Free Republic

Cook County has erased nearly $665 million in medical debt for local residents since launching the effort in 2022, according to new figures released Thursday. County leaders are celebrating the latest milestone of the program, which has so far helped almost 557,000 people have some of their debt abolished. The effort has relieved the most debt for people on Chicago’s South and West sides and in the south and west suburbs.The amount erased ranges from around $600 to $4,000 on average per person depending on where they live.

VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas - The Kaufman County sheriff is sharing more details about how fugitive Trevor McEuen was captured. McEuen is charged with murdering his neighbor in 2023. But on the morning of his trial, he allegedly cut off his ankle monitor and disappeared Dig deeper: FOX 4 has already shared the news of McEuen’s arrest, as well as comments from the Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office and the victim’s family. Now, Sheriff Bryan Beavers is talking about how and where McEuen, who had been on the run for 28 days, was found

Los Angeles County officially sued utility company Southern California Edison on Wednesday, claiming that its power lines caused the spark that ignited the Eaton Fire in high winds on January 7. The Los Angeles Times reported: The lawsuit is the latest to allege that Edison’s equipment caused the blaze, which destroyed about 9,000 homes and killed 17 people, making it one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Residents have filed more than 40 lawsuits against the utility, focusing on transmission towers where the first flames were spotted. The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre also plan to sue...

Feet of snow across parts of central New York caused more than two dozen homes and businesses to collapse under its weight, according to Oswego County officials. A lake-effect snowstorm started on Feb. 14 and did not let up until Feb. 19, piling feet of snow on roofs. According to the National Weather Service’s Buffalo office, the highest weekly totals included 79.1 inches in Palermo and 55.8 inches in Minetto. On Feb. 19, the city of Oswego had 20 inches of snow on the ground, the highest snow depth so far in February, according to the NWS.

An estimated 1,000 structures have been destroyed in the Santa Ana wind-fueled wild fire ravaging the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a news conference Wednesday morning. Many of the structures that have been lost to the flames were homes, KTLA reported. The Palisades fire was first reported on Tuesday in the 1100 block of North Piedra Morada Drive. By that evening, the fire had expanded to more than 2,900 acres.

"Holy smokes! Literally nothing? Literally not one county?" Jake Tapper is absolutely SHOCKED by the map showing that Kamala didn't outperform Biden in a single county. She's a total loser! https://x.com/i/status/1854064784351678941

Republicans now account for the majority of voters registered in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, according to Department of State data released Monday. Luzerne County Republicans have not held the lead in registration since 1970, according to WFMZ-TV 69 News. The flip reflects the Pennsylvania Chase’s grassroots initiative and the ongoing political realignment under former President Donald Trump. Luzerne County, known for being a major exporter of anthracite coal, is located in the northeast part of the state, just a few miles from Scranton, the birthplace of President Joe Biden. Biden lost the county to Trump by about eight percentage points. Before...

Formatted Video Transcript (by ChatGPT): Hey guys, this is your girl Melanie, and I have breaking news in the YSL case. We know that Ashley Merchant, one of Trump's co-defendants' attorneys, had to go in and try to remedy the situation where this corrupt judge had that ex parte meeting. Brian Steele, the attorney for YSL, made his objections and was actually held in contempt of court and sentenced to jail—specifically, 20 days of jail time each week throughout the entire summer up until August. He even requested to do jail time with Young Thug. Ashley Merchant and about 60...

Officials in Baltimore County, Maryland, helped a convicted illegal alien sex offender evade deportation for weeks by suspending his prison sentence and setting him loose into the community, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say. Raul Calderon-Interiano, a 25-year-old Guatemalan national, first arrived at the United States-Mexico border near Laredo, Texas, as an unaccompanied alien child (UAC) in June 2014. Calderon-Interiano was subsequently given a Notice to Appear (NTA) in federal immigration court at a later date.

