Free Republic

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has decided against joining any lawsuits targeting the tariffs put into place by President Trump, Commerce Secretary Lutnick and the National Economic Council. This is quite a new shift in tone from the generally hostile CoC.In the background, the U.S. CoC has historically surveyed their corporate sponsors and conducts extensive polling on their interests as part of their decision-making process. Perhaps the CoC is starting to realize a larger American awakening of their long history selling out middle-America is too risky for them politically.WASHINGTON DC – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has no immediate plans...

Six years after a jury acquitted a Modesto defense attorney and his codefendants in an alleged murder conspiracy, Stanislaus County has agreed to settle a malicious prosecution lawsuit for $22.5 million, one of the largest payouts of its kind in the history of the California courts. County supervisors approved the settlement Tuesday on the threshold of a trial in the federal case, which was brought by eight plaintiffs who contended that police and prosecutors had fabricated the charges against them. At the heart of the case was the late Frank Carson, a veteran Modesto defense attorney with a pugilistic style...

In the wake of the deadly shooting at Florida State University on Thursday, a portrait of the alleged gunman -- the son of a local sheriff's deputy -- has emerged. At least two people were killed and six others were injured when shots rang out near the Tallahassee institution's Student Union, officials said during a press conference.

A Trump administration official in March asked the IRS to review an audit of MyPillow chief executive and conservative political personality Mike Lindell, according to two people familiar with the request and records obtained by The Washington Post. David Eisner, a political appointee at the Treasury Department, wrote to senior IRS staff that Lindell — whom he called a “high profile friend of the president” — had received his second audit letter in two years and “he is concerned he may have been inappropriately targeted.” The IRS referred the inquiry to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the agency’s...

A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s request that it halt the next steps Judge Paula Xinis is seeking to take in the case concerning a migrant who was wrongly deported to El Salvador, with a strident warning about the rule of law and the possibility the dispute presented an “incipient crisis.” The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals said in its seven-page ruling Thursday that the Trump administration’s assertions in the case “should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.” The unanimous ruling...

The Trump administration had asked the justices to lift a nationwide pause on the policy as lower court challenges continue.The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it would hear arguments in a few weeks over President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.The brief order by the justices was unsigned and gave no reasoning, as is typical in such emergency cases. But the unusual move is a sign that the justices consider the matter significant enough that they would immediately hold oral argument on the government’s request to lift a nationwide pause on the policy.The justices announced they would defer any...

The New York Times’s mustachioed “China for a Day” propagandist Thomas Friedman is having a nervous breakdown because President Donald Trump isn’t a climate change nut like he is. And true-to-form, he’s simping for the Chi-Coms to get Trump… Again. “I Have Never Been More Afraid for My Country’s Future,” read Friedman’s grossly embellished April 15 item that was plastered on A22 of his newspaper’s April 17 print edition. After bellyaching over the allegedly “[s]o much crazy [that] happens with the Trump administration every day,” Friedman then freaked over Trump’s April 8 decision “to sign an executive order to bolster...

Judge Boasberg has said he will pursue contempt charges for those who did not follow his unconstitutional verbal order to turn around a planeload of deportees en route to El Salvador. He wrote a long rant basically saying that even unlawful orders have to be obeyed until they are ruled to be unlawful. Here is my open letter to him (only published here but if somebody could help me get it to him I would appreciate the help): An appeals court just issued an order forbidding you from eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, farting, burping, or breathing until you have in...

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it received 52 pages of documents from the U.S. Department of Justice showing White House staffers suggesting edits to transcripts of President Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding his handling of secret documents. The documents were obtained thanks to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice for records of communication between the agency and White House regarding the altered transcripts of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s October 2023 interviews of President Biden in the criminal investigation into Biden’s theft and disclosure of classified records...

A violent mid-air incident aboard a domestic flight in Belize ended in the fatal shooting of an American man who attempted to seize control of the aircraft on Thursday morning, The New York Post reported. According to Belizean authorities, Akinyela Sawa Taylor, 49, brandished a knife and began attacking fellow passengers aboard Tropic Air flight V3HIG en route to San Pedro. The altercation began around 8:30 a.m. while the plane was still airborne. During the chaos, Taylor managed to injure several individuals. However, another passenger on board intervened and fatally shot the attacker in the chest. The suspect later succumbed...

