Free Republic

LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts stepped up his fight against President Joe Biden on Thursday by ordering state agencies to resist the federal 30-by-30 initiative. Among other things, the order requires agencies under the governor’s control to stop providing money or staff support for any projects involving permanent conservation easements. It also puts an 18-month hold on state protections for new endangered species and directs the Department of Agriculture to publicize which local governments have taken positions opposing or supporting the Biden administration’s goal of conserving 30% of the nation’s land and water by 2030.

The head of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy said he hopes efforts at financial transparency and reform will foster Catholics' trust ahead of the annual Peter's Pence collection. In an interview with Vatican News June 25, Jesuit Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, said Catholics "have the right to know how we spend the money given to us." "Sometimes contradictions arise from a lack of knowledge, which, in turn, comes from a lack of transparency," Father Guerrero said. Peter's Pence is a papal fund used for charity, but also to support the running...

A U.S. Army veteran married to a New York Times editor is launching a new career: Narcing on fellow veterans for “extremism.” Kristofer “Kris” Goldsmith denounces his fellow soldiers and demands the creation of a new, 100% woke combat force. In other words, he is the press’ favorite kind of veteran. In February, one month after the January 6 incident and just a few weeks after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a stand-down order against extremism in the armed forces, Goldsmith founded Sparverius, LLC. He describes Sparverius as a “veteran-owned open-source intelligence firm” focused on fighting “disinformation” and “domestic extremism.”...

A liberal Massachusetts town has created a fund that will be used to pay reparations to eligible black residents to “repair past harms” it committed against them or their ancestors. The Amherst Town Council voted 12-1 earlier this week in favor of establishing the fund, council clerk Athena O’Keeffe confirmed. No money is in the fund yet, but town finance officials have proposed a plan to put $210,000 in the account later this year, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported.

A past and potentially future leading Republican contender for the presidency is weighing in on behalf of Britney Spears as the 2000s pop icon tries to rid herself of her father’s heavy hand in a bitter conservatorship debate. "#FreeBritney," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted on Thursday. "I just want my life back," Spears said. "All I want is to own my money and for my boyfriend to be able to drive me in his car. I want to sue my family." During a virtual hearing in Los Angeles Wednesday, the "Toxic" singer gave 20 minutes of compelling testimony in which...

It’s time to raise the sails and go full speed ahead for Celebrity Cruises. The cruise line will be the first cruise line to sail from the United States in well over 15 months when Celebrity Edge sets sail on Saturday, June 26, from Fort Lauderdale. There was a worry with Celebrity guests in the last few days when the CDC put Celebrity Edge on code red on June 21; however, this seems to be the case of one single a-symptomatic crew member who has recently been removed from the vessel. It means the ship, the crew, and the guests...

On Wednesday, the creator of the mRNA technology used in some of the covid vaccines told Fox News that the government is not being open about the vaccines’ dangers. Dr. Robert Malone told Tucker Carlson that a video in which he explained his concerns and findings had been removed from YouTube. He believes that there is insufficient research on the risks for young adults and teens, and that they should not be forced to get vaccinated. “My concern is that I know there are risks, but we don’t have access to the data….and so, I believe people have the right...

Core personal consumption expenditures, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation reading, rose in May by the most in nearly three decades as the U.S. economy continued to gain momentum while COVID-19 lockdown restrictions eased.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, in testimony at a hearing Wednesday on the Defense Department budget, said — in comments that have since gone viral — “I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military … of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there.” In a lengthy introduction, Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz claimed the military’s introduction of the study of extremism and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s one-day stand-down order is the “number one” complaint he hears from service members. He ultimately asked...

Thus, a very horrible human being used a weapon of mass destruction against his own citizens. The United States and the rest of the "civilized" world expressed horror and outrage. Wait. Wut? Biden has publicly said that he is willing to use weapons of mass destruction against American citizens. No expressions of horror? No expressions of outrage? It's all good then?

Diocesan "Pride Month Conversation Resources" The month of June is reserved for the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Roman Catholic Church, while the secular and Jesuit world commemorates a month celebrating a deadly sin (pride) and a sin that cries to Heaven for vengeance (sodomy).Despite the Church's teachings on same-sex relations (still a mortal sin...), some bishops and dioceses continue to promote "pride month" activities. The Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, led by a notorious dissident, Bishop John Stowe, has sent a memo to diocesan parishes with "pride month conversation resources."We received the packet from a novus ordo diocesan...

Kamala Harris traveled to El Paso on Friday, more than 90 days after she was appointed “border czar.”81-million vote recipient Kamala Harris was greeted by… Trump supporters.This wasn’t the welcome wagon Kamala Harris was expecting!

Five people were shot, including two suspects, during an attempted robbery at a multimillion-dollar Hollywood Hills home early Friday, Los Angeles police said. Three armed suspects tried to rob someone at about 2 a.m. outside the home reportedly owned by Fashion Nova founder and CEO Richard Saghian. Shots were fired during the attempted hold-up, prompting one man working security at the home to return fire, striking two of the suspects, one fatally, LAPD spokesman Jeff Lee told The Post.

Scientists at the University of Kent in the UK have published new research that concludes it is most likely the virus that causes Covid-19 was circulating in Wuhan in November 2019, or even weeks earlier in October, before any cases linked to the Huanan wet market were reported in December 2019.The research, which used methods from conservation science, according to reports, finds that the most probable date of the emergence of the virus was November 17, 2019.The paper notes that SARS-CoV-2 could have first appeared from early October and concludes that it had already circled the globe by January 2020.The...

The Department of Justice is suing Georgia, alleging a recently passed election law violates the Voting Rights Act’s protections for minority voters, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday. “Where we see violations of federal law, we will act,” Garland said at a press conference. Garland said Georgia’s election reform law was enacted “with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color.” He called the Justice Department’s new lawsuit “the first of many steps we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote,” that all...

When Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously to cut millions of dollars from its police budget amid the uproar over the murder of George Floyd, it ran into an unlikely roadblock: the federal government. U.S. District Judge James Robart ruled that the city couldn’t defund its own police department without his permission.The judge was acting under the mandate granted him by a 2012 consent decree put in place after John T. Williams, a native American woodcarver, was shot four times by a Seattle police officer in 2010. The killing was ruled unjustified. The consent decree — a sort of civil plea...

If anyone hears anything about the Pentagon reports to Congress, please let us know!

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey criticized President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead a top financial regulator for ignoring an information request about the agency’s potentially illegal hiring practices. Rohit Chopra, Biden’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), has completely ignored a request for information regarding his involvement in the agency’s reported strategy forcing senior officials to vacate their positions, Toomey said. Chopra’s refusal to share information with the committee suggests he won’t be responsive to oversight if he is confirmed to the position, Toomey added. “Mr. Chopra’s silence and total disregard of a congressional inquiry calls into question...

Wonderful heart-warming story. Foster child gets his fairytale ending when math teacher adopts him - YouTube

On Thursday, Joe Biden announced that a bipartisan effort to reach an infrastructure agreement had found roots. Republicans had talked the price tag down to $579 billion in extra funding, bringing the total investment in infrastructure over the next eight years to $1.2 trillion, less than the Biden administration's original $2 trillion plan. We’ve struck a deal. A group of senators – five Democrats and five Republicans – has come together and forged an infrastructure agreement that will create millions of American jobs.— President Biden (@POTUS) June 24, 2021But instead of celebrating the agreement or spinning it as a win...