Free Republic

A California ex-cop who allegedly partied and took Disney trips while collecting hefty disability checks is being sued for the $600,000 she ripped off from the city. Nicole Brown, 39, was charged with 15 felonies in May after authorities found she was faking a disability for an extensive leave from the Westminster Police Department, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office. Westminster officials ... said they are seeking 'repayment of all disability and medical payments, benefits, and other funds unlawfully obtained by Brown.' 'This former police officer has betrayed the public trust,' Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen said in a...

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley announced Thursday that the Department of Energy (DOE) is canceling its Grain Belt Express project. Hawley’s X post announcing the DOE’s decision to cancel the project followed a conversation with President Donald Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. The post also called the Grain Belt Express a “green scam” that is “costing taxpayers BILLIONS.” ... The Grain Belt Express was a $11 billion transmission line project designed to carry electricity from wind farms in Kansas across Missouri and Illinois to Indiana. “Energy demand is growing – our grid needs an upgrade,” the project’s website states,...

Cancer deaths linked to obesity more than tripled in the U.S. during the past two decades, a new study says. Deaths linked to the 13 types of obesity-related cancer rose to 13.5 deaths per million from 3.7 deaths per million between 1999 and 2020, researchers reported Sunday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco. “Obesity is a significant risk factor for multiple cancers, contributing to significant mortality,” said lead researcher Dr. Faizan Ahmed of Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune City, N.J.

The new B-21 Raider strategic bomber is not a revolutionary “game-changer,” but rather a crucial evolutionary step in air power that debunks the myth that drones and AI will make manned aircraft obsolete. While new technologies are seductive, they cannot replace the human judgment required for strategic deterrence, a mission the B-21 is designed to fulfill for decades.

The Netherlands is rationing electricity as its overloaded power grid buckles under the pressure of rapid electrification and ambitious climate goals. More than 11,900 businesses are stuck in a queue for access to the network, alongside public buildings including hospitals, schools and fire stations. Thousands of new homes are also waiting to be connected, with some areas warned they may have to wait until the 2030s. The crisis has emerged as the country scrambles to cut carbon emissions. And now experts are warning that Britain, as well as Belgium and Germany, are all 'in trouble.' The countries should 'definitely' see...

This slumping row-house in London’s Charterhouse Square is not a “building” per se, but rather an objet-d’art from the Stunt-and-Clutter school of contemporary art called “A Week at the Knees” by one Alex Chinneck. I confess, I don’t even get the verbal gag. Seems like a non-sequitur to me. But so is most of the production from Stunt-and-Clutter Ltd. The aim is to astound the public with startling originality. Since there are no longer that many new things under the sun, this calls for ever more extreme ventures into the absurd and hallucinatory. Between the general overload of Internet-generated info...

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said during an interview today with CBS News that people should “stay tuned” for tomorrow’s announcement from President Trump regarding Russia, with him adding, “The game, regarding Putin's invasion of Russia, is about to change. I expect, in the coming days, you will see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves. I expect, in the coming days, that there will be tariffs and sanctions available to President Trump he has never had before. I expect, in the coming days, more support from Europe regarding the efforts to help Ukraine. Putin made...

... Community groups like Union del Barrio and Los Angeles Tenants Union are using their volunteer networks to provide warnings of potential raids so laborers and vendors can continue to find work despite the risks. ... Last month, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican and chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, also launched an investigation into Union del Barrio and multiple other organizations. A letter from Hawley claimed the groups provided logistical and monetary support to protests in Los Angeles that he said “escalated into lawless mob actions.” ICE officials claim assaults on officers are up significantly...

Israeli settlers set fire to St. George Greek Orthodox Monastery and the Christian cemetery in the Christian village of Taybeh, West Bank. This is the place Christ sought refuge in John 11:54 before His passion and death called Ephraim.

