Free Republic

Explanation: Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies, now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups. The four prominent galaxies seen in this intriguing telescopic skyscape are one such group, Hickson 44. The Hickson 44 galaxy group is about 100 million light-years distant, far beyond the foreground Milky Way stars, toward the northern springtime constellation Leo. The two spiral galaxies in the center of the image are edge-on NGC 3190 with distinctive, warped dust lanes, and S-shaped NGC 3187. Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 (left) they are also known...

🚨BREAKING: Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece have formed a 'deportation coalition' They say they want plans to have migrant deportation return centres developed before the end of 2026 Something is finally happening!

A California dad was arrested this month over his desperate bid to make a dangerous intersection near a children’s park safer. Joseph Brandlin, 44, installed 30-inch-high signs and painted the word “STOP” on the ground — just weeks after his son was nearly caught up in a crash, which he described as the “last straw,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “I was almost done and no one was going to know anything,” Brandlin told officials at a city council meeting March 17. He branded the decision “mind-boggling,” citing other four-way stops in the city, and now risks jail after being...

Qualified immunity, a doctrine the Supreme Court created in 1967, bewilders ordinary citizens who run headlong into it after government officials trample their constitutional rights. In plain English, the doctrine often blocks lawsuits against officials unless a prior court decision “clearly established” that the specific conduct at issue violated the Constitution. That standard leaves many victims without a remedy and lets many constitutional wrongs go unanswered. That is not right. The Constitution exists to protect individual rights, not to insulate officials who violate them from accountability. Recent years have also supplied fresh reasons to question the doctrine’s scope. Abuses tied...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are preparing to reject a Senate-passed funding bill to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security, prolonging a more than 40-day shutdown. The impasse could mean more pain for hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are missing paychecks, and no permanent solution for long lines at airport security checkpoints. “It’s not going to pass as it is,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told The Post less than an hour after former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows posted on X that the DHS bill was “dead in the House.”

Cheryl Hines is speaking up after a former late-night television host called her out. It's a feud five years in the making, but is only now heating up. Hines is now responding directly to allegations that she and her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sold comedian Chelsea Handler a “toxic” $6 million Los Angeles home. The transaction took place five years ago, leading Hines to question the timing of Handler's complaint. Speaking on a forthcoming episode of the Fearless podcast, Hines pushed back on Handler’s claims, suggesting they don’t quite add up. “She bought this house five years ago, and...

An 84-year-old woman was arrested at the Wyoming Magistrate Court after telling the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to stay off her property. Hilda Mitros was charged with threats of terrorist acts brought forth by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. “We were all very upset. It was probably one of the longest days we have endured in a long time, and she’s devastated,” Mitros’ daughter Dina Smith said. Mitros has owned her 112 acres of land since 1973 and has stayed on top of new legislation that may affect her property, including work by the DEP. “She...

A US Secret Service agent, working on security detail for the former first lady Jill Biden, shot themself (sic) in the leg at the Philadelphia international airport on Friday morning, an agency spokesperson said. The Secret Service special agent suffered a “non-life-threatening injury” after they (sic) discharged their (sic) weapon at around 8:30 am. Biden was not near the agent at the time and no one else was injured. …

Bad news: Tax Day is just one month away. But the U.S. Department of Treasury just announced a rare gift for taxpayers: A dose of sanity on college loans. Today, the U.S. Department of Education and the Treasury Department signed an agreement that helps wind down the education agency, moves more responsibilities over college loans to Treasury, and simplifies the college lending process. This is the 10th interagency agreement between the Education Department and other federal agencies. These agreements follow the White House executive order issued one year ago this week, calling for the end of the Education Department. And...

Tiger Woods is missing from the USGA’s Friday release regarding the field for its 2026 U.S. Senior Open, but the 15-time major winner could still play in the championship. Woods, who turned 50 in December, is eligible to compete on the PGA Tour Champions this year, including the five senior major championships. Despite the injury toll of the past decade, Woods has expressed interest in competing on the 50-and-older circuit, specifically since the tour allows for cart use in regular tour events. But three months into the season, Woods has yet to make his debut as he rehabs from a...

