Free Republic

Suffolk County taxpayers could be on the hook for $60 million in a migrant class-action lawsuit for holding on to illegal immigrants until the feds could show up and ship them out of the country, officials said Wednesday. A federal judge ruled that the sheriff’s office in the Long Island county acted on its own when it held undocumented immigrants for deportation proceedings — because New York State law doesn’t allow local cops to do so. Adding insult to injury, the judge says the feds won’t have to chip in to pay off the hefty ruling — even though they’re...

WASHINGTON — President Biden is moving to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most US coastal waters, a last-minute effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling. Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing. “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that...

A bombshell 17,000-page report was just dropped, detailing specific instances where the Biden administration has weaponized the federal government for political gain. The extensive document, compiled by the House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, outlines claims of misuse of federal agencies to target political opponents, suppress dissent, and influence public opinion. This raises serious questions about the integrity of the federal bureaucracy and the Biden Administration’s four years in office. During the nearly two-year investigation, exposed a “two-tiered system of government,” witht the committee finding several cases of censorship, whistleblower retaliation, and the politicization of federal...

Washington — President-elect Donald Trump said Monday that his new administration will challenge a deal reached between the Social Security Administration and its union that would allow employees to continue teleworking into 2029. During remarks at his South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Trump blamed the Biden administration for what he said was a "terrible" and "ridiculous" agreement that would allow tens of thousands of federal workers to continue working from home several days a week. The president-elect said "it was like a gift to a union, and we're going to obviously be in court to stop it." He said federal workers...

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that given the absence of government information on the drone sightings in New Jersey, individuals will soon become “drone vigilantes” and “they’ll start taking them down.” Christie said, “I lived in New Jersey my whole life. This is the first time that I’ve noticed drones over my house, and I was in a restaurant in Monmouth County on Friday night. I had people at the bar coming up to me and saying, Governor Murphy won’t tell me anything. The president won’t tell me anything. Do you know? Well, I...

Judge Pauline Newman, the oldest federal judge in America at age 97, is continuing to fight against a suspension from the bench by her colleagues who found her mentally not fit enough to serve. Newman is appealing her suspension and has also filed a motion to unseal documents related to an investigation which ultimately led to her being temporarily removed from the bench. Newman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, was barred from serving in September 2023 for a year by the Federal Circuit's Judicial Council after...

I know it sounds crazy to say in our modern era, but the federal judiciary was little more than an afterthought to the Founding Fathers who designed our constitutional system. Thomas Jefferson, the same guy who penned a fairly scorching list of grievances against unaccountable, tyrannical government, entitled the Declaration of Independence, called the federal judiciary the "least dangerous" branch.

There are at least four steps Trump can take immediately to make good on campaign promises to vanquish DEI from the federal bureaucracy. According to the White House, “hours after taking the oath of office,” President Joe Biden embarked on an ambitious “day one,” “whole of government” agenda to “advance racial equity.” What followed was a shock-and-awe program of racial preferences. During his term, Biden signed three signature pieces of legislation — the American Rescue Plan Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act — which gave certain preferred racial groups access to programs, benefits, and special treatment,...

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie will have to tackle the city’s nearly $1 billion budget deficit when he takes office on January 8, and he may be forced to cut staff and services to overcome a shortfall of the city’s own creation. San Francisco imposed draconian lockdown policies during the coronavirus pandemic, while also adopting lax policing policies that allowed crime and homelessness to skyrocket. Many of the city’s residents — including tech employees, now able to work from home — moved elsewhere. As a result, San Francisco has recovered from the pandemic more slowly than any other major city...

Amap of the U.S. showing land under federal control paints large swaths of the West. In August, Utah filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing that it’s unconstitutional for the feds to retain unappropriated land in a state indefinitely. Since the lawsuit was filed, a dozen other states, including Idaho, Alaska and Wyoming, have filed briefs asking the court to hear the case. Additionally, a coalition of counties in Arizona and New Mexico, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Utah Legislature and the Wyoming Legislature have also filed briefs in support of the lawsuit. “The federal burden in the West...

