Free Republic

Daniel Huff, a former White House lawyer, noted in a recent analysis that the drive toward diversity and inclusion in the airline industry has put passengers at risk. In an article for the New York Post, Huff wrote that President Donald Trump was right to rescind diversity efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration. That's because female and minority pilots -- many of whom entered the industry amid a drive toward diversity among pilots -- were responsible for half of pilot-error crashes. Despite making up 10 percent of pilots, they were responsible for four out of eight such crashes since 2000....

Cambridge University is England’s second-best university, but it’s now bottom of the class. As the case of Jason Arday confirms, no one does dumb like the smart people. In 2023, Cambridge made Arday a professor. He became the professorial chair of sociology and education. These fields produce politicized gibberish and call it scientific research.

The University of Cambridge is facing serious questions about its academic standards and push for diversity after its youngest black professor resigned amid allegations of copying other academics' research. Jason Arday's appointment in 2023 was hailed at the time as a progressive moment. Now, Cambridge says it has launched an investigation after "new information" emerged about his academic qualifications and honorary appointments. There are two fundamental questions for the university. Did it fail to adequately check Arday's credentials when appointing him, and did it defend that decision because of an institutional push to position itself as more diverse?

Jennifer Lackard has been terminated, the Mount Vernon Police Department said. A public safety official for a New York state police department faces criminal charges, including attempted murder, for allegedly helping her son flee a gang-related shooting in New York City, according to authorities. Jennifer Lackard was arrested on Tuesday in connection with a June shooting behind a Bronx courthouse, police said. The high-ranking Mount Vernon Police Department deputy commissioner is accused of "acting in concert" with her husband and their son in the incident, according to an indictment charging all three with more than a dozen counts -- including...

The percentage of high-ranking officer nominations going to women is currently at its lowest level in over two decades.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s blocking of promotions for high-ranking women in the military has contributed to the lowest percentage of such nominations for women in at least 25 years, according to a New York Times analysis.Eight of 201 candidates for high-ranking posts this year have been women, or 4 percent — less than half the average percentage of the past 10 years.More women could still be promoted this year. And the number of women nominated for promotion in any year is relatively...

The director of African American Affairs at Minnesota State University (MSU), Mankato is no longer employed by the university after a federal jury convicted him of a tax fraud scheme prosecutors said generated approximately $387,000 in fraudulent tax refunds. Cortez Hollis worked in the university’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) division, where he led the African American Affairs office. A federal jury found Hollis guilty in June on 20 counts of aiding or assisting in the preparation of false tax returns, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Hollis owned and...

If The Onion or the Babylon Bee wanted to spoof the absurdity of DEI — the woke ideology of “diversity, equity and inclusion” — they couldn’t have invented a character as unbelievable as Jason Arday. *** Born in 1985, in 2023 he became the youngest black man ever to hold a professorship at Cambridge University. Naturally, he had to overcome great adversity to do so. *** because Arday, the son of a Ghanaian immigrant to London, isn’t just black, he’s autistic and was nonverbal until the age of 11, according to the glowing media profiles he’s received. And he’s epileptic,...

This video discusses the downfall of *Kerri Greenidge*, a former tenure-track associate professor at *Tufts University* (0:54, 6:53). Her 2022 book, *The Grimke Sisters: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family*, which initially received significant acclaim and awards, was later exposed for containing major academic inaccuracies (1:15, 3:05, 3:50). **Key findings regarding the book's flaws include:** * **Fabricated Sources:** *Greenidge* cited non-existent letters in the *University of Michigan* archives (4:40). * **Sensationalized History:** The book inaccurately described the burning of *Pennsylvania Hall* in 1838, claiming the *Grimke* sisters led women to safety from an active fire when, in reality,...

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is being mocked online over the "irony" of saying she is "very, very mindful and scrupulous" about being impartial during a guest appearance on former first lady Michelle Obama’s podcast, "IMO." During an appearance of more than an hour on the podcast, Jackson, a Biden appointee to the Supreme Court, stressed the importance of being unbiased, saying, "You really have to be focused on that." "There are lots of limits on what judges can do, and I try to be very, very mindful and scrupulous with respect to that because, as you say, our...

The Walt Disney Company has dramatically escalated its showdown with the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency of carrying out a politically motivated campaign on behalf of President Donald Trump that could strip broadcast licenses from some of Disney-owned network ABC’s biggest television stations. In a 109-page filing, Disney argued the federal agency’s actions amount to retaliation over the entertainment company’s programming, including criticism of the president by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and scrutiny surrounding Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. “The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: accommodate the Administration’s view of...

