Free Republic

"Topline: A then-employee at the City of Austin’s energy utility allegedly paid $980,000 in taxpayer funds to fictional companies with bank accounts belonging to his family members, according to a new report from the city auditor. Key facts: Mark Ybarra was given a city credit card from 2018 to 2023 to hire repair companies for city buildings. He used it to pay 30 different vendors, but the city auditor could only verify that eight of them were real companies, according to the report."

They look like coins. They circulated like money. Yet the U.S. Mint never meant them to be coins at all. In the mid-1940s, the United States Mint struck one of the most unusual forms of American gold ever produced: anonymous gold disks made not for collectors or commerce, but to pay oil royalties to Saudi Arabia. These pieces sit at the crossroads of geopolitics, bullion, and numismatic mystery, and remain among the most counterfeited U.S.-minted gold items today. Saudi Arabia Oil Fields Unlike commemoratives or circulating coinage, these disks emerged from a quiet diplomatic crisis. Saudi Arabia demanded gold. The...

<p>When I heard that French actor and animal activist Brigitte Bardot had died at 91 on Sunday, my first thought was of blasting her song “Les Cheveux dans le vent” non-stop with my mom when I was a kid, and she was introducing me to the Gallic yé-yé pop and its various offshoots that had soundtracked her own childhood. My second thought, though, was somewhat less nostalgic and pleasant. I recalled Bardot’s late-in-life shift to supporting right-wing political candidates, her way of coldly dismissing actresses who came forward about their experiences of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement, and how she was fined multiple times by the French government for “inciting racial hatred” with her blatantly bigoted comments about Muslims.</p>

White supremacist and MAGA influencer Nick Fuentes went all in over the weekend on supporting California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) over Vice President JD Vance because Newsom is more “handsome.” Fuentes, who has regularly attacked Vance in the past, calling him childish names like “gay” and “fat,” posted to social media on Sunday: “Physiognomy is real. Post physique, its handsome thursday. I only believe in beauty and aesthetics!!” JD Vance = fat subhuman. Newsom mogs him to death I would vote for him 100x over just because he’s handsome. “NOOOOOO NOT LIKE THAT!!!! YOU HAVE TO VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICAn!!”...

In a request for opinion filed to state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office on Dec. 12, Hancock asked whether schools could be excluded from the program if they were linked to a “foreign terrorist organization” or a “foreign adversary.” Hancock suggested schools that had hosted events for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group which Gov. Greg Abbott recently designated as a terrorist organization, would be affected. Abbott’s designation of CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization is part of an uptick in Texas politicians’ criticisms of Islam and the presence of Muslim organizations in the state. The...

Few topics are more distorted in public debate than slavery—especially its relationship to Scripture and Western history. When viewed through the lens of Scripture and credible historical research, the picture becomes far more complex—and, in many cases, radically different from the cultural narrative promulgated by many far-left progressives. Here are seven myths that need to be challenged, each grounded in biblical truth and supported with historical data. ===================================================================== The Bible Condones Slavery Scripture’s storyline consistently moves toward liberation, human dignity, and equality in Christ—not the perpetuation of bondage. Slaveholders in the American South understood this, which is why they forbade...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has claimed that President Vladimir Putin's state residence in the Novgorod region was the target of a Ukrainian drone attack overnight into Monday, and said it would have implications for the peace negotiations.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the claim as "typical Russian lies" made because Moscow does not want to end the war.The allegation comes as U.S. President Donald Trump hailed progress toward peace following his latest talks with Zelensky at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.Securing a long-sought deal on Ukraine would be a crowning moment for Trump, the self-styled global...

Let's Wrap Up This Quarter Soon!

Independent journalist Nick Shirley released a viral video on December 26, 2025, documenting visits to several state-funded daycare centers in Minneapolis. These centers, many catering to the Somali immigrant community, were found empty during operational hours, with no children present and signs of disuse, despite receiving substantial public funding through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). Shirley’s investigation has uncovered over $110 million in suspicious payments in a single day, building on prior scandals like the Feeding Our Future fraud. The revelations have fueled criticism of Democratic Governor Tim Walz, with Republicans like Rep. Tom Emmer demanding answers and linking...

Minnesotans begged House Majority Whip Tom Emmer more than a decade ago to halt the flood of Somali refugees to the area, but the lawmaker scolded them for their concerns. Minnesota’s Somali population is back in the spotlight after YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video canvassing multiple Somali-run childcare centers accused of fraud. However, A resurfaced audio clip from “This American Life” shows that voters were concerned about mass Somali migration long before the recent controversy. In an episode that aired in October 2016, journalist Zoe Chace narrated portions of the story, including a reflection on a July 2015 town...

