letter, also asked the family for a “narrative of the circumstances” surrounding the family’s move out of state. Hari Raghavan, who with his wife, Mitali Gala, was the subject of the investigation by the...