Free Republic

Detroit public schools have an absolutely hideous rate of chronic absenteeism. But their solution is even worse — paying kids to show up. A newly expanded program could see middle and high school kids making as much as $500 or $1,000-a-year, respectively, in gift cards for simply attending class. The district claims it creates an incentive for kids to show up — it’s called the “Perfect Attendance Pays” program — but it’s a desperate, last-ditch attempt to fix a much deeper cultural crisis. The program is actually teaching toxic life lessons: that simply showing up is some sort of accomplishment,...

Hunter Biden acknowledged in a new interview that his lucrative board appointments, including one at Ukrainian energy company Burisma, helped finance his crack cocaine addiction. “I never went broke,” Biden boasted on the “Dopey” podcast, after describing a two-month-long bender at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, Calif., where the former first son said he tried to “go out with a bang.” “Dopey” host Dave Manheim asked Biden how he was able to “scrape the money together” for the cocaine and prostitutes and private bungalows at the luxurious Chateau Marmont. “Well, I still had the residual. Like for instance, I still...

Former Rep. Eric Swalwell was surrounded by FBI agents at San Francisco International Airport as he deboarded a plane, leading to the seizure of his cellphone and laptop as part of a federal criminal investigation, newly obtained video shows. The California Post exclusively obtained surveillance footage of the Aug. 15 encounter, providing the first look at the dramatic airport search that unfolded after Swalwell arrived in California. The footage shows Swalwell — dressed incognito in a hat, black sweatshirt and sneakers — speaking with several agents at his flight gate as travelers pass nearby. The former Democratic congressman appears calm...

All the shopper wanted was to buy a laptop. Instead, a routine trip to a Best Buy turned into a bizarre confrontation over gender, pronouns and whether a customer should be compelled to address a biological male employee as “ma’am.” Video of the encounter shows the Best Buy employee, who presented with a distinctly masculine appearance, objecting after the customer referred to the employee as “sir.” The employee insisted on being addressed as “ma’am.” The customer wasn't having it. His position was straightforward: the person standing in front of him appeared to be a man, and he wasn't going to...

President Donald Trump went to bat for data centers on Monday morning, arguing that communities opposing the warehouses powering artificial intelligence will “end up being backwards and poor.” Data centers have become an increasingly contentious and toxic issue for many Republicans on the campaign trail, especially in key swing states like Ohio and Michigan. “The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” Trump...

Target has found itself at the center of controversy over a children's Halloween costume. It has since removed it from its website, issuing a public apology after critics called the product's imagery racially insensitive. The image on Target's website showed a Black child modeling the costume in a pose that critics said evoked racist imagery associated with the Jim Crow and minstrel eras, according to Forbes. Such depictions historically relied on demeaning stereotypes and exaggerated portrayals of Black people. "As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry," Target said in a statement to Forbes....

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Sunday teased an upcoming announcement about the Trump administration’s fraud crackdown. In a post on X, Duffy said there would be “unprecedented fraud crackdown” announcement on Monday. “TOMORROW: UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD CRACKDOWN,” the secretary wrote. In the post, he also tagged Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Justice and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, suggesting a multi-department effort targeting fraud. Duffy did not disclose details of the announcement, including when or where it will take place, what type of fraud will...

A former Planned Parenthood executive says the abortion group fired her after she reported an illegal abortion at about 28 weeks of pregnancy. Jacqueline C. Colyer filed a 26-page complaint against Planned Parenthood Great Rivers on Aug. 21. She filed the case in a Missouri federal court. Colyer was the group’s vice president of human resources. She says Planned Parenthood fired her after she voiced concerns about an abortion at its clinic in Fairview Heights, Illinois, which is about 15 miles from St. Louis. The abortion happened on a Sunday night in early 2022, the lawsuit says. It occurred before...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) — Award-winning produce, baked goods, textiles and livestock weren't the only items on display at the Kentucky State Fair. Mayday Health, a reproductive health education nonprofit, took to the skies to promote mail access to abortion-inducing drugs. Leo Raisner, who founded Mayday Health and serves as executive director, said the organization goes where the crowds are, and the commonwealth's fair draws more than600,000 people a year. "Mayday shares information about abortion pills in states where clinics are banned or restricted," Raisner said. "We want everyone to know that safe, effective abortion medication exists." Raisner said there's a...

WASHINGTON — Top American AI companies are feeding Beijing’s beast and the US military at the same time, a longtime China hawk is warning. Four major providers of data for AI models — which help collate, label and package the vast troves of info for Anthropic, Google, Meta, OpenAI and the Pentagon — are also quietly working for China’s AI labs on the side, according to a new report. “America is in an AI race with the Chinese Communist Party,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told The Post. “We cannot spend billions trying to protect our technological advantage while American companies...

