Free Republic

DETROIT — When it was new, the window sticker price on a typical 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR double cab pickup was just under $29,000. Two years later, dealers are paying almost $1,000 more than that to buy the same vehicle, even though it’s used. Then they’re selling it to consumers for more than $33,000. Welcome to the wacky world of U.S. car and truck sales, where the pandemic and a global shortage of computer chips have pushed prices to record levels. In the past year, used vehicle prices on average have climbed 30%, according to Black Book, which tracks car...

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — A Florida man was arrested after he intentionally did a “burnout” across a Pride-themed street mural earlier this week. Witnesses said Alexander Jerich, 20, peeled out in his white Chevrolet Silverado around 8 p.m. Monday through the recently painted intersection, WPBF reported. “This is a deliberate act of violence against the LGBTQ community,” Rand Hoch, founder and president of the Palm Beach Human Rights Council, told WFOR. “We’ve made such progress here in the last 30 years on LGBTQ issues. To see someone do something like this took me by surprise.” Jerich was participating in a...

LAKE WALES, FL. – Polk County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Lake Wales city commissioner Kristen Fitzgerald, 41, on Thursday, and charged her with one count of interference with child custody (F-3) and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (F-3). Deputies say Fitzgerald removed an 11-year-old child from his home without permission and threatened him with a firearm. According to the arrest affidavit, on June 2nd, around 10:50 pm, Polk County Sheriff’s Office and Lake Wales police responded to an armed disturbance in Lake Wales. Once on the scene, law enforcement learned that Fitzgerald took the 11-year-old boy, without...

If you purchase the silver plan, the most generous policy, for those who been on unemployment any time this year, it's just a buck a month. And, get this: "Your deductible is only $75 and it's doesn't apply to outpatient care at all. You need to see a doctor? It's a $5 co-pay; A whole range of benefits and it's just a dollar a month," said Mr. Lee. Even those who are paying for more expensive insurance on their own, can convert to the new plan.

Mandatory Critical Race Theory (CRT) training materials for one of Iowa’s largest school districts classifies “Make America Great Again” as a form of ‘white supremacy,’ according to leaked documents obtained by Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson. Also listed as examples of white supremacy (both ‘overt’ and ‘covert’) are; Columbus Day, American immigration law, the belief that America is “post racial,” and mass incarceration. Johnson reports that hundreds of educators have been forced to to participate in the training, which will be taught to children across the district next semester. Teachers of Iowa are being INSTRUCTED to classify the vast majority...

A bill allowing municipal police across Pennsylvania to use radar guns for speed enforcement details passed the state Senate Tuesday on a 49-1 vote. Pennsylvania is currently the only state in the nation that limits the use of radar exclusively to its state police. That’s a sore spot for many municipal officials and police chiefs, who feel they are handicapped in monitoring speeding in residential zones and local roads where speeders can really raise the risk of an accident. But it’s also been a treasured, 60-year-old safeguard for some motorists. Critics have worried that those same municipal officers would take...

Senate Republicans Tuesday blocked sweeping legislation on election and campaign finance reforms that Democrats said is crucial is ensuring voting rights and saving democracy but Republican blasted as a partisan federal takeover of elections. The "For the People Act" needed 60 votes to clear a procedural vote in the Senate Tuesday, but Republicans filibustered and killed the legislation from advancing to debate. No Republicans joined with the 50 Democrats on the motion to proceed.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9714467/All-Senate-Republicans-vote-NO-debating-voting-rights-bill.html

Military officials said Monday that vessels participating in a Russian naval exercise in international waters off Hawaii are beginning to move away from the islands. Capt. Mike Kafka, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spokesman, said the closest Russian ships were confirmed to have come within 20 to 30 nautical miles off Hawaii. “We closely tracked all vessels,” he said. “The Russian vessels are transiting west and are out of the Hawaii Operation Area. As part of our normal daily operations, we continue to track all vessels in the Indo-Pacific area of operations through maritime patrol aircraft, surface ship, and joint capabilities.”...

Thousands of asylum-seekers whose claims were dismissed or denied under a Trump administration policy that forced them to wait in Mexico for their court hearings will be allowed to return for another chance at humanitarian protection, the Homeland Security Department said Tuesday. Registration begins Wednesday for asylum-seekers who were subject to the “Remain in Mexico” policy and either had their cases dismissed or denied for failing to appear in court, The Associated Press has learned. Under that criteria, it is unclear how many people will be eligible to be released into the United States pending a decision on their cases,...

