Free Republic

America’s sin problem isn’t confined to Las Vegas, according to a new study. While the Nevada gambling and tourist destination remains true to its reputation as “Sin City,” it turns out America has no shortage of cities promoting vice and illicit behavior. A WalletHub study released Nov. 17 collected data from several sources on 182 cities nationwide and assessed 37 vices and criminal activity, ranging from excessive drinking to violent crime and the number of adult entertainment establishments per capita, to determine which cities are the most “sinful” in the nation. The study's title, "Most Sinful Cities in America," isn’t...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) claimed the Trump administration’s first military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean was a “war crime.” Host Dana Bash said, “I want to turn to new questions around the first U.S. military strike in September on a ship that the administration says was carrying drugs. Now, sources tell CNN, after the missile struck the boat, there were survivors and that a second strike was launched to kill anyone who was left. Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending the move, saying it is lawful under both U.S. and...

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) announced the reintroduction of the High-Skilled Immigration Reform for Employment (HIRE) Act, legislation designed to strengthen America’s long-term economic and technological competitiveness. The bill takes a dual-track approach: expanding access to high-skilled talent from around the world while increasing federal investments in American STEM education to grow the domestic workforce. The HIRE Act would double the number of H-1B visas available each year—from 65,000 to 130,000— to ensure U.S. employers, including those in critical and emerging technology sectors, can recruit the specialized talent needed to fill persistent workforce shortages. At the same time,...

MAJOR CHANGES TO MEDI-CAL, CALFRESH AND COVERED CALIFORNIA FOR 2026 Key Changes to Medi-Cal/Partnership/CalFresh: January 1, 2026 begins the “Enrollment Freeze” for new Medi-Cal applicants based on their immigration status (more info below). If you already have Medi-Cal, you can stay covered no matter your immigration status. For these individuals, if they have a lapse of coverage for more than 90 days, they will not be able to have their Medi-Cal reinstated.

Friends, This week’s shooting of two National Guard members by a gunman identified by the authorities as an Afghan national was horrific. But Trump’s response has been disproportionate and bigoted. He vows to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.” He intends to deport legal immigrants born in countries the White House deems “high risk.”

The Panamanian-flagged and Turkish-owned oil tanker, M/T MERSIN, alleged to be affiliated with the Russian Shadow Fleet, is currently sinking off the coast of Dakar, Senegal in Western Africa, after reportedly coming under attack overnight by several uncrewed surface vessels, in possibly the third attack in the last week by Ukrainian Intelligence Services against a tanker linked to Russia.

The Afghan man accused of gunning down two National Guard members blocks from the White House last week had been unraveling for years, unable to hold a job and flipping between long, lightless stretches of isolation and taking sudden weeks-long cross-country drives. His behavior deteriorated so sharply that a community advocate reached out to a refugee organization for help, fearing he was becoming suicidal. Emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal mounting warnings about the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an asylum seeker whose erratic conduct raised alarms long before the attack that jolted the nation's capital on the eve of Thanksgiving....

~How was your Thanksgiving? On a day to give thanks for all the blessings of America, it fell to Gary Beckstrom to announce to the world the death of his twenty-year-old daughter, Sarah. That will taint Thanksgiving every year for the rest of Mr Beckstrom's life - in part because his child's blood is on the hands not just of her killer but of the public policy that enabled the murderer to be on the streets of what passes for the national capital. Thanks, America!Bill Kristol @BillKristol · Follow Almost every Afghan refugee will turn out to be so much...

Life is apparently so disagreeable in Donald Trump’s America that 40 percent of women aged between 15 and 44 want to leave. That is four times higher than the 10 percent who wanted to quit the US in 2014. According to Gallup, which conducted the poll, nearly half the nation’s younger women have “lost faith in America’s institutions.” This disenchantment accelerated after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which enshrined the constitutional right to abortion. Younger American men are bearing up better. Only 19 percent share women’s distaste for the Donald, a 21 percent differential which...

The only reason a person or people would stay in a country they openly despise is because they wish to conquer it. Muslim “migrants” are a rapidly increasing share of the population of most (formerly) Western nations. In America, every state in the union has at least one mosque; most have dozens. There are well over 100 Muslim elected officials, 39 of them in Michigan alone. Recently, in Dearborn, Michigan, nearly everyone in a crowd chanted “Death to America.” In the middle of Dearborn, Michigan an entire crowd chants “Death to America.” Rashida Tlaib, when asked, refused to condemn it.pic.twitter.com/yZ2SgjSD3S...

