Free Republic

Former President Barack Obama's $850 million presidential library in Chicago has been plunged into a fresh controversy as contractors say they still haven't been paid just days before its grand opening. African American Contractors Association president Omar Shareef said seven workers contacted him to complaint about missed payments, Front Page Mag reports. 'It's to the point that they wished they had never done [the project],' Shareef told the outlet. Some subcontractors are missing as much as seven figures in payment, and many are feeling the pressure of keeping their businesses afloat. The 225-foot tall library dubbed the 'Obamalisk' is also...

Beacon Hill homes burned as a fast-moving blaze raced through trees and into the Northwood neighborhood near Spokane Valley on Tuesday. The wildfire torched over 250 acres with no containment as strong winds continued to push it east during the afternoon. Spokane County Fire District 9 Chief Matthew Vinci said 12,000 residents were under evacuation orders and 2,300 structures were threatened. He did not have an estimate for how many buildings were lost. No injuries were reported. Malek Chreiki stood in the grass at the Pasadena Park Church of the Nazarene, watching the smoke plume from above the trees. “I...

It seems impossible — or just too revolting — to keep up with the financial hanky-panky of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner (gag) Jennifer Siebel Newsom. But thanks to a couple of investigative reporters with stronger stomachs than I have, let's see if I can't put everything you need to know into one easily digestible column. I love it when other people do my dirty work for me, so let's get started. "Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list," Newsom practically boasted on Monday. "He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They...

Happy 17th of June, marking independence from Denmark in 1944!

A 21-year-old University of Illinois Chicago senior says he is the person who set fire to a cross in Grant Park last week, though he insists he had no idea that burning crosses are a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan. Merlin Lu told NBC 5 in an interview Monday that his target was not a racial group, but rather supporters of President Donald Trump, whom he described as “MAGA Christian nationalist supporters.” His chosen method of protest: placing a red baseball cap atop a cross, the central symbol of Christianity, and setting it ablaze. “I don’t want to wait...

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday to temporarily halt an Idaho law that would restrict bathroom access for transgender people, ruling that major parts of the law are likely unconstitutional. In a 30-page decision, Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Amanda K. Brailsford issued a preliminary injunction preventing House Bill 752 from taking effect while legal challenges proceed. The ruling also granted provisional class-action status to transgender residents across the state, extending the court’s protections beyond the original plaintiffs. “Another issue of enforceability is a law enforcement officer’s ability to determine an individual’s ‘biological sex,'” Judge Brailsford wrote. This ruling is a...

Japan celebration Knicks celebration Video is only 23 seconds long but you see the difference.

Cook Political Report has the race as leaning Democrat, an improvement for Ossoff from when Cook rated it a "toss up." Collins brings several potential strengths to a general election matchup. One is support from Trump. The endorsement is likely to energize the Republican base. Ossoff enters the race with a formidable financial position. He has built a large campaign war chest and outraised his Republican rivals, giving him a significant resource edge heading into the general election. Once a reliably Republican state, Georgia has become one of the country's most competitive battlegrounds. For Ossoff, success may depend on maintaining...

To understand Masaad Boulos, it helps first to understand what he is not. He is not Tom Barrack — the private equity executive and longtime Trump associate whose enthusiasm for personal relationships with Arab Gulf leaders eventually produced a federal indictment for acting as an unregistered foreign agent. And he is most certainly not Senator Lindsey Graham, whose periodic eruptions about Lebanon’s army commander carry the diplomatic precision of a foghorn: loud enough to be heard everywhere, useful precisely nowhere. Boulos is none of these things. He is something considerably rarer in Washington’s ecosystem — a man who understands that...

New details have come to light about the alleged terror plot that was intended to target the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House on Sunday, including the identity of the ringleader, a foreign national named Abraham Alvarez of Omaha, Nebraska. The Department of Justice announced in a press release on Sunday, "According to the charges, Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio; Bryan Omar Roa, 24, of Calimesa, California; Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, California; Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri; and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska, conspired to plan and execute a...

