Free Republic

A former New York state trooper was sentenced to two-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the death of an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl back in 2020. Monica Goods died after her father fled a traffic stop at high speed. "Daddy, stop" Judge Bryan Rounds sentenced Christopher Baldner for contributing to Goods' death. Baldner was stoic as he received the sentence, which was half the 15-year maximum for second-degree manslaughter. Judge Rounds said justice was only half served, and that he listened to the victim. Monica had called out "Daddy, stop," during her tense final moments. Monica's father,...

Four Senate Republicans broke ranks to kill another effort to pass President Donald Trump's marquee voter ID and election integrity legislation as the GOP marches to fund immigration enforcement. Just like last time, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Thom Tills, R-N.C., joined all Democrats to thwart the move. It’s the second attempt by Republicans to attach the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act to their budget reconciliation package, and the second time that they’ve failed to get the legislation across the line months after launching a quasi-floor takeover to debate the bill....

The murder trial for Karmelo Anthony, the Texas teenager who fatally stabbed a fellow student at a track meet last year, began today. He stands accused of first-degree murder after killing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf with a folding knife after a heated argument at the high school event in Frisco. Prosecutors alleged Anthony, now 19, tossed the murder weapon before fleeing the scene and attempted to blend in with fellow students while making his escape. After his arrest, he claimed he acted in self-defense in the disagreement over seating at the Centennial High School meet. He has pleaded not guilty. Jurors...

A federal agent is alleging the San Diego Police Department is trying to cover up his confrontation with an off-duty officer at a Costco — who allegedly directed a racial slur at him and knocked him out. Immigration officer Chu Ding filed a lawsuit last week against the city and several officers, alleging they hushed up the 2024 incident. Surveillance video shows San Diego cop Jonathan Ferraro blocking Ding from leaving as he waited for a nearby parking spot. When Ding knocked on his window, a plain-clothes-wearing Ferraro allegedly got out of the car and called Ding a “Chinese piece...

US President Donald Trump tells reporters that Washington does not need a deal with Iran to get enriched uranium from the country. “We could get it right now. I don’t think they could stop us if we wanted, but there’s no reason to. It’s entombed,” he says.Trump also says that he did not want to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, but adds that “I’d be honored to meet him.”He says if Washington and Tehran reached a deal, it was possible that the two would meet and adds, “If it happened… I’d be respectful.” “In some circles he has...

A twisted Georgia high school teacher has been charged with repeatedly having sex with a 16-year-old student — while allegedly exchanging nearly 20,000 sexts and begging him to run away to Mexico with her. Amanda Katz, who was a teacher and then administrator at Roswell High School, smirked knowingly in her mugshot Tuesday when she was charged with improper sexual contact with the boy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The student told investigators that he had unprotected sex several times with the 55-year-old educator, mostly in her home and the backseat of her Jaguar car...

Donald Trump's purge of the federal bureaucracy escalated Wednesday with an executive order making it easier to fire 8,000 federal workers. The order reclassified the workers as at-will employees, meaning the government can now terminate them without offering a reason. A rule finalized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) earlier this year established a new category of these workers, known as 'schedule policy/career.' Trump's order Wednesday put those 8,000 workers, generally senior policymakers, into the new category. 'It's been a long-standing problem that it's almost impossible to fire a federal employee, even in cases of serious misconduct,' said James...

The Bible opens with a declaration of ownership: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Creation is not self-originating, nor is it humanity’s possession. It belongs to God. After forming the world, God pronounces it “very good” (Gen. 1:31), revealing not only functional adequacy but moral value... Some Christians have understood the command to “subdue” the earth (Gen. 1:28) as license for unrestricted use. Scripture itself corrects that reading. Biblical dominion is never autonomous power; it is delegated authority under God’s sovereignty. The earth remains the Lord’s, and human dominion is exercised as stewardship... The...

Swatara Township Police on Thursday filed charges against three adults and three juveniles in connection with a brawl that broke out at Steelton-Highspire’s pre-prom walk last month. The fight started on May 22 at the Steelton-Highspire High School campus as friends and family gathered to take pictures and videos of prom attendees. Three juveniles, whose names and ages were not included in the police report, were also charged with disorderly conduct. A fourth person had not been identified by investigators as of Thursday. One person remains unidentified after Steelton-Highspire pre-prom fight Police are asking the public for help in identifying...

