Free Republic

University leaders are preparing layoffs, eliminating vacant positions, and cutting expenses to address a projected $19 million FY2028 deficit.. Federal records compiled by MyVisaJobs show the University of Maine System filed 19 H-1B labor-condition applications in fiscal 2026. ... The University of Maine (UMaine) in Orono is preparing faculty and staff reductions as it confronts a projected $19 million deficit for fiscal year 2028, while the broader University of Maine System continued H-1B sponsorship during fiscal 2026. University leaders have proposed layoffs, eliminating vacant positions, reducing outside contracts, modifying some annual appointments, and consolidating units as part of an effort...

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that feds probing Rep. Ilhan Omar assembled a “large case” dealing with multiple people. “This isn’t just a case that’s targeting one individual. This is a large case that we have presented to the DOJ, and the DOJ is leading the investigations,” he told Fox News on Friday. Mullin said Homeland Security Investigations agents — who searched Omar’s Washington, DC, home on Oct. 12 — “did a lot of investigation to be able to present the case to them.” “And I’ll just say this again: We’re enforcing our nation’s laws, and we’re going to...

The system that has driven life-altering discoveries and helped make the United States a superpower is now under intense strain.The warning, buried in an obscure government report this summer, was unflinching.The Defense Department’s vaunted network of research laboratories — whose scientists helped develop satellite communication, radar technology, and even the computer mouse — was in trouble.The labs lost a significant share of their staff last year, largely in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to thin the federal work force, the report found. Refilling critical positions was proving difficult due in part to President Trump’s demand that new hires be...

A New York man was arrested after he was allegedly captured on video stealing campaign signs belonging to Republican congressional candidate Anthony Constantino while driving his employer’s vehicle. Josef Marris was charged with two counts of criminal possession of stolen property, according to the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He was also fired from East Branch Organics, according to Constantino’s campaign. Constantino, who is running in New York’s 21st Congressional District, said the alleged thefts were intended to intimidate his supporters. "My campaign has lost more than $100,000 to sign theft and vandalism," Constantino told Fox News Digital. "There are now...

Discover the 10 essential tools legendary woodsman Horace Kephart carried into the wilderness. These carefully chosen items made up his minimalist kit for survival, camping, and bushcraft in the early 20th century. From his iconic sheath knife to his compact folding lantern, this timeless gear still inspires modern outdoorsmen today. Join me as we explore Kephart’s must-have tools and see why they’re as practical now as they were ove

MIAMI –– Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a record number of illegal migrants in Septemeber, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan boasted Thursday –– as he warned New York to cooperate with its agents. Homan made the revelation while visting the Port of Miami to tout the Trump administration’s border security efforts, which he credited with helping drive down crime across the US. The veteran immigration official, standing alongside US Customs and Borders Commissioner Rodney S. Scott, said ICE broke its record for arrests every month between June and August this year. Then in September, ICE reportedly deported more illegal...

In 2016, the California School Board Association suggested changes to an administrative regulation that prevented teachers from telling parents about their student’s social gender transition at school—unless the student said it was OK. Most school districts in California adopted the changes without question.MASON AND LISA WILLIAMS first learned that their youngest daughter, Laney, was secretly transitioning at school when they saw a different name in her profile on Schoology, an online learning management system. “Without our consent, she had gone to the administration in September 2021 and asked them to change her name and pronouns,” Lisa said. “And they did...

American who lives and grew up in Los Angeles just took a 5 day trip Miami, Florida She says she can’t believe how clean it is there, how there are no homeless and how much less expensive it is “I didn't realize just how dirty and gross and expensive LA actually is just because I'm used to it. I live here, I live in it. I saw 2 unhoused people the entire time I was in Miami. The whole week I saw 2 unhoused people, and we went to a bunch of different parts in Miami. And the cost of...

In the 2011 film Moneyball, Brad Pitt portrays Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, who listens as his scouts enthusiastically praise an up-and-coming baseball player. Beane, unimpressed, asks a simple question. “If he’s a good hitter, why doesn’t he hit good?” This question should be asked about America’s elite universities, particularly in light of the ongoing Cornell Seven controversy. If these institutions are, as some describe them, bastions of rape culture, misogyny, and the institutional protection of sexual predators, why do so many young women desperately want to attend them? And why are their parents willing to spend or borrow...

A Somali-born public school official who invaded the State of Maine years ago now wants to impose his culture on the state's natives. As The Maine Wire reported on Wednesday, the Portland Public Schools Policy Committee held a meeting on October 14 that focused on the school district's newly proposed policy on animals in schools. As currently drafted, the policy states as follows: school administration must sign off on the animals, service animals must be certified, and domestic animals must be restrained. But Abdullahi Ahmed, the Somali-born Muslim assistant superintendent for student, family, and community partnerships at Portland Public Schools,...

