Free Republic

Harvard University has been in the news a lot over the last couple of years, but for all the wrong reasons. They tolerated virulent antisemitism on their Cambridge, Massachusetts campus after the Oct. 7 Hamas slaughter of Israelis, their president resigned over the matter, plus accusations of plagiarism, and lately they’ve been involved in a battle with the Trump administration over DEI and the failure to protect their Jewish students from hate.But it just got worse:A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager recently entered a plea in relation to an alleged scheme to steal and sell donated body parts.Cedric Lodge,...

New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a pair of bills into law Thursday that place bans on sanctuary city polices in the Granite State. “There will be no sanctuary cities in New Hampshire,” Ayotte said during the bill signing, according to New Hampshire Bulletin. “Period. End of story.” The two bills that are now law — House Bill 511 and Senate Bill 62 — ban municipalities and counties in the state from putting in place policies that prevent local officials and police from cooperating with federal immigration officials such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Among other requirements, House...

A New Hampshire town's attempt to force a bakery to remove or alter its painting that shows sunbeams shining down on a mountain range of doughnuts, a muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries is unconstitutional, a judge ruled in a First Amendment dispute. The town of Conway infringed on the free speech rights of bakery owner Sean Young, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled Monday, following a one-day trial in February. He ordered the town to stop any efforts at enforcing its sign code regarding the mural painted by high school students atop Leavitt's Country Bakery, mentioning a "complete...

DOVER, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire sheriff who resigned after he was accused of stealing $19,000 in county funds was sentenced Monday to 3 1/2 to seven years in prison on perjury charges. Prosecutors had asked for a seven-to-14-year sentence for Mark Brave. ... Brave, 39, was elected as Strafford County sheriff in 2020. At the time, he was both the youngest sheriff and the first Black man to serve as a sheriff in the state. He was arrested in 2023 and charged with eight felonies following an investigation into accusations that he misused county credit cards. Brave called...

The chair of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire told members of the Libertarian National Committee in a recent message that any who vote to censure the state party at the committee’s upcoming meeting will face the “full and unapologetic wrath” of the affiliate. The message from New Hampshire Chair Ben Weir, first reported on and confirmed as authentic by Third Party Watch on Thursday, comes in response to a resolution introduced this week by LNC Treasurer Bill Redpath. In his motion, Redpath calls on the national committee to censure the New Hampshire affiliate over its use of social media...

Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said Tuesday on CNN’s “News Central” that President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees could face holds until Attorney General Pam Bondi provides “answers” to Congress on the $400 million jet from Qatar. Shaheen said, “With respect to Qatar and the plane, I think there are serious constitutional questions about this, but there are also questions about national security. Sadly, the president doesn’t seem to be too concerned about national security. He’s been willing to allow his secretary of defense to engage in classified discussions over unclassified channels. He has, again, looking at accepting this plane without thinking...

Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. He was 85. Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the Supreme Court said in a statement Friday. He retired from the court in June 2009, giving President Barack Obama his first Supreme Court vacancy to fill. Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice. Souter was appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990. He was a reliably liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom...

Get ready for a spectacular light show tonight as geomagnetic storms bring the northern lights closer to unexpected locations. The northern lights, or aurora borealis, are expected to put on a stunning display across several U.S. states tonight, thanks to geomagnetic storms that are disrupting Earth’s magnetic field. These solar-driven storms, forecasted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will bring the auroras closer to areas typically outside their usual range. This rare opportunity offers a chance for skywatchers in unexpected locations to witness one of nature’s most mesmerizing phenomena. Where Will the Northern Lights Be Visible? According to...

His move comes after initially ruling out a run for Senate before signaling more openness to it. As a former governor who enjoyed a strong approval rating and comfortable reelection victories, Sununu was seen as among the best candidates that Republicans could put up to try to succeed the retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

Democrats may be in for a wake-up call in New Hampshire as early polling suggests Republicans could easily win a Senate seat in the blue state. Former Republican Governor Chris Sununu leads Democratic Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH) by a sizable 53% to 44% margin in a hypothetical 2026 Senate race, according to a newly released poll. While neither Sununu nor Pappas has formally declared their candidacy, both are expected to run, and the numbers show an early advantage for the GOP in a state that has leaned Democratic in recent cycles. If these figures hold, it would represent a major...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York Senator Gary Peters of Michigan Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who frequently caucuses with Democrats

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) announced on Wednesday that she will not seek reelection in 2026 in a blow to Democrats, who will now have to defend her New Hampshire seat against the GOP. “Serving the people of New Hampshire, first as state senator, then as governor, and now in the United States Senate is an incredible honor,” Shaheen, 78, said in a video announcement on her retirement.

