Free Republic

Last year in Portland, 47 Black Portlanders were murdered, 11 Latino Portlanders, and 2 Asian Portlanders. Sixty out of 101 homicides in Portland – the whitest big city in the country – were of people of color. In almost every neighborhood or business around town you can find a “Black Lives Matter” sign. But do Black lives really matter in Portland, or is it just a slogan that makes people feel good? We need mental health professionals, businesses, police, the district attorney, faith leaders, and street level outreach workers to name a few to come discuss what is working and...

A leap in donations since the announcement of criminal charges against Donald Trump has boosted his 2024 White House ambitions.AP reports Trump has raised more than $34 million already this year with the total received after the March 30 New York indictment approaching what he garnered over the previous three months.Trump’s latest fundraising report was due Saturday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reportedly showing he raised more than $18.8 million between his main campaign account and a joint fundraising account over the the first three months of the year, the campaign said.Of that total for the Jan. 1-March 31...

While speaking at the NRA’s Leadership Forum Friday, former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump said he will ask Congress to send national reciprocity to his desk during his second term.Trump said, “I will ask Congress to send a bill to my desk…[for] national concealed carry reciprocity.”He added, “Just like your driver’s license or your marriage license, your Second Amendment must apply across state lines. It will. We’ll get it done pretty quickly, too.”BREAKING: Donald Trump calls for national concealed carry reciprocity at the NRA Convention: “Just like your driver's license or your marriage license, your Second Amendment must...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s praise for the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman who was arrested last week for leaking classified military documents was “one of the most irresponsible statements she could make.”“If you’re a member of the military intelligence community and you disagree with American policy and you think you’re going to be okay when it comes to leaking classified information, you’re going to go to jail,” Graham said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It’s one of the most irresponsible statements she could make.”Hours after the arrest of Air National Guardsman...

16 April 2023Divine Mercy Sunday (2nd Sunday of Easter) St Benedict Joseph Labre Church, Brooklyn Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(I).First readingActs 2:42-47 ©The faithful all lived together and owned everything in commonThe whole community remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. The many miracles and signs worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone. The faithful all lived together and owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed....

NATIONAL EGGS BENEDICT DAY On April 16th, National Eggs Benedict Day celebrates a long-favored breakfast or brunch dish. Eggs Benedict consists of poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce and Canadian bacon or ham on English muffin halves. #National Eggs Benedict Day There are two different stories as to how Eggs Benedict came to be. In 1894 stockbroker Lemuel Benedict ordered “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a side of Hollandaise” at the Waldorf Hotel. They were so impressed with the dish that they put it on the menu, substituting ham and English muffins in place of the bacon and toast....

New York City police chief Jeffrey Maddrey abused his power by cutting a friend and former colleague loose after he was arrested for threatening three Brooklyn teenagers with a gun, an independent review found, highlighting a problem with corruption and abuse of power in New York City. The New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) backed the non-criminal charge against Maddrey, who had been accused of using his influence to nullify the arrest of retired New York City cop Krysthoff Forrester in November 2021, the New York Post reported on Saturday. “After carefully reviewing the evidence, the full board...

The photographed tank appears to be from the 1950s with no modern upgrades The first of several hundred 70-year-old Soviet-era Russian tanks appears to have been deployed to Ukraine, as the Kremlin desperately replenish its depleted resources. An image appeared on Friday which showed a T-55 Soviet tank located in Zaporizhzhia, an oblast in southern Ukraine, weeks after they were videoed on their way to the war-torn country. The photographed tank appears to be from the 1950s and shows no modern upgrades - suggesting that Russia is shipping the decrepit machinery in an attempt to aid its war effort. The...

California’s Dream For All Shared Appreciation loan program, designed to help make home-buying easier for prospective buyers in the Golden State, is already running out of money. The program, which launched on March 27, was available to help first-time homebuyers with down payments. The state has already fully allocated the estimated $300 million set aside for the program as of April 7. To qualify for the program, households must have earned less than the CalHFA’s income limit, which vary by county and range from $159,000 to $300,000. The average price of a home in California is $718,687, according to Zillow...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Fox News Host Tucker Carlson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suggesting the Massachusetts Air National Guard airman allegedly leaking classified information was a good thing are destroying American’s ability to defend itself.