Did you know that 85% of the federal workforce works from home and only have to come in one day a month? On any given day, only 17% of the federal workforce is in a federal office building working. Many hold other jobs. It's one giant looting operation and US taxpayers are their mark. DOGE is coming.

A pair of Democratic senators called for a federal investigation into Elon Musk’s involvement in SpaceX’s federal contracts following reports the tech billionaire has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a letter sent Friday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said Musk’s reported relations with a U.S. adversary “pose serious questions” about his “reliability as a government contract and a clearance holder.” Shaheen is a senior member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees. Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, holds contracts with the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community...

A federal judge in the Southern District of Illinois issued a permanent injunction Friday enjoining the state from enforcing the “assault weapons” ban contained in the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA). The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) was among the plaintiffs in the case. SAF founder Alan Gottlieb responded to the decision, calling Friday “a great day for gun rights.” The judge’s order allows 30 days before the injunction goes into force, giving the state that period of time in which to file an appeal.

What are the elements of the libertarian movement and how does one of its most illustrious proponents, Milton Friedman, apply its tenets to issues facing the United States today? Milton Friedman, Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences discusses how he balances the libertarians' desire for a small, less intrusive government with environmental, public safety, food and drug administration, and other issues.

ransomnote: I copied about 80% of the Justice.gov FOIA Library page (below). About 20% or less of the page is formatted in a way that I can't copy. Anything on the webpage which uses formatted graphics to look like a tab, menu or box did not copy. FOIA LibrarySubscribe for Email UpdatesOIP processes FOIA requests for records of the Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Associate Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office Public Affairs, and Office of Information Policy.OIP posts records from these Offices in this FOIA...

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) on Monday led 22 members of Congress in requesting that the Department of Energy add Texas to the areas serviced by proposed federal corridors for electrical transmission. In May, the department announced 10 proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) that, if implemented, could make federal funds available to expand grid capability in those areas. However, Texas, which relies on the self-contained Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), was not among the proposed sites. “The United States needs a 21st-century electric grid [and] you can’t have a 21st-centutry electric grid with a giant hole in the...

The Congressional Budget Office reports the 2024 budget deficit will near $2 trillion.. In 2024, the federal budget deficit is estimated to reach nearly $2 trillion, according to new projections released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week. In February, the agency predicted that the deficit would only be $1.58 trillion. However, spending increases have caused the projected deficit to increase by $400 billion, a staggering 27 percent hike. According to the CBO, 80 percent of the spike in the deficit can be blamed on four sources of government spending. The largest source, responsible for $145 billion of the...

Everyone is posting that the annualized number is about $1.059 trillion. However the interest on the debt for just May 2024 was $103 billion. Debt will grow another $2 trillion or more in the next 12 months. We are already on pace for over $1.2 trillion in annualized payments on the debt. Within the next few years, interest on the debt will exceed Social Security payments and become the largest item in the budget. ... US federal interest payments now exceed the defense budget. ... We have crossed the Rubicon.. It will never be paid down! NEVER.. And this administration...

There’s a very disturbing trend unfolding in Biden’s upside-down America. Political dissidents—Americans who refuse to conform to the regime—are being targeted, harassed, imprisoned, and even killed. It’s increasingly feeling like Joe is channeling his inner Kim Jong-Un. This isn’t the America we know, yet here we are, up against one of the most tyrannical governments to ever seize power. In another horrific nightmare, a Trump supporter has been fatally shot by federal ATF agents during a raid at his home, leaving his family and friends shocked, horrified, and bewildered. ... While we struggle to understand what happened to this man,...

Congressional Republicans have introduced a bill to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and funding in the federal government. The Dismantle DEI Act, introduced Wednesday by Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), would eliminate all federal DEI programs and end DEI-related funding for agencies, contractors, organizations and educational accreditation agencies that receive federal funding. “The DEI agenda is a destructive ideology that breeds hatred and racial division,” Vance said in a statement. “It has no place in our federal government or anywhere else in our society. I’m proud to introduce this legislation, which would root out DEI from our federal bureaucracy...