Free Republic

A fame-seeking teenager died attempting an alarming social-media challenge called “dusting,” according to her heartbroken parents. Renna O’Rourke, 19, of Arizona, passed away Sunday after trying the viral trend, also called “chroming,” in which netizens film themselves inhaling keyboard cleaning spray to get high for views online. “She always said, ‘I’m gonna be famous, Dad. Just you watch. I’m gonna be famous,’ and unfortunately, this is not under the most optimal of circumstances,” her grieving father, Aaron O’Rourke, told AZ Family. The Tempe teen went into cardiac arrest and was rushed to the hospital. She remained unconscious in the intensive...

As President Donald Trump’s administration ramps up immigration enforcement in his second term, California Democrats are doubling down on their efforts to shield illegal aliens from federal authorities, even in places where public safety is at stake. This week, the California State Senate passed a series of bills that critics argue would all but handcuff federal immigration agents operating in the state. Democrats are moving to place fresh restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The legislation would ban ICE from making arrests at schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, and domestic violence shelters unless they obtain a judicial warrant — a...

Loved ones are rallying together to help a Southern California father who was detained by immigration officials, leaving his pregnant wife and two children alone. Moe Rahman, 38, lives in Orange County and has been married to his wife for 10 years. He was born in Bangladesh and his family moved to the U.S. when he was 4 years old. His family arrived on a visitor’s visa, and they were also seeking asylum from their home country due to political turmoil. In 1997, his family was ordered to be deported. They filed an appeal, but were unsuccessful, and in 2008,...

President Donald Trump signed several executive orders on Friday, lifting regulations on aviation technology and working to boost American manufacturing of drones. The trio of orders lifts regulations that had made domestic production of drones costly, prioritizes the usage of American-made drones by federal agencies and provides for the creation of a grant program for U.S. authorities to buy drones, according to NOTUS. The American drone industry had in recent years been struggling to compete with that of China, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Red tape has hindered homegrown drone innovation, restricting commercial drone use and burdening their development,” Michael...

'He has a monstrous gift of bulls**t,' former colleague says. Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida built his political career with stories of heroism in the U.S. Army and as a private military operative, but several former colleagues say he exaggerated or lied about being “blown up” twice in Iraq, being an Army Ranger, training as an 18 Delta Special Forces Medical Sergeant, being a military-trained sniper, and saving the lives of two soldiers wounded by enemy fire. They also allege he walked away from his post in Iraq when his employer asked him to verify his service record. As...

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday suggested California consider withholding tens of billions in annual federal tax dollars amid reports Donald Trump is preparing funding cuts targeting the state.Newsom’s suggestion came after CNN reported the president was considering a “full termination” of federal grant funding for California’s universities.“Californians pay the bills for the federal government. We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back,” the Democratic governor said in an X post Friday afternoon, referencing a recent analysis from the Rockefeller Institute that California contributed about $83 billion more in federal taxes in 2022 than...

Sometime in the Twenties, Józef Piłsudski quipped that the “most beloved state” of the Polish people is indecision. Almost exactly a century on, the modern nation’s founding father has never been more right, with last week’s presidential election resulting in an almost literal dead heat. Though the conservative Karol Nawrocki finally carried the day, the populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) candidate only defeated Rafał Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, by just 1.78% of the vote, with less than 370,000 ballots separating the two men in a country of 37 million. Since Nawrocki’s win, commentators of all stripes have...

Mark Brooks has a history of being politely ignored. “Ten years ago, there wasn’t really any recognition that men and boys had problems,” he says. “Now the environment has changed.” That change was signalled earlier this month by health secretary Wes Streeting, who declared there is a “crisis in masculinity”. “Society has been slow to wake up to the fact that a lot of men and boys are really struggling today,” he said. “The truth is it can be quite tough to be a young man in today’s society.” Streeting was speaking at the launch of The Centre for Policy...

Live Feed Earlier in the day LAPD riot police deployed to clear crowds; dispersal order issued X video

MARIETTA, Ga. — Immigration agents arrested 12 employees at a Marietta nail salon on Wednesday, forcing the business to close. The Luxx Nail Lounge on Chastain Meadows Parkway is now locked up and closed. Channel 2’s Bryan Mims spoke with the regional special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations, Steve Shrank, on Friday, who said agents are making about a hundred arrests every day in the Atlanta region alone. Video showed agents leading 12 employees out of Luxx Nail Lounge on Wednesday. Except for one employee, that was the whole staff on duty. “This business rode on that illegal...

