Free Republic

Deporting gang members triggers boomerang effect: Culture spreads across the Americas, winning recruits who see L.A. as the promised land. TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- Marlon Fuentes is a big man in his cell block at Honduras' largest prison. His face is tattooed. His talk is tough. He menaces with threatening stares. A gang member from Hollywood, Fuentes spends his time behind bars impressing Honduran "homies" with his exploits in California. He joined Los Angeles' infamous 18th Street gang when he was 12, was arrested for selling dope and brandishing a deadly weapon, then deported in 1995. Fuentes, 27, is the United...

Hamas is facing a new problem in Gaza: coming up with the cash it needs to pay its rank and file. Israel last month cut off supplies of humanitarian goods to the enclave, some of which Hamas had been seizing and selling to raise funds, according to Arab, Israeli and Western officials. Its renewed offensive has targeted and killed Hamas officials who played important roles in distributing cash to cadres and sent others into hiding, Arab intelligence officials said. In recent weeks, the Israeli military has said it killed a money changer who was key to what it called terrorist...

Justin Trudeau was brought to tears as he spoke of the ongoing feud with President Trump and the US-imposed tariffs that have rattled Canada in his final days as prime minister. Trudeau, 53, appeared at a press conference on Thursday in Ottawa, where he discussed childhood health care, but became visibly emotional while vowing that he’s always “Canadians first.” “On a personal level, I made sure that every single day in this office, I put Canadians first, and I have people’s backs, and that’s why I’m here to tell you all that we got you,” the outgoing PM said as...

Sam Bankman-Fried's defense has filed a collection of letters from interested parties on Tuesday asking for leniency for the former FTX CEO - who is being sentenced this week. A friend of his from his MIT days said 'vegan' Bankman-Fried would be 'an asset to society' if given a lenient sentence, in the new court documents. 'Sam felt deeply for every living being, farm animals included - so much so that he adhered to a vegan diet and convinced several others in our living group to become vegan, too. He took every actionable step he could to reduce suffering,' the...

Johnson pointed the finger at Abbott for the crisis, however, during a press conference for the opening of Chicago's new Community Reentry Support Center. "We have a governor – a governor – an elected official in the state of Texas, that is placing families on buses without shoes, cold, wet, tired, hungry, afraid, traumatized," Johnson said. "And then they come to the city of Chicago where we have homelessness, we have mental health clinics that have been shut down and closed, you have people who are seeking employment." He went on to argue, "The governor of Texas needs to take...

Anthony Fauci in an interview with the BBC blasted the “cowardly” internet trolls who harass his wife and children, saying it’s a part of the backlash he’s experienced over the COVID-19 pandemic. “These people who troll about, they harass my wife and my children because they can figure out where they live and what their phone number is,” the immunologist told BBC’s “Americast” podcast. Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the White House, has been the public face of the government’s efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s set to retire from government service at the end of the month....

FBI agents, as well as U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray, are experiencing an uptick in death threats in the wake of the raid at former President Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, according to sources speaking with Fox News. Authorities monitoring social media posts are spotting a significant increase in death threats aimed towards agents, Wray and Garland. These threats are reported to continue at a steady pace online. The FBI/DOJ security procedures are not made public, and both Garland and Wray travel with armed security. Still, Fox News is told there are discussions to...

Reiko Yamada was 11 years old on August 6, 1945, when the US dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Now 88, she is among the few survivors of the horrific attack, which killed around 140,000 people, and is determined to pass on the lessons of history. But Yamada and other survivors fear their voices are not being heard. On the 77th anniversary of the bombing, FRANCE 24 reports on the survivors of the attack. Bells tolled in Hiroshima on Saturday as the city marked the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing. Reiko...

Just days before it was found, Wallace - NASCAR's only full-time black driver - had successfully lobbied for the auto racing company to permanently ban the Confederate Flag from being displayed at any of its events. The request was made at the height of racial injustice protests across the country following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Wallace received an onslaught of backlash over the motion, with some fans of the sport claiming the flag was a crucial part of their southern heritage and therefore an integral part of NASCAR, a sport with deep Southern roots. On June...

Historian and archeologist Kelley Fanto Deetz arrived to work at Virginia’s Executive Mansion last month to find her office had been emptied. Items in a historic kitchen in the building’s annex, which had been reimagined to tell the stories of enslaved workers to visitors, had been shoved aside, she said. A planned educational room for schoolchildren was empty except for a TV, leading Deetz to conclude it had been reconverted into a family room for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Deetz is unsure whether she still has a job as the mansion’s director of historic interpretation and education. Deetz’s work updating...

