Free Republic

California is becoming increasingly tangled in the nationwide fight over whether transgender college athletes should be allowed to compete on teams of their gender identity. Just how much can state laws and policies protect its players?

Israel pounded central Beirut in a series of strikes, and rockets fired from Lebanon targeted northern and central Israel. The attacks came as the U.S. continues to push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Photo: Hussein Malla/AP TEL AVIV—As Israel advances its invasion of southern Lebanon, its troops are finding large troves of Russian weapons, confirming longstanding suspicions in Israel that Hezbollah is enhancing its fighting capacity with the help of sophisticated Russian arms. Some of the weapons, which include modern Kornet antitank missiles manufactured as recently as 2020, were sent to southern Lebanon in recent years from Russian...

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — Police said a road rage incident has ended with a driver in intensive care after being shot. Around 4:30 this afternoon, UPD went to the intersection of Busey Ave. and Park St. for a shooting with injuries. Police said they were made aware the shooting stemmed from a road rage incident that happened near Five Points and continued through Busey Avenue and Park St. A female driver and a male passenger engaged in a verbal fight with another man driving by himself. The female driver followed the car into Carle Hospital's emergency department parking lot, then...

It’s been an article of faith in many circles of populist conservatism that events of the past few years have been orchestrated by a secret cabal generally referred to as “they” or “the committee” or simply “the elites.” (This is not quite the same as the “Deep State,” though the Deep State would certainly be involved.) It’s not completely clear what this outfit consists of or who the members are, though all agree that Obama is the key man. Apart from that, names such as Susan Rice, Eric Holder, Valerie Jarrett, and Bill and Hillary have been floated. There’s not...

The U.S. nuclear energy sector’s dependence on Russian uranium created during a failed Obama-era reset with Moscow is coming back to bite Americans as the Kremlin moves to block future exports of the vital fuel. Vladimir Putin’s new restrictions on uranium exports to the U.S., announced last week, come as the country’s war in Ukraine continues to heighten tensions with the United States and the West. His announcement created an immediate impact, as uranium prices soared and worries grew that American utilities might have trouble meeting electric demand next year. It's the latest fallout from a series of foreign policy...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will decide Tuesday whether to delay sentencing Donald Trump after his conviction on charges related to hush money paid to a porn star — or even to toss the case — now that Trump is preparing to re-enter the White House. The prosecutor could move to pause Trump’s Nov. 26 sentencing date on his conviction for concealing a payoff that hid a sex scandal from voters before the 2016 presidential election. Bragg could also push to dismiss the case entirely. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan would have to approve prosecutors’ plan before it goes...

A Hawaii woman who has been missing since she failed to board a connecting flight in Los Angeles sent “alarming” text messages before she vanished, her family has said. The family of Hannah Kobayashi, 30, who has been missing since Friday, Nov. 8, said she felt “scared” in the text messages while staying in L.A. ahead of her scheduled connecting flight to New York City. "Hannah’s last message to us was alarming — she mentioned feeling scared, and that someone might be trying to steal her money and identity," family member Larie Pidgeon wrote on Facebook on Nov. 14. "She...

Nearly a hundred aid trucks were looted in southern Gaza on Saturday in what UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described as “one of the worst” incidents of its kind. Of the 109 trucks carrying food supplies for UNRWA and the World Food Programme from the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, 97 trucks were “lost” in the looting, UNRWA told CNN in a statement Monday. Drivers were forced to unload trucks at gun point, aid workers were injured, and vehicles were damaged extensively, it said. UNRWA did not identify the perpetrators of the looting, but blamed the “collapse...

Mayor Eric Adams declared a drought warning Monday — and halted a major aqueduct repair project to preserve the city’s waters supply — as New York City faces the threat of severe water shortages. Adams also directed city agencies to roll back water usage and urged New Yorkers to voluntarily do the same amid the historic rainfall shortage and dwindling water reserves. “Our city vehicles may look a bit dirtier, and our subways may look a bit dustier, but it’s what we have to do to delay or stave off a more serious drought emergency,” Adams said at a press...

Democratic operatives launched an initiative in 2022 effectively aimed at dissuading lawyers from taking and aiding clients whose success could potentially diminish leftist political power. Citing the need to "protect democracy," the 65 Project has so far sought to make examples of those attorneys who helped Trump allies and supporters challenge the 2020 election results, despite recognizing that some attorneys may not actually have violated the legal profession's ethical rules. The 65 Project — which made clear in September that it intends to keep hounding conservative lawyers — has not only publicly smeared accomplished attorneys but filed over 85 bar...

