Free Republic

A Virginia state senator is calling for an investigation into Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, following federal criminal charges against her, including consideration of whether she should be expelled from the Virginia Senate. Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Orange, announced Friday that he filed a resolution asking the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections to investigate allegations brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against Lucas. The resolution asks the committee to examine whether Lucas potentially violated the General Assembly Conflicts of Interest Act and consider whether her alleged conduct warrants expulsion from the Senate. Reeves said the allegations, if true, would represent...

A Virginia grand jury has indicted Democratic state Sen. L. Louise Lucas and several others, including members of her family, on charges that she engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to sell marijuana and launder the proceeds. According to the indictment, Lucas, the president pro tempore of Virginia’s senate who has pushed for the drug to be legalized, ran several businesses that purchased and sold illegal amounts of marijuana in the state to build her family’s wealth.

The United States has unveiled its own low-cost combat drone, designed to rival Iran’s widely used Shahed-136 loitering munition, in a push to expand affordable airpower options for modern battlefields. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday reviewed the new Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) during a display of multi-domain autonomous systems in the Pentagon courtyard. The system, developed by Arizona-based defense contractor SpektreWorks, is aimed at delivering a flexible, attritable platform that can support distributed operations across the Indo-Pacific. SpektreWorks described LUCAS as “a reliable and cost-effective Group 3 Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) designed to perform in austere...

1977's 'Star Wars' will receive a resurrection screening after being hidden away for decades in favor of tweaked "Special Editions." There is an excellent chance you have never seen Star Wars. Oh, you might think you’ve seen 1977’s Star Wars (now christened Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope). But what you’ve likely actually seen is one of the many altered versions of Star Wars that have been in wide distribution ever since the film’s initial theatrical run. Writer-director George Lucas famously kept making tweaks and changes to his creation through iterations of “Special Editions.” Many of these changes...

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas says the local labor market would benefit from an influx of workers seeking asylum in the United States legally but who are now stuck in crowded shelters in big cities like New York as they await work permits. “ All are welcome in Kansas City,” Lucas said Tuesday in a social media post in which he shared a Bloomberg.com article that quoted him saying the Kansas City area could use more workers for its burgeoning economy. “Proud to work with my fellow mayors like @MikeJohnstonCO and @NYCMayor,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, referring to...

It finally happened and not a moment too soon. Conservatives and old-school liberals have been waiting, and waiting, for a Hollywood A-lister to defend free speech. We’ve had comic legends do just that, from John Cleese to Bill Maher. Their comments, and bravery, matter. Others, like legendary author Judy Blume, approached the subject but only to smite a rising GOP star with a limited grasp of the facts. Cutting through the pop culture noise demands something extra – the biggest stars in entertainment blasting the freedom-snuffing woke mindset. Enter Steven Spielberg. The Oscar-winning director not only mocked efforts to revise...

A teenage pilot conducted a successful emergency landing on a bridge in New Jersey after the small plane he was flying experienced engine trouble. Officials say Landon Lucas, 18, managed to land the banner plane without injuring himself or others or causing damaging the aircraft. Crews responded to reports of an emergency landing on the Route 52 causeway between Ocean City and Somers Point around 12.38pm Monday, FOX 29 reports. Crews responded to reports of an emergency landing on the Route 52 causeway between Ocean City and Somers Point around 12.38pm Monday, FOX 29 reports.

BALTIMORE (AP) - A Baltimore businessman pleaded guilty Monday to two federal charges stemming from bribes totaling $42,500 that he paid to a former state lawmaker while she was still in office. Lance Andre Lucas pleaded guilty to federal honest services wire fraud and a travel act violation, admitting to bribing former state Del. Cheryl Diane Glenn. The veteran Democratic lawmaker and leading advocate of marijuana legalization pleaded guilty in January to accepting more than $33,000 in bribes from people other than Lucas. **SNIP** Lucas made 11 payments to Glenn, starting with four money orders, each for $500, on May...

George Lucas “felt betrayed” by Disney‘s initial plans for the Star Wars sequel trilogy, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger. Iger has recalled the early meetings that Disney held with the creator of the acclaimed sci-fi franchise ahead of the making of The Force Awakens, which hit cinemas in 2015 as the first part of the sequel trilogy. •Read more: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – what we know so far about the final film in the trilogy In Iger’s new memoir The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company,...

