Free Republic

Neighbors of a gay couple in Maryland were shocked to find out they were arrested for possession of child pornography after getting flagged by IKEA. 41-year-old Robert Sherer and 54-year-old Robert Books were arrested Wednesday after police were tipped off about Sherer allegedly downloading child pornography on his work computer. He worked as a senior resolutions generalist at IKEA in White Marsh. The company, which is based in Sweden, notified Swedish police about the alarming discovery after confirming the accusation. Police notified their counterparts in Maryland, who began investigating the couple in March.

She then decided to cite the Ten Commandments, and the lack of a specific reference to abortion, to defend it “It’s not mentioned in the Big Ten, I’m just gonna say. In the Big Ten, it is not mentioned… Cause I figure, God was pretty clear. Here’s the stuff that will make your life better on earth. Don’t lie, cause you don’t want people lying to you. Don’t mess with somebody’s wife, cause you’re going to be made if they’re messing with yours. Just, you know, common sense stuff

The final coal-fired power plants in New England are slated to shutter in the coming years, making it the second region to phase out the energy source that powered the U.S. economy for decades.

Trump arrives in court for hush money case, slams it as a ‘witch hunt’ and a ‘hoax’ — on same day $454M fraud bond is due Former President Donald Trump arrived at a Manhattan court Monday for a hearing in his delayed “hush money” case — on the same day he faces a $454 million fraud bond deadline. “This is a witch hunt, this is a hoax,” Trump, 77, said before entering the Manhattan Supreme Court room. It marks his third appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court after Justice Juan Manuel Merchan delayed the estimated six-week criminal trial.

....Debbie Wasserman Schultz held a press conference on school safety measures Tuesday and called for the replacement of Florida's surgeon general -- as the measles outbreak in South Florida continues to expand. She called for the termination of Dr. Joseph Ladapo and for Governor DeSantis to replace him...

A leading scientific journal faces humiliation after it published a completely fake paper, purportedly written by Chinese researchers, which contained AI generated images of a rat with a penis bigger than its own body...The Telegraph reports that the journal Frontiers in Cell and Development Biology published a paper that claimed to show the signalling pathway of sperm stem cells, but depicted a rat sitting upright with a massive #### and four giant testicles.

Students tabling at a Catholic university in Washington, D.C., drew butts on their foreheads and invited people to join them in celebrating “A** Wednesday,” an allusion to the first day of Lent, which is known as “Ash Wednesday.”Georgetown University is considered one of the oldest Catholic and Jesuit schools in the nation. According to its webpage, the university provides “students with a world-class learning experience focused on educating the whole person through exposure to different faiths, cultures and beliefs.” On Wednesday, America First Policy Institute’s Chief Engagement Officer Ashley Hayek shared a photo on X of multiple Georgetown students standing...

Climate Protesters Arrested after Throwing Pink Powder on U.S. Constitution in Museum Two climate activists were arrested on Wednesday after they poured a pink powder on a case holding the U.S. Constitution. The two protesters were caught on camera in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, claiming their act was to raise awareness for climate change. In a video posted on X, one of the activists can be heard saying: “This country is founded on the conditions that all men are created equally.” “We are calling for all people to have all these rights, not just wealthy white men.”...

Porterville Unified school buses are getting quieter. That's because they're slowly shifting away from diesel and moving to electric. Assistant superintendent Brad Rohrbach says that transition is now accelerating thanks to a $13.8 million award from the Environmental Protection Agency's 'Clean School Bus Program'. "It's really the next step in our endeavor to sustain and move forward on our sustainability and energy efforts at the district," Rohrbach said. Director of Transportation and Sustainability Richard Tree says the 35 electric buses they will purchase with the money will help reduce the district's carbon footprint and create a model for others in...

Kamala Harris insists she’s ‘ready to serve,’ touts her ‘capacity to lead’ Vice President Kamala Harris claimed she is “ready to serve’’ and touted her “capacity to lead” when asked last week about boss President Biden’s advanced age and voters’ concerns over it. “I am ready to serve — there’s no question about that,” Harris told the Wall Street Journal. She insisted that everyone who observes her performance in office “walks away fully aware of my capacity to lead.” Harris spoke during an interview aboard Air Force Two — two days before special counsel Robert Hur’s scathing report touching on...

Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed one of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws in 2023, and now highway shootings are surging in the state. Over 50 models of guns are banned under the legislation, including popular rifles such as AR-15s and M-16s, and the Democratic Legislature wants to crack down further with several more gun control bills in the body. The state is now seeing a surge in highway shootings, with more than a dozen reported on state highways since the beginning of the year, according to KOMO News. There have been over 190 reported “shooting incidents” in the...

Could Taylor Swift tilt Florida blue? It’s Democrats’ wildest dream. TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida Democrats don’t know why Taylor Swift is naming an upcoming song on her new album “Florida!!!” or the reason she chose to hold three concerts in Miami less than a month before the November elections. But their excitement around the news is less about “why?” and more about leveraging Swift’s celebrity status to fill the blank space for beleaguered voters tired of losing to Republicans.

Newt Gingrich Goes Scorched Earth on Liz Cheney Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized Liz Cheney, accusing her of dishonesty, manipulation, and destructive behavior. He linked such claims to a lawsuit filed by Stefan Passantino, alleging unethical conduct by Cheney and the January 6 committee. Gingrich highlighted Cheney’s alleged manipulation of a witness and the subsequent changes in testimony, raising concerns regarding her credibility.

Some Americans will get their student loans canceled in February as Biden accelerates his new plan WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will start canceling student loans for some borrowers in February as part of a new repayment plan that's taking effect nearly six months ahead of schedule. Loan forgiveness was originally set to begin in July under the new SAVE repayment plan, but it’s being accelerated to provide faster relief to borrowers, President Joe Biden said Friday. It’s part of an effort “to act as quickly as possible to give more borrowers breathing room” and move on from their...

The task force charged with creating a reparations program for Black students in the Berkeley school district will meet for an additional six months before presenting its recommendations to the school board in June. Intending to give cash payments to students whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States, Berkeley Unified established the task force in March. If implemented, it may be the first program of its kind in the country. Since April, the 18-member task force has met monthly to set the course for the new reparations program. Its first job is to determine how BUSD should fund reparations;...

OPINION: As the nation hurtles toward a critical election and the world confronts two wars, the fate of U.S. democracy is complicated by another pressure: the public’s low esteem of the media. Trust in the news is at record lows, especially among conservatives, and local news is at risk of dying out completely. Isn’t that the case, repeated in poll after poll and bemoaned by pundits? That sad state hangs over everything, because democracy depends on an agreed-upon set of facts, a free press to discover them and a public square where citizens can find compromise over their differences.

Colorado-based cooperative Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association will accelerate the closure of a coal-fired unit in the northwestern part of CO, and announced a retirement date for an Arizona coal plant. Tri-State said it wants to acquire at least another 1,250 MW of renewable energy generation over the next several years. The not-for-profit company, which serves rural electricity consumers across four western states, said the ERP filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission seeks to take advantage of funding from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s $9.7 billion Empowering Rural America program, part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The...

The district would encourage non-English speaking students to be able to use their native language to learn as opposed to being educated in English, which advocates say is oppressive and rooted in racism. The Denver school district is among the first in the country to adopt a “language justice” policy as a "long term goal." The district would encourage non-English speaking students to be able to use their native language to learn as opposed to being educated in English, which advocates say is oppressive and rooted in racism. Denver schools had about 90,250 students in 2022 with 35,000 multilingual learners...

A group trying to block former President Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot in all 50 states ramped up pressure on Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade during Thanksgiving week.Free Speech for People first contacted Griffin-Valade in July, less than two weeks into her term. Its latest letter asks Griffin-Valade to respond and indicate whether she’ll issue a temporary rule declaring Trump ineligible to appear on ballots in Oregon by Dec. 1.“Your oath to support the Constitution, and the weighty responsibility entrusted to you by Oregon voters as Secretary of State, impel you to exclude Mr. Trump’s name from...

The taking of selfies is now considered legitimately dangerous. A review by the University of New South Wales concluded that taking selfies could actually pose a "public health problem." Referencing data from multiple peer-reviewed studies in both the U.S. and Australia since 2011, the review was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in September of this year.