Free Republic

A pair of illegal aliens from India, both given Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) by the sanctuary state of California, are accused of smuggling more than 300 pounds of cocaine across the state of Indiana in their semi-truck. On January 4, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents lodged detainers against 25-year-old illegal alien Gurpreet Singh and 30-year-old illegal alien Jasveer Singh, both from India, after they were arrested in Putnam County, Indiana, on charges of narcotics trafficking. According to local police, Singh and Singh had more than 300 pounds of cocaine concealed in the sleeper berth of the semi-truck that they...

The 26-year-old man who is the suspect in the vandalism of Vice President JD Vance’s Cincinnati home on Monday demanded law enforcement call him “Julia” and has a prior criminal record and mental health issues, Fox News reported, citing federal sources. The suspect, William DeFoor, was booked in jail on Monday and is facing charges for vandalism, obstruction of official business, criminal damaging or endangering, and criminal trespass after allegedly wielding a hammer and smashing several windows at Vance’s home. The vice president and his family were not at the residence at the time of the incident. FBI sources told...

In states where property taxes and homeowners insurance costs are rising the fastest, there has been a spike in the number of people who are delinquent on their mortgages, according to real estate analytics firm Cotality. And an increase in escrow payments may be one of the biggest risks homeowners face in 2026, Cotality warns. The firm says that escalating escrow costs are reshaping the financial reality of homeownership across the U.S., undermining the predictability once promised by fixed mortgage payments. "Growing escrow payments can absolutely price would-be homeowners out of buying a home, especially in states where escrow payments...

“I felt like I had lost before I started the next part of my career,” Peter Frampton says of the blowout success of his 1976 album, Frampton Comes Alive! “Before there was nothing to compete with. Now, I felt, ‘I’m competing with Peter Frampton.’” In a new interview with Billboard, the guitar icon reflects on his smash live album, which turns 50 this year. The two-album set was recorded during the 1975 tour for his fourth solo album, Frampton. At the time, he was still struggling for success following his time with English hard rockers Humble Pie. Frampton Comes Alive!...

Texas is now the first state in the U.S. to eliminate American Bar Association oversight of its law schools, ending the state's 42-year-long reliance on the national organization. The Texas Supreme Court issued an order Tuesday finalizing a tentative September opinion, asserting the ABA should "no longer have the final say" on which law school graduates can take the bar exam — a requirement to becoming a licensed lawyer in each state. … The change means law school graduates who want to practice in Texas are no longer required to attend an ABA-accredited school. The power to approve those law...

God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). A true sense of identity comes from knowing that God Himself personally selected you to be His child. Many people in our society are on a seemingly endless and often frantic quest for personal identity and self-worth. Identity crises are common at almost every age level. Superficial love and fractured relationships are but symptoms of our failure to resolve the fundamental issues of who we are, why we exist, and where we're going. Sadly, most people will live and die without ever understanding God's purpose for their...

Sanctioned vessel reportedly under NATO surveillance as Russia asks US to halt pursuit A Venezuela-linked oil tanker operating in the so-called "dark fleet" painted a Russian flag on its hull, changed its name, and reflagged to Russia in an apparent bid to evade the U.S. Coast Guard, according to reports. The vessel has since been spotted off Ireland, with the U.S., U.K., France and Ireland reportedly conducting aerial surveillance after it escaped U.S. interception in December, The Times reported. Meanwhile, Russia has reportedly since deployed a submarine and naval assets to escort the tanker to its own waters, the Wall...

Iran? Russia? China? Senate Dems? The Maduros themselves? (Naah. Too obvious.)Iran certainly qualifies for the medal round here. The loss of their footprint in Venezuela would disrupt one of the regime's last sources of hard currency via its proxy in Hezbollah, not to mention their ability to influence and terrorize the Western Hemisphere. However, the loss of that link would not in itself become an existential issue for the regime, even though it certainly contributes to its current existential crises. The biggest loser actually exists much closer to home, according to the Wall Street Journal:The capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás...

As I wrote yesterday, the 'international law' smokescreen being used to obscure the righteousness of Trump's capture of Venezuela's phony president, Nicholas Maduro, is a bunch of hooey. International law is a convenient fiction. It is the name we give to agreements and norms that can be enforced by the will of powerful states, which, in most cases, agree to be bound by a set of rules to reduce violence and friction in a system that would otherwise be anarchic. But these rules are "law" in name only, since enforcing laws requires a sovereign with the ability and willingness to...

Veteran Vaticanist Diane Montagna has just published an article and interview about a proposal for a “Traditionslist Ordinariate” submitted to the “extraordinary consistory” of cardinals.Father Louis-Marie de Blignières – the founder of the Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer – sent this proposal in a letter dated December 24. Published in French and English, was mailed in hard copy to fifteen cardinals known for their interest in the issue of the traditional Roman liturgy, and emailed to one hundred others.At the centre of Father de Blignières’ proposal is the creation of an “ecclesiastical jurisdiction” dedicated to the traditional rite, modelled in...

