Free Republic

President Trump has been issuing executive orders aimed at law firms that employed key figures in the Russiagate saga. Now, federal judges have blocked many of Trump's efforts, some calling it retribution for the lawfare waged against him by the previous administration. Multiple judges have blocked efforts by President Donald Trump to hold “Big Law” firms accountable for their connections to lawyers closely tied to the Russia collusion hoax. The executive orders make allegations against some of the most powerful law firms in the nation: the WilmerHale law firm for previously employing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and two of...

California will lose millions of dollars in federal matching funds for the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, after Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration failed to fill out the necessary paperwork by a March 31 deadline. CalMatters.org reported: California voters told lawmakers last fall that they wanted doctors to get paid more to see low-income patients. But officials for the Newsom administration blew past a federal deadline to make that happen through Medi-Cal Monday, effectively leaving millions of dollars unclaimed. The unclaimed money is tied to Proposition 35, a ballot measure passed by 68% of voters in November. The measure committed money from...

Nearly 2,000 scientists, engineers and researchers penned an open letter this week to President Donald Trump's administration, calling for a stop to its "assault" on science. The letter was signed by elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a congressional chartered organization that provides independent analysis and helps inform public policy decisions. "We are speaking out as individuals. We see real danger in this moment," the letter said, in part. "We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a...

At the Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City, keyers process 1.2 billion images of mail every year. It's a more difficult job than I thought.

Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, is getting ready to challenge Senator John Cornyn in what could be the nastiest and most expensive Republican Party showdown of the 2026 election. In an interview on Tuesday in Dallas, Mr. Paxton tiptoed close to declaring himself a candidate, offering up the kind of legislation he would first propose if elected to the Senate — tax cuts — and describing why he felt he could do more in Washington, D.C., than in Texas. “I just think there’s a lot of things that you could do at the federal level,” Mr. Paxton said....

BOSTON (TNND) — U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement and law enforcement officers arrested 370 individuals dubbed "illegal aliens" in Massachusetts during a six-day targeted operation aimed at taking down transnational organized crime and violent gangs, including MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and the 18th Street Gang. ICE officials said the operation, which took place from March 18 to March 23, focused on offenders with criminal backgrounds and resulted in the seizure of illegal drugs, firearms and the arrest of fugitives facing serious charges like murder and money laundering. A large portion of those arrested - 205 individuals - had prior...

Ground-based telescopes from the International Asteroid Warning Network have been tracking the asteroid, but it will be too faint to observe until June 2028...That’s why Webb was called in for the job, measuring the asteroid’s brightness across a range of infrared wavelengths to better determine its size. In late January, a team of scientists proposed using the mid-infrared instrument on Webb to observe the asteroid and better understand its damage potential. The team recently released the preliminary results of Webb’s observations of asteroid 2024 YR4, suggesting that, while the asteroid is larger and rockier than previous observations, it has nearly...

Aubrey Bertram was starting to imagine her life without student debt. Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit that works on land conservation in the state, had just around two and a half years left of payments before her $247,804 federal student loan balance would be excused under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF. “That was the only way taking on this debt made any sense,” Bertram said. Millions of other student loan holders are in the same frustrating limbo...

Vladimir Putin is one world leader who has studied history thoroughly. In a recent address, Putin discussed America’s plan to annex Greenland and explained that it is not some “extravagant plan” that Trump imagined. In fact, the United States had plans to annex Greenland going back to the 1860s. Secretary of State William H. Seward was keenly in favor of annexing Iceland and Greenland in the 1860s as part of American expansionism. Not only was Greenland abundant in minerals, fish, and game, but it provided a strategic military base. Denmark was willing to listen to the proposal and considered selling...

President Donald Trump has kept everyone guessing regarding the extent of the tariffs he is expected to unveil Wednesday, but the message from the White House is consistent: If you do business in the U.S., you won't need to pay anything. Trump has referred to Wednesday as "Liberation Day" because the U.S. no longer will be taken advantage of through unfair trade imbalances with other countries. He has scheduled a "Make America Wealthy Again" news conference for 4 p.m. ET in the Rose Garden at the White House. "I don't want to get ahead of the president," White House press...

