Free Republic

A North Texas woman was sentenced to nine years in prison after using Bitcoin to pay for a murder. Federal prosecutors said 58-year-old Michelle Murphy of Bedford used the dark web to find a hitman for her boyfriend’s lover. "To my knowledge, it's the first time this has happened in Texas, but it's happened plenty of places all over the United States," said former U.S. attorney Richard Roper. Investigators learned she used an ATM to convert cash to cryptocurrency at least three times and transferred about $10,500 to the hitman’s Bitcoin wallet. The person who accepted the money tipped off...

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is seeking additional $50 billion for a variety of reasons, including including free abortions, migrant services, and LGBT training. The union is calling for an additional $50 billion to fund a range of initiatives, including free abortions, migrant services, and LGBT training, according to Daily Wire. These requests are part of the union’s broader push for substantial changes to employee benefits and educational provisions amid concerns over academic performance in Chicago Public Schools. In its contract proposal, which was recently leaked but not yet officially released, CTU is advocating for a 9% annual pay increase...

Navy Seal Author and Historian Matt Bracken comes back on the podcast to discuss the House vote on foreign aid, how no election is fixing this, Iran, Russia, problems domestically and much more.

Her experience brings new meaning to the "bear vs. man" question.While social media users debate if they’d rather be left alone in the woods with a bear or a man, one woman is considering herself “lucky” after surviving a real bear attack. A Scottish tourist was mauled by a bear in Romania. Friends Moira Gallacher and Charmian Widdowson were visiting the Carpathian Mountains when they encountered a group of bears, according to Scottish news outlet STV. Widdowson said, “We saw these bears — a mummy bear and a baby — they were gorgeous.” What the women didn’t know was that...

The Saban Capital Group founder held a prominent L.A. event for the president in February, raising $4.5 millionDemocratic megadonor Haim Saban torched President Joe Biden’s decision to pause Israeli weapons shipments in an email to aides on Thursday, urging the administration to “reconsider.” The Biden administration paused a shipment of thousands of weapons to Israel, including 2,000-pound bombs, amid concerns over Israel’s intention to expand military operations in Rafah, which could dramatically increase the death toll in Gaza, according to U.S. officials on Tuesday. Israeli-American donor Saban, who hosted a prominent Los Angeles fundriaser for Biden’s reelection campaign in February,...

@RepThomasMassie The day after I vote against @SpeakerJohnson, AIPAC announces a $300,000 ad buy against me. I hope Americans see what’s happening here.

John Leguizamo thinks that Democrats take Latino voters “for granted” — and that it could come back to bite them in November’s presidential election between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Speculating how Trump, who campaigned in 2016 off a “build the wall” platform along the U.S.-Mexico border, could sway the Latino vote in 2024, the comedian and “Daily Show” guest host admitted Monday that “we don’t give a flying F about immigration.” “It looks like the Democrats are in trouble and you might be thinking, how is this possible Donald Trump is winning Latinos?” Leguizamo said while guest hosting...

Just over one year following Bud Light’s terrible decision to hire transgender influencer and professional toddler Dylan Mulvaney to promote its once pro-America beer, the company's sales are plummeting. Again. According to the first-quarter earnings report released Wednesday, Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, has decreased 9.1% in revenue in the U.S. The news comes more than a year after Mulvaney dressed up as a wannabe Katherine Hepburn with black gloves, pearls and red lipstick in an attempt to help Bud Light sell more beer. Mulvaney was also gifted a custom Bud Light can with his face printed on it, which...

New York City Democrats were largely quiet Thursday after President Biden announced he was pausing some military aid for Israel to deter an offensive against Hamas-held Rafah — with members of the left-wing “Squad” of House members openly celebrating and many others saying nothing publicly. “Protesting is working. Keep fighting for a #CeasefireNow,” tweeted Bronx and Westchester Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who has been an outspoken supporter of anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University and elsewhere Bronx and Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also celebrated Biden telling CNN “I’m not supplying the weapons” for an offensive on Hamas’ final major stronghold in the...

A month ago, my husband and I went away for a weekend break. The hotel we were staying in had organised an Easter egg hunt for the excited junior guests, and watching the delight on one little girl's face caused a familiar, terrible cascade of emotion. A torrent of grief and regret, which I struggled to hide. It was the little girl's age that provoked it. She was seven, as I discovered when she told the receptionist while we waited to check in behind her family. The same age my daughter would be now — had I not had the...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wasted little time after 163 Democrats voted to save his speakership to announce he would not use Congress’s constitutional power of the purse to stop special counsel Jack Smith’s “lawfare” against Donald Trump. The Speaker, in some of his earliest public comments after Democrats saved his gavel, refused to make any attempt to defund Smith’s office as it continues its prosecutions of Trump. “That’s not something you wave a wand and just eliminate the special counsel as a provision,” Johnson told Politico. “There is a necessity for a function like that, because sometimes the Department of...

