Free Republic

The Canton police chief is requesting more than $750,000 to add new vehicles, a mobile firing range to lessen quality-of-life disturbances, and ballistic shields to protect officers when encountering an active shooter. Chief Helena Rafferty made her pitch to the Select Board for three requests totaling $760,986 to be budgeted with capital funding: the mobile firing range at the top at $392,786, four new marked vehicles at $284,000, and nine ballistic shields with ports at $84,200, Rafferty said. The chief is also looking to reallocate $117,064 for a new record management system. The Select Board in late June approved a...

In October 2021...Facebook changed its name to Meta and Zuckerberg set his sights on a new horizon, the metaverse...Meta's Reality Labs is hemorrhaging cash, racking up $58 billion in operating losses since 2020.

Great news! Our new merchant services account has been approved and we have completed our integration programming! We can now start using our own form for entering credit/debit card donations. Monthly donors: If you are you using a credit or debit card for your automatic monthly donations, please use our credit card link below to enter a new monthly record. Sorry, the old ones no longer work. Thank you very much. All FReepers: And now we need your continuing support to get caught up and to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies,...

Pop singer Gwen Stefani has partnered with a Catholic prayer app for the Christmas season and is encouraging her fans to download it and use it with her. “Imagine showing yourself this video in 1994. Seriously, I think it’s great that Gwen Stefani is a Christian, and is now more vocal about her faith. This is incredibly healthy for American culture,” commentator John William Sherrod wrote in a post on X. Sherrod also posted a video in which the pop star explains why Christmas is her favorite time of the year. “It’s the season that we get to celebrate the...

During the Puritans’ rule of England, celebrating on 25 December was forbidden. Singing yuletide songs then was a political act, writes Clemency Burton-Hill. When it comes to revolutionary protest songs, what springs to mind? Billie Holliday’s Strange Fruit? Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind? Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come? I’m guessing the humble Christmas carol is probably low on your list of contenders, but in mid-17thCentury England, during the English Civil War, the singing of such things as The Holly and the Ivy would have landed you in serious trouble. Oliver Cromwell, the statesman responsible for leading the...

President Trump joined far-left NBC reporter Kristen Welker for his first post-election appearance on Meet the Press on Sunday morning and shut her down on election integrity issues, telling her the election was too big to rig. President Trump had a historic victory on November 5, 2024, winning every swing state, 312 electoral votes, and the national popular vote. Additionally, Republicans won control of the House and the Senate. There wasn’t enough fraud and propaganda in the world to make Americans believe Kamala Harris could have won. As expected, she was rude, demanding, and accusatory as she interrogated the President...

Regardless of a presidential pardon, Dr. Anthony Fauci remains subject to possible prosecution for violations of state criminal codes that he (and other named officials) allegedly committed during the COVID-19 pandemic. On behalf of hundreds of aggrieved families of lost loved ones during the pandemic, extensive legal briefs requesting criminal investigations of alleged state crimes have been submitted by the Vires Law Group, West Palm Beach, FL, to attorneys general in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. (View the Texas filing here.) This article identifies some of the huge financial payments (bonuses) paid to hospitals during the pandemic. Further, it...

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) conducted widespread airstrikes across Syria on Sunday, targeting critical military sites and weaponry deemed a direct threat to Israel’s security. Israel claimed that these strategic strikes aimed to neutralize the potential transfer of advanced weaponry into the hands of terrorist factions and hostile entities. According to reports from The Times of Israel, the Israeli strikes hit ammunition and weapons depots at the Khalkhalah airbase in Suwayda, military positions in the Daraa Governorate, and the Mezzeh airbase in Damascus. Later in the day, additional strikes targeted the Mezzeh airbase—a hub of Syria’s security infrastructure located in...

Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) appeared on CNN's "Newsroom" to declare that "the proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is both unconstitutional and illegal. Congress is the body that has control of the 'purse strings.' We decide how much to spend and on what. Musk and Ramaswamy won't even be part of the government, per se. They can't tell us what to do or not do. The word 'efficiency' appears nowhere in the Constitution. It is not part of our job and no one can force us to be efficient." Vivek Ramaswamy, co-director of DOGE pointed out that "neither does the...

Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, Arizona State top CFP field play Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer Dec 8, 2024, 12:36 PM ET Undefeated Oregon earned the No. 1 overall seed in the first 12-team College Football Playoff field announced Sunday, while SMU -- despite a loss in the ACC championship game -- nudged out Alabama to earn the final spot. No. 2 seed Georgia (11-2), No. 3 seed Boise State (12-1) and No. 4 seed Arizona State (11-2) were awarded first-round byes, guaranteed to the four highest-rated conference champions. Clemson (10-3), which unexpectedly won the ACC title on a last-second 56-yard...

After four-plus months of on-field results and politicking by coaches, athletic directors and fans, the College Football Playoff selection committee announced Sunday the 12-team field. The biggest question coming into Sunday was who would earn the final at-large spot between Alabama and SMU. The committee put SMU (11-2) in the field one night after it lost 34-31 to Clemson on the last-second field goal in the ACC championship game. Alabama (9-3) is out after not making its conference title game.

They said Assad was bad.Here is the new leader of Syria.(Information about Muhammad al-Juwayni and the terrorist group taking over Syria at link) Bush invaded Iraq for weapons of mass destruction and found none.Obama and Hillary took out Gaddafi in Libya and unleashed the Arab spring. What will happen next?

Syria's ousted President Bashar al Assad has arrived in Moscow, Russian state media has confirmed. Assad and members of his family arrived in the city, where they have been given asylum, on Sunday, a Kremlin source told the TASS news agency. Assad left the Syrian capital of Damascus and gave orders for there to be a peaceful transfer of power, after an anti-regime uprising ended his 24-year rule.

One day after the Supreme Court heard arguments over states’ ability to ban gender-affirming care for minors, a 20-year-old UCLA student sued two California doctors, saying they inappropriately rushed her “down a life-altering … and irreversibly damaging” gender transition beginning at age 12.

Minutes before Russia announced Assad's alleged departure, reports surfaced of a plane taking off from a Russian airfield in Latakia, Syria. The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday afternoon that former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had left office and departed the country after giving orders there be a peaceful handover of power. In a statement, the ministry did not say where Assad was now and said Russia had not taken part in the talks about his departure. Just minutes before Russia announced Assad's alleged departure, a transport plane took off from a Russian airfield in Latakia, Syria. This statement comes...

Over the past four decades, Iran devoted its best military minds, billions of dollars and sophisticated weapons to a grand project — countering U.S. and Israeli power in the Middle East through what it called the “axis of resistance.”The alliance, made up of like-minded armed groups or governments in five Middle Eastern countries, allowed Iran to project power as far west as the Mediterranean and south to the Arabian Sea.But in a breathtakingly short time, it has largely unraveled.Syrian rebel groups ousted the country’s longtime dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in less than two weeks as the government’s military forces put up...

Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on hard-line campaign pledges to impose trade tariffs and carry out mass deportations, while dangling the idea that the United States could withdraw from NATO. In his first formal television interview -- and just six weeks before he takes office -- Trump again signaled that US support for Ukraine will scale back, saying he will "probably" cut the aid helping Kyiv repel the Russian invasion. Trump also said he would "very quickly" look at pardons for supporters jailed for storming the US Capitol after his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. The interview on NBC's...

While some schools across the nation hosted meagerly-attended “Transgivings” around Thanksgiving time, students at Hillsdale College wrote over 4,000 thank-you cards on the school’s annual “Day of Thanks.” Throughout the day on Nov. 21, participating Hillsdale students wrote the thousands of grateful notes to “donors, family members, professors, friends, and others who have supported them throughout their lives and in their college careers,” a school news release stated. Located in Michigan, Hillsdale has an undergraduate enrollment of a little over 1,500 students. The idea for Day of Thanks came from Hillsdale’s students, who “came up with it as part of...

Ahmad al-Sharaa, known as Muhammad al-Jawlani or Abu Muhammad al-Golani, the leader of the Syrian rebels who ousted Bashar al-Assad and have taken over the country, still has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head as a wanted terrorist. A U.S. State Department website, “Rewards for Justice,” says:Rewards for Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information on Muhammad al-Jawlani, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Golani and Muhammad al-Julani. Al-Jawlani leads the al-Nusrah Front (ANF), al-Qa’ida’s (AQ) affiliate in Syria. In January 2017, ANF merged with several other hardline opposition groups to form Hayat Tahrir...

On December 4, 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was assassinated in New York City.The very next day, Associated Press reported, “Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield reverses decision to put a time limit on anesthesia.”I suppose that for those who subscribe to the branch of philosophy known as “utilitarianism,” it could likely be argued that the killer has already caused a net increase in the total well being of humanity.Wikipedia states:In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that...