Free Republic

If cleanliness is next to godliness, then NYC’s basically heaven on Earth (kinda). Despite its vermin, trash-lined streets and only-in-New York smells, the Big Apple did not rank as one of the top 10 “Dirtiest Cities in America.” It’s a miracle on 34th Street — and it’s not even Christmas. “From clean drinking water to sewage disposal, littered streets to missed garbage pick-ups, we analyzed 12.3 million sanitation-related 311 complaints in a series of U.S. cities to reveal which metropolises need to clean up their act,” wrote study authors from HouseFresh, an indoor air quality imprint.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The leader of the free world was sporting a new look this morning, as witnesses noticed that President Donald Trump's skin had returned to normal human color just one day after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began phasing out artificial dyes. The president's hue marked a drastic change from the standard orange-tinted tone he had become known for, with experts speculating that RFK Jr.'s ban on synthetic dyes resulted in Trump's skin reverting back to a far more natural shade commonly associated with human beings. "He's a cleaner, far less-toxic Trump," said one White House...

Without scientist Kseniia Petrova’s expertise, no one can fully unlock the data’s potential, putting crucial advancements in early cancer detection at risk. A groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention center for two months — putting crucial scientific advancements at risk. The scientist, the 30-year-old Russian-born Kseniia Petrova, worked at Harvard’s renowned Kirschner Lab until her arrest at a Boston airport in mid-February. She is now being held...

A disturbing surge of swatting attacks has struck media personalities, conservative influencers, and me too. The FBI is investigating. FBI Director Kash Patel has said, “This isn’t about politics—weaponizing law enforcement against ANY American is not only morally reprehensible but also endangers lives, including those of our officers. That will not be tolerated.” “Swatting” is the crime of making calls to report fake emergencies in order to provoke armed police responses. The calls often claim a shooting, hostage situation, or bomb threat—to dispatch heavily armed police, typically SWAT teams, to a victim’s address. As federal and local authorities scramble to...

The 61-year-old explained that she “basically tricked” herself into not attending the ceremony by making sure she did not “have anything to wear.” Obama recalled, “I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I’ve got to tell my team. I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right?” The former lawyer noted that if she did have event-ready clothes to wear, it would have been easy to say, “Let me do the right thing [and attend].”

The Finance Ministry stated that Ukraine suggested two restructuring options but none of them suited the special committeeMOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Finance Ministry has confirmed that Kiev could not reach an agreement on a restructuring with foreign debt holders of some GDP warrants but insists that Kiev is ready for constructive talks, according to an official statement on the ministry’s website. Earlier, the Euronext stock exchange released a statement by the Ukrainian government revealing that from April 15-23, Kiev held consultations with members of the special committee, which consists of institutional investors holding approximately 30% of the GDP...

Just months before the eighth anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu and the release of the soon-to-be-classic feature film immortalizing it, survivor and war hero Norm Hooten retired from the Army as a master sergeant. It was August 2001, and his wife Bonnie, a pharmacist, ‘was not down for another 10 years in the Army,’ Hooten said in a podcast interview earlier this month. ‘It had a lot to do with my family,’ Hooten told Ryan Manion on The Resilient Life. ‘I had young kids at the time, and … a lot of times, what the families go through is...

Alex Soros, the heir to multibillionaire Democratic megadonor George Soros, in an interview mocked the founders of Facebook and Uber for having "really believed their own bullshit" and groaned at the mention of a climate group that his family has bankrolled for years.Facebook and Uber founders are "a bunch of nice Jewish boys who kind of gamed the system and, 'Oh, let's not become doctors, lawyers; I'm helping the world by putting taxis out of business,'" Alex Soros, who is Jewish, told New York magazine as he sat in an Uber en route to a museum exhibition in New YorkUnlike...

Nyweide’s family announced her passing in a since-deleted obituary, writing at the time that the actress “self medicated to deal with all the trauma and shame she held inside, and it resulted in her death." They added that Nyweide repeatedly claimed that she would navigate her health issues “on her own" and "was compelled to reject the treatment that might possibly have saved her life.” In lieu of flowers, her family asked instead that individuals to make a donation to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, in her name. A Vermont native, Nyweide knew that she wanted to...

CARLISLE, Pennsylvania — Minutes after giving a policy-rich address to senior-level military students, faculty, and staff at the Army War College here in rural Cumberland County, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that he relished the occasion to detail the Pentagon’s focus going forward. ... “They knew that from the minute he chose me and through my entire confirmation process, from the minute I walked into the building to the first initiatives we took, that is DEI is dead at DOD,” he said of his February order to nuke all digital DEI content at...

