Free Republic

Clash over proposed DHS rule to charge $103,265 fee reignites spat over highly skilled immigration WASHINGTON—An industry group representing the country’s largest tech companies is urging the Trump administration to withdraw its proposal to charge companies $103,265 for most new H-1B visa applications, reigniting a fight between the White House and Silicon Valley over a popular program for highly skilled immigrants. The sector’s opposition, filed Thursday as a public comment on the Department of Homeland Security’s pending H-1B fee rule, is significant because tech companies—which consistently oppose tightening access to immigration paths—have almost uniformly supported President Trump’s policies of minimal...

Spencer Pratt didn't make the November runoff, but his warning did. The latest UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll has DSA-backed City Councilmember Nithya Raman at 39 percent and Mayor Karen Bass at 28 percent. The DSA, which has called for defunding the police and abolishing prisons, endorsed Raman's mayoral run earlier this month. Another 33 percent of likely voters haven't chosen either candidate. The online survey of 2,150 likely Los Angeles voters was conducted Sept. 15-20 and has a margin of error of about three percentage points. Pratt had a simple response. And this wasn't Pratt taking a...

Speaking at the White House welcome ceremony with President Trump sitting behind him, Xi said the US and China should pursue cooperation rather than confrontation and argued that China's rise need not come at America's expense.

The California Supreme Court ruled that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco violated the state's election law by ordering his deputies to seize more than 650,000 ballots tied to the Proposition 50 special election. The justices ruled unanimously in two cases against Bianco, stating that he violated the law when he seized the ballots and also ignored directives from Attorney General Rob Bonta. The court ordered Bianco to cease his investigation into election fraud claims and return the ballots to county officials. The court also said he must "refrain from further handling of the ballots except as necessary to comply with...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The NFL fined San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk $14,926 on Thursday for "engaging in offensive demonstrations." According to the league, Juszczyk violated Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1, when he did an "imitation of chugging a beer" with just under eight minutes left in the third quarter of the Niners' win against the Miami Dolphins. The fine notice went on to say that "players are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that reflects positively on the game and is consistent with NFL standards of sportsmanship." It added that further offenses will result in an...

Many decades ago (or so it seems, it was actually January 2023, but things move fast in AI-world) I wrote a Spectator piece claiming that The End of Writing was coming, thanks to AI. In return for this favour, I got large amounts of angry and derisory scorn, mainly from writerly types, who banged on about the uniqueness of human creation, but also from techy people, who pointed out that as a mere hack I could not possibly know anything about AI, and anyway AI was just a glorified next-word-predictor. Now, I’m not the sort of cheap, mean-minded person who...

Deep in the Sahara desert lie hundreds of phenomenal stone circles known as corbeilles. Dating back over 6,500 years, these monuments hold clues to prehistoric rituals, ancient cattle sacrifices, and the communities that once thrived in what is now barren desert. In this video, I dig deeper into the Messak Plateau, investigate what archaeologists found inside these stone structures, and uncover why they were potentially built. Now, the joke in archaeology is that when you don't know what a structure is, you just call it ritual. All right, stop. That's all. The 6,500-Year-Old Stone Circles of the Sahara | 10:17...

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin sensationally claimed on-air that she was the lone holdout juror who forced a notorious NYC cannibal killer to be found not guilty by reason of insanity — but multiple sources from the time directly refute her story, The Post can reveal. “Several jurors questioned afterwards said one holdout juror was principally responsible for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict,” Hostin read aloud from a New York Times article from the 1991 trial on Tuesday. “That was me,” she asserted. SNIP But 35 years ago, jurors told The Post, Newsday, the Daily News and the...

Nithya Raman is dominating Karen Bass in the Los Angeles’ mayor’s race, according to a bombshell new poll. The challenger has surged to an 11-point lead with less than six weeks until the vote, according to the UC Berkeley/LA Times survey. Far-left Raman is backed by 39% of likely voters compared with just 28% for Bass, the poll released Wednesday morning shows.But a whopping 33% remain undecided, leaving plenty of room for the race to move before the Nov. 3 election. Bass’ campaign quickly blasted the survey as an “outlier,” saying other recent polls have shown a much tighter contest.

A Pennsylvania man who survived gunshot wounds during President Trump's Butler campaign rally two years ago has died, sources confirmed. James 'Jim' Copenhaver, 76, died on Wednesday after surviving the terrifying rally that saw Trump shot in the ear on July 13, 2024. Copenhaver endured permanent 'life-altering' injuries after he was shot twice at the infamous rally; once in his left arm and again in his abdomen. The native of Moon Township, around 20 minutes from Pittsburgh, was in critical condition at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh before he was left numb from his knee to his hip. Joseph Feldman,...

