Free Republic

A federal court has blocked Alabama from using its new congressional map, ordering the state to use a court-imposed map with 2 majority-black seats for the 2026 elections. The three-judge panel finds that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their Section 2 claims even after Callais. It also finds that Alabama intentionally discriminated against black voters in violation of the 14th Amendment. The Court finds that Purcell does not bar relief because the court-imposed map is the operational status quo.

South Carolina senators moved a step closer to approving a new congressional redistricting map Saturday, fast-tracking the process to pass the proposal on second reading after days of debate. The unexpected move came late in the afternoon, as lawmakers opted to advance the bill ahead of schedule rather than continue debating through the night and holiday weekend. The decision sets up a final vote early next week, with Tuesday’s third reading expected to be the decisive stage. Along with advancing the new map, the proposal would delay U.S. House primaries to Aug. 18. The South Carolina Election Commission estimates the...

Court issues opinions in 2 cases Map of Missouri congressional districts Photo by: Associated Press Who will represent Missouri's 4th Congressional District following Missouri First maps being signed into law. By: Addi Weakley Posted 26 minutes ago and last updated 13 minutes ago KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court issued opinions Tuesday in two cases concerning the state’s latest redistricting map. Both opinions found the map meets constitutional requirements. As it is already in effect, it will stay in effect. "Today's Missouri Supreme Court rulings are a huge victory for voters," Gov. Mike Kehoe said in a statement....

Archaeologists have uncovered a previously unknown remnant of Thomas Jefferson’s era at Monticello: a brick kiln used to build his home. The kiln was recently found on the east side of the Founding Father’s home amid an excavation that began in March, officials said. Monticello historians believe it dates back to the early 1770s, sometime before Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was part of the construction of Monticello I, the first version of Jefferson’s home. The current structure reflects a later rebuild and expansion completed after his time in France, after 1789. Photos from the site...

Here’s the latest. The Supreme Court appeared poised on Wednesday to upend a key provision of a landmark civil rights law by prohibiting lawmakers from using race as a factor in drawing voting maps, which could spark widespread redistricting efforts. If the justices determine that lawmakers may not consider race in drawing districts, the repercussions for the country’s political balance could be sweeping, allowing Republican state legislatures to eliminate at least a dozen Democratic-held House districts across the South.

THAT VIKINGS crossed the Atlantic long before Christopher Columbus is well established. Their sagas told of expeditions to the coast of today’s Canada: to Helluland, which scholars have identified as Baffin Island or Labrador; Markland (Labrador or Newfoundland) and Vinland (Newfoundland or a territory farther south). In 1960 the remains of Norse buildings were found on Newfoundland.But there was no evidence to prove that anyone outside northern Europe had heard of America until Columbus’s voyage in 1492. Until now. A paper for the academic journal Terrae Incognitae by Paolo Chiesa, a professor of Medieval Latin Literature at Milan University, reveals...

By studying tree rings and using a dash of astrophysics, researchers have pinned down a precise year that settlers from Europe were on land that would come to be known as Newfoundland. Six decades ago, a husband-and-wife team of archaeologists discovered the remains of a settlement on the windswept northern tip of Newfoundland. The site’s eight timber-framed structures resemble Viking buildings in Greenland, and archaeological artifacts found there — including a bronze cloak pin — are decidedly Norse in style.Scientists now believe that this site, known as L’Anse aux Meadows, was inhabited by Vikings who came from Greenland. To this...

Detail from Fra Mauro's map, a work of unprecedented thoroughness and accuracy. PUBLIC DOMAIN If you had landed in Venice during the mid-15th century, you might have been accosted by a monk with a prominent nose and baggy, smurf-like hat. Ignoring your exhaustion and atrocious body odor after a long sea journey, he would have dragged you to a nearby tavern and cross-examined you about your travels. What was the weather like? What kind of precious gems were mined? What animals did you encounter, and how many heads did they have?The monk was Fra Mauro, a 15th-century version of Google...

Historically, USGS topographic maps were made using data from primary sources including direct field observations. Those maps were compiled, drawn, and edited by hand. By today's standards, those traditional methods are very expensive and time-consuming, and the USGS no longer has funding to make maps that way.

