Free Republic

It refers to the circle of self-enrichment through which political donors and special interests bag cash from government spending — then kick some of that cash back to politicians’ campaigns. That’s the only way to explain why the high-speed rail project persists in the Central Valley, even though almost nobody wants it and nobody is even pretending the state can afford it. Fraud is also the only way to explain how California spends nearly half a billion dollars on an overhaul of the 911 emergency system, only to find that the project doesn’t work. And when you double state spending...

Bethesda, Maryland -- A former Laurel police chief on Friday was sentenced to 55 years in prison for setting three fires at two Clarksburg properties owned by his stepson and daughter-in-law between 2016 and 2020. David Michael Crawford, 74, of Ellicott City, is already serving two consecutive life sentences plus 75 years for similar crimes he committed in Howard County. He is also implicated in several other arsons across Anne Arundel, Charles, Frederick and Prince George’s counties between 2011 and 2020, according to prosecutors. The fires targeted people known to Crawford and his wife, including several of Crawford’s former coworkers...

"A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money," Sen. Everett Dirksen is supposed to have said more than 50 years ago, and if you do that 370 times, according to California Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, you might have enough to cover the Golden State taxpayer dollars diverted into Democrat "voter machines."The details get a little technical — money laundering isn't supposed to be easy to follow, after all — so I'll break down Hilton's allegations as quickly and cleanly as possible before we get to the big picture.According to Hilton’s unofficial CAL DOGE, after...

The European Parliament has adopted a non-binding resolution setting out the European Union’s priorities for the upcoming session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, including language recognising trans women as women within the framework of EU gender equality policy. The resolution was approved on 12 February by 340 votes in favour, 141 against and 68 abstentions. The adopted text forms part of the European Union’s negotiating position ahead of the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which will take place in New York next month. The Commission, established in 1946...

Corey Lewandowski fired a Coast Guard pilot for leaving Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s blanket on a plane — but was forced to rehire them upon realizing there was nobody else to fly the plane, according to a stunning new report.Lewandowski, an unpaid special government employee who unofficially acts as chief of staff for Noem — with whom he’s had a years-long affair — has overseen a reign of terror over department staff since President Trump took office last year.According to the Wall Street Journal, Noem had to switch planes during an official trip due to a maintenance issue, but...

The head of the UN’s migration agency has admitted in a public interview that the organization’s strategic objective is not to stop migration, but to brand it as a deliberate instrument of development policy.According to Director-General Amy Pope, speaking to UN News:“Our goal is to make sure that we have governments thinking, talking, acting and using migration as a tool for development from the very beginning.”That’s not a policy position. It’s a strategy.It reveals that the bureaucratic engine driving global migration governance — which includes the IOM and its collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) on migrant health initiatives...

Annually and increasingly, tens of thousands of people are leaving blue states because of politics. If you’re old enough, you’ll recall the 1961 Berlin crisis. I recall it subsequently, when schools taught real history. That crisis happened during the Cold War’s peak years. In brief, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev wanted the U.S. out of West Berlin. There were multiple reasons, but, chiefly, access to West Berlin allowed East Germans to escape communist rule. According to the National Archives, by 1961, as many as four million Germans had escaped East Germany using West Berlin. With tensions rising, and the hemorrhaging increasing,...

The full extent of the Palisades Fire report cover-up has been revealed. The California Post has obtained the first draft of the Palisades After-Action Fire Report — before it was quietly altered and released to the public. Newly uncovered edits show sweeping changes to the 92-page document that was meant to deliver a warts-and-all account of the disaster, putting more pressure on Mayor Karen Bass to explain whether her office played a role in softening the language to blunt criticism of the city’s response to a fire that killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. Mayor...

t should not come as a surprise to see the Senator who lost her 2010 primary, then refused to leave congress and ran as a write in candidate; then supported changing the state voting system to a ranked choice structure; who then lost again in 2022 but ultimately won because Democrats all listed her as their second choice in the new structure; come out against anything that would lead to stronger voting requirements. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has now pledged to vote against the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act would bar states from registering a person to vote unless they...

BREAKING: Two former FL teacher’s union leaders sentenced after pleading guilty to a fraud scheme where they stole millions of dollars from teachers Union President Teresa Brady was sentenced to 27 months in prison while VP Ruby George received 1 year ABOLISH TEACHERS UNIONS

Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has quietly taken a role as a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an institution long entangled with Chinese influence networks, foreign government funding, and open-borders activism.Previously led by former CIA Director William Burns, the think tank has whitewashed his historically awful tenure at DHS:“In that position, he led 260,000 employees to achieve transformational change in a diverse set of missions, including counterterrorism and physical security, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, trade and travel, immigration, and response to natural disasters. He has been lauded for his leadership skills, raising employee morale to historic heights...

Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has quietly taken a role as a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an institution long entangled with Chinese influence networks, foreign government funding, and open-borders activism. Previously led by former CIA Director William Burns, the think tank has whitewashed his historically awful tenure at DHS: “In that position, he led 260,000 employees to achieve transformational change in a diverse set of missions, including counterterrorism and physical security, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, trade and travel, immigration, and response to natural disasters. He has been lauded for his leadership skills, raising employee morale to...

Senate Bill 6035 would allow the Washington Secretary of State to provide an online voting portal for certain categories of voters, including service members, overseas voters and disabled voters Washington is currently one of over 20 states being sued by the Department of Justice for failing to provide statewide voter-registration lists to federal investigators. Most of these states are Democrat-led or battleground states Democrats in Washington State have put forward a new bill to allow online voting.Senate Bill 6035 would allow the Secretary of State to provide an online voting portal for certain categories of voters, including service members, overseas...

The U.S. has arrested Zubayr Al-Bakoush, alleged to be one of the leaders of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the arrest on Friday. Bondi said that Al-Bakoush was charged with charges of murder, terror and arson, all related to the 2012 attack. "Zubayr Al-Bakoush will now face American justice on American soil. We will prosecute this alleged terrorist to the fullest extent of the law," Bondi said on Friday. "Let this case serve as a reminder: If you commit a crime against...

https://x.com/JohnBasham/status/2019203289146093795 "Senator Perdue claimed to have received a phone call in November 2021 from Vic Reynolds, then-Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Reynolds told Perdue, “We’re not going to investigate. The governor wants me to tell you why we’re not going to investigate.” Perdue revealed that in May of 2021, Reynolds was presented with evidence of ballot harvesting. “…Video evidence and cell phone evidence, along with testimony and bank records that are corroborated…” Perdue stated that Reynolds “looked at that and said it was compelling [enough] to be investigated.” Perdue would go on to reveal that the reason...

Illinois will join the World Health Organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, or GOARN, to counterbalance the federal government’s withdrawal, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Tuesday. (snip) California also joined GOARN in late January.The withdrawal is complicated because there is no official way to leave WHO and the United States is the only country with the ability to do so. Experts say it’s up to WHO members when the departure is finalized, and they expect the matter to come up in meetings in February and May.

As a historic nurses’ strike enters its fourth week, New York governor Kathy Hochul has protected hospitals from the strike’s impact by making it easier to hire scabs and doing little to stop executives from dragging out a fight over staffing and safety. On Monday morning, with temperatures below freezing, New York City nurses began the fourth week of the largest nursing strike in the city’s history, which has seen some fifteen thousand nurses across multiple Montefiore, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian facilities walk off the job. Hundreds of nurses kicked off the week by gathering near Grand Central Terminal and...

Democrats in Congress and George Floyd’s lawyer are calling for a change to federal law. They wish to amend the Civil Rights Act to allow citizens to more easily sue federal immigration officers. Since the Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in Minneapolis and the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Democrats have called for ICE to be fully defunded. The agency under the Department of Homeland Security is funded through Feb. 13 and has funding for deportation operations through 2028. However, at an unofficial, bicameral, partisan hearing on Tuesday, Antonio Romanucci, George Floyd’s former attorney now representing Good, called...

Democratic Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott accused a local reporter of racism Friday when she questioned why his SUV cost over $163,000. The 2025 Jeep Grand Wagoneer was the most expensive executive vehicle used by a Maryland public official, Baltimore-area television station WBFF reported, coming in at twice the cost of the vehicle used by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland. Investigative reporter Tessa Bentulan, who works for WBFF as part of a venture called Spotlight on Maryland, questioned Scott about the vehicle’s cost. “How do you justify the cost for this vehicle?” Bentulan asked. Scott responded, “We’ll just stop you...

alifornians have a right to be angry about Minnesota. It’s getting all the federal government attention for its illegal immigration, street violence, fraud and graft when California, in fact, is the king of all those civic sins. Yes, Minnesota and its lead city, Minneapolis, are impressive in the scale of fraud, estimated currently at billions of dollars, according to the Cato Institute’s recent “Fraud Update.” Not bad for a blue state, especially one with just 5.8 million people. But let’s be honest. Minnesota’s inhabitants are mere pikers compared to those in the Golden State. There, the level of fraud and...