Free Republic

A Cybertruck towing a giant bust of tech mogul Elon Musk is traveling across South Texas, raising questions and going viral online. In a video posted to social media Saturday, the bronze-colored bust was seen upright on a flatbed trailer. It towered over the Tesla-branded pickup that pulled it along a Brownsville street. Yellow straps crisscrossed the statue’s misshapen head. They framed a stern-looking Musk staring back at the vehicles following him. The same French tech entrepreneur and crypto advocate identified only as “Louis” who commissioned a 3-story-tall mural of Musk that now stands along the route to Starbase is...

A Little Musical Entertainment to start your Saturday Night.

DALLAS - State lawmakers are putting pressure on State Fair of Texas officials to reverse a gun ban. Fair officials announced last week that guns will not be allowed inside the fairgrounds. Last year, a gunman shot and injured three people inside the fair’s food court. The State Fair of Texas still hasn’t revealed how he got the gun through security, but he did not have a license to carry it. The fair used to allow licensed gun owners to carry their weapons concealed. That changes with the new policy. Only active and retired peace officers will be authorized to...

SOUTHLAKE, Texas — Southlake's Carroll Independent School District headed back to class on Tuesday, and for some students, it cost a little extra. Carroll this year raised the price of its school bus pass to $350 for the full year, or $205 for the fall semester, per student. Family pass prices were set at $730 for the full year or $415 for the fall semester. While Carroll offered a discounted rate if passes were purchased before July 17 -- $325 for the year, $180 for the semester, per student, and $705 for the year or $390 for the semester, per...

A man accidentally shot and killed himself when he slipped while taking his trash to an apartment dumpster. The man in his 50s or 60s was carrying his gun and trash at about 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to a preliminary San Antonio police report. The gun discharged when the man slipped in a wet area.

Vice President Kamala Harris has churned through her office staff, raising questions about her management style and leadership abilities as she advances unchallenged toward the Democratic presidential nomination. Researchers who analyzed payroll data found an “extraordinarily high” exodus rate from Ms. Harris’ vice presidential office. Those who have worked for her over the past decade report that she was a tyrannical boss who terrified her employees, cursed, discouraged direct eye contact and made employees stand at attention when she entered a room. One Democratic official whose son worked as an intern for Ms. Harris during her years as California’s attorney...

There is dysfunction inside the VP’s office, aides and administration officials say. And it’s emanating from the top. ~snip~ In interviews, 22 current and former vice presidential aides, administration officials and associates of Harris and Biden described a tense and at times dour office atmosphere. Aides and allies said Flournoy, in an apparent effort to protect Harris, has instead created an insular environment where ideas are ignored or met with harsh dismissals and decisions are dragged out. Often, they said, she refuses to take responsibility for delicate issues and blames staffers for the negative results that ensue. ~snip~ “People are...

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, will each travel to Houston this week to pay their respects to former U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, according to statements from the White House. Jackson Lee died at age 74 on July 19 amid a battle with pancreatic cancer. The Houston Democrat was one of the longest serving members of Texas’ congressional delegation, known as a staunch advocate for progressive causes. Harris called Jackson Lee a “dear friend” in a statementfollowing the Congresswoman’s passing and lauded her work on disaster relief following Hurricane Harvey, and as...

Heritage Foundation leader has long received spiritual guidance from group and his policy goals align with its teachingsWhat is Project 2025 and what is Trump’s involvement?Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president and the architect of Project 2025, the conservative thinktank’s road map for a second Trump presidency, has close ties and receives regular spiritual guidance from an Opus Dei-led center in Washington DC, a hub of activity for the radical and secretive Catholic group.Roberts acknowledged in a speech last September that – for years – he has visited the Catholic Information Center, a K Street institution headed by an Opus...

The CBO estimates the immigration surge will create $1.2 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade, mostly from income taxes and spending by the estimated 8.7 million migrants living in the U.S. during that time. The recent surge in migration across the southern border could help slash the federal deficit by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO estimates the immigration surge will create $1.2 trillion in federal revenue over the next decade, mostly from income taxes and spending by the estimated 8.7 million migrants living...