Face-to-face talks between President Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday will give the Russian president a chance to pitch his conditions for peace, chief among them for Ukraine to hand over swaths of its territory. Putin has long coveted the south and east of Ukraine, which his army has failed to fully occupy. Trump has said he would seek to negotiate a swap that would return some of the territory Russia occupies back to Ukraine, without offering further detail. The Kremlin has declared five occupied regions to be part of Russia—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea. Of those, Russia fully...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear challenges brought by Democrats seeking to throw out the battleground state’s current congressional district boundaries before the 2026 midterms.

Football star Tim Tebow appeared this week on "The Shawn Ryan Show" to discuss his work fighting child exploitation and advocating for the "Renewed Hope Act," which would give DHS more funding and authority to pursue sex criminals. [video at link] TIM TEBOW: Specifically, our heart is to get to as many and leverage anything and everything we can so that they can get out of this evil. As I mentioned earlier, you think so much is done by all these groups and gangs, and yes, that does take place in a lot of areas. But man, it’s overwhelming when...

Google said Monday it will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to "Gulf of America" in Google Maps after the Trump administration updates its "official government sources." The company also said it will start using the name "Mount McKinley" for the mountain in Alaska currently called Denali. Last week, President Donald Trump signed executive actions that included an order to make the name changes on official maps and federal communications. "We've received a few questions about naming within Google Maps," the company said in an X post. "We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they...

Police in Spain have arrested two people in connection with a missing persons case after a Google Maps vehicle took a picture of someone apparently loading a large object into the trunk of a car. A man and a woman have been detained in connection with the disappearance and death of a missing man, police said in a statement on Wednesday. A relative of the man reported him missing in November last year after receiving suspicious messages from his phone, police said.

Three men died after their car, misled by Google Maps, drove off an unfinished bridge in India Three men tragically died after their car, following Google Maps directions, plunged off an unfinished bridge into a river in India. The victims were traveling from Gurugram to Bareilly to attend a wedding when they relied on Google Maps for navigation. The app directed them onto an under-construction flyover, which had collapsed in 2022 due to flooding. The bridge remained incomplete without warning signs or barricades to indicate danger or a closure, Hindustan Times reported. The car fell 50 feet into the Ramganga...

The federal government’s flood maps, which are used nationwide to signal areas vulnerable to inundation, vastly underestimated the flood risk faced by properties in the parts of North Carolina devastated by Hurricane Helene, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.The analysis of flood risk data from First Street, a climate modeling group, found that just 2 percent of properties in the mountainous counties of western North Carolina fall inside areas marked as having a special risk of flooding. That “Special Flood Hazard Area” designation, which compels homeowners to buy flood insurance if they want to get a federally-backed mortgage,...

The structure in Quebec, Canada. Image credit: Google Maps Aman browsing Google Maps whilst planning a camping trip in Quebec's Côte-Nord region has potentially discovered the site of an ancient asteroid impact. People have discovered all sorts of oddities while browsing through Google Maps, from "aliens" and camera-hogging cats to the answer to decades old cold cases. In the latest find, Joël Lapointe stumbled across an unusual, roughly spherical structure about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) across surrounding Marsal Lake in Quebec. Lapointe contacted geophysicist Pierre Rochette of the Centre de recherche en géosciences de l'environnement (CEREGE) in France for help...

Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. Or so said Steve Jobs when he announced iPhone in 2007.But I’m talking about a different revolutionary product. A foundational product that forever changed how everyone on this planet gets to where they need to be. Today, I’d like to tell you about the Etak Navigator, a truly revolutionary product and the world’s first practical vehicle navigation system.Here’s a picture of it:At the time, it was considered out-of-this-world. This is what Silicon Valley’s San Jose Mercury News said about it:The Etak Navigator launched 39 years (!) ago...

Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday that the administration had not ruled out “consequences” for Israel if it defied President Joe Biden and attacked Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Biden has warned Israel publicly not to attack Hamas in Rafah, due to the presence of large numbers of civilians there, which the terrorist group uses as human shields. Israel says that it cannot win the war without defeating the last four Hamas battalions in Rafah.

Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec MAP BREAK The United States as James K. Polk Wanted It