Free Republic

Veteran film actor Danny Aiello, known for his roles in "Do The Right Thing" and "The Godfather Part II," has died. He was 86. His literary agent told Fox News on Friday that the actor died Thursday night. Per TMZ, who was first to report the news, the actor’s family said he died at a medical facility in New Jersey where he was being treated for a sudden illness. The outlet reports that he was dealing with an infection related to an injection site and died shortly after his family left following a visit.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., views the media in a way that will likely make conservatives' heads turn, portraying them in a new interview as "accomplices" of the president. "I do think that he was assisted by the communications industry, not just Hollywood, but the press as well, because all they do is enable him, and that is really a sad thing," she told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday. She added that she calls her friends in the press "accomplices" and seemed to push back on the idea that Trump's words should make news. "I've said to...

***SNIP*** "When Lisa Page, the lover of Peter Strzok, talks about being 'crushed', and how innocent she is, ask her to read Peter’s 'Insurance Policy' text, to her, just in case Hillary loses. Also, why were the lovers text messages scrubbed after he left Mueller. Where are they Lisa?" he tweeted. ***SNIP***

One of President Trump's nominees for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals broke down in tears during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, as he disputed suggestions that he would not be fair to members of the LGBTQ community. Lawrence VanDyke was the subject of a scathing letter from the American Bar Association, sent to committee leadership Tuesday night, which alleged that people they interviewed expressed this concern, and that VanDyke himself "would not say affirmatively that he would be fair to any litigant before him, notably members of the LGBTQ community." But conservatives have adamantly defended the nominee. And...

***SNIP*** "Your letter seeks federal dollars for California from hardworking American taxpayers but fails to admit that your State and local policies have played a major role in the current crisis," Sec. Carson wrote in a letter responding to the leaders. ***SNIP*** The letter also blames California's sanctuary policies, saying "illegal and inadmissible aliens are increasing housing demand and draining resources," and says the Trump administration is addressing the problem by improving border security to reduce drug use. "The Trump administration is doing its part," Carson writes in the final part of the letter. "California needs to address the obvious...

People in the education policy and funding worlds don’t like Sandra Stotsky. For years she has been a robust critic of too many things educators, ed school professors, school administrators, and philanthropists have hailed and implemented. She doesn’t spare people’s feelings and she won’t relax her standards. Stotsky’s new book, The Roots of Low Achievement: Where to Begin Altering Them, is certain to arouse education establishment ire. For example: Starting in the 1970s and continuing here and there today, self-esteem has been identified as a key to academic improvement, especially for poor and minority students. Stotsky’s judgment is, “Not only...

Former FBI General Counsel James Baker is defending the FBI’s handling of the Trump dossier, saying “we took it seriously” but “we didn’t necessarily take it literally” and did not treat it as “literally true in every respect.” The dossier, packed with salacious and unverified claims about President Trump's ties to Russia, was written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and formed a key part of the FISA applications used to justify surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Sitting down with Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman for a "Skullduggery" podcast released on Wednesday, Baker said the...

As knife crime continues to be a major issue in Germany, one German women’s magazine has written an article on the treatment of stab wounds in its “health and fitness” section. The April edition of the women’s magazine Illu der Frau contained the article “How do I treat a stab wound?” along with an adjacent subtitle which highlights the growing problem of knife crime across the country, Tichy’s Einblick reports. The article aims to give practical advice for those who may be victims or witness stabbing attacks saying, “Importantly, before you provide first aid, make sure the perpetrators have disappeared,...

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Prosecutors have dropped a criminal case against a Maryland woman who was charged with assaulting White House counselor Kellyanne Conway during a confrontation last year at a restaurant in a Washington suburb. A trial for Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, 63, of Chevy Chase, was scheduled to start Monday morning in Montgomery County, Maryland. Instead, a county prosecutor asked a judge to dismiss the charges. Police had charged Inabinett last November with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct. Conway told police she was attending a birthday party with her teenage daughter at a Mexican restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland, last October...

