Free Republic

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced a bill that would ban members of Congress from trading and owning stocks, using the name of his legislation to take a jab at Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Hawley on Tuesday introduced the Pelosi Act — or the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act — renewing a legislative push to curtail stock trading by lawmakers that has failed over the last few years.

A wildlife refuge in Arkansas said an African serval cat on the loose in Missouri for at least six months has been safely captured on a farm and will have a new home at the refuge. Officials said the serval was likely an exotic pet that escaped or was abandoned by its owner. The cats are common as exotic pets and are used to breed Savannah cats, a hybrid of a serval and a domestic feline.

An Illinois man has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old outside a Missouri gas station, police say. The fatal shooting happened around 2:10 a.m. on Jan. 7 in the parking lot of a Conoco gas station, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said. Surveillance footage showed Jesse Lopez was trying to steal a car belonging to Brett Kress, when Kress shot at him, KSDK reported, citing a probable cause statement. Kress, from Sauget, Illinois, chased after Lopez and shot him three times, according to KSDK. Officers found Lopez unconscious and not breathing. He was pronounced dead at...

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones is appointing a reparations commission that will “recommend a proposal to begin repairing the harms that have been inflicted” by slavery, segregation and racism. St. Louis joins a growing list of places trying to determine how to make amends for past practices that have harmed Black Americans. The new commission will hold open monthly meetings. There is no stated deadline for recommendations.

Washington CNN — Lawmakers in the Missouri House of Representatives this week adopted a stricter dress code for women as part of a new rules package, and now requires them to cover their shoulders by wearing a jacket like a blazer, cardigan or knit blazer. The addition, which was proposed by Republican state Rep. Ann Kelley, sparked outrage from some Democrats who said the change was sexist because the dress code for men was not altered. Men in the Missouri House of Representatives are required to wear a jacket, shirt and a tie. The previous dress code for women required...

A 20-year-old Missouri woman told police she fatally stabbed a college student with autism after cops found the man’s smoldering remains in her backyard fire pit. Officers then found remains inside a fire pit and a bloody folding pocket knife. Cops also discovered a cell phone matching the description of the victim’s submerged in a sink filled with water. Blood was also found inside a car at the house, inside the home and in the backyard. A piece of missing mattress was burning inside the fire pit. Police said the remains were burned beyond recognition and refrained from identifying the...

A Christian boarding school in Missouri that’s been under intense scrutiny over abuse allegations announced Wednesday that it will close later this month due to financial hardship. Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and location investigations and several lawsuits from former students. It will stop providing service effective Jan. 20, according to a statement from the school for boys. Attendance at Agape plummeted after abuse allegations surfaced. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. It now has 12. The school’s focus now is “on getting the boys who remain in...

“FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy. His name being in the mix is not progress — it’s pathetic,” Bush tweeted Wednesday. If progressives like Bush actually cared about black people being used as props or tokens, she would have had a problem with Joe Biden wanting specifically a black woman to be his vice president before selecting Kamala Harris. She would have wagged her finger at Democratic pundits and strategists advocating a black female to take a Supreme...

W hen Andrew Breshears arrived at the Agapé Boarding School in 2018, he was a sandy-haired 12-year-old who weighed less than 100 pounds. He enjoyed watching movies, listening to Elvis, and playing soccer with his friends. “I was sheltered,” Breshears says. But he struggled at home. When he was told he couldn’t live with his mother after her stint in rehab, he threatened to kill himself, and another person from the household. His grandparents sent him to a mental hospital, then to Agapé. At first glance, the facility for “at-risk and unmotivated boys” — a Baptist institution in Stockton, Missouri...

Progressive Democrat Rep. Cori Bush (MO) faced backlash online after lamenting the recent execution of Amber (previously “Scott”) McLaughlin, a biological man identifying as a transgender woman who was convicted of brutally raping and killing his ex-girlfriend. Following the execution by the state of Missouri, far-left “Squad” member Cori Bush released a statement saying that McLaughlin was “killed by state-sanctioned, inhumane capital punishment.” “My heart is with her family and loved ones,” the Democrat congresswoman said, making no mention of McLaughlin’s victims. “I yearn for the day when our society acknowledges that state-sanctioned murder will never achieve justice.”

