Free Republic

Michelle Mickens was placed on indefinite leave for claiming the world was 'safer' after the TPUSA founder was killed Former Georgia teacher Michelle Mickens settled her lawsuit with the Oglethorpe County School District on Wednesday after claiming she was unfairly punished over quotes related to Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk after his assassination.In October, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a lawsuit on behalf of Mickens after she was placed on indefinite leave and reportedly encouraged to resign for making controversial comments about Kirk's assassination on her private Facebook page in September."I think it's worth it. I think...

A photographer in Boston, Massachusetts, got a sneak peak of the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular drone show during a rehearsal on Friday, July 3. Boston-based photographer @betterfoodbetterphoto was on the Charles River Esplanade when he captured footage of drones making the shape of a man holding a musket. The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular took place on Saturday evening and saw a revolutionary-themed drone show during a performance of the 1812 Overture and a fireworks display choreographed to music by the orchestra. According to reports, Massachusetts State Police evacuated viewing areas around the Charles River Esplanade ahead of the show because...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is bragging that efforts to shut down the Rikers Island jail complex just reached another “milestone.” Forgive us for not popping any champagne corks: Alas, the mayor still has no plan for where all the inmates will go when it does close.Last week, Mamdani announced the transfer of three unused Rikers buildings, including a shuttered infirmary, from the Department of Correction to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.This “milestone,” he boasted, “brings us closer to ending” Rikers’ operation, though he conceded the shutdown plan won’t meet its 2027 deadline.The mayor knows state law prevents jails from closing...

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Desmond T. Doss Info from here. Desmond T. Doss (February 7, 1919 - March 23, 2006) was the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor and one of only three so honored (the others are Thomas W. Bennett and Joseph G. LaPointe, Jr.). He was a Corporal (Private First Class at the time of his Medal of Honor heroics) in the U.S. Army...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the Trump administration’s frontman for waging war on Iran during weeks of kinetic operations aimed at decimating its nuclear threat. Since President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran to end the war, without securing significant concessions on its missile or nuclear stockpiles, Hegseth has said little about the shift in strategy — as Vice President Vance takes the spotlight in defending the tenuous diplomacy. The public positioning of the top Trump advisers reflects reporting on their private counsel to the commander in chief, with Trump saying in March that Hegseth was “the...

A Maine couple used their pickup truck to save a moose calf from a charging bear during a routine fishing trip Thursday, helping reunite the young animal with its mother. Todd Malcolm told The Associated Press he believed the bear would catch the calf unless he intervened. "I knew what I had to do, and I just did it," Malcolm said. The encounter began when Todd and Elvia Malcolm spotted a female moose near the edge of the woods in Telos Township, Maine, and pulled over hoping to snap a photo. "I said to Elvia, I said, ‘Grab your phone...

A newly nominated director and a flurry of recent actions have some concerned that the administration is weaponizing the agency. The Trump administration seemed on the verge of shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year after trying to fire its staff, terminating its office lease, ending nearly all its work and refusing to fund it. But now, with efforts to dismantle the agency held up in federal courts, it appears to be coming back to life, with Acting Director Russell Vought using it as an instrument to carry out conservative policies. In recent weeks, the White House...

Fourth of July celebrations on the Newport Beach Peninsula devolved into chaos, with illegal fireworks, street fights, looting and more than 400 mostly young people arrested within 36 hours. City officials enforced a “Not in Newport” zero-tolerance crackdown, tripling fines in designated safety zones and threatening one-strike permit revocations for short-term rentals tied to unruly holiday crowds. As volunteers fanned out Sunday to clean debris from the beach, leaders blamed social media and out-of-state youths for fueling disorder and pledged a full post-holiday safety review. A Fourth of July celebration erupted into chaos in Newport Beach, leading to more than...

Buyers, beware. The San Francisco real estate scene, one that’s historically presented an uphill battle for buyers, has tilted toward all-out war. The catalyst is the artificial intelligence boom, a phenomenon generating new jobs, new wealth and unprecedented demand for housing in the Bay Area. Rents are up, homes are selling faster, prices are rising, and overbids (and we mean way over) have gone bananas. Only the wealthiest, most intrepid, most determined buyers will succeed in such a market. According to a June 2026 report released by Compass Real Estate, the AI boom has affected virtually every aspect of the...

New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei still absent from public view as his three brothers stand beside father’s coffin Beside the coffin of the assassinated former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at a packed prayer hall in Tehran on Sunday there were calls for the killing of Donald Trump. Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions ⁠for Khamenei, who was killed along with other members of his family on the first day of the US and Israeli war on 28 February. The funeral was delayed because of the war. The funeral prayers for the former supreme leader and four...

