Free Republic

The numbers don’t add up! New York City is already dumping a record $43 billion into its public schools while spending heaps more per-student than any other large US district — despite plummeting enrollment and mediocre test results. The massive price tag for educating Big Apple students could grow even more as Mayor Zohran Mamdani is finalizing his first budget proposal and as the city is already spending $44,000 per student — an unsustainable level of spending, budget watchdogs and education analysts said. The spending is also unacceptable, given Big Apple students’ middle-of-the-pack showing among urban school districts on standardized...

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has not publicly or privately responded to a top investigative committee in Minnesota’s request for information on her possible ties to the massive fraud scandal, but a recent email from one of her former top staffers to the committee sheds light on how her camp may view the situation and who they blame. "As the District Director for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from 2019-2022, I read with interest your comments in Session Daily regarding H.R.6187 - MEALS Act," former Omar District Director Kendal Killian wrote in an email, obtained by Fox News Digital, Wednesday...

The Nahal Mishmar Hoard is an archaeological discovery of more than 400 copper objects from the Chalcolithic period, found in the Judean Desert in 1961 by Pessah Bar-Adon, an archaeologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in a cave at Nahal Mishmar, west of the Dead Sea. It was found by chance during an expedition searching for more of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.The findings from Nahal Mishmar represent one of the most important hoards of ancient metal objects ever discovered and provide scholars with valuable insight into Copper Age metallurgy and society in the Levant. The objects, mostly made...

Researchers led by Elena Klenina and Andrzej B. Biernacki of Adam Mickiewicz University and their colleagues identified intestinal parasites in residues taken from four chamber pots recovered from two archaeological sites in the Roman province of Moesia Inferior, which is located in what is now Bulgaria, according to a La Brújula Verde report. Three of the pots in the study were found in a villa located near the Legio I Italica army camp, where high-ranking officials likely stayed when they visited the region. Cryptosporidium, a protozoan that can cause severe diarrhea, was one of the parasites detected in the second-century...

Reports of transgender actor Elliot Page — formerly Ellen — playing Achilles in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film, The Odyssey, have sparked fierce backlash. “You could have paid me to tank this movie and I wouldn’t have thought of this,” actor Kevin Sorbo reacted. While Page’s role in Nolan’s retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey — set to debut in theaters on July 17 — has yet to be officially confirmed, the Juno star is known to be in the movie, according to a report by the video gaming and entertainment website IGN. “The trailer might’ve given away who the actor is...

A Los Angeles mayoral debate has collapsed at the last minute after Nithya Raman joined Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt in pulling out. Raman revealed early Monday she was not going, following Bass pulling out last week and Pratt earlier saying he had a scheduling conflict. It left just businessman Adam Miller and activist Rae Huang. A spokesman for the Pat Brown Institute and the League of Women Voters said: “With only two candidates remaining, the event partners have agreed not to proceed.” Raman’s campaign told The Post: “We’re disappointed that Mayor Bass cancelled her participation in the debate. We...

WASHINGTON — President Trump called Monday for the temporary suspension of the federal gas tax to give Americans relief at the pump amid surging oil prices caused by the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. “I think it’s a great idea,” Trump told CBS News during a brief phone interview. “Yup, we’re going to take off the gas tax for a period of time, and when gas goes down, we’ll let it phase back in.” Gasoline has been taxed at 18.4 cents per gallon since the 1990s to generate up to $40 billion in annual revenue for the Highway Trust...

For almost the entirety of the half century I have lived on Earth, I have had experts, teachers, politicians and activists hectoring me about how climate change is going to destroy the planet. But this week, in The New York Times, of all places, is evidence that climate alarmism is finally cooling down. "Democrats Do Not Have To Campaign On Climate Change Anymore," blared the headline, this week, as author Matt Huber argues that voters are rather turned off by the subject. I would like to suggest that this is because it is the single most expensive lie in human...

President Trump’s top economic adviser claimed Sunday that economic growth this year could clock in north of an explosive 6%, close to triple the expectations of most mainstream forecasts. White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett theorized that the recent capital-spending surge in March, which appears to be driven in part by an artificial intelligence-related investment bonanza from corporations, will turbocharge growth. “I think we really could be looking at numbers north of 4, north of 5, north of even 6 because there’s so much capital stock growth right now,” Hassett told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” when asked about...

Today, the nation’s primary threat has shifted from the Soviet Union to China, which has an economy, military, and set of ambitions that make it a fundamentally different and more menacing adversary. Within that competition, China’s construction of a fleet and military designed to challenge the U.S. Navy has degraded U.S. command of the sea to its lowest point in 80 years, undermining the transoceanic Navy’s strategic concept and ability to contribute to national policy.A new doctrine is taking shape, the theory of the Panoceanic Navy, shifting away from projecting power ashore and toward reestablishing command of the sea to...

