Free Republic

A recent report by WalletHub has identified the best and worst cities for first-time homebuyers, with Palm Bay, Florida, topping the best list. Five additional Florida locations—Tampa, Cape Coral, Orlando, Lakeland, and Sunrise—are among the top 10 cities ripe for picking by first-time potential buyers.Other cities that made the Top 10 list include Boise, Idaho; Surprise and Gilbert, Arizona; and Huntsville, Alabama.WalletHub, a national personal finance company, prepared the report by comparing 300 cities of various sizes, using key categories of affordability, market attractiveness, and quality of life. These included factors such as real estate taxes, homeowners’ insurance costs, median...

Following the wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles area earlier this year, Democrats and a bunch of celebrities did a fundraising event called ‘FireAid’ that brought in a ton of cash, some reports say it was almost $100 million. Yet none of the victims have seen a penny of if it. Independent investigative journalist Sue Pascoe began looking into this and found that all of the money was apparently distributed to non-profit groups in the area, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with fire recovery. Is there a more perfect example of liberalism than this? Rather than giving...

SACRAMENTO — In a common insult the Trump administration uses against dissidents of federal policy, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called a California judge a “communist” after she blocked roving immigration arrests based on race alone. The MAGA-embraced epithet from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s official press office in response, however, was hardly typical for a Democratic politician. “This fascist **** in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with autocracy,” the California governor’s office posted on social media. “Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen. Cry...

...Earlier today, my Chico District Office and the neighboring businesses were evacuated because a clearly disturbed woman dropped off a package and devil worship candle display against "heteronormative, cisgendered, capitalists, ableists”...

An Anaheim businessowner recently scared off a mob of thieves trying to break into his store by firing a warning shot at the crowd. The whole thing was caught on store security footage. What we know: The attempted robbery happened at Al-Amira Jewelry on July 17. The owner told FOX 11 that it was close to closing time, when five cars pulled up to the front of the store. Security camera footage showed about 20 people piling out of the cars and mobbing the store's entrance. Some of them had sledgehammers and pickaxes and started smashing the door. Seconds later,...

Governor Gavin Newsom has proclaimed June 2025 Immigrant Heritage Month in California, highlighting the state’s deeply rooted immigrant communities and their enduring impact on the state’s economy and culture.... .... Immigrants make up about a quarter of the state’s population — about 11 million people.... .... From 2021 to 2023, immigrants accounted for a third of the state’s workforce.... /

Sacramento, California – Governor Gavin Newsom today issued a proclamation declaring July 4, 2025, as “Independence Day” in the State of California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom will soon be a first-time firearm owner.Shawn Ryan, a conservative-leaning podcaster, gifted the governor a Sig Sauer P365 XMACRO pistol within the first five minutes of his show featuring Newsom on Monday. The pistol is a popular pick as a concealed carry firearm. Ryan told the governor it's California compliant."This is fabulous," Newsom told Ryan as he held the pistol in his hands. "The last thing people would expect is that I respect this gift.""Really?" Ryan replied."Yeah, man, I'm not anti-gun at all," Newsom said as he placed the gun back into its box....

Fox News Jesse Watters tried to clear up his earlier claim that Gavin Newsom was lying in a denial of a phone call with Donald Trump last month, but the California governor indicated that he would still proceed with his defamation lawsuit against the network.... ...Newsom’s $787 million lawsuit, filed last month in Delaware...

California’s high-speed rail had a $9.95 billion bond measure back in 2008 that was supposed to link up LA, San Francisco and the Central Coast by 2020. It’s 2025 and the budget has shot up to $128 billion. Sorry, let me correct that, it has shot up to $135 billion. By the time you read this, it’ll probably be up another few billion. The Trump administration is pulling funding from the ‘train to nowhere’ because well, just look at the Gov. Newsom press release. “The Authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February...

Yuriana Julia “Juli” Pelaez Calderon is an illegal alien who lives in Los Angeles. On June 30, her family and their lawyers held a press conference at which they told a horrifying story: Calderon’s family and attorneys held a press conference on June 30, saying armed men ambushed her in two unmarked trucks at a Jack in the Box restaurant parking lot in downtown Los Angeles. Her family claimed that the men brought Calderon to San Ysidro, where “she was presented to [a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] staffer” and “presented with voluntary self-deportation paperwork,” according to officials. The family’s...

