Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Democrats’ counterprogramming event to President Trump’s State of the Union address was hijacked by MAGA supporters and liberals dressed up like frogs — chirping “ribbit.” Activists and lawmakers held dueling events on Tuesday night to present their counterargument to the president. Some speakers were there to entertain, some to rally the troops ahead of the November midterm election and some charged that Trump was lying to the American people. “I’m not at the State of the Union speech tonight, because you’re not going to hear about the State of the Union. You are going to hear lie after...

You might assume safety leashes feel extreme - especially after a father declared, "She isn't an animal." But when a sudden scare shows how quickly toddlers can bolt, you'll see why some parents swap principles for practical precautions. If keeping a child close reduces the chance of injury, many caregivers choose a leash as a temporary safety tool rather than a sign of failed parenting. This piece explores how opinions shift when safety becomes immediate, how social judgment weighs on choices, and how families balance independence with protection. Expect candid accounts, practical context, and points that help you weigh the...

The lefty student government at a local California university rejected a proposal that would grant its student body free subscriptions to The New York Times, citing issues with how The Times covered major world-happenings. “The New York Times has historically been a little bit problematic and controversial in their reporting and in their journalism,” student official Alya Hassan, who voted against the proposal, told the Fresno Bee. Hassan referenced its coverage of Israel and Gaza as one example, adding the organization lacked journalistic integrity for avoiding words like genocide, ethnic cleansing and occupied territory in its reporting. The paper has...

A Texas kindergarten teacher was arrested after allegedly twisting a five-year-old boy’s arm and forcing him into a corner for breaking a pencil, authorities say. Pamela Mitchell, 64, was taken into custody Thursday, more than a month after police say she attacked a young boy in her Waco classroom at J.H. Hines Elementary for snapping a pencil, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by KWTX News. Court documents revealed that Mitchell grabbed the child, twisted his arm behind his back and dragged him out of his seat. 'She used her knee and placed it in the center of the child's...

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that a transgender teacher, who “identified” as a wolf, was fired from his position as a pre-K and Kindergarten substitute teacher and teacher’s aide at an elementary school located on Fort Bragg military base. “The ‘Wolf’ was fired 2 weeks ago,” Hegseth wrote on X. His post included a link to an article written by Christian Broadcasting Group, which detailed the bizarre and unsettling behaviors of the substitute teacher toward the students. Military parents of the Mildrid E. Poole elementary school students said that the teacher, a biological male, would...

Californians have been trapped in Mexico as cartel violence engulfed a popular tourist city and spilled towards the US border. Americans in Puerto Vallarta were urged to stay indoors as narco gangs went on a bloody rampage after leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes was killed in a military raid on Sunday. Carnage spread up the west coast of the country through Sunday, with reports of attacks getting closer to the States in Baja California while gunfire erupted at Guadalajara International Airport. Cars and businesses were also set on fire further across the country...

How's this for a somber retirement forecast: The typical American worker has less than $1,000 saved for retirement, according to a new report from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). "The data are clear: Outside of high earners, Americans are choosing survival over savings and hoping to catch up later," NIRS executive director Dan Doonan told Yahoo Finance. "Even for those approaching retirement age — 55-to-64-year-olds — the median amount saved for retirement is only $30,000. We're looking at a looming crisis. These aren't just statistics — they represent millions of families who are doing everything right but still...

WASHINGTON — Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fired back at critics of her recent gaffe-filled attempt to show off her foreign policy bona fides in Germany, contending it was proof she thinks before she speaks. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was noticeably hoarse as she responded to the blowback she received after stammering over a question about how the US should respond to a hypothetical Chinese invasion of Taiwan is due to the public being conditioned to President Trump’s impulsiveness. “If you think I don’t understand foreign policy because out of hours of discourse about international affairs, I pause to think about one...

There is a fundamental difference between how China and the United States view higher education. Grasping that difference is essential to national security. Top Chinese graduate students are cultivated with the expectation that their expertise will advance state priorities. So when Beijing sends its top students to matriculate at American universities, it is not pursuing benign cultural exchange; it is deploying strategic assets. Seen through that lens, China is using the American university system as a conduit for absorbing American know-how, extracting technical expertise, and moving valuable research and intellectual property back to China. The practical effect is that People’s...

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) — The Summerville Police Department has arrested a woman who allegedly encouraged high school students to protest in a planned high school walkout. Dinah Chollet, 44, is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to the arrest warrant. An anonymous student alerted a school resource officer at Summerville High School of a planned protest called the “Summerville Walkout” that was going to occur on Friday afternoon. The incident report stated that the protest was publicized on Instagram and was an open account to the public. When the officer joined the group anonymously, he...

