Free Republic

CNN host Amber Ruffin said Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that she felt “less welcome” under President Donald Trump while discussing being removed as the host of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Ruffin said, “They were, like, look, you were running your mouth in these streets, and now you can’t host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and I was like, oh, no, you know, this is horrible. I was running my mouth, and I was being careless. Then, as the day went on, people were like your free speech has been revoked. How dare they. Then I was like, oh,...

Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre lost his own seat in Parliament in Monday’s election, but he has not resigned as leader of the party and some prominent Conservatives have spoken up to defend his position. “There is no doubt that Pierre Poilievre and his team ran an incredible campaign,” former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer said in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday. Scheer noted that while the Conservatives came up short of forming a government, they won “the highest vote percentage in modern Conservative history” and “the most amount of total votes for our party,...

Federal employees can once again wear political apparel to work. Trump's administration rescinded prior guidance that prohibited campaign or political clothing. Federal employees are still prohibited from engaging in political activities while on duty. On Wednesday, employees at the Social Security Administration received an email informing them of a change in guidance on wearing political apparel at work. The email, viewed by Business Insider, said that the Office of Special Counsel has returned to its previous policy that "does not prohibit wearing or displaying campaign or election-related items in the workplace after Election Day." The email went on to note...

Members of President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet applauded Elon Musk during Wednesday’s meeting after the president alluded to his imminent departure from the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk’s special government contract is set to expire next month, but he announced on a Tesla shareholders call last week that he would scale back his work with DOGE to one or two days a week until he departs. ...

New York state legislators got one step closer to legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill people on Tuesday. The state Assembly, following nearly five hours of emotional debate, passed the controversial “Medical Aid in Dying Act” 81-67, with around 20 Democrats breaking ranks to oppose the controversial measure. “Each and every life has value,” Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh (R-Saratoga), one of the legislation’s opponents, said on the Assembly floor. “Progress may not be on a straight line and will look different to each of us, but this idea of giving up and dying is not excelsior, ever upward. It’s incredibly...

PUC Public Comment Hearing Info re: Xcel Energy JTS.. ... The PUC invites community members to provide comments regarding Xcel Energy’s Just Transition Plan (JTS), Proceeding 24A-0442E. The JTS is Xcel Energy’s next Electric Resource Plan to address the acquisition of new utility resources to meet future electricity needs on its system. The primary objectives of the JTS include fulfilling resource adequacy and providing reliable service; continuing progress on emissions reductions; and, delivering a just transition in communities where generation assets are retiring. Xcel Energy’s Unit 3 coal-fired facility in Pueblo will retire no later than Jan. 1, 2031, and...

With the closure of Hayden Station approaching, Routt County and Hayden are at a crossroads, facing not only the loss of a major economic engine, but also the challenge of ensuring a just transition for workers and the broader community. At the regular meeting of the Routt County commissioners on Tuesday, local residents and stakeholders gathered for an educational presentation hosted by the Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate, aimed to demystify the complex regulatory process and prepare the public for Thursday’s critical Public Utilities Commission hearing in Hayden.. Routt County and Hayden are seeking an $89 million unified settlement...

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) paid homage to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and introduced “the ‘assault weapons’ ban of 2025” Wednesday morning. In an X post, Schiff explained that his legislation would “ban the sale, manufacture, import, and transfer of military-style ‘assault weapons.'” He claimed there have been “486 mass shootings involving ‘assault weapons'” since 2006, but did not provide any sources to substantiate the figures. He did reference Feinstein’s introduction of the first “assault weapons” ban over three decades ago, then claimed her ban “had a dramatic impact on mass shootings” during the ten years in which it...

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have put Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on notice: Don't mess with the name Fort Cavazos. With support from President Donald Trump, Hegseth has begun reversing a Biden-era initiative to remove the names of Confederate figures from military installations. Hegseth has restored names with Confederate connotations to two Army bases, and he has vowed to continue. That has sparked fears that the Central Texas armored division base named for Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, the Army's first Hispanic four-star general, could be next. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is trying to get in front...

[Note: This article has been updated to include a new response from the office of Hakeem Jeffries.] HOUSE MINORITY LEADER Hakeem Jeffries was asked Monday whether Democrats should continue to advocate for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and the other men wrongly shipped to El Salvador, by making the trip to the country to put a spotlight on the issue. “Our reaction is that Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating of any president in modern American history,” Jeffries responded. But while Jeffries may be publicly agnostic on El Salvador trips like the one Reps. Robert Garcia, Yassamin Ansari,...

