Free Republic

A surgeon who has practiced in Manhattan for nearly three decades may be extradited to his native Japan to face charges of damaging two ancient religious sites, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The ruling means that the extradition of the doctor, Masahide Kanayama, will most likely be carried out. The U.S. State Department, which has the final say on extraditions, said last month that it would authorize the step. The Justice Department has said that it would delay any removal until the doctor’s legal appeals were complete. Dr. Kanayama, 63, is an expert in endometriosis, a gynecologic condition...

Lacey police have arrested a suspect in connection with the double murder and drive-by shooting that claimed the lives of two teenagers last week. Trequanne Trenelle Wilson-Mason, a 20-year-old from Lacey, was arrested in relation to the Nov. 14 deaths of 16-year-old Alexander Borgen and 17-year-old Deven Borgen. According to court records, the fatal shooting may have been a case of mistaken identity. "My son Deven had all A’s in school, he went to church," Christina Borgen, the boys' mother said in court Wednesday. "My son Alex had changed his life, had all A’s, was doing good." "A good kid,...

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. (KOKH) — Stephanie Dilyard, a former 7-Eleven clerk, faced a terrifying ordeal when a man attempted to strangle her after she refused to accept a counterfeit $100 bill for purchases. The incident occurred just before midnight on Thursday. Dilyard recounted, "He threatened me, and said he was gonna slice my head off, and that's when I tried to call the police. He started throwing things at me, came behind the counter. I tried to run off, but he grabbed his hands around my neck, and pushed me out of the counter space, and that's when I pulled...

President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will have a meeting at the White House on Friday, the president said Wednesday in a post on Truth Social. Mr. Trump said the meeting will take place at the Oval Office, with "further details to follow." Mamdani's team confirmed the meeting. "As is customary for an incoming mayoral administration, the Mayor-elect plans to meet with the President in Washington to discuss public safety, economic security and the affordability agenda that over one million New Yorkers voted for just two weeks ago," a spokesperson for Mamdani said in a statement. The...

Attorney General Pam Bondi said, "We have released over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill, and we will continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency." She spoke at an unrelated news conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The bill includes several exceptions to a full release that could complicate or delay disclosure. The measure says the Justice Department has up to 30 days from its signing to make "publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of...

A drastic new message adorns the walls of the Iranian capital, usually reserved for war heroes and weapons. “There is a water shortage!” reads the government poster's slogan, inside a water container that is nearly empty. “It’s fall and there is still no rain.” That’s not news to Erfan Ensani, 39, who returned home from a long day working in the textile section of the city’s central bazaar last week to find his taps running dry. Iran is facing its worst water crisis in decades. With no end in sight and authorities warning they may even have to evacuate the...

President Donald Trump signed the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” into law on Wednesday, ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to make all related unclassified Department of Justice (DOJ) records public. The process picked up steam after 218 members of Congress signed onto a discharge petition Nov. 12, allowing the bill to release files connected to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to move to the House floor. After months of insisting the push to release the Epstein files was a Democrat hoax, Trump reversed course Sunday in a TruthSocial post calling on House Republicans to vote in favor of the...

President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law, officially directing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all unclassified records and documents connected to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move marks a stunning reversal for the president, who until days ago was adamantly against releasing the files. Trump called on House Republicans to pass the bill on Sunday evening in a Truth Social post, saying it was time to move on from the controversy. House Republicans, in turn, fell in line, voting with House Democrats to pass the legislation 427 to 1 on Tuesday. Rep. Clay...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ K-Pow!” Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Aircraft Handling) 1st Class Paul Salame, from Detroit, assigned to amphibious assault carrier USS Tripoli (LHA 7) applies a mechanical advantage control hold during a non-lethal weapons certification. Tripoli is an America-class amphibious assault carrier homeported in San Diego. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Maci Sternod) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Wow! Beautiful! U.S. Air Force Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, stack...

The Biden Federal Bureau of Investigation did the unthinkable as every agency and Congress were investigating the circumstances that led to the assassination attempt of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July. Actually, no—it’s totally on par with how this agency acted under the half-dead former president. They straight-up withheld evidence from Congress about the would-be assassin Thomas Crooks. It’s another chapter in this shambolic investigation, where Crooks’ body was cremated rather quickly and the roof scrubbed clean before any significant forensic analysis could be done. It’s why Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) wants a new probe into the incident (via...

