Free Republic

Longtime Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) acknowledged that her party forced the government into a shutdown on Wednesday in order to secure “health care for everybody” — including illegal immigrants. Waters, 87, was questioned outside the US Capitol Tuesday about Democrats’ opposition to a stopgap funding bill in both chambers of Congress that would have kept the government’s lights on until Nov. 21. “Are Democrats demanding health care for illegal aliens?” asked LindellTV reporter Alison Steinburg. “Democrats are demanding health care for everybody,” Waters responded, hours before her Senate colleagues blocked the spending measure. “We want to save lives,” she added....

An immigration judge on Wednesday denied MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s request for asylum. Abrego Garcia asked an immigration judge to reopen his asylum case after he was deported to El Salvador and then brought back to the United States. Abrego Garcia was an illegal alien residing in Maryland when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador earlier this year and placed in the notorious CECOT prison, however, radical left-wing judges ordered him to be returned to the US. The US government brought Abrego Garcia back to the US after federal prosecutors in Tennessee indicted him...

A recent study from Tyton Partners reveals that what students believe about AI use is quite at odds with their actual AI use. The study, which surveyed over 1,500 students, more than 1,500 instructors, and over 300 administrators, reveals that student and faculty attitudes toward AI in academia have both taken a downturn since 2024. Turning to artificial intelligence for academic assistance is not widely believed, by either students or educators, to be conducive to greater educational quality. Student preference for AI as a primary source of academic help has dropped 13 percentage points since 2024. Faculty attitudes about the...

Five people were burned when a boiler exploded at a hotel under construction in Downtown Houston, officials say. What we know: According to the Houston Fire Department, the incident occurred at a Holiday Inn that is under construction at Texas Avenue and Austin Street around 11 a.m

Forget pickleball and wine tasting. The government shutdown may force lawmakers in both parties to scrap luxury retreats planned this month in Napa Valley and Sea Island, Georgia. The Senate GOP’s planned getaway to the ultra-exclusive Sea Island is slated to begin on Friday, but it’s not clear whether lawmakers will go through with the trip while the federal government remains shuttered amid a partisan spending standoff that began Oct. 1. Senate Democrats have more time to decide whether to go forward with their Napa Valley political conference, which is slated to start Oct. 13 at the Hotel Yountville, a...

A Times investigation found plaintiffs in a sex abuse settlement who claim they received cash to sue L.A. County. The lawsuits led to a record $4-billion settlement for the victims. Downtown LA Law Group, which represents some plaintiffs who said they were paid to sue, said the firm “categorically does not engage in, nor has it ever condoned, the exchange of money for client retention.” Every day, some of L.A.’s poorest residents line up outside the county benefits office in South Central, weaving their way through a swarm of salesmen hawking deals that feel too good to be true.Would...

11 Colorado stores will stay open for Taylor Swift’s midnight album release by: Heather Willard Posted: Oct 2, 2025 DENVER (KDVR) — All the world’s a stage, and Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” is releasing at midnight Friday in select stores. The hype around Swift’s new album has grown to “new heights,” especially after she announced her engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on his podcast New Heights. This is Swift’s 12th studio album, coming after her massively popular Eras Tour swept the globe, and her show in Denver was so large it could be...

The Trump administration has telegraphed that mass firings are coming, but officials have cautioned that such moves could violate appropriations law.Senior federal officials have quietly counseled several agencies against firing employees while the government is shut down — as President Donald Trump has suggested he will — warning the strategy may violate appropriations law, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The officials cautioned that firings — known as RIFs, or reductions in force — could be vulnerable to legal challenges under statutes labor unions cited this...

Imagine paying good money to see a gorgeous geographic marvel in the mountains of Peru, only to get there and find it was an AI hallucination, leaving you stuck in the middle of nowhere at 13,000 feet with no beautiful vista, no oxygen, and no cellphone signal. According to the BBC, that's exactly what one couple was on their way to do if not for local guide Miguel Angel Gongora Meza, who overheard their enthusiastic plans of hiking into the Andes unaccompanied to see the fabled "Sacred Canyon of Humantay." ‘They [showed] me the screenshot, confidently written and full of...

