Free Republic

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump offered some encouraging words and advice for graduating students at the University of Alabama on Thursday in a speech interspersed with impressions of transgender weightlifters, accusations that judges were interfering with his agenda and attacks on his predecessor, Joe Biden. The Republican’s jolting speech was standard fare for Trump and well received by the crowd in deep-red Alabama, which backed him in all three of his presidential runs. “You’re the first graduating class of the golden age of America,” the president told the graduates.

Mississippi is bringing back a “competitive” edge with Gov. Tate Reeves’ (R) signing of legislation to phase out the state income tax, and he discussed what this means for the state during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday. “So this is House Bill 1 that I signed into law on Thursday afternoon. And honestly, Matt, it’s really what I have called Mississippi’s one big, beautiful bill, and it is a bill that does a couple of different things,” Reeves began, explaining that it reduces the sales tax on groceries across the state and, over a period of time, eliminates the...

An upcoming 60 Minutes investigation into the drone sightings that took place toward the end of 2024 promises to reveal more about the government's knowledge and response to the still largely-unexplained phenomena. In a preview for the special, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker speaks with Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, inquiring about the intelligence community's thoughts on the mysterious sightings and whether these could have been an attempt at espionage by a foreign power. "I am privy to classified briefings at the highest level," Wicker said. "I think the Pentagon and the National Security...

A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing the mayor and city leaders after the officials sued, sparking complaints from press advocates that it violates the First Amendment. Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin issued the restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register on Tuesday in connection with a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.” The piece criticized the city for not sending the newspaper notice about a meeting the City Council held regarding a proposed tax on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco. “I think it’s dangerous that a judge would issue a temporary restraining order...

Ohio Democrats are looking to make a statement in favor of killing unborn babies by abortion by introducing the “Contraception Begins at Erection Act.” The bill, which will be introduced by Democrat state Reps. Anita Somani and Tristan Rader, would make it illegal for men to have sex without trying to create a child, Local12 reported. The bill is modeled after similar legislation introduced by Democrat Mississippi state Sen. Bradford Blackmon. “Fair is fair, right?” Somani said in video posted to Bluesky. “If this legislature is so dedicated to regulating women’s bodies and their access to contraceptives and abortion care...

A group of Republican-led states filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging a ban announced by outgoing Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this month on new offshore oil and gas development along most U.S. coastlines. The lawsuit seeks a reversal of Biden’s ban with declaratory and injunctive relief, according to a court filing that argued Biden did not have the authority to impose such a ban and that the power to do so rests with the U.S. Congress.

TUPELO – WTVA in Tupelo may be facing a third round of layoffs that includes its entire meteorology team, according to sources with knowledge of the situation that asked to remain anonymous. The layoffs will be in phases and completed by the end of the first quarter, sources said. Station manager Luke Stanford declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Journal. WTVA's parent company Allen Media Group in May announced a restructuring move that affected about 12%, or some 2,500 employees. In October AMG laid off several station employees.

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi says if President Biden offered him a preemptive pardon for his role in leading the investigation into then-President Donald Trump's role in the 2021 Capitol riot, he'd accept it. Thompson, who was the chair of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, embraced the idea of a pardon in an interview with CBS News, saying Tuesday, "I'm from a part of the country where speaking your opinion used to cost you your life." "When I hear someone about to be sworn into the presidency of the United States say he wants to lock you...

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who headed Congress’s special investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, said Tuesday that he has been in talks with the White House about presidential pardons. His comments confirmed a report, published hours earlier by Punchbowl News, that Thompson had at least one conversation in December with the White House counsel’s office about a potential pardon. He emphasized that he wasn’t lobbying for any special favors. “It wasn’t preemptive,” Thompson said. “We had a discussion about pardons. It wasn’t a particular pardon. … I said for me, as a member of the...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) compared President-elect Trump’s talk of acquiring Greenland to the Louisiana Purchase. Fetterman joined Fox News, alongside Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), on Tuesday to discuss the concern surrounding Trump’s call to acquire the Danish territory as he prepares to take office again. “There’s a lot of talk about Greenland, for example, and … there’s a lot of freak-outs and of course, I would never support taking it by force,” Fetterman said. He continued, noting it would be a “responsible conversation” to discuss acquisition, including “just buying it out.” “If anyone thinks that’s bonkers, it’s like, well, remember...