A massive explosion at Iran’s largest commercial port killed several people and destroyed shiploads of ballistic missile fuel from China, news reports suggest. “A huge blast probably caused by the explosion of chemical materials killed at least 18 people and injured more than 700 on Saturday at Iran’s biggest port, Bandar Abbas,” Reuters reported, citing Iranian regime-run media. The exploding rocket fuel sent out a huge plume, unleashing a shock wave spanning several miles. “Iran’s official news channels aired footage of a vast black and orange cloud of smoke billowing up above the port in the aftermath of the blast,”...

The FBI reassigned many agents that were photographed kneeling during a 2020 protest after the death of George Floyd. The reassignments are part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to remove “woke” and other politicized elements from within America’s intelligence community. One former FBI official told CNN the reassignments raise concern the bureau bypassed its typical disciplinary process, which can reportedly take months or more than a year to review incidents. “This notion that the bureau would go after these people, it’s just disgusting,” the former official explained. CNN continued:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the closure of the Global Engagement Center as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to shutter the “censorship-industrial complex.”“Today, it is my pleasure to announce the State Department is taking a crucial step toward keeping the president’s promise to liberate American speech by abolishing forever the body formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC),” Rubio wrote in an op-ed for the Federalist, titled, “Rubio: To Protect Free Speech, The Censorship Industrial Complex Must Be Dismantled.”Rubio wrote that, in 2016, the Obama administration changed the GEC’s focus on combatting international terrorism cover...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was caught on a hot mic Thursday assessing the country’s tightest Senate contests with President Joe Biden and admitting the Georgia race is “going downhill” for Democrats. (Oct. 27)

The United States has announced its first criminal prosecutions against migrants and asylum seekers accused of crossing into a newly created military zone along the country’s border with Mexico. Court filings submitted on Monday – and reviewed by US media the following day – show that approximately 28 people have been charged with “violations of security regulations” for breaching the military zone. That charge, though a misdemeanour, carries the possibility of heightened penalties. The US Code stipulates that violations of security regulations can result in a fine of up to $100,000 for individuals or up to a year in prison...

Inflation fell to zero in March, a welcome reprieve after persistent inflation under President Biden and the best reading in nearly five years, even as consumer spending accelerated sharply and incomes rose solidly — a powerful signal of economic improvement at the start of the Trump administration. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, was flat in March, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Core PCE — which strips out food and energy — was also unchanged, marking the tamest monthly inflation reading since early 2020. Compared with a...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) backs President Donald Trump on tariffs, he made clear during an appearance at an Axios News Shapers event this week. Trump has the backing of Johnson, who said according to Axios that the tariffs “are working.” “I think the executive has a broad array of authority that’s been recognized over the years,” Johnson said. “If it gets close to where the imbalance is there, then we would step in.” However, if it came to that, Johnson said the first line of defense would be calling Trump directly. “But I think the first protocol, to be...

On Wednesday, it was reported that China had quietly compiled a list of US-made goods exempt from its 125% tariffs, aiming to ease trade tensions without public concessions. Companies, particularly those reliant on US technologies — such as pharmaceuticals and chipmakers — are being discreetly informed about these exemptions, Reuters reported. The list appears to be expanding: For instance, China recently waived tariffs on US ethane imports. This approach allows Beijing to maintain a firm public stance while offering behind-the-scenes relief. Reports emerged last week that China quietly rolled back tariffs on some US semiconductor products, easing pressure on its...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed apparently classified details about the pager operation against Hezbollah, when he publicly referred to an intelligence operation that preceded the pager attack.The remarks were made during his speech at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem, and reportedly caused great surprise in the defense establishment, according to Israel's Channel 12 news....Netanyahu shared that the decision to eliminate Nasrallah was made while he was flying to the U.S., after receiving intelligence that Nasrallah would likely leave the place he was staying within the next couple days, and that Israeli intelligence did not know where he would...

The U.S. economy shrank in the first quarter despite underlying strength in consumer and business spending. Gross domestic product contracted at an annualized rate of 0.3 percent, the Department of Commerce said on Wednesday. The decline in U.S. gross domestic product marks a sharp reversal from the 2.4 percent growth rate recorded at the end of last year. This was the lowest rate of growth since 2022, when the economy avoided an official recession but contracted for two consecutive quarters. Final sales to private domestic purchasers, a closely watched measure of business and consumer health, expanded at a healthy pace...