Free Republic

A Middlesex County police department used an officer disguised as a shrub to crack down on distracted driving Wednesday, issuing 74 citations. The Dunellen Police Department conducted a distracted driving enforcement operation on the 100 block of North Washington Avenue, an area with heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic, according to a Facebook post. The goal was to enforce New Jersey’s handheld cellphone law and increase safety in the community. Police issued the 74 citations during a six-hour span. “Our ‘shrub’ was busy,” the department said in the post.

This monster shark’s going totally nuclear on New York’s coastline! A massive, nearly 12-foot man-eater has been wreaking havoc on large marine animals in the waters off Long Island — sparking a hunt for the predator and a wild theory that she mutated from a nuclear waste leak. The giant mako shark — dubbed “Sharkzilla” by experts — reportedly sunk her teeth into a humpback whale near Montauk, leaving it with a 2-foot bite mark.

he times, they are a-changin’. Rapidly. And not in a good way. Two separate — and growing -- psychoses are converging in a perfect highly imperfect storm of authoritarianism to existentially threaten the land of the formerly free and brave. To wit: In 2000, only 28% of Democrats identified as “liberal.” Today, that figure has nearly doubled. The number who claim to be very liberal has also risen dramatically. In fact, a recent survey shows that 1 in 3 Democrats now proudly consider themselves to be Democratic-Socialists. The party has been fundamentally transformed — and quickly. DSA candidates are now...

MADISON, Wis. — The encampment at the site where a Madison police officer shot and killed a man could cost the city “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway told News 3 Now on Friday. The encampment at the intersection of Williamson and Baldwin streets was erected late last week in response to the killing of Corey Ruiz. Police said Ruiz was seen “checking vehicles” before his encounter with police and used a knife to injure one of the officers detaining him before the shooting. The City of Madison has provided some resources to keep the protest area safe,...

A doctor working as a DoorDash driver to support his wife’s medical career was shot in the back of the head after being sent to a Philadelphia address where residents told police they had not ordered food. Md Mahfuzul Haque, 43, was making a delivery in the city’s Kingsessing neighborhood on July 7 when he was killed in what police described as a targeted attack involving three masked suspects. Zakah Johnson, 15, has been charged as an adult with murder, robbery, conspiracy and firearms offenses over Haque’s death.

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem🇮🇱 (8/1/26)[Prayer]Personalities1 Samuel 26:1-25 David Again Spares Saul’s Life 26 The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?” 2 So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand select Israelite troops, to search there for David. 3 Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had followed him there, 4 he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived....

We must decide, and soon, if a “religion” that preaches slavery and mass slaughter of those who refuse to convert is compatible with American religious liberty. In Terminello v. City of Chicago (1949), Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Jackson wrote: "The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."It has also been said that some Muslims don’t want to kill infidels....

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A News10NBC investigation has uncovered payroll problems at a local tool and die shop, where some workers say they haven’t been paid in four weeks. Accurate Tools, located on Lyell Avenue, makes precision metal parts and components and employs about a dozen people. News10NBC reporter Brett Davidsen spoke with employees and the owner about the ongoing pay issues. “We work everyday, but we don’t get paid,” Bill Riesenberger said. “It started out as a day or two late, and then a week late, now it’s been up to 4 weeks late and there’s no end in sight.”...

Seeing Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral seemed fitting: Z-Man’s money-laundering operation in Kyiv was the proximate cause of Graham’s death. Had the senator not been working so hard to add to the butcher’s bill in Europe, he would still be alive today. Surely there is a lesson here for some people to see. I know there are plenty of pro-Ukraine cheerleaders who just cannot stomach any criticism of an ongoing military conflict that has now lasted longer than WWII. However, I have never seen this as anything other than a civil war that British, European, and...

Trump administration bank regulators moved Friday to close what one nonprofit consulting firm has advertised as the “CRA Goldmine,” curbing the ability of left-wing advocacy groups to use an anti-redlining law to pressure banks for donations. Community organizations can challenge a bank’s record under the Community Reinvestment Act when it seeks approval for a merger, acquisition or new branch. The prospect of a poor CRA grade, which can delay or derail those plans, has given activist groups leverage to press banks for grants and other financial commitments. Bridge Philanthropic Consulting, which advises nonprofit organizations on fundraising, has promoted the system...

A vast network of these large NGOs operates as a de facto branch of the government, deliberately designed to bypass the constitutional limits of a democratic republic.This setup creates a highly effective, insulated loop that shifts power away from voters through several distinct mechanisms: 1. Laundering Taxpayer Cash The financial plumbing of these organizations reveals their true nature. Congress regularly appropriates billions of dollars to federal agencies (like the EPA, USAID, or the Department of Energy). Those agencies do not spend all that money internally; instead, they distribute it via multi-million-dollar "grants" to friendly NGOs.The NGO takes the taxpayer money...

The arrest and detainment of a Johns Hopkins researcher is one of the latest examples of increased immigration enforcement at airports. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Fatima Ameaka at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport this week as she was boarding a plane to Florida. ... For the past two years, Ameaka has been working to improve how communities respond to infectious disease crises, such as measles outbreaks. She's a senior analyst at the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation, which operates out of Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. ... In a statement from the U.S. Department of...

REUTERS — A US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screenshots and posted them online. A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. The company said it was investigating the report. The State Department said it took “full responsibility” for the confusion caused and that the map had been produced by a team member who hastily changed the slide...

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A former Bakersfield college basketball coach is headed to prison after admitting to possessing child sex abuse material while running a prostitution operation that spanned three states. Kevin Mays, a former assistant coach at Cal State University Bakersfield and one-time player for the program, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office said. Earlier this month, Mays pleaded no contest to felony charges of possession of child or youth pornography, pimping and possession of a controlled substance while armed with a firearm. The plea...

Washington — The Defense Department is considering its most sweeping remake of military higher education, according to an unreleased draft memorandum obtained by CBS News that would abolish civilian tenure and overhaul course offerings at the military service academies and senior war colleges that educate future military officers. The memorandum, labeled "Refocusing the Military Service Academies and Senior Service College on Warfighter Education," would direct institutions like the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to eliminate the granting of tenure to civilian faculty. It would also launch a comprehensive review of the curriculum taught at all service academies and war...

This week, the previously pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and invoked the Constitution's Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination 111 times. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo) called Fauci's actions "remarkable. He invoked the 5th more times than any previous underworld gangster to ever appear before the US Senate. Unlike those gangsters, Dr. Fauci had received a blanket pardon from former President Biden 'for any crimes he may have committed between 2014 and January 20, 2025.' The US Supreme Court ruled in the 1896 case of Brown versus Walker that recipients of pardons are not...

Fire fans didn’t offer a warm welcome to Sophie Cunningham. The Indiana star was booed by fans during the Fever’s 112-98 win over the Fire at the Moda Center on Friday night in Portland as fallout over her comments regarding trans athletes continues. Cunningham scored 13 points off the bench while Caitlin Clark scored a team-high 26 points. Earlier this month, Cunningham made waves for saying she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men” in an ESPN profile. The discourse around the quote was amped...

Bill Maher’s audience audibly gasps when he reads what the Democratic Socialists of America are actually saying out loud: MAHER: “Trump has told 1 trillion lies, but when he says the DSA are actually COMMUNISTS, that’s not one of them.” “And it’s not hard to prove it just by quoting the DSA and their candidates.” “J.D. Vance was on the show, and I told him that if the Democratic Party keeps going in the direction of the DSA, my vote was in play. And all I heard all vacation was, ‘Oh, my God, you’re a Republican now.’ No, that's not...