Free Republic

President Donald Trump's military intervention in Venezuela has emerged as a flash point in the closely watched Republican primary campaign between Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a long-running Trump antagonist, and retired Navy SEAL officer Ed Gallrein, who has the president's backing. Massie, showing his non-interventionist leanings, fired off a series of social media posts criticizing the dramatic action that captured Nicolás Maduro and removed him from the South American country. “Wake up MAGA,” Massie wrote. “VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.” Gallrein responded that Massie had “shown...

WASHINGTON — The Senate advanced a resolution Thursday to block President Trump from taking additional military action in Venezuela, just five days after the capture of Caracas strongman Nicolas Maduro. In a 52-47 vote, the upper chamber agreed to consider a so-called “War Powers resolution” to force Trump to end hostilities toward the South American nation, in a blow to the administration. The measure must still clear the Senate and House to take effect

After the capture and arrest of Venezuelan dictator and cartel leader Maduro, the untiring gentlemen of the Senate, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, have vowed to pass a resolution blocking any action against Venezuela. Sen. Schumer, Sen. Adam Schiff, Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary’s former VP, and Sen. Rand Paul are teaming up on a resolution to try and turn back the clock. No word on whether it will ask for Maduro’s return. While Congress has a legitimate role in declaring war, this resolution is stupid and destructive to the point of being treasonous. President Trump has signaled that he’s not...

WOLFE COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - A Kentucky woman has been charged with fetal homicide after police say she told a clinic she aborted her pregnancy at home and buried the infant on her property. Kentucky State Police arrested 35-year-old Melinda S. Spencer, of Campton, on charges of fetal homicide in the first degree, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. The investigation began Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. when Kentucky State Police Post 8 was contacted by a clinic in Campton. Clinic staff reported a woman had disclosed that she aborted her pregnancy at her residence on Flat Mary...

Years before Minnesota welfare fraud captured the nation’s attention, a Somali-American leader of one massive scheme expanded his assets beyond the North Star State, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, a Somali-born naturalized U.S. citizen, used some of his ill-gotten gains to buy property throughout the Twin Cities and Kentucky before the DOJ prosecuted him for using the nonprofit Feeding Our Future to defraud the government of $300 million in COVID-19 relief meant for hungry children, leading to a 28-year prison sentence in August. There are at least 1,687 people of Somali descent living in Kentucky....

A court ruled the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet violated the state's open records laws by withholding documents tied to an investigation into immigrants illegally obtaining Kentucky driver's licenses in Louisville, ordering more than 2,300 records released to WDRB. The ruling marks a major development in WDRB's ongoing investigation into claims that non-citizens were able to buy Kentucky driver's licenses under the table, often without proper documentation, Homeland Security screening or required driving tests. For former licensing clerk Melissa Moorman, the court order brings both validation and frustration. "I would just like this to be resolved and over so this dark cloud...

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A 13-year-old girl who went missing from her home in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, in October has been found. According to a post from the Rockcastle County Sheriff's Office, 13-year-old Wynter Wagoner was last seen on Oct. 14. Officials posted a month later, announcing that they were continuing to look for Wagoner, working with Kentucky State Police, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals. On Dec. 27, Montgomery County, Maryland, police announced that Wagoner had been found. MCPD said that Wagoner was found in a home in Silver Spring, Maryland, which is just outside of Washington, D.C. Officers...

House Republicans passed a bill they say will lower healthcare costs for a broad swath of Americans by roughly 11%. It's a victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been managing deep divisions within the House GOP on the topic of healthcare as insurance premiums are set to spike across the country in a matter of weeks. One glaring issue that remains unresolved is Obamacare subsidies, which were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic but are set to expire at the end of this year. The legislation passed 216 to 211. Just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted against...

The maker of the popular Jim Beam bourbon whiskey says it will halt production at its main site in Kentucky for all of next year. The distillery will stay closed while the firm takes "the opportunity to invest in site enhancements," it told the BBC in a statement on Sunday. "We are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand and recently met with our team to discuss our volumes for 2026." Distillers in Kentucky - famous for its bourbon - face uncertainty, in part, due to US President Donald Trump's trade policies. The brand is owned by Japanese...

One of Kentucky’s largest bourbon producers apparently is pausing whiskey production at the end of the year. Jim Beam, which is one of the largest makers of American whiskey in the world, is planning to shut down production in Happy Hollow in Clermont on Jan. 1 through 2026. The visitors center on site will remain open for Kentucky Bourbon Trail visitors. “We are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand and recently met with our team to discuss our volumes for 2026,” according to a statement from the company. “We’ve shared with our teams that while we will...

