Free Republic

Kroger plans to cut 3,000 corporate jobs over three years, saying a leaner company will help lower grocery prices. Investors face a harder question: how much of the savings will survive the supermarket price wars? The announcement puts thousands of employees in a period of uncertainty while giving shoppers another promise of relief at checkout. For shareholders, it marks a major test of CEO Greg Foran’s effort to make Kroger more competitive. Reducing payroll can improve the numbers. Getting customers to put more groceries in their carts requires more than a smaller headquarters. More Than One-Third of Corporate Positions Face...

RJ Mitte spent years dealing with a financial nightmare few Breaking Bad fans knew about. Less than a year before his death at 34, the actor opened up about an alleged betrayal by a former business manager who he said diverted money that was supposed to pay his taxes. The fallout, Mitte claimed, followed him for a decade and ultimately cost him more in taxes than he earned from the AMC hit. Mitte died Monday, October 12, in Brownsville, Texas. His representatives confirmed his death in a statement shared with People, while authorities said an autopsy would be performed. His...

Diesel futures traded sharply higher Tuesday, as doubts mounted about the likely impacts of the Trump administration’s latest efforts to push prices down. U.S. diesel futures were up 5% by midday to their highest level in weeks. In Europe, diesel futures rose by about 3.8%, while gas futures spiked to levels not seen all year. A move higher in futures markets typically signals that prices will climb in the coming days. Already, the average nationwide price of diesel is up 70% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. The cost of unleaded gas has risen by more...

Tim Mynett, the husband of embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), was spotted Tuesday for the first time since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) raided their Washington, DC, home – which President Trump suggested the couple shouldn’t be able to afford. Mynett, staring straight down at the sidewalk, was snapped walking the family dog – a yellow labrador retriever named Teddy – back to the home where Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents executed a search warrant and removed belongings early Monday morning. The raid is believed to be part of an ongoing criminal fraud investigation into the Somalia-born congresswoman’s immigration...

Only in Philadelphia does a political rally weeks ahead of the midterm election feature the former president, the governor, the mayor, and the Eagles’ head of security. That was the lineup Monday night at the Democratic City Committee’s annual fall fundraiser at Live! Hotel & Casino in South Philly, where hundreds of party members and elected officials mingled and speakers celebrated former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady as he marked 40 years leading the party. It was one of former President Joe Biden’s only recent appearances to rally his party ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election, when Democrats are hoping...

Authorities in southwest Riverside County recently seized a homemade .50-caliber rifle capable of firing Browning Machine Gun rounds, the City of Menifee Police Department said Tuesday. The gun was fully functional and “lacked several important safety components” usually found in manufactured guns, making the rifle especially hazardous, according to police.

One of the best bits of news for Republicans in a mostly gloomy midterm election cycle: Hillary Clinton has reemerged from hibernation. With the midterm elections looming, Mrs. Clinton is preparing to make her voice heard on a new podcast series, called “High Stakes,” alongside the well-known technology journalist Kara Swisher. Starting Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Swisher will break down the race to control the House and the Senate in weekly episodes that run through mid-November. It’s mid-October. A weekly podcast until mid-November? A whole four episodes? Don’t strain yourself!

“Drake & Josh” actor Drake Bell is putting SAG-AFTRA on blast after he revealed he does not qualify for health insurance. On his Instagram Story on Tuesday, Bell posted a screenshot of the SAG-AFTRA health plan website that says “you do not qualify for Health Plan coverage at this time. Your reported covered earnings from July 2025-June 2026 did not meet minimum eligibility requirements, or you did not qualify other eligibility rules.” The webpage says that Bell has earned $17,480.53 and that he needs $11,452.47 more to qualify by reaching the $28,933 required for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan. “Do not...

BUENAVENTURA, Colombia—The Trump administration’s bombing campaign against cocaine-smuggling speedboats is starting to have an impact on the global drug trade—but not necessarily in a good way.Thirteen months into the initiative, Colombian navy divers are detecting greater use of “parasites”—metal modules packed with cocaine that traffickers bolt onto the hulls of freighters preparing to steam out of this country’s largest Pacific port. Deep in the Amazon, smugglers have shifted shipments east, hiding drugs on boats moving through the rain forest’s vast river network. And on Colombia’s long coast, crews evade U.S. military airstrikes by hugging the shoreline in the exact same...

The US Treasury Department said Tuesday that it’s imposing $1.2 billion in fines on Bank of America for allegedly violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The fines on America’s second-biggest bank amount to the third-largest in the department’s history. “When a bank of this size fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations, the consequences extend far beyond its own walls, exposing the entire U.S. financial system to significant illicit finance risks,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s actions send a clear message that even the biggest financial institutions are not above the law.” Treasury said...