Former health officials and other government officials under the Biden administration have argued that developing more mRNA vaccines are crucial due to “potential pandemic flu viruses” that could arise in the near future. However, they refrained from explaining why the vaccines must be mRNA, as opposed to conventional vaccine technologies. “The administration’s actions are gutting our deterrence from biological threats,” said Beth Cameron, a senior adviser to the Brown University Pandemic Center and a former director at the White House National Security Council. “Canceling this investment is a signal that we are changing our posture on pandemic preparedness,” she added,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause a court order to reinstate Education Department employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of his plan to dismantle the agency.The Justice Department’s emergency appeal to the high court said U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston exceeded his authority last month when he issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs of nearly 1,400 people and putting the broader plan on hold.Joun’s order has blocked one of the Republican president’s biggest campaign promises and effectively stalled the effort to wind down the department....

BERLIN (Reuters) -Europe is capable of sustaining Ukraine's resistance against Russia, even if the United States were to decide to completely halt its military support to Kyiv, the senior military official in charge of coordinating Germany's arms supplies told Reuters.Major General Christian Freuding said NATO's European members plus Canada had already exceeded the estimated $20 billion worth of U.S. military aid provided last year to Kyiv.They accounted for around 60% of the total costs borne by the Western allies, he said."The war against Ukraine is raging on our continent, it is also being waged against the European security order. If...

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man at the center of a bitter, months-long political and legal fight after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges, according to an indictment announced Friday. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced his return and the indictment at a press conference at the Department of Justice. "This is what American justice looks like," Bondi said. She thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for agreeing to send Abrego Garcia back In recorded calls, reports of overcrowding and lack of food at ICE detention centers Bondi...

The bromance between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump seems to be over. And now Musk is flirting with the idea of new party that could represent "the 80% in the middle," he posted on X. But who would join Musk-led party? And, can a third party actually succeed? Republicans, Democrats and Independents like Musk as much — or as little — as they like Trump. In April, before the feud between the president and the world’s richest person began, approval ratings for Trump and Musk were very similar, according to multiple polls. For instance, an April poll by the...

***** The Freeper Canteen Music Dedication Presents: Tunes For Our Troops~ Planes, Trains, Boats And Automobiles ~ *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you!Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & Their Families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! Thanks to all the DJs for their time & effort providing entertainment for the...

Ukraine is increasingly worried about securing more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, as stockpiles sent during the Biden administration are drying up and the new administration is resistant to sending more, according to six Ukrainian and Western officials. While Russia bombards Ukraine with drones and cruise missiles, it is the ballistic missiles that are the most feared, and they can be reliably countered only by Patriot missiles. Ballistic missiles travel several miles per second, and they obliterated half of Ukraine’s power capacity in strikes on power plants. Their speed and size, plus the fact that they are difficult to intercept,...

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" would cut taxes by $3.7 trillion while raising deficits by $2.4 trillion over a decade. The CBO makes projections based on information provided by Congress when considering legislation that includes spending and taxes. But is it always right? Not according to Larry Kudlow. During his show on Thursday, Kudlow outlined how the Congressional Budget Office missed projections related to the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, Trump’s signature bill in his first term. "The current cost of the 2017 tax cuts should be zero. Why should they...

Cook County has erased nearly $665 million in medical debt for local residents since launching the effort in 2022, according to new figures released Thursday. County leaders are celebrating the latest milestone of the program, which has so far helped almost 557,000 people have some of their debt abolished. The effort has relieved the most debt for people on Chicago’s South and West sides and in the south and west suburbs.The amount erased ranges from around $600 to $4,000 on average per person depending on where they live.

Musk and Gor disliked each other since before Trump reclaimed power on Jan. 20 — with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO describing Gor as “sleazy” during the transition and questioning his staffing picks. But the world’s richest man had the president’s ear and friendship through last week. Simmering behind the scenes was a grudge nursed by Gor over a March 6 Cabinet meeting, during which Musk “humiliated” him by slamming the pace of staffing the administration, said the sources, each of whom have interacted closely with Gor. “He was bragging to other people that he was going to get one...