Free Republic

A Pittsburgh man was sentenced to life in prison without parole for executing an Uber driver who was seen begging for her life in a disturbing dashcam video. Calvin Crew, 25, fatally shot 38-year-old Christina Spicuzza in 2022 after she picked him up while driving for Uber.

Melania Trump is a world-class snubber. She skipped almost every event of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, only returning to regular political spouse duties late last year, as she had a memoir to plug and a lucrative documentary project to film. Despite suggesting she would be a full-time First Lady in Trump’s second term, she has gone unseen for weeks at a time and even skipped her stepdaughter Tiffany’s baby shower (a People source explained, savagely, that Melania “has her own schedule, even on weekends” and didn’t see “any reason” to attend). Now Melania is getting a small taste of her...

Three former Memphis officers were acquitted Wednesday of state charges, including second-degree murder, in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023. A jury, which appeared to be all white, took about 8 1/2 hours over two days to find Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith not guilty on all charges after a nine-day trial in state court in Memphis. After the jury’s verdict was read, the defendants hugged their lawyers as relatives of the former officers cried. One relative yelled, “Thank you, Jesus!” The three defendants still face the prospect...

No pope was elected after a first ballot of the papal conclave on Wednesday, as black smoke billowed out of a chimney of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The smoke emanated from the chimney starting at around 9 p.m. local time in Rome, signaling an end to the first day of the conclave. Around 45,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square to await the announcement, which was initially thought to come after 7 p.m. local time, according to Vatican News. Subscribe "Our role here is to pray and to join with other Christians, other Catholics, to pray for the...

It's absolutely amazing where the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) finds taxpayer money and how it gets there. The Daily Wire has been investigating a small USAID-linked organization that described itself to Congress as "a low-overhead charity sending its money to Africans." But the African Development Foundation was actually a grifter's paradise, siphoning taxpayer money in the name of charity and sending it to friends and cronies in Africa and the U.S. Mathieu Zahui, Foundation's chief financial officer, became something of a left-wing hero when Elon Musk and DOGE showed up for an audit. Bravely, Mr. Zahui stood up and...

The U.S. Department of Education has announced that it will resume student loan wage garnishment for borrowers in default, ending a years-long reprieve that began early in the pandemic. For the first time in five years, Americans who have fallen behind on their federal student loans could see part of their paychecks seized to repay that debt. While this move affects millions of borrowers, this is likely to hit women borrowers the hardest, argues 19th News, an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy.

There’s something about eating a hot dog at a baseball game that makes those tubes of meat hit different, and the Brewers recently took advantage by launching a new promotion that lets fans get a free one at every contest they attend. However, it was greeted with some backlash after people who signed up discovered they still had to pay sales tax on each purchase.

Wild story right here out of Cincinnati. [Warning: Graphic] VIDEO AT LINK.................. Unreal. 18-year-old Ryan Hinton and some friends stole a car from an apartment complex, led police on a chase, fled the scene when they got cornered, and then, when pursued, Ryan allegedly pulled a gun on them and was shot dead as a result. If you want specific details, see here: Let’s set the record straight: Ryan Hinton wasn’t killed for being in a stolen car‼️He was shot because officers perceived an immediate, deadly threat —a threat created by the loaded firearm with an extended magazine he carried...

The leaders of Cuba, Mongolia and Venezuela arrived in Moscow Wednesday ahead of attending Russia's Victory Day celebrations. Victory Day, which is celebrated in Russia on May 9, has become the country’s most important secular holiday. -snip- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel are on the guest list which also includes Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The U.S. government will begin seizing federal benefits from 195,000 student loan defaulters in June, with wage garnishment notices set to reach 5.3 million borrowers later this summer, the Education Department announced on May 5, marking the formal restart of involuntary collections after a years-long pause. The renewed enforcement effort begins with the Treasury Offset Program, which allows the federal government to intercept tax refunds, Social Security checks, and other federal payments to recover unpaid student debt. Borrowers affected by the program began receiving notices on May 5, the department said. “Starting today, approximately 195,000 defaulted student loan borrowers will...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, jointly with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other law enforcement partners, executed search warrants in Southern Mississippi that resulted in multiple arrests involving illegal immigration, cockfighting, and other criminal activity. The search warrants were part of an ongoing undercover investigation into the unlawful cockfighting in Harrison County, Mississippi. The arrests included United States citizens and suspected illegal aliens found at the site of the makeshift animal fights attended by some people from outside Mississippi. Two defendants, Alvin Smith III and Herbert Kasey Smith, were charged with violating the Animal Welfare Act for hosting the...