NATIONAL MAC AND CHEESE DAY National Mac and Cheese Day earns a place of honor on July 14 as one of the classic comfort foods at America's dinner table. #NationalMacAndCheeseDay Made with macaroni noodles, cream or milk, and the golden goodness of cheese, mac and cheese shines as a side dish while also standing on its own as a main dish. This meal reminds many of us of home while also teaching us the basics of the kitchen. What other recipes allow us to create so flamboyantly and often with so little knowledge about cooking? From the classic mac and...

The Dutch PEGIDA leader Edwin Wagensveld has been featured in this space a number of times (most recently here). He is renowned for his Islamophobic acts, the most controversial of which is the burning of a Koran. In the following video, which was recorded on the street near the recent NATO conference in The Hague, Mr. Wagensveld tries a different tactic: he repeatedly drops a Koran on the ground and steps on it. To be struck or touched with a shoe is considered the vilest of insults in Islam, so putting one’s foot on a Koran is doubly blasphemous. In...

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — After driving through a downpour to take her son to day camp, Darleen Reyes told camp administrators the rain would have kept her away but her son insisted on going. As she marked her son’s name present on a clipboard at the Boys & Girls Club camp, she laughed about braving a flash flood warning to get there. Before kissing his mother goodbye, Aiden Cazares, 8, explained to a reporter, “I wanted to see my friends and not just sit at home.” Then he ran off to play. Aiden’s one of 1.4 million children and...

(America First Report)—New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is facing accusations of defaming President Donald Trump. She called him a “rapist” on social media during a debate about how the Department of Justice handled the Jeffrey Epstein case. The progressive Democrat, who has often clashed with Trump during their time in politics, shared her thoughts on the ongoing issues around Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was a wealthy financier who died in his New York jail cell in 2019 while facing federal charges for child sex trafficking. “Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the...

A new poll reveals a sharp decline in support for the Democratic Party since the 2024 election, as frustrated voters say the party has drifted far from the concerns of everyday Americans. Instead of focusing on inflation, border security, or public safety, Democrats are increasingly seen as obsessed with destroying President Donald Trump's legacy, woke virtue signaling, and identity politics. A poll conducted by Unite the Country, a Democratic super PAC, shows that many voters — especially white men, Hispanic men, and working-class Americans — see the Democratic Party as “woke,” “weak,” and disconnected from everyday realities. The party’s approval...

European Union envoys are on the verge of agreeing an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that would include a lower price cap on Russian oil, four EU sources said after a Sunday meeting. -snip- The sources said they had also agreed to a dynamic price mechanism for the price cap. On Friday, the European Commission proposed a floating price cap on Russian oil of 15% below the average market price of crude in the previous three months. One of the sources said the initial price would be around $47 a barrel based on...

As the prospect of a broader NATO-Russia war grows, remember what we’ve already lost. As Peter Schweizer noted in a short report for the Hoover Institution on Christmas Day 2000, twenty-five years ago the United States was “spending less on defense as a percentage of GNP than anytime since the Great Depression.” That all changed nine months later when the so-called “peace dividend” from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War was reinvested in a “Global War on Terrorism.” Eight trillion dollars later, and what do Americans have to show for their sacrifices in...

President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, arrived in Kyiv on Monday to discuss security and sanctions against Russia with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump has said he will make a “major statement” regarding Russia on Monday, as he’s set to welcome NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to the White House.

“When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean’” (Matthew 8:1–2). Several more striking features marked the leper who came to Jesus. The man came expectantly but not demandingly, therefore he approached the Lord with humility. It’s clear he wanted to be healed, but he did not explicitly ask Jesus for this miraculous favor. That was almost too much for the leper to presume, hence his statement, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(7/14/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleJoshua 4:19-2419On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord...

John Brennan spent years lying to Congress, the press, and the public—yet now claims he's "clueless" about a DOJ investigation. He’s only clueless about how not to lie. When asked why the current Department of Justice might be investigating him, former CIA Director John Brennan answered, as was his wont, with a complete lie: “I am clueless about what it is exactly that they may be investigating me for.” Clueless? Hardly. Brennan knows full well that his fingerprints are on some of the greatest scandals of the last decade. These machinations have threatened the very integrity of our institutions and...