Free Republic

Minnesota is still reeling from the biggest fraud scandal in its history. A sprawling, stunning, almost unbelievable heist of federal money intended to feed hungry children during the pandemic. And at the center of the storm sits Aimee Bock – former schoolteacher, mom-of-two, and the woman federal prosecutors branded the mastermind of a $300million meals-for-kids scam. Bock is already convicted. She's already behind bars. And she's facing a sentence that could lock her away for most of the rest of her life. But her lawyer, Kenneth Udoibok, says she is nothing more than a scapegoat – the fall-girl for a...

Dearborn, Michigan, was back in the national spotlight last month after a far-right protest spiraled into street clashes, a near-Quran burning, and the latest debate about religion, identity and political extremism in America's largest Muslim-majority city. The drama began when Jake Lang – a January 6 rioter, newly pardoned by Donald Trump, and now a long-shot Republican US Senate candidate in Florida – arrived in Dearborn with an entourage, cameras, and a self-styled 'anti-Sharia' crusade. He carried bacon in one hand and a Quran in the other, marching through the city center in combat gear and trolling locals, daring them...

Drivers have complained that their vehicles have suddenly locked up, lost power and refused to start, as owners and dealerships warn of a growing wave of failures that has left hundreds of vehicles stuck in place. The nationwide meltdown hit Porsche models built since 2013, which are all fitted with the brand's factory VTS satellite-security unit. The vehicles have been 'bricked' with their engines immobilised, due to connections with the satellite system being lost. Rolf dealership service director Yulia Trushkova said 'all models and all engine types' are impacted. The company does not rule out that the malfunction may have...

Charging documents alleged that on November 11 and 12, Caines committed three similar attacks in the area, spitting directly into the faces of unsuspecting women at close range, according to The Post. 'It felt targeted, even though I don’t know who he is. For some reason, I was the chosen victim.

President Donald Trump revealed he would 'love' to see Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene make a political comeback just hours after labeling her a 'traitor.' During a brief NBC News interview on Saturday, the president was asked about the Republican lawmaker's future after she abruptly announced she would resign from Congress in early 2026 following their public split. Trump admitted that 'it's not going to be easy for her' to claw her way back into politics, but said, 'I'd love to see it,' noting that for now, 'she's got to take some rest.' When pressed on whether the relationship between the...

American troops have stormed a Mexican beach setting off a diplomatic firestorm amid soaring tensions after Donald Trump threatened to bomb the country. US 'contractors' arrived by boat on Monday to 'Playa Bagdad', driving signs into the sand near where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Alarmed witnesses quickly alerted officials and heavily-armed Mexican security personnel rushed to the scene on trucks mounted with machine guns in a terrifying standoff.

The US housing market is now the strongest buyer's market in records dating back more than a decade, but that doesn't mean they are biting. New Redfin data shows home sellers outnumbered buyers by 36.8 percent in October, with 528,769 more sellers than buyers nationwide. That imbalance is the highest since the years following the 2008 financial crisis, and it has flooded the market with listings and forced sellers to slash prices across much of the country. In theory, buyers should now have the upper hand: more homes to choose from, more room to negotiate, and far less competition. But...

NASA's big reveal of the mysterious interstellar object has been slammed as a joke, with many claiming the space agency is covering up what they really know.The newest images of the visitor, known as 3I/ATLAS, were released by the space agency on Wednesday.However, the pictures, taken on a rather sophisticated camera on Mars, were largely blurry and showed only a distant dot.Moreover, NASA refuted any claims that the object, which had made unexpected maneuvers that dumbfounded experts, is anything other than a large space rock.>>>'What a waste of time! NASA is lying so bad. They are all so scripted. The...

MAGA has been left outraged over a pink, fair-isle patterned J.Crew sweater marketed towards men - claiming it is trying to 'feminize' them. The conversation was sparked on X (formerly Twitter) after Juanita Broaddrick - a former nurse who accused Bill Clinton of raping her in 1978, allegations that he has fiercely denied and was never charged with - posted about the sweater on the social media platform to her 1.9 million followers. The jumper, which retails for $168 on J.Crew's website and is described as a 'cold-weather classic,' is knit in a bubblegum-pink color, complete with pink, green and...

Home values are falling for more than half of America — the biggest share since the country was still clawing its way out of the Great Recession.New data from Zillow shows that 53 percent of US homes have lost value over the past year, the highest level since 2012, when the housing crash finally hit bottom.The national market looks flat on paper, but that average masks huge differences between regions, cities and even neighborhoods. Prices have been slipping in much of the South and West as more homes hit the market and buyers stay on the sidelines. Many would-be buyers...

