Free Republic

A New York appeals panel on Thursday appeared wary of the state’s civil fraud case against former President Trump that ended in a $464 million judgment against him and his business. During arguments lasting more than an hour, the five-judge panel on the Appellate Division — New York’s midlevel appeals court — questioned whether any constraints apply to the law New York Attorney General Letitia James used against Trump. The law gives the state sweeping power to bring actions against businesses that engage in “repeated fraudulent or illegal acts or otherwise demonstrate persistent fraud or illegality in the carrying on,...

For someone who has so strongly objected in recent weeks to the idea that he’s an authoritarian or a threat to democracy, Donald Trump has a funny way of showing it. At a rally Monday in Pennsylvania, the former president said for at least the fourth time that criticizing judges and justices either is or should be illegal. And for what may be the first time, he directly said people who do so should go to jail. This was not only a stunning comment about restricting free speech, but it suggests a standard that most likely would have landed Trump...

College football is becoming a battle ground for politics ahead of the 2024 United States Presidential Election. The Democrats are flying banners over games to attack Project 2025 and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Trump himself reportedly plans to attend the game of year taking place this weekend in Tuscaloosa: No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs vs. No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide....... Here’s a transcription of DeBoer’s quote: I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of celebrity type people here, people who want to be a part of what’s happening on game day. Everyone is going to be watching, so it will...

Buying a home with friends sounds like a dream. Until you try to get out. Celeste King invested $100,000 to buy and renovate a lake house with two friends near Austin, Texas, in 2021. She envisioned weekend getaways, work retreats and lazy days at the pool—at a fraction of the cost of solo ownership...... The number of co-buyers with different last names hit a record in data going back a decade in 2021. It fell 29.5% over the following two years, according to real-estate analytics firm Attom Data Solutions. The percentage of co-buyers who reported purchasing with friends was 7%...

More than five years after Jussie Smollett staged a phony hate crime against himself, and nearly three years since his conviction by a Chicago jury, lawyers for the former Empire actor are asking the Illinois supreme court to overturn the guilty verdict. Defense attorney Nenye Uche argued on Tuesday that Smollett’s case should never have gone to trial because the actor had already entered into a binding agreement with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office not to prosecute him in exchange for him voluntarily agreeing to forfeit his $10,000 bond and perform community service, according to a report in the...

JERUSALEM — The complex, multistage attack that caused thousands of Hezbollah pagers and handheld radios to explode across Lebanon over the last two days appears to have been meticulously mapped out. Israel, which rarely comments on its intelligence operations abroad, has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the attack, which continued into a second day Wednesday as more devices exploded across Lebanon. The Israelis did not inform the United States about the specifics of the attack before it took place but told Washington afterward through intelligence channels, according to two U.S. officials. Like others in this story, they spoke on...

A single mom in Durham, N.C. is finally getting her home back after squatters took it over. Two people booked Farzana Rahman's two-bed, two-bath property via Airbnb for seven months. They then refused to leave when their stay was up in May 2024, claiming they're "legal residents" of the home. Rahman ended up taking them to court to get her property back. But after they didn't show up to the hearing, the judge sided with Rahman and issued an eviction order. The Durham Sheriff's County Office served it to the guests on July 3, 2024. Rahman changed the locks and...

The presidential campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump are engaged in a very public fight over the rules of their first debate, scheduled for Sept. 10. ...... FROM THE RIGHT Fox News Before the June debate, President Biden’s team pushed to mute the microphone of the candidate who wasn’t speaking so that Mr. Trump would not interrupt Mr. Biden. But this week, Ms. Harris’s team asked that the network keep the microphones live throughout the debate. A spokesman for Ms. Harris’s campaign suggested that Mr. Trump’s team had objected to the request out of...

Clemson’s 2024 season got off to a horrific start on Saturday, falling in a largely non-competitive matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs. And former NFL wide receiver Roddy White has one explanation for why Clemson perhaps didn’t come out and compete. Georgia’s offense had very few issues moving the ball at will on Clemson, particularly in the second half of the game. Star quarterback Carson Beck looked as good as advertised, throwing for 278 yards and two touchdowns in the 34-3 victory. Meanwhile, Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik largely struggled to show much growth in his season debut, throwing for just 142...

There's an investigation underway in Tempe after a Wells Fargo employee died while on the job. A new timeline released by police suggests her body was there for four days before being discovered. "It's really heartbreaking and I'm thinking, 'What if I were just sitting there?'" a worker said. "No one would check on me?" The body was found inside the Wells Fargo corporate office in Tempe. An associate who spoke with 12News anonymously said the situation is troubling. "To hear she's been sitting at the desk like that would make me feel sick," the worker said. "And nobody did...

