Free Republic

Abill to move nearly all of New York's local elections to even years has attracted renewed attention, especially from Republicans who accuse Democrats of attempting to "rig" the races. The legislation sponsored by state Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and state Sen. James Skoufis, both Democrats, would shift county, town and village elections to even years, which means they would be held at the same time as presidential and midterm elections. New York City would be exempt from the change. Proponents of the bill argue that it would increase turnout for local elections. Under New York's current system, local elections are held...

SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER JOHN 16:20-23 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to pray with expectant faith: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you." Invoking the name of Jesus is an effective way to monitor the quality and shape the content of our prayer. When we pray "through Christ our Lord," we are assuming the stance and attitude of Jesus, aligning ourselves to him, compelling ourselves to desire what he desires. Accordingly, it is altogether consistent to pray in the name of Jesus for peace, for justice, for...

An unknown foreign military in southeast Asia has reportedly test launched an SLBM, or submarine-launched ballistic missile, which appears to have endangered a nearby commercial aircraft full of people. Stunning video taken from a Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 as it flew over the South China Sea just as the unidentified submarine launched the missile shows the airliner remarkably close. The Drive reports that it was likely a test of either the Chinese or South Korean military, but not even the precise date of the event has been confirmed at this point: Twitter user @jchovernut, a pilot for U.S.-based airline Allegiant...

One of the most disheartening spectacles in the aftermath of mass shootings in the US -- which are sickening and demoralizing unto themselves, of course -- is the utterly predictable cycle that follows. It's as if everyone in politics and media have pre-written scripts at the ready, fully memorized. People rush to their usual battle stations and start reciting their lines, posting memes, and sharing viral content from people on their 'side.' As any given attack unfolds, Americans watch in horror as innocents are gunned down, and almost immediately, partisans seize on emerging details in order to assail political adversaries...

Former US Attorney General Bill Barr says Hillary Clinton engaged in a “seditious” conspiracy against Donald Trump, and that he named Special Counsel John Durham to investigate what appears to have been a “dirty political trick” to paint the former president as a Russian stooge. “I thought we were heading into a constitutional crisis. I think whatever you think of Trump, the fact is that the whole Russiagate thing was a grave injustice. It appears to be a dirty political trick that was used first to hobble him and then potentially to drive him from office,” Barr said on an...

Left-wing critics are demanding that HBO “cancel” Bill Maher after accusing the HBO “Real Time” host of delivering an anti-transgender monologue on last Friday’s show. David Kilmnick, who heads the nonprofit LGBT Network, wrote an article in Advocate magazine on Wednesday titled: “Bill Maher Has Gone Too Far With Anti-LGBTQ+ Comments.” Maher was blasted for saying that “we’re literally experimenting on children” by providing them with puberty blockers and other treatments aimed at facilitating gender transitions.

According to North Korea, its fight against COVID-19 has been impressive: About 3.3 million people have been reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died. If all are coronavirus cases, that’s a fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country, including the world’s richest, has achieved against a disease that has killed more than 6 million people.

An alleged attacker with an AR-15 was shot dead in Charleston, West Virginia, Wednesday night by a woman who was carrying a pistol for self-defense. Dennis Butler was armed with an AR-15 and allegedly shot “at dozens of people attending a graduation party,” WCHSTV reported. Police indicate a woman pulled a pistol and shot Butler, killing him. Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett said, “Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night.”

New York residents beginning in June will have the option to select a gender-neutral “X” gender marker on their driver’s licenses, birth certificates or other identification documents, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) office announced Friday. Transgender New Yorkers will also be able to self-select their gender designation for the first time. “Every person, regardless of their gender identity or expression, deserves to have an identity document that reflects who they are,” Hochul said Friday in a news release. Residents will be able to choose the “X” gender designation beginning June 24, when the state’s Gender Recognition Act goes into effect.

Brent Crude prices could jump to well above $150 per barrel if Russia’s oil exports fall off a cliff in the coming months, according to Bank of America. “With our $120/bbl Brent target now in sight, we believe that a sharp contraction in Russian oil exports could …. push Brent well past $150/bbl,” analysts at Bank of America (BofA) Global Research wrote in a research note on Friday carried by Reuters. In a base-case scenario, Bank of America expects Brent Crude prices to average $104.48 a barrel this year and $100 a barrel in 2023. Early on Friday, Brent Crude...

