Free Republic

The daughter of a Florida U.S. congressional candidate pled guilty to having received $300,000 in COVID-19 relief loans by submitting fraudulent information. Damara Holness, 28, daughter of congressional candidate Democrat Dale Holness, appeared at a federal court in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday where she faced serious allegations. There, Holness told Judge Rodolfo Ruiz she would plead guilty... ....The DOJ statement continued: "Holness issued checks from the company bank account made out to others who agreed, for a fee, to help with the fraud."...

Editor's note: This is the first in an occasional series of stories examining the breadth and depth of abuse alleged by women who were sent to Christian homes for troubled teens across the country. Many of the homes were in the South, but the girls were sent to them from just about every state. When Emily Adams was a teenager, she was whisked away from her home and placed in a school for wayward girls in an isolated location outside Petal. Adams stayed at Bethesda Home for Girls for about two years in the mid-1980s — two years of torment...

@DailyCaller Fauci about Senator Paul: "He is egregiously incorrect in what he says." Senator Paul: "History will figure that out on its own." Clip...

My latest song. Every life needs some romance.

The party's attempts to deny reality are a political loser If Democrats have any intention to reflect upon and adjust for the changing currents in American life that led to their humiliation in Tuesday’s elections, it isn't evident. Republican gubernatorial candidates won in Virginia and vastly overperformed in New Jersey running on kitchen-table issues like inflation, education, taxes, and COVID restrictions. These are matters that affect, on a day-to-day basis, the suburban white women who fled back into the warm embrace of the GOP. The Democratic riposte, thus far, has been to deny to these voters what they can see...

On Nov. 3, hundreds gathered by New York’s City Hall Park to protest vaccine mandates—federal, state, and local. This came as OSHA released details of the Biden administration’s sweeping vaccine mandate for private companies. NYC firefighter Gary Debiase was part of the large gathering, which later crossed Brooklyn Bridge to Borough Park. “I love this job, but if they’re going to force me to take a shot to stay, then I’m just going to put my paper in and retire. I mean, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” The protesters were an ethnically diverse group of...

Not many women can experience what it's like to fire a real gun and it was an unforgettable moment for Jesseca Liu. At the press conference for her upcoming drama series The Takedown on Oct 22, the 42-year-old Malaysian actress said the experience left her feeling terrified. Read the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite. In The Takedown, she plays Yan Qiaoyi and her character leads a team of officers at the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB). This is the first time Jesseca is playing a law enforcement officer and as part of the prep, the...

Each year, the guardianship of thousands of vulnerable youth are signed over to private and for-profit residential programs that lack state and federal oversight. This means that these programs can be established fairly spontaneously and are not required to report what goes on within the facility to the state or federal government. These programs may label themselves as wilderness, therapeutic, boot camp, or religious programs, and are collectively known as the “troubled teen industry” (tti). The TTI operates out of sight and out of mind, typically in remote locations away from public scrutiny. It is a multi-billion dollar industry that...

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, facing a probe over the slaughter of the country's entire mink herd last year, on Wednesday (Nov 3) denied that she knew then that the government did not have legal authority to order the move. Responding to the rising spread of coronavirus from mink to people, including a new mutated strain, Frederiksen's Social Democratic government in November 2021 ordered all of the country's 17 million minks killed. More from AsiaOne Read the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite. The government later admitted it did not have the legal authority to...

Major oil producers on Thursday refused to accelerate plans to gradually lift oil production each month, raising the potential for the U.S. to take advantage of prices for the commodity, which trade close to multiyear highs.If capital does start to flow back into the oil field and production from non-OPEC countries, which include the U.S., starts to climb again, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies, together known as OPEC+, will “have to make a decision about how to respond,” said Brogan. OPEC+ reaffirmed their previous decision on production levels at a videoconference held Thursday, and said...

“And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly" (Proverbs 5:11-14).