The Pentagon is mounting a six-month review of women in ground combat jobs, to ensure what it calls the military "effectiveness" of having several thousand female soldiers and Marines in infantry, armor and artillery, according to a memo obtained by NPR. Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel Anthony Tata wrote in a memo last month that the effort is to determine the "operational effectiveness of ground combat units 10 years after the Department lifted all remaining restrictions on women serving in combat roles." Tata requested Army and Marine Corps leaders to provide data on the readiness, training, performance, casualties and command...

There's been an unwelcome development in Venezuela, and it comes in the form of colectivos on motorcycles armed with Russian-made weapons hunting down citizens who cheered the actions of the Trump administration, which led to the fall of dictator Nicolás Maduro. While Maduro awaits justice in a New York jail, his civilian foot soldiers – after having gone underground in the wake of the United States' successful combined military and law enforcement action – have surfaced and are looking to serve up a justice of their own on anyone who welcomed Trump's involvement and cheered Maduro's removal. Several different reports...

Zohran Mamdani repeatedly told people who he was during both the NYC mayoral primary race and the general election campaign season, whether it was on the subject of the Israel-Hamas war, 9/11, his soft-on-crime stances, his desire for "free" stuff for New Yorkers - which of course would be paid for by the "rich," or his race-based approach to "solving" the city's housing crisis.And on other issues, past tweets and videos dug up by internet sleuths gave us an even more complete picture of the man who eventually was elected mayor of the Big Apple, with perhaps the most revealing...

Apparently, Tuesday was Greenland Day in the news cycle. On that day, not only did a mining company in Greenland literally strike gold, but the Danish and Greenland Ministers for Foreign Affairs have both reached out for what they describe as a special meeting with our Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is the Chuck Berry of Washington: The hardest-working guy in government, except perhaps the president. It's not known what Denmark and Greenland wish to discuss, but whatever it is, they seem to want to do it sooner rather than later. Greenland and Denmark have reportedly requested a special...

The founder of an infamous Minnesota-based nonprofit convicted of hatching a $250 million welfare fraud scheme was ordered by a judge last week to forfeit her Porsche, designer handbags and millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. Aimee Bock, the 44-year-old mastermind behind the Feeding our Future scandal, was found guilty in March on federal charges of wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy in connection to the nation’s largest COVID-19 fraud scheme. Bock, who along with dozens of predominantly Somali co-conspirators pilfered pandemic relief funds from a federal program meant to feed hungry children in need, is awaiting sentencing for her lead...

An Alberta First Nation is seeking to quash a potential referendum on provincial separation, saying they have been treated as “chattel on the land” and that an independence campaign would make Alberta vulnerable to foreign interference. On Monday, Sturgeon Lake Cree First Nation, a band in northwest Alberta, sued the provincial and federal governments and the province’s chief electoral officer in the Court of King’s Bench, asking for an injunction on a separatist petition approved last week. Sturgeon Lake argues separation is impossible without First Nations consent and that a referendum would open the door to corporate donors and digital...

The first year of Donald Trump’s second term in office was marked by the rapid implementation of his far-right program. From ICE to DOGE, from anti-DEI to anti-antifa, and from bombing boats to $400 million bribes, Trump’s regime has turned out even more extreme than feared after he was elected to a second term in November 2024. His words and actions as president have been covered extensively over the past year, as have those of a number of internal advisers and outside confidants, like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon. However, the grassroots far right, and its influence over the administration,...

STATE COLLEGE — The State College Police Department underreported hundreds of rapes in its public crime data over nearly a decade, a 10-month investigation by Spotlight PA found. The mistake, which led to highly inaccurate public crime statistics, was not disclosed to the public before the story’s Dec. 18 publication. State College police, who serve over 57,000 residents in three municipalities in Centre County, reported a total of 67 rapes in crime submissions to the Pennsylvania State Police from 2013 to 2021. But the department conceded to Spotlight PA that it had been using an outdated definition of the crime,...

Leaders of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted Monday to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967. CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell. “CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving,...

According to a Phys.org report, Victory Nery of the University of São Paulo and his colleagues suggest that fossils discovered at the site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia between 1999 and 2005 represent two distinct species. The hundreds of fossils in the group, including five skulls, have been dated to between 1.85 and 1.77 million years ago. Homo erectus is thought to have migrated out of Africa some 1.8 million years ago. Did other species migrate out of Africa as well at this time? The Dmanisi skulls differ from Homo erectus, do not all resemble each other, and...