Free Republic

Police Chief Bradley Wendt had a long shopping list for his department in Adair, Iowa. Between 2018 and 2022, he requested around 90 firearms, including rifles, submachine guns and a .50-caliber belt-fed machine gun, an indictment alleges. Prosecutors say Adair’s police department never staffed more than three full-time officers during that period... Wendt is accused of using the weapons, some of which prosecutors say he obtained through a gun store that he also owns, for his own personal gain...

For the second time, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would ban race-based discrimination of hair, specifically natural, textured hair and protective hairstyles typically worn by African Americans. The Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act aims to protect individuals from unjust treatment in the workplace, in hiring processes and in schools because of their hair. The legislation failed to get enough support from Senate Republicans to override a filibuster from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.... “We will not be deterred by Rand Paul or anyone else. And we’re going to continue fighting and working,” said Marc...

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 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14

Americans may be shocked to see taxes used to 'promote climate alarmism around the world,' watchdog director tells Fox News Digital The Biden administration funded a foreign "reporting tour" last year, sponsoring several overseas journalists who cover climate change, internal State Department emails showed. In March 2021, high-ranking State Department officials discussed a proposal to sponsor foreign journalists to "have experiences that educate them on reporting on climate change," according to the emails obtained by Protect the Public's Trust (PPT) and shared with Fox News Digital. In the email exchange, officials from Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry's...

Kari Lake and her attorneys appeared in court on Monday morning for the historic election contest trial presided by Judge Peter Thompson. Tomorrow’s trial has been set for 8:30 MST to 4:30 MST. The Gateway Pundit reported on the entire trial live from Mesa, Arizona. Watch a replay of the trial here. In the trial, we witnessed bombshell testimony from cybersecurity expert Clay Parikh, election investigator Heather Honey, a Maricopa County whistleblower, and RNC roving attorney Mark Sonnenklar. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Election Director Scott Jarrett were also called to the stand to be examined and cross-examined by...

The Kari Lake elections case has gone to trial and the bombshells are already dropping like crazy: ~~~ JUST IN: Kari Lake trial reveals 42.5% of ballots in their random samples were illegal ballots. Things are about to get crazy… — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 21, 2022 ~~~ Incompetence, or something far worse? 48 of 113 ballots reviewed during our examination were 19-inch ballots produced on 20-inch paper. This one-inch discrepancy cause chaos on Election day. Causing the mass rejection of these votes as they were attempted to be read through the tabulators. — Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) December...

Woman suddenly drops dead while working out at gym in shocking video A 28-year-old woman unexpectedly dropped dead while working out at a gym in Ecuador. The woman — who was identified as Betsy Dayana Jaramillo Ramírez — is believed to have suffered a heart attack at Zona Muscular gym in Santa Rosa, El Oro province, on Nov. 29. Ramírez was captured on the gym’s video footage doing squats and weightlifting when she suddenly stopped and fell forward, face-planting on the floor. Other gym-goers, most of them women, rushed to help Ramírez. They sat her in the recovery position while...

According to Republican governor candidate Kari Lake’s legal team, 42.5% of examined ballots in Maricopa County for the 2022 governor’s race were illegitimate. Lake’s trial began on Wednesday were she is attempting to prove that wide scale fraud took place in Maricopa County on election day. The Lake War Room tweeted on Wednesday that 48 of the 113 ballots that were reviewed during examination were “19-inch ballots produced on 20-inch paper,” “This one-inch discrepancy cause chaos on Election day. Causing the mass rejection of these votes as they were attempted to be read through the tabulators,” the Kari Lake War...

A bitter and dangerous blast of arctic air is charging its way across almost the entire nation this week, dropping wind chills to as low as between negative 50 and negative 70 degrees across the Northern Plains and 30 below zero in the Midwest, triggering rare Hard Freeze Warnings along the Gulf Coast, and helping fuel a monster winter storm that will bring frigid temperatures across the Great Lakes and Northeast. ... Thursday morning temperatures will be as cold as negative 29 degrees in Casper, Wyoming, with 23 degrees below zero likely in Billings, Montana – likely the city's coldest...

Sam Bankman-Fried flown to the US... There will be an emergency court hearing in Mohave County, Arizona tomorrow morning. Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh is being challenged by Maricopa County on his request to inspect ballots... Also in Arizona the two-day trial for Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's election challenge... The FBI taking shots at the Twitter Files revelations... The commander of the US Navy's Seal Team 1 found dead in his San Diego home... In Israel Benjamin Netanyahu says he has formed a new government... In France railroad controllers going on strike Friday... Thanks to gasoline prices an...

