Free Republic

Many small businesses continue to struggle and now a growing number of pizza shops in the Grand Rapids area are closing. Just over a year after Rico Nelson took over Franco’s Pizzeria on Alpine Avenue in Walker, he had to shut the store down. He’s far from the only one. "Business usually takes a while to get your niche and get it figured out," Nelson said. "But it’s just so hard with the uncertainty of the future right now, you know?" It’s the perfect storm facing small businesses right now: employee shortages, rising food and gas prices and supply chain...

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a leading Senate advocate for supporting Ukraine’s war against Russia, crossed into Ukraine Sunday and called on the Biden administration to step up its shipments of artillery. Portman announced his visit while at the Ukraine-Moldova border crossing at Palanca. “I also had the opportunity to speak with several Ukrainians crossing the border and hear about their concerns about what Russia was doing to their country,” he tweeted. Portman also met with senior U.S. military officials and allies in the region, traveling to Stuttgart, Germany, and Bucharest, Romania. “Based on my briefings and discussions this weekend in...

One Republican senator and one Democratic senator are hoping they can find some common ground on gun reforms that will garner enough Republican support to pass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead. Republican Senator John Cornyn and Democratic Senator Chris Murphy will meet virtually on Tuesday to "see if we can agree on a basic framework" about how to go forward on gun legislation proposals, according to an aide to Cornyn. An aide to Murphy confirmed the senator "is participating in tomorrow's...

A barn that housed tens of thousands of chickens on Forsman Farm in Howard Lake, Minnesota, one of the nation’s largest egg producers, was set aflame late Saturday night. According to Forsman Farms, which provides more than three million eggs to the largest retailers in the country, the cause of the fire remains a mystery as investigators evaluate the scene to determine how the barn was set ablaze ........ Snip........ Law enforcement officials estimate at least 200,000 chickens were killed in the massive flame. While the fire left extensive damage to the property, no injuries were reported ..... Snip..... The...

The battlefield is still warm, following Canada’s war on the unvaccinated. The mandates have let up, and both sides stumble back into something that looks like the old normal — except that there is a fresh and present injury done to the people we tried to break. And no one wants to talk about it. Only weeks ago, it was the admitted goal of our own leaders to make life unlivable for the unvaccinated. And as a deputized collective, we force-multiplied that pain, taking the fight into our families, friendships, and workplaces. Today, we face the hard truth that none...

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) advocated for his Safe Students Act — a piece of legislation that would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. “The ‘Safe Students Act’ would make it easier for state and local governments and school boards to unambiguously set their own firearms policies,” Massie argued on Twitter last week. The legislation — originally introduced by former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) in 2007 — would end the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which bans individuals from knowingly possessing firearms in a school zone, according to a press release from Massie’s office. “Gun-free zones are ineffective and make...

A national freeze on importing, buying or selling handguns is a central feature of firearm-control legislation tabled today by the federal Liberals. The government says the bill would also allow for the removal of gun licences from people involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment, such as stalking The government plans to fight gun smuggling and trafficking by increasing criminal penalties, providing more tools to investigate firearms crimes and strengthening border measures.

Pro-Trump Republicans took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, after news broke Sunday that her husband, Paul Pelosi, was arrested over the weekend for driving under the influence of alcohol in Napa County, California. TMZ first reported on Sunday afternoon that Paul Pelosi was arrested late Saturday night. Fox News later confirmed the report, citing Napa County records. The news network reported that the arrest took place at 11:44 p.m. and Paul Pelosi was later booked in jail at 4:13 a.m. before being released at 7:26 a.m. Bail for the top House Democrat's husband was set at...

<p>CLAYTON, N.C. (WTVD) -- Every time a car passes through these North Carolina toll collection sites while driving the NC Expressway, a camera takes a picture of your license plate and the state sends you a bill. Mona Raymond's husband got one of these bills.</p>

These are the queues in Melitopol for Russian SIM cards. Kherson and Zaporozhye regions are switching to the +7 telephone code used in Russia. Russian operators sell communication services. {Click link for short video}

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala,) is absolutely opposed to any new restrictions on guns — even regarding military-style assault weapons — because people need them to “take back” our government, he explained on Fox News Sunday. Such action should only be undertaken in the event America becomes “dictatorial,” Brooks told host Sandra Smith. “Oh, no, that’s wrong. That is absolutely false,” said Brooks, before Smith corrected him yet again. Brooks claims the whole idea of the Second Amendment was to arm citizens to take over the country if need be — and that not having enough guns will spark the appetite...

