Free Republic

Though the terms are often used interchangeably, coffins and caskets are actually completely different things. The same goes for ghosts and ghouls, though I have to admit that the difference between the latter pair is significantly gorier. And since we’re on the subject of spooky, not-quite synonyms, I wondered – wait, are cemeteries the same thing as graveyards? Apparently, not, it seems. Though both refer to burial sites for the dead, they are actually distinct (I had no idea). What’s the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s site, it has to do with size,...

For over two years, a 16-year-old transgender girl says she was bullied, excluded and discriminated against by her teammates and coaches at the Capital Crew youth rowing program housed at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center.

Videos found at a "mystery house" in Philadelphia's Olney neighborhood show two missing women who are believed to be dead, investigators revealed Wednesday. Philadelphia Police Inspector Raymond Evers shared new details during an afternoon press conference on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. Evers broke down what started this extensive investigation and what detectives have found so far This all began on June 19, 2026, when a park ranger stopped a BMW on the 600 block of Market Street near Independence Mall that had a male driver and female passenger inside, Evers said. The driver was identified as 44-year-old Eugene Horsch, officials...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholic governor met Pope Francis, then signed abortion up to birth — Excommunication?Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a law that removes the requirement for specific medical justification for abortions after 24 weeks. She is Catholic. She met with Pope Francis in 2024 and spoke of caring for “the most vulnerable among us.” Now she has celebrated the expansion of abortion access up to birth.Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston called the law a “grave offense against the sanctity and dignity of every person” and urged Catholics to continue proclaiming the value of life. But many Catholics are demanding stronger...

The Fifth Circuit restored nine provisions of Texas's 2021 election law, including mail-ballot ID and voter-assistance rules, largely finding that groups challenging them under federal disability laws lacked standing. Judge Oldham said the challengers lacked standing to attack Texas's mail-ballot ID rules because they failed to show that any member faced a substantial risk of future harm. The court noted ID-related rejection rates fell from 11-12% to 2.7% The court also rejected claims that groups had standing because they diverted resources to help voters comply. Citing the Supreme Court, Judge Oldham wrote that an organization cannot establish standing simply by...

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has overtaken California Governor Gavin Newsom in prediction market odds for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination for the first time, according to data from Polymarket highlighted Wednesday by the political-tracking account InteractivePolls. The market showed Ocasio-Cortez at 18 percent, narrowly ahead of Newsom at 17 percent. Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff ranked third at 16 percent, while former Vice President Kamala Harris stood at 8 percent. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro each came in at 5 percent. The shift marks a notable moment in the still-early race to shape the Democratic field ahead...

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave that post by the end of August, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday. Leavitt’s departure was announced less than a month after she returned to the White House after having been on maternity leave for the birth of her daughter on May 1. Leavitt, 28, is resigning “so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing her planned departure. The president said that Leavitt will become “one of my top outside advisors” and...

"Congressman John Larson is well-positioned to win the Democratic primary election for Connecticut’s First District. Larson leads former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin by 23 points, 49 to 26 percent with 9 percent for State Representative Jillian Gilchrest and 15 percent undecided or supporting other candidates. Larson enjoys near universal name recognition (92 percent), is well liked (76 percent view him favorably) and voters believe he delivers for Connecticut (80 percent say that it describes Larson well). He wins all regions of the district, across the ideological spectrum and among voters over 50 years (71 percent of the electorate). What’s more,...

The Dallas airport is now installing dedicated Islamic “Wudu” foot-washing stations inside bathrooms. Sharia financing is coming to dozens of states. Sharia compliant community centers. USDA funded halal public school pipelines. TX public school students being bused to mosques to experience Islam firsthand.

The University of Michigan is eliminating first-semester grades in an effort to address what it calls a growing mental health crisis among college students

Kathy Hochul received $55,000 in campaign contributions from social adult daycare centers (SADCs) in fraud-plagued Flushing, Queens, records show. Almost half of those donations can be linked to two men: local powerbroker Baoli Zhang, and Jiemin Shang — who own two of Flushing’s biggest daycare businesses, both of which were empty of patients when visited by The Post last week. Zhang, 69, personally donated $10,000, as well as another $5,000 through his Bao Kang Adult Day Care, financial disclosures show. Zhang’s various businesses have claimed at least $32 million from Medicaid since 2018, on behalf of tens of thousands of...