Some statistics are not just illuminating, they are downright shocking. Here’s one. At the University of Texas at Austin, one of America’s top universities, only 300 students graduated with a major in the humanities. That would be a big number if UT graduated 1,200 students, but it actually graduates about 12,000. The percentage of humanities major is 0.025 percent. It rounds to zero. That dismal statistic is replicated at universities across the country. While Texas certainly likes to think of itself as unique, in this case, it’s not. At every university, big and small, fewer and fewer students are studying...

A UC Berkeley professor has stopped grading students’ homework for correctness after noticing artificial intelligence tools were helping them rack up top marks. Richard Borcherds, a renowned mathematician who received the prestigious Fields Medal in 1998, said widespread student use of AI has undermined the value of traditional homework grading. “Student use of AI for homework is now widespread,” Borcherds told The California Post. “Grading for correctness just adds a huge incentive for them to use AI for homework instead of doing it themselves, and penalizes students for honesty.” Paying graders to evaluate AI generated answers is also a waste...

MAINEVILLE, OHIO — A mosque rising amid rural homes and farmland in southwest Ohio has become a focal point in the community’s growing concerns over an influx of foreign-owned trucking companies and trucking fraud, with a Fox News Digital review revealing significant financial ties between the mosque, trucking companies and the government of Uzbekistan. Roughly one mile north of the main intersection in Maineville, a small Warren County village with about 1,400 residents, sits the Islamic Center of Maineville, which has been under construction for the past four years following its approval by Hamilton Township in April 2022. Fox News...

Is the news media manipulated? It’s been four years since I wrote that effective altruism is neither effective nor altruistic. The mangy movement, which went into remission when Sam Bankman-Fried went to the big house for fraud, is back. This time it’s placing journalists in newsrooms to tell us how artificial intelligence will kill us all. So much for media’s already fragile credibility. According to Gallup, only a third of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in media. I’m convinced that started in 1975, when “Saturday Night Live” first appropriated the Walter Cronkite-like news desk, and...

Liberal Americans who fled to Europe after President Donald Trump's re-election shared how the grass is not always greener on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Wired Magazine released an article Thursday headlined "They Fled Trump’s America. Now They Regret It," speaking directly to those who sought "political refuge in the wake of Trump’s second term," but have since voiced frustration with Europe’s lower quality of life, the rise of right-wing politics in those countries, and a newfound appreciation for the cultural norms and niceties of American life. One account, from a woman nicknamed "Annie," said she was sold...

A genius New York teen was denied the opportunity to graduate high school early and earn his diploma to attend his dream college due to his age — despite being a full-time community college student. Michael Sweeney, a 14-year-old homeschooler, is on the verge of applying to Arizona State University to study mechanical engineering, but his dreams were dashed when Bethlehem Central School District denied his request to enter his senior year, the Times Union reported. The teen, who turns 15 in December, tried multiple times to get approval to graduate early but school officials claimed his homeschool plan didn’t...

Percentage has doubled since 2020-21.. Nearly one in five freshmen at the University of California are flunking introductory math classes amid widespread calls from faculty to reinstate standardized testing requirements for admissions. About 18 percent of students either withdrew or received a D or F grade during the 2025-26 school year. This share has nearly doubled from 2020-21, “the last year that the SAT and ACT were required for first-year admission,” . Further, UC students averaged a GPA of 2.7 in introductory math classes in 2025-26. Students averaged a 3.18 in 2020-21. However, “Failure rates vary widely across UC’s nine...

Officials have a plan to whittle down the institution’s projected deficit to $3 million through expense shaving and revenue increases. ... Dive Brief: University of Maine’s senior leadership outlined a plan that would slash the public institution’s expected fiscal 2028 nonacademic budget deficit from $9 million down to $3 million. The plan relies on expense cuts including an unspecified number of layoffs, along with some combination of shorter employee appointments and vacancy eliminations in several units — athletics, student life, strategic partnerships and the president’s office. Leaders are also looking at consolidating UMaine’s research centers. At the same time, they...

Dracula is a Democrat. He wants. The Democrats want. He is not willing to work to satisfy his wants. The Democrats are not willing to work to satisfy their wants. Dracula feeds off of others to satisfy his wants and to exist. The Democrats feed off of others to satisfy their wants and to exist. Dracula is stealthy so he can be in society and yet take from you without getting a stake through the heart. The Democrats are stealthy so they can be in society and take from you without getting a stake through their hearts. Dracula turns those...

n January of 2023, I wrote about a story where I thought, “This might be the most absurd thing I will ever cover." Here’s the short version: The Brits are no strangers to woke insanity themselves, as the British Museum has now decided to no longer refer to wrapped-up long-dead ancient Egyptians as “mummies” because it might offend them—even though they’re no longer alive to be offended. But I was wrong; things, especially when leftists get their hands on them, can always get more ludicrous, and indeed they did at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Scotland. My DNA...