Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former Republican congressman from Indiana who served nearly two years in prison for making illegal stock trades based on inside information after he left office. Buyer was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2023 for trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000, representing the amount of the illegal gains, and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released in 2025.

Braun has previously given Indiana roughly “65-35” odds of landing the team and has repeatedly highlighted the advantages of Indiana’s business-friendly environment compared to Illinois’ high-tax, high-regulation climate. Losing the Bears would represent far more than a symbolic defeat for Illinois. It would mean losing thousands of potential construction jobs, long-term economic activity, tourism revenue, and one of the state’s most iconic institutions. It would also send a powerful message to businesses nationwide about the direction of Illinois under Democratic leadership. The potential departure would fit a troubling pattern. Since Pritzker took office, Illinois has seen more than 500,000 residents...

STATEMENT FROM CHICAGO BEARS CHAIRMAN GEORGE H. MCCASKEY AND PRESIDENT & CEO KEVIN WARREN Yesterday, the Chicago Bears Board of Directors met and voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected. We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana to the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city. It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.

The Bears took a significant step toward leaving Illinois on Friday. The Bears' board of directors voted Thursday to advance their stadium development in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site still to be determined. This is this first time that the Bears' board has voted on any stadium site. The Bears' plans to leave the state they've called home since their inception for Indiana come just days after the end of Illinois' spring legislative session. "We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana and the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and...

A Republican senator has offered up a new name for President Donald Trump to consider as a replacement for outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is pushing Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to step in for Gabbard, who resigned earlier this month to care for her husband, who has a rare form of bone cancer. Banks disclosed Stefanik’s name on Thursday in a post on X after news broke that Gabbard would be stepping down from the role. “Stefanik would make a great replacement for Tulsi as DNI,” he wrote. The Indiana Republican argued that Stefanik’s...

The chief of police in New Chicago, Indiana, stood accused Sunday of selling a pawn shop a gun that was being held as evidence and then trying to have it bought back, among other allegations. New Chicago police Chief Earl Mayo was charged with theft, official misconduct, and attempted obstruction of justice, as well as unlawful possession of an anabolic steroid, according to court documents. Chief Mayo was booked Sunday as an inmate in Clark County, Ohio, after authorities said he tried to evade arrest. Court documents said this past Thursday, a Lake County, Indiana, sheriff's police commander received a...

Almost 300 illegal migrants with commercial driver’s licenses were stopped and prosecuted in Indiana over the last three months, according to a top aide to the state’s Gov. Mike Braun. Tony Ferraro, an aide to the governor who also serves on the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, told the board on Thursday that the state has discovered at least 283 undocumented drivers operating trucks at its weigh stations over a 90-day stretch. “That’s over three a day that we pulled out of trucks,” he said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “The bottom line is it was illegal. It was against...

Felix Rosenqvist capped his magical May by edging David Malukas in a last-lap drag race to the Yard of Bricks with the highest stakes, winning the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the closest finish in the century-plus history of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

A legal battle that began before the iPhone was invented ended Thursday as the Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the city of Gary over a ruling that killed a lawsuit against 11 gun manufacturers. The city initially filed its suit in August 1999 seeking not just money for alleged damages caused by the gun manufacturers’ “negligence,” but also for the court to order the manufacturers, including Smith and Wesson, Glock and Beretta, to take various measures that anti-Second Amendment groups had not been able to achieve via legislation. In a statement released Thursday, Brady United, formerly...

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — The Fort Wayne Police Department released footage Tuesday afternoon of last week’s fight at Tim Hortons that preceded the death of a 75-year-old woman. The footage from the events of May 13, posted on the department’s YouTube page, can be viewed in the video above. Although the Allen County Coroner’s Office previously said it would not disclose details, a report released Tuesday coinciding with the FWPD’s statement officially identified her as Anita Ann Grayson, a 75-year-old Fort Wayne woman. The report said her cause and manner of death were both still pending, but the autopsy...

