Free Republic

In December, Marvin Morales‑Ortez walked out of a Fairfax County, Va., jail a free man. He shouldn’t have. Morales‑Ortez was in the country illegally; he was in jail on serious charges, including for a violent assault and a firearm offense. Those charges were dropped. He was released. Within 24 hours, police say, he murdered a man. This was not bad luck. It was policy. Fairfax’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano has openly promised to limit or avoid “immigration consequences” when charging criminals. In other words, his office will treat illegal immigrants more leniently than US citizens. Descano’s policy directs his prosecutors...

Newly released polling indicates that a clear majority of Americans are supportive of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and believe they should be left unobstructed. Some 57 percent of Americans believe that ICE agents “should be able to do their job without being impeded or harassed,” according to polling conducted by Plymouth Union Public Research. The survey, which gauged public sentiment on President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda and the conduct of deportation officers, found that most Americans generally want to see illegal immigration addressed. “Voters broadly see illegal immigration as a serious issue that President Trump is properly addressing,” the...

On April 20, 1999, the nation’s attention was fixed on a shooting massacre that occurred at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado, killing 12 students and one teacher. That same day, in the small southern Minnesota town of Waseca, another horror was unfolding: Jayme Larson, 16, returned home from school to find the body of her 12-year-old sister, Cally Jo, stabbed, sexually assaulted and left hanging in the stairwell of their bungalow. It took police nearly a year to find the man who would be convicted. He turned out to be Lorenzo Bahena Sanchez, a Mexican citizen in the United...

Back to Videos David Sacks: Media Coverage Masks Organized, Politically-Motivated Interference With ICE Posted By Tim Hains On Date February 1, 2026 "All-In Podcast" host David Sacks makes an argument about how the media is framing President Trump's deportation operations: DAVID SACKS: The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti are regrettable and tragic. So are the deaths of Laken Riley and too many others to mention, who were murdered by criminal illegal aliens. And the media won't ever tell you their names. But President Trump was hired by the American people to do a job: to seal the border...

Oklahoma prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Anthony Gonzalez, 24, accusing him of a “heinous” and “cruel” killing of an 18-year-old 7-Eleven clerk and new mother who was working the overnight shift alone. Authorities say Jaedynn Anthony, 18, who had a 1-year-old son, was attacked in October 2024 at a 7-Eleven in Oklahoma City. In a press release issued last week, the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office said Gonzalez robbed the store and then stabbed Anthony. “After he had the money in hand, Gonzalez stabbed Jaedynn one time and left the store,” the DA’s office said. Investigators said officers...

After decades of mystery surrounding its existence, a rare animal once believed to be extinct has been confirmed on remote trail cameras in northern California, offering a thrilling sign of wildlife resilience. Scientists say the coastal marten — a small carnivorous mammal that nearly vanished from the state — was captured in recent footage and DNA samples collected via hair snares, validating that wild populations still persist in the region. The discovery has brought renewed hope for the species and underlines the value of modern conservation tools. Once targeted nearly to extinction during the 20th-century fur trade, coastal martens were...

Alarmed by shooting deaths and rapidly shifting public opinion, blue state governors want legal barriers to curb federal immigration operations.ALBANY, New York — Democratic governors are racing to erect new legal barriers to President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation strategy, limiting the reach of federal immigration officials in their states.Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed an order restricting how closely police can work with federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on her first day in office rescinded her Republican predecessor’s executive order that encouraged such cooperation. And in Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker called for a state oversight...

Births in Türkiye fell again in 2025, continuing a decline that has put NATO's youngest population on a course President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called a "demographic disaster." For decades, the country of 85 million and rising military power had the bloc’s highest total fertility rate (TFR). In 2016, it stood at 2.1 births per woman, the level needed to sustain a population naturally. By the end of last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute reported it had fallen to 1.48, driven by prolonged economic downturn, rising cost of living and changing social norms among young people. It’s a familiar pattern...

After two hundred or so articles mostly focused on wildlife for the Tico Times, I’ve written about most of the more well-known species that are walking, swimming, and flying around in Costa Rica. Every time I pick a species to write about, I get to go through my video archives and pick out the very best clips to accompany the article. That’s all fine and good, but what happens when I record a particularly awesome video of an animal that I’ve already written about? I shared some interesting facts about Costa Rica’s pumas back in 2023. To go along with...

