Free Republic

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service will lay off about 6,700 employees on Thursday, in a restructuring that could strain the tax-collecting agency’s resources during the critical tax-filing season, a person familiar with the matter said. The workers being cut are probationary employees who have typically been at the agency for less than one to two years, and enjoy fewer protections than longer-term workers. The IRS has a total of roughly 17,000 probationary employees. The reductions at the IRS come amid a broader slashing of personnel across the federal government at the directive of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who...

A group of Republican-led states filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging a ban announced by outgoing Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this month on new offshore oil and gas development along most U.S. coastlines. The lawsuit seeks a reversal of Biden’s ban with declaratory and injunctive relief, according to a court filing that argued Biden did not have the authority to impose such a ban and that the power to do so rests with the U.S. Congress.

US President-elect Donald Trump said that a meeting was being set up between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. "He wants to meet, and we are setting it up," Trump said in remarks before a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - A judge ordered U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham to testify in front of a special grand jury in Georgia investigating former President Donald Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered that Graham will be required to testify on Aug. 2. The judge's certification filed on Monday described Graham as a "necessary and material witness" to the grand jury probe. The development was reported earlier by WSB-TV. Graham's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The senator's attorneys said last week he...