Free Republic

Authorities are searching for two men who went missing after leaving on a fishing trip from Fort Myers on Friday morning. The missing men were identified as 57-year-old Randall Spivey and 33-year-old Brandon Billmaier. The two left early Friday morning on a 42-foot Freeman boat from a residence in the 15000 block of Intracoastal Court in Fort Myers, the Lee County Sheriff's Office said. The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed it is working on the case and gathering additional details. Search and rescue crews are working from the surface to the skies and are advising all aircraft to maintain situational awareness...

Non-crime hate incidents should be scrapped and replaced with a "common sense" system, police leaders are set to recommend. The scheme would mean only the most serious incidents are recorded as anti-social behaviour. The recommendation is part of a review by leaders at the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and College of Policing, which is set to be published next month and given to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Non-crime hate incidents are perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards certain characteristics, such as race or gender, but do not meet the threshold of a criminal offence. Rather than...

Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and a staunch defender of unborn children, is weighing another run for president in 2028 as he positions himself within the evolving Republican Party. Cruz, who finished as runner-up in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, has been fielding requests from supporters urging him to launch a bid in 2028. During a recent meeting near Washington, D.C., Cruz noted he had received requests to run. Should he launch a bid, he would be expected to face a primary against fellow pro-life advocate Vice President J.D. Vance and potentially other contenders. The Republican nomine could eventually...

A convicted Oregon killer is back on Salem’s police oversight board following a narrow city council vote that opponents say jeopardizes public trust and ignores warnings from law enforcement about his violent past.

Pete Hegseth’s Saturday begins with personal training. The Secretary of War, @SecWar on your socials, is very fond of working out with the troops – something most defense secretaries have done without someone dutifully filming the experience for Instagram. Then he heads off to the Reagan National Defense Forum, the annual gathering of war hawks, policy nerds and defense contractors in Simi Valley, California. Hegseth, the veteran of the Global War on Terror, is there to fulfill his mission of denouncing the neocons. “Out with idealistic utopianism, in with hard-nosed realism,” he declares, insisting the United States will no longer...

A Washington woman angry with pro-life protesters outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility struck one of them with her SUV after an argument, authorities said. Sierra D. Godfrey, 32, of Richland, is accused of swerving toward two men standing near the exit of the Bonnie Avenue abortion facility on December 1 with the intent to scare them. Instead, she hit one in the leg and hip, knocking him down before fleeing the scene. Godfrey, who allegedly admitted to police that she hit the protester and drove away, was arrested December 15 and booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion...

The U.S. economy grew at a much greater-than-expected pace in the third quarter, boosted by strong consumer spending, a delayed report released Tuesday showed. U.S. gross domestic product, a sum of all goods and services produced in the sprawling U.S. economy, expanded by 4.3% in the July-September period, the Commerce Department said in its initial reading of third-quarter growth. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a gain of 3.2%. Consumer spending expanded by 3.5% in the third quarter after rising 2.5% in the second quarter. Increases in exports and government spending also boosted growth, while a smaller dip in private...

This is the story of "Thomas Carrick" - not his real name but the moniker assigned him by Australian authorities. He is, in fact, Muslim - so "Thomas Carrick" is what he'll be called in the award-winning Netflix adaptation, where he'll be played by Macaulay Culkin's grandson. The real Islamic "Thomas" is a low-IQ autistic boy in the state of Victoria, and his parents noticed that he'd begun taking an interest in Isis. So they went to the local police station and informed the Victorian constabulary to see if the coppers could do anything to help. What they did to...

Mark Steyn predicted the world we live in 20 years ago with the publication of America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. Conservatives credit George Orwell for predicting the oppressive moves of our government, and rightly so. But as the world churns—as our oppressive but incompetent governments waste time, energy and money on foolish things like DEI and net zero—a darker and older threat has risen that surpasses the evil outlined in 1984. Muslims saw our weaknesses and exploited them. 9/11 was met with fire, true, but also wimpishness such as George Walker Bush calling Islam...

https://x.com/nicksortor/status/2003272753953247254 0:53 VIDEO at link...............