In 1850, 60-year-old Robert Newsom, a prosperous farmer, traveled forty miles from his home in Callaway County, Missouri to neighboring Audrain County to buy a slave. Newsom was the head of a large and complex household that included several of his grown children, grandchildren, and five enslaved boys and men. His wife had died a few years earlier, a consideration that may have influenced his decision to purchase a female slave, a fourteen-year-old girl named Celia. From the first day, Newsom treated Celia as his concubine. Testimony given before the Missouri Supreme Court in 1855 indicates that Newsom raped Celia...

The value of welfare and government-provided health insurance for some U.S. households in certain blue states exceeds six figures, exacerbating the labor shortage that has plagued the U.S. economy in the wake of the Covid pandemic, according to a newly released study entitled “Paying Americans Not to Work.” In 24 states, unemployment benefits and Obamacare subsidies for a family of four with two unemployed parents is equivalent to — and in some cases, exceeds — the national median household income, according to a recent study conducted by the economists Casey Mulligan, Erwin Antoni, and Stephen Moore on behalf of the...

Legal expert Alan Dershowitz says DOJ use of subpoenas to target House Intelligence Committee staff phone and email records is likely unconstitutional. The former House Intelligence Committee chairman is suggesting the Justice Department illegally spied on him and possibly sought blackmail material after a bombshell revelation that federal prosecutors used grand jury subpoenas five years ago to get the phone and email records of his top investigators during the congressional probe that unraveled the now-disproven Russia collusion narrative. "This is, I believe, unprecedented spying in modern political history at this point, and just sad that it's taken us almost six...

One of New Jersey’s largest public school districts is requiring masks starting Wednesday due to rising COVID-19 cases. Passaic Public Schools has 17 schools, including Passaic High School, and enrolls approximately 14,000 students. Superintendent Sandra M. Diodonet told parents on Tuesday that, under a school board policy, masks are required “during periods of a High Activity Level” of COVID-19 as documented by the state health department. “Therefore, effective Wednesday, December 21, 2022, all employees, Pre-K through grade 12 students, and visitors are required to wear face coverings in all district facilities, school grounds, and buses,” Diodonet wrote in a letter...

On the same day that that the Bahamas extradited FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to the U.S. to face criminal charges, two former executives at FTX and Alameda Research pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal fraud charges. Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of Alameda Research, and FTX co-founder Zixiao (Gary) Wang, also its former chief technology officer, were charged for their roles in contributing to the crypto platform’s collapse. [Snip]

One week ago, Maricopa County officials squirmed when Kari Lake’s team requested to inspect the Maricopa County ballots from Election Day. This was obvious at the time and Kari Lake’s team later tweeted out the video clip. NOW WE KNOW WHY– The Maricopa County team was afraid they would get caught intentionally using the wrong-sized ballots to sabotage Election Day. On Wednesday at the Kari Lake trial in Maricopa County, the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) run by Kari Lake-hating operative Stephen Richer kept a GOP heat map on its wall before the 2022 election. The dark red...

There is no right to physician-assisted suicide in the Massachusetts Constitution, according to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), which ruled in a case today that spanned the last six years. Cape Cod doctor Roger Kligler, who suffers from advanced prostate cancer, and Dr. Alan Steinbach, who treats terminally ill patients, appealed a superior court decision that denied their claims that medically assisted suicide (also known as physician-assisted suicide) was outside the criminal laws for murder and manslaughter, and thus, insolated physicians and patients from risks of prosecution. The two doctors argued that the right to assisted suicide was guaranteed...

Some Republican lawmakers remained skeptical of supporting the war in Ukraine despite an in-person joint congressional address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky’s trip took place as Congress deliberates an omnibus spending bill that would appropriate $45 billion more for Ukraine assistance, on top of $66 billion appropriated this year.

The Laudato Si’ Movement, together with Italian Catholic Action and other Catholic national realities, launch an appeal for “an economy of peace” as a sign of closeness to the people of Ukraine.“Rise up quickly” (Acts 12:7). Inspired by Pope Francis’ exhortation at the last Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, several Catholic associations, including the Laudato si’ movement and Italian Catholic Action, called other Catholic national realities to work toward sustainability and a “greener” future. Ecological conversion“This year,” a press release reads, “place your commitment to divest from fossil fuels as a sign that you have ‘divested’ from...

In Beaudoin v. Attorney General of British Columbia, (BC Ct. App., Dec. 16, 2022), the highest court in the Canadian province of British Columbia upheld 2020 and 2021 COVID orders of BC's Provincial Health Officer that prohibited in-person worship services. The court concluded that the Gathering and Events Order did not violate §15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protects the equality rights of the churches that were plaintiffs in the suit, saying in part: [T]he G&E orders did not create any distinction based on the religious or non-religious nature of the setting in question. Any distinction between...