Free Republic

The Walt Disney Company has dramatically escalated its showdown with the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency of carrying out a politically motivated campaign on behalf of President Donald Trump that could strip broadcast licenses from some of Disney-owned network ABC’s biggest television stations. In a 109-page filing, Disney argued the federal agency’s actions amount to retaliation over the entertainment company’s programming, including criticism of the president by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and scrutiny surrounding Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. “The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: accommodate the Administration’s view of...

Florida Pizza Kitchen. It doesn’t have quite the ring to it that California Pizza Kitchen does. But had the iconic chain been dreamed up in the 2020s rather than the 1980s, it would have been FPK rather than CPK, not because the California Pizza Kitchen’s co-founders moved to Florida, though one did a couple of years ago, but due to the Golden State’s corrosive business policies. Not that long ago, California was “the greatest place to do business,” Rick Rosenfield, the CPK co-founder who fled to the Sunshine State, told Fox News Digital. “If it were me today, I would...

Nearly 150,000 California voters had their mail-in ballots rejected for the state’s June primary, a spike from recent elections even as the state attempts to make voting easier with the goal of boosting participation and counting every ballot. California has become notorious for its ponderously slow vote counts that can drag on for weeks and sometimes longer, largely the result of multiple changes over the years that were intended to increase turnout but have done little to achieve that. Among the changes: Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days late and still...

You have to admit that what Gavin Newsom lacks in brains and sound policy he makes up for in sheer hubris. That's the only reason that Newsom could say with a straight face that his state is a global model for fire management. Perhaps that's true in a sense; Canada was burning so much that people as far south as Virginia were seeing, smelling, and feeling the impacts. That's because Canada, like California, refuses to do basic fire management like clearing brush and old growth. This is nothing to brag about, of course. But brag Newsom did. "I can say...

Celeste Rivas’ parents watched in horror during a hearing for their daughter’s accused killer D4vd as horrific images of her decapitated and mutilated corpse were displayed in a court. The 14-year-old’s family ignored their attorney’s request to look away as the shocking images were displayed in a Los Angeles courtroom during the first day of the singer’s preliminary hearing on Tuesday. The devastated couple were later spotted crying in the hall of the courthouse after viewing their daughter’s severed limbs, head, torso and fingers allegedly found in the trunk of D4vd’s Tesla. An LAPD homicide detective provided disturbing details while...

The widow of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy killed in last year’s deadly grenade explosion has filed a lawsuit against the county, the Sheriff’s Department and several officials, alleging the tragedy was the result of inadequate training, unsafe practices and leadership failures. The complaint, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by Nancy Lemus on behalf of herself, the estate of Deputy Victor Lemus and the couple’s two young daughters, names the County of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Robert Luna, Commander Thomas Giandomenico and others as defendants. Victor Lemus was one of three...

A 25-year-old man faces a felony charge after authorities say he managed to bypass airport gate agents and board a full United Airlines flight to Los Angeles using a fake boarding pass, triggering an explosives sweep that forced every passenger off the aircraft. Abdulrahman Oriyomi was arrested Friday morning and charged with felony impairing or interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility. The charges stem from an incident last month at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Newly released bodycam footage is shedding light on the final weeks of NBA player Brandon Clarke. The video shows the 29-year-old’s April arrest in Arkansas on speeding and drug possession charges—just six weeks before he was found dead in Los Angeles, reported CBS. Police say Clarke was carrying kratom, a leaf-derived supplement frequently sold as an energy booster or pain reliever— better known as “gas station heroin.” While Clarke’s official cause of death is still under investigation, the footage has renewed national scrutiny over the safety of kratom, a substance the FDA has repeatedly warned the public about. He was...

Workers at a Granada Hills Vons said their managers kept the grocery store open for hours with a customer's dead body lying in an aisle. Paszion Horner-Smith said she was working as a supervisor on July 5 when one of her customers suffered a medical emergency in the supermarket's bakery aisle. "It's just something I've never, ever in my 27 years that I've worked for the company, ever encountered or dealt with," she said. Horner-Smith and another employee performed CPR, but the customer died. The Los Angeles Fire Department said crews were called to the store just after 7 p.m....

In Mayor Karen Bass’s Los Angeles, the rule of law is separate and not equal when it comes to street food — with illegal immigrants and rogue vendors getting a free pass on violations while citizen restaurateurs and licensed food stands are subjected to fines, high costs, burdensome regulations, and even closures. In short, L.A. and the surrounding counties have two sets of rules. Other progressively-run cities like New York and Minneapolis also are catering to “vulnerable” and undocumented immigrant street vendors. But California is leading the way in sanctuary food practices. The Los Angeles County Health Department, citing immigration...

