Free Republic

Who Was Colonel Harland Sanders? At the age of 40, Harland Sanders was running a popular Kentucky service station that also served food—so popular, in fact, that the governor of Kentucky designated him a Kentucky colonel. Eventually, Sanders focused on franchising his fried chicken business around the country, collecting a payment for each chicken sold. The company went on to become the world's largest fast-food chicken chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sanders died in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 16, 1980.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has once again raised eyebrows by publicly questioning President Trump’s latest show of military force, this time over a Venezuelan drug vessel blown to pieces in the Caribbean. The Gateway Pundit reported in August that Trump ‘secretly’ signed a directive ordering the Pentagon to start using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels. The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels. This means that US troops could find themselves in countries like Mexico battling the Sinaloa Cartel, for example. As TGP readers...

A Kentucky judge who was allegedly killed by a local sheriff didn’t have a relationship with the county’s top cop’s daughter, according to new grand jury testimony. Former Letcher County, Kentucky Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines allegedly shot and killed former Kentucky 47th Judicial District Judge Kevin Mullins on Sept. 19, 2024. The shooting happened following a lunch outing that included Mullins and Stines, officials said. Video earlier obtained by Fox News Digital shows Stines entering Mullins’ chambers, where he asked everyone else to leave the room so he could speak with the judge privately. The pair talked for around seven...

A former Kentucky sheriff charged with killing a county judge remained in an “active state of psychosis” days after the shooting and battled with jail staff, who had to use pepper spray on him, according to recently filed court documents. Former Letcher County Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines is charged with killing District Judge Kevin Mullins in his chambers nearly a year ago, shocking the small eastern Kentucky community that twice elected Stines as sheriff. Widely viewed security camera footage from Mullins’ chambers shows a man police identified as Stines pointing a gun and firing at Mullins. The ex-sheriff has pleaded...

A 21-year-old University of Kentucky student and self-styled beauty queen, Laken Snelling, faces serious charges after admitting to concealing her dead newborn’s body in a closet, raising concerns among pro-life advocates about the sanctity of life and the circumstances surrounding the infant’s death. Snelling, a senior studying interdisciplinary disability studies and a member of the university’s competitive cheerleading squad, was arrested on Aug. 27, following the discovery of her deceased newborn. Lexington police responded to a call on Park Avenue regarding an unresponsive infant, where they found the baby “wrapped in a towel inside of a trash bag” in a...

A beauty queen and cheerleader at the University of Kentucky was arrested after giving birth and hiding her newborn's body in a closet. Laken Snelling, 21, was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and concealing the birth of an infant. Officers with the Lexington Police Department were called to a home on the 400 block of Park Avenue for a report of an unresponsive infant on Wednesday morning, LEX 18 reported.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) will appear on the cover of Vogue as speculation about his political future and potential run for president heat up. Beshear “is the most popular Democratic governor in the country—and he’s achieved this in a state that has become a GOP stronghold,” the news and culture magazine said in an Instagram post promoting its September cover story focusing on the politician. “His elections have all been close, but in each the margin has widened and he continues to win without turning away from the values and priorities of the left,” it added. “Head to the...

Laura Loomer @LauraLoomer Kentucky US Senate candidate @NateMorris is lying in a new fundraising email, saying he is “Trump endorsed”. President Trump has not endorsed a candidate in the Kentucky US Senate race, and this is incredibly deceptive. The email says “your contribution will benefit Morris for Senate”. How can voters in Kentucky trust a candidate if they lie about being endorsed by President Trump? Bad look!

A pro-abortion “health education” group has launched an ad campaign this month in an attempt to reach women in rural West Virginia and Kentucky. Key Takeaways: * Mayday Health was formed in June 2022 in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Its founders are well-connected in the journalism and financial sectors. * Mayday places billboards and ads in areas where abortion is restricted, under the guise of providing “preventative reproductive health information.” * Its latest ad campaign targets rural women in Kentucky and West Virginia with a series of ads placed at gas stations. The Details: An article...

The rural Kentucky judge gunned down in his own chambers last year ran a twisted sex ring in which young women were coaxed into performing sexual favors just to get out of trouble, one of the alleged victims claims. Tya Adams alleges she was among those caught up in Judge Kevin Mullins’ apparent sex-for-favors scheme that saw him and others in the tiny town of Whitesburg demand sex in exchange for cash, or to get offenders off the hook. Adams told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that Mullins — who was shot execution-style in his Letcher County chambers, allegedly by his longtime sheriff...