What you call yourself, say about yourself, is important. What you say about yourself can either be a blessing to you or a curse to you. Notice, Proverbs 18:21 says, Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. That word power is translated as - a hand the open one [ indicating power, means, direction, etc. ]. So, the tongue/your words have power and that is they produce fruit/manifestations. Jesus said words are seeds in Mark 4:14 and what do seeds do, they produce fruit. I'm writing this...

The Heritage Foundation released its version of Reconciliation 3.0, a new plan to end federal funding for abortion, combat fraud, and save America $1.5 trillion. The leading conservative policy institute on Wednesday unveiled “Setting the American Opportunity Agenda,” a special budget and spending report for Congress, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is ready to act on it. While the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” was successful, the GOP can save Americans even more money, and the foundation says its plan could be the answer. “The OBBB was a major accomplishment in 2025 and had many constructive consequences, but the...

California Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu got into a vicious back-and-forth over the Iran war with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Thursday — but was caught flat-footed when asked who the president was during World War I. At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing to discuss the Trump administration’s fiscal policies, Chu tried to grill Bessent on a past remark by the Republican president, suggesting he wasn’t factoring in the financial situations of US citizens during negotiations to end the war. “Do you agree with President Trump that you also do not care about Americans’ financial situations?” Chu asked, while a...

Robert Kelchen of the University of Tennessee, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education recently, described the most dire problem facing higher education today: “The list of institutions trimming academic programs, implementing furloughs, and laying off employees is long and growing…” A massive financial crunch has hit many schools because of sagging tuition revenue growth (reflecting falling enrollment or more aggressive discounting of tuition fees) and reduced public financial support in the form of federal and/or state aid and stagnant private philanthropy, all occurring in an environment of heightened inflationary pressures increasing the dollars needed to operate. While the problem...

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — A massive coastal development project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, is facing growing resistance from protesters in Albania. Police fired water cannon and clashed with protesters on Wednesday in the latest demonstration in the capital, Tirana. The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership. But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania’s southern coast, has drawn opposition from environmental...

It took only a half an hour for the mother of a suspected shooter in Florida to track down her 16-year-old son and force him to surrender after a violent 'teen takeover' left another teen with three gunshot wounds. After hundreds of teenagers flooded Clearwater Beach on Sunday evening for a 'linkup,' Noel Marsh III, 16, was taken into custody in Haines City on Monday evening. 'We found his mother, and his mother did what was right,' Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. 'She said, "he'll turn himself in as soon as I find him." About 30 minutes later, his...

DOUGLAS, Ga. (WALB) — A Douglas woman was arrested Wednesday, June 3, afternoon after police said she intentionally rammed another vehicle twice during a road rage incident near the intersection of Shirley Avenue and West College Avenue. Amanda Marie Edge, 39, was charged with aggravated assault following the incident that occurred around 2:20 p.m. on Wednesday. According to the Douglas Police Department (DPD) incident report, officers responded to a motor vehicle collision that had escalated into a fight. Upon arrival, Officer Lawton Thomas reportedly observed a gold Dodge Ram truck had been hit from behind by a white GMC Sierra...

Businessman Zach Lahn’s win in Iowa’s Republican gubernatorial primary over President Donald Trump’s pick, Rep. Randy Feenstra, delivered a rare electoral setback for Trump in a primary season that had handed him back-to-back victories... Members of the MAHA movement...cheered the win as a sign their political message was resonating with voters. “This election is a signal that pro-pesticide does not mean pro-farmer,” said Tony Lyons, president of Kennedy-aligned MAHA PAC, which endorsed Lahn. “Zach Lahn made transitioning away from toxic chemicals the cornerstone of his campaign and won this election decisively with strong farmer support.” “Iowa has the fastest growing...

This is a 6 1/2 minute clip of Senator Johnson testifying about the covid vaccines. There's a link to the full 3 hours of testimony for anyone interested.

"As part of our ongoing investigation we are reviewing a large amount of police body-worn footage, which we need to consider in context with other evidence we have obtained." A police watchdog has said there is no evidence of misconduct by officers who arrested Henry Nowak, the teenage stabbing victim from the UK, as he lay dying, even as new details emerge about the moments leading up to his death in December 2025. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is reviewing body-worn camera footage and other material involved in the death of Nowak, who was stabbed five times in...

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would be “honored” to meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. The U.S. president said he would meet the Iranian leader if a deal is reached to end the U.S.-Iran war, which has dragged on into its fourth month. Trump was taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office after making an announcement about coal. “If we make a deal, it’s possible that I would meet,” he said. “I’d be okay with that.” Khamenei was named the supreme leader in Iran after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day...