Free Republic

“If you see something, say something.” In post-9/11 New York, commuters, tourists and schoolchildren daily read and heard this motto. Other cities, states and ­nations picked it up, to encourage those who witness wrong behavior to report it to authorities. It evokes civic duty and responsibility for the well-being of our neighbors. It’s part of the social contract and helps prevent and solve crimes. No more. New York’s criminal justice “reform” undermines the simple motto that has become central to good order in a big city. ­With the discovery law effective since Jan. 1, if you see something, you may...

More than half of Americans believe it’s likely that “Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself,” and that’s an ill omen for Joe Biden — and a good sign for Bernie Sanders. Neither the former vice president nor the Vermont senator has an Epstein connection as far as anyone knows, but Mr. Biden is clearly the establishment candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Sanders is the opposite. And the viral meme that spawned countless T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and hashtags comes as a sign that voters are in no mood to trust their institutions, said University of Miami professor Joseph Uscinski,...

United Methodism is increasingly likely to divide into separate traditional and liberal denominations. But even absent this division, the church was already heading towards sharp drops in funding for denominational structures, reflecting United Methodism’s ongoing drop in membership and resources. A recent memo from the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) outlined this reality. GCFA is submitting to General Conference 2020 a quadrennial budget for United Methodism’s structures of $494 million, an 18% reduction from the 2017-2020 budget. These cuts include 35% for United Methodist Communications (UMCOM), 20% for General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) and General Board of...

Minneapolis police officers will no longer ticket motorists for broken headlights or turn signals, instead handing out vouchers to pay for vehicle repairs under a new department policy unveiled Wednesday. The changes come roughly a year after a pitched debate at City Hall over a possible moratorium on certain traffic stops, with some council members seeing the move as a way to ease the racial disparities in rates of traffic stops. Others worried that it would only harm residents in poorer neighborhoods, where gun violence is prevalent. That debate came weeks after a community forum where residents aired their frustrations...

The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has refused to give its blessing for holy icons and other sacred objects to be removed from their places of worship to be displayed in the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris. “This is a principled position that items must not be taken out of the church repositories and taken abroad unless it is for pilgrimages,” explained His Grace Bishop Gerasim of Melnik, Secretary of the Holy Synod, reports Radio Bulgaria. Minister of Culture Boil Banov had requested that the Holy Synod give its blessing for crosses, icons, censers, Gospels, Royal Doors, and...

“We’re hoping to have a little one soon,” Buttigieg said at an event in Brooklyn, New York on April 15 of last year, where he shared the stage with his husband, Chasten. “I imagine it would make me a better president,” he said on CNN the next day. On June 16, when he appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union," host Jake Tapper asked him: “Do you think, if you are elected president, hypothetically, that you will plan to start a family in the White House?” “I don’t see why not,” Buttigieg said. “I think it wouldn’t be the first...

When FBI special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of 40 investigators couldn't find anything President Trump did wrong – even after Democrats claimed over and over that he colluded with Russians – they had to do something. So they charged a number of Trump's acquaintances with various crimes, often process crimes in which they got caught while talking to those investigators. But even that now is falling apart with the scandalous recommendation just days ago that oldtime Trump associate Roger Stone be given seven to nine years, the decision by the Department of Justice to withdraw that recommendation, the...

A motorbike firm which said the UK would thrive outside of the European Union has gone into administration just days after the divorce was officially settled. Norton Motorcycles has hit the rocks after reportedly struggling to pay a tax bill, with the owner also blaming Brexit uncertainty for the firm’s demise. In September 2018 Stuart Garner had claimed he had no fears about Brexit, saying that it would be a “huge opportunity” to negotiate trade deals around the globe. He claimed that the UK was better prepared for Brexit than the media would have us believe. “It’s what the country...

The Hungarian Prime Minister said his country has chosen 'Christian liberty' instead of 'liberal freedom.' February 11, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, told a conservative conference in Rome last week that “the universal Catholic approach” is the only one “which appreciates and accepts national sovereignty.” Orbán made his comments during an address given to the National Conservativism Conference in Rome on February 4. In a wide-ranging speech, he spoke about his core anti-Marxist political principles, the impact of Muslim migration to Europe, the reasons for Hungary’s economic success and the relationship between national identity and conservative politics....

