Free Republic

At least three Virginia school districts that failed to notify students about National Merit award commendations are under investigation by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. The number of schools that have admitted their failure to notify students of national recognition is now at 17. Governor Glen Youngkin is blaming so-called “equity” programs for the problem. Youngkin said over the weekend the recognition “seems to have been withheld from them for the purpose of not wanting to make people feel bad who didn’t achieve it.” Indeed, the scandal broke earlier this month when parents of students at Thomas Jefferson High School...

Investigators on Thursday released the identity of the person who was shot and killed by law enforcement officers who were trying to clear protesters camping at the site of a planned Atlanta-area public safety training center that opponents have dubbed “Cop City.” Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, was shot and killed Wednesday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Teran was inside a tent in the woods and did not comply with verbal commands from law enforcement officers trying to clear the area, the GBI has said. When Teran shot and injured a state trooper, other law enforcement officers...

One of the most obnoxious wokester players on the world stage surprised everyone Wednesday by saying she was calling it quits.According to The Guardian:New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said she is resigning, in an unexpected announcement that came as she confirmed a national election for October.At the party’s first caucus meeting of the year on Thursday, Ardern said she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job. “It’s time,” she added.“I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility – the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also...

East Baton Rouge, Louisiana deputies charged a woman with attempted murder after she allegedly stabbed her boyfriend after he urinated in their bed, according to reports. ...East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to reports of a stabbing victim at a local hospital on Saturday. The victim was being treated for a stab wound on the left side of his torso and a punctured lung. After urinating on the bed, the victim told police, the victim was woken up by Lacost, who started hitting him. While he tried to get away from her, Lacost allegedly ran at him with a...

New policy video from @realDonaldTrump: Cut foreign aid to countries that hate us, cut the billions in Green New Deal extremism, secure the border & stop illegals from using taxpayer funded services, but DON'T CUT Social Security/Medicare for our seniors. https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1616464401757872130?cxt=HHwWhIC9rePz6u4sAAAA

The State of California is warning residents who may have received an inflation “refund” in the form of a bank card to withdraw their funds as soon as possible because thieves are targeting the refunds in fraud scams. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), facing reelection, announced that his administration would be sending “inflation relief” checks to residents in the form of EBT cards to help pay for expensive gas and other goods. The refunds were conveniently timed to begin arriving in residents’ mailboxes right before the election. Many people received letters that included a special EBT card loaded with...

Hungary expects Ukrainian leaders to make every effort to stop the attacks and atrocities suffered by ethnic Hungarians, Tamas Menczer, the foreign ministry state secretary for external relations, said on public radio on Friday. Menczer reacted to reports that Hungarian flags and signs have been removed in Mukachevo district (Munkacs), in western Ukraine, and the director of a local Hungarian school, Istvan Schink, was sacked. Before the war, “the ethnic Hungarian community was being stripped of their rights”, he said, citing measures that restricted the use of their mother tongue and education in Hungarian.

Every year, people ask the same question: Why does rent keep getting higher? The answer is complicated, but there are some contributors that can be highlighted.Will prices go down anytime soon? To answer that question, the following concepts need to be considered.Seller's MarketThings may finally be starting to turn. For the past few years, prices and home values rose at unprecedented rates. This meant that those who were selling their homes were in a strong negotiating position when it came to price. Even though the market is showing signs of turning, sellers still hold some power.Buyers, on the other hand,...

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos paid a rare visit to the newspaper’s offices and took part in an editorial staff meeting on Thursday — igniting panic among the publication’s journalists that layoffs were imminent. Bezos surprised staffers on Thursday morning when he showed up to the newspaper’s headquarters on K Street in the nation’s capital just weeks after publisher Fred Ryan announced looming layoffs during a stormy, chaotic all-hands meeting. The Amazon founder’s presence in the newsroom prompted one staffer, who was dressed in a red shirt emblazoned with the insignia of the newspaper guild, to accost the billionaire and...

