Free Republic

The feds are looking into overtime abuse at the NYPD’s elite Aviation unit under ousted NYPD Chief Winston Faison — who allegedly approved payments for rescue training for cop cronies who had nothing to do with rescues, The Post has learned. Lt. Lakeisha Smith, Lt. Winston Wright and Detective Tanesha Facey, Faison’s driver, made up to 20 overtime hours per month — funded by a federal maritime safety training grant administered by FEMA, police sources said. “They’re literally doing nothing for the training whatsoever except putting in overtime slips,” one source said. Smith’s total pay for 2024 rose to $185,405...

The move opens the door to an elite federal workforce — and a major victory for President Donald Trump.A decades-old court order that blocked the federal government from using tests to measure job applicants’ skills was terminated by a D.C. judge on Friday, setting the stage for an overhaul of the federal workforce that could be one of President Donald Trump’s most lasting achievements.In 1981, Angel Luevano sued the federal government over the Professional and Administrative Career Examination, a test that helped identify the best and brightest out of the tens of thousands who apply for government jobs each year....

OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern executives touted their proposed merger as a way to return to volume growth after losing market share to the highway since rail traffic peaked in 2006. “We can only go so far independently. And let’s face it, this industry has faced contraction over the last couple decades in terms of volume growth,” NS CEO Mark George told investors and analysts on a conference call this morning. “We’ve been losing share to truck — and this is one way to reverse that trend.” The historic combination — which would create the first transcontinental...

Is it time for action, or are we still “at the level of words”? President Donald Trump has been trying to convince Russia’s Vladimir Putin to halt hostilities against Ukraine, but to no avail. Sanctions haven’t worked, nor have deals – and now the talks have turned nuclear. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, cautioned Trump to consider Russia’s nuclear capabilities. Was it an off-the-cuff comment, a warning, or a thinly veiled threat? Either way, the American response was to reposition nuclear submarines of our own. Has the...

Russia hoax handmaiden Charlie Savage falsely claimed that the annex to the Durham report said something it never actually said.New documents shedding light on the Trump-Russia collusion hoax dropped Thursday, and the corporate media are still running cover for the same chicanery they helped launder back in 2016. Especially dishonest is the spin from Russia hoax handmaiden Charlie Savage of The New York Times, who falsely claimed Thursday night that the previously classified annex to the Durham report said something it never actually said.The 29-page annex is a byproduct of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the decision by Barack...

“Well, that’s very stylish.” So said tough silver-screen cop Dirty Harry Callahan, in the 1976 film The Enforcer, reacting to a feminist initiative. Its goal was, a woke female official informed, to “broaden the areas of participation for women in the police force.”This was, of course, art imitating life, and today we’re so stylish that it doesn’t even seem stylish anymore. It does, however, seem dangerous and foolhardy to many — and you can count Duke among them.I’ll let the reader figure out if this includes me. But right now I’m talking about Daily Caller senior editor Amber Duke. Fed...

The dream of high-speed, magnetically propelled trains zipping between Washington, D.C., and New York City will, at least for now, remain just that — a dream. The Federal Railroad Administration has officially canned the environmental review process for the section of the proposed Northeast Maglev train between D.C. and Baltimore, halting a plan that would be transformative for the region but has drawn the ire of community groups in parts of Maryland along its path. The proposal would cause “significant, unresolvable impacts to federal agencies and federal property,” according to a letter the FRA sent Thursday to Maryland Transportation Secretary...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — A new era of train travel is set to begin in the Pacific Northwest as Amtrak Cascades introduces a fleet of new trains in 2026. The eight new trainsets and two locomotives will operate along the I-5 corridor, connecting cities such as Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., Eugene, and Portland. The new trainsets will feature the iconic Amtrak Cascades color scheme of evergreen, cream, and mocha, adorned with Cascade Range mountain graphics. The trains comply with the Federal Railroad Administration Buy America Standards and were manufactured in the U.S. at Siemens facilities. Earlier this year, Amtrak pulled it's...

Today’s Trump isn’t the original Trump. Watch ancient videos, on Oprah (1988) or testifying before Congress (1991). (Believe it or not, Democrats were then thoughtful legislators, not Marxist juveniles or foreign-born terrorists.)Trump was originally a public intellectual. What happened? Pro wrestling. And secondarily, the Apprentice series (2004–2014). The World Wrestling Hall of Fame (2013) was an Oval Office stepping stone. Adopting an intellectual public persona would have been political poison. Today’s Trump is an assumed persona feeding the mob’s appetites. By 2007, he was grounding and pounding Vince McMahon in the Battle of Billionaires. Along his path to the presidency,...

