Free Republic

SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from California's central coast today (Jan. 24, 2025). A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink craft lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base today, at 9:07 a.m. EST (1407 GMT; 6:07 a.m. local time). The Falcon 9's first stage booster returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff, touching down in the Pacific Ocean on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" to mark SpaceX's 401st successful recovery of an orbital-class booster. Today's flight was the 23rd launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission...

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Friday that “deportation flights have begun,” releasing photos of people boarding military aircraft. “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences,” she wrote on X.

Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who will likely be the next prime minister, is known for his exceptional skills in making liberal reporters eat it during press conferences and interviews. He’s not as aggressive as Trump in his tone and inflection, but he’s just as lethal. He knows the media’s games as well, and most should know it by now. When asked about Donald Trump’s executive order on recognizing only two genders, which is fact-based and acknowledges basic biology, the conservative leader left CP24 host Phil Perkins stumped with a simple reply: is there another gender that we are...

A mother who allegedly couldn’t be bothered to look up from her phone while her 3-year-old son drowned nearby at a Texas waterpark has been indicted nearly two years later. Jessica Weaver, 35, is charged in connection with the death of her son, Anthony Malave, who drowned in May 2023 during a soft opening at the new Camp Cohen Water Park in El Paso. One of 18 lifeguards working at the park pulled the unconscious boy out of a 4-foot-deep section of the pool. He was rushed to the hospital where he died, police said. Weaver was glued to her...

Within moments of returning to the Oval Office on Monday, President Donald Trump got to work signing a flurry of executive orders. One of them is focused on "protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other national security and public safety threats." That's bad news for pro-terrorist visas holders causing trouble on college campuses by advocating for terrorist organizations like Hamas. "The Secretary of Homeland Security shall take immediate steps to exclude or remove that alien unless she determines that doing so would inhibit a significant pending investigation or prosecution of the alien for a serious criminal offense or...

Two federal agencies seemed to attempt to keep their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and staff onboard amid President Donald Trump's crackdown. Trump signed a flurry of executive orders cracking down on DEI on Tuesday, including a ban on diversity programs in the federal government. Just days later, the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau (ATF) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) changed the names of their DEI-related programs and staff positions, while seemingly retaining personnel and policy. "Individual dignity, hard work, and excellence are fundamental to American greatness," the White House said in a statement Wednesday. "This Executive...

Every now and then, a feel-good story comes out of Hollywood. The New York Post reported that Lola Sheen, daughter of celebrities Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, was baptized earlier this month as a public profession of her faith in Jesus Christ. VIDEO AT LINK........... Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards' daughter, Lola Sheen, said that she was baptized earlier this month after facing a challenging time in her life. The 19-year-old, who is the younger of two daughters the exes have, told her social media followers Wednesday that her 'deep depression' led her to hit 'rock bottom.' The product of...

The “first formerly undocumented judge in Rhode Island” abruptly resigned hours after the FBI raided his downtown Providence immigration law office on Thursday. Central Falls Municipal Court Judge Joseph Molina Flynn was being investigated before President Trump’s return to the Oval Office and the raid is unrelated to his recent string of immigration-related executive orders, according to WPRI 12. Molina Flynn was born in Medellin, Colombia, and arrived in the US on a tourist visa when he was 9 years old, according to his law firm’s website. He obtained his “lawful permanent resident status and then his citizenship” after spending...

Daily Readings from the USCCBHe appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. Mark 3:14–15The Twelve Apostles were first called by Jesus and then sent to preach with authority. The authority they were given was for the purpose of driving out demons. But how did they do that? It’s interesting to note that the authority they were given over demons was, in part, associated with their commission to preach. And though there are some recorded instances in the Scriptures...

Special Dispatches to the New-York Times. WASHINGTON, Monday, Jan. 23. INDIANS ON THE OVERLAND ROUTE. Telegrams have been received by the Government from all the principal Federal officials in Utah Territory, as well as from many leading citizens of Nebraska, urging the immediate creation of a military department of the Plains, to be placed under command of Brig.-Gen. CONNOR, for the purpose of affording adequate protection to the Overland Mail and Emigrant route between the Missouri River and California. Scarcely a day passes that the pressing necessity for some measure of this kind is not made still more apparent, by...