Campaign finance disclosures filed late Saturday revealed details of the president’s unmatched political fundraising operation.Donald Trump’s political war chest grew dramatically in the second half of 2025, according to new campaign finance disclosures submitted late Saturday, giving him an unprecedented amount of money for a term-limited president to influence the midterms and beyond. Trump raised $26 million through his joint fundraising committee in the back half of last year, and another $8 million directly into his leadership PAC. And a super PAC linked to him has more than $300 million in the bank. All together, a web of campaign accounts,...

The price of gold fell from a record $5600 to $4770 per ounce. On Friday, the price of silver fell by 31%. This is the biggest percentage drop in the price of this bullion since March 1980. What could be the reasons for such declines?Gold hit a new record high on Thursday at $5600 per ounce. Silver was trading at $120 per ounce. Suddenly, precious metal prices began to fall. By Friday evening, gold was already costing $470 per ounce. Gold fever reached a new high at the beginning of 2026, with prices hitting a record earlier this week....

Nigel Farage has paid a visit to Dubai to build diplomatic relations with United Arab Emirates ministers and drum up donations for Reform UK from wealthy expats. The two-night trip was his second visit to the Gulf state in two months, after a £10,000 trip hosted by Abu Dhabi to attend the Formula One grand prix. Farage’s ability to secure an audience with foreign government ministers is a new development, as his diplomatic ties have previously been largely with Donald Trump’s US administration. Speaking at a GB News event, Farage said he had had a “very good interview” with an...

For decades, pancreatic cancer has been one of medicine's most feared diagnoses. Aggressive, fast moving, and stubbornly resistant to treatment, it has claimed lives with ruthless efficiency. Now, the name Mariano Barbacid is echoing far beyond scientific circles. His latest work is being hailed as one of the most important cancer breakthroughs in years, offering a glimmer of hope against a disease that has defied progress for decades. Who Is Mariano Barbacid Mariano Barbacid was born on 4 October 1949 and built his career at the cutting edge of cancer genetics. He earned his PhD from the Universidad Complutense de...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Justice Department official played down the possibility of additional criminal charges arising from the Jeffrey Epstein files, saying Sunday that the existence of “horrible photographs” and troubling email correspondence does not “allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.”Department officials said over the summer that a review of Epstein-related records did not establish a basis for new criminal investigations.That position remains unchanged, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, even as a massive document dump since Friday has focused fresh attention on Epstein’s links to powerful individuals around the world and revived questions about what, if any, knowledge...

— Despite facing what is likely to be a difficult national political environment this fall, Republicans remain favored to hold their Senate majority. — President Trump did well among young people and nonwhite voters in 2024 for a Republican, but he has seen his approval erode with those voters. However, that doesn’t have as much of a bearing on the Senate map, with Democrats having to compete in whiter states like Iowa and Ohio. The 2026 midterm may once again be a “Blue Wave,” as we saw in 2018, Donald Trump’s first midterm as president. But that environment wasn’t enough...

Alex Pretti’s last words were, “Are you okay?” Renee Good’s were, “I’m not mad at you.” Both were fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers this month. Neither was holding weapons. They were observers, present to record, witness and alert their communities. We all saw what happened to them. ICE brutality is not new. The agency has instituted inhumane conditions and separated families for decades. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody in 2025, but that was also true in 2004. What has changed is not the violence. The change is that we can no longer pretend we do...

One-third of business leaders say they’re not making a statement about Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, by immigration agents because it is “not relevant to their business,” a CNBC flash survey found. …More than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies signed a letter on Sunday urging “an immediate de-escalation of tensions,” but stopped short of demanding that ICE leave the state, while Democratic state officials, such as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have done so. CNBC sent the survey to 550 C-suite executives on Monday and Thursday...

Almost a third of children who started reception last year were not able to use books correctly, sometimes even trying to swipe or tap them like a smartphone, a survey has found. Around one in four were not toilet trained, amid warnings more children are struggling with basic life skills. In an annual survey of primary school staff by early years charity Kindred Squared, teachers estimated 26% of the children in their reception class this year were having frequent toilet mishaps, rising to more than one in three (36%) in the North East. Staff also report around 28% of children...

Happy Goundhog Day

Explanation: Mars has put on a happy face. The Martian crater Galle is famous because it has internal markings that make it look like a face that is both smiling and winking. These markings were originally discovered in the 1970s in pictures taken by the Viking Orbiter. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft that orbited Mars from 1996 to 2006 captured the featured picture. Happy Face Crater and its iconic features were formed by chance billions of years ago when a city-sized asteroid slammed into the Martian surface. All rocky planets and moons in our Solar System show impact craters,...