KEENE, N.H. — Investigators with the Keene Police Department have reportedly found additional videos of a woman contaminating items at local businesses with her urine. On Friday, Kelli Tedford of Keene was arrested after police received a tip that the 23-year-old had allegedly recorded herself using her urine to contaminate items at the Monadnock Food Co-Op and posted the video online. She was charged with criminal mischief, a class B felony. According to police, investigators also uncovered additional videos showing Tedford contaminating items and surfaces with her urine at other businesses in the greater Keene area. Some of the videos...

Here’s another big win for DEI hiring—Mark Brave, New Hampshire’s first black sheriff, just pled guilty to a laundry list of felonies. Shocking? No, not one bit. This is what happens when you focus on checking diversity boxes instead of hiring the best person for the job. Sadly, we see this happening everywhere these days. Brave’s fall from grace is nothing new. Sadly, it follows a very familiar pattern if you’ve been paying attention to the left’s DEI circus. Back in August 2023, Brave was arrested for stealing nearly $19,000 in county funds. This “stand-up guy” used taxpayer money to...

The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to require law enforcement to cooperate with immigration authorities last week in a landslide bipartisan 351 to 6 majority. The February 6 vote also carried without debate. When she was elected last year, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte pledged to put an end to sanctuary policies and charged the legislature with moving quickly on the issue. Ayotte also said she would not “MASS up” New Hampshire after seeing how badly her neighboring state was mired in illegal migrants and illegal drug trafficking. The state Senate quickly obliged the governor by tackling the issue during...

There's an old military saying about a certain material, which was often found on parade grounds back in the days of horse-mounted troops, and how it tends to roll downhill. That's a metaphor, of course, for how pressure on senior officers tends to flow downwards to junior officers, to NCOs, and eventually to the E-4 Mafia and the private soldiers. But in the military as well as in government, sometimes good ideas roll downhill, too. As an example, we have a very good idea, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) being set up by the incoming Trump administration. Now, Iowa...

The Dartmouth College basketball players who voted in March to unionize withdrew their petition on Tuesday, a move largely intended to preserve the favorable federal judgment that they had secured and that could have been in jeopardy once President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. The players were the first college athletes granted the right to unionize by a federal labor official and the ensuing 13-to-2 vote by the men’s team in favor of forming a union seemed like a pivotal moment in the mounting legal challenges to the college sports model. But Dartmouth refused to negotiate with the players and...

NATIONAL MAPLE SYRUP DAY Get the flapjacks ready for National Maple Syrup Day. December 17th calls for orders of pancakes, french toast, or biscuits topped off with butter and delicious maple syrup. #MapleSyrupDay It is usually from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees that maple syrup is made from although it is not limited to those maple species. These trees, in cold climates, store starch in their trunks and in their roots. In the spring, the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap. The maple trees are then tapped by...

Police in Concord are investigating after someone vandalized a Satanic Temple holiday display at the State House. The statue, which the city sanctioned after explaining it was allowed because of the First Amendment, was unveiled Saturday night and was damaged shortly after. Visitors to the State House on Tuesday could see a Christmas tree, nativity scene and Bill of Rights display, but the Satanic Temple holiday display was taken down after it was damaged. The display depicted the pagan deity Baphomet and the Satanic Temple's seven fundamental tenets. In one hand, the figure held an apple to honor Isaac Newton...

ANew Hampshire high school banned two parents from its grounds after they wore wristbands protesting boys participating in girls' sports. Two months later, the school remained adamant about its decision in a court hearing on Friday. The controversy began in September when parents complained to the Bow High School athletic director about their daughters' soccer team having to compete against a team with a boy on the roster, the New Hampshire Journal reported. “Where’s your courage? Where’s your integrity? Stand up for real women or get out of the way,” soccer dad Anthony Foote wrote in an email to athletic...