New on Netflix is a five-part documentary called “The Confession Killer”. It’s fairly fascinating, detailing the story of alleged serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, who claimed to have killed over 600 people. The Texas Rangers used his confessions to clear over 200 unsolved murder cases. Basically, if there was an unsolved case, they’d ask Henry about it, give him a milkshake and he would confess to it. It made him and his handlers stars and they all loved the attention. But, it was mostly entirely false. He had previously served time for killing his mother, and there’s a solid chance...

Jar Jar Binks is widely considered one of the weakest characters in the entire “Star Wars” franchise, but George Lucas doesn’t seem to care. In a pre-taped video message that aired during Star Wars Celebration ahead of the 20th anniversary panel for “The Phantom Menace,” Lucas once again surprised fans by naming the polarizing Jar Jar as his favorite “Star Wars” character of all time. A source of comic relief in “The Phantom Menace,” Jar Jar was inspired by Disney’s Goofy and made history as the first fully CGI character in a live-action movie. “Thank you for coming to the...

An excellent 19 minute discussion with concrete examples of how post-production made the original Star Wars movie into a quality motion picture.

A former child sex slave sold into a Belgian aristocratic paedophile ring where boys and girls were raped, tortured and murdered has revealed the horrors of her five years of abuse. Anneke Lucas, 53, was sold into the murderous paedophile network in Belgium when she was just six years old in 1969. Recalling her sickening abuse, she said: 'I was raped many, many, many times. I don't have any scars to show how many times I was raped. 'Usually it was a full night and weekend and so I gathered I was raped for about six hours a week -...

Since the DNC emails were leaked a few weeks ago, three people associated with the DNC have all been found dead under what could be questionable circumstances. Bernie Sanders supporters  suspect the Clintons were behind the deaths, just more episodes in the alleged “Clinton body count” dating back to the 1990s. Others dismiss the speculation as left-wing conspiracy nuts. But until the police have completed their investigations and the medical examiners have released autopsy reports, it is premature to make any determinations. DNC staffer Seth Rich was mysteriously murdered in the streets of Washington, D.C., on July 10. ... his wallet,...

On July 3, 2016, Shawn Lucas and filmmaker Ricardo Villaba served the DNC Services Corp. and Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz at DNC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., in the fraud class action suit against the Democrat Party on behalf of Bernie Sanders supporters. Shawn Lucas was thrilled about serving the papers to the DNC before Independence Day.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — George Lucas has apologized for criticizing Disney’s handling of “Star Wars” and saying he had sold his characters to “white slavers” in a recent interview with Charlie Rose. In a statement issued Thursday, Lucas says he misspoke and used a “very inappropriate analogy.” It was not clear what the “Star Wars” creator meant by the “white slavers” comment, and Rose did not ask a follow-up question on his PBS show that aired Dec. 24. The charged words nonetheless sparked ire when the interview was posted online Wednesday.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, George Lucas spoke about everything from his and Disney’s branching vision to the deal itself. Lucas, who has always been protective of his series and even refers to them as his “kids,” hasn’t been looking back well on the deal with Disney (via Collider). “I sold them to the white slavers that takes these things, and…,”

GEORGE Lucas may have been the brains behind Star Wars, but it was his ex-wife Marcia Lucas who gave the film its heart. Today, she has largely been erased from the history books. Marcia, who won the 1977 Academy Award for Film Editing along with Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch for her work on Star Wars, was instrumental in shaping the film's iconic moments that would propel it to the status of cultural phenomenon. In his 2008 book,The Secret History of Star Wars, journalist Michael Kaminski dedicates an entire chapter to Marcia Lucas, nee Griffin, who was once described by...

Seven young basketball players from Minneapolis, Minn., were arrested late Sunday night after they went on an assault spree on foot in south Wichita, police said Monday. The boys, ranging in age from 12 to 18 years old, were in town for the Mid America Youth Basketball tournament and were staying overnight at an area hotel, Wichita police Lt. James Esponiza said. Police first responded to the 500 block of South Broadway at around 11 p.m. on Sunday. A 48-year-old man there reported that the group of teens approached him as he stood on his front porch, yelled at him,...

NOVATO (CBS SF) — After George Lucas ran into a buzzsaw of opposition from his wealthy Marin County neighbors when he tried to expand his Skywalker Ranch studio, the filmmaker might be getting some payback with plans for one of the largest affordable housing projects in the Bay Area.