Free Republic

A battle is brewing in the Baltimore County School District in Maryland this month and it should serve as yet another reason to keep an eye on what your local school boards are up to. They are currently working on the district’s budget for fiscal year 2024 and parents have noticed some significant cuts to the gifted and talented students program. The proposed budget would not end the program entirely, but it would eliminate three of the four teaching positions currently assigned to the program. Parents have pointed out that students who qualify for the program enhance their chances of...

Left-leaning proponents of taxing the assets held by America’s billionaires have a new target: In lieu of a federal wealth tax, state lawmakers want to tax billionaires where they live, in states like California, Washington and New York. A group of legislators in statehouses across the country has coordinated to introduce bills simultaneously in seven states later this week, with the same goal of raising taxes on the rich. “The point here is to make sure we do at the state level what is not being done at the federal level,” said Gustavo Rivera (D), a New York state senator...

Hall of Fame football coach Tony Dungy announced Wednesday on Twitter that he will be attending the March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday. The two-time Super Bowl champion (one as a player, one as a coach) said he will attend "to support those unborn babies who don’t have a voice." It will be his first time at the rally, and it has sparked criticism in the media.

Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who was sworn into office Wednesday morning, has soared to the top of Democrats’ list of potential 2024 presidential candidates. Moore’s military service, success in the finance industry, fundraising successes and connections to career-making donors have captured the attention of the Democratic party, as has his apparent bipartisan appeal, according to Bloomberg. Moore’s campaign emphasized crime and the economy, talking points typically preferred by Republicans, while he has also attracted several high profile Democratic donors. The new governor was raised in poverty and went on to serve as a U.S. Army captain and paratrooper in...

A bill heralded by progressive lawmakers would allow Montgomery County and other jurisdictions in Maryland to raise income taxes on high-earning residents by a half-percentage point to provide tax relief for low- and moderate-income families. The bill would increase the maximum allowable income tax rate from 3.2% to 3.7%. “It’s simply unfair that the wealthy few have a smaller tax burden,” Del. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Dist. 17) told members of the news media last week...If passed, the bill would raise the cap on what county governments can tax residents in the highest income bracket. The statutory limit on income tax...

Outgoing Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was too focused on the Republican Party base to win national office. Hogan said, “The party has been focused on firing up the base, and they have done a terrible job at reaching swing voters in the middle.” Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is often cited by conservative Republicans as somebody they might want to see run for president. You’ve called him an important voice, one of the important voices for the party. Do you think he would be good at...

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — The Juvenile Justice Reform Act, known previously as House Bill 459, does not allow anyone under 13 to be charged with certain crimes. As juvenile crime has plagued Baltimore City, it is also happening in Harford County. Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler says in January alone, 18 juveniles, who fall under the law, can't be charged with crimes. Some of those crimes involved thefts, burglaries, and much more. "Someone sent some pictures that they shouldn't have sent, which is a crime," said Gahler. Gahler feels lawmakers in Annapolis were not considering the right factors when passing the...

A high school in Maryland issued an apology Friday after an employee accidentally sent sexually explicit photos to the entire student body, according to school officials. Principal Taryn Washington at Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School in Prince George's County sent a letter to students' families Friday informing them of the incident, stating the employee "inadvertently" sent an email to all students containing the photos. Washington said school administrators immediately tried to retract the email, but the photos were seen by many people and were shared with others. "I am asking that all students, as responsible online citizens, not...

The special counsel created by Biden’s corrupt Attorney General Merrick Garland is the right thing to do by the wrong gang of criminals. Kash Patel joined Steve Bannon on the War Room and he laid it all on the table. He shared: A special counsel on paper is the right move and it would have been back in November but the problem is we’ve seen the corrupt government gangsters go out and cover up the corrupt activities. Namely the likes of Rod Rosenstein, Chris Wray and Merrick Garland. ... Remember Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller, Comey’s best friend to be Special...

Queen of Cuba Dethroned by: Malcolm A. Kline, January 04, 2008 The world is too much with us late and soon, as William Wordsworth pointed out, and so, from the Cold War to the War on Terror, are communist spies. Such operatives are not, as most professors would have us believe, a figment of our imagination. “There are lots of people who have committed espionage,” says Scott W. Carmichael, author of True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba’s Master Spy. “The numbers are staggering.” Carmichael spoke at the Heritage Foundation last month. “If you opened full...

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Wednesday revealed he has been diagnosed with “a serious but curable form of cancer.” Raskin said in a statement he was diagnosed with a common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that affects white blood cells in the body’s immune system. The 60-year-old lawmaker said he was beginning chemo-immunotherapy at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. “I expect to be able to work through this period but have been cautioned by my doctors to reduce unnecessary exposure to avoid COVID-19, the flu and other viruses,” he said. Raskin said he was specifically diagnosed with diffuse large...

As Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan prepares to exit the governor’s mansion and end his eight-year stint in the unusual role of a Republican running a deep-blue state, he is shaking his head in disbelief at what’s become of the GOP. Mr. Hogan, who was never a fan of former President Donald Trump, sees the Republican Party suffering the consequences of the Trump brand. And nowhere are those consequences more apparent than in Maryland, he said, where the return of complete Democratic control of state government ushers in fears that runaway spending will eat up the $2.5 billion budget surplus and...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican weighing a 2024 White House bid, said Monday he believes former President Donald Trump is “at his lowest point ever,” as the House Jan. 6 committee wrapped up its investigation into what Hogan described as “one of the darkest days in American history.”In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before the committee released its recommendations, Hogan said he believes the former president should be held accountable, after he “inflamed kind of a riotous mob to go attack the seat of our democracy.” However, the outgoing, term-limited governor was not specific...

The White House announced on Thursday that Karine Jean-Pierre, a veteran anti-Israel activist who is married to CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, will replace outgoing press secretary Jen Psaki, raising potential ethical quandaries. The announcement drew celebratory headlines in the mainstream press: Jean-Pierre is the first black woman and openly gay person to serve in the role. But her relationship with the CNN reporter raises ethical questions about her new role. The White House did not respond to a request for comment about whether Jean-Pierre would recuse herself in dealing with CNN. Malveaux's colleagues include Valerie Jarrett's daughter, CNN justice correspondent...

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline ” that former President Donald Trump unleashed racism, authoritarianism and neo-fascism on America. Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “My next question, I know the press is hung up. We’re all hung up on the criminal referrals. It seems to a person your perhaps greatest commitment is to is the story, and there’s an impact on what the committee did. We went to school learning about how endangered our democracy really was. We heard from lifelong republicans testifying that story. To you, what is the most important thing that people take from the...

Leaving big-league politics is a lot like comedy: It’s all about timing. FBI master-blaster Steven D’Antuono, the top official at the Washington, D.C., FBI office, quietly announced via his LinkedIn page that he had left the Bureau the day before. ... D’Antuono claims he decided to end his career to “spend more time with family.” His decision comes — coincidentally — as the new, Republican-led House of Representatives has promised to give the FBI a much-needed enema. ... The letter also states that FBI Director Wray has not been forthcoming in regard to congressional hearings involving the FBI, and it...

Proposed changes to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rules will strip access to public waters and devastate local economies along most of the eastern U.S. coastline, according to boating and fishing advocacy groups. The North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Strike Reduction Rule will decimate the U.S.’s multi-billion-dollar boating and fishing industry without protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales (NARW) from severe injuries and deaths, the Center for Sportfishing Policy (CSP) and the South Carolina Boating and Fishing Alliance (SCBFA) told the Daily Caller. NOAA’s proposed regulation expands the speed-restricted area, the Seasonal Speed Zone, up to 90 miles out,...

“If a firearm is in common use today, it cannot be banned,” a group of Marylanders and national gun rights groups said in a filing before oral argument Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. “The rifles banned by Maryland are among the most popular firearms in the country.” Maryland’s prohibition on “assault weapons” was passed in the wake of the 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. The state banned less-common semiautomatic “assault pistols” in 1994. The laws cover some but not all semiautomatic rifles, including any...

It is common for gun control zealots to bloviate about how the United States is such a violent country, and others such as Canada’s dictator in chief Justin Trudeau using the crime rate in the United States as justification to seize firearms from his citizenry. And yes, the United States is ranked third when it comes to our murder rate. Now, want to know a dirty little secret? If you remove the following cities—Chicago, Detroit, Washington, DC, St. Louis and New Orleans—from the equation, the land of the free and home of the brave slips all the way down to...

Steven Victor Abreu, fired from the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office after less than a year of employment, was indicted Monday by a grand jury charging the 30-year-old ex-deputy with committing a series of criminal offenses against five separate victims in the months of September and October 2022. The 50-count indictment includes nine counts of rape in the first degree and fourteen counts of misconduct in office. It identifies five alleged victims, named only by their initials JA, as well as victims TS, AW, SD, and JJ Abreu was arrested and initially charged earlier this month for the alleged rape of...