Free Republic

The investigation "threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come," ABC says.The Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network and its Houston TV station KTRK responded to the FCC‘s equal-time investigation into The View by calling it “unprecedented” and an affront to free speech in a blistering letter asking for a declaratory ruling. “Uncertainty as to the scope of broadcast licensees’ editorial discretion threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come,” the filing states. “The Commission’s...

Video Summary: "Virginia Supreme Court DELIVERS DEVASTATING BLOW Main Topic The video discusses a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that struck down newly Key Details from the Ruling The court invalidated the redistricting process because it violated the Virginia Constitution (specifically Article 7, Section 1). As a result, the old 2021 court-drawn maps (roughly 6 Democratic seats to 5 Republican seats) will be used for upcoming elections instead of the new Democrat-favorable maps. The new maps would have shifted the balance dramatically to approximately 10 Democratic seats to 1 Republican seat by consolidating rural conservative areas. Host's Perspective (Black Conservative Perspective)...

For years, universities have embraced accreditation standards that echo their own ideological commitments, especially around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). These standards haven’t felt like external requirements so much as mutual reinforcement—accreditors writing expectations that colleges already agree with and colleges pointing back to those expectations whenever they want to justify a decision. Because of this, it is no surprise that universities are now pushing back against the Trump administration’s effort to end illegal university-accreditation demands for DEI. Last month, Department of Education undersecretary Nicholas Kent sent letters to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Commission on...

If any city was made by men, for men, it’s Las Vegas. In the early 20th century, this man-versus-nature oasis was strong-armed into being when mobsters and casino magnates swept into the Nevada desert. By the boom years of the 1950s and ’60s, these high rollers were erecting gilded penthouses and sprawling suburban ranch-style houses. Inside, shag-pile carpeting flowed lavishly across floors and walls, chandeliers sparkled like diamonds, and a legion of marble statues idled as if awaiting the reboot of the Roman Empire. It was man-made aesthetics at their most swaggering. Which makes Sin City’s latest real-estate trend feel...

With the U.S. Air Force set to still be flying B-52s at least into 2050, at which point the youngest examples will be some 88 years old, it has become common to quip about the bombers staying in service forever. However, the Air Force is now looking to conduct a formal review of its requirements to see whether the development of a successor might be warranted, and potentially sooner rather than later. The Air Force is asking for $1 million in its budget request for the 2027 Fiscal Year to conduct a New Heavy Bomber Analysis of Alternatives (AoA). Aviation...

Live election results at link

Iranian state media posted a video on Friday that appeared to show Iran’s Navy seizing an oil tanker identified as the Ocean Koi. The vessel was “exploiting the conditions in the region to harm and disrupt oil exports and the interests of the Iranian nation,” the state news agency IRNA said. The tanker, carrying Iranian oil, was escorted to Iran’s southern coast. Shipping analysts said that the tanker was Chinese-owned. On Feb. 25 the U.S. Treasury Department identified the vessel as part of a shadow fleet of ships that it said Iran used in violation of U.S. sanctions. [snip] “Given...

SpaceX's Starship megarocket may indeed get off the ground next week.The company is apparently targeting May 15 for the test flight, which will be the 12th for Starship overall but the first for the new, more powerful "Version 3" of the giant vehicle.SpaceX cleared a big hurdle on the path to liftoff on Thursday (May 7), conducting a static-fire test with Starship's Super Heavy first stage at its Starbase site in Texas. The company lit up all 33 of Super Heavy's Raptor engines while the booster remained anchored to the pad — and everything apparently went well."Full duration and full...

Just weeks after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, an elderly Jewish man was killed during a pro-Palestinian protest in California. Now, Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, 53, the man who struck Paul Kessler, 69, may serve as little as a year or even avoid jail time.

“As we warned: the regime has run out of storage capacity. For days now, they’ve been faking tanker transfers while pouring massive amounts of extracted oil straight into the ocean. Deliberate. Criminal. Environmental catastrophe. They are literally poisoning the sea. This is ecocide in real time.”

