Free Republic

A veteran real estate developer and friend of former President Barack Obama is vying to build a 26-story hotel blocks away from the incoming Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. The developer, Allison Davis, submitted a rezoning application to City Council last week for a parcel of vacant land he owns at 6402-20 S. Stony Island Avenue. The plot, currently zoned for a community shopping district, needs council approval to get rezoned as a planned business development, clearing the way for the hotel’s construction. Davis is an attorney who co-founded the law firm Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, where Obama...

What’s a good analogy for Signal, the commercial, publicly available encryption app?Have you ever watched a public hearing of the Senate or House Intelligence Committee? It happens almost every time: A witness from one of our intelligence agencies is asked a question that, whether the interrogating lawmaker realizes it or not, calls for an answer that includes national defense information — in the main, classified intelligence.... So what happens next is a commonplace: The agency official will tell the panel that he or she cannot answer the question in public, but may be willing to address the matter in the...

FBI Director Kash Patel hopes to expand the bureau’s new task force to all 50 states after rounding up dozens of migrant gang members since its debut, and prosecutors on Long Island — which has seen its communities terrorized by MS-13 — are urging Gov. Hochul to roll out the red carpet. “Gov. Hochul should be open to a conversation about having a gang task force here. I support it. We should do everything in our power to take down these gangs,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly told The Post. “In Nassau, we always work closely with our federal...

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced the discovery of a tomb belonging to a high-ranking military commander who served during the reign of Ramesses III (reigned ca. 1184–1153 b.c.), Ahram Online reports. The burial was uncovered during excavations at the site of Tell Roud Iskander in Ismailia. The mudbrick structure contained a burial chamber and three adjoining rooms with walls covered in white plaster. Among the artifacts found within the tomb were bronze arrowheads, painted alabaster jars, a collection of beads, a small ivory box, and a gold ring engraved with a cartouche of Ramesses III. The soldier was...

Authorities in Zurich have, for the first time, issued a fine under the Swiss law known as the “burqa ban,” prohibiting facial coverings in public spaces. Police officers in the city of Zurich fined a woman who covered her face for “religious reasons.” The woman refused to pay the penalty of ₣100 (€105), so the case will go to the canton governor’s office who will rule on the matter. No further details are known of the case, but it is widely speculated in Swiss media that the woman was most likely wearing a burqa, an item worn by some Muslim...

Here's Kamala's former VP candidate and the current Minnesota governor saying the literally stupidest thing I've ever heard. Take it away, Tim! VIDEO AT LINK........................ Our strength is our diversity! We've been talking about this for years as a country of immigrants. And we let them define the issue on immigration. We let them define the issue on ... DEI. And we let them define what woke is. We got ourselves in this mess because we weren't bold enough to say you're da*n right we're proud of these policies, we're going to put them in, and we're going to execute...

The Melsonby Hoard is one of the largest and most significant Iron Age finds ever uncovered in the UK.The hoard contains over 800 objects from the Iron Age, dating back around 2,000 years. Early analysis suggests the items were buried in the first century AD, around the time of the Roman conquest of southern Britain.The discovery was made in December 2021 by metal detectorist Peter Heads, who quickly reported it. In 2022, a team from ‪@DurhamUniversity‬ with support from the ‪@britishmuseum‬ and over £120,000 in grant funding from Historic England, excavated the site. Now, the ‪@YorkMuseumsTrust‬ is launching a fundraising...

[OFFICIAL.] WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, March 27 -- 1:30 P.M. To Maj.-Gen. John A. Dix: The following official reports of operations of the Army of the Potomac on Saturday have been received this morning. No movements have been made on either side before Richmond or Petersburg since Saturday night E.M. STANTON, Secretary of War. CITY POINT, 10:30 A.M., Monday, March 27. Hon. E.M. Stanton, Secretary of War: The battle of the 25th resulted in the following losses on our side: Second Corps. -- Killed, 51; wounded, 462; missing, 177. Sixth Corps. -- Killed, 47; wounded, 401; missing, 30. Ninth Corps. --...

Ferrari said Thursday it will raise prices by 10% on certain models after April 1 in response to new U.S. auto tariffs, adding up to $50,000 to the price of a typical Ferrari. The Maranello, Italy-based sports car maker said prices will remain unchanged for all cars imported before April 2. After that, the “commercial terms” for three of its model families — the Ferrari 296, SF90 and Roma — will “remain unchanged,” the company said in a release. Yet, its more popular models, including the Purosangue SUV, the 12Cilindri and the F80, will get price increases of up to...

President Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon predicted Thursday that President Trump will go to prison if a Democrat wins back the White House in 2028. “God forbid we don’t win in ’28, President Trump is going to prison,” Bannon, who was Trump’s adviser in his first presidency, said Thursday during an appearance on Real America’s Voice. “And people are sitting around — still with the glow of Nov. 4 and all the inaugurations and all the balls. We’re at war, and things that’ve happened in the last 72 hours — if you don’t understand we’re in political warfare, you’re not...