Stocks, bonds, gold and bitcoin — pretty much everything but the U.S. dollar — soared Friday when Fed Chair Jerome Powell not only declared that the time has come for policy to adjust but that further increases in the unemployment rate would be unwelcome. Markets looked set for a calmer session Monday, a period of tranquillity that may run until Nvidia reports its results on Wednesday. In the meantime, it’s worth looking at food prices, which have become a potent political issue in the presidential campaign. Vice President Kamala Harris outlined a plan, still lacking many concrete details, that would...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years, rising through the enlisted ranks and receiving an honorable discharge. It is a record seen as one of his political strengths. Republicans are trying to turn it into a weakness. They have seized on criticism from former National Guard members denouncing Walz, the Minnesota governor, for retiring from the military in 2005 to run for Congress shortly before his unit was deployed to Iraq and for overstating the rank he held after he left the service. They also have pointed to a comment...

Afederal appeals court on Friday upheld Maryland’s handgun licensing requirements, rejecting an argument from gun-rights activists the law violated the Second Amendment by making it too difficult for people to obtain guns. A majority of judges from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, affirmed a district court judge’s ruling in favor of the state of Maryland. The majority rejected the plaintiffs’ argument the state’s handgun qualification statute tramples on applicants’ Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. The law requires most Maryland residents to obtain a handgun qualification license before purchasing a handgun. Senior Judge...

A CNN panel on Thursday urged vice presidential nominee Tim Walz to apologize for misrepresenting his military rank. Fifty congressional Republicans with military backgrounds called on Walz Wednesday to publicly address “egregious misrepresentations” about his 24-year Army National Guard service, and accused him of falsely claiming to be a “Retired Command Sergeant Major,” despite allegedly not completing the requirements. CNN political commentators David Urban, Van Jones and Alyssa Farah Griffin, on “CNN News Central,” each advocated for Walz to take ownership of his misstatements, saying it would be politically beneficial for him to do so. (RELATED: CNN’s Jim Acosta Corrects...

No matter if the market is hot or cold, they still pop up: For Sale by Owner listings, otherwise known to Realtors as "FSBOs." These are houses put up for sale by the people who own them - without the help of a real estate agent. Homeowners who eschew professional assistance can start the home-selling adventure on their own, but are often unaware of the DIY pitfalls. Here are the pros, cons, and everything else you need to know about these kinds of properties. What to Know About FSBO Listings As a Realtor, I'm very aware of those DIY pitfalls....

The process of buying a home comes with many, many decisions. This barrage of choices starts immediately with deciding which online platform to use to search for potential homes. While the choice was once primarily between online real estate giants Zillow and Realtor.com, there's now a new number-two competitor in town: Homes.com. You may have seen their ads — especially during Superbowl LVIII — featuring big-name celebrities like Jeff Goldblum, Dan Levy, and Heidi Gardner. But does Homes.com's rapid growth mean that it's a better platform? Not necessarily. It all depends on what you're looking for. Meanwhile, Zillow's name continues...

CBS News is fact checking some of the statements made by speakers during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which is taking place in Chicago from Monday, Aug. 19 through Thursday, Aug. 22. The convention began with unity as the theme, and the featured speakers Monday were President Biden and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as a host of others. Some of the comments that CBS News' Confirmed team fact checked involved Democrats' comments about GOP nominee Donald Trump's record as president, as well as the Biden administration's record...... Fact check on Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez's claim...

(The Center Square) – Non-profit public interest group Government Accountability Oversight has filed a lawsuit against Wisconsin’s Department of State for refusing to disclose records regarding alleged donor-financed climate activists working in state departments. “Basic factual information like this is not privileged,” said Tom Kamenick, president of the Wisconsin Transparency Project which is representing GAO in court. “[The] Record custodian must redact privileged information and release the remainder – they cannot simply withhold the entire record. We are asking a judge to review these emails and determine whether they really are privileged.” GAO has alleged the U.S. Climate Alliance –...

If you own a home, you've probably heard the age-old advice to pay more on your mortgage so you can pay it off faster. But what happens when you don't have thousands extra to throw at your mortgage each month? There's a really simple way to pay a little extra -- by making mortgage payments every two weeks. Don't worry, you're not doubling your costs! Instead, you pay half your mortgage payment each time. It's a great strategy for sticking to a budget since many jobs pay every two weeks. And, because there are 52 weeks in a year, you'll...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin took a public victory lap this week, claiming credit for managing the Old Dominion’s budget into a $1 billion surplus. In his annual Joint Money Committee Address before the Commonwealth’s relevant legislative committees, Youngkin, a Republican, laid out how, in recent years, most of the surrounding states’ growth had become attractive to longtime Virginians. Youngkin began by greeting the Democratic committee chairs: House Appropriations Chair Luke Torian of Prince William, House Finance Chair Vivian Watts of Fairfax and Senate President L. Louise Lucas, who serves as the upper chamber’s finance chairwoman. "Our neighbors in North Carolina,...