Free Republic

Republican Utah Rep. John Curtis — the frontrunner in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Mitt Romney — received thousands of dollars in contributions from donors to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s presidential bid during the first fundraising quarter of his Senate campaign, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. Curtis brought in over $98,000 from donors of Haley’s suspended campaign and aligned super PAC, SFA Fund, Inc., between Jan. 1 and April 7, FEC filings show. The congressman has refrained from endorsing former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign while other leading...

The death of Jill Dando remains one of the biggest mysteries in British criminal history, 25 years on from her murder. Ms Dando was shot dead on her doorstep by a single bullet to her head at 11:30am on April 26, 1999. The keys of her BMW convertible were still in her hand. The Crimewatch host was found outside her home in Fulham 15 minutes later by a passer-by and was rushed to Charing Cross Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:03pm. Her unsolved murder became one of the largest criminal investigations in British history, with hundreds of suspects....

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) abruptly announced on Friday that he will not seek reelection, after initially planning to run for another term. Posey’s announcement — if made earlier — could have easily attracted a spirited Republican primary, with politicians from the state’s Space Coast region already eyeing the seat once Posey retired. Florida’s 8th congressional district is a solid Republican seat. Instead the 76-year-old incumbent’s announcement came shortly after qualifying officially ended and after his hand-picked replacement — former state Senate President Mike Haridopolos — had already quietly jumped into the race. In a statement posted online,...

On Thursday, the third intermediary day of Passover, Levites gathered in Jerusalem to reenact their musical role in the Temple. A group of about two dozen Levites gathered in the Old City to practice their singing while wearing garments designed for use by the Temple musicians in the Third Temple. Singing led to dancing, celebrating the joy of the Biblical feast. The Levites also blew silver trumpets that had been prepared for use in the Third Temple. Traditionally, Temple musicians were selected from the tribe of Levi. The Zohar explains that the Levites were selected to sing in the Temple...

President Donald Trump requested a new trial in the civil case brought against him by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who alleged that at some point she could not precisely remember in the mid-1990s he had sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman department store in midtown Manhattan, and that request has been denied by a federal judge. Carroll was awarded $83 million in a defamation suit following a win in her civil suit, in which a New York City judge and jury determined that Trump was civilly liable for sexual assault. The case did not meet...

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's address to the Oxford Union in the UK was interrupted by a pair of pro-Palestine demonstrators, days after she said such protests have a 'Russian tinge' to them. The California Democrat was giving an address to the debating society in Oxford as the protestors walked just in front of her podium and silently held up Palestinian flags, until being escorted out by security. Outside the building some 250 demonstrators chanted 'free Palestine' and 'end the genocide.'

The NFL has adjusted its rules to allow players the option of using Guardian Caps in regular-season games to enhance their protection against head injuries, the league confirmed Friday. The padded headgear was mandated for players at certain positions during training camp in 2022 and 2023. Speaking earlier this year, NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said that Guardian Caps have contributed to a nearly 50% reduction in concussions for the position groups that wore them during those time periods. In a statement provided Friday to ESPN, Miller said: "We now have two years of data showing significant concussion reductions...

Things of ominous import are ratcheting up in the Syrian and Lebanese regions of the Middle East cauldron. So high have rumors of a major Israeli strike soon to come raised fears that Bashar Al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, has deemed to take his entire family on vacation somewhere distant from Damascus. Both Israeli and Arab press report Assad has abandoned the Syrian capital and that he did so suddenly and with little announcement. The latest war-making revolves around the IDF taking out a major Iranian terrorist leader/diplomat in a building near the Iranian Embassy. Iran has gone on a campaign...

Oral argument before the Supreme Court this week showed why it is nonsense to claim that anti-vagrancy laws violate the Constitution‘s Eighth Amendment provision against “cruel and unusual punishment.” Indeed, in the vernacular sense, what is cruel and unusual is a judicial edict that says law-abiding citizens must put up with public spaces featuring major health hazards, including even the plague. Yet that’s what some lower courts, bizarrely, say citizens must do. By any normal reading, the Eighth Amendment is intended to forbid overly harsh penalties, not to determine what sorts of conduct can or can’t be outlawed. Unfortunately, the...