Taxpayer-funded abortion is increasing at the state level as pro-abortion lawmakers work to expand abortion since the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Federally, the Hyde Amendment prohibits most taxpayer funding of abortion, allowing funding only in cases of rape, incest, or when the physician determines the pregnant mother’s life is at risk. But while the Hyde Amendment prevents most abortions from being paid for by federal tax dollars, each state can determine its own taxpayer funding for abortion. According to the pro-abortion organization KFF.org (The Kaiser Family Foundation), “There is tremendous variability in how much states reimburse for abortion services...

At the request of Planned Parenthood, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear vetoed a bill this week that aimed to clarify the state’s law protecting preborn children from abortion and also could have allowed the opening of freestanding birth centers in the state. House Bill 90, an act relating to maternal health and declaring an emergency, sought to clarify the state’s pro-life law, which abortion advocates claimed was confusing for doctors. Most preborn children are protected from abortion in Kentucky, except in cases in which their mothers’ lives are considered to be at risk. The Prohibition against intentional termination of life of...

Vladimir Putin has said the United States is “serious” about taking Greenland and warned Russia is ready and willing to militarily “protect its interests in the arctic.” It comes as Ukraine’s allies, including the United Kingdom, met in France to discuss peacekeeping plans in the event of a ceasefire. Britain and France confirmed on Thursday they are drawing up plans to send a "reassurance force" to Ukraine and will soon send military chiefs to the country to determine the scheme’s viability. Speaking after the announcement, Russia’s Vladimir Putin issued a stark warning to NATO countries as he declared Russia is...

What do King Charles and Gwyneth Paltrow have in common? Give up? They’ve both at one point or another caused coffee colonic-related controversies. In a 2004 speech to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on complementary therapies and cancer care, the then Prince of Wales’ comments on Gerson therapy – a health program, marketed as an alternative treatment for cancer, that includes regular coffee enemas as a way to clear toxins from the body – seemed to endorse the unproven regimen. The prince’s opinion drew criticism from medical experts. Wellness influencer Gwyneth Paltrow, on the other hand, promoted a...

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a bill into law on Thursday requiring public schools in the state to utilize a prenatal development educational curriculum in their classrooms. Idaho is the third state to implement a prenatal development curriculum, following North Dakota and Tennessee. Currently, 20 states are considering similar legislation, despite pushback from pro-abortion groups such as SIECUS and Planned Parenthood — with the latter claiming that prenatal development education for teens could “stigmatize” abortion. According to the law — Human Growth and Development Instruction in Public Schools — the curriculum will “include instruction on human growth and development” to...

The encrypted-messaging service Signal is the application of choice for dissenters around the world. The app has been downloaded by more than 100 million users and boasts high-profile endorsements from NSA leaker Edward Snowden and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk. Signal has created the perception that its users, including political dissidents, can communicate with one another without fear of government interception or persecution. But the insider history of Signal raises questions about the app’s origins and its relationship with government—in particular, with the American intelligence apparatus. Such a relationship would be troubling, given how much we have learned, in recent years,...

Superior Judge James Joven of Marion County, Indiana, has issued a preliminary injunction against the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH), stopping the department from releasing its Termination of Pregnancy Reports (TPR). The ruling comes after abortionists Caitlin Bernard and Caroline Rouse filed a lawsuit in February to suspend the reports’ release. At that time, Joven issued an order temporarily blocking the state from releasing the TPR; Monday’s preliminary injunction extends that block. Historically, the TPRs have been used by Voices for Life, a pro-life organization in the state, to ensure that state laws are being followed surrounding abortion. Voices for...

More great news just dropped for those watching the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) tear through government waste. The department announced that dozens of wasteful federal contracts, representing $237 million in savings, have been terminated, doing so DOGE highlighted several wasteful grants, including $10M for “gender equity in the Mexican workplace.” For context, DOGE was established by an executive order to implement cost-efficiency measures across federal agencies, and has focused on reducing federal spending by terminating or renegotiating contracts and grants, particularly those involving waste, fraud, or abuse. This trend was exemplified by the announcement DOGE made on March 26,...

facebook sharing button Share twitter sharing button Tweet email sharing button Email New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has quietly inserted a $10 million funding request for yet another new abortion facility in Northern New Mexico into House Bill 450 — a $1.2 billion capital outlay package. The last-minute addition was made without public input, sparking strong opposition from Republican lawmakers and pro-life advocates who argue that taxpayer dollars should not be used to expand abortion access. Despite their objections, the bill passed the New Mexico House of Representatives by a 41-25 vote and now moves to the state Senate....

...The series, “Muawiya,” tells the story of Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, a major figure in early Islam. He was one of Islam’s early rulers and the founder of the Umayyad dynasty — the first hereditary rulers in Islam where power passed down within the same clan. He was also a reputed companion of the Prophet Muhammad. this chronicles events in seventh century that led to Islam’s first civil war between Sunnis&Shiites. The show was produced by a media conglomerate in Saudi Arabia, which, like most other Middle Eastern countries, is dominated by Sunnis. Some in Shiite Iran and Iraq, one...