Phys.org reports that a pair of rare copper-alloy Bronze Age cymbals were uncovered at a site in Oman. The instrument has highlighted a shared musical connection between ancient cultures on both sides of the Arabian Gulf. “These cymbals are the first of their kind to have been found in good archaeological contexts in Oman and are from a particularly early context that questions some of the assumptions on their origin and development," said archaeologist Khaled Douglas. When the objects were first recovered from a third-millennium b.c. Umm an-Nar culture site in Dahwa, experts recognized their similarity to examples that had...

VIDEOThe lamestream media won't reveal the true MS-13 background of Kilmar Garcia aka "Maryland Man." However, watch this REAL journalist who investigated his background and found out that before he became "Maryland Man" he was in effect Houston Man due to hanging around the gang affiliated Eclipse nightclub in Houston, Texas. Since the Eclipse nightclub besides being a hub for drug distribution also supplied forged IDs for MS-13 members such as Kilmar Garcia whose full name is Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and his MS-13 gang tag was "El Fuego." This journalist also discusses El Fuego's tattoos and demonstrates that MS-13...

A State Department list of 898 approved government grants and contracts authorized by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) includes over $2.5 billion of authorized funding to organizations that have previously supported the charitable infrastructure of designated terrorist organizations. In March, the State Department provided a document to Congress listing some 5,341 awards terminated as part of the administration’s decimation of USAID, alongside 898 surviving grants. Surviving beneficiaries that have supported terrorist charitable infrastructure are set to receive, the Middle East Forum has found, a total of $2.5 billion across 103 awards [see Appendix], for projects that the USAID...

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has ordered state agencies to review and potentially boycott business with El Salvador due to its role in detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia. A statement from the Democrat indicates he believes this is a strong stance in support of due process for an alleged MS-13 member and suspected human trafficker. “The United States Constitution guarantees due process. We are witnessing Donald Trump erode our fundamental Constitutional rights in real time, and we must fight to restore the balance of power,” Pritzker said. “The State of Illinois will stand up for the Rule of Law and do everything...

A task force formed by Mayor Brandon Johnson nearly a year ago to determine whether and how the city should pay reparations to Chicagoans who are the descendants of enslaved African Americans will start meeting this summer to craft a plan to tackle the thorny issue. The 40-member task force will be charged with developing “Chicago’s first comprehensive reparations study, a critical step forward in acknowledging, addressing and repairing generations of harm experienced by Black communities,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office. Task force members will be paid to serve for a year, with the study of recommendations...

Today we have a new audio book release, this time from Edward Bernays with his 1928 work "Propaganda". Download the audio here. There is a lot to learn about progressivism in this book. Among other things (prior post on this) Bernays believed the following items which were captions on a newer reprint cover: As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented(Page 39)Nowadays the successors of the rulers, those whose position or ability gives them power, can no...

In a Thursday morning social media post, Trump wrote, “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!” Trump had pledged to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine within 24 hours of being elected, but he and his diplomatic team have thus far found it difficult to broker a peace agreement with Russia and Ukraine, going so far as to suggest they will give up any efforts recently.

Parts of Toronto Pearson International Airport have been put on lockdown after a man was shot, with police and paramedics swarming the area. Terminal 1 Departures at the major airport has been closed due to a 'police-involved shooting', the province's Special Investigations Unit confirmed. They later confirmed that an adult male had been shot, adding that it was an isolated incident and there are no known threats to the public. Images taken at the scene show a body on the ground behind a blacked out SUV outside of the terminal. Police said that the officer involved in the shooting was...

In a shot at ActBlue, the left’s major online donation platform, President Donald Trump plans to sign a presidential memorandum on Thursday cracking down on foreign contributions in American elections, according to a person familiar with the policy and granted anonymity to discuss not-yet-public details. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office is expected to be involved in the crackdown, the person said, though further details about the mechanism she will use were not immediately available. The order is expected to specifically target ActBlue, which Republicans have long claimed could be exploited by foreign actors. Democrats had been bracing in recent days...

Amid the ongoing showdown between the Trump administration and the Ivy League, one university president has positioned himself as a leader of the academic resistance: Princeton’s Christopher L. Eisgruber. Earlier this month, the Trump administration suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded grants to Princeton as part of its investigation into racial discrimination and anti-Semitism at the New Jersey campus. Eisgruber, though, was defiant, telling the New York Times that he’s “not considering any concessions” and calling for other university presidents to follow his lead. This isn’t Eisgruber’s first bid for the spotlight. After the death of George Floyd...