For nearly two decades, Pew Research Center surveys delivered the same reliable finding: The world viewed the United States more favorably than China. That era is over. In its July 2026 report, Pew found China now ranks higher in favorability than the United States across most of the 36 countries surveyed. Gallup data from 2025 already showed China’s median approval edging past America’s. Confidence in Xi Jinping now exceeds confidence in Donald Trump by a clear margin in the countries Pew tracks annually. The Council on Foreign Relations rightly asked what happened. The answer is simpler – and more damning...

Elon Musk is betting that the next phase of his sprawling technology empire will require a building on a scale that has never existed before. SpaceX and Tesla are building Terafab, a 100-million-square-foot semiconductor manufacturing facility in Grimes County, Texas, more than five times the size of the world's largest building. "Terafab Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far. And it will be stunningly beautiful," Musk wrote on X. "We're now embarking on the most epic chip-building effort—combining logic, memory, and advanced packaging all under one roof," said Musk in a press release. The...

WASHINGTON — Mao-adoring Twitch streamer Hasan Piker erupted in fury after Wisconsin state rep. Francesca Hong’s shocking defeat in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, venting that boomers should be outlawed. Piker, who had stumped with Hong during the final weeks of her primary, blamed older Americans for her loss amid her double-digit lead in most polling and struggled to talk about the blow to the far-left. “I don’t want to read this because I will f—ing kill myself with a gun in a video game,” Piker griped after reading an article about a late-deciding voter who backed Milwaukee County Executive David...

The Maumelle High School player wore the helmet for an hour before noticing movement underneath the padding. Thousands of high school football players across the country are taking the practice field, preparing to kick off the 2026 season in the coming weeks, but one young man in Arkansas recently had a practice experience unlike any other. With the Maumelle High School football team split into position groups during practice, a player noticed there was movement inside his helmet. Obviously, nothing is supposed to be moving inside a football helmet, but when he handed the helmet over to a defensive coach,...

Bill Gates’ “nepo baby” daughter Phoebe Gates, 23, has been accused of “cookie stuffing” at her multibillion-dollar startup, Phia – an illicit practice that comes with a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, according to reports. Phia – a digital personal shopping assistant co-founded by Gates with fellow Stanford alum Sophia Kianni – reacted with shock in July following reports that it was dropping more web “cookies” than it should, taking undue credit for online sales at retail partners. The company released a statement that it had only learned of the issue “within the last 24 hours,” pledging...

TALARICO (D) PAXTON (R) SPREAD RCP Average 6/3 - 7/30 — — 46.0 44.4 Talarico +1.6 Texas A&M/Siena 7/27 - 7/30 619 LV 4.7 47 43 Talarico +4 TSU/YouGov* 7/27 - 7/30 1200 LV 2.8 47 45 Talarico +2 FOX News 7/23 - 7/27 1006 RV 3.0 51 48 Talarico +3 TPOR** 7/15 - 7/17 1048 LV 3.4 45 40 Talarico +5 NY Times/Siena 6/19 - 6/27 656 LV 4.5 47 47 Tie University of Texas* 6/5 - 6/12 1200 RV 2.8 42 43 Paxton +1 Quantus Insights 6/3 - 6/4 800 LV 3.5 43 45 Paxton +2

A former Southern Poverty Law Center finance officer was charged Wednesday for her role in secretly paying informants who participated in white supremacist groups over the past decade. Heidi Beirich made an initial appearance in federal court, according to her defense attorney Michael Proctor. CNN reported that she had been arrested earlier Wednesday. A 26-page superseding indictment naming Beirich, who was first unmasked by The Post in June, was later filed in the Middle District of Alabama. “There is a new indictment that includes the former CFO of SPLC,” Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed at an unrelated news conference at...

When HMS Barham was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-331 in November 1941, a chain of events began that led to a medium being charged and imprisoned under the archaic Witchcraft Act of 1735. The Queen Elizabeth-class battleship had sunk quickly, resulting in the deaths of more than 860 officers and crew members – two-thirds of the ship's company. Following the sinking, during a séance in Portsmouth, Helen Duncan, known as Hellish Nell since childhood and the medium at the centre of this story, claimed to have spoken to the ghost of one of the sailors who perished that...

Republican members of the New Mexico House’s Epstein-related special subcommittee are blasting the panel’s process after they say a reference to Democrat gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland’s 2014 flight aboard an Epstein-connected aircraft was removed from the interim report without their knowledge or approval. Reps. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, and Bill Hall, R-Farmington, said Monday that they have “grave reservations” about Chair Andrea Romero’s handling of the panel’s first interim report, citing unilateral changes, shifting drafts, lack of notice to Republican members, and the unexplained removal of information they say all four members had agreed to include. The panel has repeatedly been...