Free Republic

...after being cut from speech line-up and banned from laying a cloth on boxer's coffin during Muslim ceremony -Recep Tayyip Erdogan had specially flown to Louisville, Kentucky, to say farewell to Ali -But the president’s office said Erdogan left the United States for Turkey late Thursday after attending the prayer ceremony -He was due to speak at today's multi-faith service but lost his slot due to 'lack of program space' -Funeral organizers also 'refused to allow Erdogan to lay a cloth from the Kaaba on Ali’s coffin during the Thursday ceremony' -In addition he wanted the head of Turkey's religious...

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) revealed in a bombshell interview with Jason Chaffetz that his committee has identified the shadowy White House staffers responsible for wielding President Joe Biden’s infamous autopen during a period when Biden was “clearly in mental decline.” The autopen scandal first erupted in March when President Trump, in a fiery late-night Truth Social post, declared Joe Biden’s autopen pardons “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT.” Trump revealed that Biden, whom he branded “the Worst President in the History of our Country,” did not personally sign the pardons, nor was he even aware...

The first Democrat is now officially running for Sen. Mitch McConnell's seat. Pamela Stevenson, the top-ranking Democrat in the Republican-led Kentucky House, has launched her bid for the seat. Stevenson, a retired Air Force colonel, has served in the state House since 2021. Republican and former attorney general, Daniel Cameron, is also running for McConnell's seat. There are several other Republicans considering running, including Congressman Andy Barr. McConnell announced in February he would not seek re-election. His term ends in January 2027.

A supercell band of tornadoes cut a path of destruction through the Ohio Valley late Friday, leaving at least 21 people dead in Kentucky and Missouri, authorities reported Saturday. Hardest hit was Laurel County, where nine of the state’s fourteen deaths were reported by public safety officials. As of Saturday morning, the state remained in its rescue phase with five counties under a declared state of emergency and 100,000 without power. In Missouri, authorities reported seven people have lost their lives and dozens were injured after twisters caused heavy damage, significantly impacting the St. Louis metro area. A storm chaser...

GOP senators have raised concerns about the deficit impact of the emerging package, as well as the cuts to Medicaid and clean energy funding. WASHINGTON — As House Republicans scramble to corral the votes to pass a massive bill for President Donald Trump's agenda, their Senate counterparts are making clear the emerging package won’t fly as written when it reaches them.Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., was categorical that the product coming out of various House committees cannot pass the Senate as it currently stands.“No. We’ll make changes,” Hoeven said. “We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things...

At least 14 deaths have been confirmed from violent tornadoes that swept through the commonwealth late Friday evening into early Saturday morning, causing significant damage in the London and Somerset areas. The wave of tornadoes flattened buildings, destroyed cars, kept thousands without power and collapsed homes and neighborhoods throughout southeastern Kentucky. The worry was that after the sun rose on Saturday more could be found injured or dead. It was the worst tornado in Somerset since 2012 when six people were killed. Gov. Andy Beshear issued a state of emergency Friday night in anticipation of the severe storms that were...

Ride along in police car saves life of officer. Hodge twins believe this man should become a police man.

On a rugged bluff overlooking the Ohio River, known locally as "Devil's Backbone," centuries of overgrowth obscures a secret of history... In 1799, early settlers found six skeletons clad in breastplates bearing a Welsh coat of arms. Indian legends told of "yellow-haired giants" who settled in Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Ohio and Tennessee -- a region they called "the Dark and Forbidden Land." Archeologists debunk the legend. They say that evidence indicates that the natives of the region once conducted a vigorous trading network nearby and buried their dead on the bluff... Upstream about 14 miles from Louisville, Ky., the...

U.S. Kentucky boy uses mom's phone to order 70,000 lollipops — costing $4,000: "He wanted to have a carnival" Updated on: May 8, 2025 / 8:18 AM EDT / CBS/AP A Kentucky woman was in a sticky mess when she found stacks of boxes containing lollipops on her front doorstep. The surprise delivery was ordered by her young son while he played on her phone. Holly LaFavers says she tried stopping 8-year-old Liam's Amazon order for about 70,000 Dum-Dum suckers before the treats arrived but it was too late. Amazon had already delivered 22 cases to her home. "He told...

The Democrat and RINO effort to blow up Trump’s global tariffs suffered an embarrassing failure in the Senate this evening after two senators failed to vote. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Senator Rand Paul (RINO-KY) had sponsored a resolution that would have terminated ALL of Trump’s tariffs, including those on America’s top adversary, China. The vote deadlocked 49-49, meaning it failed by one vote. But there were three Republicans who voted to stab Trump in the back and end the global tariffs: Rand Paul of Kentucky Susan Collins of Maine Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Senator...