All-electric battery vehicles (BEVs) have become all the rage, particularly with the political class, who see them as a magical means to combat climate change. We know, of course, there is no such thing as magic. But that won’t stop politicians from making proclamations, followed by policies that bring about bad, even destructive, results. Climate science is highly complex, as the Earth has gone through many warming and cooling periods over billions of years with widely varying amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere long before man arrived on the scene. I have no reason to doubt the global climate...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

WASHINGTON — Appearing on late-night television in September, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg expressed confidence that airlines would improve their performance after a dismal summer of flight delays and cancellations. “I think it’s going to get better by the holidays,” Buttigieg told the host, James Corden. His prediction did not age well. Until the past few weeks, Buttigieg, 41, had enjoyed a relatively smooth glide as transportation secretary. He has traveled the country promoting the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law, appearing with grateful local leaders to trumpet the money headed their way. But the recent aviation woes present a formidable challenge...

Skip to the 6-minute mark and listen through to the end. Tucker talks about Nixon winning by the biggest margin in history, Watergate, Nixon's threat to CIA director Helms about exposing "who shot John", Mark Felt Asst FBI Director for counterintelligence being Deep Throat, and Bob Woodward had been in Naval Intelligence. Very interesting stuff, particularly since Carlson has at least twice in the last few weeks stated openly that the CIA assassinated JFK. The Daily Caller mysteriously left this part of the video out of their reporting on what he was talking about last night. I hope Carlson has...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Mark 3:14–15The Twelve Apostles were first called by Jesus and then sent to preach with authority. The authority they were given was for the purpose of driving out demons. But how did they do that? It’s interesting to note that the authority they were given over demons was, in part, associated with their commission to preach. And though there are some recorded instances in the Scriptures...

Donald Trump has dropped his Florida lawsuit accusing New York Attorney General Letitia James of waging a “war of intimidation and harassment” against him, court papers show. The former president filed papers Friday voluntarily dismissing his West Palm Beach federal suit from November. The move comes on the same day he was due to respond to the AG’s bid to have his case tossed out by a judge. Trump had argued James abused her position while carrying out an allegedly politically motivated probe into the Trump Organization’s business dealings ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. James has been investigating Trump...

WASHINGTON — The decision by President Joe Biden and his top advisers to keep the discovery of classified documents secret from the public and even most of the White House staff for 68 days was driven by what turned out to be a futile hope that the incident could be quietly disposed of without broader implications for Biden or his presidency. The handful of advisers who were aware of the initial discovery on Nov. 2 — six days before the midterm elections — gambled that without going public, they could convince the Justice Department that the matter was little more...

"President Trump has been a featured speaker at CPAC for over 10 years, sharing his love for our great country and the American people." Former President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump is set to headline this year's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) which is scheduled to take place March 1-4 in Washington, DC."We are honored to have President Trump speak at the CPAC conference," CPAC spokesperson Megan Powers Small said in a statement posted to Twitter by Politico Correspondent Meridith McGraw. "President Trump has been a featured speaker at CPAC for over 10 years, sharing his love for...

Former President Trump on Friday urged Republicans in Congress not to cut “a single penny” from Medicare or Social Security, a notable warning as some GOP lawmakers prepare to use the debt ceiling debate as leverage to try to secure spending cuts. “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security to help pay for Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree, which is more reckless than anybody’s ever done or had in the history of our country,” Trump said in a recorded video statement posted to Truth Social. The former president, who in November...

A government program launched Thursday is giving American citizens the chance to play a role in resettling the thousands of refugees who arrive every year in the United States. During the first year of the Welcome Corps, the State Department aims to line up 10,000 Americans who can help 5,000 refugees adjust to life in the United States. “By tapping into the goodwill of American communities, the Welcome Corps will expand our country’s capacity to provide a warm welcome to higher numbers of refugees,” the department said in announcing the effort. When refugees from around the world arrive in the...

Less than a day after receiving a warning from a federal judge, former President Donald Trump has withdrawn his $250 million lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The withdrawal came in a brief document filed Friday morning with U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who late Thursday warned Trump's legal team that the lawsuit appeared to verge on frivolous. "Plaintiff, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, by and through his undersigned counsel and pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i), hereby voluntarily dismisses his claims in this action against Defendant, LETITIA JAMES, without prejudice," the letter said. Trump's lawsuit had sought...