* * SNIP * * From the end of 2015 to the end of 2018, Bill Priestap was assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, which meant he oversaw the FBI’s global counterintelligence efforts. In that role, he managed both of the bureau’s most politically sensitive investigations: the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information and the probe into whether Donald Trump or his campaign conspired with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election. His testimony provides rare insight into the attitudes and thoughts of officials who launched the Russia probe and the probe of Special Counsel Robert Mueller,...

Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only.... ....The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!

* * * SNIP * * * If you're upset about the theft of classified documents from the U.S. government -- and there is reason to be -- we already know who did that. A 22- year-old Army private named Bradley Manning, now called Chelsea Manning. In 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to stealing secret material and got 35 years in prison for it. Shortly after that, President Obama commuted Manning's sentence. This allowed Manning to leave jail decades early, go back on television as a commentator, and then run for political office. So if your real concern is America's national...

April 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — As a Canadian father fights to stop court-ordered testosterone treatments for his 14-year-old daughter, U.S. experts warn there’s an increasing danger that more and more American parents will find themselves in a similar heartrending predicament. “Yes, it is really that bad,” Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Pediatrics, told LifeSiteNews. “Parents are losing their right to protect their children from this dangerous medical experiment, and extended family members fare no better,” she told LifeSiteNews. The general rule that individuals under age 18 cannot consent to medical treatment is being tossed out the window...

* * *S N I P * * * If you take your child to a clinic to seek help, affirmative care means the therapist must follow the child’s lead. The professionals must accept a child’s professed gender identity. In fact, this is the law in many states. Under “conversion therapy” bans, questioning a child’s professed gender identity is now illegal. So, if a little boy is 5 years old and believes he is the opposite sex, affirmative care means going along with his beliefs. Parents are encouraged to refer to him as their “daughter” and let him choose a...

Federal prosecutors are close to bringing charges against Greg Craig, a prominent Democratic lawyer and former White House counsel in the Obama administration, in a case that originated with special counsel Robert Mueller, according to people familiar with the matter. The possible charges are connected to false statements Craig allegedly gave to investigators who were looking at the work he performed for Ukraine.

Here’s how things began. After convincing myself that I was a woman during a severe mental health crisis, I visited a licensed nurse practitioner in early 2013 and asked for a hormone prescription. “If you don’t give me the drugs, I’ll buy them off the internet,” I threatened. Although she’d never met me before, the nurse phoned in a prescription for 2 mg of oral estrogen and 200 mg of Spironolactone that very same day. The nurse practitioner ignored that I have chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, having previously served in the military for almost 18 years. All of my doctors...

Within hours of the horrendous Texas church shooting, Keith Olbermann called President Donald Trump a “pig” for invoking God instead of gun control. The shooting occurred Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a 26-year-old man who was reportedly “an atheist” and who thought Christians were “stupid” opened fire on the congregants of First Baptist Church. The attacker killed 26 people. His violence was stopped by a good guy with a gun who “took cover behind a car” and shot at the attacker. President Trump was in Japan when the attack occurred. He tweeted: May God be w/ the people...

During her annual State of the City address on Thursday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf called on her constituents to open their doors and residences to the city’s homeless, as union workers picketed against her for her administration’s handling of the city’s rampant housing problem. “Give up that Airbnb. Fix up that back unit,” Schaff said, encouraging property owners to lease apartments at more affordable rates to recently homeless individuals, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “In Oakland, we don’t step over the homeless we step toward them,” Schaaf said. The city’s uptick in vagrants is tied to a general gentrification...

Political retirement speeches are not usually all that memorable. A celebration of your many accomplishments, a nod to the great institution you serve, a hat tip to all the sacrifices your family made over the years to let you live the life you've lived. Which is what makes Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake's speech on Tuesday all the more remarkable. Flake's address was a clarion call to the governing wing of the Republican Party to wake up from the fever of Trumpism. It was a call to action and a warning. A plea and a push. It was, in short, the...

Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Thursday he would not be able to speak at the Women’s March’s first annual National Women’s Convention next week. The Vermont senator will instead be traveling to the hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. “I want to apologize to the organizers of the Women’s Convention for not being able to attend your conference next Friday in Detroit. Given the emergency situation in Puerto Rico, I will be traveling there to visit with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz and other officials to determine the best way forward to deal with the devastation the island is experiencing," he said in...