Free Republic

OLD TOWN, Maryland -- This ancient colonial town nestled along the north branch of the Potomac River could not be more different from the upscale suburbs of Chevy Chase located much closer to the tidal portion. While both are in the same state, this town of 86 people is more culturally connected to the people and places in West Virginia and Pennsylvania close to this region than the D.C. suburb located in the center of wealth and power in this country. Yet they do share one recently developing commonality that has gone under the radar of the national press that...

Have Coke, Sprite or Minute Maid in your refrigerator? You may want to check the labels after a pair of recalls from Coca-Cola. The products were the subject of a voluntary recall because they could contain foreign objects such as metal bolts or washers, according to Food Safety News. The Minute Maid drinks were available in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Maine and New Jersey, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The Minute Maid recall involves the following flavors: Berry Punch – Date codes: Jan0422 NP and Jan0522 NP, Batch 0010323455 and 0010259344 (recall F-0276-2022) Strawberry...

Vice President Kamala Harris promoted government spending on charging stations for electric vehicles on Monday, demonstrating the use of a car charger herself. The vice president visited a car charging maintenance facility in Prince George’s County, Maryland outside of Washington, DC, to promote the use of electric vehicles. During her visit, she asked if she could plug in one of the electric cars to see how it worked. After plugging it in, she commented on the difference between an electric charger and a gas pump. “There’s no sound or fume,” she said, standing by the car holding the plug into...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday endorsed former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez in his bid for Maryland governor, calling him the candidate with “the best opportunity to flip the state” blue in 2022. “Maryland has an opportunity to flip from red to blue and the most qualified person to do just that is my friend Tom Perez,” Pelosi said in a video announcing the endorsement. “Please join me in supporting him as our next governor of Maryland.” In the video, Pelosi touted Perez’s work on voting and civil rights issues during his time leading the Justice...

At seventy years old, Willie Horton is serving multiple lifetime sentences in a Maryland prison. His case was once famous enough that we can be reasonably certain that this recidivist monster will never again be released to commit another crime. The nation is safe from Willie Horton. But the Democratic Party should not be. Thirty-three years ago, this generally unremarkable piece of detritus provided an important lesson to the American electorate....

The Maryland General Assembly convened on December 6 for a special session. The main focus of the special session is the redistricting process that states must complete every decade after the census. However, in addition to redistricting, the legislature voted to override Governor Larry Hogan’s (R) veto of a bill that bans immigration detention and makes Maryland a sanctuary state, as well as one that restricts sharing information with immigration authorities. House Bill (HB) 16, the so-called “Dignity Not Detention Act,” sponsored by Delegate Vaughn Stewart (D-Montgomery County) was initially solely a ban on immigration detention contracts. However, on the...

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan called on the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit against his own state, claiming that its Democratic-controlled legislature violated the Voting Rights Act with its newly drawn congressional districts. "On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it is suing Texas over its new redistricting plan, alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965," Hogan's office said in a press release Thursday. "Today, Governor Hogan called on the Biden administration to immediately add the State of Maryland to that lawsuit." While Hogan vetoed the legislature's new map, Democrats hold a supermajority in both...

Police are warning Frederick County residents of a growing scam involving fake street performers, known as buskers, stealing personal information. The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in a news release urged residents to be on the lookout for “fake” buskers asking for money through cash and electronic credit or debit donations who are using credit card skimmers to steal personal information. Buskers are people who perform music or other entertainment for monetary donations. Fakers act like they’re playing the violin, for example, when they’re actually imitating the action while a soundtrack plays from a hidden device, police warn. They may pretend...

"It's worse than a war zone around here lately," police official said. At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 -- and there's still three weeks to go in the year. Of the dozen cities that have already surpassed the grim milestones for killings, five topped records that were set or tied just last year. "It's terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It's just crazy. It's just crazy and this needs to stop," Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney...

Criminals have been emboldened like never before in Biden’s felons-first America. In major Democrat cities like Chicago, Baltimore, and San Francisco, where crime goes largely unpunished, people aren’t even able to count on the safety of their own home anymore.