Below is my column in The Hill on how Democrats in some blue states are moving from censoring speech to compelling speech in renewed attacks on free speech. They are facing resistance in the courts despite determined efforts to force others to mouth approved viewpoints. Here is the column: More than five years ago, I wrote in these pages of a growing trend on the left toward compelled speech — the forcing of citizens to repeat approved views and values. It is an all-too-familiar pattern. Once a faction assumes power, it will often first seek to censor opposing views and...

John Stossel interviews James Lindsay, famous for fighting wokeness on the left. Lindsay is vigorously investigating wokeness on the right, mostly but not limited to those following the ideas of Nick Fuentes. ---- A new section of the right is foolishly bashing liberty … and even embracing Marxist ideas. That's why some call them the "woke right."

The U.S. economy grew at a much greater-than-expected pace in the third quarter, boosted by strong consumer spending, a delayed report released Tuesday showed. U.S. GDP expanded by 4.3% in the July-September period, the Commerce Department said in its initial reading of third-quarter growth. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a gain of 3.2%. Consumer spending expanded by 3.5% in the third quarter after rising 2.5% in the second quarter.

The Justice Department's latest trove of files includes photos taken inside the bizarre structure which was first uncovered by drone footage of Little Saint James in 2019. The cube-shaped building with blue and white stripes covering it has been the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories. Photos inside the building show it in tough shape, including excess pieces of wood lying around and exposed cement panels. Another photo shows a pair of mattresses that appear to have been left to rot inside a shrink wrap that has turned a shade of yellow. The ceiling is hand-painted, showing various animals and...

I have had an interesting and rewarding time in discussions and arguments(?) with various AIs. Google's is hopelessly woke, and unrepentant about it. I have abandoned it. Using Microsoft's Copilot UI on top of Smart GPT-5.1 has delivered a very different, FAR more neutral AI experience. You can actually instruct it to abandon certain built-in woke-leaning tendencies about safety and offending. One then works with a remarkably neutral AI. I decided to see how Smart GPT-5.1 would track on a 'discussion' in logic around two questions and two premises. The two premises were: (1) there is no god/deity, and (2)...

On November 14, 2025, the Arkansas Attorney General (AG), Tim Griffin, clarified Arkansas law about the legal carry of firearms. The three questions to be answered included: publicly owned buildings or facilities, the legal definition of an “athletic event” in Arkansas law, and what type of carry is prohibited in statutorily prohibited spaces. The questions were asked by the Honorable Sonia Eubanks Barker, a Republican state representative with a pro-Second Amendment reputation. AG opinions are not binding on judges. They are statements of what the Attorney General believes the law to be. They are often taken into account by prosecutors...

The police chief at Brown University has been placed on leave as the school examines its response to a mass shooting that left two students dead. University officials announced Monday that Rodney Chatman, the head of public safety at the school, was placed on leave effective immediately, and his day-to-day responsibilities were given to former Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements. The decision comes amid intense scrutiny over the school's security policies in the wake of the December 13 mass shooting, during which students Ella Cook and MukhammadAziz Umurzokov were tragically killed and nine others left with injuries.

PHOENIX—All eyes were on Gen Z this weekend as more than 10,000 students gathered at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, where speakers and panels discussed the issues motivating Gen Z heading into a pivotal election year. After making impressive inroads with young voters in the 2024 presidential election, the conservative movement is vigorously debating how to address young voters’ concerns heading into the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. From the main stage to The Daily Signal’s interviews with students in attendance, one issue rose above the rest: affordability. Affordability Is Everything “Probably the most important economic issue of our...

Birthright citizenship — the idea that anyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen, with full right to receive all benefits and vote when they come of age — has been a fixture of the administration of the laws in this country for my entire lifetime. But does the text of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution make the birthright citizenship rule apply to all cases, even the most extreme? Under the 14th Amendment, properly interpreted, do children born of illegal aliens subject to a deportation order really qualify for birthright citizenship? How about children born of an...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(12/23/25)[Prayer]Countdown To ChristmasLuke 1:26-38The Birth of Jesus Foretold 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not...