Do any of these hysterics even know what Hitler actually did? If you thought that leftists were through with likening Donald Trump to Hitler after their insane and hysterical rhetoric contributed mightily to their catastrophic losses in the 2024 election, think again. On Saturday, Rep. James Clyburn (D-Nazi Hunter) dragged out this hoary and stupid canard yet again on Fox News Channel’s “Cavuto Live,” signaling that the Führer is not likely to be allowed to return to the dustbin of history anytime over the coming four years.Clyburn wants us to know that he has studied history, and that therefore we...

Take a trip down memory lane with these vintage recipes featuring classics your grandma grew up with. If you're searching for a simple appetizer, main course or dessert, we add a fun, modern spin to vintage recipes like stuffing chicken salad in avocados or making an everything bagel-flavored cheese ball. Other recipes like Macaroni Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing, ​​Skillet Chicken Potpie and ​​Baked Mac & Cheese are delicious, filling and the perfect nostalgic bite.

A hundred years from now, Americans will benefit from a lesson learned in this election: When a political party prosecutes the leading figure of the opposing party in an attempt to influence an upcoming election, voters revolt against the politicization of criminal justice. Prosecuting the other side as a political maneuver makes a martyr — who probably wins the next election, the retribution election. Shorter version: Donald Trump just buried lawfare. Maybe forever, certainly for a long time. And political lawfare, this profoundly authoritarian misuse of police and prosecutorial power, needed to be killed and buried. Conservative-ish media interprets the...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) endorsed Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) for governor on Monday ahead of the state’s gubernatorial race in 2025. “Winsome has been an outstanding Lt. Governor, and she will be a great governor,” Youngkin wrote in a post on X. “She has been an outspoken advocate for commonsense conservative principles and policies, a passionate voice for our military and veterans, and a relentless advocate for educational freedom and economic opportunity. She brings the fighting spirit of a Marine to the office every single day,” he said. Sears was elected lieutenant governor in 2021 when Youngkin was...

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, Walmart, Target, Aldi and other grocers are competing for a place on holiday tables with turkey dinner deals and other promotions to tempt Americans who haven't recovered from recent food price inflation. Walmart, the nation's largest food retailer, first bundled the makings of a traditional turkey feast into a meal deal three years ago. This year, the 29-item offer, which includes a frozen turkey and ingredients for side dishes, costs less than $55 and is intended to serve eight. That calculates to less than $7 per person. Target's version for four people costs...

High-protein breakfast foods often seem like a smart, nutritious choice to jumpstart our day. They're hailed as morning heroes, offering sustained energy and keeping you full until your next meal. From protein shakes to egg white omelets, there are a variety of options that make it easy to add more protein to your mornings. But despite all their benefits, some high-protein breakfast foods can have hidden pitfalls that may compromise our weight loss efforts. Many high-protein foods that seem healthy often hide ingredients like added sugars, unhealthy fats, or fillers that can undermine their benefits and stall weight loss progress....

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with American-supplied longer-range missiles. The new doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles early Tuesday at a military facility in Russia's Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, adding that air defenses shot down five of them and damaged one...

Recess Appointments. Funny how the chest-beaters are condemning recess appointments, a practice which has been going on throughout our history for a wide variety of reasons, as something uniquely Trumpian and a grave threat to liberty and separation of powers, and that’s before Trump has even been sworn in. Its liberal use by Bush 43 and Clinton largely escaped their attention not to mention overly emotional outbursts. Of course, there’s another constitutional issue the chest-beaters utterly ignore: what if the Senate, say a combination of a majority of Democrats and a small faction of Never-Trump Republicans, slow-walk the president’s nominees,...

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said Monday that President-elect Trump appears to be trying to recreate the “imperial presidency” by selecting appointees with little relevant experience to their nominated posts. Woodward criticized Trump’s selection of Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, in an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.” The former White House press secretary-turned-cable host asked him directly whether he thinks the Fox News host was equipped to do the job. “Somebody should get that job who knows the military and has had also management experience,” Woodward said of Hegseth. “From what I read about him, no, he doesn’t.” He...

It should not come as a surprise to see the same methods deployed against President Trump in 2024 that were used by the FBI in 2016. The difference is now that President Trump understands the full power of his office in the security clearance process and that he doesn’t need the FBI. In 2016 the FBI used their power to conduct security clearances as a tool to stall and block President Trump appointments. Historically this is one of the ways a very corrupt and political FBI interfere in any system that might be against the interests of the Intelligence Community...