Free Republic

Listen carefully to the words of President John F. Kennedy in his speech before the American Newspaper Publishers Association - 5 min

* Silence from authorities turns coincidence into currency. * Information vacuums don’t calm the public, they activate pattern-seeking. * When motive disappears, attention shifts to everything else. =========================================================================== BRIEFING There are a lot of questions swirling around the Brown University shooting, and as usual, the internet did what the internet does. People started digging, and they’ve turned up some details about the shooter that have caught some attention. Let’s break it down. After the assassination of Ella Cook, a conservative student at Brown University, the details haven’t necessarily been coming out at breakneck speed. On the contrary, they’ve had to...

PARIS (AP) – Three men will stand trial next year after a silver steward employed at the official residence of the French president was arrested this week for the theft of items of silverware and table service worth thousands of euros, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. The Élysée Palace’s head steward reported the disappearance, with the estimated loss ranging between 15,000 and 40,000 euros (($17,500-$47,000). The Sèvres Manufactory – which supplied most of the furnishings – identified several of the missing items on online auction websites. Questioning of Élysée staff led investigators to suspect one of the silver stewards, whose...

“Is that Fale Pea?” a Seattle police officer asks another. “Yeah, you know him? “He’s notorious for random assaults on Third,” the officer says.

A county run by a construction industry magnate with a net worth to rival Trump's, a magnate whose tainted son-in-law keeps getting re-elected Sheriff on the Republican ticket with never any serious opposition in the primary. A county illegal aliens stick to like iron shavings to a magnet, because there's tons of construction jobs just waiting for them here and law enforcement (there's an oxymoron for ya) looks the other way, and where the cost of labor for that magnate I was telling you about is negligible because of his cheap labor pool protected by the son-in-law. Try visiting one...

A staggering $9 billion may have been stolen in Minnesota’s sprawling social-services scam orchestrated mainly by members of its Somali community — a figure nearly equivalent to the entire economy of Somalia. The enormous new estimate is a nearly nine-fold increase from the swiped $1 billion previously suspected, according to federal prosecutors. It also accounts for roughly half of the $18 billion in total federal funds provided to the Minnesota-run services since 2018, the feds said — as Democratic Gov. Tim Walz continues to take heat for his handling of the debacle. By comparison to the $9 billion figure, Somalia’s...

Minnesota’s sprawling fraud crisis has garnered national headlines in recent weeks, but several critics say the problem festered for years, aided by local media that appeared uninterested in holding people in power accountable. “In newsrooms, they’re told, ‘We can’t run that because we’re going to be accused of being racist,’” Townhall columnist Dustin Grage recently told Fox News Digital about news outlets in Minnesota essentially enabling the fraud by not calling out shocking taxpayer waste occurring primarily within the local Somali community. The outlet that is considered by many the top news source in the region, the Minnesota Star Tribune,...

On April 30, 1945, I left the barracks early to have breakfast with the Mosers. I was fortunate enough to be the only prisoner there that got to eat with the family, but on the way, there was three black cars came back with guards on 'em, and of course my heart was beating pretty fast. I was concerned that they was sitting there with guns and I was unprotected, but they paid no attention to me. First car goes by and just a driver and the guards on top. Second car just about even with me, and the one...

Brace for another government shutdown early in the new year, as the GOP’s narrow majorities and the Democratic base’s deep desire to derail the Trump presidency makes it near-impossible for Congress to get anything done. The first piece of coal in Americans’ stockings: The short-term funding bill that Democrats finally allowed to pass last month, ending the record-long shutdown, only runs through Jan. 30. The federal Fiscal Year 2026 started Oct. 1 this year, yet the House and Senate have so far passed only three of the 12 appropriations bills to fund various parts of the government. And they’re not...

Avatar: Fire And Ash (12A, 197 mins) Rating: [TWO STARS] By Brian Viner There comes a point in the careers of most revered movie directors when nobody is brave enough to lay a restraining hand on their arm and remind them that ‘less is more’. Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese have both been guilty of bloated storytelling in the last few years, but James Cameron takes not just the biscuit but every packet on the supermarket shelf. His third Avatar film lasts well over three hours. I’ve been on shorter mini-breaks. When a movie more conspicuously satisfies its director’s ego...

What the heck is a “deputy mayor for economic justice” tasked with doing? Equalizing New Yorkers’ incomes? Redistributing their wealth? Ensuring that “some animals are more equal than others,” perhaps? OK, fine: After Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani named Julie Su to the job on Friday, he explained that she’ll oversee agencies that focus on “New Yorkers everyday economic realities,” including the Commission on Human Rights, the Taxi and Limousine Commission and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protections. But his transition staff made it sound like a lot more than that: Deputy Mayor Su is to “help usher in an era...