A Maryland man is facing fraud charges for allegedly selling more than 600 fake COVID-19 vaccine cards that he advertised on Facebook for $75 each. Amar Shabazz, 23, purchased the fake vaccination cards through a foreign online marketplace in June and then started advertising them on his social media accounts, federal prosecutors said. “Covid19 vaccination card who want one. $75 a pop,” he wrote in one post, according to a criminal complaint. A month later, he posted “I sell proof of vaccination cards” underneath a link to a news article about restaurants requiring proof of vaccination

Some of them, anyway. Donald Trump has endorsed candidates in 15 Senate contests to date, according to Politico. Many of them are incumbent Senators. They are expected to cruise to renomination by the GOP. But, says Politico, some of the others are struggling. Politico cites Mo Brooks in Alabama, Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska, Ted Budd in North Carolina, and Sean Parnell in Pennsylvania (Parnell recently withdrew from the race due to allegations of spousal abuse). Trump hasn’t endorsed Blake Masters, but did appear at a Mar-a-Logo fundraiser for the Arizona Republican. Masters is also struggling, according to Politico. I don’t...

Fifteen Republican governors, led by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, have launched “Operation Open Road,” an initiative that seeks to ease the U.S. supply chain crunch through a range of state and federal measures, including calling on the Biden administration to remove “burdensome” regulations on the trucking industry and to suspend President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers. Lee announced the start of the operation in a statement on Nov. 22, the same day that he signed an executive order (pdf) deregulating critical trucking functions in Tennessee. “Republican governors across the country have committed to doing everything we can to...

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Alex Witt Reports,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) argued that changes in the price of gas are one reason why “we have to accelerate our program to get off of fossil fuels” and control of the oil supply by other countries is “another reason why we need to accelerate our efforts to get off of fossil fuels.” Cardin said, “The challenge, of course, is we have to transition off of the fossil fuels to renewable fuels. We need to do that for our economy. We need to do it for our environment. We need to do...

Here’s the common reaction to the Waukesha, Wis., murders: It’s nuts that the suspect, with his long criminal history, was free on $1,000 bail posted days before the automotive rampage. Here’s New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in a tweet the day after the Waukesha murders: “Today, we sent a letter . . . to NYC’s 5 District Attorneys requesting information on excessive bail in the NYC court system.” The letter was also signed by fellow New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney and Maryland’s Jamie Raskin. That disconnect will haunt Democrats. Waukesha is one of those rare moments when the consequences of...

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) knocked former President Trump on Monday, pointing to the former president’s loss in Old Line State during the 2020 presidential election. “Personally, I'd prefer endorsements from people who didn’t lose Maryland by 33 points,” Hogan wrote on Twitter shortly after Trump announced that he was endorsing Maryland state Del. Daniel Cox (R) for governor in next year’s GOP primary. Hogan, who is barred from running for reelection due to term limits, is backing state Secretary of Commerce Kelly Schultz in the Maryland race. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election in Maryland to Democratic-nominee Joe Biden...

Maurice Timothy Jones, 35, was charged last month with fatally shooting 31-year-old Seth Tunstall on Sept. 7 outside of a convenience store in Cherry Hill. Surveillance video showed the two had engaged in a fist fight; Jones left the store, and was pursued by Tunstall, who emerged pointing a gun at him. When Jones drew his own weapon, Tunstall attempted to flee and was shot in the back.

My husband and I went to our local Toyota dealership here in Southern Maryland - one of the largest Toyota dealerships on the East Coast - looking for a new 2022 Camry. We've owned several Camry's since 2000 and I've owned Toyota vehicles since 1980. My husband just comes along with me. He knows that I'm capable of detecting bullsh*t and cockamamie stories from sales staff, so he just sits back and listens. (He's trained me well, I must admit!) We arrived a few minutes before the dealership opened, so we took a drive in the lots in the back...

Maryland Democrats are considering a radical overhaul of congressional district lines that would give them a chance to win all eight of the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, putting the lone Republican representative at risk. Two of the four draft maps released by the General Assembly’s Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission spell trouble for Rep. Andy Harris (R), who represents a district that covers the Eastern Shore. Those proposals would add hundreds of thousands of voters from Anne Arundel County, home of Annapolis, in with voters from the less populous counties on the Eastern Shore. The two halves...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday confirmed that a rare case of monkeypox has been found in a human in Maryland. According to the CDC press release, a person contracted the virus while traveling to Nigeria, and brought it back to the U.S.