Free Republic

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Anne Marie Gennusa to the bench in 2023 and will appoint her replacement.An embattled 7th Circuit Putnam County judge facing possible discipline from the Florida Supreme Court for allegations she abused her authority has resigned her seat.On Oct. 3, Putnam County Judge Anne Marie Gennusa submitted her resignation, effective Oct. 31, to Gov. Ron DeSantis.Putnam County is part of the 7th Circuit which also includes Volusia, Flagler and St. Johns counties.The Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission found probable cause that Gennusa violated several judicial canons, including complying with the law; promoting confidence in the integrity and impartiality...

Some A-10 Warthogs could get a reprieve from total retirement as Congress moves to reverse some of the Pentagon’s most dramatic Air Force cuts in its proposed fiscal 2026 budget. The Pentagon’s budget, which the department released in June, calls for the Air Force to retire its remaining 162-plane fleet of A-10 attack aircraft in 2026, two years earlier than originally intended. It also calls for canceling the E-7 Wedgetail program in favor of E-2D Hawkeyes and space-based sensors, and cutting the planned purchase of F-35A Joint Strike Fighters down to 24, or nearly in half. The proposed E-7 and...

<p>The GOP mayor of Mesa, Ariz. — Phoenix’s largest suburb — endorsed Vice President Harris on Monday, saying only the vice president can “put country over party” in the November election.</p><p>Mesa Mayor John Giles wrote in an op-ed for The Arizona Republic that Republicans should reject former President Trump at the ballot box.</p>

<p>The most eye-popping part of the latest news about Sen. Justine Wadsack, alleged criminal speeder, is not the way she tried to use her status as a state senator to wiggle out of a traffic ticket.</p><p>It is not her sense of entitlement or her bizarre claim of “political persecution” after she was clocked going 71 mph in a 35 mph zone.</p>

<p>Donald Trump has a long history with the WWE. In fact, he's in the company's Hall of Fame.</p><p>So it's probably not surprising that the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee where Trump was officially named the GOP nominee for president again earlier in the week has turned into a WWE reunion.</p>

<p>A Columbus police officer is believed to have shot someone while working in Milwaukee as part of the security efforts surrounding the Republican National Convention.</p><p>Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capitol City Lodge No. 9, said details are limited but he was contacted about a possible shooting in Milwaukee involving a Columbus police officer.</p>

<p>Massie said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that while he is still devastated over losing his wife, Rhonda Massie, he wanted to dismiss some falsehoods about her death without violating her privacy.</p><p>"She did not take the COVID shots (we were both seropositive by the time they became available), our house is very secure, family was in the house the night she passed, and an autopsy has been conducted (we do not yet have results)," Massie wrote in the post.</p>

INDIANAPOLIS — Before an audience of 400-plus Southern Baptists, former Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday raised warnings about the shifting direction of the Republican Party but stopped short of denouncing a far-right religious movement rising amid former President Donald Trump’s candidacy for president in November. "There’s also a very healthy debate within my party about whether we’re going to stay on the course…traditional moral values, a right to life, an affirmation of religious liberty or whether we’re going to start to move in a different direction," Pence said during a luncheon organized by the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy...

Christian activists will show people this Saturday how to turn weapons of violence into instruments of peace using a hammer − and some faith − to forge guns into garden tools. The event, hosted by Delaware and Maryland churches belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is an effort to get people to think differently about guns and how to handle conflict without violence. The "Youtherans," young people who attend Lutheran churches in Delaware and Maryland, are also organizing this free event at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, north of Wilmington. "It's to say that there's a different way," said...

A Marine truck mechanic received a medal typically awarded to more senior service members for saving the Defense Department more than $140 million through work he began as a teenage lance corporal. Cpl. Gage Barbieri, now 21, received the Meritorious Service Medal on Friday from Col. Damon Burrows, commanding officer of 2nd Marine Division’s Headquarters Battalion. Barbieri is only the second Marine corporal to receive the Meritorious Service Medal since at least 2008, Burrows wrote on LinkedIn

<p>In August 2020, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and injured a third. He claimed self-defense. Then, in fall 2021, he was acquitted of criminal accusations in a controversial, heated trial, and became a hero of far-right politicians and Second Amendment advocates.</p>

<p>Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough is overruling plans to ban the famous Times Square kiss photo marking the end of World War II from all department health care facilities, a move criticized as political correctness run amok.</p><p>The ban was announced internally at VA medical facilities late last month in a memo from RimaAnn Nelson, the Veterans Health Administration’s top operations official. Employees were instructed to “promptly” remove any depictions of the famous photo and replace it with imagery deemed more appropriate.</p>

<p>When Attorney General Ken Paxton stopped in Bastrop to stump for a Republican candidate for the Texas House, the state's top lawyer took the opportunity to let voters know he has an election day wish list that has been simmering for years.</p>

<p>For more than an hour, sheriff's deputies, firefighters and other volunteers fought to pull Angela Chao out of a vehicle submerged in a pond on a Central Texas ranch, a picturesque location that complicated the rescue attempt, according to a report obtained Friday by the American-Statesman.</p>

<p>Wisconsin has a spring primary election Tuesday, held to narrow down candidates for local offices, like city councils and school boards.</p><p>You won't see presidential candidates on the ballot — the presidential preference election is April 2. The April election also will include the candidates who advance from Tuesday's primary.</p>

<p>JOHNSON CITY — Blanco County authorities are investigating the death of Angela Chao, CEO of shipping company Foremost Group, who died Sunday after authorities were called to perform a water rescue on a private ranch, the sheriff's office said in a statement Thursday.</p>

<p>The former president assembled a cadre of celebrity endorsers and members of Congress backing him for the final push in Iowa, including WWE star Kane, British politician Nigel Farage and longtime Iowa wrestling coach Dan Gable.</p><p>Trump also introduced North Dakota governor and former presidential candidate Doug Burgum, who endorsed the former president. Burgum said the front-runner will "deliver energy dominance" to the nation.for hours in wind chills that reached the mid-negative 40s.</p>

<p>If Donald Trump is right that presidents have immunity, then why did Richard Nixon need a pardon?</p><p>Trump was in a Washington, D.C. federal courtroom Tuesday, Jan. 9 where his attorneys argued before an appeals court that the four-count indictment against him for 2020 election interference should be dismissed. Their position is that Trump, as president at the time, is immune from prosecution because he was carrying out official duties.</p>

Air Force pilots and others in rated fields who opt to stay in uniform can earn up to $600,000 over 12 years under the latest round of retention bonuses announced Nov. 30. The fiscal year 2024 incentives offer manned aircraft and drone pilots, combat systems operators and air battle managers an extra $15,000 to $50,000 per year, depending on their assigned aircraft and the years to which they commit. Annual bonus pay programs aim to keep airmen around to blunt the effects of a pilot shortage that has lasted decades, robbing the service of aviators in policy jobs that rely...

<p>For the past two months, I (dining reporter Rebecca King, good to meet you) have tried dozens of donuts (sometimes more than 10 a day) at a total of 79 donut shops throughout New Jersey in a quest to find the best.</p>