The Phoenix location is now the second-largest Catholic diocese in the country, trailing only the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, according to the 2025 Official Catholic Directory. 'Something holy is taking place, something historical, something that goes way back, and they're intrigued by that,' said Joyce Coronel, the Diocese of Phoenix manager told the outlet. She called the current wave of interest in the church 'enormous.' Data obtained by the outlet showed the Diocese had 512 adult baptisms in 2025, up 46.7 percent from 2022, 84.8 percent from 2023, and 24 percent from 2024. 'Adult baptisms have increased significantly over the...

A sprawling global web of gangsters targeted in a massive federal takedown used California as its cash register to rake in millions of dollars through extortion schemes, contract killings, and drug and gun trafficking, authorities revealed. Local and federal officials on Tuesday arrested 11 accused members of transnational, India-based gangs and their affiliates in the Golden State as part of a case dubbed “Operation Hard Ball.” Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, described the gangs as the most powerful you’ve never heard of, allegedly reaping millions of dollars in illegal profits from drug deals, extortion, weapons sales and theft....

Federal agents crushed the California arm of a vicious transnational organized crime syndicate in series of stunning raids Tuesday that saw the arrest of at least 11 accused criminals in the Golden State — and over a dozen more in the US, Canada and Europe. Los Angeles federal agents led the global takedown of the India-based Bishnoi Gang, a fearsome global mob blamed for extortion, drug dealing and the assassination of political figures, industrialists, actors and musicians in North America and India.

There is a word for demanding tens of thousands of dollars from a man before you’ll give him back what you took from him. That word is extortion. But in Los Angeles, when the thing taken is a house, the state calls it a landlord-tenant dispute and tells the victim to hire a lawyer. That single act of miscategorization, repeated thousands of times across California, has built an entire criminal industry, and the people who investigate it for a living are now begging the city to admit what everyone already knows. Former LAPD Lt. Moses Castillo and veteran private investigator...

A 4th of July weekend celebration turned into a fiery nightmare when fireworks went screaming into the stands at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles — sending panicked fans scrambling for cover. Just minutes after Angel City FC defeated the Orlando Pride 2-0, the club’s Independence Day weekend pyrotechnics display went haywire. Instead of launching into the sky, multiple mortars allegedly fired sideways across the field and toward packed seating sections. “The end is actually the worst. I saw several flames go into the crowd. It was terrifying!” one shaken Reddit user wrote. Another fan said the experience was still haunting...

A Los Angeles-area man pleaded guilty to felony harassment charges in ​federal court on Thursday for sending fake ransom notes posing as a kidnapper of "Today" show co-host Savannah ‌Guthrie's missing elderly mother. Derrick Callella, 42, pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment by telecommunications device, marking the only criminal conviction to date stemming from the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie from her home in Tucson, Arizona, five months ago. The charges carry a maximum penalty of ​two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. But the plea agreement with prosecutors calls for Callella, a resident ​of Hawthorne, California, to...

Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) addressed the IKAR synagogue in Los Angeles and used the opportunity to deliver a host of observations excoriating those who, in his opinion, exercise homophobia and transphobia. Warnock, a Baptist pastor, joined Rabbi Sharon Brous in a public exchange after his initial sermon, but not before he espoused his condemnation for those that oppose his views, saying “transphobia” is “violence not only against humanity but against divinity. It is an offense to the glory of God.” Warnock later confessed he had to chasten some of those within his own church and community for their views because,...

Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, a Democrat, recently spoke to members of a synagogue in Los Angeles and claimed that transphobia is violence against humanity and divinity and an offense to the glory of God. First, transphobia is a stupid word. People who object to the trans agenda do not fear trans people. They just don't want it pushed on their kids in schools. They don't want their wives and daughters to have to share intimate spaces with biological men. Second, aren't trans people the ones who are denying God by interfering with His creation? They are the ones who...

California's Next Attorney General Issues Warning to Donald Trump Cheryl Miller, The Recorder December 1, 2016 Just hours after Gov. Jerry Brown nominated Xavier Becerra to be California's next attorney general, the longtime U.S. lawmaker warned the Trump administration to expect a fight if newly emboldened Republicans challenge the Golden State's liberal laws and policies. "If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, come at us," Becerra, a 12-term Democratic congressman from Los Angeles, told reporters

Two people were shot during in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday morning, police confirmed, and it is believed the shooting took place during a naked bike ride. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers responded to the corner of Temple and Alameda streets around 11 a.m. “A male suspect, wearing all black clothing and on a scooter, shot two victims with a BB gun,” a department spokesperson confirmed to KTLA.