Free Republic

Mainstream media figures, Big Tech moguls, investors, intelligence insiders, former government officials and titans of industry are set to meet in Sun Valley, Idaho this week for an annual conference held by “intensely private” investment bank Allen & Co. The annual globalist meeting, dubbed the “summer camp for billionaires” by NPR, is being held in the small town of Sun Valley, Idaho this week. The attendees are meeting to “plot some of the biggest deals in media and tech” among other undisclosed agenda items. Prominent globalist kingpins such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Walt Disney CEO...

Colorado baker who won a partial victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to make a birthday cake for a transgender woman, a state judge has ruled. In Tuesday’s ruling, Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones said Autumn Scardina was denied a cake that was blue on the outside and pink on the inside to celebrate her gender transition on her birthday because of her transgender status in violation of the law. While Jack Phillips said he could not make the...

Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker whose decision not to bake cakes for same-sex weddings ended up taking him before the US Supreme Court, has told his story in a book about his profession, his Christian faith, and his belief that religious freedom benefits everyone. “My canvas is a cake. I hope to create messages that help people celebrate different events,” he said, explaining that he and his wife discussed their design standards in light of their Christian faith at the very beginning of the cakeshop. “In our case, we drew our lines in the sand way back before we opened...

A Christian baker in Colorado who has been at the center of a yearslong debate after he declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding has revealed the intense harassment and “horrific” response he and his business faced amid the fallout. “The emails [and] the phone calls were sometimes horrific,” Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips recently told the “Edifi With Billy Hallowell” podcast of the events that followed his July 2012 cake refusal. “You’d just hear profanity.” Phillips, who shares his story in the new book, The Cost of My Faith, said he had to protect his staff and...

BOSTON (CBS) — The state of emergency that’s been in effect in Massachusetts since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020 is coming to an end. Gov. Charlie Baker announced Monday that he’ll be lifting the emergency order on June 15. “The science shows that vaccinated people are well protected against the virus and unlikely to spread COVID,” Baker said at a news conference.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) on Wednesday voiced opposition to issuing a state-mandated vaccine passport as proof individuals have received a coronavirus vaccine.

A woman in Tennessee was killed and a cop was rushed into surgery following a shootout in a parking lot, graphic video shows. Footage of the Friday morning encounter between Metro Nashville Police Officer Josh Baker and Nika N. Holbert, 31, shows the 14-year veteran cop deploying his Taser on the woman while ordering her to get out of a car.

A Florida man accused of trying to organize an armed response to supporters of former President Donald Trump for their expected gathering last month at the state Capitol has been indicted on federal ...

DAVID ISMAY, the Baker administration’s undersecretary for climate change, got into hot water with the governor on Friday after a video surfaced in which he appeared to say Massachusetts residents are going to be squeezed financially as the state tries to reduce emissions. In a panel discussion with the Vermont Climate Council on January 25 that is available on YouTube, Ismay said the numbers facing the state are daunting. He said 60 percent of the state’s emissions come from residential heating and passenger vehicles. To meet the state’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050, Ismay said, 3 million homes...

A curfew mandating restaurants and most other businesses to close by 9:30 p.m. lifts on Monday, but industries hit hard by the coronavirus will have to live with customer capacity caps of 25% for another two weeks, Gov. Charlie Baker announced. “Vaccines are reaching residents, positive case rates have stabilized. Those trends are moving in the right direction. As a result, we believe it’s time and it’s OK to start gradually easing on the restrictions we put in place,” Baker said during his regular coronavirus briefing at the State House on Thursday. “Allowing diners to have more time to enjoy...

FBI Special Agents arrested Daniel Alan Baker, 33, over an alleged plot to rally like-minded individuals to violently confront protesters on Sunday at the Florida Capitol. Baker claimed to have fought in Syria against ISIS and the Turkish government, according to a federal complaint.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) announced another wave of restrictions taking effect prior to New Year’s, including a ban on gatherings over ten, with the restriction extending to “private homes.” Baker announced the latest set of restrictions Tuesday, which will go into effect on Saturday, December 26 — the day after Christmas

We’ve posted explanations and factsheets and critiques from our affiliate, Massachusetts Citizens for Life, of the latest over-the-top pro-abortion proposal–abortion up until birth and the removal of protection for abortion survivors, for starters. But all that our affiliate did, along with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, did not prevent the legislature from passing Amendment 759 (in the House) and Amendment 180 (in the Senate) to the proposed fiscal year 2021 state budget. As the Boston Pilot explained Legislators had inserted amendments into house and senate budget bills that would effectively implement the “ROE Act,” a bill proposed in 2019 to legalize...

Gov. Charlie Baker declared Tuesday that Massachusetts will soon roll back a single step within the current phase of its economic reopening plans, as cases continue to spike across the state. The changes — which officially begin on Sunday, Dec. 13 — broadly impact restrictions on the number of people allowed inside facilities and implement new rules related to masks and dining.

The need for state revenue during a pandemic-driven recession shouldn’t convince lawmakers to adopt the daily retail tax remittance schedule proposed under Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget plan, a fiscal watchdog group says. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said in a position paper released Tuesday an accelerated sales tax remittance schedule proposed by both Baker and the House is a straightforward way to bring in $267 million in one-time revenue, but cautioned against putting the state on track to collect tax revenue daily from retailers. The details would be up to state regulators, not the Legislature. “Despite the many challenges caused...

Gov. Charlie Baker’s new mask mandate that requires people to wear masks in public at all times — no matter how far away they are from other people — is catching flack from a health care expert who questions what it will do to reduce infections. “Masks now mandated outdoors in MA regardless of distancing. How will this reduce infections? Most transmission is happening indoors, so ensure people have safer spaces to gather: tents, heat lamps, fire pits. Focus on actual risk, not pandemic theater,” tweeted Julia Marcus, epidemiologist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued a new stay-at-home advisory Monday asking all residents to be in their homes from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily and ordered restaurants to stop table service at 9:30 p.m. to ensure customers can get home in time. The stay-at-home advisory takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The state allows exceptions for going to work, seeking medical care, going to the grocery store and picking up take-out food. “We’re doing much better than many other states and many other countries, but hereto we’ve let down our guard,” he said. The curfew also applies to all...

Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday announced the state would issue a stay-at-home advisory between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. for residents in the state and 9:30 p.m. curfews for most businesses as part of an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus which has surged recently. The order goes into effect Friday. “The simple truth is this — too many of us have become complacent in our daily lives,” Baker said.

BOSTON — Joe Biden is considering Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker for a cabinet post if the Democratic presidential nominee wins the Nov. 3 election. "It wouldn't be a shock for Biden, especially given the kind of campaign he's running as a unifying figure to find a Republican figure to put in his cabinet," David Hopkins, associate professor of political science at Boston College, said. "Baker would be the kind of Republican Biden would want: a moderate Republican who is not a Trump supporter." Politico reported Tuesday that Biden's team is looking into the backgrounds of some Republicans as they put...

There have been many political power players in Washington over the years. Some are spouses, like Bill and Hillary Clinton. Others are tenacious political ideologues, like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Yet few, if any, can claim a bond like the one shared by George Herbert Walker Bush and James A. Baker, III. Bush had been in Texas just over ten years, starting in Odessa in 1948 before eventually moving to Houston in 1959, before that fateful day when he and Baker were paired to play men’s doubles at the same country club. Their families spent many weekends together, hosting...