Columbia University suspends student following a disruption earlier this week during a class on Israeli history, in which protesters distributed flyers with “violent imagery”....Pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators at Columbia set up dozens of tents in April of last year, demanding that the university divest from its Israeli assets. The university administration called in police to dismantle the encampments.

An aide to New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams apparently wasn’t too happy their email was inadvertently exposed to a bunch of Trump supporters after a faux pas by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office. On Friday, President Trump announced the inauguration would be held indoors, creating a last-minute venue shakeup. That’s when Schumer’s office got an email out to his inauguration list, advising attendees that since the event was to be moved, their invites could not be used to access the new indoor venue. But the tickets could make nice souvenirs should they still want to pick them...

President Trump on Friday said he wasn’t expecting Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) to vote against his controversial nominee for secretary of Defense, Army veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth. “I was very surprised that Collins and Murkowski would do that,” Trump said. The president also nodded to the yes vote from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to advance Hegseth’s nomination, saying he is “always a no vote. Was Mitch a no vote? How about Mitch?” McConnell voted to advance Hegseth’s confirmation. “Let’s see what happens,” the president said. The Senate voted largely along party...

Accreditors often claim to be neutral arbiters who merely measure whether accredited universities meet their own standards. Yet a not-so-deep dive into actual accreditation standards reveals a stacked deck, whereby accreditors ask certain questions and do not ask other questions. The Trump administration promises to challenge the current accreditation system’s transparent political bent with some politics of its own. Reverberations are already being felt across the accreditation system. During his campaign, President Trump promised to fire, in his inimitable words, “the radical Left accreditors that have allowed [America’s] colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.” Changing accreditation standards...

A New York City education panel issued a sharp rebuke to President Trump’s recent order allowing federal immigration officials to make arrests at “sensitive” locations, passing a resolution Wednesday night that affirmed the longstanding practice of barring the authorities from school grounds. The Panel for Educational Policy serves as the city’s school board in a public education system controlled by the mayor. The majority of members are appointed by City Hall and abide by its directives. “We have a city that has millions of people that are of not permanent status because our federal immigration system is fundamentally broken,” said...

As we've covered here in the last couple days, Trump's executive order on DEI ordered the suspension of DEI employees and the closing of their offices. He also included a plan to keep these offices from simply rebranding under a different name and carrying on as usual. That was smart because rebranding is how many academic DEI offices have tried to get by laws aimed at them in the recent past. While Trump's executive order is aimed at government employees, it is also a warning to their corporate counterparts. "These actions freeze DEI operations in the federal government with the...

Riding roller coasters. Chowing down on fried food. Catching waves in the pool at Hurricane Harbor. Hundreds of Housing Authority of Cook County employees and their families could enjoy these activities and more for three years at Six Flags on the agency’s dime. The state’s second-largest housing authority, which was flagged by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as “troubled” in part because of an absentee board, low-grade property inspections, incorrect reporting on leases, high outstanding balances for tenants behind on rent and failure to submit financial reports on time, spent more than $60,000 on such trips. The...

Martin Luther King Jr.’s family offered their response to President Trump’s decision to release the secret FBI files on the civil rights icon’s assassination nearly 60 years ago — a “deeply personal family loss” that they are still feeling today. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order to release the files connected to the deaths of King, President John F. Kennedy and his brother Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. “For us, the assassination of our father is a deeply personal family loss that we have endured over the last 56 years. We hope to be provided the opportunity to review the...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will be standing on the tarmac with hand outstretched to greet President Donald Trump when his plane lands to begin a visit of the fire-ravaged Los Angeles area on Friday afternoon. “I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources she needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,” Newsom said on Thursday, according to Politico. Newsom previously admitted while he had invited Trump to California, he had not had any contact with the president before his visit, but planned...

Key Points * A Republican House member introduced a resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow President Donald Trump — and any other future president — to be elected to serve a third term. * Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced the measure days after Trump was sworn in for a second nonconsecutive term in the White House. * The 22nd Amendment currently bars anyone from being elected to more than two terms. =================================================================== A Republican House member introduced a resolution Thursday to amend the U.S. Constitution in order to allow President Donald Trump — and any other future...