Free Republic

A vast network of these large NGOs operates as a de facto branch of the government, deliberately designed to bypass the constitutional limits of a democratic republic.This setup creates a highly effective, insulated loop that shifts power away from voters through several distinct mechanisms: 1. Laundering Taxpayer Cash The financial plumbing of these organizations reveals their true nature. Congress regularly appropriates billions of dollars to federal agencies (like the EPA, USAID, or the Department of Energy). Those agencies do not spend all that money internally; instead, they distribute it via multi-million-dollar "grants" to friendly NGOs.The NGO takes the taxpayer money...

After building an ugly, overprice, monstrosity marring the design of a famous Chicago park, anybody surprised to learn that the Obama Presidential Center has failed to pay the help? Multiple little-guy contractors have told Fox News that they've been stiffed on the payments for their goods and services. (snip) Salaries and benefits soared from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024, as staffing expanded to 337 employees and annual revenue reached nearly $210 million. But the little guy who smooths the cement or does the gardening or catering or windows and floors gets nothing, and as the video...

African American Contractors Association president Omar Shareef said that a total of seven separate subcontractors have contacted him for help with pursuing missing payments in the past several months. Some of the contractors are owed seven figures. They’re willing to settle for less, as long as they can keep their businesses running.

Taxpayers could be left with a big tab if the Obama Presidential Center experiences financial trouble because its foundation has not yet established a promised $470 million safety net to guard against a public bailout. That according a Fox News Digital investigation of the center’s finances as Chicago awaits its grand opening on Friday, June 19. The outlet’s investigation, published Saturday, found that “multiple contractors and subcontractors claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions on the project, with some alleging they remain locked in payment disputes and face financial ruin…” In an agreement with the city...

Former President Barack Obama's $850 million presidential library in Chicago has been plunged into a fresh controversy as contractors say they still haven't been paid just days before its grand opening. African American Contractors Association president Omar Shareef said seven workers contacted him to complaint about missed payments, Front Page Mag reports. 'It's to the point that they wished they had never done [the project],' Shareef told the outlet. Some subcontractors are missing as much as seven figures in payment, and many are feeling the pressure of keeping their businesses afloat. The 225-foot tall library dubbed the 'Obamalisk' is also...

The Obama Presidential Center was billed as a lasting legacy to former President Barack Obama, and its construction was touted as an ambitious model built with aggressive goals for minority-owned and local businesses. But now, some of the very subcontractors who helped build the 19.3-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side say they are facing financial ruin as they race to recover millions of dollars they claim remain unpaid ahead of the center's grand opening Friday. Overall construction costs were reported to be $830 million in 2021, and have likely climbed past the $1 billion mark. A Fox News Digital investigation...

Concern is mounting that taxpayers could be left holding the bag if the Obama Presidential Center runs into financial trouble, as the foundation behind it has yet to establish a promised $470 million safety net to guard against a public bailout. The scrutiny comes as a Fox News Digital investigation found multiple contractors and subcontractors claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions on the project, with some alleging they remain locked in payment disputes and face financial ruin just days before the center's grand opening. Under its agreement with the city, the Obama Foundation pledged to...

Oklahoma Republican lieutenant governor nominee T.W. Shannon criticized the opening of the Obama Center in Chicago, arguing that the project highlights concerns about voter identification, and reports of unpaid contractors.

Cost to taxpayers for Obama Center keep piling up Illinois taxpayers may be on the hook for millions in unpaid contractor fees for the Obama Presidential Center as the foundation's promised $420 million "safety net" fund to prevent a taxpayer bailout has yet to materialize and many black-owned contractors are being left unpaid. Meanwhile, multiple contractors are now saying that the Obama Center hasn't paid them for millions of dollars for their work. And some are wondering if taxpayers will be forced to pay up, according to Fox News. Some of these subcontractors say they are locked in payment disputes...

Weeks after the Obama Presidential Center’s star-studded opening in Chicago, a subcontractor who previously claimed his company was stiffed for nearly $4 million has shut down operations and laid off 25 union workers. Mike Owen, the owner of Chicago-based Adamson Plumbing Contractors, told Fox News Digital that the financial fallout forced the company to abandon about half a dozen other construction jobs and left it on the verge of collapse. Owen described the shutdown as a painful decision he believed was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. "Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in...

