Free Republic

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...

Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh had been both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the NSA, a role he'd held since February 2024. The director and the No. 2 official at the National Security Agency were ousted from their positions Thursday, according to a defense official and three sources with knowledge of the matter. It was not immediately clear why Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh and his deputy were dismissed, the sources said. The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night. Haugh was both the head of...

Coons was trying to highlight his party's issue with the Trump administration looking to get involved with Greenland for the sake of national security. As Townhall covered all last week, Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance traveled to Greenland, where they met with American Guardians at a U.S. Space Force base on the island. The Democratic senator claims he wants to see the administration focus on other issues, arguing that perhaps Americans are hoping for that as well. He couldn't just say that, though. He had to insult these Americans in the process as well. In...

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that the Signal group chat on military strikes against the Houthis between Trump administration officials might be a violation of the “Espionage Act as well as the Federal Records and Presidential Records Act.” Blumenthal said, “I’ve talked to some of the pilots who have undertaken these missions against the Houthis. They have very seriously threatening air defense systems that can shoot down our planes and the early warning that might have been given them about the targets, the human targets that were on the list, about the weather, about the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — As congressional lawmakers scramble to respond to President Donald Trump’s slashing of the federal government, one group is already taking a front and center role: military veterans. From layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs to a Pentagon purge of archives that documented diversity in the military, veterans have been acutely affected by Trump’s actions. And with the Republican president determined to continue slashing the federal government, the burden will only grow on veterans, who make up roughly 30% of the federal workforce and often tap government benefits they earned with their military service. “At a moment...

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports” that President Donald Trump was “destroying” both the rule of law and the world order. Blumenthal said, “I’ve been to Ukraine six times. I’ve met with Volodymyr Zelensky probably 15, in Paris, Munich as well as in Kyiv. I think the Ukrainians are going to continue to fight. When I first met with them, after they had pushed back the Russians, he said to me, we’ll fight with pitchforks if we need to. And they are so zealous because they are defending the independence and freedom of their...

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy is refusing to address reports he is romantically involved with a former Democratic political operative running a Soros-funded media network masquerading as independent media. Murphy, who recently announced separation from his wife after nearly two decades together, was recently photographed having a cozy dinner with Tara McGowan, the founder and publisher of Courier Newsroom, a progressive media group that has received millions of dollars in funding from liberal mega-donors such as George Soros. McGowan has long held ties with the Democratic Party, working on former President Barack Obama's re-election campaign before serving in top positions at...

It is simply wrong to let the government take one person’s property away in order to hand it to another private owner with more political power.’ An often-criticized precedent from the Supreme Court 20 years ago that gives local governments permission to literally confiscate a landowner’s property and give it to someone else who may have more political influence could be overturned through a new case pending before the justices. It is the Institute for Justice that has been fighting on behalf of Bryan Bowers, a New York landowner whose property was “seized” by a local government agency. It was...

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — A woman has been arrested in Waterbury after allegedly kidnapping her stepson and holding him captive for over 20 years, according to police. On Feb. 17, crews responded to a fire at a home on Blake Street in Waterbury. Two people, 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan and a 32-year-old man, were inside the home at the time. Sullivan was able to evacuate safely, and firefighters helped the man out. While being evaluated by EMS for smoke inhalation, the victim allegedly disclosed to first responders that he intentionally set the fire in his upstairs room by using a lighter,...

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WTNH) — Gov. Ned Lamont hit the road on Wednesday, visiting New Britain to promote a $300 million plan he says will deliver free preschool for many of the state’s working and middle class families.“We’ve got to make sure we take the lead here in the state of Connecticut,” Lamont said in remarks delivered at a preschool center on the campus of Central Connecticut State University.

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — In one week’s time, Gov. Ned Lamont went from vetoing nearly $3 million in funding for nonprofit organizations to signing a revised bill that provided the exact same funding – only by a slightly different mechanism.The $3 million in funding that the governor vetoed and then ultimately signed will go to an array of nonprofit organizations including Planned Parenthood, various LGBTQ+ groups around the state and agencies providing services for immigrants and refugees.

Maybe it can fire some of its 7,000 administrators.. Harvard has a $53 billion endowment. That’s a little less than the annual budget of the state it’s in. But still the wealthy woke uni is crying poverty over what it calls “substantial financial uncertainties driven by rapidly shifting federal policies.” Those are weasel words since what Harvard is really worried about are administration cuts driven by wasteful fake research spending and crackdowns on tolerance for campus antisemitism. And Harvard has good reason to be worried about both of those things. Harvard has the money to persevere, but instead, it’s pausing...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Murphy was spotted at a Washington, DC, watering hole on a date with a progressive media mogul and strategist who’s boosted his efforts as a leading anti-Trump politician in Congress — just months after the Connecticut Democrat announced he and his wife were separating. Murphy, 51, was caught “cuddling” with Courier Newsroom publisher Tara McGowan, 39, last Monday by the bar at the Red Hen, located just one mile north of Capitol Hill in the district’s Bloomingdale neighborhood, a source told The Post, sharing a photo of the pair’s romantic rendezvous. The source said Murphy wrapped...