Explanation: In northern hemisphere spring, bright star Regulus is easy to spot above the eastern horizon. The alpha star of the constellation Leo, Regulus is the spiky star centered in this telescopic field of view. A mere 79 light-years distant, Regulus is a hot, rapidly spinning star that is known to be part of a multiple star system. Not quite lost in the glare, the fuzzy patch just below Regulus is diffuse starlight from small galaxy Leo I. Leo I is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, a member of the Local Group of galaxies dominated by our Milky Way Galaxy and...

A viral recording purporting to show a Maryland school principal making racially charged remarks has been determined by police to be a fake, according to WBAL-TV. According to police, the recording was generated by the school's former athletic director, Dazhon Darien, who was upset that his contract was not renewed. Darien has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies in connection with the incident, including stalking, theft, disruption of school operations, and retaliation against a witness. The principal, Eric Eiswert, became the subject of national controversy in January after a recording that purported to be his voice was circulated widely...

President Joe Biden’s administration is delaying its potential plan to ban menthol cigarettes after concerns about the political implications ahead of the 2024 election. The administration planned to announce Friday that it will delay its decision on the rule, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. While the administration plans to argue that it needs to consult more outside groups on the implications of the rule, there is no current timeline to revisit the issue, the sources told the WSJ. Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Xavier Becerra confirmed the news in a statement Friday afternoon, saying the potential...

Top aides to Biden secretly hatched a plan this past fall to replace White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre by recruiting outside allies to nudge her out the door ... Jean-Pierre, who made history in May 2022 by becoming the first black and first openly gay person to hold the position, had developed the exasperating habit of reading canned answers directly from a binder to reporters at her regular briefings — offering what her superiors viewed as a less-than-compelling pitch for the 81-year-old Biden as he readied his re-election campaign. De facto White House communications chief Anita Dunn, 66, the...

MUKILTEO — Calling all unicorns. Mukilteo police want you on the force. What’s up with that? A uniformed unicorn police officer with rainbow hair is featured in a new recruitment strategy that reads: “Unicorns may not be real but a career with the Mukilteo Police is pure magic.” The city has two openings on its force slotted for 32 commissioned police officers. Entry-level pay is $81,544 to $105,295. Rookies must be at least 21 with a high school diploma or equivalent. “There’s a whole population who would be amazing police officers that had probably never even thought about the job...

The lawyer representing special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday asserted that the reason former President Donald Trump is the first president to face criminal charges is because his predecessors did not commit any crimes. Department of Justice counselor to Smith, Michael Dreeben, went before the Supreme Court to argue presidents should not have constitutional immunity from prosecution for official acts conducted during their presidency. Dreeben suggested that no president until Trump has ever committed crimes when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas questioned him about no other president having faced prosecutions. “Over the not-so-distant past … certain presidents have engaged in...

A mechanical engineer with a zeal for quality, Petersen was only the second person outside the founding Ford family to lead the automaker. Donald Petersen, a former chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Co. whose focus on quality, unbridled product design and a collaborative workplace helped the company recover and prosper during the mid- to late 1980s, has died. He was 97.

[Verse 1] Moving forwards, using all my breath Making love to you was never second best I saw the world crashing all around your face Never really knowing it was always Mesh and lace

This is a different kind of cancel culture. Even President Ronald Reagan’s failed assassin-turned-folk singer is too afraid to step foot in the Big Apple — calling it a “cesspool of crime” after canceling an upcoming gig. “I’m afraid of New York City and I just don’t want to go there right now,” John Hinckley Jr. — who tried to kill Reagan in 1981 — told The Post days after pulling the plug on a June show scheduled on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Hinckley announced the performance on X last week but pulled out because “he said New York is...

The Alvin Bragg lawfare case against President Trump is already falling apart in its New York courtroom. It was obvious from the start of this latest garbage lawsuit against President Trump that there was never a case against Trump but the Marxists in New York insisted on pushing forward with the case anyway. Now they are hoping that a corrupt court and leftist jurors will find Trump guilty of the latest made-up crime they are throwing at him in hopes to sway uninformed Americans to vote for Old Joe in 2024. On Thursday David Pecker destroyed the prosecution’s case. Pecker...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday his state “will not comply” with recently unveiled changes to Title IX by the Biden administration. “Florida rejects [President Biden’s] attempt to rewrite Title IX,” DeSantis said in a video posted to the social platform X. “We will not comply, and we will fight back.