Free Republic

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that if Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s spending bill as is, they would “get smoked” in the 2026 midterm elections. Host Chris Hayes said, “Josh Hawley, Republican, Missouri, wrote a big op-ed in The New York Times saying Medicaid cuts are a bad idea. Does that end up mattering in the Senate?” Murphy said, “I think it’s a great question, Chris because the Republican Party still does essentially operate like a cult. And that’s not fundamentally different in the Senate than it is in the House. I mean, yes, you’ve...

Five people were shot at a mall in Waterbury, Connecticut Tuesday, when an argument escalated into a violent outburst from a gunman, according to authorities. Gunshots rang out at the Brass Mill Center just before 4:40 p.m., hitting five people who were taken to area hospitals, WTNH reported, citing Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski, Jr. Cops said the bullets began to fly when an argument turned into a violent confrontation at the 1.1-million square-foot shopping complex with officials emphasizing at a press conference this was not a “random act of violence.” The suspect is described as a man in his 20s...

DHS has officially revoked Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, meaning that they can no longer enroll international students at the university and any of Harvard's existing foreign students must transfer out or lose their legal status. ... This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost...

Apparently, nobody’s watching the watchmen. Private security guards hired by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to staff subway stations, and act as deterrents to would-be turnstile hoppers, have instead been lending a helping hand to the Big Apple fare-beaters. The Post recently observed Allied Universal Security Services guards inside the Herald Square station holding the emergency doors open on two different occasions to let a stream of scofflaws through. ... Several commuters could be seen walking up to the gate, and exchanging words with the guard, who then let them in. Whenever the guard opened the door, other fare-evaders would make...

I never thought I’d end up in handcuffs and a jail cell for something I didn’t say. But last May, police in New Haven, Conn., arrested me — because a parking attendant falsely claimed I had used a racial slur against him nearly a year earlier. I denied it. I asked the cops to check the parking lot’s surveillance video. They didn’t — and the state charged me first with disorderly conduct, then with three counts of breach of peace in the second degree. It took almost a year, tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and endless stress...

PORTLAND, Me. — Miss Congeniality, Jordon Hudson is not. Bill Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend fell short yet again in the Miss Maine beauty pageant, placing third Sunday — and she couldn’t hide her disappointment. Hudson — who came in second in the contest last year — once again didn’t have quite the stuff to strut all the way to the crown.

You and I have to pay more taxes so elite universities that willfully break the law discriminating against Jews, whites and Asians can get tax exemptions. It's a slap in the face. Yet Harvard alum Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is trying to turn the tables, accusing the Trump administration of "weaponizing" the IRS to strip Harvard of its 501c3 tax exempt status. Truth is, Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status because it's guilty of illegally allowing the civil rights of Jewish students to be trashed. The case against Harvard is a slam dunk. Numerous other universities where Jewish students are...

Air Traffic Control lost radar for 90 seconds at Newark Airport on Friday. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there was a telecommunications outage at Newark Liberty International Airport. “There was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace. The outage occurred around 3:55 a.m. on Friday, May 9, and lasted approximately 90 seconds,” the FAA said on Friday morning. ... United Airlines pulled 35 round-trip flights a day following a radar outage at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey...

A Long Island suburb voted to wallop homeowners with a 87% property tax hike— with local officials saying the insane increase was necessary because of a years-long administrative goof. Atlantic Beach’s village board of trustees told residents the big number was needed because of how taxes were assessed by the county in recent decades but officials refused to give The Post further information or answer any questions. The Nassau County assessor said it was the village government that was improperly billing commercial properties. ... Though village officials blamed assessment quirks, some residents said part of the hike is to cover...

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman on Tuesday said Harvard University, one of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest, should not be entitled to taxpayer funds when the school wastes money on what he calls “administrative bloat.” Ackman, who earned undergraduate and business degrees from Harvard more than three decades ago, was speaking hours after the Trump administration said it was freezing future grants to Harvard. He also criticized the school’s investment policies, saying the Ivy League university is facing a financial crisis and that its $53 billion endowment is “poorly invested.” ... “They have lost all future grants, their tax exemptions are...

