Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Tech mogul Elon Musk is throwing his weight behind Senate Republican challenger Nate Morris with a $10 million donation in the hotly contested race to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), The Post has learned.The decamillion-dollar boost was made last week to a Morris-backing super PAC, sources said, and marks the largest contribution from the SpaceX CEO to a candidate for federal office other than President Trump.

The federal investigation into last year's fatal UPS plane crash in Louisville showed one of the key defects found on the plane's failed engine was a known issue among Boeing's service team, albeit one Boeing didn't believe would lead to a "safety of flight condition." In an update to its ongoing investigation into the crash of UPS Flight 2976, the National Transportation Safety Board said its team found fatigue cracking and overstress failure across much of the bearing race inside the area that attached the plane's left engine to its wing. NTSB investigators then went back into Boeing service data...

Joe Rogan compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “the Gestapo” in the latest episode of his popular podcast Tuesday, openly breaking with President Donald Trump on his administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. Rogan, one of the biggest podcasters in the world, had endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election just days after holding a three-hour interview with him on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” The show, which has consistently retained its No. 1 spot on the Spotify podcast charts, has more than 20.6 million subscribers on YouTube. But on Tuesday, Rogan, who has been increasingly critical of Trump’s mass deportation agenda...

Sen. Rand Paul expressed concerns Sunday over President Donald Trump’s threats to bomb Iran as the Middle Eastern country sees widespread protests continue. Speaking with ABC’s “This Week,” the Kentucky Republican said he is not sure striking Iran “will have the effects intended.” “We wish freedom and liberation the best around the world, but I don’t think it’s the job of the American government to be involved with every freedom movement around the world,” Paul said.Paul also expressed concerns over how the administration would distinguish between Iranian protesters and law enforcement if Trump were to approve military action in the...

President Trump touted retired Navy SEAL officer Ed Gallrein, who’s challenging Trump critic Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in the GOP primary, in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday, calling his endorsee “A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET KENTUCKY DOWN!”“A Brave Combat Veteran, Ed knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Defend our Country, Support our Military/Veterans, and Ensure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump wrote, lauding the retired Navy SEAL as a candidate who “happens to be central casting.”Trump also noted Gallrein’s recent support for the Trump administration’s military intervention in Venezuela, calling Gallrein a “big fan” of the...

United States District Judge Nancy E. Brasel sentenced Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, age 36, to 28 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his role in a $300 million fraud scheme that exploited a federally program to feed hungry kids during the COVID-19 pandemic. Farah helped orchestrate the largest known COVID-19 fraud scheme called Feeding Our Future in Minnesota. Farah and his co-defendants stole more than $47 million by claiming to serve 18 million meals to kids at more than 30 food distribution sites. Farah was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $47,920,514. He's...

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...

A Kentucky congressman responded to Andy Beshear Tuesday, days after Kentucky's governor blamed him for sweeping layoffs at an electric vehicle battery plant in his district. BlueOval SK said roughly 1,500 people at its Glendale plant would be laid off as Ford takes sole ownership of the facility after a partnership with a South Korean company fell through. Last week Beshear said U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Republican who represents Kentucky’s second congressional district, was partially to blame for any job losses due to his support for President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill." Beshear said Guthrie made no changes to...

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...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that partisan gerrymandering will “lead to more civil tension and possibly more violence in our country,” urging restraint in the ongoing redistricting wars playing out in more than a dozen states. “I think there is the potential that when people have no representation, that they feel disenfranchised, that it can lead, it might lead to violence in our country,” Paul said in an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Paul’s warning comes as state lawmakers across the country consider redrawing congressional lines at the insistence of President Donald Trump, with Democratic-led...

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."

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....

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) used Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) own words defending his decision to block the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court to argue that Americans "should have a voice” in selecting the next justice. Duckworth on Wednesday tweeted out a screenshot of McConnell’s 2016 tweet saying the “American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice” and captioned it with the same language, but replaced #Scalia with #Kennedy. McConnell blocked the nomination of Garland, President Obama’s Supreme Court pick, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016,...

Multiple people were injured in a shooting at Kentucky State University on Tuesday afternoon. A suspect has been taken into custody. “We are aware of a reported shooting at Kentucky State University in Frankfort. At this time, we are aware of some injuries. We will share more information as available. Law enforcement are on scene, and a suspect has been arrested. Let’s pray for all those affected,” Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on Tuesday. We are aware of a reported shooting at Kentucky State University in Frankfort. At this time, we are aware of some injuries. We will share more...

Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, have introduced a War Powers Resolution to block the Trump administration from engaging in hostilities within or against Venezuela absent congressional authorization. The Constitution does not permit the executive branch to unilaterally commit an act of war against a sovereign nation that hasn’t attacked the United States,” said Rep. Massie.

Several Democratic senators and one Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, filed a war powers resolution to prevent the United States from using its armed forces to engage in hostilities with Venezuela without congressional approval. The resolution was filed by Paul and Democratic senators Tim Kaine, Va., Adam Schiff, Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y. It directs President Donald Trump to stop using the military “unless specifically authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force,” according to The Hill.