Free Republic

A pro-life activist whose 2022 arrest by the FBI under the Biden administration drew national headlines has reached a seven-figure settlement after suing the Justice Department over his arrest and prosecution. Mark Houck filed a lawsuit against the department in 2023 seeking restitution for what he called "a faulty investigation" and "excessive force" after a SWAT team of around 25 people arrested him in front of his children at his home on Sept. 23, 2022, allegedly with guns drawn.

A legal maneuver once reserved for death row inmates and suspected terrorists has become the only recourse for immigrant detainees. The petitions for freedom have flooded California’s Eastern District, where the chief judge recently took the unusual step of announcing a “judicial emergency.” Many of the cases involve longtime U.S. residents unexpectedly hauled off to jail after routine immigration check-ins. Federal immigration officials had once again flouted his authority by keeping a man locked up in a California City detention center after Nunley ordered him released. When he was finally set free, the man was booted onto the street with...

Assemblyman Mark González (D-Los Angeles) is sponsoring legislation "to get the feds out of our state. ICE insists that our state's sanctuary laws do not supersede their authority to enforce federal immigration laws. My bill will bar ICE agents or Department of Homeland Security employees who work for Trump from holding any future public employment in California--not the state, not the counties, not the cities, not any other entity that gets funding from the public treasury. This would bar them from being employed in public transit, water districts, and food stores if we follow the lead of New York's Mayor...

When disbarment becomes a foreseeable consequence of advancing controversial legal theories in politically charged contexts, the effect is to narrow the range of permissible legal thought. The disbarment of John Eastman represents the logical endpoint of a systematic abuse of legal and administrative processes commonly described as lawfare, a pattern that has been escalating for nearly a decade. What began in 2016 with the targeting of Trump campaign associates, who at least operated within the political arena, has evolved into the professional destruction of a law professor who held no office, ran no campaign, and whose only “offense” was...

President Trump posted 4/19/26, on True Social: “Whether people like Israel or not, they have proven to be a GREAT Ally of the United States of America. They are Courageous, Bold, Loyal, and Smart and, unlike others that have shown their true colors in a moment of conflict and stress, Israel fights hard, and knows how to WIN! President DJT” April 19, 2026 Donald J. Trump

The median home sale price in the San Francisco metropolitan area jumped 14.4% year over year in March to a record $1.7 million. That’s the largest increase since March 2018 and the biggest gain among the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas. Condo prices in San Francisco rose particularly quickly, posting a 24.4% year-over-year increase last month—the largest since 2013. San Francisco’s housing market has been heating up as a boom in the artificial intelligence industry and a return to the office have coincided with a lack of inventory. “A lot of 22-year-olds are getting $500,000 signing bonuses from AI...

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A gunman in Louisiana killed eight children in domestic-related shootings at different homes early Sunday, said Shreveport police chief Wayne Smith. The victims ranged in age from one to about 14 years old, Smith said. A total of 10 were people shot. The gunman later died after a chase with officers who fired at the suspect, Smith said. The suspect stole a car while leaving the scene of the shootings and was followed by police, according to Smith. Officials said they were still gathering details about the crime scene, which extended across three locations. Some of...

Jeff Bezos just posted on Twitter/X that Blue Origin has successfully landed a booster and posted a video of the landing. The first person to congratulate him was Elon Musk.... https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/2045874068763632017 Kind of amazing that two US private companies have successfully landed boosters, but no other space agency or country has duplicated the feat, not Russia, China, EU, etc.

It appears that retirement isn’t exactly suiting leftist billionaire George Soros, as America’s most notorious political kingmaker was revealed to have dropped another massive fortune ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The Soros group, Fund for Policy Reform, pumped a whopping $50 million into his political cash guzzler Democracy PAC January 13, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Despite officially handing the reins of his $25 billion Open Society Foundations to his more unhinged acolyte son Alex, the elder Soros is signaling that he has no intention of abandoning his years-long obsession with buying control of the U.S. government for...

This is perfect!

BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. (AP) — About 1,000 animal welfare activists who tried to gain entry Saturday to a beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin were turned back by police who fired rubber bullets and pepper spray into the crowd and arrested the group’s leader. It was the second attempt in as many months by protesters to take beagles from the Ridglan Farms facility in Blue Mounds, a small town about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Madison.Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, said in a video statement that 300 to 400 protesters were “violently trying to break...

In 1989, as the Cold War began to fade and the eastern frontier opened, a young, penniless would-be Russian writer made the classic trip from Moscow to Paris to meet the man he had selected to be his intellectual mentor. The mentor was the writer Alain de Benoist. Born in 1943, De Benoist had started his career in 1960 as a literary critic at Lectures Françaises, a review founded by Henry Coston, the former vice president of the Anti-Jewish Journalists Association during the war. Coston was later appointed by Marshall Pétain as head of the Information Bulletin on the Jewish...

FBI Director Kash Patel says ARRESTS are coming over 2020 Election Fraud. “They tried to rig the entire system. That's something I'm not going to allow. We are going to be making arrests. It's coming. I promise you it's coming soon.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Sunday urged the EU to end its association agreement with Israel. In an escalation of his criticism against Israel, he said during a rally in Andalusia that “a government that violates international law or the principles of the EU cannot be its partner.” Spain will formally propose the termination of the agreement at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday in Luxembourg. Sánchez has emerged as one of Israel’s most vocal critics in the EU. He accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing genocide in Gaza and denounced the joint U.S.-Israel strikes...

President Donald Trump once again threatened to strike core Iranian infrastructure, including power plants and bridges, in a lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday morning. The post comes after the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reneged on a previous agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and fired on multiple civilian vessels over the weekend. “Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz — A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement! Many of them were aimed at a French Ship, and a Freighter from the United Kingdom. That wasn’t nice, was it?” the president wrote. Trump once...

Militaries around the world spend countless hours training, developing policies, and implementing best operational security practices, so imagine the size of the egg on the face of the Dutch navy when journalists managed to track one of its warships for less than the cost of some hagelslag and a coffee. The security snafu was reported by Dutch regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland. In a Thursday report, Omroep Gelderland journalist Just Vervaart said the broadcaster was able to track HNLMS Evertsen, a Dutch air-defense frigate deployed to help protect France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle against missile threats, by mailing a Bluetooth...

Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day. The President–and the entire administration–work to apply those moral principles in a messy world. He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we'll be in his.

In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here. America’s birth rate has fallen again, extending a decadeslong decline that has reshaped the country’s demographic future. The latest data confirm what has been evident for years: People are having fewer children and, if they have them at all, later. Analysts have pointed to a familiar list of explanations — the rising cost of housing,...

A witness said she was awoken by the sounds of her neighbors yelling outside her home just after 8 a.m. Video showed a large group of neighbors standing outside watching the scene unfold. The balloon reportedly ran out of fuel and was forced to make an emergency landing right in the backyard of Hunter and Jenna Perrin’s home. The basket, which narrowly avoided fences and trees before landing on a small lawn, was filled with around a dozen people who were unharmed and seen waving at the couple as they incredulously filmed the interaction.

Minor Prophets Scroll from the Cave of Horrors | 13:40Daily Dose of Septuagint | 3.49K subscribers | 862 views | April 18, 2026