Gov. JB Pritzker is demanding President Trump refund the state of Illinois more than $8 billion after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his sweeping reciprocal tariffs Friday. The court ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. Now businesses are pressing the Trump administration to issue tariff refunds, and Gov. Pritzker has joined in their call. In a letter to Mr. Trump that Pritzker shared publicly, he wrote, "Your tariff taxes wreaked havoc on farmers, enraged our allies, and sent grocery prices through the roof. This morning, your...

Bruce Springsteen can seemingly offer “No Surrender” from his TDS. Announced this week, his 2026 “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour starts symbolically in Minneapolis, ground zero for the anti-ICE wine-mom rebellion against federal law enforcement. “We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair — the cavalry is coming,” The Boss crowed in a promotional video that dropped Tuesday. The cavalry he’s promising is a Boomer “No Kings” protest. But instead of being gratis, like most demonstrations, one will have to pay through the nose to get into arena doors. Don’t believe me? Springsteen has...

A nonprofit executive accused of stealing $132,000 in public money to fund her lavish lifestyle is being held behind bars. Amy Knox, who was COO of Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego, pleaded not guilty to allegedly stealing cash for plastic surgeries, credit card bills and luxury vacations to Hawaii and Disneyland. The 45-year-old faces six felony counts of fraud and misappropriation and faces up to seven years in prison. Late Wednesday Knox pleaded not guilty to the charges in San Diego State Supreme Court. Her bail was set at $200,000. On Thursday she remanded in custody at the Las...

New York's Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez’s highest‑profile outing on the world stage yet at the Munich Security Conference last week has sharpened speculation about her long‑term political ambitions. Newsweek has reached out to Ocasio‑Cortez via email for comment. Why It Matters Ocasio‑Cortez’s emergence on an international platform comes as Democrats begin to look beyond President Donald Trump's time in office and toward a generational reshaping of party leadership. How seriously she is taken as a future contender is increasingly reflected in both betting odds and prediction markets. What To Know Ocasio‑Cortez’s trip to Germany marked her most prominent international appearance...

In 2023, newly disclosed documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein revealed meetings and financial interactions between Epstein and the eminent linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky. The disclosures did not accuse Chomsky of criminal conduct. But they confirmed that, years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor, Chomsky met with him multiple times and discussed financial matters. Chomsky’s response was characteristically blunt: his meetings with Epstein, he said, were “none of your business.” The tone may have been legally defensible. Culturally and symbolically, it was something else. Because Chomsky is not merely a professor emeritus at MIT....

Young Scottish actress Mandipa Kabana has been cast to play Joan of Arc in a 2026 Scottish theatrical production that explores the “power of youth-led change”. 'Classic tale of war, duplicity, power and wealth gets a fresh new treatment' writes The Herald about the upcoming theatre adaption of Joan of Arc. Stewart Laing, the theatre director who cast Mandipa, had compared the French Patron Saint to Greta Thunberg: "Look at someone like Greta Thunberg. There are young people with loud voices protesting against those in power."

Follow live updates on New York City politics as Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a record $127 billion budget proposal Tuesday. The eye-popping amount — that one insider called “insanity” — is up around $11 billion from the current year. The socialist city leader’s plan includes a whopping 9.5% proposed property tax hike on New Yorkers, which he claims would be a “last resort” — while allocating another $1.2 billion for migrants. Mamdani, 34, unveiled his preliminary budget from the Blue Room at NYC City Hall this afternoon. Get the latest news, analysis and more from our local politics reporters with...

A California Teacher of the Year finalist has been arrested for trying to pay for sexual acts with an undercover cop posing as a 13-year-old boy. Ruben Guzman, an assistant principal and math teacher at Sunrise Middle School in San Jose, was snared when he organized for them to meet up last week. The 31-year-old, who was also recognized by the San Francisco 49ers for his work in the classroom, was cuffed by San Jose police and the FBI on the scene. It came as part of a wider bust that saw 10 others across the region caught over alleged...

Selloff wipes out nearly $1 trillion from software and services stocks as investors debate AI's existential threat Summary: Companies: Software stocks fall on AI disruption fears, but selling intensity eases Scramble to shield portfolios as AI muddies valuations, business prospects Selloff has been overdone, analyst says Software and service stocks shed $830 billion in market value in six trading days Feb 4 (Reuters) - Investors were assessing on Wednesday whether a selloff in global software stocks this week had gone too far, as they weighed if businesses could survive an existential threat posed by artificial intelligence. The answer: It's unclear,...

A twisted New Jersey teacher who groomed and abused two students ended up getting pregnant by one of the teens — then broke his heart by getting an abortion, it was revealed as she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Julie Rizzitello, who was an English teacher at Wall Township High School, had told one of her victims that she’d gotten pregnant after convincing him to have unprotected sex with her on his birthday, it was revealed in court Wednesday, according to Jersey Shore Online. The 37-year-old mom later informed the teenager, whom she’d groomed as a freshman, that...