SFGATE sports editor Alex Shultz on the Warriors coach's unnecessary, disappointing statement Photo of Alex ShultzSteve Kerr knew billionaire Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob for at least 20 years when Lacob offered him the team's head coaching position. But that's not Kerr's only extra-rich buddy. He's also friends, or at least friendly with, fellow University of Arizona alumus Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns. In the early 2000s, Kerr introduced Sarver to then-commissioner David Stern and put in a good word for him. Sarver became majority owner in 2004, and Kerr snagged a minority ownership stake. A...

In an effort to fight COVID-19 vaccination requirements on workers, Alabama lawmakers on Thursday approved legislation to prevent companies from firing workers who claim a religious or medical exemption. Republicans said they were responding to an outcry from unvaccinated constituents afraid of losing their jobs because of the Biden administration’s vaccination mandate on federal contractors. Democrats argued the bill would put both federal contractors and public health in jeopardy for the sake of scoring political points. The Republican-sponsored bill states employers must exempt employees from a COVID-19 vaccination requirement if the worker returns a new standardized state form to claim...

The newly elected mayor of New York City said he will receive his first three paychecks as mayor in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin . Eric Adams tweeted in response to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez telling investor and entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano that he would take his next paycheck in Bitcoin. Adams, a Democrat, went a step further by announcing he would do the same but for his first three pay periods. "In New York we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor," Adams tweeted Thursday. "NYC is going to be the...

Left-wingers wryly note that fiscal conservatives tend to claim tax cuts are always the right answer; if the economy is booming, they say rates must come down because revenues are gushing unnecessarily fast into the Treasury, but in recession, tax-cutters say slashing rates will get the economy moving again. There is much truth in this, so touché. But the Left is just as inclined as the Right to treat triumph and disaster just the same. Its answer in all circumstances is to move faster and further leftward. Thus, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee blamed defeat in Virginia on the failure...

Just a small snippet from the recent Microsoft Ignite. Watch as they tell you about the indigenous land they're holding the conference on, and tell you about their pronouns, skin color, clothing and hair.

Duke Energy Corporation warned Thursday that coal and natural gas supplies would be tight this winter, resulting in higher power prices for customers. Duke operates a diverse mix of power plants – including coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, solar, and wind – and battery storage facilities across several regions and states, including the Carolinas, Florida, and Midwest. Duke Energy CFO Steve Young said coal and natural gas prices are the highest since 2014, and these two essential commodities are in short supply. "It's been a while," since we've seen commodity prices like this."The winter of 2014, we had a very...

ust hours after winning his race for mayor of NYC, radical progressive Eric Adams was greeted with a rude awakening by a huge crowd of angry New Yorkers. On Wednesday, the same day he was announced as the next mayor of the Big Apple, hundreds of people gathered outside his downtown Brooklyn office to protest the city’s crippling vaccine mandates. The crowd chanted “no vaccine mandates,” while several of them greeted Adams with a traditional two-word Manhattan welcome as he scurried away while sipping his smoothie. Watch: Doesn’t seem like New Yorkers like their new mayor Eric Adams. 🤐 pic.twitter.com/VKR6xWqOG8—...

Earlier today, we reported about 58-year-old truck driver Edward Durr, who defeated longtime State Senate President Steve Sweeney. Durr, who only spent $153 on his primary campaign, has just won southern New Jersey’s state Senate race, beating out the longest-serving Senate president in the state’s history.Having lived in New Jersey his whole life, Durr started his campaign by introducing himself door-to-door and, as a self-proclaimed “simple man,” he made a campaign video primarily by himself.Meet Edward Durr, the Republican truck driver who could oust longtime Senate President Steve Sweeney – with spending just $153 on his campaign. pic.twitter.com/4q6BuwTQVp— The Lakewood...

Thousands of intelligence officers could soon face dismissal for failing to comply with the U.S. government’s vaccine mandate, leading some Republican lawmakers to raise concerns about removing employees from agencies critical to national security. Several intelligence agencies had at least 20% of their workforce unvaccinated as of late October, said U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Some agencies in the 18-member intelligence community had as much as 40% of their workforce unvaccinated, Stewart said, citing information the administration has provided to the committee but not released publicly. He declined to...