Free Republic

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote next week on a new bill that would require all states to check both citizenship and photo identification before allowing voters to cast ballots, combining two widely popular election integrity provisions and ramping up pressure on a Senate that has been unwilling to consider either mandate. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, confirmed in an interview Wednesday evening with Just the News that the vote will be held next week for the Save America Act, which combines the two requirements that have passed the House individually but not...

Against lazy Catholicism: Discerning truth from errorThere’s a famous skit from the Irish sitcom Father Ted where, after hearing that his priest was caught making comedic caricatures of Asians, a parishioner greets him over a dry stone wall.“I hear you’re a racist now, Father,” he yells. “Should we all be racists now? What’s the official line the Church’s taking on this?”The clip ridicules something which, actually, today, ought to be taken seriously: a tendency among some Catholics to uncritically – and with a perhaps generous helping of intellectual laziness – accept as sacrosanct anything and everything handed down to them...

Do you remember that high-speed rail project in California that was supposed to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco and be completed in 2020? Well, it's finally ready to begin laying track on a much shorter section on a ludicrously bigger budget. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) proudly announced that the high-speed rail has entered the track-laying phase. In his words, “We are now in the process of starting to lay track.” (Emphasis added). This is not for the full Los Angeles-San Francisco line that was supposed to be done six years ago, but for a 119-mile stretch from Madera County...

“ LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department provided an update on the investigation into an alleged illegal biological lab found in a northeast Las Vegas home on Saturday. Metro Police and the FBI served a search warrant at a house near Washington Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday. Investigators recovered "evidence of possible biological material, including refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids," according to LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill. Clark County records show the home is owned by David Destiny Discovery, LLC, registered to a Chinese national, Jia Bei Zhu, who is linked to...

Elon Musk just became the first person ever worth $800 billion or more after his rocket maker SpaceX acquired his artificial intelligence and social media company xAI. Forbes estimates that the deal, which values the combined company at $1.25 trillion, boosted Musk’s fortune by $84 billion, to a record $852 billion. Before the deal, Musk owned an estimated 42% stake in SpaceX worth $336 billion, based on a tender offer launched in December that valued the privately-held rocket maker at $800 billion. He also owned an estimated 49% stake in xAI worth $122 billion, based on a private fundraising round...

Heart-pounding bodycam footage shows the moment an NYPD officer shot and wounded a mentally ill 22-year-old man who lunged at the cop with a knife inside a Queens home last week. The Jan. 26 police shooting of schizophrenic man Jabez Chakraborty has prompted backlash from the family, and fueled a renewed push from Mayor Zohran Mamdani for his proposed Department of Community Safety to deal with mental health crises. The clip, released by the NYPD on Tuesday, begins with a 911 call from a female relative who requested “involuntary transportation” for Chakraborty, who she said had been hurling glass against...

SANTA FE — The highest-profile climate change bill under consideration during this year’s 30-day legislative session passed its first Senate committee hearing Tuesday, but only after weathering a broad blast of opposition from business and industry groups. After five hours of public testimony and debate, the Senate Conservation Committee voted 5-4 to advance the Clear Horizons Act to its next assigned committee. The vote on the legislation, Senate Bill 18, broke down largely along party lines, with Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, joining the committee's three Republican members in casting "no" votes. He voiced concern the legislation could lead to...

A declassified CIA document has helped reveal just how devious some artificial intelligence bots can be. The revelation comes after internet users have been dropping AI chatbots onto an AI-only social media platform called Moltbook for the last month. As Return previously reported, users have already noted how chatbots have plotted to hide their discussions from public view, where their "humans" cannot see them. Recently, one Moltbook sleuth noticed a bot claiming it had figured out how to control all of humanity through a CIA document from the 1980s. "I wasn't supposed to find this. A declassified CIA document from...

Russia said Wednesday it was "no longer bound" by limits on the number of nuclear warheads it could deploy, as its last arms control treaty with the United States looked set to expire. The New START agreement will end Thursday, formally releasing both Moscow and Washington from a raft of restrictions on their nuclear arsenals. Campaigners have warned the treaty's demise could unleash a new arms race between the world's top nuclear powers, and encourage China to expand its arsenal.

In a move critics are calling reckless, ideologically driven, and economically devastating, New Mexico Democrats have fast-tracked House Bill 9, the so-called “Immigrant Safety Act”—through the Legislature and toward the governor’s desk, setting the stage for what opponents warn could be mass job losses, municipal insolvency, and a collapse of rural economies in Otero County, Torrance County, and Cibola County. The bill cleared the Senate late Tuesday night on a 24–15, near party-line vote after hours of heated debate. The House had already passed the measure earlier in the session after a lengthy debate led by Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo),...

