Free Republic

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Sheri Biggs, a nurse practitioner and Air National Guard officer, won the Republican nomination for the U.S. House in South Carolina’s 3rd District on Tuesday, defeating a challenger who called himself former President Donald Trump’s pastor. In November, Biggs will be a heavy favorite in the most Republican district in GOP-dominated South Carolina. She was backed by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who she and her husband have been longtime friends and financial backers. Biggs defeated Mark Burns, a Black pastor who has been by Trump’s side for nearly a decade and has unsuccessfully run for Congress...

In the aftermath of losing the Men's College World Series to Tennessee on Monday, Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle was adamant that he would "never" leave the program for another job. On Tuesday, Schlossnagle agreed to leave Texas A&M to take over the baseball program at Texas. Schlossnagle and the Longhorns confirmed the news Tuesday night, following multiple reports. In three seasons in College Station, Schlossnagle led the Aggies to three NCAA tournament appearances and two trips to the College World Series. Texas A&M fell one win short of a national title in the best-of-three championship series this week....

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) has not qualified for the military pin that he proudly wears on his suit jacket despite repeatedly claiming the Army was mistaken for rescinding the badge, according to the congressman’s service record. Nehls has received backlash from some other House members for wearing a Combat Infantryman Badge despite an investigation from CBS News that found the pin was revoked from his military record in 2023. Nehls has repeatedly claimed the Army “got it wrong” and that he did qualify for the distinction — but the Army confirmed to NOTUS that he was not eligible. Nehls was...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against a couple who challenged the constitutionality of a Trump-era tax provision, handing the government a victory in a case that had huge potential consequences for the federal budget. At issue was a tax enacted in 2017 to pay for President Trump’s massive corporate tax cut and to prevent off-shore tax dodges. It was challenged by Charles And Kathleen Moore, who were required to pay a one-time $15,000 tax on an investment in India that grew in value from $40,000 to over a half million dollars. Backed by conservative anti-regulatory groups, the couple...

The stock price of Trump Media plunged by more than 17% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the Truth Social app owner said its registration of additional shares had been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trump Media, which trades under the DJT ticker, had seen its share price slump by nearly 10% during the regular trading day. The SEC’s declaration authorizes early investors in Trump Media to exercise public warrants they hold in the company, whose majority shareholder is former President Donald Trump. Trump Media said up to 14,375,000 additional shares would be issuable upon the exercise of...

Colorado congressional candidate and sitting State Rep. Richard Holtorf (R) received a tough grilling this week at the hands of local 9News anchor Kyle Clark over his apparent hypocrisy when it comes to abortion rights. Holtorf made headlines back in January when he defended paying for his girlfriend’s abortion, despite being an adamant pro-life lawmaker and abortion critic. “Anti-abortion GOP lawmaker praises the impact of the abortion he paid for,” read the headline of a local report by Clark from the beginning of the year. o his credit, Holtorf sat down with Clark to discuss the issue. “If abortion was...

Vandals spattered the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum’s home with blood-red paint, hung a banner vilifying her as a “White-Supremacist Zionist” and also daubed an red inverted triangle on her windows. That triangle inspired perhaps the most anxiety after the Tuesday night incident, which Mayor Eric Adams and others are calling an antisemitic hate crime. “The mob painted an inverted red triangle on the door — the symbol used by terrorists to mark targets they want to take out,” tweeted a Jewish woman on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. Horrifying vandalism and threats targeting the @brooklynmuseum...

A new investigation by CNN’s KFile team reveals that Trump VP hopeful and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance liked tweets calling the man he hopes to serve under “douchey,” accusing him of “serial sexual assault,” and even expressing an interest in working under his then-rival, Hillary Clinton. Senator Vance is one of Donald Trump’s most effusive allies in Congress now, even earning himself a spot on Trump’s shortlist to be his running mate. But this alliance is still a relatively new one. Back in 2016, he called himself a “Never Trump guy” and called Trump “reprehensible” and an “idiot.” In text...

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its key interest rate unchanged and signaled that just one cut is expected before the end of the year. With markets hoping for a more accommodative central bank, Federal Open Market Committee policymakers following their two-day meeting took two rate reductions off the table from the three indicated in March. The committee also signaled that it believes the long-run interest rate is higher than previously indicated. New forecasts released after this week’s two-day meeting indicated only slight optimism that inflation remains on track to head back to the Fed’s 2% goal, allowing for some...

Last October, when Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the house, one Republican of the eight who voted against him stood out as the odd bedfellow of the group: a junior representative from South Carolina named Nancy Mace. The seven other Republicans, all men, were far-right rabble-rousers, loudmouths for whom grousing about the “establishment” rather than working with it was always the right political move. They were used to attracting and capitalizing on press attention. Yet in the days that followed McCarthy’s ouster, Mace outshone them all, showing up for work in a shirt with a red A on...