Kraft wants to build the elevator in such a way that the exterior is visible outdoors, but a local review board wants to avoid that. An interior elevator would cost $2.47 million, while an exterior elevator Kraft prefers would cost $1.16 million.

A new report from the United Nations has called for all forms of drug use and sexual activity to be decriminalized globally. Written by the International Committee of Jurists (ICJ), UNAIDS and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the report was released on International Women’s Day, with the goal of guiding “the application of international human rights law to criminal law.” Called the “8 March principles,” the report calls for offenses related to “sex, drug use, HIV, sexual and reproductive health, homelessness and poverty” to be decriminalized. The United Nations experts say that criminalizing offenses related...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- At least 29 people have been shot, six fatally, in weekend gun violence across Chicago, police said. Saturday A teenage boy was fatally shot on a sidewalk Saturday night in New City. About 11:20 p.m., Curtis Moore, 17, was in the 800-block of West 51st Street when someone in a black sedan fired shots, striking him in the chest, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office said. He was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. No arrests were reported. A man was fatally shot Saturday night in...

"The World Health Organization (WHO) is a supranational United Nations agency that is effectively controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as evidenced, among other things, by the manner in which the WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, has relentlessly accomplished Beijing’s bidding. That includes advancing the CCP’s interest in bringing about a post-Constitutional-America and “global governance” dominated by the Party. The CCP’s hegemonic ambitions have no place for a powerful United States of America, human freedom or personal sovereignty." The WHO is, moreover, underwritten and malignly influenced by other hostile special interests, including Bill Gates and Big Pharma..." "...For all...

Tornadoes are becoming more frequent in populated parts of the United States and are often occurring as damaging clusters — a development seen in recent deadly outbreaks from Alabama to Michigan. The number, damage and deadliness of individual tornadoes has held roughly steady over the past 50 years, federal experts with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration told The Hill. But broad shifts in the patterns of how tornadoes occur will pose serious challenges to policymakers and emergency managers across the South and Midwest — even as risks remain in the traditional heart of Tornado Alley.

Revelations this week of FBI efforts to develop intelligence sources inside the Catholic Church elicited howls of protest — from Capitol Hill, the Church and an FBI whistleblower. Amid the latest revelations of political bias and retaliation by the FBI, Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs is calling for the increasingly polarizing law enforcement agency to be purged of politicized personnel and possibly defunded. "I think if I could still be shocked — after having been in Congress for a while — this was one of the most shocking things that I've seen," Biggs told the John Solomon Reports podcast on...

It’s the first trove of artifacts identified from a sanctuary in the ancient Greek city of Paestum, which dates from the 5th century B.C. Paestum, famed for its three massive Doric-columned temples, is near the archaeological site of Pompeii, but farther down the Almalfi coast. The small temple was first identified in 2019 along the ancient city walls but excavations were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Italian Culture Ministry said in a statement. Excavations yielded several small terracotta figurines in the first months of resuming work, the Ministry said. Archeologists found seven bull heads found around a temple...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is set to propose next week a 1-year debt limit extension tied to spending concessions from President Biden and the Democrats. According to a source familiar with the ongoing negotiations, concessions extracted in exchange for a debt limit increase would yield approximately $4 trillion in savings for taxpayers over a 10-year period. The spending reforms sought by the House GOP include recovering unspent COVID stimulus funds, capping domestic spending at FY2022 levels and only allowing it to grow 1% over the next 10 years as well as enforcing a work requirement for recipients of Medicaid who...

Women's tennis legend Billie Jean King was in Delray Beach, Florida, on Friday for the Billie Jean Cup qualifier, and discussed more than just the match. During a 30-minute press conference, the 79-year-old King criticized Florida’s "Parental Rights in Education" law, also known as the "Don’t Say Gay" law by its critics. The bill was signed into law in March 2022 by Gov. Ron DeSantis and bans teachers from giving classroom instruction on "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" in kindergarten through third grade.

Getting accepted into a university is arguably the most challenging part of getting a college degree. It’s not as easy as it was even just ten years ago. For the Ivy League schools, it’s a whole other ballpark for those trying to get accepted purely off merit. One high school student had a nearly perfect track record and still faced numerous rejections. Every Ivy League school rejected a valedictorian with a 1590 SAT score. With over 154,000 followers on TikTok, a user named Limmy has amassed quite a lot of support thanks to his videos about college applications. From reviews...