The TGP’s Cassandra Fairbanks previously reported how Democrats were trying to stop the execution of transgender murderer and child sex offender Scott McLaughlin, who identified as “Amber.” Thankfully, their pleas fell on deaf ears and justice was delivered tonight. Here is the story from the Associated Press: “A Missouri inmate was put to death Tuesday for a 2003 killing, becoming what is believed to be the first transgender woman executed in the U.S.” “Amber McLaughlin, 49, was convicted of stalking and killing a former girlfriend, then dumping the body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis. McLaughlin’s fate was sealed...

HAZELWOOD — The city has quietly replaced its police chief and will allow him to retire voluntarily on Jan. 1, months after he was pulled over, called “hammered drunk,” and given a ride home by another police chief rather than arrested.

A Missouri judge ruled on Wednesday that Mark McCloskey — the St. Louis lawyer who pointed a gun at Black Lives Matter protesters marching near his front lawn in 2020 — will not get his guns or his money back despite receiving a pardon last year. McCloskey and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, pleaded guilty in July 2021 to misdemeanor charges for assault and harassment over the incident. The couple surrendered a Colt AR-15 rifle and a Bryco .380-caliber pistol as part of the plea agreement, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. However, after Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) pardoned the...

Demesha Coleman, 35, was charged Thursday with two counts of murder, one count of assault and three counts of armed criminal action after shooting and killing Darius Jackson, 19, and Joseph Farrar, 49. Police found Farrar next to a gas pump with a gunshot to the torso and Jackson was on the ground next to the car, also shot in the torso. A third man sustained a gunshot to the head during the shootout, but survived, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It remains unclear which of the three men, if any, may have stolen the vehicle.

The first openly transgender woman slated for execution in the US is appealing to Missouri’s governor for mercy, citing mental health struggles. Lawyers for Amber McLaughlin, 49, on Monday asked Republican Gov. Mike Parson to spare her life before her Jan. 3 execution. She was convicted of killing her 45-year-old ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was raped and stabbed to death in St. Louis County.

The former director of Agape Boarding School pleaded with a Cole County judge on Monday to keep himself off the state’s central registry of child abuse and neglect, so he can keep working with children. Bryan Clemensen was the long-time director of the Stockton-based reform school for troubled boys until last month, he testified Monday. The Missouri Department of Social Services says it substantiated five preponderances of evidence findings against Clemensen — one count of child neglect and four of physical abuse. The department is seeking to add Clemensen’s name to the state’s child abuse and neglect central registry, a...

Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt who, together with Louisiana’s Attorney General Jeff Landry, filed a lawsuit alleging collusion between the federal government and social media companies to censor certain speech, sent a letter to Twitter asking for the preservation of evidence related to communications between the company and federal government officials on content moderation and misinformation. Schmitt, who was elected to the Senate in November, referenced the internal documents, dubbed “Twitter Files,” that are being released by CEO Elon Musk via journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger. The files showed that then-deputy legal counsel Jim Baker, who was...

OZARK, Mo. (AP) — Two men who were facing felony charges alleging they abused boys at a private Christian boarding school in southwest Missouri have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and the case against a third was dropped. Scott Dumar, 46, the medical coordinator at the Agape Boarding School near Stockton, pleaded guilty Thursday to two misdemeanors and was placed on two years probation. Everett Graves, 40, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor. The case against Chris McElroy was dropped after the alleged victim did not appear at a preliminary hearing Thursday, The Kansas City Star reported. They were among five staff...

A court case has developed in Missouri that raises the question of whether county officials are allowed to retaliate against the parents of a victim of abuse by one of its own employees. The situation is that a 15-year-old boy was sexually abused by a deputy in Scott County, Missouri. The parents threatened to sue the county because it allowed the deputy, who had been disciplined in previous employment situations, to have a job, and the authority of a deputy, in the county. According to a report from the Institute for Justice, which is working on the case on behalf...

The FBI worked with social media to kill the Hunter laptop story before the 2020 election. These goons running the FBI are not on the side of the people. Their job is to run cover for crooked politicians and put good people who shine the light on their crimes behind bars. The Gateway Pundit previously reported in May that the Missouri and Louisiana Attorneys General filed a lawsuit (Missouri v. Biden) against the Biden Administration, including Joe Biden himself, Anthony Fauci, the Department of Homeland Security and nearly a dozen federal agencies and Secretaries. The suit alleges a massive coordinated...