Free Republic

Officials from the first Trump administration are alleging they received notices from Google shortly before they returned to office that they were being probed by the FBI under the Biden administration and the web giant was unable to tell them because of a court order. Dan Scavino, who is now White House Deputy Chief of Staff and assistant to the president, described the matter as "Biden lawfare" kicking in after he "patriotically and proudly" served during Trump’s first term. "Google received and responded to a legal process issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation compelling the release of information related...

By Dr. John BergsmaTexts from the Old and New Testaments remind us that human happiness is not to be found in the accumulation of material goods. Riches are fleeting and empty. We are called instead to “store up treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moth destroy, where thieves cannot break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-21). 1. Our First Reading is Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23: Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must...

Stage IV patients paid over $700 more per month in the initial 6 months post-diagnosisA diagnosis of cancer brings substantially higher out-of-pocket costs (OOPCs) for privately insured patients, particularly those with more advanced cancer, researchers found. In a cohort of more than 46,000 patients, an incident cancer diagnosis was associated with a mean increase in OOPCs of $592.53 per month in the 6 months after diagnosis, reported Liam Rose, PhD, of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues. This finding "underscores the financial burden of cancer care on patients with insurance who are not yet...

Several millennia ago during the Trojan War, an army of Greeks built a massive wooden horse, feigned departure and left it as a “gift” outside the walled city of Troy. The Trojans brought the offering — filled, unbeknownst to them, with Greek soldiers — into their fortified city and unwittingly wrought their own downfall. At least that’s how the legend goes. So if an attack disguised as a gift is a Trojan horse, what do you call a gift disguised as an attack? One could argue that the attempted recall of Mayor Karen Bass inadvertently fits the bill.Back in early...

A famously liberal circuit court ruled in President Trump’s favor, authorizing a component of his sweeping effort to assert more control over the federal bureaucracy.A federal appeals court on Friday allowed President Trump to move forward with an order instructing a broad swath of government agencies to end collective bargaining with federal unions.The ruling authorizes a component of Mr. Trump’s sweeping effort to assert more control over the federal work force to move forward, for now, while the case plays out in court.It is unclear what immediate effect the ruling will have: The appeals court noted that the affected agencies...

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republicans move to redraw legislative maps in red states to pad their narrow House majority in Washington, some Democrats are rethinking their embrace of a nonpartisan approach to line-drawing that now complicates their party’s ability to hit back before next year’s midterm elections.In many Democratic-controlled states, independent commissions rather than the state legislature handle redistricting, the normally-once-a-decade task of adjusting congressional and legislative districts so their populations are equal. Parties in the majority can exploit that process to shape their lawmakers’ districts so they are almost guaranteed reelection.Who controls redistricting in the statesCongressional redistricting after the...

In a few words, US President Donald Trump this week suggested that one of Washington’s closest allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was lying. There was “real starvation” under way in Gaza, Trump told reporters in Scotland on Monday, a day after Netanyahu had called such reports “a boldfaced lie”. Trump said he had seen the images of hungry Palestinians on television and on Tuesday declared that a person would have to be “pretty cold hearted” or “nuts” not to find them terrible. It was a rare rebuke from a US president who has placed few limitations on the behaviour...

The goggles were discussed Friday at the NTSB's third and final day of public testimony over the fatal midair crash, which killed 67 people.The pilots of a U.S. Army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet over Washington in January would've had difficulty spotting the plane while wearing night vision goggles, experts told the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday. The Army goggles would have made it difficult to see the plane's colored lights, which might have helped the Black Hawk determine the plane's direction. The goggles also limited the pilots' peripheral vision as they flew near Ronald Reagan Washington...

Summary Trump claims in social media post that jobs numbers were rigged No evidence to back Trump's claims Fed Governor Kugler resigns, giving Trump an early chance for an appointment Economists already have growing concerns about US data quality WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday fired a top Labor Department official on the heels of a market-shocking weak scorecard of the U.S. job market, accusing her without evidence of manipulating the figures and adding to already growing concerns about the quality of economic data published by the federal government. In a second surprise economic policy...

A federal appeals court lifted a judge's order on Friday that prevented the Trump administration from ending union bargaining for federal workers. Six unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), had obtained an injunction that was issued by U.S. District Judge James Donato, a lower court judge. A three-judge panel on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paused the injunction, which prevented 21 federal agencies from implementing Trump's executive order from March ending union bargaining for federal workers.

What staff claim they saw him doing with Virginia Giuffre, and housekeeper’s shock at his ‘fetishes’. Read it only here…Prince Andrew - his royal oafishness: Sex obsessed, vulgar, vile bedroom habits and a Meghan bullying bombshell. In yesterday’s first extract of historian Andrew Lownie’s devastating new biography of Prince Andrew – based on four years of forensic research and hundreds of interviews with insiders – the Daily Mail revealed his hedonistic private life and astonishing sense of entitlement. Today, we chart his sordid relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein…On the morning of Tuesday, February 9, 1999, a small group gathered...

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,...