Free Republic

ABrooklyn man was busted for his role in a viral, staged Belt Parkway crash that investigators determined was all a scam to rake in insurance money, prosecutors said. Maikel Martinez, 28, of Dyker Heights, was a passenger in the Honda Civic that backed into Asphia Natasha’s vehicle the late morning of Oct. 16 on the Belt Parkway in Rosedale, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office. Martinez – who was nabbed Thursday after arriving in the Big Apple on a flight from Ecuador – was charged with staging a motor vehicle accident in the second degree, criminal mischief in the...

Members of US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team are drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, potentially including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources said, in what would be an unprecedented shakeup at the Pentagon. The planning for the firings is at an early stage after the former US president’s November 5 election victory and could change as Trump’s administration takes shape, said the sources, who are familiar with the Trump transition and requested anonymity to speak candidly about the plans. One of the sources questioned the feasibility of a mass firing at the Pentagon. It...

Illegal immigrants across America who now face deportation in the new Trump administration may only have a short trip from their sanctuary cities before they’re shipped off back to their own countries. A new plan, currently under discussion, aims to double the 41,000 detention beds that Congress allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Illegal migrants would be held in such facilities before being flown back to their country of origin.

Former presidential candidate and Trump administration official Nikki Haley has hit back at Donald Trump after he rejected her for a role in his cabinet. Speaking on her weekly SiriusXM radio show, Haley said that Trump was playing games with her and that he was a “shallow” man who she was rising above. “I know the game he was playing. I don’t need to play that game,” she explained. “He can be shallow at times, and I think he showed that.” “I had no interest in being in his cabinet. He knew that,” she continued. “At this point, we should...

New York CNN — Advance Auto Parts is closing more than 700 locations to shore up the company’s finances following another dismal earnings report. The car parts retailer, which has about 5,000 stores, said Thursday that the closures are part of its “strategic plan to improve business performance.” Advance Auto Parts (AAP) shares slid nearly 5% in premarket trading after it reported earnings that missed analysts’ expectations. The reduction will result in closing roughly 500 corporate-owned stores plus about 200 independently operated locations. The company did not immediately provide a full list of locations set to close.

President-elect Barack Obama is strongly considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a Cabinet post, Democratic officials told Politico. Obama’s transition planners are weighing several other celebrity-level political stars for Cabinet posts, including retired Gen. Colin L. Powell for secretary of defense or education, the officials said. Kennedy’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy, who helped Obama lead his vice presidential search, is being considered for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, although some Obama officials doubt she would take the post. Obama is indebted to the Kennedy family for a hearty endorsement at a crucial point in the...

Explanation: A great nebulous region near bright star omicron Persei offers this study in cosmic contrasts. Captured in the telescopic frame is a colorful complex of dust, gas, and stars spanning about 3 degrees on the sky along the edge of the Perseus molecular cloud, some 1000 light-years away. Surrounded by a bluish halo of dust-reflected starlight, omicron Persei itself is just left of center. Immediately below it lies the intriguing young star cluster IC 348 recently explored at infrared wavelengths by the James Webb Space Telescope. In silhouette against the diffuse reddish glow of hydrogen gas, dark and obscuring...

As Elon and Vivek are making a list (and checking it twice) I urge them to go after the low hanging fruit first in their great crusade to slash the bloated federal government. The lowest of the low hanging fruit to go after is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (aka The Corporation for Propaganda Broadcasting) and its nasty little child National Public Radio (aka National Propaganda Radio). These two entities spew a constant stream of anti-american and anti-Trump sewage 24 x 7. If Elon and Vivek wipe them out cat ladies and beta cucks will be soiling their huggies and...

🚨#BREAKING: FEMA has confirmed there are over 1,500 families who are still living in motels after being left homeless by Helene in #WNC. According FEMA, only “142 have qualified” for a manufactured home. Of those 142, just 1 delivery has been confirmed as of today.

Big Oil is calling on President-elect Donald Trump to keep the U.S. in the Paris climate agreement after withdrawing from the treaty during his first term. The Paris Agreement, established at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in 2015, is a legally binding treaty between nearly 195 parties who are committed to international cooperation on climate change. Trump officially withdrew from the treaty in 2020, but the U.S. was reinstated to the climate agreement in 2021 after President Biden took office. After winning a second term in the 2024 election, Trump is expected to consider a second withdrawal from the agreement....