A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea “unlawful combatants.”President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week. The notice was sent to several congressional committees and obtained by The New York Times. It adds new detail to the administration’s thinly articulated legal rationale for why three U.S. military strikes the president ordered...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is asking nine major universities to commit to President Donald Trump’s political priorities in exchange for more favorable access to federal money.Universities were asked to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” committing them to adopt the White House’s vision for America’s campuses. It asks the schools to accept the government’s priorities on admissions, women’s sports, free speech, student discipline and college affordability, among other topics.Signing on would give universities priority access to some federal grants, but government money would not be limited solely to those schools, according to a White House...

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was appalled by the attack and additional police officers would be deployed at synagogues across the U.K. (Scripps News)On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, a Manchester synagogue was attacked, prompting heightened security across the UK. An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and then began stabbing them, killing two and seriously wounding four in a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year, police said. Officers shot and killed the suspect, Greater Manchester Police said, though it took authorities some time...

The first Boston Light stood as a beacon in Boston Harbor for 60 years until the British blew it up in 1776. Built in 1716, it was the first lighthouse in the United States.>>> The Boston News-Letter of Sept. 17, 1716, reported the “Light House has been built; And on Fryday last the 14th Currant the Light was kindled.”Boston Light, The Cursed Lighthouse of Boston HarborBoston Light is a lighthouse located on Little Brewster Island in outer Boston Harbor, Massachusetts.[3][4] The first lighthouse to be built on the site dates back to 1716, and was the first lighthouse to be...

On Friday, Sept. 19, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation stating that new H-1B visa petitions submitted on Sept. 21 or after will require a $100,000 payment. This change would cause MIT to pay over $10 million every year for H-1B visa sponsorships. -snip- Although the majority of H-1B workers hold a computer-related job (65% in 2023), many universities in the U.S. issue H-1B visas for other international employees, including postdoctoral scholars, researchers, and professors. According to Director of Media Relations Kimberly Allen, MIT submitted 118, 102, and 103 new H1-B visa petitions in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively. Under...

Summary Assailant drives car into pedestrians, stabs security guard near synagogue in Manchester Three other people targeted by attacker in serious condition Suspect shot dead by police who rushed to scene after witness report of attack on holiest day of Jewish calendar 'He has a bomb, go away', police officer shouts at onlookers Britain's King Charles, PM Starmer voice shock, horror over incident MANCHESTER, England, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Two people were killed on Thursday when a man drove a car into pedestrians and stabbed a security guard in an attack at a synagogue in England where worshippers were...

Summary Conservative Catholics criticise pope over Trump comments Leo questioned if Trump's immigration crackdown was 'pro-life' Pope had been gaining praise from conservatives in first months Vatican officials say Leo unlikely to be deterred by criticism VATICAN CITY, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Pope Leo initially impressed conservative Catholics after his election in May as he embraced traditions shunned by his predecessor Pope Francis and steered clear of hot button social issues that divided the 1.4 billion-member Church.But his honeymoon with conservatives appears over after he unexpectedly took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policies, questioning whether they were...

A toddler has died after suffering a medical emergency at the dentist ahead of a simple operation to cap his teeth. Shardé Sherrill and David Mitchell took their son Er'mias, two, to Valleygate Dental Surgery Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, for treatment on July 17. An ambulance transported the young boy to a nearby hospital roughly 40 minutes after the dental team took him in for the procedure, WXII reports. Sherill and Mitchell allege they were not informed of any complications until he was already en route to the hospital without them. The parents claim nurses told them the boy's...

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would hold discussions on which “Democrat Agencies” should be cut amid the ongoing government shutdown. Trump said he will meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who oversees the allocation of federal funds. The shutdown started on Wednesday after the Senate failed to pass a temporary government funding bill backed by Republicans. “I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those...

The Democrats have never been more dangerous than they are right now. It isn’t just that they felt the need to re-cancel Charlie Kirk after his brutal assassination, or that they delighted in celebrating his death, then pretended they were the victims when some of them lost their jobs. It isn’t just that they ignore or justify violence when it comes from their own side, or what they’ve done to the minds and bodies of children over the past 15 years, or that they’ve gutted a once thriving culture and destroyed our public schools and universities.It’s that they haven’t learned...

A government agency released data in September that should have lit Washington ablaze. It wasn’t new evidence that windmills cause cancer or that the proposed Cracker Barrel logo signaled the end of Western civilization. Rather, the Nation’s Report Card, which tracks education results across the country, revealed that student performance is falling in math and reading scores are below where they were in 1992. As best I can tell, neither the president nor the National Governors Association is treating this like the crisis it is. We should be as angry about the silence as we are about the scores. Few...