A top Padres prospect has self-deported to Mexico after pleading guilty to transporting undocumented immigrants within the United States. Humberto Cruz, a pitcher ranked as the Padres’ fifth-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to receiving money for the transport, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, and acknowledged it was a “virtual certainty” he’d be deported. The Athletic confirmed that Cruz, 19, had decided to self-deport and was back in Mexico. The Padres’ understanding is that Cruz would lose his work visa for 10 years, but could reapply after five years of good behavior, the...

A Minnesota “violence interruption” charity has collapsed after its leaders allegedly used $6.5 million worth of charitable funds to bankroll lavish lifestyles and a private liquor store. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Friday a civil lawsuit against nonprofit We Push for Peace and its former directors, Trahern Pollard and Jaclyn McGuigan. The organization, which held lucrative contracts for community outreach and violence prevention, was driven into the ground by “rampant abuse” and blatant self-dealing, prosecutors allege. According to the complaint, Pollard personally pocketed more than $6 million of the diverted charitable funds. Instead of helping the community, the...

Miners in Myanmar have discovered a rare ruby of enormous size, considered to be the second-largest by weight ever found in the conflict-battered Southeast Asian nation, state media reported Friday. The ruby, measuring 11,000 carats (2.2 kilograms, or 4.8 pounds), was unearthed near the town of Mogok, in the upper Mandalay region, the heartland of the lucrative gem-mining industry that has recently experienced intense fighting in the country’s wide-ranging civil war. According to a report from the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar, the newly found rough ruby was discovered in mid-April, just after the traditional New Year festival. While...

The tree, known as Prometheus, was cut down to study, with permission from the US Forest Service. The stump of Prometheus in the Wheeler Bristlecone Pine Grove at Great Basin National Park, Nevada. Image credit: James R Bouldin via Wikimedia Commons (public domain) Science isn't always perfect; mistakes are made, occasionally to the detriment of one's subject. But what about inadvertently chopping down what would later turn out to be the world's oldest non-clonal tree? That’s exactly what happened to an unfortunate graduate student named Donald R. Currey back in the summer of 1964, who ended up responsible for the...

A fireworks explosion inside a $1.3 million home in south Los Angeles forced police to call in a bomb squad to clean up the area Saturday as fire officials battled an ensuing blaze with fireworks still exploding. Officials told The California Post that one person was found dead at the Jefferson Park home, and two others were injured. Video from the scene showed an energetic blaze with colorful fireworks dangerously going off. They appeared to be mortar-style fireworks. Firefighters extinguished the fire by 5:52 a.m. Cadaver dogs were called for a possible missing person at one point, LAFD said. Police...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) dismissed a question of whether or not she’ll run for president in 2028 on Friday night, stating that her “ambition is way bigger.” “My ambition is to change this country,” Ocasio-Cortez told Democratic strategist David Axelrod during a conversation hosted by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. “Presidents come and go, Senate, House seats, elected officials, come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever. A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights — all of that.” The representative is among a group of people whom voters see as potential Democratic candidates for...

Ukraine is testing an AI-assisted laser system designed to destroy Shahed drones and protect key infrastructure. Image of the Ukrainian Tryzub laser system. Military NYI Ukraine’s Celebra Tech is edging closer to deploying its Tryzub anti-drone laser weapon in Ukraine, the company reports. According to Celebra, the system is now entering its final testing phase before battlefield deployment. Colloquially called “Trident,” the system has been designed to give Ukrainian forces a cheap and rapid deployable counter to massed Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations. This could be game-changing, as Russia has made use of large...

In France, the National Front was co-founded in the 1970s by the avowed anti-Semite Jean-Marie Le Pen, along with a former member of the Waffen SS, and a member of the Vichy parapolice. Jean-Marie’s daughter, Marine Le Pen, took over the party in 2011...During her 2017 presidential campaign, she said that France was not responsible for the July 1942 roundup in which French police arrested and deported approximately thirteen thousand Jews. “I think, generally speaking,” she said, “if there are people responsible, it’s those who were in power at the time-not France.” ... By the time snap parliamentary elections were...

Excavations from 2015 to 2021 on the ancient site of Motza, just west of Jerusalem, revealed a sprawling settlement with some surprisingly advanced technology. The site dates back to 7100–6700 BCE during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period...There is evidence of the use of calcitic lime plaster, or calcium carbonate-based plaster, in construction as far back as 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. It later became a dominant, durable building material used by civilizations like the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The earliest evidence of its use appeared in the Fertile Crescent, or modern day Jordan and Turkey. The material is produced...

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service on Friday reported a net quarterly ​loss of $2 billion as it faces a growing financial crisis and has ‌warned it could run out of cash as soon as February. USPS said mail volumes fell another 6.3% in the three months ending March 31 as operating revenue rose 2.3% to $20.2 billion ​over the same quarter last year. USPS last month said it would temporarily ​suspend employer payments for a federal pension program to conserve cash ⁠and plans to raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 82 cents ​from 78...