President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday. This is the third time he's tested positive for the virus. Later that evening Biden posted on X, formerly Twitter, two words: "I'm sick". The next post under the thread continued with "of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election. And if you agree, pitch in here." Below was a link to donate to his campaign. The campaign raised $127 million in June.

A woman whose murder conviction was overturned after she served 43 years of a life sentence was released Friday, despite attempts in the last month by Missouri’s attorney general to keep her behind bars. Sandra Hemme, 64, left a prison in Chillicothe, hours after a judge threatened to hold the attorney general’s office in contempt if they continued to fight against her release. ~snip~ Hemme had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the US, according to her legal team at the Innocence Project. The judge originally ruled on June 14 that Hemme’s attorneys had established “clear and convincing...

Photos, Tweets, X posts, Instagram videos and more of the shooting yesterday have spread over the internet like wildfire. Many are fakes and hoaxes.Early on this photo made it's way from the shadows. I first saw it here at Free Republic.It was reported to be a drone photo of Thomas Crooks on the rooftop before he shot President Trump, killed an innocent man, and wounded others.And with this before pic - we see an after pic of what I'm convinced is the same guy. I've really not seen this "drone picture" since maybe last midnight. I've certainly seen no news...

Some years back I watched a very profound docudrama on the imminent demise of Glen Campbell. If you've not watched it - do so ASAP.Campbell - like Biden will soon be - was in the end stages of severe dementia. He didn't know where he was most of the time, he couldn't remember the names of his children, he couldn't remember the words to Galveston and other hit songs he's sung thousands of times. He needed assistance with basic necessities of life.Yet his wife and handlers took him on a farewell tour. They put Campbell on stage before audiences who...

This cheerleader is talking to her husband as if he was a Special Ed kid who just passed a kindergarten quiz.

City officials threatened to cut utilities to home ahead of Fiesta party. For months, an arguably 8-foot to 11-foot fence centered in the Oak Park-Northwood neighborhood on the Northeast Side of San Antonio has been embroiled in community controversy. Now, when city staffers sought to shut off water and utilities just before the homeowner at the root of the drama was set to throw a Fiesta party, the city and homeowner sued each other. Each say the other is being unreasonable. The Oak Park-Northwood neighborhood is in a tizzy after the relatively new owner of a property on Country Lane...

Authorities discovered the remains of a missing woman in the jaws of an alligator this week in Houston, prompting an investigation into her cause of death by the city's Homicide Division Sergeants. “Patrol officers located the remains of a woman in the jaws of an alligator in the Horsepen Bayou, just west of El Dorado Boulevard, while searching the area for a woman reported missing” on Tuesday, Houston police said in a Wednesday release. Police did not name the woman, who they believe to be in her 60s, but they told KHOU-TV that she went for a walk around 7:30...

It’s time somebody came out and said it: Whataburger sucks. God forbid somebody in San Antonio should say that. We treat Whataburger like a hometown hero, never mind that it never was. And now it’s just another asset in a Chicago firm’s portfolio. Through orange-colored glasses, we failed to see the beat-down beef, the bun crushed by overreach and ennui. We failed to hold accountable the burger that tastes like the wrapper it came in, with the little round sticker that says “no onion” or “bacon” or “you can do better.”

Austin, Texas — Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas narrowly won his primary Tuesday against a gun-rights activist who pushed the border congressman into a bruising runoff that threatened to unseat a U.S. House incumbent. Another prominent Texas Republican, state House Speaker Dade Phelan, also edged out a challenger from the right who was backed by former President Donald Trump. Both won by razor-thin margins, reflecting the anger of hard-line conservatives and a wave of party turbulence in America's biggest red state over votes that bucked party lines and the impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Gonzales defeated Brandon...

In a rare TV interview, Pope Francis lambasted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's attempt to shut down an El Paso-based Catholic charity that assists migrants, even calling the state's legal action "madness." Francis' comments came during Sunday's episode of CBS's 60 Minutes. During that interview, taped in April interview at the Vatican, journalist Norah O'Donnell asked the pontiff what his thoughts were on Texas' bid to shut down Annunciation House, the El Paso-based nonprofit. "That is madness. Sheer madness. To close the border and leave them there, that is madness," Francis said. "The migrant has to be received. Thereafter you...