Recently, during a social gathering, someone who reads my column regularly asked me if I had lost any friends because of my politically conservative leanings. Rather than respond with the usual sanitized comment about the unlikely chance of losing “true” friends simply because of my opinions, I told him that my friends and I never talk politics or religion. In fact, my friends and I have an understanding about controversial subjects. If we’re at a dinner or another social function and someone expresses a political opinion that one of us disagrees with, we might briefly attempt to refute what was...

We hear it everywhere: housing affordability crisis, health care affordability crisis, childcare affordability crisis. The language is so common that we don’t stop to ask what it actually means — or what it conceals.Here’s the problem: “affordability” isn’t a real thing you can fix. It’s a word that makes concrete problems disappear into fog.The Language TrickCompare these two statements: “I can’t pay my rent because my wages haven’t kept up with costs.” “There is an affordability crisis.”The first one is clear. You know what’s happening and why. The second one? All the critical details vanish. Who raised the costs? Why...

The late conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer maintained of the U.S., “Decline is a choice.” This isn’t quite right with regard to Europe, whose great powers were kneecapped by the cataclysms of the early 20th century. France bore the brunt of World War I, suffering 1.4 million dead and 4.3 million wounded and a ruinous economic cost. As for Britain, stretched to the max, it got steadily eclipsed in power and influence by the United States as World War II progressed. The less said about Germany’s role in all this, of course, the better. And then the European colonial empires inevitably...

A NEW poll has put Keir Starmer's Labour Party in fourth place behind Reform, the Greens and Conservatives. The Find Out Now survey carried out this week put Labour on just 15%, a staggering three points behind the Greens as Zack Polanski's party continues to surge in popularity with voters. The poll of 2717 people put Reform UK on 33%, the Greens on 18%, the Conservatives on 16% and the LibDems on 11%. Labour came just 12% ahead of the SNP, who voters can only opt for in Scotland. Translated into seats, it means Reform would win a General Election...

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season proved to be consequential, even though no hurricanes made landfall in the U.S for the first time since 2015. Prior to the start of the season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted above average activity in its initial Atlantic hurricane season outlook, with 13 to 19 named storms, six to 10 hurricanes, and three to five major hurricanes, Category 3 or stronger. This season, the Atlantic basin produced 13 named storms, five of which became hurricanes. This included four major hurricanes with maximum sustained winds reaching 111 mph or greater. Considering that a...

DETROIT — A professor at Ferris State University was arrested in Detroit on Tuesday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, the agency said. Sumith Gunasekera was living in the U.S. illegally, according to ICE. He also was convicted of sex crimes in Canada and Nevada, per a release by the agency. In 1998, Gunasekera was arrested twice over a three day period: first for allegedly uttering death threats on August 28, 1998; then again on August 31 for allegedly inviting a minor to sexual touching. He was convicted of both charges that November and spent 1 month behind...

A wannabe social media influencer went viral this week when he handed out 18-inch machetes and booze to homeless people in Austin and New Orleans in a bizarre stunt he insisted was for their benefit. Keith Castillo — who goes by “povwolfy” — posted a video on Thanksgiving to TikTok and Instagram that garnered more than 14 million views. “Here, want one of these?” Castillo says as he distributed the potentially deadly weapons. “Hell yeah, man,” one man responds as he accepts the free blade. One woman asks for “one more.” A caption reads, “Keeping the homeless in the streets,”...

Confidence in Minnesota's social safety net has been shaken by fraudsters who authorities say have stolen more than $1 billion in public funds from programs meant to feed children, assist the homeless and provide autism therapy. Over the last five years, people mostly within Somali communities have gotten rich by running companies that bill the state for millions of dollars in social services that were never actually rendered, The New York Times reported. Federal prosecutors say of the 86 people that have been charged, 59 have been convicted so far in what they describe as three separate fraud schemes. One...

Whatever happened to Britain, or the UK, or England, or whatever they’re calling it? We can’t even agree on what it’s called. But what happened to England, the England that, if you’re over 50, you grew up learning about, the England that controlled the world, the England that ran the largest empire in human history at the end of the first world war? Britain, which is an island in a pretty inhospitable climate, controlled something like a quarter of the Earth’s surface – and not controlled in the way the United States controls the rest of the world with an...

One day before Americans across the country celebrate Thanksgiving, 22 attorneys general sued the Trump administration over eligibility changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. What You Need To Know On Wednesday, 22 attorneys general sued the Trump administration over eligibility changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP Their complaint alleges the U.S. Department of Agriculture acted unlawfully when it issued guidance prohibiting refugees and asylees with permanent legal status from accessing food benefits Filed in a U.S. District Court in Eugene, Oregon, the lawsuit stems from Oct. 31 USDA guidance that said asylum...