A first-pass run at the life and times of the left's latest version of George Floyd, repatriated illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia, flown to his native El Salvador and imprisoned as an MS-13 gang member, leaves one marveling at how the radical left sure knows how to pick 'em. After all, the guy is a composite of every detested stereotypes about migrants -- illegal border crosser, ignored his final deportation order, identified in police reports as an MS-13 gang member accepted by two judges, crazy high-speed driver endangering others, suspected human trafficker, (with a mysterious dropping of those charges by...

Ukraine and the United States on Thursday signed a memorandum as an initial step towards the clinching of an agreement on developing minerals in Ukraine, Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's first deputy prime minister and economy minister, said. "We are happy to announce the signing, with our American partners, of a Memorandum of Intent, which paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine," Svyrydenko wrote on the social media platform X.

Karmelo Anthony's mother says family has been "under attack," that her daughter has been afraid to sleep in her own bed, and that her husband's "mental health is deteriorating day by day."

As museums around the world celebrate the 250th birthday of JMW Turner, it's time to reappraise his beloved and celebrated painting, The Fighting Temeraire. JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire became a national celebrity when it was first unveiled in 1839, and its fame has endured to the present day. It was once voted Britain's favourite painting and currently features on £20 banknotes. But the widely accepted interpretation of this iconic painting's message might, in fact, contradict Turner's true intentions. The "Temeraire" of the title refers to a 98-gun warship of the British Navy, which is depicted in the painting's background....

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Daily Caller that Kilmar Abrego García, a recently deported alleged member of MS-13, was stopped in December 2022 on suspicion of human trafficking. During a Dec. 1, 2022 traffic stop by a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer, Abrego García was found to be transporting eight passengers across the country, sources told the Tennessee Star. He allegedly did not have a valid driver’s license and was suspected of trafficking the passengers but was let go at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Documents from Homeland Investigations provided to the Daily Caller...

Two climate activists recently received pardons after convictions and payments for property damage after gluing their hands to the frame of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna in 2022. The protest took place at the 16-century altar painting in the Dresden Old Masters Picture Gallery on August 23, 2022. The two protestors, members of the German environmental group Letzte Generation (Last Generation), entered the gallery and attached one hand each to the frame of the world-famous artwork. While the artwork was not damaged, the demonstration left traces of superglue on the frame, harming its protective finish, and resulting in property damages of around...

A Proposed Rule by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on 04/17/2025... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively referred to as the Services or we) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” in our Endangered Species Act (ESA or the Act) regulations. The existing regulatory definition of “harm,” which includes habitat modification, runs contrary to the best meaning of the statutory term “take.” We are undertaking this change to adhere to the single, best meaning of the ESA.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented to "to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace" regarding the war in Ukraine, a U.S. spokesperson said on Thursday, after Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement that Rubio had communicated the same message the U.S. team had to the Ukrainian delegation and European allies in Paris, where she said it met an "encouraging reception."

Explanation: Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are scattered across this nearly 4 degree wide telescopic field of view. About 50 million light-years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the closest large galaxy cluster to our own local galaxy group. Prominent here are Virgo's bright elliptical galaxies from the Messier catalog, M87 at bottom left, and M86 and M84 near center right. M86 and M84 are recognized as part of Markarian's Chain, the visually striking line-up of galaxies on the that runs through the upper portion of this frame. Near the middle of the chain lies an intriguing interacting pair of galaxies,...

How can we get ahold of some space miso now?Key Points -Scientists studied miso fermentation on the ISS versus Earth to understand how space conditions affect flavor, texture, and microbial composition. -Space-fermented miso developed a darker color and a “nutty” and “roasted” flavor, likely due to higher temperatures and increased pyrazine levels. -The research highlights how microbes adapt in space and raises ethical questions about relocating Earth-based life, while also suggesting new culinary possibilities for long-term space missions. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) do a lot of important work to help advance science, including experiments and research to...