Free Republic

The numbers don’t add up! New York City is already dumping a record $43 billion into its public schools while spending heaps more per-student than any other large US district — despite plummeting enrollment and mediocre test results. The massive price tag for educating Big Apple students could grow even more as Mayor Zohran Mamdani is finalizing his first budget proposal and as the city is already spending $44,000 per student — an unsustainable level of spending, budget watchdogs and education analysts said. The spending is also unacceptable, given Big Apple students’ middle-of-the-pack showing among urban school districts on standardized...

The critical 2026 Nebraska Senate race, which could help tip the balance of power in Washington, has become consumed by accusations that candidates are misrepresenting their party affiliations to rig the odds in their favor. In November, Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who is finishing the term of retired Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, will seek a six-year term in the Senate. The race’s outcome is rated “likely Republican” by Cook Political Report. But Ricketts’ most serious competition likely will not be from the Democratic Party. Instead, prominent Nebraska Democrats are backing independent candidate Dan Osborn, a former union leader, for the...

Four siblings who were part of Michael Jackson’s “secret family” revealed in an interview Sunday the vile ways the late pop star allegedly groomed and sexually abused them as children. The Cascio family sat down with “60 Minutes Australia” on Sunday night to describe how Jackson allegedly sexually abused all of them as children and supplied them with copious drugs and alcohol after wooing their family with lavish gifts and fame. The four siblings filed a lawsuit in February, alleging Jackson was a serial child sex predator who sexually abused victims at the homes of Elizabeth Taylor and Elton John....

San Francisco public school officials’ sneaky new plan for massive school closures was hidden even from the district’s furious school board, according to a new report. The San Francisco Unified School District plans to close an unidentified number of schools by 2030 to deal with some 14,000 empty seats in the rapidly shrinking district, according to a memo sent to parents last month. Like other urban districts in California and across the country, the City by the Bay has seen years of enrollment declines in public schools which reflect declining birth rates and other demographic changes blamed on rising prices,...

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), futures on NYMEX, is 2.6% higher to near $98.00 during the European trading session on Tuesday. The oil price gains sharply amid growing doubts that the temporary ceasefire between the United States (US) and Iran, announced in early April, would last long. Tensions between the US and Iran have renewed as US President Donald Trump stated, on Monday, that Iran’s proposal was “stupid”, adding, “Ceasefire is on life support.” The renewed uncertainty over the US-Iran permanent resolution has prompted fears of a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage to almost 20% of...

12 May 2026 Tuesday of the 6th week of Eastertide The Basilica of Saint Pancras (San Pancrazio), Rome Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II).First readingActs 16:22-34Become a believer and you will be saved, and your household tooThe crowd joined in and showed their hostility to Paul and Silas, so the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be flogged. They were given many lashes and then thrown into prison, and the gaoler was told to keep a close watch on them. So, following his instructions, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in...

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), now under the leadership of newly confirmed Director Robert Cekada, rolled out a lengthy list of final and proposed rule changes to a wide range of federal firearms regulations. They contain some noteworthy developments for Second Amendment advocates. The Trump administration’s rule changes are a welcome announcement – particularly since there has been a bit of a gap in Second Amendment action since the President’s February 2025 executive order on “Protecting Second Amendment Rights.” As of this week, several of both the final...

A North Carolina mom shared a “horrific letter” that she says North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx wrote in response to her 10-year-old son’s homework assignment. The fourth grader wrote a “persuasive essay” for class on the benefits of electric cars, making the case that the government should consider tax rebates for people who buy new electric cars, his mother Emily Mango explained on Instagram on Saturday, May 9. He then decided to mail the essay to Foxx, 82, in a school envelope that indicated his grade, Mango said, noting it was “clearly” written by a child. Mango said the lengthy...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/12/26)[Prayer]A New Study For A New Year: PersonalitiesDeuteronomy 4:1-104 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you. 2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. 3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of...

Demographic change, DEI ideology, anti-Israel radicalism, and political cowardice have mainstreamed hostility toward Jews. Few predicted that blaming Israel and the Jews who support it would flare up in the early 21st century—and in America of all places, where there are nearly as many Jews as there are in Israel. After all, Israel is the only consensual society in the Middle East. It holds regular elections and maintains tripartite judicial, executive, and legislative checks and balances. Free speech is found in the Middle East only in Israel, where religious apostasy, criticism of one’s own country, gender equity, and tolerance of...

More than a dozen airports across southern Russia suspended operations on Friday morning, while hundreds of flights were either cancelled or delayed after a Ukrainian drone crashed into the air traffic control center for the region, transportation authorities said. The strike damaged equipment at the control center in Rostov-on-Don, which manages aviation for southern Russia, the Transportation Ministry said. No one was reported injured, but the attack forced the center to suspend work. As a result, airports in southern Russia halted operations, including in the cities of Astrakhan, Vladikavkaz, Volgograd, Gelendzhik, Grozny, Krasnodar, Makhachkala, Magas, Mineralnye Vody, Nalchik, Sochi, Stavropol...

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has not publicly or privately responded to a top investigative committee in Minnesota’s request for information on her possible ties to the massive fraud scandal, but a recent email from one of her former top staffers to the committee sheds light on how her camp may view the situation and who they blame. "As the District Director for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from 2019-2022, I read with interest your comments in Session Daily regarding H.R.6187 - MEALS Act," former Omar District Director Kendal Killian wrote in an email, obtained by Fox News Digital, Wednesday...

In 1934, the National Firearms Act (NFA) was passed by Congress. The bill, which became law, was a consolation prize for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) administration. The primary purpose of licensing and registration of all handguns had been stripped from the bill because of lobbying by the NRA and Second Amendment supporters. One item left on the bill was an absurdly high tax on silencers/suppressors.The $200 tax was punishingly high. Using the first federal minimum wage adopted a few years later in 1938, it equaled roughly four to five months of full-time wages.Silencers had never been involved much in...

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Israel's Conduct in Gaza Does Not Resemble Genocide. David Bernstein | 5.11.2026. Frankly, I find the charge of genocide against Israel to be obviously absurd, one of those claims that true believers insist upon precisely because the claim is so implausible that promoting it is valuable to show you are a true believer. Hence the pressure by anti-Israel activists for everyone who purports to be "pro-Palestinian" to accept the genocide claim, or be excluded from the club. Nevertheless, because the genocide lie is so common in public discourse over Gaza, I thought it would be useful to write a piece...

Kaiser Permanente nurses are protesting the healthcare giant’s plan to terminate at least one nurse who is caught in a monthslong delay renewing her immigration work authorization. The nurse was previously covered by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which grants temporary protections and work permits to immigrants who came to the country as children without legal status. But DACA-protected people, often called “dreamers,” are facing long renewal delays that are putting recipients’ jobs at risk. The nurse, who was granted anonymity under Hearst’s ethics policy because she fears being deported, filed her DACA renewal paperwork in December...

@MassieforKY Here’s my POSITIVE ad for the FINAL week. This one’s a minute long because I had too much to say to fit into thirty seconds! Let me know what you think.

Officials with the Texas A&M University System have formally objected to the use of the “TexAM University” name by a North Texas Islamic educational entity already facing a state order to cease operations. In a cease-and-desist letter issued Friday, the Texas A&M University System demanded that the Richardson-based organization immediately stop using names, trademarks, domains, and branding elements that officials say infringe upon or dilute Texas A&M’s trademarks. The entity, which brands itself as “TexAM University” or “Texas American Muslim University at Dallas,” has promoted itself as an Islamic-centered institution offering STEM coursework integrated with Islamic studies. According to the...