Free Republic

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy appeared to have a mental episode live on Larry Kudlow’s Fox Business show Tuesday, adding yet another entry to the long, bipartisan list of alarming age-related lowlights from our country’s leaders. “I’m sure Jesus loves him, but everybody else thinks—everybody else …” said Kennedy, 73, before trailing off. You can see it in his face—his eyes and mouth particularly—as he struggles to remember what he meant to say or where he is before ultimately giving up

A group of current or former Louisiana police chiefs and the operator of a Subway sandwich shop are accused of colluding in a decade-long scheme to falsify police reports to help foreign nationals get visas meant for crime victims or witnesses. A federal grand jury returned a 62-count indictment charging two police chiefs, a former police chief, a marshal and the restaurant operator on charges including bribery, mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and immigration fraud, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday. The scheme focused on getting U visas, which allow foreign nationals without any official status in the US to stay...

LAFAYETTE — Five people, including several current and former head law enforcement officers, were taken into custody earlier in the week and indicted on an alleged scheme involving falsifying crimes to facilitate immigration visa fraud for profit, national and state officials announced Wednesday. Officials said four current and former law enforcement agents were taken into custody Monday as well as a Oakdale business owner. The following people are being indicted after the U.S. Attorney's Office in Shreveport returned a 62-count indictment for the alleged immigration conspiracy: - Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle - Oakdale Ward 5 Marshal Mike "Freck" Slaney...

Nothing will ever be easy with congressional Republicans. The reconciliation package aged all of us 35 years, as Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had to whip votes, hold the line, and make some phone calls. President Trump was also working the phones heavily when final passage was at stake in the House. Republican leadership held the line, but with Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) retiring after the reconciliation vote, delivering what’s left of the Trump agenda before the 2026 midterms is about to get even tougher. The House did its job and passed the rescission package, but...

Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise helped to gain an Iranian woman’s release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he advocated for her.Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian, 64, has been living in the U.S. for 47 years. Her husband, Russell Milne, and daughter, Kaitlynn Milne, are both U.S. citizens.

A Lakeview family says they are in disbelief after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained 64-year-old Mandonna Kashanian, an Iranian-born woman who has lived in the United States for nearly five decades. Kashanian was taken into custody Sunday morning in front of her home on Woodlawn Place. According to her family, she was picking figs with neighborhood children when three unmarked vehicles pulled up around 10 a.m. and officers handcuffed her without saying a word. Her daughter, Kaitlynn Milne, said the arrest happened within 60 seconds while she and her father, Kashanian’s husband of 35 years, were inside the...

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued that the War Powers Act, a Nixon-era law limiting the president’s power to unilaterally wage war, is unconstitutional. President Donald Trump’s decision to order strikes on Iranian nuclear targets over the weekend was “clearly” within his powers under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Johnson said. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, has introduced a War Powers resolution that would bar the U.S. military from “unauthorized hostilities” in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued Tuesday that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, and vowed that a pending resolution...

Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in all public school classrooms was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court Friday, according to the ACLU, a plaintiff in the case. Why it matters: The decision brings clarity to state schools after a confusing year in which state leaders and the courts have issued conflicting guidance on whether educators must abide by the law while the lawsuit was being resolved. The latest: A panel of three judges in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, widely considered one of the nation's most conservative, called the law "plainly unconstitutional."...

Two police officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack filed a federal civil lawsuit, asking a judge to order the hanging of a plaque to honor police heroes who protected the Capitol, lawmakers and staff from rioters. The lawsuit cites a 2022 law signed by President Biden that required the honorary plaque be hung by March 2023. The plaque has been completed and in storage since at least last year, but GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson has not committed to installing it at the Capitol. The dispute over the plaque has angered victims and inflamed a...

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has been making the rounds amid the rioting that has taken place in Los Angeles County - including in parts of her Congressional district, over the last several days. As per the norm, there has been the predictable gaslighting, histrionics, theatrics, and Republican Derangement Syndrome that we've come to expect over the years from the entrenched Congresswoman. As RedState reported, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put on his best Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) persona in a press conference Tuesday when he was asked about Waters' denial of the violence happening during the LA riots. "I'm just...