"Watch Candace Owens over the course of NINE MONTHS go from claiming Charlie Kirk was shot from BELOW, to then BEHIND, to then being 100% CERTAIN he was shot from the FRONT. NOW she's suggesting he may have actually been killed by an explosive microphone - which she dismissed back in Sept. Honestly, who knows what it'll be next month? There is no better IQ test than who takes Candace Owens seriously."

A federal judge in Idaho on Tuesday partially blocked enforcement of a new law that would’ve criminalized transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. The law was set to go into effect July 1. The portion of it that prohibits people from entering changing rooms that don’t align with their biological sex will still go into effect. The federal court order comes in response to a lawsuit filed by six transgender Idahoans challenging House Bill 752, which the Legislature passed and Gov. Brad Little signed this year. The law makes it a misdemeanor crime, punishable by...

Couples who marry before conceiving their first child are 50% less likely to break up than those who conceive outside of wedlock, findings of a new study show.... Benson analyzed data on 3,324 couples and tracked their children born in the early 2000s until their 14th birthday. He found a significant “marriage effect” regardless of socioeconomic background, race, religion, education, region, and several other control variables.

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

I have not yet read the full trial transcript. But so far, I do know this. Karmelo Anthony was entitled to a jury of his peers. He did not get that. On that ground alone, he is entitled to a new trial. Minorities are not interchangeable. The prosecutor’s reported proffered reasons for striking all black jurors —that they were teachers—appears to be pretext. Anthony needs a new lawyer on appeal and in a new trial. His trial lawyer allowed in opinion evidence that should have been struck. He also seemed unable to appreciate and counter the impact of racial overtones...

A young woman who trusted the medical establishment with her future now bears the scars of its ideological zealotry. Claire Abernathy, subjected to a double mastectomy as a teenager, has written an unflinching open letter to the surgeon who performed it, declaring that he stole her girlhood and left her to live with the consequences. Her damning indictment of a medical industry that rushed vulnerable children into irreversible procedures under the banner of “care” reveals the need for sanity. Abernathy’s story begins in confusion and trauma. At just 14 years old, she was placed on testosterone after a fleeting consultation....

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth all have voiced doubts about Iran’s commitment not to build a nuclear weapon. Rubio and Hegseth speak to press. Malcolm Ferguson. June 16, 2026 CIA Director John Ratcliffe and others within the Trump administration don’t think Iran is being serious about its promise not to develop or attain nuclear weapons, according to anonymous sources from Axios.

A heroic Indiana mother was killed when she stepped in between her son and an 18-year-old gunman who had pulled a firearm on them during a Facebook marketplace sale. Jean Gragg, 40, and her teenage son were selling a watch to prospective buyer John Ford during an arranged meet-up on the front porch of their Edison Park, Ind . . Ford allegedly fired multiple shots at Gragg, who was walking up her driveway back to her home as her horrified family watched.

Jeffrey Epstein's attorneys were in discussions with prosecutors before his death about potentially trying to get him a more lenient sentence if he gave up information that could help them in other cases, The New York Times reported Tuesday — with notes suggesting Epstein wanted to pass along information about President Donald Trump.Child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein tried to dig up dirt on President Trump in a desperate bid for leniency in the days leading up to his suicide, but was unable to deliver anything of substance, according to a report.

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade ripped the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran during a Wednesday morning interview with the Hudson Institute’s Rebeccah Heinrichs. “Rebeccah, can we just start on the Israeli portion of it? Israel has to, I guess, stop fighting back against Hezbollah, who’s lobbing missiles at the northern part of their country,” began Kilmeade. “This makes absolutely no sense.” “It makes no sense. And we also know, Brian, that there have been diplomatic attempts over and over and over again since the early 2000s to try to get Hezbollah to disarm. They will not disarm,...