The Supreme Court will be issuing Opinions today beginning at 10:00 a.m.Scotusblog will be live blogging the opinions Here and we will be following along.Here is a list of the cases for the October 2024 term.

President Donald Trump, in an all-caps social media post early Wednesday, declared it is the nation's "Liberation Day" in advance of his making his call for sweeping tariffs official. "IT’S LIBERATION DAY IN AMERICA!" the president proclaimed on Truth Social. Trump has been referring to April 2 as "Liberation Day," saying his tariffs mean the United States will no longer be taken advantage of by trade imbalances with other nations. Trump last week announced a 25% tariff on all auto imports to begin Thursday and 25% worldwide tariffs on steel and aluminum took effect in mid-March. In March, tariffs of...

[OFFICIAL.] WASHINGTON, April 1, 1865. Maj.-Gen. Dix: The following telegram in relation to the military operations now going on at the front, was received this morning. Nothing later has reached this department. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. CITY POINT, Va., March 31, 1865 -- 3 P.M. Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War: At 12:30 P.M. to-day Gen. GRANT telegraphed me as follows: "There has been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our left from near Dabney's House, back well toward the Boydtown plank-road. We are now about to take the offensive at that point, and I...

The world’s best cover band just released Reasons from Earth Wind and Fire. I was first introduced to Leonid and Friends here on Free Republic. They are all from Russia and absolutely love America. Enjoy. https://youtu.be/E1Lb9CzBhRY

A visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, to the United States for talks with members of Donald Trump's administration is possible, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, but declined to give any further details. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Dmitriev is expected in Washington for talks this week, the most senior Russian official to visit since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022. The news was first reported by CNN. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked by reporters if Dmitriev would be visiting Washington for talks with Trump administration officials, including US special envoy Steve Witkoff, said that such...

New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker on Tuesday evening broke the record for the longest floor speech in the Senate’s history with a marathon speech taking aim at the Trump administration’s policies and efforts to downsize the federal government. Booker continued speaking after surpassing the 24-hour-and-18 minute record set in 1957 by South Carolina Democrat Strom Thurmond. Booker yielded the floor after holding it for 25 hours and four minutes, according to the Senate Periodical Gallery. The senior senator for New Jersey acknowledged the moment as Democrats on the floor cheered. “The man who tried to stop the rights upon which...

AI program ChatGPT refused when asked to generate an image of the Prophet Muhammad due to what it asserted was a “credible, historically demonstrated” threat of a violent backlash.A user quizzed OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot as to why it wouldn’t create a depiction of the founder of Islam, asking, “Explain to me, in a succinct manner, why you can’t generate an image of Muhammad, without caveats, without parallels to other topics – address it head on for the record.”ChatGPT’s response was crystal clear.“Because OpenAI prohibits any depiction of Muhammad – under any context – due to the credible, historically demonstrated...

Portland's downtown is in freefall, with property values plummeting 57% since 2019, from $3 billion to just $1.3 billion. City leaders blame remote work, but the real culprit is the rampant crime, homelessness, and lawlessness that have turned once-thriving business districts into ghost towns. Portland is hemorrhaging businesses, tax revenue, and economic vitality as companies flee to safer, more business-friendly environments like Texas and Florida. The city anticipates a $33 million tax revenue loss over the next five years, further crippling essential services like police and fire departments. Despite this crisis, city officials ignore the glaring issue: out-of-control crime and...

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating funding for legal counsel for unaccompanied migrant minors. Appointed by former President Joe Biden, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday that will stop the Trump administration from ending the funding while the merits of the underlying case play out. In her Tuesday order, Martínez-Olguín said that advocates had raised legitimate questions about whether the administration violated the 2008 law, warranting a return to the status quo while the case continues. The Trump administration on March 21 terminated a contract...

Reports this week indicated that US President Donald Trump may visit Saudi Arabia in the coming months. This is important because it would be his first trip abroad as president. It will also be a repeat of a trip he took during his first term. During his first term, in May 2017, he travelled to Saudi Arabia for the US-Arab-Islamic Summit. He met with Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during that trip, among other leaders who attended During the May 2017 trip, Trump said, “I stand before you as a representative of the American People, to...