House Speaker Mike Johnson called Tuesday for California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to be “tarred and feathered” over his response to the riots raging in downtown Los Angeles. Declining to weigh in on whether Newsom should be arrested — as President Trump and White House border czar Tom Homan have floated — Johnson (R-La.) ripped into the Golden State governor’s light-touch approach to the chaos in Los Angeles. “I’m not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested, but he ought to be tarred and feathered,” Johnson told reporters during a Capitol Hill news conference....

Since the 2016 elections, politicians, journalists, and many others have raised the alarm about “foreign election influence” and “disinformation,” demanding greater “content moderation” by social media platforms. It is too easy, they argued, for foreign and malign actors to quickly “go viral” at low cost, leaving the good guys unable to correct bad information. We must become more “resilient” to disinformation. It’s now clear that all of that rhetoric was cover for a sweeping censorship effort by the federal government and government contractors. Since December, a small but growing group of journalists, analysts, and researchers have documented the rise of...

Two escaped inmates still on the run Eight of the ten inmates who escaped from Orleans Justice Center on May 16 are still on the run. Antoine Massey, 32, and Derrick Groves, 27, are armed and dangerous, New Orleans police said. Family, friends accused of helping inmates The Associated Press obtained court documents showing that some inmates' family and friends have been charged with aiding the escaped inmates. Hundreds trying to find escaped inmates Local media reported that around 200 authorities are looking for the remaining two escapees, and a top official says they could spend almost half a million...

House Speaker Mike Johnson went to battle with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., over spending cuts and the national debt in President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" this weekend. Johnson made the comments during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" with host Shannon Bream, after Paul had called the spending cuts in the current version of the bill "wimpy." "It sounds like his biggest objection is the fact that we are extending the debt ceiling. That's a critically important thing to do. We have to do it. We're not going to get any Democrats to assist on that," Johnson said Sunday....

Little remains of the historic Nottoway plantation home in Iberville Parish after a fire reduced the 160-year-old mansion to rubble on Thursday. Charred pieces framework had fallen to the slab, with soot surrounding the once grandiose property. The prominent white columns that supported the roof were mostly gone. White Castle officials are investigating what caused the fire and have begun combing through the remains.

One of six inmates still at-large after a New Orleans jailbreak last week has been captured, and a jail worker who allegedly helped the inmates escape has been arrested, the Louisiana attorney general's office announced Tuesday. Sterling Williams, 33, an Orleans Parish jail maintenance worker, was arrested after admitting to helping the 10 inmates escape Friday. He is charged with 10 counts of principal to simple escape and one count of malfeasance in office. Williams said he turned off the water to the cell from which the inmates escaped, allowing them to dismantle a toilet and flee. Williams said one...

No update on the seven yutes seen on camera jostling open a door and 11 escaping, with 4 being recaptured soon after. Authorities suspect that family members are helping hiding the escapees. And we all pay for such insight!

Eleven inmates considered "armed and dangerous" escaped a New Orleans jail Friday morning, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office said. The inmates were discovered missing during a routine headcount conducted at 8:30 a.m. at the Orleans Parish Jail, according to the sheriff's office. They are believed to have escaped sometime just after midnight. New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said one inmate has since been apprehended in downtown New Orleans through facial recognition, caught by a surveillance camera. Louisiana State Police identified the escapee as Kendall Myles and said Myles tried to flee on foot before being apprehended "without further incident."...

Louisiana’s attorney general is investigating a second case involving New York doctor Margaret Carpenter after she allegedly prescribed and mailed abortion medication to another woman in the state, this time located in the city of Shreveport. The Shreveport woman was 20 weeks pregnant when she took the abortion medication and subsequently went into labor, Attorney General Liz Murrill said during a testimony for an anti-abortion bill in the state’s House Civil Law and Procedure Committee on Monday. “She and her boyfriend, after she gave birth, took the baby, wrapped it in a towel, and threw it in a garbage can,”...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has canceled votes scheduled for Friday, May 16. According to Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), “Members are advised that votes are no longer expected in the House on Friday, May 16. He continued, “Last votes for the week are now expected at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 15. This is a change from the previously announced schedule.” No reason has been given. No accountability offered. Just more silence from the so-called “leader” of the House. ... Just last month, Johnson abruptly canceled the remainder of the week’s voting schedule, halting progress on critical conservative...