American soldiers in uniforms spill out from the bars and cafes all around June 6 Square, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Is this really France? “This is the 53rd state,” Philippe Nekrassoff, a local deputy mayor, said as he made his way across the square, with its Roman milestone and medieval church, while U.S. paratroopers wearing maroon berets played soccer with a group of local teenagers. “Americans are at home here.” Here is Ste.-Mère-Église, a slip of a town in northwest Normandy with one main street. About 3,000 residents live in the town and its surrounding region, with its fields...

The U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in May, countering fears of a slowdown in the labor market and likely reducing the Federal Reserve’s impetus to lower interest rates. Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 272,000 for the month, up from 165,000 in April and well ahead of the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 190,000. At the same time, the unemployment rate rose to 4%, the first time it has breached that level since January 2022. The increase came even though the labor force participation rate decreased to 62.5%, down 0.2 percentage point. However, the survey of households used to...

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) suggested that Black families were better off during the Jim Crow era while speaking at a campaign event for former President Trump. Donalds, who is on the shortlist for Trump’s potential vice-presidential pick, was campaigning for the former president in Philadelphia at a “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” event aimed at garnering Black male voters, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. During the conversation, the freshman lawmaker said he is starting to see the “reinvigoration” of Black families, adding that it is “helping to breathe the revival of a Black middle class in America.” Donalds also claimed that the...

An analysis by The Washington Post has found that Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) was the top spender last year under the House’s new reimbursement program. The reimbursement program, passed last year by a House panel, allows members to be reimbursed for expenses from living both in their home districts and in Washington. More than 300 members were reimbursed at least $5.2 million in 2023, the Post analysis found. The taxpayer-funded program gives back money to lawmakers for food and lodging while they’re on official business in D.C., but critics of the program say it has very few formal rules and...

Move to phase out voluntary cuts depends on market conditions Oil futures headed lower on Monday as traders assessed a decision by the OPEC+ to extend cuts by the group into 2025 but to begin unwinding some additional voluntary reductions later this year. West Texas Intermediate crude CL00, -2.69% for July delivery CL.1, -2.74% CLN24, -2.69% was down $2, or 2.7%, to $74.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August Brent crude BRN00, -2.38% BRNQ24, -2.43%, the global benchmark, fell $1.72, or 2.1%, to $79.39 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. July gasoline RBN24, -2.12% declined by 2.1%...

Rates on U.S. government debt fell further Monday morning after construction- and manufacturing-related data came in below economists’ estimates. In data released on Monday, U.S. construction spending fell 0.1% for the month of April versus economists’ forecast for a 0.2% gain. In addition, the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing purchasing managers index came in at 48.7%, or below the median forecast of 49.6%, as the sector contracted for a second straight month. Traders are looking ahead to Friday’s release of the official jobs report for May, which is expected to show a 178,000 gain versus 175,000 in the prior month,...

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday plans to announce new measures to support the development of new U.S. nuclear power plants, a large potential source of carbon-free electricity the government says is needed to combat climate change. The suite of actions, which weren't previously reported, are aimed at helping the nuclear power industry combat rising security costs and competition from cheaper plants powered by natural gas, wind and solar.

"We're going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs," former President Donald Trump said in November 2022 as he launched his 2024 presidential campaign, "to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts." That promise was not an offhand remark; it has been core to Trump's platform. Which made one of his comments yesterday at the Libertarian National Convention all the more interesting. "I will commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht," he said, referring to the man serving two life sentences plus 40 years for a slew of convictions, including distributing narcotics. Ulbricht's legal troubles stem...

The Justice Department sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Thursday, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America and asking a court to break up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans. Filed in federal court in Manhattan, the sweeping antitrust lawsuit was brought with 30 state and district attorneys general and seeks to dismantle the monopoly they say is squeezing out smaller promoters, hurting artists and drowning ticket buyers in fees. Ticketmaster and its owner, Live Nation Entertainment, have a long history of clashes with major artists and their fans, including...

The Eyes of Texas are upon you, All the livelong day. The Eyes of Texas are upon you, You cannot get away. Do not think you can escape them At night or early in the morn — The Eyes of Texas are upon you Til Gabriel blows his horn. – “The Eyes of Texas,” school spirit song of The University of Texas at Austin The eyes of Texas were upon the ballots cast by several high-profile Texas politicians on Wednesday, after documents were leaked related to a stunning lawsuit accusing state election officials of failing to properly protect ballot secrecy....