Free Republic

A Missouri judge who wore an Elvis Presley wig in his courtroom and played the singer’s music from his phone during court proceedings has agreed to a deal that would cut his career on the bench short. Judge Matthew Thornhill in suburban St. Louis faces a six-month unpaid suspension under the deal he reached with a state board to avoid a disciplinary hearing. After the suspension, he would serve 18 more months on the bench before resigning from the St. Charles County Circuit Court.

Carl Junction (MO)Police Department has two brand new electric vehicles from the Tesla Model Y line. One is for the detective division while the other is for the patrol division. Officer Amos Bindel has been driving it and told us the performance has been great.

For years, Missouri lawmakers have heard warnings that enacting policies targeting the LGBTQ+ population could drive individuals and businesses out of the state. Local officials and chambers of commerce raised red flags about potential impacts on recruitment and retention of employees, as well as the ability to lure businesses to the state. Now, studies are showing that the state’s actions have already pushed LGBTQ+ Missourians to move — taking their tax dollars, and even businesses, elsewhere. Analysis by the Movement Advancement Project estimates that around $362 million to $879 million in household income has left the state, a number that...

Contrary to popular belief, apparently there are some lines that even anti-Israel types won't cross after all. But only when they're shamed into doing so. As RedState previously reported, the newly formed "Doctors Against Genocide" (DAG) anti-Israel group, whose powerful allies include antisemitic members of Congress like House Hamas Caucus members Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), announced on Christmas Day of all days that it was holding a "Stop the Genocide in Gaza" event inside the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, encouraging their supporters to obtain free tickets from the museum. ......

Among political conservatives, there is no hotter potato at the moment than the civil liability protections afforded by Section 230 to online operators. Unless Republicans learn to love it again and reject the censorship lawfare complex favored by Democrats, they risk dooming our tech leaders and everyone who uses their products to the sharks circling our legal system.The twenty-six words tucked into the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shielded publishers from liability so they could host and moderate content and still allow a wide range of speech without fear of lawsuits. Since then, Section 230 has evolved to be one...

In those neighborhoods, where civil society breaks down, giving way to anarchy and Haitian-style barbarism, civilization is effectively suspended. Across the United States, the trajectory of inner cities has been one of “inexorable decline” — a descent from centers of economic growth, cultural splendor, and communal solidarity into fragmented, dystopian environments marked by neglect and anarchy. Like mirror images of downtown Port-au-Prince, these urban landscapes, far from civic greatness, have become wastelands defined by abandoned structures, pervasive insecurity, and social disintegration (aggravated by the “homelessness crisis”). The emblematic example of Detroit crystallizes the narrative of urban decline — a Democrat-run...

The executive director of a Missouri nonprofit stole $10 million from a program intended to provide meals for low-income children and blew it on mansions and luxury cars, her trial heard. Connie Bobo, 46, ran the New Heights Community Resource Center in the St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton for a decade. She enrolled the charity in two US Department of Agriculture-funded programs that reimburse nonprofits for distributing food to needy children, prosecutors said.

As Republicans across the country pursue new congressional maps to boost their party ahead of next year's midterm elections, Democrats are ramping up pressure on states where they can respond. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has held discussions with members of the Maryland delegation and Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in recent weeks about possible mid-decade redistricting efforts, according to a source with knowledge of the conversations. The source also said Jeffries spoke with members of the Illinois delegation about drawing new district lines, as Politico first reported. Maryland has just one Republican, Rep. Andy Harris, in its eight-member House...

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is defending his pro-life beliefs this week after he denied clemency to a convicted murderer and is facing criticism from activists who oppose the death penalty. Kehoe, a Republican, rejected last-minute appeals to halt the execution of Lance Shockley, who was convicted of killing Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in 2005. Shockley was executed by lethal injection Oct. 14 in Bonne Terre, Missouri, marking the first execution since Kehoe took office as governor, Missouri news station First Alert 4 reported. “The murder of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Carl DeWayne Graham, Jr.,...

On October 14, 2025, Missouri is set to execute Lance Shockley by lethal injection. The circumstantial evidence is compelling, but comprehensive DNA testing wasn’t done—and the courts have decided that it never will be. In 2005, Sergeant Carl Graham was investigating Shockley's role in a fatal drunk driving accident. Graham was killed by a rifle shot. Shockley (28) was charged with the murder. There were no eyewitness or physical evidence—no DNA, fingerprints, blood or murder weapon. Shockley's trial started on March 20, 2009. The jury found him guilty but deadlocked on the penalty—life or death. The trial judge sentenced him...

Dominion Voting Systems -- the voting machine company at the center of false 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories -- has been sold to a seemingly new election company run by a former Republican election official, according to a person familiar with the sale. John Poulos, the former Dominion CEO, confirmed the sale in a statement. "Liberty Vote has acquired Dominion Voting Systems," Poulos said.