I'm sorry but he's gone full scorched earth once again with his picks the latest being Kennedy @ HHS. I'm stunned by all this in good way. Donald is a legend. This is not business as usual in DC. The pigs are squealing for a reason! I've never known anything like this... Anyone else thinking the same? Is this what YOU voted for?

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Several business owners at the struggling corner where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 are suing the city to demand it take over their properties and compensate them. The owners of the Cup Foods convenience store and other businesses operating near 38th Street and Chicago Avenue argue that the city’s failure to address deterioration and crime in the neighborhood has ruined their businesses and constitutes an unlawful taking of their property without just compensation, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported Thursday. They’re seeking $30 million in damages. The area, now known as George...

In the days following the election, some employees at the Environmental Protection Agency began texting each other to vent about what President-elect Trump’s victory could mean for their workplace. “It’s a new dystopian hellscape,” one employee said. Another employee who received that message said it summed up the tone around EPA pretty accurately. “People are majorly freaking out,” she said. She noted that some staff were taking a more cautious approach. They encouraged their colleagues to "wait and see," to give Trump officials the benefit of the doubt and to see what they could accomplish together. Employees with more experience,...

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday nominated former third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy to lead the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department. Trump announced in a written statement on social media: I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health. The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big...

President-elect Donald Trump promised Thursday to end all restrictions and delays on arms deliveries to Israel on his first day in office, according to Amit Segal, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 12 News and Yedioth Ahronot newspaper. The Biden-Harris administration withheld precision bombs from Israel in May in response to Israel’s decision to enter Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, against the White House’s explicit demands. Israel ultimately secured Gaza’s border with Egypt and killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who had been attempting to escape through Rafah. Though the administration later released those weapons, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) alleged that...

The Department of Government Efficiency - the DOGE - is an idea whose time has come. In fact, it's an idea whose time came about 1980, but I suppose, better late than never.DOGE co-chiefs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy appear to be wasting no time.The sheer magnitude of government waste is staggering to behold! A deep dive into federal spending reveals some truly jaw-dropping examples of waste that Trump's new DOGE team will tackle: THE NUMBERS ARE STAGGERING: $1.3B sent to dead people $171M in benefits to prisoners….. https://t.co/RXxxXrAXoK— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2024 If it doesn’t advance the...

Morning Joe has been among the most vituperatively anti-Trump shows in television. As NewsBusters has documented over the years, the show's stock in trade has been to vilify Trump as a fascist, a Hitler, and an existential threat to Madisonian democracy. So it would be a remarkable development if Morning Joe, in the wake of Trump's victory, were to drastically change course and go fair 'n balanced in its treatment of the incoming president. And yet, on Thursday's episode, that was Morning Joe's stated intention [snip] Mika Brzezinski also claimed "it goes without saying" that members of the Trump administration...

On Wednesday, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) admitted that the outgoing Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) violated federal policies and illegally targeted “perceived political opponents” by sending a threatening letter to Elon Musk.According to the Washington Examiner, FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, saying that the letter to Musk concerning his efforts to encourage people to support freedom of speech constituted an attempt “to intimidate and chill private citizens and organizations from campaigning on behalf of President Trump.”Cooksey also recommended that Horowitz, along with the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility...

Hollywood actress and film producer Eva Longoria said in an interview this month that she has moved her family out of the United States because it is “dystopian.”Longoria, a Democrat, made the revelation in an interview with Marie Claire. The interview took place two days after President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 election.For context, Longoria campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August. “The shocking part is not that he won,” she told the outlet. “It’s that a convicted criminal who spews so much hate could hold the highest office.”“I would like to...

Senior law enforcement officials face a wave of uncertainty as Donald J. Trump moves to nominate a fierce partisan and a longtime ally to fill one of the most powerful cabinet posts.Matt Gaetz, who savaged the Justice Department and the F.B.I. as Donald J. Trump’s off-leash political guard dog, faces an uphill fight to becoming attorney general. But his selection has already achieved one desired effect: intimidating an already-frazzled federal law enforcement work force.During his campaign, Mr. Trump vowed to exact revenge against officials who prosecuted him. That threat is particularly acute for the F.B.I., which has been in his...