Harvard University has renamed its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office following the Trump administration’s decision to freeze billions in federal funding to the school. The university made the announcement on Monday; the name adjustment was announced by Sherri A. Charleston, the school’s former chief diversity officer. ... Harvard University has renamed its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office following the Trump administration’s decision to freeze billions in federal funding to the school. The DEI center, which was previously called the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, has been renamed to the “Office of Community and Campus Life,” as...

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — The Connecticut House of Representatives voted Wednesday to advance a new piece of gun legislation that could open firearms makers and retailers up to more lawsuits.

Democrats in Connecticut’s House will weigh a bill this week that would allow citizens to sue gun manufacturers, marketers, and dealers over the criminal use of firearms. The CT Insider noted that the legislation is being pushed as a way to create state-level options for filing lawsuits that are barred federally by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). State Rep. Steve Stafstrom (D) believes PLCAA has given too much legal immunity to people in the firearms industry: “What it has done is provide untoward protections to gun manufacturers and has deprived victims of their rights to seek...

 David McCullough was born in 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was educated there and at Yale University. Author of 1776, John Adams, Truman, Brave Companions, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, The Great Bridge and The Johnstown Flood, he has twice received the Pulitzer Prize and twice the National Book Award, as well as the Francis Parkman Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The following is adapted from a public lecture delivered at Hillsdale College on March 31, 2006, during Mr. McCullough's one-week residency at the College to teach a class on “Leadership and the History...

David McCullogh Historian David McCullough was born in 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was educated there and at Yale. Author of John Adams, Truman, Brave Companions, The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, The Great Bridge and The Johnstown Flood, he has twice received the Pulitzer Prize and twice the National Book Award, as well as the Francis Parkman Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. His next book, 1776, will be published in May 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is an abridged transcript of remarks delivered on February 15, 2005, in Phoenix, Arizona, at a Hillsdale College National...

It’s been a continuing mystery for three years, at least to me but many others too. In October 2020, in the midst of a genuine crisis, three scientists made a very short statement of highly public health wisdom, a summary of what everyone in the profession, apart from a few oddballs, believed only a year earlier. The astonishing frenzy of denunciation following that document’s release was on a level I’ve never seen before, reaching to the highest levels of government and flowing through the whole of media and tech. It was mind-boggling. For proof that nothing in the document was...

Is there a serial killer hunting in small towns across New England? A growing number of people believe this is happening. Human remains have been discovered in various places in the region and there is enough evidence to suggest that the crimes are connected. It’s creepy to think that there is some evil person out there stalking and killing people for no reason but studies have shown that there are serial killers operating in the country at any given time. Every once in a while, law enforcement connects the dots on certain cases and speculation grows. The Daily Mail reports:...

Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas is urging all residents to oppose the federal Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act. In a release from her office Thursday, Thomas says the legislation is “bad for Connecticut, bad for voters and bad for taxpayers.” The U.S. House passed the bill this week. If it passes the Senate and goes into effect, the bill would require in-person voter registration with physical proof of citizenship and eliminate online and mail-in registration. Thomas warns everyone that the measure would place costly, unfunded mandates on municipalities, burden local election offices and open the door...

Large-scale solar farms, wind turbines, and associated infrastructure are touted as solutions to the climate crisis, but their development comes at the cost of native forests and critical habitats.” “Until conservation charities disentangle themselves from government funding and corporate influence, they risk becoming complicit in the very destruction they were created to prevent.” ... One of the great ironies of our age is the double standard of Big Environmentalism toward wind and solar, which commit numerous eco-sins that would not be tolerated otherwise. Dilute, intermittent, and thus inefficient? Yes. Energy sprawl requiring service roads and transmission lines in the wild?...

According to The Harvard Crimson, Harvard will offer high-school-level math courses to its students. The remedial assistance has rekindled criticism over Harvard’s move away from standardized tests in making admissions decisions. For years, Harvard has been accused of lowering admissions standards to achieve “equity” goals in its classes. The school opposed efforts to uncover its admissions data. When that data was ultimately revealed, sharp differences emerged based on race. The differences led to the historic decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181 (2023) barring the use of race in college admissions. As court decisions made it...