The US is looking to set up a combat-ready standing force on Australia's doorstep, in an effort to push back against an increasingly belligerent China across the Indo-Pacific. Ely Ratner, the man nominated by US President Joe Biden's to be the next assistant secretary of defence said establishing a permanent 'combat-credible forward posture' is essential to the US military's ability to deter aggression from authoritarian powers like China. It is hoped that the standing force, which Australia would likely be asked to join, would protect Taiwan from being seized by force. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington...

The Left has often claimed that the rhetoric of conservatives causes violence. For instance, take the false accusations over the years that Sarah Palin incited the Tucson shooting that killed six and left a dozen wounded, including Representative Gabby Giffords, critically so. But when it comes to incidents like the attempted assassination of Steve Scalise (and others) by a Bernie Sanders-supporting Rachel Maddow superfan, the Left and the establishment don’t say much, even when there seems to be a much stronger link between the rhetoric and the violence. That’s why some recent comments on social media deserve notice. When Joe...

A Texas fast-food chain is shelling out $50,000 salaries for teenagers and those in their early 20s to manage its restaurants as executives struggle to find qualified workers amid a nationwide labor shortage. Garrett Reed, CEO of Layne’s Chicken Fingers, said a downturn in the labor market stymied his company's growth and forced him to dish out large salaries for workers who would make about $12 hourly in entry-level roles after promoting them to managerial positions. “The biggest challenge for small companies to grow right now is your labor force,” he said. “We’d be growing at twice the rate if...

The mayor of a small town in Colorado has banned his Board of Trustees and guests from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at public meetings because of what he called 'direct threats' in his community. (guess which community that might be) ... But the entire room of attendees, and two board members, stood up and recited the pledge anyway...

IKEA in Atlanta is under fire after its management team devised a 'racially insensitive' menu for Juneteenth which featured fried chicken and watermelon. Bosses purportedly sent out the menu to employees in an email last Friday, saying they wanted to serve the foods to customers as a way to 'honor' the federal holiday. However, the management team - which allegedly featured no black employees - failed to realize that many of the food items have been derogatorily associated with black Americans for more than a century. According to NPR, both fried chicken and watermelon were common foods fed to slaves...

the issue continues to be dead in the water. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who helped organize the hearing, simply said that if Washington residents want full representation in the House and the Senate, Maryland should take back part of the district. “A better option, in my view, would be to retrocede a large portion of the district to Maryland. Retrocession is the preferable way to provide D.C. residents with voting representation in both chambers of Congress,” Portman’s suggestion has been offered before, largely because the federal city was...

Actor Jon Voight paid tribute to the American flag after a singer argued that the flag should be changed because it “no longer represents democracy and freedom.” “Our flag is pride, glory, freedom, and no one will destroy her stars and stripes of blood, sweat, and tears. No one,” Voight said in a video posted to Twitter. “Our flag is our greatest truth. Our greatest past, our greatest trust, our memory of the greatest American heroes, who won the battles we shall never forget.” The actor slammed people who suggested the American flag be redesigned days after singer Macy Gray...

This National Debt Thing I was around when we spoke of a billion dollars then hundreds of billions of dollars and on occasion the word trillion popped up. Later in life the word trillion came up more often and at an increasing rate. I now lived long enough to see the word trillion come into vogue. In each case the word regarded the Public Debt or National Debt. This question occurred to me the other day in a discussion about the 16th amendment; how would taxation be today if we had not passed the 16th Amendment. Prior to the 16th...

The highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is the greatest threat to the United States’ attempt to eradicate COVID-19, White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Tuesday. During a White House coronavirus briefing, the head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said the variant now makes up more than 20 percent of all new cases in the U.S., a significant increase from nearly 10 percent two weeks ago. The delta variant, first identified in India, recently became the dominant strain in the United Kingdom, surpassing the alpha variant first discovered in the U.K. in...

"It ain't going to be easy," DeSantis said about taking a stand against the Left at last weekend’s Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference. "You got to be strong. You got to put on the full armor of God. You got to take a stand, take a stand against the Left's schemes. You got to stand your ground. You got to be firm. You will face flaming arrows but take up the shield of faith and fight on." "So, I look forward to joining with you in the battles to come," he said. "I can tell you that...