VIDEOKentucky Governor Andy Beshear thought it was a good idea to start a podcast. He must have noticed Gavin Newsom's podcast and thought it was the thing to do if you are a presidential contender. Wrong move! As you can see, all Beshear accomplished was to expose himself as a really really BORING person. His words are spoken in very carefully measured staccato portions chock full of ennui. Nothing about his personality shines at all since all he projects is the cold soul of a professional member of the Nomenklatura who dares not risk saying anything interesting for fear of...

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on Sunday he does not think the law would allow President Trump to send United States citizens convicted of violent crimes to Salvadoran prisons, despite the president’s suggestion that he might be open to that possibility. “No, ma’am. Nor should it be considered appropriate or moral,” Kennedy told NBC News’s Kristen Welker when asked on “Meet the Press” whether he thinks such a move would be legal. “We have our own laws,” he continued. “We have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries in my judgment.” Trump, in a...

A Washington state man accused of making more than 20 swatting calls across the U.S. and in Canada, leading to law enforcement responses to his false reports of bombings, shootings and other crimes, pleaded guilty. Ashton Garcia, 21, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to two counts of extortion and two counts of threats and hoaxes regarding explosives, U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said in a news release. Garcia was initially charged with 10 felony counts. Garcia placed the calls to agencies in Washington state, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Colorado,...

At 106 years old, Vaughn Drake Jr. was the oldest known survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor until his death on April 7, according to his obituary. Born Nov. 6, 1918, in Winchester, Kentucky, Drake served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. He saw the battles of Pearl Harbor and Saipan in the Marianas, collecting an array of honors including the special congressional medal for Pearl Harbor veterans and the World War II Victory Medal. In 2016, the Lexington Herald-Leader sat down with Drake to record some of his memories of the fateful attack on...

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed four executive orders Tuesday promoting the deregulation and expansion of the “beautiful, clean coal” industry in the U.S. The first order White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said might be “one of the most significant executive orders” the president has issued so far. “This directs all departments and agencies of the federal government to end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry. This ends the leasing moratorium that prevents new coal projects on federal land, and it’s going to accelerate all permitting and funding for new coal projects,” Scharf said. The other...

The president will direct agencies to boost coal leasing, mining and exports. But these steps are unlikely to usher in a coal renaissance.President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Tuesday aimed at boosting the struggling U.S. coal industry, according to White House officials.Flanked by coal miners wearing hard hats at the White House, Trump will direct federal agencies to loosen various restrictions on coal mining, leasing and exports. He will instruct the Interior Department to resume coal leasing on millions of acres of public lands, and he will order the Energy Department and other agencies to study whether...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1. Purpose. In order to secure America’s economic prosperity and national security, lower the cost of living, and provide for increases in electrical demand from emerging technologies, we must increase domestic energy production, including coal. Coal is abundant and cost effective, and can be used in any weather condition. Moreover, the industry has historically employed hundreds of thousands of Americans. America’s coal resources are vast, with a current estimated value in the trillions of dollars, and...

Sen. Rand Paul — a right-wing firebrand from a deep red state — is in some ways an unlikely figure to articulate a searing case against Donald Trump’s agenda. But the senator from Kentucky is issuing a stark warning to fellow Republicans that Trump’s tariff policies could lead to a generational political loss for the party. And he’s raking in surprising praise from his Democratic colleagues as he pushes back relentlessly on the airwaves and the Senate floor against what he describes as Trump’s executive overreach and infringement on Congress. In an impassioned floor speech ahead of his vote to...

President Donald Trump has fired several members of his National Security Council team. DailyMail.com confirmed an Axios report released Thursday morning. The dismissals come after National Security Advisor Michael Waltz accidentally added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal chat where top administration officials were discussing an attack on the Houthis in Yemen. Trump has publicly supported Waltz, a former Florida congressman, in the aftermath of Signalgate, despite some White House insiders labeling him a 'f***ing idiot.' However The New York Times reported Thursday morning that far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer visited the Oval Office on Wednesday and pressed...

Four Republicans – Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky; Susan Collins, of Maine; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, sided with Democrats in voting for a resolution that would repeal the emergency declaration that permitted Trump to levy taxes on Canada by citing deadly fentanyl flowing across the border. The measure, introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., passed the upper chamber of Congress by a 51-48 vote.