A vast trove of Jeffrey Epstein's private calendars and emails are being revealed today by DailyMail.com. The hundreds of pages in the files give an unprecedented insight into the late pedophile's extraordinary network of power and influence. Among the revelations is that Epstein appeared to know personal details about the marriage of Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda – while magician David Blaine had numerous dinners with the financier.

The saga of now-deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s “fixer” Ghislaine Maxwell continues to grind on, generating headlines that the New York Post and the Daily Mail in the UK simply can’t resist. And let’s be honest… neither can many of the rest of us. The Daily Mail has uncovered (pun intended) yet another gem from the disgraced madam’s upcoming court proceedings. If the reports turn out to be accurate, the court now has videos of a very provocative, if not pornographic nature involving unnamed “individuals” who may have been with some of Epstein’s young victims. And until some names are attached...

Nigeria's Christians are being pushed to the brink of extinction - and could be wiped off the map within two generations without urgent international intervention. That's the chilling warning from Emeka Umeagbalasi, the outspoken founder of Nigeria's International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety). And he's not mincing his words. The veteran activist says a silent, systematic genocide has swept Africa's most populous nation for nearly two decades - a 'long-running, coordinated campaign' of killings, kidnappings and church burnings carried out mostly by Islamist militants and enabled by the Nigerian state itself. 'If you look at the...

The female migrant who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at Salt Lake City airport did not know she had a long-serving deportation order, according to a lawyer working on her case. Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, 39, was arrested by plain-clothed agents at the Utah travel hub last Wednesday. Footage of her arrest showed the wailing mother-of-four imploring, 'Help me, I have my papers' as she was taken into custody by ICE. Now, her legal team has claimed Leiva 'did not know' that a judge had placed a removal order against her. 'She is a woman who...

Distressing footage showed a female migrant scream 'help me, I have my papers' as she was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at Salt Lake City airport. Marta Brizeyda Renderos Leiva, 39, was dragged away by plainclothes agents at the Utah travel hub on Wednesday. Footage emerged of her arrest, with Leiva seen being grabbed her by the arms as she was placed in cuffs, pulling her up from the floor as she kicked out her legs and stamped her feet. She let out bloodcurdling cries as they did, saying: 'Help me, help me, I have my papers. Help...

Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs starting as soon as Tuesday, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. After over-hiring at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company is reportedly working to cut expenses by making job cuts. While the figure represents a small percentage of the company's 1.55 million total employees, it is almost 10 percent of its 350,000 corporate workers. It would represent the largest job cut at Amazon since late 2022, when around 27,000 jobs were eliminated. It comes months after CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon would reduce its corporate headcount...

President Donald Trump summoned FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to the White House on Wednesday. The president's public schedule described the meeting as an update on the fight against violent crime. But once everyone was in the room, Trump made it clear he had something else in mind. It was time, the president said, to speed the indictments of his political foes - the former officials who, he alleges, tried to destroy him and his family. Pointing up at the portraits of presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson which line the...

Ukrainian President Zelensky delivered a pointed rebuke to Donald Trump's assessment of the war in Ukraine on Friday, insisting Vladimir 'Putin doesn't want peace' even as the American president continued to express confidence a resolution was in sight.'We want peace, Putin doesn't want peace. That's why we need pressure on him,' Zelensky said, underscoring Kyiv's call for stronger US support.At the same meeting, Trump said he believed Putin wants to finish the war. 'I think President Putin wants to end the war, or he wouldn't be talking this way,' Trump said. Later in questions with reporters, Trump said he was...

A staffer at a Massachusetts school died after allegedly being kicked in the chest by a teenage girl. Amy Morrell, 53, was assaulted by a 14-year-old student at Meadowridge Academy in Swansea on Wednesday evening, authorities said. The teenager was trying to leave a dorm building without permission when the altercation occurred around 6.55pm, according to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office. Morrell was trying to restrain the girl, per investigators, only to receive a kick to the chest that proved to be a fatal blow. The staffer collapsed shortly after she was assaulted. School staff immediately began CPR and...

US stocks tumbled Friday after President Donald Trump threatened a massive increase in tariffs on Chinese imports. The threat is retaliation for China's new restrictions on rare earth exports — materials vital for AI, semiconductors, defense, and high-tech industries. The S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent, the Nasdaq dropped 2.5 percent, and the Dow Jones lost more than 500 points, as investors reacted to escalating trade tensions and uncertainty over US-China relations. 'Some very strange things are happening in China,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. 'They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to countries throughout the world, that they want...