Nate Morris is a textbook "McConnell protégé." And this is not an attack on him for that - if you were an aspiring Republican in Kentucky that's where you went...and the only place to go for awhile - McConnell got the reversal of the Dem stranglehold in motion. Being a Republican was to be lost in the wilderness. McConnell and Nate Morris have been on first name terms over two decades now. His ties to McConnell are why he became a political force in Kentucky and his connections and networking may have helped him in his private sector career as...

Kentucky’s recent passage of House Bill 4, which eliminates “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs at public universities and colleges, represents a crucial step toward restoring meritocracy, academic freedom, and intellectual diversity to higher education in the Bluegrass State. The bill was passed in the 2025 legislative session over the veto of Democratic governor Andy Beshear, who predictably claimed that its supporters were motivated by “hate.” In fact, HB 4 provides a necessary corrective to years of institutional overreach that has discriminated against students, stifled open inquiry, and punished dissenting voices on campus. The case of Dr. Allan Josephson exemplifies this...

Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed that almost 2,000 Kentucky driver's licenses have been revoked following allegations of a fraud scheme involving undocumented immigrants. The governor said 1,985 driver's licenses were discovered during routine reviews of credential applications and have since been revoked. The revoked credentials, if used, would not work at an airport and would be flagged if pulled over at a traffic stop," Beshear said on Wednesday. Beshear addressed the criminal investigation after a news report detailed a former clerk's allegations earlier this week. A former clerk told WDRB News that her co-workers were selling driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants...

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is urging state leaders to ban bromazolam, an illicit drug linked to dozens of overdose deaths in the Commonwealth last year, according to our news partners at WCPO-TV. Bromazolam, known as ‘designer Xanax,’ is being sold as prescription pills and has proven to be highly potent and lethal, especially when combined with opioids or other depressants. Coleman credits Northern Kentucky law enforcement for alerting him to the threat, stating, ‘You had a very determined leader from your Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force who wanted to put this threat from this synthetic, this designer Xanax, on...

Allies of longtime former Senate Majority Leader and outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have been caught colluding in a nefarious plot to take down businessman Nate Morris, the U.S. Senate candidate most aligned with President Donald Trump, in next year’s GOP primary to replace McConnell. There is a fierce multi-way primary going on to replace the retiring McConnell in Kentucky next year, and much to McConnell’s chagrin the race has turned into a referendum against his legacy. It’s so bad for McConnell that the Kentucky GOP, under serious pressure from Morris, abandoned a scheme this weekend to award McConnell the...

Newly released video captured the moment the winner of a $167.3 million Powerball jackpot got tackled and tased by Florida police after kicking a deputy in the head. Bodycam footage from the April 29 brawl caught James Farthing, 50, booting a Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy in the head when police arrived at the TradeWinds Resort, in St. Pete Beach, after he allegedly punched a hotel guest in the face, WFLA reported. The deputy was holding another person to the ground when Farthing ran up and kicked him, with resort security rushing in to pin the suspect against the wall and...

Melissa Moorman worked at Louisville’s Nia Center Licensing Branch through Quantum Solutions, a staffing agency contracted by the state to help staff regional offices for 2 years and 3 months before she was fired. Moorman was fired after interviewing with an investigator following her brave testimony about co-workers allegedly secretly selling licenses to illegal aliens for $200 each. The brave whistleblower said the driver’s license scam was taking place between 4-5 times per day for at least two years. According to Moorman, the licenses for illegal aliens scam took place in multiple Kentucky licensing branches. Moorman stepped forward and blew...

In a groundbreaking development, the United States has initiated the opening of a new rare earths mine for the first time in over seven decades. This historic project, situated in Wyoming, has the potential to transform the U.S. economy and bolster its national defense. The discovery was documented in a recent economic viability study published by an independent source, which estimates that the Brook Mine holds up to 1.7 million tons of rare earths and critical minerals, with a vast untapped area still to be explored. The mine is poised to significantly reduce America’s reliance on foreign sources of these...

A rebel Republican congressman has invited multiple victims of Jeffrey Epstein to a press conference at the U.S. Capitol as part of a bipartisan push to force the release of legal files linked to the late pedophile. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a thorn in Donald Trump’s side for his frequent objections to the president’s spending bills and foreign policies, said that he and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna will be co-hosting the Sept. 3 conference. The event will feature survivors of abuse by Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, several of whom “will be speaking out for the first time,”...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, confirmed Friday that his committee’s review of Joe Biden’s pardons so far calls into question their legality. Biden granted more acts of clemency than any other president in U.S. history.. During just one term, he gave a total of 4,245, which included 4,165 commutations of sentences and 80 pardons. By comparison, Barack Obama issued 1,927 acts of clemency over two terms, and Donald Trump issued 238 during his first term. The vast majority of Biden’s pardons came during his final two months in office.. The pardon for his son,...