Free Republic

A former State Department budget analyst has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $650,000 from the agency over a two-year span, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC. Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Maryland, admitted to abusing her signature authority over a State Department checking account between March 2022 and April 2024 in her capacity as a senior budget analyst in the department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol. She wrote 60 checks to herself and three checks to someone else she had a personal relationship with, prosecutors said. She printed and signed each check before depositing all...

CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein said Monday that the Democratic Party was in its weakest position since the 1980s, the Reagan-Bush era, as the party continues to determine its best way forward. "If you talk to Democrats, you know, they recognize they are in a hole. I mean, the image of the party is probably in a weaker position than at any point since I think the 1980s, the Reagan and George H.W. Bush era," Brownstein told CNN's Audie Cornish. Cornish and Brownstein discussed the Friday federal government funding deadline, as Cornish said GOP lawmakers were hoping to offset...

Democrat political analyst brags about Kamala’s huge win coming, buys champagne on Election Day and mocks Trump supporter selling it to her at liquor store. This is glorious, watch it. Trust me:https://x.com/ClayTravis/status/1854592297427517691

On January 6, 2021, Capitol Police killed four Trump supporters at the US Capitol. Dozens of federal operatives were working inside the enormous Trump crowd that day and promoting violence. The media hid this for years from the American public. Now tonight a new report was released of a mysterious website that had over 500 pages of threats and discussions of murder and violence at the US Capitol on January 6. For some reason that report was just released today by Yahoo News. Why now? And what website are they talking about? And if this is true, Nancy Pelosi should...

Fox News legal editor Kerri Kupec Urbahn joined "The Faulkner Focus" Monday to discuss how former President Trump is experiencing a double standard when it comes to gag orders and why Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis should be issued a gag order similar to Trump's. Co-defendants in Trump's election interference case are reportedly considering asking for a gag order against Willis. KERRI KUPEC URBAHN: So let's talk first about what the purpose of gag orders are in the first place. It's to prevent harm to the case or the people involved in the case that otherwise could not...

Mark Esper, former President Trump’s one-time top Defense official, is joining CNN as a contributor. Esper, who served as Defense secretary from July 2019 to November 2020, has been hired as a full-time contributor, the network announced Wednesday. He will serve as a “global affairs analyst and political commentator.” After leaving government, Esper became a partner and board member at the venture capital firm Red Cell Partners and currently serves on several private capital and public policy boards and works as a corporate consultant. During a recent guest appearance on CNN, Esper said he agrees with concerns about Trump retaliating...

**SNIP** In a filing from Friday, Willis acknowledged the past relationship with Wade, but denied that it presented any conflict of interest on her part, writing that "any personal relationship among members of the prosecution team does not amount to a disqualifying conflict of interest or otherwise harm a criminal defendant." "Defendants have done nothing to establish an actual conflict of interest, nor have they shown that, in the handling of the case, District Attorney Willis or Special Prosecutor Wade have acted out of any personal or financial motivation," the filing reads, later adding that, "District Attorney Willis has no...

CNN political analyst Errol Louis warned that President Biden will "lose" his re-election bid if he keeps his campaign focused on touting his economic policies, which his administration has dubbed "Bidenomics," if voters "don't perceive" it in time. During a segment of "CNN This Morning" on Friday, Louis told host Poppy Harlow that Biden needs to drop the Bidenomics talk because the voters aren’t happy with the economy. "He’s tried to use ‘Bidenomics' because the economy is always the number one issue. The polls are suggesting that’s not necessarily going over very well with people, in part because of inflation,...

A Wall Street analyst has been fired after he was filmed telling a Jewish American to “go back to your country” while he also covered hostage posters with signs accusing Israel of being an “apartheid state” committing “genocide.” Freepoint Commodities confirmed in a statement that the employee seen in a now-viral video “is no longer associated with” the company that “does not tolerate discrimination and hate speech directed against any group.” He was identified by journalist Andy Ngo as Kurush Mistry, which sources later also confirmed to the Financial Times. The woman with him — who called Israelis “rapists” —...

With his calm voice and authoritative demeanor, Col. Douglas Macgregor gives the initial impression of a knowledgeable and dispassionate observer/analyst. Since the beginning of 2022, the Colonel, with an impeccable ‘American hero’ background has become the “go-to” analyst for many in the American conservative media, including Tucker Carlson. Carlson is a top professional and no doubt, has a decent-size crew of researchers even when not on Fox. Given these resources, it's inexplicable that he is charmed by Macgregor, who has not put a foot right in his analysis and predictions since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on...

