Free Republic

CHICAGO (Reuters) - After Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent global wheat futures soaring, U.S. farmer Vance Ehmke was eager to sell his grain. Local prices shot up roughly 30% to nearly $12 a bushel, about the highest Ehmke could recall in 45 years of farming near the western Kansas town of Healy. Instead of reaping a windfall, Ehmke found a commodities market turned upside down. He and his wife Louise told Reuters they couldn't sell a nickel of their upcoming summer wheat harvest for future delivery. Futures prices for corn and wheat had rocketed so abruptly that many along the...

This is the chart from hell as The Fed is expected to take interest rates higher. At least mortgage rates are down slightly today. With 8+ rate hikes forecast over the next twelve months. Meaning that Powell’s Fed money gun is going to slow.

Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson disputed the claim that democracy would be “preserved” if Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky could withstand the Russian invasion and remain in power. Carlson argued that Ukraine was not a democracy. However, he said some Americans were using the claim that Ukrainian democracy was what was at stake as a possible justification for the United States to enter the dispute.

@NetflixUK He was a national treasure. After his death, he was exposed as a sexual predator, with over 450 sickening allegations of abuse. JIMMY SAVILE: A BRITISH HORROR STORY examines archive footage to understand how he fooled an entire nation for decades. Trailer...

Yesterday, Twitter suspended the account of satirical site The Babylon Bee for a post that jokingly named Rachel Levine, the transgender Assistant Secretary for Health, “Man of the Year.” Here, editor-in-chief Kyle Mann, co-author of “The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness,” explains why he isn’t going to back down to the social media giant’s demands. Well, it finally happened (we’re kind of surprised it didn’t happen sooner): The Babylon Bee has been locked out of our Twitter account. The satirical article that offended the Twitter overlords? “The Babylon Bee’s Man Of The Year Is Rachel Levine.” For the simple offense...

Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is supporting Ketanji Brown Jackson after President Joe Biden nominated her to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, and Jackson have a family connection: Jackson's husband has a twin brother who's married to Ryan's sister-in-law.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Dane County supervisor wants to eliminate the Pledge of Allegiance from county board meetings, claiming the recitation is divisive. Heidi Wegleitner has proposed removing the pledge as well as the word “prayer” from the board rules, which are currently undergoing a biannual redraft. The board’s executive committee will consider Wegleitner’s proposal at a meeting Thursday, although newly elected supervisors would have the final say following the April 5 election. “It just doesn’t feel like it’s appropriate for us to be doing, when in a pluralistic society we want to be inclusive and representative,” said Wegleitner....

South Carolina prosecutors decided not to file charges in a case where a man who fell off a recreational watercraft was fatally shot by his rescuer, according to the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.

A Washington school board butted heads over a new student discipline policy that considers a student’s race before deciding on a punishment. The Clover Park School District debated its new “culturally responsive” student discipline policy. It means student discipline would not be consistent based on conduct. Instead, a school considers a student’s race and background. It would likely offer harsher punishments to white students, even if the conduct is identical to that of a black or Hispanic student. The disparate treatment is championed in the name of inclusion. But it’s not just a Clover Park School District controversy. The culturally...

DETROIT (AP) — For years, Laela Bullock moved to her own rhythm when it came to schoolwork. The switch to remote learning, if anything, brought a welcome break from fights in the hallways of the 15-year-old’s Detroit school, but her grades still lagged. Things started turning around with one-on-one tutoring this year — paid for with $1.3 billion the Detroit Public Schools Community District is receiving in federal COVID-19 relief aid. At last, Laela is reading above her grade level, and on track to graduate on time, said her mother, Alicia Bullock. “I’m so proud,” Bullock said. The Detroit school...

It was an open question, in the days leading up to Russia’s wider invasion of Ukraine on the night of Feb. 23, whether Ukraine’s small force of Turkish-made TB-2 drones even would survive the first volley of Russian missiles. Nearly a month later, it’s apparent the TB-2s not only survived—they quickly flew into action. Today Ukraine’s killer-drone fleet arguably is its most potent force. TB-2s belonging to the Ukrainian air force and navy in recent days have dismantled whole swathes of Russia’s front-line air-defense network and now relentlessly are smashing Russian tanks and supply trucks.

A President’s Day lesson turned controversial when a Norco parent saw video of her daughter among students chanting “we want him out” after her teacher asked the class who the president is and “what do we want to do with him?”

A new paper explores how gene-editing technology could be used to bring a species back, but even its authors have concerns about what that could mean. If Tom Gilbert could bring any extinct animal back to life, he said, it wouldn't be dinosaurs or woolly mammoths or any other megafauna that once roamed the planet. His is a humbler choice: the Christmas Island rat, a species that was wiped out from its island home in the Indian Ocean more than a century ago. Gilbert, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, admitted that his pick may not be...

ROME (Reuters) - A growing number of European countries are cutting fuel taxes to lower surging pump petrol prices. The move brings respite to motorists but environmentalists say it flies in the face of commitments to curb global warming. Rising international oil costs, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, have driven petrol above 2 euros ($2.21) per litre in much of Europe for the first time, placing a huge burden on car owners and industry. However, climate activists and some economists criticise the approach, saying politicians are reneging on pledges to cut fossil fuel subsidies and are responding to the...

Question: My student loans are over ten years old, I’m not working in the field I have the degree in, and one of the schools has closed. I can’t afford to retire – I’m 67 years old and can’t live on Social Security alone. I have paid and had garnishment against me and now it’s three times what I borrowed. I’m expected to pay $600 a month. I can’t afford to feed myself. What can I do?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Around 400 years ago, someone lost a wooden hunting bow in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Then in September 2021, some park employees found it. Let that sink in for a second. A lot of questions start to form. The bow was found in 2 feet of water. The cold temperature of the water and lack of oxygen probably contributed to the wooden tool surviving out in the elements for so long. The 54-inch long curved strip of wood was transported to the Alaska regional office of the U.S. National Park Service for conservation....

Did you know it is unlawful to hunt black bears over bait in Montana? Yeah, we suspect this guy did, too. And while those charges would sufficiently disgust most Montana hunters, a Sanders County man managed to take it even further before a lengthy investigation led to guilty pleas on multiple counts of illegal game hunting. Yes, the fines and hunting ban sanctions are pretty serious. But we acknowledge that lots of you think they should be even more severe. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reports that Alfred (Toby) Bridges of Sanders County pleaded guilty to nine misdemeanor hunting violations,...

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. While the Biden administration is focused on protecting the borders of Ukraine from Russia, some 8,600 Russians have shown up at our border with Mexico since last August. Not to be left too far behind, 5,534 Ukrainians have also arrived since October. Last December, two cars carrying 18 Russian migrants tried to barrel their way through at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. A CBP officer opened fire on a Mercedes driven by the invaders. YouTube...

Paris (AFP) – Rich countries must end their oil and gas production by 2034 to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius and give poorer nations time to replace fossil fuel income, according to a report released Tuesday. The 70-page analysis from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research comes as nearly 200 nations kicks off a two-week negotiation to validate a landmark assessment of options for reducing carbon pollution and extracting CO2 from the air. The overarching objective, enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, is to cap global warming "well below" 2C, and 1.5C if possible. A torrent of...

Editor's note: Below is a transcript of part of Donald Trump’s recent South Carolina speech. We're going to win like never before. This is the year we are going to take back the House, we are going to take back the Senate and we are going to take back America. And in 2024 we are going to take back that beautiful, beautiful White House. I wonder who will do that, I wonder, I wonder. Together with your help we will fight for more jobs for American families, fair trade for American workers and more South Carolina factories, forging more products...