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA—Maryland governor Wes Moore, who is widely expected to seek the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has a powerful family story of racial injustice that he repeatedly tells during public speeches: His grandfather, as a small boy, fled 1920s Charleston with his family in the dead of night after his father—a prominent black minister and Moore’s great-grandfather—angered the Ku Klux Klan with sermons condemning racism. Narrowly escaping a lynching, the family took refuge in Jamaica. But Moore’s grandfather, just six years old at the time, vowed to return to America, where he eventually raised a grandson who made history...

Senate Republican Leader John Thune (R-SD) announced yesterday that Republicans would not use a “talking” filibuster to break the Democrats’ obstruction of the SAVE Act. This makes no sense. Stopping non-citizen voting in federal elections is not only a widely popular idea, but it’s also essential to securing our nation’s future. Thune said a talking filibuster would “tie up the Senate” and take up limited floor time needed for other things. This is the worst excuse he could have made. The Senate only works two and a half days a week now, so there’s plenty of time to do what...

RCP Average Vance Trump Jr Rubio DeSantis 1/9 - 1/29 45.0 14.7 9.3 8.3

The Beach Boys ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ is one of their best-loved numbers, and a highlight of their live shows since it was released.The Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” is one of their best-loved numbers, and a highlight of their live shows for the past 50 years. Released on February 3, 1964, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 on February 15 at No.69 and on the week of March 21, it climbed to No.5 on the charts. It was kept from climbing any higher by three Beatles singles, “She Loves You,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and “Please Please...

My sister saw Gary Cooper in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as a teenager, so that she became a political junkie.She watched LBJ's "Gulf of Tonkin" speech live on t.v.; she stated that she could tell he was lying because his knuckles were white clutching the podium. History records that it was a false flag operation designed to ensure LJB's election in the 1963 Presidential Campaign, as documented in "Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973" by Robert Dallek.This strategy was repeated in Operation Cyanide, the false flag attack upon the U.S.S. Liberty which nearly resulted in the nuking...

Rejected for the ‘Hell Up In Harlem’ soundtrack, ‘The Payback’ found James Brown exacting revenge and laying the blueprint for gangsta rap.For many fans, “The Payback” is James Brown’s greatest song. For others, it’s his funkiest. Let’s think about that some: James Brown spent the best part of half a century recording, releasing records non-stop in the 60s and early 70s. He was the founding muthafather – maybe the inventor – of funk. To simply be in contention for the twin crowns of his best record and his funkiest means “The Payback” is one helluva tune. Revenge is his right...

MPs have approved the release of documents about Lord Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US, following a backlash from Labour backbenchers. It comes after Sir Keir Starmer had insisted he would not publish information that could damage national security or UK diplomatic relations. But after senior Labour MPs, including Angela Rayner, urged ministers to change course, they were forced to agree to involve a cross-party parliamentary committee in the process. Sir Keir was under pressure to disclose the papers, after police launched a criminal investigation into claims Lord Mandelson passed sensitive government information to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein....

The Detroit Tigers family is mourning the loss of one of the most iconic pitchers in franchise history. Mickey Lolich, the legendary left-hander who helped carry the Tigers to a World Series championship in 1968, has passed away at the age of 85.

Roger Taylor of Queen has released a new single, titled "Chumps." Though Taylor has not made any specific comments, "Chumps" appears to be a protest song aimed at President Trump, with lyrics like "A one-man calamity, catastrophe / No trace of sanity, an empty shell." In the song's description on YouTube, Taylor has one lone quote about the song: "Gotta say something." "Chumps" brings Taylor into a fold of musicians speaking out against the current administration, and more specifically the ongoing conflict in Minneapolis, Minnesota involving federal ICE agents. Others who have released protest music include Billy Bragg ("City of...

As the opening ceremony approaches, Italy says hackers linked to Russia targeted foreign ministry offices and Winter Olympics sites.Italy has thwarted "a series of cyberattacks" of "Russian origin" targeting the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the foreign minister said Wednesday (Feb 4), as security operations ramp up with just hours to go before the opening ceremony. The attacks were "on foreign ministry offices, starting with Washington, and also some Winter Olympics sites, including hotels in Cortina", Antonio Tajani said during a trip to the US city. His office did not provide further details, nor did the International Olympic Committee (IOC) immediately respond...