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem's effort to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of tens of thousands of migrants in the United States from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal was challenged by the Soros-funded National Day Laborer Organizing Network on the grounds that "they are being targeted because they are non-white, non-Europeans." Noem defended the plan to end TPS saying "this temporary program was established by an executive order issued by President Clinton. The premise used to justify TPS was that these illegal immigrants faced significant risk of harm if they were deported to their home countries. Whether...

Map Oil refineries in Ryazan and Novokuybyshevsk ➤ Radar base hit in Feodosia, Crimea ➤ Primorsko-Akhtarsk Airfield — Shahed launch site ➤ “Elektropribor” military plant in Penza ➤ Rail logistics infrastructure in Rostov region

President Donald Trump on Friday night said he would like the federal government to "release everything" that it has on the disgraced, late financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as long as innocents aren't hurt in the process. The Trump administration has faced heavy backlash over its handling of the Epstein investigation, including its promise to release Epstein's alleged "client list," which it has since said does not exist. But Trump has pushed the Justice Department to provide more transparency on the matter. Trump last month directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release relevant grand jury testimony related to Epstein,...

Six months into Donald Trump's return to the White House Marjorie Taylor Greene has about had it with the Republican Party. The conservative firebrand who surged onto the political scene in 2021 and has been an ever-present figure in the House GOP and MAGA orbit ever since told the Daily Mail in a 45-minute call this week that it may be time for her to walk away. 'I don't know if the Republican Party is leaving me, or if I'm kind of not relating to Republican Party as much anymore,' she revealed. 'I don't know which one it is.' Her...

As recently as four months ago, the drab streets of the city of Kostiantynivka were full of life. With all the trademark signs of a buzzing front-line hub — from dozens of soldiers lining up for coffee and pizza after coming back from positions to hardy civilians living, working and playing as usual — the true war was close, but never quite here. Over spring and summer, Kostiantynivka turned into a city of shadows, with military cars speeding down the central streets on their way to positions, while the remaining civilians who have refused to evacuate shuffle between apartments and...

An ancient Egyptian rock engraving may have been carved at the dawn of the first dynasty, up to 5,100 years ago, a new study suggests...The engraving is stylistically similar to ancient Egyptian rock panels from the protodynastic period and early first dynasty -- periods that aren't well known to archaeologists. These similarities hint that the newfound carving may hold clues about the formation of the Egyptian state, according to the study...The "intriguing new" rock engraving was found on the west bank of the Nile River near Aswan in November 2022, during a survey that was documenting rock art in the...

Same video is on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/syBy_5BHCLA

Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed Department of Justice (DOJ) officials to probe election practices throughout the country as part of the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on federal election laws. The DOJ's Civil Rights Division is largely leading the effort, which has involved seeking information from states about their election practices and voter registration lists, sometimes known as "voter rolls," and placing an emphasis on identifying any noncitizens on them. "Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls. That's the foundation for secure elections," a DOJ source told Fox News. "There's been a culture of noncompliance from several states...

When President Donald Trump interrupted his Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to play a video evidencing widespread persecution against white South Africans in May, the left-wing media called it an “ambush.” Which only leaves one to wonder what the media would call what happened to the Heunis family the night of Oct. 1, 2016. Two intruders, one armed with a shotgun, raided the home of Johann and Mariandra Heunis, then pregnant with their fourth child. The intruders, Mariandra later told Fox News, demanded money, but when the couple said they did not keep cash in the...

Y'all remember Mark and Patty McCloskey, don't you? The St. Louis couple who stood down the mob and protected their home during the BLM riots have been involved in the fight of their lives ever since. But at least Mark has gotten one small piece of justice.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has removed references to President Trump's two first-term impeachments from an exhibit following a review. The Smithsonian said the references will be restored once the exhibit is updated, but did not provide a timeline. The exhibit, titled "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden" includes reference to the impeachments of Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton and the Watergate scandal that engulfed President Richard Nixon, who resigned rather than face certain impeachment. A temporary label was added in 2021 to include President Trump's impeachments in 2019 and again in 2021, just...