HOWARD LAKE, Minn. (WCCO) — Massive flames burned down a barn with tens of thousands of chickens in Wright County. The fire started late Saturday night at Forsman Farms in Howard Lake, causing major damage. The Trebesch family thought they would spend Saturday night around their bonfire, but just after 10 p.m. they noticed massive flames across the field at Forsman Farms. “It was unbelievable how quick it grew, it was insane,” Andy Trebesch said. “It was the whole sky, it was quite large.” The Trebesch family thought they would spend Saturday night around their bonfire, but just after 10...

President Donald Trump on Monday offered a Memorial Day message, thanking the brave men and women of the country who paid the ultimate price and making it abundantly clear that they will never be forgotten. His brief remarks were pointed, contrasting President Joe Biden, who used the day to push for gun control and pay homage to Ukraine. “Happy Memorial Day! God Bless all of those who fought and worked sooo hard to build, and now SAVE, our Country,” Trump wrote in a Monday post on TruthSocial. “Many brave and beautiful souls were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Please...

In a speech on the Senate floor Friday, Rand Paul blasted efforts by Democrats to paint up all law enforcement officers and those in the military as dangerous radical racists. Paul was addressing The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, blocked by Republicans in the Senate, that demands the FBI and Department of Homeland Security change the way they investigate and monitor domestic terrorism suspects. The official summary of the bill notes that an “interagency task force” would be established in order to probe into “white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies.” “This...

As the Democratic Party’s fate grows increasingly uncertain this midterm election season, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) says he remains resilient in a notoriously “purplish” state by focusing on the empowerment of individual voters. “Colorado is a very independently minded, freedom-oriented state, and they don’t want Republicans or Democrats telling them what to do,” Polis told The Hill. “They value accurate information, they value facts, and people should be empowered to make their own decisions, whether that’s marijuana, whether it’s wearing a mask — we’re a state that values freedom.”

A Florida sheriff has taken the unusual step of releasing the mugshot and identity of a 10-year-old boy who was arrested for making a school shooting threat. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno defended releasing the boy’s identity by saying that “a child pulling a trigger equals the same aftermath.” Daniel Issac Marquez, 10, was arrested and perp walked on Saturday after sending text messages claiming that he obtained weapons and would shoot up Patriot Elementary School in Cape Coral. The child had sent his friend a text with a Googled image of cash, saying “I scammed my friend.” “I bought...

McElroy To Get Flaming Red Hat Given what we know about Pp. Francis, this is not surprising. It's another sign.Now let's see what +McElroy has written defending a book written by his good friend, J. Martin, SJLBGTQ....The coordinated attack on Building a Bridge must be a wake-up call for the Catholic community to look inward and purge itself of bigotry against the L.G.B.T. community…chastity is not the central virtue in the Christian moral life. Our central call is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Many times, our discussions in...

The European Union has reached a deal to ban the import of Russian oil , EU council president Charles Michel said late on Tuesday. In a tweet, he said it would immediately covers more than two thirds of oil imports from Russia, “cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine”.A proposed exception for oil delivered by pipeline earlier edged the EU towards finalising the deal to sanction Russia and squeeze its financial ability to wage war in Ukraine.

Gas prices on Memorial Day soared to a record high of $4.619 per gallon, up nine cents over the weekend, according to AAA. Last year, gas prices were averaging around $3 per gallon, and in May of 2020, gas prices were around $1.77 cents.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday his government was introducing new legislation to implement a "national freeze" on handgun ownership and prevent people from buying and selling handguns anywhere in the country. "The day this legislation goes into effect it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns in Canada," Trudeau told reporters. If passed, the freeze on handguns is expected to come into force in the autumn. Canada's public safety minister has tabled regulatory amendments in parliament to ensure it can be implemented swiftly, according to a ministry statement.