Forget Keir Starmer’s future as prime minister, the story so far of the elections in Britain is Nigel Farage’s apparent future as prime minister. His Reform UK party has surged spectacularly in the 40 local councils that have declared results so far in England. Perhaps most eye-catching of all is the party’s strong performance in the northwest of England and the Greater Manchester area. In Tameside, the backyard of would-be Labour leadership contender Angela Rayner, Reform took 16 of Labour’s 17 seats. In Wigan, the home patch of culture secretary Lisa Nandy, Reform took all 22 of Labour’s seats. Those...

As the U.S. birth rate continues to plummet to record lows, data shows that a significant percentage of liberals are deprioritizing the importance of marriage and having children, especially among teens. Among conservatives, however, the phenomenon does not appear to be occurring. In an article published last week by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), sociologists Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey highlight how the aspirations that many liberals claim to have about marrying and having children are not lining up with their real-world behavior, which appears to be heavily influenced by negative media narratives. They note that mainstream media outlets...

"A truly historic shift in British politics"

Three people hiking on Indonesia's Mount Dukono have died after the volcano erupted on Friday morning. Videos and pictures of the eruption show the volcano, located on North Maluku island, spewing a column of ash stretching 10km (six miles) into the sky. Indonesian officials said they had issued warnings against climbing Mount Dukono which were widely disseminated through social media as well as on banners at trail entrances, but some hikers had ignored them. The three victims were part of a group of 20 Singaporeans and Indonesians hiking on the mountain despite restrictions. The rest of the group was eventually...

A California city mayor is defending his city’s decision to install honorary street signs bearing Charlie Kirk's name near City Hall after some liberal residents criticised the move. Westminster Mayor Nguyễn Mạnh Chí (阮孟志 under pre-1910 French Indochina when "chữ Hán" was replaced by "chữ Quốc, ngữ," developed by Portugese Catholic missionaries) told Fox News Digital that Americans are "lucky we have the freedom of speech here, and we all have to respect that." "Nobody should be murdered or assassinated because of promoting freedom of speech," Mr. Nguyễn said. After Mr. Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was killed...

Chris Toukonen apparently has a drug problem. He's also a teacher at Lely High School in Naples, Florida. Toukonen, 44, has a shiny new set of felony drug charges to add to his résumé, along with possession of narcotic paraphernalia. According to reports, administrators got wind of suspected drug use while Toukonen was alone in the classroom. They then searched his backpack, found cocaine and fentanyl, and called the Collier County Sheriff's Office. Deputies showed up, investigated, and hauled him off to jail. No other drugs were found in his classroom or his vehicle on campus. Look at those pinpoint...

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted Friday that he will not resign after bruising elections that saw his governing Labour Party suffer big losses and the hard-right party Reform UK make major gains. The local and regional elections are widely seen as unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he led Labour to power less than two years ago Voters have grown impatient for economic growth and dramatic change after 14 years of Conservative government, and many Labour lawmakers have become despairing at the government’s failure to deliver. Starmer said he took responsibility for the “very...

Job creation topped muted expectations in though the plodding U.S. labor market sent up several flags for a potential slowdown this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 115,000 for the month, down from the 185,000 created in an unusually strong March, but better than the 55,000 forecast in the Dow Jones consensus estimate. The unemployment rate held at 4.3%, further proof that the labor market has reached a point where only modest job creation is needed to keep the jobless level steady, given little growth in the labor force. Average hourly...

Nebraskans will vote next week in the U.S Senate primary race to determine which Republican and which Democrat will face off in November for the congressional seat. But a closer look reveals the latest in Democrat election rigging — complete with legal help from Russia Collusion hoaxer Marc Elias. The apparent master plan involves leveraging the primary race to prop up the so-called “nonpartisan” candidate vying for the Senate seat, who, under an “independent” facade, has deep leftist ties that could threaten fair representation in the red state. On May 12, Democrat candidates Cindy Burbank and William Forbes will face...

A Democrat scheme to take over Virginia's congressional seats, setting up Democrat majorities in 10 out of the state's 11 districts, has failed. The ruling comes from the state Supreme Court which invalidated a voter-approved redistricting plan because lawmakers failed to follow the constitutional process that is required to put the measure on a ballot. Democrats, under the leadership of an extreme left Gov. Abigail Spanberger, had rushed through a vote on their plan to put Democrats in the majority in 10 of the state's 11 districts. The division right now is 6-5 with the Democrats in the majority.