Free Republic

I’ve covered Washington government for years. I understand rounding errors. I get that numbers shift, estimates change, projections don’t always pan out. That’s bureaucracy. That’s life. And then the Department of Commerce dropped a bombshell. Washington drivers are paying billions more at the pump. For what, exactly? The national average for gas is $2.82 a gallon. Idaho is $2.80. Oregon is $3.39. Washington? We’re at $3.82 statewide. In Seattle, it’s $4.12. We have the third-highest gas prices in the entire country. Washington families have paid billions more at the pump since the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) took effect. Before the...

For the past 22 years I have watched, written about, broadcast, and cross-referenced the groups, messages, and protests by the left in Portland, Oregon. For a long time, before the Occupy Wall Street movement, I was one of the few in Portland talking about the derivations of these groups on my blog and the radio. Before the category-killing Antifa movement subsumed the anarchists and BLM activists, these groups always came from one place: the ANSWER Coalition. This anti-war, anti-Israel, anti-capitalist, anti-anything-opposed-to-America organization gave cover to the wildest and most extreme groups in Portland. Earth First!, Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation...

Officials said most of the cash detected in luggage involved a small number of money couriers of Somali descent. The routine routes were to Dubai via Amsterdam, usually from Minneapolis but other times from Seattle, Dallas, Columbus and Atlanta. =============================================================== The Transportation Security Administration flagged nearly $700 million in cash detected in passengers’ luggage leaving the Minneapolis airport the last two years, a massive cash exodus believed to be tied to Somali immigrants and their money couriers, Homeland Security officials told Just the News. The officials said the cash movements out of Minnesota’s largest airport began about a decade ago...

Arab bus driver, Fakhri Khatib, plows into ultra Orthodox Jews haredim protesting draft. killing teenager Yosef Eisenthal and injuring several others.Bus driver rams into ultra-Orthodox protesters in Jerusalem, 14-year-old killed.Thousands of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters gathered in Israel's capital on Tuesday evening • Driver arrested after killing one, injuring three others • Shas: "Haredi blood is not cheap."By Miriam Sela-eitam, Tobias Holcman. JPost, January 6, 2026.Yosef Eisenthal, a 14-year-old boy, was killed, and three were injured after a bus driver ran over ultra-Orthodox Jews during a haredi draft protest in Jerusalem on Tuesday."We responded to a severe collision involving a bus...

PITTSBURGH — Two Pittsburgh business owners are accused of stealing food benefits and turning them into profit. Investigators with the Attorney General’s office call it a fencing operation, where someone buys and resells stolen goods for profit. On Monday, the AG’s office issued a warrant for the arrest of a husband and wife who were reportedly stealing from the federal government. “You’re robbing from the taxpayer that’s working so hard,” Mike Ichimura said. Shoppers like Ichimura were shocked to hear Munir Chaudhri and Rachna Anwar are accused of coming to Sam’s Club on Mount Nebo Road to use stolen EBT...

I can’t stop laughing at all the Democrats hyperventilating about President Trump’s Venezuela operation. I wish I could be more nuanced about this (and perhaps describe the potential pitfalls that lie ahead now that we have taken some “ownership” over the future welfare of the Venezuelan people), but when Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries (the so-called Democrat “leaders” in Congress) are fuming mad that America’s Delta Force dropped into the most heavily fortified compound in Venezuela like invisible ninjas and plucked murderous thug Nicolás Maduro from his slumberous solitude in a matter of minutes, I can barely resist the urge...

Walter Curt @wcdispatch This is the listed location of the auditing firm that performed the audits for both the Minnesota and Ohio on the NGOs we have linked to potential fraud. You cannot make this stuff

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(1/7/26)[Prayer]A New Study For A New Year: PersonalitiesGenesis 3:8-248 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that...

Ames, a 31-year CIA veteran, admitted being paid $2.5 million by Moscow for US secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994. WASHINGTON: CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, who betrayed Western intelligence assets to the Soviet Union and Russia in one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in US history, has died in a Maryland prison. He was 84. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed Ames died Monday. Ames, a 31-year CIA veteran, admitted being paid $2.5 million by Moscow for US secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994. His disclosures included the identities of 10 Russian officials...

The mother of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new woke renters’ rights honcho — who’s dubbed homeownership “a weapon of white supremacy” — is a professor at a prestigious college and owns a beautiful Nashville home worth $1.6 million. Celia Applegate — whose daughter, Cea Weaver is the director of Mamdani’s Office to Protect Tenants — teaches German studies at Vanderbilt University and owns a pricey classic Craftsman home just south of the main strip in Nashville, Tennessee. Applegate bought the property with her partner, David Blackbourn, in July 2012 for $814,000 and real estate websites now list the pad’s value at...