The Republican leader of a suburb bordering New York City has Democrats up in arms over a plan to deputize private citizens for emergency situations. County Executive Bruce Blakeman has continued to irk opponents on the issues of crime and women's rights as he seeks to wrestle control of the state capital and give his constituents a greater say in local policy. I don't think you can depend on Albany or Washington, D.C., because they're more interested in giving away billions of dollars to migrants who are unvetted and bringing them to our communities than they are in protecting our...

Teacher Eliva Espinoza, 46, was stabbed to death by her pre-med student son.. Police said Emmanuel Espinoza confessed he did it because she annoyed him .. A beloved Florida elementary school teacher was murdered by her pre-med student son because 'she got on his nerves,' police said. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said University of Florida pre-med student Emmanuel Espinoza, 21, was driving from Gainesville to Frostproof when he decided to kill his mother Saturday. Emmanuel was traveling to attend a family event and had asked his mother, 46-year-old Elvia Espinoza, if he could stay at her house for the...

The federal income tax was unconstitutional for most of our county’s existence. The founders of this country would have never agreed to it. We should repeal it.

Officials of Nassau County, New York, are bucking the liberal establishment of the state after moving to place a ban on men competing as women in the sports facilities the country controls. County Executive Bruce Blakeman says the ban is intended to protect the integrity of women’s sports. “What we are saying here today with our executive order is that if a league or team identifies themselves or advertises themselves to be a girls or women’s league or team, then biological males should not be competing in those leagues,” Blakeman said, according to WLNY-TV.

Election officials in Virginia’s Prince William County have acknowledged roughly 4,000 votes were misreported in former President Trump’s favor during the 2020 presidential election, when President Joe Biden went on to win the state. A release from the county’s Office of Elections announced Trump incorrectly received 2,327 extra votes, while Biden was shorted 1,648 votes.

One person was killed and another four were injured in an early morning New Year’s Day shooting near a Los Angeles County shopping mall, police said. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said the shooting took place about 30 minutes after midnight Monday in the city of Hawthorne. Officers responding to reports of gunshots found one male victim suffering from gunshots at the scene and transported him to a local hospital.

Texas sheriff’s deputies in a county located 80 miles north of the border with Mexico recovered the bodies or remains of at least 26 migrants so far this year. The migrants mostly died while crossing through ranches to circumvent a U.S. Border Patrol immigration checkpoint. Brooks County Sheriff Benny Martinez told Breitbart Texas his deputies of 26 migrants between January 1 and July 1. Most of the recoveries involved the collection of skeletal remains scattered by animals and scavenger birds.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The California Department of Housing and Community Development released new income limits this month, and they increased in most counties. These limits are calculated annually based on federal guidelines and are used to determine eligibility for things like affordable housing programs. In Orange County, one-person households making less than $80,000 a year are considered low-income, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. That's up from just under $76,000 last year, and puts Orange County as the most expensive of the Southern California counties. In Ventura County, it's a little over $74,000 and in...

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 on Thursday in favor of a 94-year-old widow in her battle with a rapacious Hennepin County, MN, government which sold her home for a small tax debt and pocketed the change.The story starts in 1999 when Geralidein Tyler bought a condo in Minneapolis. In 2010, she decided, for a variety of reasons, to move into a retirement community. The financial strain of paying a mortgage, condo fees, and rent on her retirement apartment caused Tyler to fall behind on her property taxes. By 2015, she owed $2,300 in back taxes, onto which the county had...

A county in New Jersey voted unanimously to oppose an offshore wind farm proposed for its coastline, citing the project's negative impacts on the environment, tourism industry and beach vistas. In a 4-0 vote this week, the Cape May County, New Jersey, Board of Commissioners passed a resolution green-lighting reasonable use of all the county's resources to oppose the wind projects developed by Danish multinational energy company Orsted. The county is also considering legal options and appealed a state public utility permit it says would transfer "real property interests" from residents to Orsted. "At first, the County of Cape May...

"A sweeping proposal calling for depopulation and decarceration of the Los Angeles County jails will be considered Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, drawing the ire of an organization representing police chiefs for 45 law enforcement agencies."