Are California Democrats—responsible for the state’s new anti-gig-worker law, AB5—so out of touch that they’re not aware of the growing anger of their constituents? It appears so. Since AB5 took effect on January 1, hundreds of thousands of Californians are finding their businesses in tatters. Musicians can’t join bands for a one-night gig, chefs can’t join forces with caterers, nurses can’t work at various hospitals, and writers must cap their submissions per media outlet to 35 per year. Under the law, these freelancers can no longer conduct the same business-to-business transactions they have for years or even decades. Clients with...

Did Pope Francis defend Pachamama idolatry at Vatican in new Amazon synod exhortation? The pope wrote that it is 'possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry February 12, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – In his new exhortation released today on the Amazon Synod, Pope Francis made statements about “indigenous” symbols and “certain religious practices” that could be interpreted as a defense of the use of the controversial “Pachamama” statues during the synod in Rome last year. In section 78 of Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis states that people should “not be quick to describe...

A new poll found a majority of respondents classified former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s job at Burisma as “inappropriate.” A Politico/Morning Consult poll found 52 percent of participants found the fact that Hunter Biden sat on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma “inappropriate,” compared to 18 percent of people who thought it was appropriate. A total of 57 percent of registered voters in the survey said his position amounted to a scandal, while 19 percent said it did not. Independents, an important group to watch during an election year, found Hunter Biden’s position inappropriate at...

Sen. Bernard Sanders’ supporters have been stricken with an acute case of paranoia about the Democratic Party hijacking the nomination from their guiding light at the national convention this summer. The fears persist despite party bosses rewriting the nomination rules after the nasty 2016 primary race to quell a backlash from Sanders’ supporters, including scaling back the influence of the “superdelegates” who backed Hillary Clinton en masse. Shaun King, a top Sanders surrogate, took to Twitter this week to question whether the Vermont socialist’s top 2020 rivals would back him if he enters the convention with a plurality of support,...

The Trump administration responded to criticisms from Attorney General William Barr on Thursday after Barr told ABC News that the president was making it “impossible” to do his job by constantly tweeting about the Department of Justice. CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge reported that White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham made the following statement in response to Barr’s criticisms: “The President wasn’t bothered by the comments..he has the right, just like any American citizen, to publicly offer his opinions. #POTUS uses social media very effectively to fight for the American people…(and) has full faith and confidence in AG Barr.” BREAKING:...

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. — When Panama City Beach resident, Jeff Elkins, was a kid, he says he knew one thing for sure. “I knew there would be flying cars by the year 2000,” he said in an interview. The year 2000 came and went without flying cars, so, Elkins took matters into his own hands. With screws and sheet metal, propellers and joysticks, he created an early version of the “Air-board.”

A pair of Russian YouTubers claim that they have nabbed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in another prank call from a pair posing as Greta Thunberg and her father, according to their latest video. The video opens with an individual who sounds like and identifies himself as Sanders, one of the frontrunners in the Democrats’ presidential primary, asking to speak with Greta Thunberg, the teen climate activist who was named TIME Person of the Year. “I just wanted to congratulate you on the extraordinary role you are playing in rallying young people and people throughout the world on this terrible, terrible...

... Justice sources tell me that interim U.S. Attorney Tim Shea had told the department’s leadership he and other career officials in the office felt the proposed sentence was excessive. As the deadline for the filing neared, the prosecutors on the case nonetheless threatened to withdraw from the case unless they got their demands for these stiffest of penalties. Mr. Shea—new to the job—suffered a moment of cowardice and submitted to this ultimatum. The filing took Justice Department leaders by surprise, and the decision to reverse was made well before Mr. Trump tweeted, and with no communication with the White...

Newt Gingrich discusses the money Michael Bloomberg is spending on his campaign and slams him for cutting deals with the Chinese dictatorship. #FoxNews

Four years after Chile embraced the world’s most sweeping measures to combat mounting obesity, a partial verdict on their effectiveness is in: Chileans are drinking a lot fewer sugar-laden beverages, according to study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine.

AB5, California’s new gig economy law, has left the state’s performing artist community in a state of fear and confusion. The law is intended to reduce worker misclassification, making it harder for companies to treat workers as independent contractors. It establishes a test to determine whether workers are employees who should receive minimum wage, paid sick days and other benefits. But the law’s ambiguous language — specifically the use of the phrase “fine artist” without actually defining the term — already had led arts organizations to postpone or cancel productions and has sent others scrambling to raise more money to...