Massachusetts lawmakers are taking steps toward prioritizing the hiring of American Muslims for state government positions under a permanent so-called Muslim commission. The group would help recommend Americans who practice Islam to appointed government positions in the New England state at the same time the Trump administration is moving to dismantle such diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs nationwide — teeing-up a standoff between local leaders and the president. A proposed bill would create a panel of 11 Muslims appointed by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials to represent the Islamic faith on issues such as business, economy,...

No Hollywood scriptwriter would have dared pen such an outrageously unlikely plot. A boy of immigrant parents raised on a south London council estate, who couldn't speak, read or write for most of his childhood, overcomes such astonishing odds to become, at 37, the youngest black professor at the University of Cambridge. Ever since, life's glittering prizes in the shape of honorary degrees and academic accolades have cascaded down on Jason Arday along with lavish and high-minded praise. Yet this week, a fellow don has pulled the rug from under those achievements in an excoriating assassination of Arday's work and...

Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La.) has announced he will not seek reelection, choosing instead to run for state Senate in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act. In a statement late Tuesday afternoon, Fields said he came to the decision after “a great deal of prayer and reflection.” “I feel my calling to serve the people is better put to use back home than here in D.C., and I intend to answer that call,” said Fields, whose majority-Black district encompasses parts of Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Fields’ announcement comes after the Louisiana state legislature in...

“The Odyssey” didn’t need a Trojan Horse to break into the top of Friday’s box office charts. Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” earned $51 million on Friday from 3,919 North American screens. Early estimates had the saga grossing $90 million to $100 million by Sunday, but after a stellar opening day, forecasts have the film climbing as high as $120 million. “The Odyssey” will soon become the third film in 2026 to open above $100 million after “Toy Story 5” ($159 million) and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” ($131 million). “The Odyssey” carries a hefty $250 million price tag. An $120...

Third Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated medical professor’s case after judge threw out defamation claims A federal appeals court reinstated a medical professor’s defamation and civil rights retaliation case against the University of Pittsburgh last week over an article he wrote criticizing affirmative action. “I have devoted my career to caring for patients, training the next generation of physicians, and contributing to scholarship within my field. When I published this article, I was doing the same thing,” Dr. Norman Wang said in a statement after the ruling. In its July 7 opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decided that...

Things got testy in a game between the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres over the weekend. Home plate umpire Jen Pawol ruled that Padres hitter Sung-Mun Song didn't make his ABS challenge in time, resulting in Padres hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. being ejected after he took exception with the ruling. Later in the game, the Blue Jays were heated with Pawol over a controversial balk ruling brought home a run for the Blue Jays. After the game, MLB writer Dan Clark noted how much Pawol has struggled throughout the year with Grok, X's AI assistant for premium...

There was a time when history mattered.Today, history is treated like wet clay--something to be molded into whatever shape best serves the political cause of the moment. Statues are toppled. Founding Fathers are recast as villains. National histories are rewritten through ideological lenses.Now, even Jesus Christ isn't off limits.The latest attempt comes from the orbit of New York City's socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Reports indicate that his wife, Rama Duwaji, is co-hosting a luxury spiritual retreat in Corsica where attendees--paying as much as $5,000--will meditate on Mary as a "Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation."It's difficult to know where to...

WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department is no longer planning to put anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman on a $20 bill, Treasury ‌Secretary Scott Bessent has told Spectrum News. "We are not at present," Bessent said when ‌asked in a Monday interview if Treasury was still planning to move ahead with the decade-old plan. Bessent did not ​elaborate, and a Treasury spokesperson declined to comment beyond Bessent's remark. The Obama administration announced in 2016 that Tubman, who was born into slavery in the early 1820s and went on to help hundreds of slaves escape, would replace seventh U.S....

Investigators believe that the veteran NYPD cop wounded during a chaotic confrontation with a gun-toting teen Sunday was struck by friendly fire, law-enforcement sources told The Post. Detective Robert Karroll was hit in the back by a slug — and only saved from potentially deadly injuries by his bulletproof vest — around 4:15 a.m. when a deranged 18-year-old ran up on an unmarked police car in Crown Heights, authorities have said. Karroll, a married dad of three who was just 10 days from retirement at the time, was in the vehicle along with three other officers — all of whom...

CQ Brown, who was fired as Trump’s top general, questioned the president’s handling of the armed forces CQ Brown, the retired general forced out of his post as the nation’s top military officer last year, has provided his most direct critique of the Trump administration’s handling of the U.S. military, questioning the deployment of troops in U.S. cities and warning against tainting the armed forces’ service with politics.In an essay published Friday with two co-authors, Brown cautioned that sending the military into American cities for “politically contentious missions” like fighting crime risked compromising its traditionally apolitical role and diverting it...