Analysts from the Cook Political Report, who predict the probable outcome for U.S. House of Representatives races, released its newest round of predictions on Thursday, moving ten districts heavily in favor of the Republican incumbent or candidate versus the Democrat. This week, Cook shifted 12 race predictions in total — ten races in favor of Republicans and two races in favor of Democrats — while there are now 35 seats overall across the county that are considered to be “toss-up” or worse for the incumbent.

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that a counterterrorism analyst has been arrested for leaking classified information to members of the media, including one person with whom he was apparently romantically involved.Law enforcement took Defense Intelligence Agency official Henry Kyle Frese, 30, into custody Tuesday morning when he arrived at work. He has been indicted in federal court in Virginia.Frese, who had top-secret clearance, is accused of leaking classified material regarding a foreign nation’s weapons system to two reporters last year and this year.One of the reporters Frese leaked to was involved in a romantic relationship with him at the time and...

Ryan Leaf, the former Washington State quarterback and No. 2 NFL Draft pick whose career was plagued by drug addiction and who served time in prison, joined ESPN as a college football analyst.

FBI Intelligence Analyst Arrested, Accused of Passing Classified Information; Former Philippines National Police Official Also Charged NEWARK - An FBI intelligence analyst at Fort Monmouth and a former official with the Philippines National Police were arrested Saturday morning, charged in a federal criminal complaint with acting as unregistered agents of a foreign official and passing classified information to that official and others in the Republic of the Philippines, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie and FBI Special Agent in Charge Leslie Wiser, Jr. announced.Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested by Special Agents of the FBI at his home...

As the first anniversary of the attack approaches, TC, now 30, and his family are still putting their lives back together. Intensive speech therapy through a program in Canada is one way; he wants to read again to his 2-year-old son, Jack. He also wants to teach him soccer someday. He wants to return to work and provide for Jack and Abby. TC and his family are also still absorbing how their lives will never be the same.

More stores across the U.S. that offer deeply-discounted products are seeing their sales decline after years of growth amid America’s “Great Recession” — and one analyst said on Monday it’s another sign of even deeper downturn. SNIP “I think what’s going on in those stores is that we are in a depression for 80 percent of Americans,” SNIP “In other words, the economy is continuing to be worse, the Obama depression continues to explode,” he added.

In response to the Great Recession, the US government has gone on a spending spree in the hope of using Keynesian stimulus to restart the economy. However, according to a new analysis by Dr. Polina Vlasenko at the American Institute for Economic Research, that approach may make us even more vulnerable to future recessions. The amount of economic damage done to Western economies by the downturn directly relates to the aggregate debt in each economy as a percentage of GDP, she argues — and Japan and the Eurozone paid a steep price for their public and private debt. From the...

Goldman Sachs has a notoriously difficult interview process. According to Glassdoor.com, interviewers are subjected to a number of tests including, a Phone Interview, a Group/Panel Interview, a Presentation, an IQ/Intelligence Test, a Skills Test, a Personality Test, a Drug Test and a Background Check. Think you can handle it? See how well you answer this one, posed to an applicant in the first-year analyst program, the lowest level at Goldman Sachs. "If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?"

In their latest Business Review, Harvard, that fashion-obsessed place a quick private plane ride north of us, had an analyst assess the monetary value Michelle Obama has on fashion labels she wears publicly. Apparently when Michelle wears something, that company's stock spikes upward. If it's not the label seeing a gain, stores that carry the labels, like Saks, stand to benefit. From November 2008 to December 2009, David Yermack counted that Michelle made 189 public appearances, and wore items by or sold at 29 publicly traded companies, including J.Crew, the Gap, Dillard's, and DSW.

Bullish Sentiment Plummets To Levels Not Seen Since March '09 Vince Veneziani Feb. 11, 2010, 12:44 PM If you've been feeling bearish lately, you're not alone: bullish sentiment is falling both hard and fast. According to Bespoke Investment Group, newsletter writers haven't been this bearish in ages. Bespoke: Although the S&P 500 is down less than 7.5% from its January high, bulls are heading for the hills. According to Investors Intelligence, bullish sentiment among newsletter writers is currently at 34.1%, which is the lowest level since March 2009. At the same time, bearish sentiment (26.1%) is the highest since November,...