Free Republic

Changes could be coming to longstanding Massachusetts building codes that advocates say would make it much easier to build multifamily housing. Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order Thursday establishing an advisory group to explore allowing new residential buildings with a single staircase, which is banned for those taller than three stories under the current building code. The change would make it much cheaper to build mid-sized multifamily projects, encouraging increased production “We’re all about making it easier to build more housing across our state to drive down costs for everyone,” Healey said in a statement. “While the double stair...

In the aftermath of heavy federal immigration enforcement nationwide, Mayor Michelle Wu signed an executive order Thursday to protect against unconstitutional and violent federal enforcement. The order asserts that local police are obligated to protect residents, and says the city refuses to assist federal commandeering of local resources. “We will not allow the birthplace of American democracy to be knocked off our path by those who have turned their backs on our founding principles,” Mayor Wu said during a press conference on Thursday at City Hall. “An Executive Order To Protect Bostonians From Unconstitutional and Violent Federal Operations” also bans...

A Catholic couple who alleges that Massachusetts officials banned them from welcoming foster children into their home due to their religious beliefs is still fighting for their rights in court, even after state foster care licensing rules were altered amid federal pressure. Michael and Catherine Burke say that state officials denied them the chance to foster children despite completing the training and interviews required for the application process. According to the couple’s lawsuit — which they filed in 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts — they were denied the right to foster a child because...

Independence at the Federal Reserve? Only sometimes, it seems.was rocked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Then, the progressive lawmaker exposed her hypocrisy at a confirmation hearing involving Stephen Miran, President Donald Trump’s pick to join the Federal Reserve Board temporarily. While Warren shrieked in the upper chamber about central bank independence, she forgot to talk about her own list of demands to Fed Chair Jerome Powell.Elizabeth Warren Talks to Stephen MiranLast month, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler abruptly resigned from the Eccles Building, effectively vacating a seat at the powerful establishment. Days later, President Trump unveiled...

Meet the Next Chair of the Harvard History Dept, Who Called Trump 'Narcissist White Supremacist Habitual Liar Lunatic’. Professor Maya Jasanoff brought fruit to anti-Israel encampment, joined lawsuit for Columbia’s Khalil

Four Massachusetts residents are accused of using more than 100 stolen identities to get over $1 million in food stamps and pandemic-era unemployment benefits in a multi-state fraud scheme, federal prosecutors say. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said stolen identities from Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico were used to obtain $440,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The defendants also allegedly submitted fraudulent documents in order to receive more than $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Washington and Nevada. --snip-- Three defendants charged...

A well-known community and social justice activist who founded a Boston nonprofit to reduce violence and who was once was lauded as "Bostonian of the Year" avoided jail time in a federal fraud case, the Justice Department said Thursday. Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty September 2025 to 18 of the 27 counts, including wire fraud, mail fraud and failing to file tax returns, related to a scheme in which Cannon-Grant and her late husband, Clark Grant, pocketed thousands of dollars in donations to their nonprofit.

There is a cynical reason why Democrat leaders keep illegal aliens in the country. It is not for humanitarian reasons. The net effect of increases in both legal and illegal immigration in the 2020 Census shifted 17 House seats and 17 Electoral College votes. It resulted in a net gain of 14 seats in blue states. Ten seats shifted from red states and four from battleground states. It’s partly due to districts with high percentages of noncitizens who lean heavily Democrat. “Of the 24 districts where one in five adults is not an American citizen, twenty were won by a...

Carver police department officers responded to an "incident" on Silva Street after reports emerged regarding a shooting at the St. John the Baptist Club, also known as St. John’s Club, located at 53 Silva Street in Carver, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. The incident occurred around 7:30 PM Saturday evening, prompting a response from Carver Police and Fire. Scanner reports suggest at least three victims suffering from gunshot wounds. Carver Fire C1 initially requested two medical helicopters, though the response was later downgraded to one. The conditions of the injured remain unknown at this time. In a public safety alert, the Carver...

Two Boston men were arrested and charged with fraud that authorities say raked in so much Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) money that their tally began to outpace legitimate supermarkets. The men — Antonio Bonheur, 74, and Saul Alisme, 21 — allegedly operated their scams out of two small variety stores in the Mattapan neighborhood, according to the Department of Justice (1). Despite their small size and limited food offerings, these stores allegedly reported extremely high SNAP redemption volumes that went “far beyond what could reasonably be supported by legitimate food sales.” “To be certain, these were not supermarkets. They...

