Free Republic

Minnesota lawmakers have filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Keith Ellison and Gov. Tim Walz. State Reps. Drew Roach, Ben Davis, and Mike Wiener, of the Minnesota Freedom Caucus, filed the documents. The lawmakers allege that the leaders allowed state residents to commit rampant fraud. Criminals allegedly stole about $9 billion worth of benefits across 14 benefit programs meant to help feed hungry kids, help kids with autism, and help families find housing. This week, Vice President J.D. Vance announced that the federal government is freezing $259 million in payments to the state's Medicare program until it complies with...

'This folly must stop'Reformed Baptist theologian and retired pastor John Piper faced overwhelmingly negative responses to a Wednesday X post that quoted an Old Testament verse about welcoming the stranger, which many took as a veiled take on U.S. immigration policy."You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God," Piper tweeted, quoting Leviticus 19:34. "Christians know the miserable bondage we were all in."Piper's post, which has drawn more than 638,000 views as of...

An alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader has been charged with narcoterrorism and drug trafficking, and a reward of up to $5 million each is being offered for information leading to his capture, as well as the arrest of his brother, federal prosecutors in San Diego said Thursday. Narcoterrorism is a new charge and term that stems from the Trump administration's designation of some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel. Mexico has also worked with this administration to send some people to the U.S. for prosecution. Rene Arzate-Garcia, also known as "La Rana," is described by prosecutors in court...

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced a new licensing policy to streamline the resale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, with the goal of supporting the island’s private sector and bolstering humanitarian efforts amid ongoing fuel crises. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) will extend the new licensing policy to specific applications seeking authorization for the resale of Venezuelan oil for use in Cuba.The move was done “in accordance with the United States’ support and solidarity for the Cuban people,” reads the new policy.The policy does not cover entities or persons connected to the Cuban military, intelligence services, or...

“Nobody knows nothin’.”—Jack BogleThe legendary Jack Bogle was referring to the financial market, but his sentiment also applies to crime statistics: Nobody really knows the actual crime rate — or who’s committing the crimes.For about 10 years, I did PR for a fintech company that specialized in cybersecurity. You’d think online crimes would be the easiest to verify, but most of the crime stats were manufactured: We’d extrapolate data from Category A and project it to Category B.They were almost always statistical projections.Look, if we can’t accurately quantify crime stats in a closed ecosystem like cybersecurity, we don’t have a...

Brazilian Archbishop Declares Excommunication for Attending Latin Mass Outside Approved SiteArchbishop Carlos Alberto Breis Pereira, 60, of Maceió, Brazil, has warned that celebrating or attending the Mass in the Roman rite outside of his one authorized location will result in excommunication.The diocesan note was issued on February 11 on FaceBook.com (below). It reads:“The Archdiocese of Maceió informs the faithful who reside within its jurisdiction that, if they wish to participate in the so-called ‘Tridentine Masses’ or in those celebrated according to the Roman Missal of Saint Pius V, promulgated by Pope Saint Pius V in 1570, in the Latin language,...

Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Trump administration is pressing Kyiv to agree to painful territorial concessions as the price for peace. In a draft peace agreement first reported by Axios in November, the administration proposed that the entire regions of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk be recognized as de facto Russian territory and that Russia retain control of the parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia its forces now occupy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pushing back, refusing to do anything that would violate his country’s territorial integrity. Yet the realities of the battlefield are not on his side....

The Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray spoke out Wednesday after massive layoffs recently rocked the outlet. "I'd say the reality is that the Post had been facing some decline for quite some time," Murray told Semafor media editor Max Tani at the Restoring Trust in Media Summit in Washington, D.C. "The data really demonstrated that." Murray added that the Post had been on a five-year trajectory of "losing revenues" and seeing subscriptions "wane." He said the outlet invested in editing resources and "some areas of coverage" during the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to adjust to the "new level...

The hosting of Tommy Robinson by the Trump administration has been condemned by British MPs amid calls for the US to be included in a probe into foreign interference in UK politics. The far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is being feted in the US, where he met figures including a political appointee at the Department of State in Washington DC and a congressman. The visit has prompted questions about how Robinson – a former member of the extreme-right British National party and a leader in recent decades of street protests that have often turned violent – was...

Sometimes people just vote with their feet. And a new poll out this week suggests many New Yorkers might be willing to do just that. The Marist poll reveals that one in three New Yorkers are planning to leave the State in the next five years. After the week we’ve just had I suppose you might sympathize with the 7% of respondents who said they want to leave because they’re fed up with the weather. It hasn’t been much fun trying to get around the streets as Mayor Mamdani´s paid volunteers made their unsupervised efforts to push the snow around....