Dominion Voting systems has been acquired by founder and chairman of Liberty Vote Scott Leiendecker, in a deal which included dropping lawsuits against conservatives. Leiendecker, former GOP election reform advocate, has officially become the sole owner of Dominion after making the deal contingent on dropping several remaining lawsuits against prominent conservatives and One America News Network (OANN). Leiendecker further disclosed to the Caller that remaining litigation with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell will be dropped by Dominion Voting Systems as part of the acquisition agreement. Dominion also...

With details revealed exclusively to The National Pulse, Liberty Vote, under the leadership of Missouri-based Scott Leiendecker, has taken full ownership of the controversial, foreign-owned Dominion Voting Systems company. This acquisition marks a historic transformation in the realm of election technology in America, with Dominion effectively being shut down and subsumed into Liberty Vote. Leiendecker, a prominent figure in election reform, is committed to rebuilding trust in the electoral process through transparent and secure voting systems. His approach includes the use of hand-marked paper ballots, emphasizing simplicity and accuracy. The National Pulse spoke with Leiendecker and his team exclusively over...

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, Mo. (KFVS) - The sheriff has identified the three men who died in Mississippi County. Mississippi County Sheriff Britton Ferrell identified the first victim as Gerard Essner, 62, who is from the Benton, Chaffee, Oran area. Essner died on Monday night, Oct. 6. The second victim was an officer. The Sikeston Department of Public Safety confirmed one of its officers was killed in the line of duty on Oct. 6 while responding to the standoff. They say Henry Franklin was a member of the Sikeston DPS Tactical Team. Sheriff Ferrell said the man who barricaded himself inside the...

Former Missouri congresswoman Cori Bush, a prominent member of the progressive “Squad” and known for her anti-Israel stance, declared her intention to run again for Congress on Friday, JNS reported. “Right now, we are in the fight of our lives. It isn’t politics as usual, and we can’t afford to operate as such,” Bush said. “This is about survival for our families, and the moment is now.” Bush lost her seat in the Democratic primary last year to Rep. Wesley Bell, a fellow progressive with pro-Israel backing, who went on to win the general election. Reports indicated that pro-Israel lobbying...

Excerpt: "A 26-year-old white man who attempted to commit a terror attack on an Amtrak train in rural Nebraska also attended the doomed “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August on the white supremacist side, according to a court document. St. Charles, Missouri resident Taylor Michael Wilson has been charged with an attempt to commit terror by targeting an Amtrak train in southwest Nebraska in October 2017. FBI Special Agent Monte Czaplewski, writing in an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint, suggested that Wilson wanted to murder black people. The document suggests that he had weapons, as well...

Score another victory for President Donald Trump in the high-stakes political battle between Republicans and Democrats over congressional redistricting. GOP Gov. Mike Kehoe of Missouri on Sunday signed into law a new congressional map, Missouri First, that is likely to hand Republicans an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives ahead of next year’s midterms elections. Missouri, once considered a swing state that has dramatically shifted to the right over the past decade and a half, is the latest battleground in the congressional redistricting showdown after the passage of new maps in GOP-dominated Texas and a redistricting push by...

Missouri police say a man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly showed up to a local Walmart with a loaded rifle and a bulletproof vest. Police in Springfield, Mo., said nobody was harmed and no shots were fired. The suspect, a white man in his 20s, was detained by an off-duty firefighter until officers arrived on the scene, authorities said. The man allegedly showed up with a “tactical rifle” and bulletproof vest, the Springfield News-Leader reported. Springfield Police Lt. Mike Lucas told the outlet that the man, wearing body armor and military-style clothing, was taking videos on his phone...

KNOB NOSTER, MISSOURI — President Donald Trump shocked the world with his announcement on the evening of Saturday, June 21: the United States had successfully attacked three nuclear sites in Iran, and the B-2 bombers who had completed this incredibly secretive mission were on their way home. “Congratulations to our great American Warriors,” the president shared in a triumphant Truth Social post. “There is not another military in the World that could have done this.” It was an incredible victory for Trump 2.0 in more ways than one: Operation Midnight Hammer had been executed without a single leak to the...

After decades of dead ends, Austin, Texas, police on Friday named deceased serial killer Robert Eugene Brashers as the suspect in the city’s infamous yogurt shop murders. The announcement follows decades without answers in the December 1991 killings of four teenage girls—Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, and sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison—at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt!” shop in Austin. The girls, aged 13, 15, and 17, were bound, gagged, and shot, before the shop was set on fire. The breakthrough comes with notable advancements in forensic DNA testing and renewed attention from an HBO docuseries about the case. Not...