A 75-year-old Indiana woman died after she flew into a rage over her Tim Hortons order, took a swing at the manager and ripped out a chunk of her hair in the brawl that followed. Anita Grayson stormed into the Tim Hortons in Fort Wayne — about 120 miles outside Indianapolis — just after 8 a.m. on May 13, and berated a 17-year-old female worker when she was upset about her drive-thru order, according to the Fort Wayne Police Department. Surveillance footage released by the department captured Grayson pointing and shouting at the worker as the coffeehouse’s 20-year-old shift manager...

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger became the latest enemy of President Donald Trump’s to lose a Republican primary on Tuesday. Billionaire Rick Jackson and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones advanced to a runoff election for the GOP nomination for Georgia governor — locking out Raffensperger, who rose to prominence defending Georgia’s 2020 election results but struggled to gain traction among his party’s increasingly MAGA base. Raffensperger’s defeat is another sign of Trump’s grip on the GOP, following the president’s wins ousting state Republican senators who clashed with him over redistricting in Indiana and Sen. Bill Cassidy’s loss in Louisiana on...

Mike Pence anointed himself to stand athwart the populist Right with a whistle in his mouth, screaming for conservatives to “get out of the pool.” The imagery fits him perfectly. Pence increasingly resembles that obnoxious childhood lifeguard we all remember—the self-important scold, high on perceived power, perched way above everyone else. As such, Pence is convinced that enforcing his rules matters more than understanding why people jumped into the water in the first place.

Union Pacific's famed Big Boy No. 4014, the world's largest operating steam locomotive, will journey to the East Coast this summer for the first time as part of a historic coast-to-coast tour to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. The tour includes a Fourth of July celebration in Philadelphia, major display events in eight cities and more than 50 whistle-stops in 10 states, including stops for the first time in Indiana, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.

A mother in Indiana faces 18 years behind bars after allegedly leaving her three children and dogs home alone to fester in deplorable conditions. Ashley Rogers, 42, was arrested on three counts of neglect of a dependent after officers searched her home and found her three children and dogs had been living in squalor. Fort Wayne Police officers arrived to Rogers home at around 12.20pm on April 30 following reports of a minor threatening to harm themselves and discovered the property covered in black mold, animal feces and filled with piles of trash. ogers's boyfriend, Antione Burnett, was at the...

Terms such as "historic" and "game-changing" were used by to describe the outcome of the nationally watched Republican primaries for state Senate in the Hoosier State. No less than five of the Trump-backed challengers unseated incumbents. Only two GOP senators have been defeated in primaries in the last 40 years. The outcome of the primaries will not affect the shape of Indiana's U.S. House districts until 2027.

If you live in these states GO VOTE!

A man who is running for Indiana Senate District 31 in the upcoming primary is facing charges after police allegedly found cocaine in his car in Fishers. Andrew Dezelan, 39, was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine and resisting law enforcement. The Fishers Police Department said officers responded to a person that was soliciting a neighborhood in the 13000 block of Ravenswood Trail, near East 136th Street and Atlantic Road in Fishers, around 8 p.m. on Sunday, April 26. Police said they found Dezelan in his vehicle at the neighborhood's clubhouse. When the responding officer asked Dezelan why he...

Nine people were wounded in a mass shooting near the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington early Sunday morning. Gunfire erupted as crowds of revelers were celebrating the famed “Little 500” college cycling race on the popular strip of Kirkwood Avenue just after midnight, WTHR reported. Police responded to the 400 block of East Kirkwood – a block from Indiana University – where they found “multiple wounded individuals.” Nine people were taken to local hospitals, including six by ambulance, as of 3 a.m., the outlet reported. Officials did not give their conditions or types of injuries. Witnesses said a fight...

TULSA, Okla. — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg drew a packed crowd Saturday, April 18, at Will Rogers High School for a town hall focused on key issues ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. A full gymnasium welcomed Buttigieg as he took the stage, with attendees filling the space to hear and take part in the discussion. The event was part of a broader series of stops as he continues engaging with communities ahead of November, following a fundraiser for the Kansas Democratic Party in Wichita. Tulsa mayor Monroe Nichols joined Buttigieg at the event after extending an invitation earlier...