A veteran prosecutor in state Attorney General Letitia James’ office claims he was ordered to dig up dirt on people and groups “affiliated with Donald Trump,” according to a bombshell report. Daniel Wiesenfeld, a former Brooklyn prosecutor who now works in James’ Investor Protection Bureau, said his boss instructed him “to find and pursue crimes” committed by Trump allies, according to a since-deleted email obtained by the Times-Union. Wiesenfeld alleged in his email that Bureau Chief Shamiso Maswoswe specifically directed him to target “Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard (DOJ approved merger)… without having a credible reason for targeting the...

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said she will focus on “campaigning down ballot” in Texas, suggesting that she won’t campaign with Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico after he defeated her in the party’s primary. “We’ve seen the turnout that you can produce. Talarico might very well need that magnetism. Will you campaign with him?” CNN’s Laura Coates asked the congresswoman on Thursday. “I will be campaigning down ballot,” Crockett said. “Because when we’re looking at a state like Texas, we’ve tried this, where we’ve got one amazing candidate that’s running at the top of the ticket,” Crockett said, when asked why...

WASHINGTON — Just don’t wear a blue dress to work. The Clintons are on the lookout for a new intern to help their global foundation with research, memos, office management, and more. The unpaid intern will work for Hillary Clinton’s office on Madison Avenue in NYC. The position requires a “high level of professionalism and discretion,” according to a posting on DayBook. Former President Bill Clinton’s team at the foundation, meanwhile, is after a “special projects associate” to help with somewhat similar tasks. This includes drafting meeting agendas, editing briefs, and helping to coordinate activities between his office and the...

On August 27, 2026, Attorney General Josh Kaul announced that the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) is joining a suit to block a federal policy requiring providers and states to comply with updated U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funding rules for the next five-year grant cycle. “This is what Josh Kaul isn’t telling you: that this is just another example of him using lawfare to protect special interests like Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin’s largest abortion provider,” stated Heather Weininger, Executive Director of Wisconsin Right to Life. “Instead of expanding their counseling services to patients, Planned Parenthood wants to...

American author Mark Twain famously stated: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Likewise, digging deeper into data sometimes reveals a different picture from what you saw at first glance. After combing through reports from more than 1,200 weather stations across the United States, former University of Alabama climatologist John Christy is challenging a commonly held belief that extreme high temperatures have become more prevalent. According to his report, published this spring in the academic journal Theoretical and Applied Climatology, the data don’t show an increase...

Despite the tech industry’s conviction that the rise of AI is an inflection point that will change the course of humanity, many humans remain skeptical whether the new direction we’re headed in is the right one. As Statista's Felix Richter reports below, the pace at which AI seems to be taking over parts of our lives, whether we like it or not, is especially worrisome to many.In a recent Statista Consumer Insights survey, 31 percent of U.S. respondents said that they were worried about the speed at which AI is developing and 25 percent of respondents claimed to be avoiding...

Two NYC Democratic Socialists of America leaders have been caught living the ultimate capitalist dream, with one quietly collecting millions in real estate flips and another nesting in a sleek $500,000 Brooklyn apartment, The Post has learned. Labor Coordinator Olivia Gonzalez Killingsworth sold a luxe Upper West Side triplex in a brownstone building for $2.4 million on Sept. 12, 2022, according to public records. The “huge, versatile” two-bedroom, three-bathroom triplex just a block away from Central Park boasts sweeping 10-foot-high ceilings overlooking a fireplace, marble shower stalls, bay windows with a view of the gorgeous Callery Pear blossoms that line...

In an election cycle where young socialists have been knocking off members of the Old Guard, 80-year-old Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey is out to prove he’s radical enough to survive. The oldest Dem seeking reelection this year partnered with AOC on her “Green New Deal” in 2019 and touts “Medicare for All,” which has become a rallying cry for the socialist wing of the party. He is up by double digits in the polls against Marine Corps vet Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), 47, who faces off with Markey Tuesday in the deep blue state — and began his campaign against...

President Donald Trump announced an historic energy deal with Venezuela in a Truth Social post Friday night. The president called the deal “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY.” Trump wrote that the United States secured “majority U.S. control” of over 65 million barrels’ worth of Venezuelan oil reserves. Trump credited Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez and “a partnership with private business.” The president stated that the deal more than doubles American reserves and will “substantially lower Gas Prices for all Americans.” He added that the deal would strengthen the...

A US Coast Guard officer was killed during a suspected random shooting in Washington state as police launched a search for the suspected killer. Coast Guard Lieutenant Connor Overstreet was fatally shot just before 12:40 a.m. Sunday in a residential neighborhood of Bryn Mawr-Skyway, Wash., 10 miles south of Downtown Seattle. First responders found the 29-year-old in the roadway and attempted life-saving procedures, but the active-duty service member later died, Fox 13 Seattle reported. Overstreet’s death was ruled a homicide from a gunshot wound to the chest, the King County Medical Examiner announced Tuesday. No arrests have been made and...