A California high roller who says he was drugged while playing blackjack in a private Strip gaming salon has doubled a reward to $1 million for information leading to an arrest. Dwight Manley, a California real estate executive and sports agent with high-roller status at MGM Resorts International, sued the company after he says he was drugged with ketamine while playing in a high-limit area at MGM Grand in December 2021. The suit, first filed in the U.S. District Court in Nevada in November 2022 and amended in March, alleges while he was under the influence of the drug, he...

Heavyweight Mike Tyson drastically altered his nutrition in preparation for his professional boxing battle against Jake Paul in July. In preparation for the fight, which is scheduled to happen in Texas in July, Tyson has started eating raw meat. The social media sensation Paul will face the heavyweight icon Tyson in a contentious boxing match, officially confirmed as a professional fight last week in Texas in July. Eight two-minute rounds will be fought amongst the adversaries in the ring, with the winner determined by their records. Paul will be almost thirty years younger than Tyson, fighting at fifty-eight. It has...

It's been known for years that cooking indoors can taint the air in a home and cause health problems, especially when cooking without proper ventilation. But a new study found that emissions from cooking may degrade the air quality outdoors as well. "If you can smell it, there’s a good chance it’s impacting air quality," researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chemical Sciences Laboratory recently wrote about a new study looking at the "unrecognized and underappreciated sources of urban air pollution."

A Boeing whistleblower recently claimed he was chided for slowing production when he found defects in airplane parts. The former quality inspector, identified as Santiago Paredes, who previously worked for Spirit AeroSystems in Kansas, told the BBC that plane bodies were regularly shipped out of the factory with serious issues, the outlet reported Wednesday. Paredes claimed he used to find nearly 200 defects in the parts, and he tried to slow production to deal with the problems. He also alleged that leadership put him under pressure to not be so meticulous. “They always made a fuss about why I was...

Former President Donald Trump’s defense on Thursday seemingly worked to paint the picture that porn actress Stormy Daniels attempted to financially benefit from his wealth and fame, according to reports. Daily Caller courts reporter Katelynn Richardson noted that during the defense’s cross-examination of the porn star, who nearly blew the trial for the prosecution on Tuesday, Trump attorney Susan Necheles was “pushing to show Daniels was motivated by money when she entered into her 2016 NDA [non-disclosure agreement].” Daniels notes she did the 2018 Anderson Cooper interview for free. Necheles: After the interview, you negotiated a book contract for $800,000?...

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that women should be able to decide to get an abortion at any time during pregnancy — shocking his running mate Nicole Shanahan, who tried to claim “that is not Bobby’s position” on a recent podcast. "Every abortion is a tragedy. Many of them leave permanent trauma on a woman. But I think, ultimately, I don’t trust government to have a jurisdiction over people’s bodies,” Kennedy told former ESPN anchor Sage Steele on an episode of her eponymous podcast, which aired Wednesday.

@NickJFuentes 7 years ago, I was cancelled by @benshapiro at age 18 because I said he puts Israel first instead of America. 5 years ago, I was cancelled by @charliekirk11 because I questioned his support for mass migration, gay pride, and the Israel Lobby. Now everyone sees that I was right.

CV NEWS FEED // Florida legislators are working to expand current Safe Haven policy in hopes of lowering the number of abortions in the state. All states have a Safe Haven policy that allows for a mother to anonymously surrender her newborn up for adoption at participating hospitals and EMS and fire stations. Barring any signs of abuse or neglect, there will be no questions asked and no criminal charges. The specifics of the policies vary by state. In Florida, the newborn can be surrendered up to seven days after birth. The new legislation would expand the current Safe Haven...

[Catholic Caucus] Australian bishops approve new Aboriginal liturgyAmid the Catholic Church’s push under Pope Francis to increasingly engage with and welcome Indigenous peoples and cultures, Australia’s bishops have approved a new liturgy incorporating elements of Aboriginal language and culture.Called the “Mass of the Land of the Holy Spirit,” or Missa Terra Spiritus Sancti in Latin, the liturgy was formally approved for use in the Diocese of Broome in Western Australia on Tuesday during a plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in Sydney.According to a May 7 statement from the Australian bishops, the motion to approve the Mass was...