TAK YJI XJFB JQQ XMB DWIYBLWXT WI MAQQTCAAS, EQJYB WX WI XMB IJHBQ AZ J ZWLBZQT JIS DXWQQ MJHB LAAR BIAKOM ZAL XMLBB YJLJCJT DBBSD JIS J ELASKYBL'D MBJLX. -- ZLBS JQQBI

Weeks after the Trump Media and Technology Group announced a merger with nuclear power company TAE Technologies, the new organization has unveiled plans for a fusion plant in the US — aiming to make it the biggest power generation site in the world. On Tuesday morning, the company unveiled criteria for selecting the building site of the new project. CEO Devin Nunes tells me they are accepting applications from state and local governments — much like Amazon HQ did — and will make a decision within weeks, with construction to begin later this year. And Nunes is clear about one...

Michael Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan, has died, his family announced on Tuesday. He died on Sunday in Los Angeles while surrounded by his family, according to a statement from the Reagan family. He was 80 years old. "Michael was and will always remain a beloved husband, father, and grandpa," the family said. "Our hearts are deeply broken as we grieve the loss of a man who meant so much to all who knew and loved him." Michael Reagan, one of the former president's five children, was a conservative political commentator and nationally syndicated radio talk show...

Click on link

ATOKA, Tenn. - A tiny and innocent life was saved recently, thanks to a box outside a Mid-South fire station and a parent who decided to use it. Fire officials said that someone over the weekend surrendered an infant at a Safe Haven Baby Box at Atoka Fire Station No. 1 in the Tennessee town about 25 miles northeast of Memphis. The boxes allow mothers of newborns to safely and legally give away their babies without being prosecuted. "What happened over the course of this weekend is exactly why we have this box," Atoka Fire Chief Bill Scott said. "It...

If you’ve watched an episode of “Saved by the Bell,“ “Cheers,“ or “Seinfeld,“ you’re probably well aware that a diner, restaurant, or bar can feel like a second home for patrons. As guests become regulars, they might even become a second family of sorts, to the staff. However, not every diner is delightful enough to cultivate that close connection with the chefs, servers, and hosts. Even though most folks are pleasant to host, restaurant pros admit that a select few can feel more like foe than family, and it might be due to something they hadn’t even realized is a...

On January 3, 2026, a United States force of military personnel, assisting United States law enforcement, captured and took into custody Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro. Maduro had taken control of the government of Venezuela and illegitimately refused to transfer power after losing the last election. An indictment against Maduro had been issued by a New York grand jury in 2020, accusing the Maduros of conspiracy to transport and sell illegal drugs into the United States.Because the United States does not recognize the Maduro regime as the legitimate government of Venezuela and because of the indictment against...

The State of Colorado must pay $5.4 million in attorneys’ fees to Becket following the state’s unconstitutional effort to outlaw abortion pill reversal. Becket represented Bella Health and Wellness, a Denver-area Catholic pro-life healthcare clinic, defending them against Colorado’s attempt to make it illegal for doctors and nurses to help women who take the first abortion pill but then decide to continue their pregnancies. A federal court found that Colorado’s attempt to ban abortion pill reversal violated the First Amendment. A federal law now requires the state to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs. “At least 18 moms who received...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers this week that President Donald Trump wants to acquire Greenland through a purchase rather than military action, as the administration revisits a long-standing proposal that has triggered sharp pushback from European allies and renewed debate over U.S. strategy in the Arctic. Rubio delivered the remarks during a closed-door briefing on Monday with members of the armed services and foreign policy committees in both chambers of Congress, according to U.S. officials. The briefing was focused primarily on Venezuela, but lawmakers raised questions about Trump's intentions toward Greenland after recent comments by the president and...

Pardoned January 6 defendants and others gathered in Washington DC on Tuesday to mark the 5-year anniversary of the Capitol protest. More than 1,500 January 6ers – many nonviolent, first time offenders – were charged by Joe Biden’s DOJ with Merrick Garland at the helm. Biden’s DOJ hunted down MAGA grandmothers and other non-violent offenders and threw them in the DC gulag. President Trump granted blanket clemency to all of the January 6 defendants shortly after he was sworn into office last January. On Tuesday, the January 6 defendants waved American flags as they marched to the Capitol. The marchers...