Tesla cars are constantly capturing video data from all their cars that is sent back to their servers. No doubt, this data could be used to track criminals or anyone else by a query to the database. I have not seen this discussed anywhere, but seems like LE or those with ill intent could see this as a treasure. I saw this post: This little blue dot on your phone is a revolutionary invention https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4386790/posts and it made me remember this question. Tesla uses the data to improve their self driving algorithms so billions of videos are uploaded from cars...

As millions of patriotic Americans celebrated the 250th Anniversary of American Independence on July 4th, a disturbing scene unfolded in a North Charleston, South Carolina neighborhood. Video circulating on social media shows a white female North Charleston police officer attempting to make an arrest before being thrown to the ground by a black male, then surrounded by multiple black women who repeatedly assault her.

Memphis police say National Guard troops fired their weapons in the early morning hours Sunday, killing a man who was armed with a handgun. Police say officers were responding to calls of shots fired in downtown Memphis just before 4 am local time when they saw "an armed male carrying a handgun." The man — identified by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson — fled on foot, pursued by Memphis police officers along with Tennessee National Guard soldiers who are assigned to the area. What happened next was not immediately clear. "For reasons under investigation, the situation...

An underground church pastor has been released from prison in China and has arrived in the United States, less than two months after President Donald Trump publicly raised his case with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ezra Jin Mingri, who founded Beijing’s fast-growing Zion Church, was detained in October last year along with 17 other church leaders in what was one of China’s largest crackdowns on a single religious congregation in decades. The U.S.-based advocacy group ChinaAid, which monitors religious persecution in China, said Saturday that Jin had arrived in Los Angeles following his release. Jin’s detention drew international attention in...

They wore ball gowns and bedazzled baseball hats. They wore suits and ripped jeans. They wore American flag shirts, American flag ties, American flag dresses, American flag purses, American flag handkerchiefs, American flag cowboy hats. Nobody looked like they were dressed for the same event, but here they all were, on the roof of the Watergate Hotel in Washington to celebrate the Fourth of July. About one mile away, after baking in the blistering heat, people were temporarily evacuated Saturday evening from the National Mall due to inclement weather. Some sheltered in Metro stations, others in government buildings. On the...

A progressive protest group has been flying an 8647 flag on federal land near the National Mall, aimed squarely at the President of the United States. The National Park Service called it a true threat and moved to shut it down. An Obama-appointed federal judge just told the government to leave it alone. On June 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, appointed by Barack Obama, granted summary judgment to Accountability NOW USA and entered a permanent injunction against the Park Service and Interior officials. The order blocks the government from revoking the group’s demonstration permit or seizing and...

In a divided America, JD Vance sees Christianity as a unifying force. His new memoir, “Communion,” blames secularism for social strife and proposes faith as the solution. The book is not just a conversion narrative; it is an argument that a more Christian America would also be a more peaceful and tolerant one. “I do think in a very foundational sense the country is a Christian nation,” Vance tells me in an interview. Religious decline hasn’t removed social divisions, he says, but instead has deepened them: “I see antisemitism spreading ... You’re seeing an elevation of anti-Christian bias. You’re seeing...

A Delta Air Lines plane carrying 52 passengers and six crew members was hit by fireworks as it prepared to land at a Chicago airport on Saturday night. The flight from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to Midway International Airport "reportedly made contact with a firework while on descent," a spokesperson for the airline told the BBC. "The flight safely landed and taxied to the gate," they added. There were no injuries and the incident was reported to aviation authorities. The aircraft was struck as millions across the United States celebrated the nation's 250th anniversary with fireworks - part of the annual...

UFC President Dana White could not overlook the break in the weather that allowed UFC Freedom 250 at the White House to proceed as planned. That Sunday, June 14, was uncertain as forecasts did not look promising. This was an outdoor event where fighters could step onto a canvas that, if wet from rain, may have proven hazardous. Moreover, if lightning struck near the event, it could have caused a 30-minute delay, with every subsequent strike furthering the time before resuming the action. This would have been a disaster not only for White, but for President Donald Trump, much to...

Explanation: What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as snow. To help better understand this unusually tinted moon, in 2007 NASA directed the robotic Cassini spacecraft then orbiting Saturn to swoop within 2,000 kilometers. Pictured here, from about 75,000 kilometers out, is the hemisphere of Iapetus that is always trailing. A large impact crater seen in the south spans 500 kilometers and appears superposed on an older crater of similar size. The dark material is seen increasingly coating the easternmost part of Iapetus, darkening craters...