Barack Obama’s presidential library opened a few weeks ago with a star-studded celebration, and ongoing criticisms about its Star Wars-prison appearance and failure to pay contractors who worked on the monolith project. Now one subcontractor has shut down operations because the project manager has refused to pay for work that was done on the project. A report at Fox News outlines how Mike Owen, owner of Adamson Plumbing Contractors, confirmed his company was on the verge of collapse because of payments that were due, but never were made. “Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in...

Weeks after the Obama Presidential Center’s star-studded opening in Chicago, a subcontractor who previously claimed his company was stiffed for nearly $4 million has shut down operations and laid off 25 union workers. Mike Owen, the owner of Chicago-based Adamson Plumbing Contractors, told Fox News Digital that the financial fallout forced the company to abandon about half a dozen other construction jobs and left it on the verge of collapse. Owen described the shutdown as a painful decision he believed was necessary to save the company from bankruptcy. "Laying off close to 30 people is something that no owner in...

News broke recently that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would sever ties with the shadowy consulting firm Arabella Advisors and its “nonprofit network closely associated with the Democratic Party.” The Arabella network has received over $450 million in grants from Gates over the years, so this announcement comes as a devastating blow to Arabella’s billion-plus dollar network. But it may also be a sign that our hyper-politicized charitable sector has reached an inflection point. An institutional realignment may be coming that will leave the left in the lurch and change American philanthropy for the better. My organization was the...

Ticket sales begin today in the United Kingdom, marking the first time a lottery outside the United States will contribute to the Powerball jackpot.The expansion will debut with Wednesday night's drawing, which features an estimated $567 million annuitized jackpot with a $251.8 million cash value.Lottery officials say adding players from across the Atlantic is expected to help jackpots grow faster — without changing the game for players in the United States.

A Southern California company just received approval to test a space mirror that would reflect sunlight to dark parts of planet Earth. The Federal Communications Commission issued a license on Thursday to Reflect Orbital, an energy company based in Hawthorne. The license officially allows Reflect Orbital to launch its Earendil-1 satellite using frequencies in UHF, S-band and X-band for “telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) and data downlink to support deployment and testing of a solar reflector.” Reflect Orbital will only be allowed to deploy one satellite at a time for now, the license states. “Earendil-1 will use a deployable, highly...

Many Washington state daycare providers receive large taxpayer subsidies, but an investigation by The Center Square found several that had few, if any, children and at least one establishment that received hundreds of thousands of dollars despite residents at the listed address indicating it was not a daycare. Yet politicians charged with overseeing the spending continue to publicly say there is no problem with improper payments to the daycares and, instead, have been criticizing journalists for investigating the potential fraud. No state official has announced an investigation or crackdown though the legislature instituted some reforms last session. The Center Square...

The CEO of the largest Democratic fundraising platform pleaded the Fifth Amendment Wednesday rather than testify before Congress about allegations that her firm illegally funneled foreign donations to federal campaigns. “On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question pursuant to my Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution,” ActBlue boss Regina Wallace-Jones said in response to the first question posed during the House hearing.House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) said in his opening remarks there was “significant concern that ActBlue may have allowed foreign donations on their platform, lied to Congress and withheld responsive documents...

The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency makes it an ideal vehicle for sanctions evasion and an increasingly vital pillar of Iran’s wartime economy. As the risk of renewed U.S.-Iran conflict rises, Tehran has moved quickly to adapt to wartime realities while attempting to limit the impact on border security, domestic stability, and the broader economy. Despite obvious constraints, the Islamic Republic has had a measure of success in maintaining control at home while circumventing U.S. pressure in the Strait of Hormuz through shadow tankers and ship-to-ship transfers to sustain oil exports. This has reignited Western debates over whether sanctions and military...

Former high-ranking FBI official Charles McGonigal started tearing up Thursday as he was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for colluding with a Russian oligarch to evade US sanctions. McGonigal, 55, was ordered to surrender by Feb. 26, 2024, made to serve three years of supervised release following his time behind bars, and was fined $40,000. After he exited the courthouse, McGonigal told onlookers, “Happy holidays.” McGonigal, who helmed the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018, pleaded guilty to the charge back in August. “[McGonigal] well knew his actions violated those sanctions,” Manhattan federal judge...

Progressive nonprofits are having a rough time lately. In April, the Department of Justice alleged that the Southern Poverty Law Center secretly paid leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations—not to dismantle these extremist groups, but, as prosecutors put it, to manufacture “the extremism it purports to oppose.” And a recent City Journal investigation by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo, based on a previous report from the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Intelligent Advocacy Network, as well as their congressional testimony, revealed that the California branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has received more than...