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LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska was convicted Thursday on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign from a foreign billionaire at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser. A federal jury in LA deliberated about two hours before finding the nine-term Republican guilty of one count of falsifying and concealing material facts and two counts of making false statements. Fortenberry was charged after sitting for two interviews with FBI agents who were investigating the donor, Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent. Fortenberry showed no emotion as the...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stopped pursuing charges against former President Trump and suspended the investigation "indefinitely," one of the top prosecutors who resigned from the office said in his resignation letter--but disagreed with the decision. Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under former DA Cyrus Vance, submitted their resignations last month, after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump."You have reached the decision not to go forward with the grand jury presentation and not to seek criminal charges at the present time," Pomerantz wrote in his resignation letter, first reported by...

Weapon used to shoot at NYPD officer during morning commute was found inside teddy bear in baby’s crib: court docs https://t.co/cvPvVu0xIQ pic.twitter.com/kwzumi6EmI— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 25, 2022

U.S. airline chief executives urged President Biden on Wednesday to cancel ‘outdated’ federal mask requirements on airplanes as well as the requirement for predeparture testing internationally. ‘Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions – including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate – that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment,’ Airlines for America’s (A4A) Board of Directors wrote to the administration. After the mandate was originally scheduled to end on March 18, Biden opted to extend it until April 18. As the number of cases...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stopped pursuing charges against former President Trump and suspended the investigation "indefinitely," one of the top prosecutors who resigned from the office said in his resignation letter--but disagreed with the decision. Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, who had been leading the investigation under former DA Cyrus Vance, submitted their resignations last month, after Bragg began raising doubts about pursuing a case against Trump. "You have reached the decision not to go forward with the grand jury presentation and not to seek criminal charges at the present time," Pomerantz wrote in his resignation letter, first reported...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. Billy Graham Sermon: Pray For America You Who answer prayer, to You all people will come. When we were overwhelmed by sins, You forgave our transgressions. Psalm...

We've been telling you for years now that governments are coming up with more and more excuses to cancel your passport and reduce your freedom. But What if your fellow citizens will steal your passport? In this video, Andrew shares an article about it and discusses what you can do to protect yourself. (video at link)

News AnalysisAfter five years of terror against the Rohingya in Burma (also known as Myanmar), the U.S. government finally designated it as a genocide. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the determination on March 21 at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.The genocide designation took so long because Washington did not want to drive the Burmese regime further into the arms of China. Officials had hopes of instead easing the Burmese military junta from the illiberal embrace of Beijing.But after a coup in February 2021, less than two weeks following President Joe Biden’s inauguration, a deteriorating environment for the...

A senior Biden administration official, handling global energy policy, recently held a high-level position at a Ukrainian state-run natural gas firm but resigned citing corruption. Amos Hochstein, who President Joe Biden appointed to be the State Department’s top adviser for energy security over the summer of 2021, was a member of the energy company Naftogaz’s supervisory board. Hochstein took the position in 2017 after he said government officials persuaded him to accept the offer. “When fears abounded in late 2017 that Ukraine’s efforts to dismantle corruption were weakening, U.S. and foreign officials encouraged me to accept the (European Bank for...

A major diplomatic crisis is brewing in Eastern Europe as nation after nation concludes that Russian diplomacy aims to undermine the legitimate government or divide Russian speakers from others rather than increase mutual understanding. Moreover, the activities by Russian intelligence operatives that had been tolerated in the past have now run head-on into unified support of Ukraine and condemnation of Putin’s bloody and illegal invasion of that country. As a result, several nations are taking action.Bulgaria is expelling 10 Russian diplomats, saying they were carrying out activities deemed incompatible with their diplomatic status; a move followed up quickly by the...

Wednesday, I posted on the rather strange absence of the two men at the top of Russia’s military hierarchy (Correlation or Causation? The Ukraine Invasion Has Stalled and Putin’s Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff Have Vanished). Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov dropped out of sight on March 11. Considering Russia is at war, this seemed most odd. One would have expected Gerasimov to make ceremonial appearances, perhaps at one of the thousands of funerals conducted for Russian men killed in Ukraine.Shoigu was personally selected to be Defense Minister by Russian...

Thursday, US intelligence officials leaked a classified assessment about the performance of Russian precision-guided munitions in the Ukraine invasion.The United States assesses that Russia is suffering failure rates as high as 60% for some of the precision-guided missiles it is using to attack Ukraine, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence told Reuters.The disclosure could help explain why Russia has failed to achieve what most could consider basic objectives since its invasion a month ago, such as neutralizing Ukraine’s air force, despite the apparent strength of its military against Ukraine’s much smaller armed forces.The U.S. officials, who spoke on...

The White House on Thursday issued a statement condemning North Korea for allegedly testing a new ICBM missile, reportedly the largest one tested by the government since 2017. “This launch is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “The President and his national security team are assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners,” Psaki wrote in her statement. The White House noted “the door has not closed on diplomacy” with North...

I think, going into the Senate confirmation hearings this week, Ketanji Brown Jackson had a shot at getting some Republican votes. But given her responses–in particular, her testimony in regard to child porn offenders, her contradictory statements in regard to Critical Race Theory, and perhaps especially her inability to be able to define things like “what is a woman“–she certainly has made it more difficult on herself.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) just came out against her, saying he would be a “no” vote on her confirmation.I went into the Senate’s consideration of Judge Jackson’s nomination with an open mind.But...

Roughly a dozen states are proposing sending tax rebate checks to their residents to offset the highest inflation in four decades, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle pointing to high gas and food prices as prompting their actions. Among them is Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, who on Wednesday signed a law to send checks of up to $500 to state residents. The reason, he said in a statement, is to soften the impact of inflation on household budgets — and also return some of money amid a record state budget surplus.

Top Chinese ports in Shenzhen and Hong Kong record some of the largest congestion in nearly half a year due to China’s zero-tolerance approach, locking down more than 50 million people and shuttering factories to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Bloomberg reports 174 vessels anchored or loaded off the country’s top ports, the largest number since Oct. 21, when a massive typhoon battered the area. “Shenzhen is the second-busiest port next to Shanghai, so we will expect to see significant volume shift to the other ports within China,” said Ryan Closser, a director at FourKites, a supply-chain information provider. “A...

On Mar. 20, 1991 MiG-23 pilot Orestes Lorenzo Perez circled the Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West three times, waggling the wings of his Flogger (the NATO reporting name for the MiG-23) to signal friendly intentions, hoping that no one would shoot down the Soviet-built fighter jet. Perez said he borrowed the aircraft from the Cuban government. He didn’t know a single word in English, he said. But he was escaping Cuba for freedom. As explained in an extensive piece appeared on The Ledger, Perez, a former Cuban Air Force pilot has received a lot of attention since his escape...

A photojournalist blasted NBC for purposefully altering her photos of transgender UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, apparently making Thomas look more feminine during a recent Today Show report. The Today Show came under stark criticism for using photos that were noticeably softened or “airbrushed” during its March 17 report on the trans swimmer as Thomas was competing at the NCAA championships in Georgia. Now, a photojournalist who took some of the photos is decrying NBC for altering her photos. “I pride myself on providing authentic images as a photojournalist,” Erica Denhoff told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. Denhoff, a student-athlete and...

I kind of lean toward Peter Gunn, but there are so many. Mancini wrote it, btw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pdAuDHL9E4

Jakku, the Pomeranian puppy vs. brush. Video: 2 minutes, 11 seconds