Free Republic

Chicago has seen better days. The city is losing residents and businesses and is digging itself deeper into debt just to maintain the status quo. Yet city officials show no intention of cutting back on spending. This crisis, however, will have nationwide implications. An unconditional bailout will signal to other fiscally mismanaged cities that their irresponsibility can be rewarded. At its core, Chicago’s fiscal problems are straightforward. For decades, the city has committed itself to unsustainable spending levels. While its ridership is declining, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is flush with funds thanks to sales tax and driver fees. Chicago...

The Kaiser was on a visit to Russia, the Kaiser who was held to be at fault for Germany being insufficiently prepared for World War One mobilization, the last country to mobilize; the Kaiser who was the favorite nephew of Queen Victoria, who died in his arms. The leader of the most cultured country that has ever existed, land of the philospher Immanuel Kant, the mathematician Gauss, writer Goethe, composers Beethoven and Bach. Not a baby-bayonetting Hun. The German Kaiser was visiting his cousin, the Russian Tzar; they were looking out over a vista, over a cliff. To prove a...

Iran has branded Donald Trump an 'unstable, delusional figure' after he threatened to unleash hell on Tehran if it continues to block the Strait of Hormuz. The US President described Tuesday as 'power plant day' and told the regime to reopen the passageway or face 'living in hell'. Iran has vowed to continue blocking the strait, which has seen oil and gas prices across the globe surge dramatically. The regime's culture minister said Mr Trump is an 'unstable, delusional figure'. Sayed Reza Salihi-Amiri added: 'Iranian society generally does not pay attention to his statements, as it believes he lacks personal,...

The March report on employment from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows non-farm payrolls increasing by 178,000 jobs. This exceeded expert predictions of a 60,000 increase. Since Trump's inauguration in January of 2025 the US private sector has added 609,000 jobs. Average hourly wages are 3.5% higher than a year ago. During the Biden Administration annual blue-collar wages declined by $1,703. In the past year these wages have risen by $1,186. The annual inflation rate that peaked at over 6% during the middle years of Biden's term have fallen to 2.5% in the first year of Trump's current term....

Brussels avoids speaking about it openly but the ghost of the 2020 COVID-19 crisis is beginning to reappear in the corridors of the EU. What if the next major restriction does not come from a virus but from a lack of energy? In Brussels, nobody wants to utter the term yet. The European Commission avoids any official comparison with the pandemic and rejects talk of “energy lockdowns.” But the idea is beginning to circulate with growing normality. The war with Iran and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz have triggered a crisis that no longer resembles the...

Saturday Night Live is under fire after a cast member cracked 'what's the worst that can happen?' about Trump attending a play - an unmistakable nod to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.During Friday’s 'Weekend Update,' comedian Michael Che took aim at the president’s visit earlier this week to the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, where he attended the opening-night showing of Chicago. 'President Trump attended the opening night of Chicago at the Kennedy Center and I think that's cool,' Che said during the skit. 'The president is going to the theater...I mean, what's the worst that can happen?'

@mtracey Benny Johnson says Bondi's fatal flaw was not being in tune enough with the online GOP "base," which is "obsessed with the Epstein Files," and demanding to know that "we're not paying taxes to pedophiles." Something tells me the next AG won't be able to satisfy this angst, either

The US rescued a missing F-15E airman deep inside Iran with an incredibly complex and daring mission that involved SEAL Team 6, a CIA ruse, a hastily constructed forward air strip in hostile territory, and patrols of friendly aircraft that gave the Air Force colonel cover. A life-or-death race between US and Iranian forces to find the “seriously injured” weapons officer outside Isfahan over two days culminated in the crew member’s extraction by America’s most elite commandos and a firefight with local militias that were hunting for him, according to a report in the New York Times. The unnamed officer,...

Explanation: The party is still going on in spiral galaxy NGC 3310. Roughly 100 million years ago, NGC 3310 likely collided with a smaller galaxy causing the large spiral galaxy to light up with a tremendous burst of star formation. The changing gravity during the collision created density waves that compressed existing clouds of gas and triggered the star-forming party. The featured image from the Gemini North Telescope shows the galaxy in great detail, color-coded so that pink highlights gas while white and blue highlight stars. Some of the star clusters in the galaxy are quite young, indicating that starburst...

