Free Republic

Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was formally accused by New York prosecutors Thursday of participating in a years-long scheme that allowed him and other company executives to receive "off-the-books" compensation, benefits for which he allegedly neglected to pay taxes on while also raking in tens of thousands in federal and state refunds...[Detailed summary of indictment]

The 35-year-old actress took to Instagram to share a snap of herself cradling her daughter with a lengthy caption about wanting to have a child under her own conditions. She captioned the snap to her 3.9million followers: 'I’m so excited to share this news with you. Four years ago, I decided I wanted to have a child. I wanted to do it on my own terms.' She also revealed that she has named the child Oonagh Paige Heard as the child was born on April 8, 2021. The name Oonagh (also spelled Una and Oona) is pronounced oo-nuh. It is...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tells Newsmax he's "considering" another run for the White House in 2024, but he'd be happy seeking another term representing Texas in the U.S. Senate as well. Appearing Thursday on "The Chris Salcedo Show," Cruz told guest host Tom Basile he was "just considering it, just thinking about it," when asked about his 2024 plans. Former President Donald Trump has yet to announce whether he will seek reelection after his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. A move by Trump to reclaim the Oval Office would certainly make the still popular former commander-in-chief the strong front-runner...

A new study of U.S. service members found higher than expected rates of heart inflammation following receipt of COVID-19 vaccines. It's a finding Defense Department researchers say should call attention to the condition, known as myocarditis, as a potential side effect of the immunizations.In an article published Tuesday in JAMA Cardiology, U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force physicians described 23 cases of myocarditis in previously healthy males who developed the condition within four days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.Physicians would have expected to find eight or fewer cases of myocarditis among the 436,000 male military members who received two mRNA...

The FReeper Canteen Presents... Tell Us A Song That Shows Your Appreciation Of America*Video* The Americans*Video* Star Spangled Banner As You’ve Never Heard It Before Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.

A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role. The film, an international co-production between Italy, West Germany, and Spain, was filmed on a low budget (reported to be $200,000), and Eastwood was paid $15,000 for his role. Released in Italy in 1964 and then in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti Western genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, also starring Eastwood. Collectively, the films are known...

A South Carolina corrections officer found herself in a sticky situation after she was caught attempting to smuggle Rice Krispies Treats to inmates — that were studded with drugs. Marcy T. Shafer, 43, was busted with the sweet and crunchy contraband Thursday as she tried to enter the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Richland County, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections. Photos showed the doctored marshmallow snacks inside plastic bags — and dotted with four orange, oval pills.

Straw hat in hand, Tyrean “Heru” Lewis jumped out of his pickup truck along busy Shackelford Road in North St. Louis County and walked into the treeline, where he had something special to show. On the other side, uniform rows of vegetables — lettuce, radishes and bok choy — sprouted on half an acre. The land is not on a remote country farm, but just 17 miles from the Delmar Loop in the heart of the metro. As Lewis, founder of Heru Urban Farming, checks the crop he gets excited about its progress, raising his voice over the sound of...

"Unchain My Heart" is a song written by Bobby Sharp and recorded first in 1961 by Ray Charles and in 1963 by Trini Lopez and later by many others. The track was further popularized by Joe Cocker when he named his 1987 album after the song. Joe Cocker - "Unchain My Heart" (1987)

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced a moratorium on federal executions, a shift from the Trump administration, which had resumed the use of the death penalty in federal cases. Garland said in the memo that the Justice Department would also review its policies and procedures to make sure they "are consistent with the principles articulated in this memorandum.” “The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” Garland said in a...

Former Harvard president Derek Bok has long lamented that our institutions of higher education largely underperform in their missions. He has now written another book making that argument. His Higher Expectations is a coolly rational analysis of what needs to be done to improve American undergraduate education. He uses as his frame a study by the American Association of Colleges and Universities about the skills and capabilities 21st-century college graduates will need, and then considers each in its own chapter: civic responsibility; global worldliness; ethical standards and personal responsibility; finding purpose and meaning in life; and interpersonal skills. The last...

French Archbishop to Expel Traditional Priestly Fraternity in Anticipation of New Papal DecreeDIJON, France — A French archbishop who plans to expel a traditional priestly fraternity from his diocese because they won’t concelebrate Masses has said he took the decision in anticipation of a new decree, or motu proprio, that Pope Francis is reported to be preparing to publish. On June 16, Catholic News Agency reported that Archbishop Minnerath would be expelling the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) from the Basilica of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s birthplace, at the end of the summer. Priests of the FSSP,...

A picture is worth a thousand words. So these two pictures tell you two thousand words worth of Ashley Babbit’s. He is demonstrably incompetent. There are four critical rules for handling any firearm, especially a pistol: Treat every gun as if it is loaded until you inspect it to ensure there is no ammunition in the chamber. Always point the gun in a safe direction (in other words, do not point the gun at anything or anyone you are not prepared to kill or destroy). ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. Know your...

At a recent press event featuring recording artists Dionne Warwick and Sam Moore as special guests, Reps. Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced the American Music Fairness Act, a bill that would require radio stations to pay performers when they play their songs. In a press release announcing their new legislation, Deutch said “paying people for their hard work is the fair thing to do.” Similarly, Issa said, “they are the true owners, and we need to protect their rights.” Longtime readers of our columns know that promoting fair and free markets for American consumers has always been...

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed on Thursday a law obliging international tech giants to open offices in Russia. From Jan. 1, 2022, internet companies, whose daily audience exceeds 500,000 Russian users, will have to create branches, open representative offices, or establish legal entities in Russia, which will "fully represent the interests of the head companies." The preliminary list includes 20 platforms: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, messengers WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, email service Gmail, search engines Google and Bing, hosting providers Amazon, Digital Ocean, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, online stores AliExpress, Ikea, Iherb, and the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Separately, the Russian...

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A new law that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2022, will dramatically change what you can and can't recycle in the state of California. According to SB 1383, any person or business that creates garbage will have to recycle all their organic food waste. "It really brings a lot of material under the umbrella of what must be recycled," says Ken Prue, the City of San Diego's Deputy Director of Environmental Services. Prue says people will no longer be allowed to throw away food scraps or other organic material. Instead, they'll have to go into the...

Former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams now owns two homes in Georgia collectively worth $1.4 million despite having been hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt before her unsuccessful run against Gov. Brian Kemp. The former candidate was catapulted into the national spotlight during her slugfest 2018 run against Kemp that saw her claim victory for months after the fact. Since her electoral failure, though, Abrams has made a series of property purchases in DeKalb County that have been scrubbed from the county tax assessor’s website, according to records obtained by Fox News. Most county tax assessors in the...

Explanation: On sol 46 (April 6, 2021) the Perseverance rover held out a robotic arm to take its first selfie on Mars. The WATSON camera at the end of the arm was designed to take close-ups of martian rocks and surface details though, and not a quick snap shot of friends and smiling faces. In the end, teamwork and weeks of planning on Mars time was required to program a complex series of exposures and camera motions to include Perseverance and its surroundings. The resulting 62 frames were composed into a detailed mosiac, one of the most complicated Mars rover...

To say that San Francisco is in decline would be an understatement. The city that once captured the hearts and minds of everyone who saw it is a shadow of what it once was thanks to skyrocketing crime, rampant drug addiction, and Democrat policies that continue to worsen every problem it has. Now, San Francisco residents are so tired of drowning in the issues that nearly half of them are planning to pack up and leave.According to CBS San Francisco, the city’s Chamber of Commerce conducted a poll with more than five hundred registered voters and found that over 40...