Democrat Gary Clemons, a South Louisville union leader and U.S. Army veteran, won Kentucky’s vacant Senate District 37 seat on Tuesday in a roughly 47.5‑point landslide, taking 72.6 percent of the vote to Republican Calvin Leach’s 25.1 percent, according to unofficial Jefferson County results. “State Democrats are overperforming and winning special elections across every part of the country,” said Heather Williams, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) president, in a statement shared with Newsweek. “Momentum is on our side as voters turn away from MAGA Republicans and back state Democrats who are fighting to lower costs.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- All 1,600 employees of the brand new electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky will be laid off before Ford converts it to manufacture batteries for data centers and other utilities. Ford will turn the Glendale factory into a battery-storage business for customers such as utilities, wind- and solar-power developers, and massive data centers that train artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. And Ford announced Monday it plans to begin shipping the battery energy storage systems from its Kentucky and Michigan plants in Late 2027, a shift to "higher-return opportunities." In total, the company said...

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) slammed President Trump on Monday over the president’s remarks about the killings of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. Reiner, a well-known Democratic donor and activist who had criticized Trump, and his wife were found dead in their home on Sunday in a suspected homicide. “Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered. I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they’re afraid,” Massie wrote on the social platform X. “I...

A DoorDash worker who was caught on a doorbell cam spraying a mystery substance on a delivery order bizarrely claimed she was only aiming at a spider. Kourtney Stevenson is seen on the Dec. 7 footage delivering Arby’s to the doorstep of an Indiana home, taking a confirmation picture — then calmly spraying an aerosol substance onto the bag. After identifying her, authorities in Indiana charged the driver with two counts of battery resulting in moderate injury and two counts of consumer package tampering. Stevenson was arrested in Kentucky and will be extradited to Indiana.

Ronald Exantus was released early from 20-year sentence for stabbing 6-year-old Logan Tipton in Kentucky home invasion A man who was released from prison early after racking up good behavior credits following his conviction for fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Kentucky boy during a 2015 home invasion was arrested weeks later for violating his parole. Ronald Exantus, 42, of Indianapolis, was serving a 20-year sentence for the killing of Logan Tipton, who was brutally slain in his Versailles, Kentucky, home, when he was released back onto the streets in October. Despite confessing, Exantus was found not guilty of murder by reason...

"I think we're missing an incredible opportunity right now," Stalker said. "I'm going to be honest, I don't feel good about being white every day for a lot of reasons, because it's a point of privilege that I get to move through the world in a way that so many of my other colleagues and friends and family members in the community don't get the privilege to do."

How did more than $3 million in Civil War era gold coins end up in a farm field, somewhere in Kentucky? Everyone from the Washington Post to USA Today to major TV news networks covered this story last summer when it first broke, but in this segment you'll hear for the first time from the Lexington coin dealer who brokered the sale of the coins when he was first approached by the farmer who literally stumbled upon them. You'll also hear from a UK professor about why she thinks the coins were buried in the first place, and from some...

A Kentucky Democrat went viral this week after admitting she felt guilty about her skin color in a speech defending diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools. "I'm going to be honest," state Rep. Sarah Stalker said during a meeting of the Kentucky General Assembly's Interim Joint Committee on Education Tuesday. "I don't feel good about being White every day, for a lot of reasons."

A Kentucky sheriff who was caught on camera shooting a local judge at point-blank range has admitted to the murder but pleaded 'not guilty' in court - and a new filing offers insight into his possible defense. Lawyers representing ex-Letcher County Sheriff Shawn 'Mickey' Stines argued in court documents that he 'lacked the capacity to intend' to shoot and kill his good friend, District Court Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, in September 2024, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Stines lawyers' said the sheriff was 'exhibiting paranoid and psychotic conduct' when he shot the judge inside his chambers. The legal team also laid...

According to the document, NATO "no longer aligns with current US national security interests"WASHINGTON, December 10. /TASS/. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, a Kentucky representative, introduced a bill calling for the United States to withdraw from NATO. "NATO is a Cold War relic," the Republican Congressman wrote on the X social network. "We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries," the legislator said, referring to the US expenditures in the military alliance. The lawmaker added that he had submitted a bill to remove the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization....