Free Republic

“I think that’s a hard line for me now"Hayley Williams has declared that racist, sexist and anti-trans people are “not welcome” at her upcoming solo tour. Read More: Hayley Williams’ surprise 17-song release is a bold choose-your-own-adventure through hope and heartache The Paramore frontwoman announced a run of dates earlier this month, and within days she extended the tour due to “overwhelming demand”. The shows kick off in Atlanta on March 27 and include dates in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin in June. See all the info here and find any remaining tickets here. Now, she has given an interview...

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) issued a statement Saturday vowing to conduct “vigorous oversight” on Caribbean strikes after a report surfaced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military to “kill everybody” aboard an alleged drug vessel. “The Committee is aware of recent news reports — and the Department of Defense’s initial response — regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” the senators wrote in a joint statement. “The Committee has directed inquires to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to...

Georgia and Texas, two states in the American South with a history of racial discrimination, top the list of WalletHub's 2024 ranking of "States with the Most Racial Progress." - Georgia ranked No. 1 on WalletHub's 2024 ranking. It's reduced the gap between the earnings of white and Black Americans by over 32% since 1979, the most significant reduction in the nation, the study said. The Peach State has also decreased the gap in business ownership by over 11% since 2002 — and is among the few states that have reduced the poverty rate of Black residents. - Texas came...

A North Carolina senator is holding up Mississippi’s nominations for federal judgeships and U.S. attorneys because he wants Sen. Roger Wicker to help an indigenous group in his state gain federal recognition as a tribe. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told a reporter from NOTUS that his block on four Mississippi nominees is due to negotiations with Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator, over federal recognition of the Lumbee and other issues unrelated to the nominees themselves. Wicker serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has enormous sway over the legislation in which the Lumbee tribe would be recognized. “Roger’s...

A Mississippi State University student has been arrested after yelling antisemitic comments at Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. The arrest of 20-year old Patrick McClintock, a mechanical engineering student at MSU, came after Starkville police were “made aware of a video circulating online that depicted an individual yelling an antisemitic statement and throwing coins toward another person outside a local business”, the police department said in a statement. According to a video of the incident which has gone viral on social media, Portnoy could be seen recording a segment of his One Bite pizza review outside Boardtown Pizza & Pints...

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy was subjected to an antisemitic slur while filming content in Starkville, Mississippi on Friday, reported the New York Post. Portnoy was recording one of his signature “One Bite” pizza reviews outside what appeared to be Boardtown Pizza near Mississippi State University when a passerby shouted “F***k the Jews” toward him. The comment was immediately condemned by bystanders. “Why don’t you come in the camera, buddy?” Portnoy, who is Jewish, responded, gesturing for the man to approach. The individual then walked up to Portnoy and his cameraman, engaging in a brief, inaudible exchange before walking away....

A Mississippi college student was arrested for allegedly hurling an antisemitic comment at Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy as he filmed a pizza review, according to authorities and reports. Patrick McClintock, 20, was arrested Monday after a viral video allegedly captured him yelling, “F–k the Jews” toward Portnoy, who is Jewish, as he filmed a “One Bite” pizza review in Starkville on Friday, The Starkville Police Department confirmed to the Reflector, Mississippi State University’s student newspaper. McClintock was a junior and a mechanical engineering major at Mississippi State University, the university’s campus paper reported. He voluntarily withdrew from MSU as...

Setting the stage for a major ruling on election law, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether federal law requires ballots to be not only cast by voters but also received by election officials by Election Day. As part of the list of orders from the justices’ private conference on Friday, the court took up Watson v. Republican National Committee, a challenge by the Republican National Committee and others to a Mississippi law (as well as similar laws in 30 other states and the District of Columbia) that allow mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they...

The court agreed to hear the matter after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law in 2024. The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case addressing whether states may count ballots that arrive after Election Day. The Republican National Committee and Mississippi Libertarian Party challenged the state's law permitting the counting of ballots postmarked by Election Day should they arrive within five days, Politico reported. The court agreed to hear the matter after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law in 2024. President Donald Trump, for his part, has long been a...

Alligator gars: putting the “gar” in gargantuan for 100 million years. Dr Solomon David, AKA The Gar Guy, said it’s the largest alligator gar he’s ever seen in the field. Image courtesy of Dr Solomon David ================================================================== The Mississippi River floodplains are home to one of Earth’s most impressive river monsters: the alligator gar. Known to science as Atractosteus spatula, it is the largest of the gar species alive today and among the largest fish in North America. Dr Solomon David, AKA “The Gar Guy”, has had more experience than most with these freshwater giants. So, when he messages you...

A second monkey that escaped from a transport truck last week was fatally shot along a Mississippi highway early Tuesday morning as authorities warned that one more primate is still at large. A truck carrying 21 rhesus monkeys overturned in a ditch near Heidelberg, Miss. on Oct. 28. The truck was wrecked and several loose primates were able to escape through a hole in the back door. On Tuesday, Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson confirmed that a second monkey was shot and killed by a civilian who spotted it crossing a highway.

Diplo is poking fun at his viral joke that he dated both Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau. The DJ shared a selfie with the former Prime Minister of Canada on Monday, cheekily captioning the photo with Perry song title, “The one that got away.” In the selfie, Diplo and Trudeau both make comically shocked faces. Diplo’s famous friends were amused by the post. Paris Hilton commented with a crying laughing emoji while Ryan Tedder wrote, “Damn.”

In what officials called “a monumental betrayal of public trust,” more than a dozen law enforcement officers are among 20 defendants charged in Mississippi and Tennessee for an alleged drug trafficking bribery scheme. The federal indictment alleges the defendants, which includes two sheriffs, of accepting bribes from FBI agents posing as drug cartel members to facilitate the passage of illicit drugs through the Mississippi Delta region. Federal officials initiated a years-long investigation after hearing complaints from real drug traffickers about having to pay bribes to law enforcement officers. WLBT has more: According to indictments, the co-conspirators received bribes to provide...

A lesbian substitute teacher was fired on her first day over a TikTok she filmed where she appeared to leer at a young schoolgirl. Miata Borders, 24, was axed from her position as a sub teacher at Lake Cormorant High School in Mississippi, after sharing a TikToks of her work day on October 17. In the offending video Borders - sporting an enormous diamond crucifix necklace - filmed a group of children practicing for the school band while walking down a corridor. As the camera lingered on one girl wearing red Crocs while holding pom poms, Borders said: 'Yeah they...

HEIDELBERG, Miss. -- Monkeys being transported on a Mississippi highway escaped captivity Tuesday after the truck carrying them overturned, according to law enforcement. All but one of the escaped monkeys were killed, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department said in a post on Facebook, warning that the monkeys were “aggressive." It is not clear how many monkeys were originally in the truck or how many were killed. The truck was carrying Rehsus monkeys, which typically weigh around 16 pounds (7.7 kilograms) and are among the most medically studied animals on the planet. They were being housed at the Tulane University National...

Lindsey Whiteside, 26, is the former youth minister at Getwell Church in Hernando, Mississippi. In 2024, she was arrested and charged with “sexual battery of a minor child by a person of trust or authority” after she groomed and had sex with a 14-year-old girl over a period of several months. While prosecutors demanded 30 years, she only received three years of house arrest and seven years of probation, causing an uproar in the community over the light sentence. This also prompted district attorney Matthew Marton to rebuke the judge in the case while declaring: “She used the gospel of...

A federal judge overturned a former Biden-era rule that protected transgender healthcare under anti-discrimination measures. On Wednesday, Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled in favor of a coalition of 15 Republican-led states. The complaint was filed regarding Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which the Biden administration interpreted to include provisions for transgender-identifying people to receive so-called “gender-affirming care.” The provision added gender identity to Title IX’s definition of discrimination “on the basis of sex,” which previously included discrimination based on sex characteristics and reproductive function. This rule prevented...

In a small Mississippi town, where local businesses thrive and craftsmen find steady work, the city has become both beautiful and proud.I just returned from a girls’ trip to Laurel, Mississippi, the South’s self-styled “City Beautiful,” a small town made famous by HGTV’s “Home Town” — the popular home renovation show hosted by Erin and Ben Napier. I went to scope out historic fixer-uppers, hoping to make one my own.Standing on the creaky porch of a 1910 Craftsman bungalow, built for a sawmill manager during the lumber boom of the late 1890s to early 1920s, I felt its history. This...

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - Five shootings in 24 hours across the Magnolia state left at least 9 dead this weekend. Most of the shootings happened after high school football games on Friday night. The last two happened at Alcorn State and at a Jackson State University event at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday. At Alcorn State, one person is dead, and two others were injured near the Industrial Technology Building. Officials said no arrests have been made at this time. Jackson Police Department Interim Chief Tyree Jones said a child was hit by gunfire near the tailgate section during JSU’s...

Four men have been arrested in connection with a mass shooting in Mississippi that left six dead and at least 20 wounded during a high school homecoming weekend celebration, officials said. Three men — Teviyon Powell, 29, William Bryant, 29, and Morgan Lattimore, 25 — have been charged with capital murder, while Latoya Powell, 44, has been charged with attempted murder, according to the FBI’s Jackson Field Office. The shooting erupted around midnight Saturday in downtown Leland, a small city in Washington County, following the local high school’s homecoming football game. Authorities believe the violence stemmed from a personal dispute,...