A new analysis of July temperatures in Death Valley between 1923 and 2024 suggests the world record near-surface air temperature of 134 F measured in July 1913 may be erroneous. ============================================================== Death Valley has held the record for the hottest air temperature ever measured near Earth's surface for 112 years, but now scientists are calling for the title to be rescinded. According to U.S. Weather Bureau data, the air temperature at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley reached a scorching 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius) on July 10, 1913. This is still the highest air temperature on record, but its...

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Bill Glahn in Crime, Illegal immigration, Judiciary Rule No. 4 I spent countless hours in 2025 sitting in the back of federal courtrooms in Minnesota observing two types of cases play out: illegal immigration and welfare fraud. The one thing that both had in common was the application of Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals Rule No. 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” It’s a distillation of the Cloward-Piven “overwhelm the system” strategy. Federal bureaucracy was designed to handle a system where we had a few thousand illegal immigrants...

I’m absolutely flabbergasted, and you will be too. So, before I started writing for the day, I was looking for value in sports bets just to get a few in before the evening grind. One of the ways that I do this is by scrolling down my Twitter timeline, scanning for numbers and seeing if anything pops. From there, I get all scientific with it, but that’s another story for another day. I want to tell you what I came across while doing this, and it will absolutely blow your mind. (I actually took a break from looking for bets...

Activists’ claims that illegal aliens commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans do may appear convincing, but new data from New York state shows that those here illegally commit crimes at a rate more than three times higher than that of legal residents. And it’s costing us billions. It’s true that if you lump all immigrants together, relatively few of them are accused and convicted of crimes committed here in the United States. Legal immigrants commit crimes at very low rates, so combining their crime data with that of illegal immigrants masks the latter’s higher criminal activity.

ORLANDO, Fla. — In the past week, 12 swans were found dead at Lake Eola Park, according to Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan. The first two swans were found dead Dec. 23, and over the past five days, that number has risen to 12. Sheehan explained that the deaths happened during the holidays, and specialized veterinary experts were not available at the time. However, she said the deaths are suspected to have been caused by an avian flu outbreak. "We can't be certain until tests are completed," Sheehan said. The swans are currently stored in a secure location, awaiting necropsies...

Ace Frehley, 74 – Lead guitarist band Kiss Bernie Kerik, 69 – New York City 9/11 police chief Bill Moyers, 91 – Broadcaster Boris Spassky, 88 – Russian chess champion Charles Rangel, 94 – U.S. politician Chuck Mangione, 84 – U.S. flugelhorn player known for hit “Feels So Good” Connie Francis, 87 – U.S. singer who topped the charts in the 1950s and 1960s David Johansen, 75 – Lead singer of band The New York Dolls Diane Ladd, 89 – U.S. actor Garth Hudson, 87 – Keyboardist of rock group The Band Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, 63 – Bassist of band...

The most recent iteration of the “Battle of the Sexes” only hammered that point home after the 671st-ranked male, Nick Kyrgios, beat the top-ranked female in the world, Aryna Sabalenka, on Sunday in the United Arab Emirates. And, as Reuters noted, it wasn’t especially close, with Kyrgios winning 6-3, 6-3 in the highly publicized exhibition match at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.

Explanation: This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The featured image was taken by an amateur astronomer in Leesburg, Florida, USA over three nights last month. It was captured in three primary colors but with extra detail provided by specific emission by hydrogen gas. The Crab Nebula spans about 10...

As 2025 comes to a close, Donald Trump’s favorable approach to cryptocurrency has not proven to be enough to sustain the industry’s gains, once the source of market-wide optimism and enthusiasm. The last few months of the year have seen $1tn in value wiped from the digital asset market, despite bitcoin hitting an all-time-high price of $126,000 on 6 October.The October price peak was short-lived. Bitcoin’s price tumbled just days later after Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on China sent shockwaves across the market on 12 October. The crypto market saw $19bn liquidated in 24 hours – the largest liquidation...

This is a list of those notable entertainment figures who passed away in 2025. They are in order of date of death (and alphabetically within each date), except for the first entry, which will be the most globally high-profile death to date. To see the most recent additions first, select "Date Added" in the Sort by drop-down box; to view the list in reverse chronological order, toggle the "Ascending/Descending order" button next to the drop-down box. Among the most notable showbiz vets we lost this year are: Georgio Armani, fashion designer Brigitte Bardot, actress/singer Claudia Cardinale, actress Richard Chamberlain, actor...