No. 9 Alabama ripped off 27 straight points after a horrific start to beat No. 8 Oklahoma 34-24 in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Friday night. The Sooners led 17-0 with 10:51 to go in the second quarter after John Mateer hit Isaiah Sategna III for a 7-yard score. Less than 10 minutes later, Alabama had the game tied at 17-17 in the midst of a flurry that stretched through the third quarter. After Oklahoma cut Alabama’s lead to three at the start of the fourth quarter, the Tide pushed the lead back to 10 on...

PROVIDENCE, RI — Leadership at Brown University, frustrated with the lack of progress in tracking the shooter who killed two students and injured many more on December 13, has reportedly recruited Police Chief Clancy Wiggum of Springfield to assist in the case. "Two deaths and nine injuries — sounds like the work of rowdy teens!" Wiggum said in a press conference as he laid out his progress on the case. "I talked with the FBI profiler, and she said it was some lone nut, but that's nuts." Chief Wiggum has been busy since arriving in Rhode Island just days ago....

The Iranian regime is in dire straits. Thanks to the decisive actions of President Trump and the State of Israel, the Islamic Republic is no longer the regional power it once was, and it now faces crises on every front. Iran’s military infrastructure has been seriously degraded, and its illicit nuclear program has been severely decimated. Its network of proxies throughout the Middle East is disintegrating: Hezbollah is seriously diminished; the Assad dynasty has collapsed; Iranian-backed militias in Iraq face mounting political and public backlash; and Hamas is a shadow of its former self. The domestic situation is also bleak....

Minnesota officials and prosecutors are warning that the state is facing an unprecedented fraud crisis in its social service programs, with losses potentially reaching as high as $2 billion, according to those who have investigated the cases. Republican state Sen. Michael Kreun said Minnesota has long been aware of the problem but failed to contain it. "Minnesota has an epidemic of fraud, as the rest of the nation is learning," Kreun said. "We’ve known here in Minnesota for quite some time that we’ve had a massive fraud problem. And it’s turning out that probably Minnesota is the epicenter of fraud...

A high-profile Zohran Mamdani appointee resigned Thursday after newly unearthed posts revealed a series of antisemitic comments online — including rants about “money hungry Jews” and defunding NYPD “piggies.” The short-lived appointment fell apart once the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey demanded answers Thursday from Mayor-elect Mamdani’s team about whether its members knew about Catherine Almonte Da Costa’s past antisemitic posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. Da Costa, whom Mamdani tapped on Wednesday as the city’s next director of appointments, had several vile stereotype-laden posts from 2011 and 2012, the ADL revealed in a post on...

Incredible video footage shows beachgoers gazing on after the sea was transformed into a deep shade of blood red following a torrential downpour on Iran’s Hormuz IslandStunning footage shows the moment a sea is turned 'blood red' by a sudden downpour - sparking comparisons to a Biblical prophecy. Rainfall on Iran’s Hormuz Island briefly transformed the coastline of its famous Red Beach into a striking scene this week, as soil flowed into the sea and turned the water into a deep crimson shade. Some internet commenters likened the spectacle to the 'End Time' prophecy in the Book of Revelation, the...

Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua has come under fire after devising a touchdown dance which includes an offensive Jewish stereotype during a live stream with two YouTubers. Nacua, who is in his third season with the Rams, appeared on a stream with popular content creators Adin Ross and N3on earlier this week ahead of their crucial Thursday night showdown with the Seattle Seahawks. As well as taking a swipe at NFL referees and Taylor Swift, the 24-year-old receiver sparked a more alarming type of controversy when he was captured working on an antisemitic touchdown dance with Ross, who is...

EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Digital spoke to Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins shortly after she unveiled millions in alleged fraud in the state’s assisted living program and identified an individual already indicted for fraud who is still receiving payments from the state, adding to the already exploding fraud scandal in the state. The Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy, chaired by Robbins, held a hearing that focused on a new sector of fraud, the state’s assisted living programs, that comes amid a massive unfolding fraud scandal in the state that has affected a variety of other sectors and resulted in...

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a review into how Minnesota used billions of dollars in federal social service funding, requesting detailed records from Gov. Tim Walz’s administration and other state entities after reports raised questions about whether portions of the money were misused, according to letters first obtained by the New York Post. The letters were sent Monday by Alex Adams, assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), to Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and a nonprofit involved in administering Head Start programs, the Post reported. According to the Post, Adams said...