Car shopping right now is a miserable experience. There’s no new inventory, used inventory is scant and ultimately you’re going to be overpaying. And that’s a problem, because people need cars. But before you lament your own inability to buy a car, take a moment and spare a thought for the real victims of post-pandemic over demand and under supply: private jet customers. They’re people just like you and me and they’re hurting, folks. New business jets can’t be made fast enough, and the secondhand market is bone dry, per Reuters: “There are virtually no young pre-owned aircraft available -...

The Trump administration is facing growing complaints from migrants about severe overcrowding, meager food and other hardships at border holding centers, with some people at an encampment in El Paso being forced to sleep on the bare ground during dust storms. The Border Network for Human Rights issued a report Friday based on dozens of testimonials of immigrants over the past month and a half, providing a snapshot of cramped conditions and prolonged stays in detention amid a record surge of migrant families coming into the U.S. from Central America. The report comes a day after an advocate described finding...

This place is getting more like facebook and twitter, stealthly deleting posts for not stated reasons. Sometimes whole topics. You don't know they're gone until you browse your comments and find they don't exist anymore. Way to go censors. 20+ year guy here and i will say this is a new level of low. Read it while you can, i am sure whoever's deleting comments tonight will not want to have this out there.

Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman John Podesta still harbors strong emotions about Roger Stone, the Republican dirty-trickster he believes played a role in releasing his hacked personal emails to try and gain an edge in the final month of the 2016 presidential contest.

Members of the American Federation of Government Employees and other government employee unions detailed the problems of working without a predictable paycheck on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019. (WTOP/Dick Uliano) UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — Federal workers caught up in the partial government shutdown — now in its third week — said that without a regular paycheck, they’re having to make some very tough choices. A dozen unionized federal employees and union leaders, assembled by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said the hardship is growing from the shutdown. Some spoke of cash-flow problems in the absence of a paycheck. “I got to...

A group of Central American migrants camped at the U.S.-Mexico border said Tuesday that they were "victims of repression" by American border agents who launched tear gas over the weekend at a crowd that included angry rock-throwers and crying children. "We were only walking [to the border checkpoint] so that we could be visible, so that they would recognize that we are a large group of people who just want to be heard so that international law can protect us as we migrate and seek to improve our lives," the group, calling itself Central American Exodus for Life, said in...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez apparently believes the “electoral system” is unfair because she can’t receive her congressional salary until she’s actually sworn in as a member of Congress. On Thursday, the 29-year-old socialist spoke with The New York Times about her election victory on Tuesday. But rather than discuss her ideas for Congress, Ocasio-Cortez complained about not being able to afford an apartment in Washington, D.C. Given that she will not be sworn in as a member of Congress until January, the Democratic socialist complained about not receiving her congressional salary for another three months. “I have three months without a salary...

... Word of the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy, which calls for prosecuting everyone who crosses the border illegally, has been traveling along the migrant trail that winds through Mexico and Central America. People learn of it by television, by social media and, mostly, by word of mouth. While the policy has stirred controversy in the United States, with lawmakers from both parties calling for its end in the face of defiance from the Trump administration, it has sowed confusion for the migrants bound for the United States, who are struggling to make sense of what it means for...

Caleb Torres lost seven pounds his freshman year of college — and not because he didn’t like the food in the dining hall. A first-generation college student, barely covering tuition, Torres ran out of grocery money halfway through the year and began skipping meals as a result. He’d stretch a can of SpaghettiOs over an entire day. Or he’d scout George Washington University campus for events that promised free lunch or snacks. Torres told no one what he was going through, least of all his single mom. "She had enough things to worry about," he said... Now a senior and...

The Twitter universe exploded with plenty of hot takes after another white backup quarterback was signed before the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who infamously refused to stand for the anthem. Dear @NFL, Colin Kaepernick is a better quarterback than Brandon Weeden. We all know that. Let him play! Sincerely, America — Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) October 3, 2017 Colin Kaepernick when he sees the Titans sign Brandon Weeden pic.twitter.com/Ib1AGAOrjH — Dan Roche (@RochesRWinners) October 3, 2017 Brandon Weeden over Colin Kaepernick is booger over steak. Owners can kneel, loop arms all they want. It’s bullshit spin PR. Nothing more. —...