Under a federal judge’s order, the Trump administration restored White House access Thursday to journalists from MS NOW, CNN and Politico who had their press passes revoked after President Donald Trump criticized the outlets’ coverage.

After spending months harping on the nation’s affordability “crisis,” Democrats have recently let slip that their real goal, if they get a majority in Congress, will be to impeach as many Trump administration officials as time allows over the next two years. They will market it as “holding the administration accountable,” but the goal is far more sinister – to purposefully cripple the administration, regardless of the danger it poses to the nation. In the past few days, articles in the Atlantic and MS NOW – two eminently reliable mouthpieces of the Democratic Party – said the party is considering...

Death, taxes and tolls may be inevitable in life, but a bill proposed by two members of Congress from New Jersey and one from New York would allow commuters to deduct tolls from their federal income tax. Yes, New York City’s controversial congestion pricing tolls would be included, in addition to transit fares.The Lowering Commuting Costs Act would create a federal income tax deduction totaling more than $4,080 a year or $340 a month, for personal commuting expenses, including the cost of gas, public transit and tolls.It was introduced Tuesday by U.S. Reps Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd Dist., Tom Kean...

...Critics asked whether we are in a “Constitutional crisis” and others slammed the president for defying the court’s order while they wondered what will happen next in this increasingly tense standoff. “The WH has generally avoided defying court orders but appears to have done just that this morning,” veteran journalist Brit Hume wrote on X in reaction to the White House committing to its media ban. “When do we start calling this a Constitutional crisis?” media reporter Edmund Lee asked.

Florida Democratic US Senate nominee Angie Nixon is staunchly against taxes assessed against her. She reasons "I've been a member of the Florida House of Representatives since 2020. That makes me a member of the government. It's the taxpayers' obligation to pay me. I shouldn't have to give any of that money I get back to the treasury. That makes no sense." She admitted "I have other jobs, but I'm no billionaire. The $270,000 in income I had to report as a political candidate doesn't mean I should have to pay taxes on it. Sen. Bernie Sanders used to complain...

The American dream now comes with upgrade feesSafe neighborhoods, good schools, space, and reliable services increasingly look less like the baseline and more like premium add-ons.Over the last few decades, many industries discovered they could grow their customer base and profits by selling a cheaper, inferior version of their product while degrading the experience for everyone. Air travel and theme parks are obvious examples. Both learned that the advantages of scale could outweigh the obligation to deliver a high-quality experience.That philosophy did not remain in the realm of economics. It spread slowly but surely into American public life. The United...

Joel Webbon made the case in a 21 September episode of The NXR Podcast, arguing that universal suffrage puts conservatives at a political disadvantage when Democrats promise voters government benefits. Webbon titled his episode The Right Must Embrace Socialism To Win, laying out what he described as a problem created by modern democratic politics.

[Catholic Caucus] The Supreme Destiny of ManThe Supreme Destiny of ManBy Roberto de MatteiCorrispondenza RomanaSeptember 23, 2026From October 7 to 14, 2026, the announced gathering will take place at the Vatican between Pope Leo XIV, the heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris, and the presidents of the Bishops' Conferences. The event is conceived with the aim of "proceeding, in mutual listening, to a synodal discernment on the steps to be taken to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in the light of Amoris Laetitia and taking into account what is being realized in the local Churches."In preparation for...

Trump Uses Executive Order to Expand Hunting and Fishing OpportunitiesPresident Trump signed an executive order Thursday expanding the amount of federal land available for use by hunters and fishermen and removing years of anti-hunting regulations.The White House noted that the order erases years of regulatory actions that targeted lead ammo and fishing tackle.... Link to the EO itself:https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/09/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-reinvigorates-americas-hunting-heritage/"...The Order directs the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of Commerce to propose changes to polices that prevent access of public lands for recreation, infrastructure repair, and wildlife management, as well as to...

Sergey Ryabkov pointed out that Moscow's position on the matter had been set out in detail in a note recently handed to the British charge d'affaires in RussiaMOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. The United Kingdom is providing the Kiev regime with "increasingly multifaceted support and assistance," thereby risking becoming a de jure party to the Ukraine conflict, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters. According to him, by providing the Kiev regime with "unrestrained and increasingly multifaceted assistance and support," London is directly violating "a number of legally and politically binding documents, both bilateral and multilateral." "The UK has thereby...