Pope Leo XIV used his first Easter speech Sunday to deliver a resounding call for peace in times of renewed war, declaring, “Let those who have weapons lay them down!” On Palm Sunday, Leo said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” He quoted Isaiah 1:15: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen — your hands are full of blood.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump has for a long time criticized the concept of birthright citizenship — the idea that U.S. citizenship extends to anyone who was born within the U.S.'s borders. Rather than wait for a Supreme Court decision about it, Trump announced his own legislation titled "Birth-Wrong Citizenship." "We're going to deport all the losers and the haters," Trump told the press. "Some of them may have been born here — and maybe even their parents are citizens — but that's obviously a mistake because we are not a country for losers and haters." The bill would...

The leader of a trade group that represents most major automakers called on the federal government to eliminate its gasoline tax and replace it with a vehicle fee to finance road infrastructure needs. Alliance for Automotive Innovation CEO John Bozzella, whose group represents automakers such as General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and other leading car manufacturers, put forward a proposal that urged the federal government to address the growing shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund with a vehicle fee. The proposal would function like a vehicle registration fee that’s assessed on all vehicles based on their weight, and was first...

Report: Israeli commando units participated in rescue of US navigator. Iran International reported that the IDF commando units Shaldag and Sayeret Matkal took part in the American operation to rescue the F-15 navigator whose aircraft was shot down in Iran.

Kim Freudenberg, a longtime teacher in San Francisco, knew that raising two boys meant a lot of hard conversations. She warned them about all the usual dangers: drugs, alcohol, sex, social media, riding a bike without a helmet. "Never once did I even think that I needed to say 'gambling,'" she recalls. One day, when her oldest son was 11, he was watching someone play video games on a livestream and clicked on a link in the comments. It took him to an offshore online casino. There, he got sucked in — to blackjack, poker, roulette. He could use items...

Although RCW 86 has been imaged many times before — notably by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Dark Energy Camera — new data from NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has delivered a fresh perspective. Launched in 2021, IXPE captures X-ray data and high-energy, short-wavelength light with an all-new level of sensitivity to examine the most extreme objects in the universe, including supernova remnants. IXPE was put to work on RCW 86 because of the remnant's irregular shape and the strange way it's expanding. Earlier observations from Chandra suggested that the supernova spread into a low-density "cavity," allowing it...

*** And now ***a woman was murdered by a left-wing former coworker who was angry over her support for President Trump and saw her as “racist.” The media won’t touch the story because they helped build the climate that made this kind of hatred feel righteous in the first place. This was the targeted killing of a Trump supporter by a former coworker who hated her politics and had been hostile toward her before the murder. And the press, which never misses a chance to spin every story into a lecture about how dangerous the right is, suddenly has nothing...

I posted the events nearly in real time as they transpired. I was called a liar and ridiculed; of course, no apologies are expected. They wouldn't come anyway. The following is pieced together from my Pentagon source speaking on background: The current picture of the F‑15E rescue mission inside Iran is beginning to take shape, and it’s one of the most daring U.S. combat search‑and‑rescue (CSAR) operations since the 1980 Tabas disaster — ironically, over nearly the same landscape.

One of the most defining moments in American history is the unlikely friendship between the English minister George Whitefield, who preached freedom in Christ, and Benjamin Franklin, a scientific skeptic. I saw this wonderful film and was blown away. A new hymn in the style of colonial hymns was written especially for this movie. The authenticity of the sets and costumes brought to life the pivotal years leading up to the creation of our Constitution, and two of the men who helped enshrine our God-given liberties in law.

he family of Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre on Saturday urged Britain's King Charles to meet with survivors during his state visit to the United States later this month, saying the trip coincides with the anniversary of her death. In a statement shared with Reuters, Sky and Amanda Roberts said the visit would take place two days after the one-year anniversary of Giuffre taking her own life. "We strongly urge King Charles to meet with us and survivors and hear what we have to say," they said. "We are thankful to him for heeding our sister's allegations against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor,...

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger (D.) and other local authorities are under fire over a recent string of very high profile and preventable crimes committed by illegal aliens in the sanctuary state. One of Spanberger’s first actions as governor was to sign an executive order barring state and local authorities from cooperating with federal authorities for federal immigration enforcement. Since then, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has pleaded with Spanberger and Fairfax County officials to stop releasing dangerous criminals back into the community without notifying ICE. In the past few weeks, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged...