Free Republic

The MTA’s latest congestion pricing scheme: Charge runners for crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The transit agency is waging war against the organizers of the New York City Marathon, demanding $750,000 to make up for toll revenue lost during the iconic race. And if New York Road Runners doesn’t pay up, the agency is threatening to restrict use of the bridge, potentially reducing the number of runners who can compete in the wildly popular event each November, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing internal memos. During hardball negotiations, the MTA initially said runners — who start the marathon on Staten...

Former ESPN host Sage Steele revealed that her 2021 interview with President Biden was “scripted” by network executives. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Steele recalled the “structured” nature of the pre-taped interview, so much so that her ESPN bosses handed her a “script” to go off of. “That was an interesting experience in its own right because it was so structured,” Steele said. “And I was told, ‘You will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script and go.’” (snip) “I think it’s really heartbreaking that the people who love Joe Biden...

Anger over the increase to the federal carbon price led to protests across the country Monday, including several that stalled traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway and at provincial border crossings. Ottawa’s planned $15-per-tonne increase in the federal consumer carbon price came into effect Monday, bringing the levy to $80 per tonne. That translates to the carbon price on fuel rising from about $0.14 to almost $0.18, bringing a litre of gasoline up 3.3 cents per litre on average. Speaking outside a gas station in Nanaimo, B.C., Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Monday’s increase a “cruel April Fool’s Day joke on...

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. - She must go. That’s the unanimous recommendation from a hearing panel investigating Douglas County Probate Judge Christina Peterson. The first-time judge has also been the subject of several FOX 5 I-Team investigations since she took office in late 2020. The three-member panel for the Judicial Qualifications Commission decided Peterson is guilty of "systemic incompetence" because she ignored courthouse rules, abused courthouse personnel, made inappropriate posts on social media and, in repeated cases, failed to do her job. The extraordinary decision to remove Peterson follows four separate hearings starting in September 2023 where Peterson had a chance to...

Former President Donald Trump is beating President Biden in six of the seven key swing states for the 2024 election, according to a new poll, with voters raising concerns about the 81-year-old incumbent’s mental fitness and his handling of the economy and immigration issues. A Wall Street Journal survey released Wednesday found Trump, 77, is leading in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia by between one and three percentage points and in North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada by at or more than the poll’s four-point margin of error. Biden, 81, and the former president are also tied in a head-to-head matchup in...

A California teenager whose father was believed to have kidnapped her in September 2022 was fatally shot by deputies as she followed their commands, and she didn’t appear to be wearing tactical gear as officials previously claimed, newly released video shows....However, newly released video from the incident doesn't show the teen in tactical gear, and it reveals she was obeying deputies’ instructions to approach them....The sheriff's office also released a belt recording from the deputy closest to Savannah when she got out of the truck. He is heard repeatedly yelling: “Passenger, get out! Passenger, get out!” and “Come here! Come...

Surveillance video captured the moment that a lawn worker used his string trimmer to knock an alleged thief from a getaway car after he and his accomplices tried to steal his lawn care equipment. The Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office said in a post on Facebook that officers were called to the scene on Friday at Renmark Lane in Northwest Harris County. The lawn worker was at a job when he noticed men stealing equipment from his vehicle down the street, according to Harris County Constable Precinct 3 Captain Daniel Garza. “He observed a black Mercedes and a red...

Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with “Just Walk Out” technology, first reported by The Information Tuesday. The company’s senior vice president of grocery stores says they’re moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with. Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. The technology allows customers to skip checkout altogether by scanning a QR code when they enter the store. Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling...

They have become a familiar sight in the skies above parts of Russia: long-range enemy drones, buzzing their way to another target. In the biggest Ukrainian onslaught inside Russian territory since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion two years ago, Ukraine has in recent weeks carried out a series of attacks on Russian oil refineries and ports. On Tuesday, it hit a refinery and drone factory in the industrial region of Tatarstan - more than 800 miles from the border. The Ukrainian spy agency behind these drone strikes has its eyes on another target: the 12-mile long Kerch bridge connecting occupied Crimea...

President Joe Biden held a phone call on Tuesday with China’s genocidal dictator Xi Jinping in which the American leftist leader reportedly emphasized his distaste for a “new Cold War” or “conflict” with the Chinese Communist Party and assured Xi he would not pursue economic “decoupling.” Those details appeared in the flagship Chinese news outlet Xinhua, which paraphrased Xi’s remarks as berating Biden to deny the existence of the nation of Taiwan, reject pressure to limit China’s malignant influence in the United States, and endeavor to “coexist in peace.”

CNN — In perhaps prosecutors’ strongest rebuke yet to how Judge Aileen Cannon has handled the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, special counsel Jack Smith said in court filings late Tuesday evening that the judge had ordered briefings based on a “fundamentally flawed” understanding of the case that has “no basis in law or fact.

But underneath the outcry is a certain segment of the world of women’s sports that believes female athletes should only be presented as Cleopatras on a golden chaise: yas queen journalism.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Cross-dressed by his grandmother as a child, abused by his uncle, confused and hurting, Walt Heyer sought to become a woman. As a young man, he underwent attempted gender-reassignment surgery, lived as a trans-identifying woman for eight years, and ultimately detransitioned. Heyer, now 83, has spent the past few decades offering support to men and women who also have been taught to believe they were born in the wrong body. As part of that effort, he told The Daily Signal, he’s written a number of books and answered “thousands” of letters from individuals, often men, who...

Donald Trump suffered a blow in a number of primary votes on Tuesday, after thousands of Republicans refused to vote for him.

ANTONIO CISERI "The Transport of Christ to the Sepulcher"

A federal judge has blocked the ATF from enforcing its pistol brace rule for millions of members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the appeals process plays out. It came after the NRA filed a lawsuit against the ATF, or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arguing that the agency’s rule to reclassify the brace-equipped pistols as short-barreled rifles is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay sided with the gun rights group, arguing that the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already concluded that the ATF pistol-brace rule “fails the logical outgrowth test and violates” the Administrative...

It is a plan seen as a way to "Trump-proof" aid for Ukraine. The proposals would give the Western alliance a more direct role in coordinating the supply of arms, ammunition and equipment to Kyiv as it fights Russia's invasion, diplomats say. Speaking before the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the proposal aims to send the message to Russia that it cannot win the war. “What is obvious is that we need new and more money for Ukraine. And we need it over many years. And the whole idea of now discussing a framework, commitments and an institutionalized...

In a sharp escalation of its drone campaign targeting strategic industries deep inside Russia, Ukraine seems to have fitted Cessna-style light planes with remote controls, packed them with explosives and flown at least one of them more than 600 miles to strike a Russian factory in Yelabuga, 550 miles east of Moscow.

The United States Army and Air Force have issued calls for retirees to return to active duty. The Army’s recruitment challenges have been mounting in recent years. Recruiting has been hampered by COVID-19 vaccine requirements as well as an increasingly woke military atmosphere where trans soldiers are give special privileges while Christian soldiers are persecuted, bases host drag shows, and leaders with a history of anti-white statements are hired. According to Army Times, “The Army fell about 15,000 soldiers — or 25% — short of its recruitment goal this [2022], officials confirmed Friday, despite a frantic effort to make up...

"This 'mistake' hit comes a day after the precision strike that killed the Iranian general in Syria. It's hard to reconcile those two things."That was Jonathan Lemire on today's Morning Joe. In saying that it's hard to "reconcile" Israel's "mistake" hit on the World Central Kitchen aid workers with the "precision" hit on the Iranian general, Lemire is hinting strongly this wasn't a mistake at all, but rather, an intentional act by Israel. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.