A team of researchers appears to be closer than ever in the search for Amelia Earhart’s plane and remains, a mystery that has captivated the world for decades. Earhart and flight engineer Fred Noonan disappeared 89 years ago during an attempt to fly across the world. Earhart and Noonan took off from Miami, Florida, in May 1937. On July 2, 1937, Earhart and Noonan were supposed to stop at Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean to refuel but encountered difficulties and transmitted messages saying, “Gas is running low. We are flying at 1,000 feet,” and “Wait.” Now, researchers from Purdue...

Pope Leo XIV underwent a procedure at Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome to remove a small nodule on his lung Tuesday, the Vatican said. The 71-year-old pontiff underwent thoracic surgery to remove the lower lobe of his right lung and doctors confirmed he had lung adenocarcinoma, a form of lung cancer, according to a statement released by the Holy See Press Office. The diagnosis was confirmed through a tissue examination conducted during the operation, consistent with findings from preoperative tests, the Vatican said. The pope spent approximately three hours in the operating room, although the surgery itself lasted about...

One of the latest polls suggests that Republican Ken Paxton may be moving the needle on his Democrat opponent James Talarico, with the new result showing that he is narrowly running ahead of the competition. US Senate Texas 2026 🟥Ken Paxton 47.2% 🟦James Talarico 46.7% 🟨Ted Brown 2.2%

The United Nations General Assembly rammed through another non-binding “political declaration” on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response on Tuesday by a lopsided 153–3 vote. The only countries that voted no were the United States, Israel, and Argentina. New Zealand and Paraguay abstained. According to UN News, the declaration calls for stronger international cooperation on pandemic preparedness and welcomes the World Health Organization’s controversial Pandemic Agreement, adopted in May 2025. The declaration is officially nonbinding, meaning it does not itself give the WHO legal authority to impose lockdowns, vaccine mandates, or other public health restrictions on Americans. But the overwhelming vote...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ilhan Omar’s staff helped get her birthdate changed in public records once the Minnesota Democrat was elected to Congress in 2018, a switch that has since spurred frenzied accusations that she misrepresented her age to secure US citizenship. The alteration could offer a big clue as to what federal immigration agents were searching for when they raided her DC home Monday: If the congresswoman is actually one year older than she’s claimed to be, that would mean she couldn’t have legally become a US citizen in 2000, critics contend. Omar’s birthdate had been listed in the Minnesota...

Two ships have been hit in drone attacks off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, with one of them sinking, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said. The Ukrainian-owned Chelsea 3, which was sailing under a Maltese flag, was hit by three drones and damaged about 18 nautical miles (33km) off Bulgaria at about 1:30am on Tuesday, Radev said. Bulgarian officials said five crew members had been rescued from the ship that sank but 11 remain missing at sea. The vessel went down off the coast of the village of Krapets, near the Romanian border and was identified as the Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship HS...

This explains the timeliness of @repilhan fraud and why a DC judge actually signed off on the warrant to raid her home! She's in deep shit! This video doesn't even go into the $700 million in cash that was smuggled out of Minnesota that went to Dubai then to Somalia!!

The move comes as anger has erupted across American college campuses Cornell University suspended parties at fraternity houses on campus for the rest of the academic year as turmoil at the Ivy League school continues over a former student’s rape allegations. The school will hire additional support staff and task New York State Police with investigating sexual assault claims on campus for the duration of an independent review of Cornell’s policies, President Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement Tuesday. That review, announced earlier, will be led by former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. “These measures will provide time for a...

Explanation: This stairway in Chile brings you only a little bit closer to heaven. But ooh, the sky above it makes you wonder. For example, you may wonder about the dark lane of our own Milky Way galaxy rising behind the expansive Atacama Desert in Chile, the band of zodiacal light on the upper left, the green and red airglow just above the horizon, the star Spica in the zodiacal light stripe, and, at the very top on the right, the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy. The Desert Staircase sculpture is in the foreground, and this image was timed to catch...

Ford has a Mustang ute sitting in its Experimental Vehicle Building. I'd much rather see it in my driveway. Despite being a die-hard DIY type with more ongoing projects than a film studio, I’m not what you’d call a “truck guy.” I appreciate them for their capabilities, but I’ve never really felt compelled to carve out driveway space for one. I’m a bit too high on horsepower and handling chops to get excited about big, practical pickups. But a ute, like this one-off Ford Mustang with a factory-engineered bed? In the immortal words of the sultan of Hatay, I even...