As mentioned previously, the race for mayor of Los Angeles features a non-leftist candidate, Rick Caruso, who is polling well and just might win. LA badly needs some adult supervision. The city has around 40,000 homeless, rampant crime, and a corrupt culture at city hall. The main leftist candidate is Rep. Karen Bass, who is more a Leninist than a “progressive.” Given the seriousness of the issues and discontent of LA voters, what does the Los Angeles Times think is most important for voters to learn about Caruso? I kid you not—here is their headline:

A federal judge on Friday tossed Trump’s lawsuit seeking to block New York Attorney General Letitia James’ witch hunt investigation into the former president’s business practices. U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes for upstate New York, an Obama appointee, issued the ruling just one day after a state appeals court ruled Trump must testify under oath. “While the New York proceeding has been ongoing since August 2020, Plaintiffs have submitted no evidence that the subpoena enforcement proceeding has been conducted in such a way as to constitute harassment,” Sannes wrote in a 43-page decision. Trump’s lawyers said they will immediately appeal...

Music lost one of its most promising talents when the Notorious B.I.G died at the age of 24 as the result of a Los Angeles drive-by shooting in 1997. His friends grieved especially. Sean Combs, who's been known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, had been close with B.I.G. since the very beginning: B.I.G. signed to Combs' label Bad Boy Records when it first launched in 1993. Combs also produced and added vocals to several of the tracks on B.I.G.'s debut album, 1994's Ready to Die. “You get guilt when you lose a friend,” Combs told People magazine in 2017. “It...

Patricia Krenwinkel, a former Charles Manson follower, was recommended for release by a California parole board for the first time Thursday. The now-74-year-old was convicted of seven counts of first degree murder in the killings that left seven people dead in August of 1969, according to CNN. One of the victims was pregnant actress Sharon Tate, who was married to director Roman Polanski. Tate had been spending the night with friends at her home on Cielo Drive in Los Angeles when the murder took place. One of her friends that was murdered was coffee heiress Abigail Folger, who Krenwinkel confessed...

As described by U.S. naval veteran Edward L. Beach, service on a World War II submarine represented ‘stress to the ultimate degree’. Men had to be constantly on the alert for attacking aircraft, prepared to make dangerous dives and endure prolonged depth-charge attacks.The dangers faced by submariners during World War II are apparent in the high attrition rates. According to one estimate, 1,280 submarines were lost in action or by accident during the Second World War.8 In the U.S. submarine service, about 16,000 officers and enlisted men made war patrols; from among these 3,406 died in action. This amounted to...

He says he went into the restaurant and found nobody in the kitchen, and no customers in the building.If you've tried to order from a fast-food restaurant recently, you may have noticed a longer wait for service. A Pittsburgh's Action News 4 viewer shared a video of one local restaurant with not a single employee or customer inside. (Click the video player above to watch.) "Showed up to this Burger King on Noblestown Road, and there is nobody in here. Nobody in here. Went to the drive-through, nothing," he says in the video. In the video, Lazz Tantalo described his...

Cops responding to the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre “made the wrong decision” when they waited to breach the classroom door where a gunman had barricaded himself inside with children, a top law enforcement official said Friday. The on-scene commander made the call that the carnage at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday had gone from an active shooter situation to a “barricaded suspect” situation, Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said in a briefing Friday. “With the benefit of hindsight, where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision, it was the wrong...

Two boys, at the time 13 and 14, were arrested in 2018 for planning a Columbine-inspired attack on an Uvalde school — in 2022. The boys, who were not named at the time of their arrests, would be 17 and 18 now. Earlier this week, an 18-year-old young man shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. At the time of the teen’s arrests, Uvalde Chief of Police Daniel Rodriguez said that a Morales Junior High School student, 14, and a former Morales student, 13, were planning to conduct the attack four years from...

California’s rate of gun deaths has declined by 10% since 2005, even as the national rate has climbed in recent years. And Texas and Florida? Their rates of gun deaths have climbed 28% and 37% respectively. California now has one of the 10 lowest rates of gun deaths in the nation. Texas and Florida are headed in the wrong direction. Obviously, factors beyond a state’s laws can affect the rate of firearms deaths. The national health statistics take into account differences in the age distribution of state populations, but they don’t control for every factor that might affect gun deaths.

Harold Billow, 99, the last known survivor of a World War II POW massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, will be laid to rest Thursday in Pennsylvania. Billow, who died May 17, was attached to the Army’s 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion when his unit surrendered and he was taken prisoner by Waffen SS soldiers as German forces launched an offensive in Belgium to try to change the war’s tide in December 1944. According to various accounts, the Germans opened fire on the unarmed prisoners in a field, killing more than 80 in what came to be known as...