A math teacher in the Liberty Central School District has been arrested, accused of possessing and promoting obscene sexual material involving children. Christopher Dedonato, 26, of Liberty, was charged with multiple felonies. He was placed on immediate administrative leave last month when the district was informed of the investigation, according to school officials. School officials said they do not believe any students at Liberty Central were involved. School Superintendent Patrick Sullivan released a statement reaffirming the district's commitment to student safety: "The safety of our students is our top priority...We remind our students if they see or experience anything suspicious...

🚨ANNOUNCEMENT🚨 "United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is excited to announce a partnership with One America News Network (OAN) to provide newsfeed services to USAGM networks, including Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Martí, and Voice of America (VOA). This idea came about after OCB suggested we explore OAN as a newsfeed option for the Miami-based, U.S. Government-funded news operation broadcasting to Cuba. At their suggestion, I reached out to OAN, and they offered to provide their newsfeed and video service free-of-charge. This is an enormous benefit to the American taxpayer, who is the sole-source of funding for USAGM's...

Isaiah 59:1 "BEHOLD, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:" Psalm 138:3 "In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul." Daniel 9:21 "Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." Psalm 27:9 "Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me...

A man who stabbed a passenger in an unprovoked attack at Dublin Airport was acting out in a cry for help, a court has been told. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today that Kasonga Mbuyi (52) stabbed a German man in an unprovoked attack. He was seen behaving erratically before the attack and wasn’t wearing shoes. Mbuyi, with an address at Clare Street, Limerick, was suffering from a paranoid delusion at the time and has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia with previous cannabis misuse. He told gardai (police) he carried out the unprovoked and random assault as a cry for...

Far-left, Trump-hating CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell and her husband had a terrible day on Tuesday as President Trump continues to lay down the law on illegal immigration. As FOX 5 DC reported, ICE agents stormed into Chef Geoff’s Restaurant yesterday morning, a D.C. establishment owned by O’Donnell’s husband, Geoff Tracy, and demanded to see the staff’s I-9 forms. The incident occurred at roughly 10:30 A.M. This caused the entire staff to panic. The agents stayed at the restaurant for 90 minutes and left without arresting anyone. Chef Geoff’s was not the only eatery targeted. The New York Post revealed that...

A Kenyan court has sentenced four men to one year in prison or pay a fine of $7,700 (£5,800) for trying to smuggle thousands of live queen ants out of the country. They had pleaded guilty to the charges, with the Belgians telling the court that they were collecting the highly sought-after ants as a hobby and didn't think it was illegal. But delivering the sentence on Wednesday, the judge said the particular species of ants collected was valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few. The contraband included giant African harvester ants, which are valued...

Term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) is reportedly moving to block the Ohio Republican Party from endorsing Vivek Ramaswamy’s bid to succeed him. DeWine and his advisers hope to prevent the state party from endorsing Ramaswamy to replace DeWine in the governor’s mansion in Columbus. President Donald Trump endorsed Ramaswamy on the night he announced his campaign to govern the Buckeye State. The move pits DeWine sharply against Trump and Vice President JD Vance, NBC noted: The moves place DeWine sharply at odds with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, an Ohioan who has directed his political team to steer Ramaswamy’s...

Apple is going to add AI search providers to the Safari browser on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Bloomberg reports Apple SVP Eddy Cue made the disclosure in court testimony today, stating “we will add them to the list — they probably won’t be the default” in reference to providers like Perplexity and Anthropic. Cue also revealed that the number of searches through Safari fell for the first time ever in April, suggesting users are looking to AI sources as alternative ways to find information. Through its lucrative deal with Google and other search engines, Apple gets a cut of ad...

When Pete Buttigieg was the Secretary of Transportation under President Biden (and whoever was actually making the calls at the White House during that time), one of the more glaring examples of bloated bureaucracy came in the form of what was required in order to qualify for government grants for infrastructure projects: Shortly after taking office, the president signed an executive order mandating that the beneficiaries of 40 percent of all federal climate and environmental programs should come from "underserved communities." The order also established the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which monitors agencies such as the Department of...