Modern women are at a crossroads. There seems to be an irreconcilable difference between a career-driven woman…and the opportunity to approach womanhood and traditional goals as a life of their own. But when you look into these two paths online, they are actually far more similar… Infatuated by the haze of traditional influencers like Nara Smith, Erika Kirk and Ballerina Farm’s Hannah Neeleman, those replicating these lifestyles have fully lost the actual degree of agency and success these “trad-wives” have achieved. Look no further than Erika Kirk, who is the current Chief Executive Officer of Turning Point USA…She has a...

The US Senate has voted to end a partial 40-day government shutdown, approving funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - but with immigration enforcement excluded. The almost six-week funding lapse has had a knock-on effect on air travel in the US. Airport security workers' salaries are paid by the DHS, and hundreds have quit since the shutdown began. Democrats had refused to agree a funding deal without reforms to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, but the Senate reached unanimous agreement in the early hours of Friday morning after stripping ICE and parts of border protection...

A member of former first lady Jill Biden's Secret Service detail reportedly shot himself in the leg on Friday. The agent shot himself while accompanying Biden through the Philadelphia airport, according to the Daily Mail. A medical unit responded to the scene, but has since left, followed by a police car, per the outlet. The agent's medical condition remains unknown, and it is unclear what led to the shooting.

President Donald Trump said on March 26 that Iran had given the United States a “present” in the form of several boats carrying oil. To show they were serious and reliable, Iran had planned to send over eight large vessels of oil, Trump said. He initially thought nothing of it, but then he saw a news report stating that eight ships were moving through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump, speaking during a Cabinet meeting, reiterated that his administration is having “very substantial talks” with Tehran to resolve the conflict. Iranian officials gifted the United States 10 boats of crude oil...

At a time when debates about Israel, the Church, and biblical prophecy are shaping Evangelical conversations — often in the shadow of rising antisemitism and global unrest — we would do well to ask: How does the New Testament actually relate to the story of Israel? Since the early days of Christian history, the relationship between Israel and the Church has often been framed as old versus new, with the Church viewed as Israel’s replacement. This mindset assumes that God’s covenantal purposes depended on Israel’s faithfulness and that the generational covenant promised to Abraham could be reassigned to another people....

Oil prices could surge to as high as $200 a barrel if the Iran conflict extends into June and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, Bloomberg reported, citing an analysis from Macquarie Group. A war lasting through the second quarter could drive historically high real prices, analysts including Vikas Dwivedi said in a note, assigning a 40% probability to that scenario. A separate outlook, with a 60% probability, sees the conflict ending by the end of this month. Brent crude (CO1:COM) is on track for a record monthly gain in March as the war involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran...

Nick Baumel's cheap shot at female patients harms trust in doctors by "You're the kinda girl they write books about..." and that book is the DSM-5. "Daaaamn girl, how many [genitalia] you got?!" Shockingly, this content didn't come from a random podcaster in the manosphere. These were videos created by Nick Baumel, a medical student at one of the country's top medical schools, whose immaturity and misogyny may have earned him 2.8 million likes and labeled him with a big red flag for women nationwide. Firstly, using sexist tropes as a punchline shows me he's an untalented comedian. Secondly, what...

Judge scolds woman for joining virtual court hearing while driving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVy1BoUlP2E

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida committed numerous violations of House rules and ethics standards, the House Ethics Committee found Friday in a ruling that could add weight to Republicans’ potential push to expel her from Congress.After meeting into early Friday morning following a seven-hour hearing, the ethics panel of four Democrats and four Republicans found that Cherfilus-McCormick had committed 25 ethics violations, including breaking campaign finance laws. The panel said it would recommend a punishment in the coming weeks. The allegations center around Cherfilus-McCormick’s receipt of millions of dollars from her family’s health care business after...

According to Catherine Vautrin, France is taking a "defensive" position, seeking a diplomatic solution, particularly regarding the Strait of HormuzPARIS, March 27. /TASS/. The United States launched its own military campaign against Iran without consulting allies and now demands that everyone join them, not exactly the best way to foster cooperation, French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin told Cnews. "When the war began on March 1, the US did not see fit, for example, to call France to share their plans, <...> they acted alone, and today they are asking everyone to join them," she said. According to her, France...