Lawrence Reed, 50, was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist attack or other violence on a mass transportation system — a federal offense rather than a state offense. Andrew Boutros, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said the 26-year-old victim was minding her own business and reading her phone on an O'Hare-bound Blue Line train around 9 p.m. Monday when Reed came up and set her on fire with no provocation whatsoever. "The surveillance video is difficult to watch, and very disturbing, as a young woman was set ablaze, and tried to put herself out,...

Dana Williamson, who served as California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff from January 2023 to December 2024, faces a slew of federal charges for fraud, corruption, and obstruction, but none of those charges implicate her for wrongdoing in her capacity as Newsom’s aide. Instead, the charges allege that she stole and deceived outside of her official duties.That prospect is threatening to rope Newsom’s entire administration into the scandal.However, speculation is growing that Williamson also acted improperly in office — meaning that wrongdoing was taking place in the governor’s office under Newsom’s watch. That prospect is threatening to rope Newsom’s...

The Globe is willing to bet that the project will balloon to $4 to $5 billion… place your bets! By Katy Grimes, November 18, 2025 2:55 am In September 2020, while California was still suffering under Governor Gavin Newsom’s oppressive COVID restrictions, lockdowns of healthy Californians, and business and school closures, the Joint Legislative Committee on Rules held a hearing on the plans for the $543.2 million renovation of the State Capitol while ignoring actual state business urgencies. Notably, the project has ballooned to $1.5 billion – that we know of. The Globe is willing to bet that the project...

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) was hit with a federal indictment Wednesday, accusing her of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to support her 2021 congressional campaign. Cherfilus-McCormick, who has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee since December 2023, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami and faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted. Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain....

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge issued an unusual dissenting opinion on Wednesday lambasting an earlier ruling that blocked Texas Republicans from using a new congressional map, saying he had been cut out of the decision-making process by two other judges on a three-judge panel.U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith said in his dissent that he was outraged by Tuesday's decision, which was a major blow for Republicans, in Texas and nationally, who redrew the state's electoral districts at the behest of President Donald Trump.Smith, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, was one of three federal judges who...

A lower court order on Texas’ new congressional map has made its way to the high court. It could be the first of several mid-decade redistricting pushes. Texas’ emergency appeal is sure to challenge that conclusion. Indeed, Abbott already declared Tuesday that the redistricting effort had nothing to do with race. But another consideration could be even more consequential for the justices: whether they conclude that the lower court’s action contravenes a longstanding principle that federal courts shouldn’t disturb election rules as the process gets underway.A test for the Purcell PrincipleBrown’s ruling contains a long section addressing the so-called...

Although the legal and clinical definitions may differ, popular conception defines “insanity” as repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. By that definition, leftist voters in New York City, California, and elsewhere recertified themselves as insane last week. Year after year, election after election, voters in “blue” cities and states follow the same recipe that has brought self-imposed economic and demographic decay for decades: bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation, unsustainable benefits, and sprawling public-sector obligations. They keep repeating their behavior, even as jobs evaporate, families leave, and businesses take investment elsewhere. Decades of left-leaning politicians and public policies...

Fox News national correspondent Alexis McAdams reports on the Butler shooting case as former Deputy Asst. Attorney General John Yoo reacts to a new report on Thomas Crooks’ online activity. (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) New details emerging about the man who attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The White House says Americans need to know what happened, and so does the president. There are so many questions out there. And I mean, you know, did he act alone, et cetera? And it's, you know, it's over a year, it's 16 months now....

In the pitch-black, storm-lashed hours before dawn on Independence Day, surging floodwaters ravaged Hunt and Kerr County in central Texas, including the summer camp filled with sleeping children. The catastrophic flooding killed 27 girls and counselors at Camp Mystic. The court filings accuse the camp of failing to move cabins out of flood-prone areas, responding poorly to the emergency, and putting profits ahead of the safety of the girls in their care.. Most of the cabins had been located in FEMA’s 100-year “Special Flood Hazard Area” up until 2013. That’s when the camp petitioned FEMA to remove most of the...

Germany should take over the historically American role of Nato Europe commander, Donald Trump’s envoy to the Western alliance has suggested. Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to Nato, said he hoped Germany would one day volunteer for the prestigious role of Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He told the Berlin Security Conference: “I look forward to the day when Germany comes to the United States and says that we’re ready to take over the Supreme Allied Commander position. I think we’re a long way away from that, but I look forward to those discussions.” Since Nato was founded in 1949, the...