Interesting to see terrorist sympathizer Maher Bitar’s name on the participants list of this NSC meeting [December 9, 2016 in Obama's White House Situation Room] where the Russia Hoax conspirators hatched their plan. Shortly after this PC [Principals Committee meeting of the National Security Council], Bitar would leave the executive branch to go work on HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] for disgraced former Congressman Schiff. It would appear that through Bitar, Obama was able to continue, after his term ended, his illegal attempts to take down @realDonaldTrump @EzraACohen July 18, 2025

In an age when political authenticity is currency, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is making a risky bet: that he can repackage his image from slick, left-coast progressive into pragmatic, media-savvy moderate. Newsom’s strategy appears engineered to break out of the coastal liberal mold. His new iHeartRadio podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” features guests from across the political spectrum. He’s launched a Substack, plastered Fox News with ads, and even taken his feuds with Donald Trump directly to national audiences. ... But this isn’t just about booking podcast guests. In another instance, Newsom criticized the inclusion of biological males in women’s...

I didn’t expect the highlight of my Tuesday night would be watching an actor portraying Luigi Mangione sing a ballad about hash browns, followed by a tap dance number featuring his cellmates Sean Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried (who happen to be falling in love). The plot is totally outrageous, but as “Luigi: the Musical” goes on, it becomes cathartic to sit in the warm haze of the Independent with over a hundred strangers and laugh, groan and marvel at the spectacle American life has become.

When you’re running one of the largest economies in the world into the ground, you probably don’t have time to fact-check your vacation photos. On Tuesday, the official Governor Newsom Press Office account tried to clap back at a critic on social media platform X. Instead, it ended up showcasing Nevada. Newsom had posted a video of his interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan, in which he defended and in some cases downplayed his record of gun control. ... There’s just one problem: one of the images — specifically the lower left one — wasn’t even from California. It was from...

Saturday is the one year anniversary of Trump’s historic third nomination as the Republican presidential candidate and the gripping nomination speech where he told a rapt audience about his brush with death not long before. The chairman of the Republican Party remembers it this way: “Just days after surviving an assassination attempt, President Trump accepted his third nomination for President, showcasing his unwavering commitment to our nation and to the American people,” said Michael Whatley. “President Trump campaigned on a bold vision for America: creating a strong economy, a strong border, and a strong America. One year later, President Trump...

Sources say the explosive had been brought back from a seemingly routine bomb squad call, and it was believed to be inactive. EAST LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Three members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Arson/Explosives Detail were killed Friday morning in an explosion at a training facility in East Los Angeles, authorities said. A separate investigation is underway in Santa Monica at a scene the three deputies reportedly responded to on Thursday. The incident, which was believed to be an accident, was reported around 7:30 a.m. at the Biscailuz Training Facility in the 1000 block of North...

People coming of political age in the last decade or so were no doubt shocked to learn of the Biden administration’s insane plan for saving the northern spotted owl from purported extinction. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for implementing the Endangered Species Act, preserving the owl requires slaughtering nearly half a million barred owls at a cost, opponents say, of $1.3 billion over the next 30 years. That is so, the FWS maintains, because the larger, aggressive barred owl is killing its cousin at a prodigious rate. Perhaps more stunning to these political newcomers is...

A sworn declaration from a local constituent alleges that Temecula Valley Unified School District Board President Dr. Melinda Anderson could have made false and misleading statements during an independent investigation into a sexual harassment complaint between TVUSD board members. The document, signed and dated July 16, 2025, by Jason Craig, claims that Anderson privately admitted to hearing vulgar comments made by Trustee Steven Schwartz, differing from statements she made to investigators. “Dr. Anderson admitted to me that she heard Mr. Schwartz say the comment(s) ‘You can cop a feel’… and ‘my wife wouldn’t mind,’” Craig wrote in the declaration. “At...

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office repeated the Los Angeles Times’ description of the RRA as “a new local authority” that would “buy burned lots, rebuild homes and offer them back at discounted rates to the original owners.”.. A controversial California bill that would have created a powerful “Resilient Rebuilding Authority” for the Los Angeles fires was put on temporary hold by state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, in response to widespread community concerns. “I appreciate the input of the folks who have weighed in about the bill, and along with legislative colleagues have decided that it would be best for...