Authorities in Massachusetts charged two Haitian men with SNAP program fraud amounting to over $7 million on Wednesday. The suspects, 74-year-old Antonio Bonheur and 21-year-old Saul Alisme, each face one charge of food stamp fraud. District of Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said the two men used small storefronts, the Jesula Variety Store and Saul Mache Mixe Store, to redeem the SNAP benefits sometimes amounting to $500,000 per month. "These were not supermarkets. They were not full-service groceries. It would be a huge stretch to even call them convenience stores," Foley said at a Wednesday press conference. "The only thing...

A volunteer radio show host has resigned after authorities confirmed they are aware of a post on left-wing-dominated social media app Bluesky, in which a person advocated for killing Vice President JD Vance.

A female prisoner was thrown into a locked cell at a Massachusetts prison after she told authorities she was allegedly raped by one of at least four transgender sex predators housed there, a report has claimed. According to an investigation conducted by The Hill, MCI-Framingham, the state's all-female prison, is punishing biological female inmates who speak up about alleged abuse at the hands of transgender inmates who also call it home. One incarcerated woman, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation, told the outlet she informed MCI-Framingham officials she was raped by a male prisoner who identifies as transgender...

After nearly closing in 2019, a Western Massachusetts college continues to face challenges, missing its 2025 enrollment goal by half. Instead of recruiting 300 students, Hampshire College in Amherst enrolled about 150 new students. That makes for a total of 750 full-time students, Jennifer Chrisler, Hampshire’s newly named president, told MassLive in November. Chrisler attributes some of the admissions challenges to other institutions opening up their waitlists and taking more students than usual, forcing even more competition between institutions to vie for the same students. Many universities struggled with a decline in international students due to federal policies. “That had...

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a Christian father seeking to have his kindergarten-aged child removed from classroom lessons teaching LGBT ideology, as litigation continues. In a Dec. 30 opinion authored by Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, the United States Court for the District of Massachusetts sided with the father, identified as “Alan L.,” in his litigation against Lexington Public Schools over its inclusion of LGBT-related material in the kindergarten curriculum. The plaintiff, a father of a kindergarten student, alleges that the school district violated his “sincere and deeply held” religious beliefs as a “committed, practicing Christian” by...

She is a star of American science. A Stanford chair. A NASA collaborator. A role model for a generation of young researchers. But a chilling congressional investigation has found that celebrated geologist Wendy Mao quietly helped advance China's nuclear and hypersonic weapons programs – while working inside the heart of America's taxpayer funded research system. Mao, 49, is one of the most influential figures in materials science. She serves as Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University, one of the most prestigious science posts in the country. Her pioneering work on how diamonds behave under...

The suspected gunman behind both the deadly shooting spree at Brown University and the killing of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor was already dead for two days before authorities found his body inside a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said Friday. Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown University graduate student, died Tuesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Police discovered his body Thursday night inside a storage unit in Salem following a nearly weeklong manhunt. Authorities identified Valente as the suspect who opened fire...

Massachusetts will no longer require prospective foster parents to affirm the sexual orientation and gender identity of the children they foster, following legal challenges and criticism from religious groups. The change comes after the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit in September on behalf of two Massachusetts families, who claimed the requirement conflicted with their religious beliefs, according to a Fox News report. One couple had its foster care license revoked, while the other was threatened with revocation.

Frustration had mounted that the murderer had managed to get away and that a clear image of his face hadn't emerged - until a Reddit post finally put police on his trail.The suspect in the Brown University shooting was found after police received a tip referencing a post on the social media platform Reddit, they have revealed. Two students, Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook, were killed and nine were injured during the shooting inside a classroom building at the Ivy League university in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday. Frustration had mounted in Providence that the murderer had managed to...

Authorities say the same suspect was responsible for Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University and the Monday night murder of an MIT professor in Brookline, Mass. At a news conference Thursday night in Providence, that city’s police chief Col. Oscar Perez identified the Brown suspect as 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente.At a separate news conference in Boston, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said Valente, a Portuguese national, is also believed to be the gunman who killed MIT physicist Nuno F.G. Loureiro.Ted Docks, the Special Agent in Charge of Boston’s FBI field office, told the press a search warrant was...