A thin-skinned Liz Cheney could not help herself in firing back at President Trump on Friday over his savage remarks regarding the medal she received from Joe Biden and ended up making a huge error in the process. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Biden awarded the second-highest civilian medal to 20 individuals on Thursday. These included the leaders of the January 6th select committee, Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), along with two of his longtime friends/cronies, former Senators Ted Kaufman (D-DE) and Chris Dodd (D-CT). The award, known as the Presidential Citizens Medal, is generally given to Americans...

Not soon after the general election, and within two weeks of each other, two major financial institutions have left a United Nations Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA). This is after they joined three years ago, pledging to require environmental social governance standards (ESG) across their platforms, products and systems. According to the "bank-led and UN-convened" NZBA, global banks joined the alliance, pledging to align their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, NZBA explains. Since April 2021, 145 banks in 44 countries with more than $73 trillion in assets have joined NZBA, tripling...

Conservative state lawmaker Jenifer Branning has defeated moderate incumbent Jim Kitchens for a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court, according to final election results released by the Secretary of State’s office. Branning narrowly won the Nov. 26 runoff election with 64,087 votes, or 50.6%, in the Mississippi Supreme Court’s central district, which includes Jackson. Kitchens received 62,685 votes, or just about 49.4%. Branning and Kitchens had advanced to a runoff after none of the five candidates running for the seat received a majority of votes during the Nov. 5 general election. The state’s nine high-court justices are elected from three...

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), former chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said in a Thursday interview that he would accept a preemptive pardon from President Biden if he offered one. CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Thompson whether he wanted Biden to extend the pardon offer — in light of recent reporting that Biden was considering using the pardon power to protect those he feared may be targeted in Trump’s second term. “The president, it’s his prerogative,” Thompson said about whether he wants Biden to preemptively pardon him. “If he offers it, to me or other members of the committee, I think...

Liz Cheney threatened Donald Trump's incoming Department of Justice on Monday, claiming that any move to investigate the now-defunct January 6th committee would be "sanctionable conduct." The statement, put out in response to Trump's recent "Meet the Press" interview, also denied allegations that she and her colleagues destroyed evidence. While speaking to NBC News' Kristen Welker, the president-elect said the following. “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” the President-elect said, referring to Mississippi Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (the committee’s chairman). “They deleted and destroyed...

JACKSON, Miss. — Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and City Councilman Aaron Banks all pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal bribery charges. The hearing came the day after Lumumba announced his indictment. The newly unsealed documents list the felony charges the three elected officials face. Advertisement Owens is charged with conspiracy, federal program bribery, use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements. Lumumba is charged with conspiracy, federal program bribery, use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering....

This may not be the biggest news of the weekend, but it could have more long-term significance than most of the others. In a surprise ruling, a unanimous panel from the Fifth Circuit ruled against the state of Mississippi and invalidated a law allowing ballots to take up to five days after an election to be received and counted, at least in elections involving federal office. The Constitution sets an Election Day, Judge Andrew Oldman wrote, and "Day" means what it says: The ruling could have sweeping implications for the way many states have administered elections for years, but it’s...

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled against Mississippi’s mail ballot law that allows election officials to count ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive afterward, setting the stage for a possible Supreme Court review. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, sent the issue back to a lower court for further review. The decision would only impact Mississippi should a federal district court judge agree to bar the state from counting late-arriving mail-in ballots. The decision, issued by a panel of 5th Circuit judges, some of which appointed by former President...

MASSIVE ELECTION INTEGRITY VICTORY: The 5th Circuit has just ruled that ballots must be received BY ELECTION DAY to be counted — not days after — following an RNC lawsuit. This is a seismic win for fair, accurate, secure, and transparent elections

A Mississippi town has taken down a Confederate monument that stood on the courthouse square since 1910 — a figure that was tightly wrapped in tarps the past four years, symbolizing the community's enduring division over how to commemorate the past. Grenada’s first Black mayor in two decades seems determined to follow through on the city’s plans to relocate the monument to other public land. A concrete slab has already been poured behind a fire station about 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) from the square. But a new fight might be developing. A Republican lawmaker from another part of Mississippi wrote...