Actor Crispin Glover, most well-known for playing the iconic role of George McFly in arguably one of the greatest films of all time, Back to the Future, now faces allegations of battery and fraud in a new lawsuit filed by an unnamed woman who claims he “essentially held her captive and used her for sex and free labor.” Anyone who has followed Glover’s career, both on screen and off, probably won’t feel surprised by the allegations. The guy has always been an oddball. Do a quick YouTube search of his late-night talk show appearances and you’ll see exactly what that...

WASHINGTON — President Trump took a victory lap Thursday after a federal judge allowed his administration to carry on with construction of his prized $400 million White House ballroom. US District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, found that construction on the epic project was not a violation of a federal law, as alleged by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Great news for America, and our wonderful White House! The Judge on the case of what will be the most beautiful Ballroom anywhere in the World, has just thrown out, and completely erased, the effort to stop...

Excerpts. ...Clinton is telling lawmakers, "As I stated in my sworn declaration on January 13, I had no idea about their criminal activities."... ..."I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that," her remarks state. "Like every decent person, I have been horrified by what we have learned about their crimes. It's unfathomable that Mr. Epstein initially got a slap on the wrist in 2008, which allowed him to continue his predatory practices for another decade."

A proposed Department of Housing and Urban Development rule would crack down on illegal immigrants or unqualified people living in public housing, closing a loophole established amid major departmental reforms under President Bill Clinton in 1996. Current HUD rules allow "mixed-status" households to use public housing under what is called the "do not contend" provision, in which a person living among a public housing family can declare they "do not contend" their HUD eligibility under their immigration status, and the family instead receives prorated housing assistance. The HUD-ineligible family member or members may remain in public housing so long as...

Netflix is declining to raise its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a stunning move that effectively puts Paramount in a position to take over the fellow storied Hollywood giant. On Thursday, after Warner’s board announced that Skydance-owned Paramount’s offer was superior to the agreement it had previously struck with Netflix, the streaming giant said the new price that would be required to buy Warner would make it a deal that is “no longer financially attractive.” Unlike Netflix’s bid, Paramount wants all of Warner’s operations, including networks like CNN and Discovery. That would put CNN...

BREAKING: Bishop Schneider reveals bishops secretly won’t submit to Francis’ authoritative teachingsIn the interview, Bishop Schneider also enumerates several teachings of Pope Francis to which he himself says he cannot assent. In a live interview Thursday with longtime Vatican journalist Robert Moynihan, Bishop Athanasius Schneider revealed that he has spoken off the record with several bishops who have said that they do not submit in “mind and will” to the authentic magisterium of Pope Francis. Bishop Schneider added that the bishops he has spoken to “do not dare to say this” publicly but only in private. “When I ask them...

On Tuesday night, President Trump made his case for attacking Iran. #Perhaps we ought to ask ourselves if an attack on Iran is prudent or desirable.#In his address, Trump argued that Iran was in the process of developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to hit the United States. This assertion is farcical and risible. Iran simply has no ability to hit the United States, and even if it did, the doctrine of classical deterrence would come into play. The United States and the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear-armed ICBMs targeted at each other for decades yet never engaged in direct conflict....

The statement came after Warner Bros. Discovery's board of directors described Paramount Skydance's latest offer to acquire the company as "superior" to Netflix's current bid. Netflix said it would not submit a higher offer for Warner Bros. Discovery after the company's board described Paramount Skydance's latest offer as "superior." The stunning twist leaves Paramount Skydance, headed by David Ellison, as the remaining bidder and in position to take control of the storied media giant. Paramount's bid was for the entire company while Netflix was seeking to acquire only its streaming service, HBO cable channel and film studio business.

I have yet another(!) electronics' modification project going, and ran across a slight dilemma: None of my several "Security Bit" sets have a bit that fits the Tri-Point (or "Y") screw heads in the gear to be modified, even though 2 sets do have Tri-Point bits. However, I found this screwdriver set on Amazon: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/5113Evt3D0L._AC_SL1000_.jpg The question is, looking at that image, are those the correct diameters for the "Y" designation given? Basically, the 3mm for example, would be very close to the circumference of the outer circle the "fins"* of the bit would define. I ask this question because...

A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden on Thursday again ruled against the Trump administration’s third-country deportation policy, months after the Supreme Court blocked his earlier decision and rebuked him in a rare follow-up order. The Supreme Court not only stayed Boston-based Judge Brian Murphy's injunction over the same deportation policy in a 6-3 order last June, but the high court followed up with a second 7-2 order a week later admonishing the judge for flouting its decision. Murphy's latest ruling is also likely to land before the justices, setting up a fresh test of the judge's decisions...