Free Republic

A Republican election official from North Carolina is accused of spiking his granddaughters’ ice cream with pills, according to officials. Sixty-six-year-old James Edwin Yokeley Jr. has been charged with contaminating food or drink with a controlled substance and felony child abuse, according to a recent press release from the Wilmington Police Department. On August 8, Yokeley Jr. informed a police officer he flagged down at a Sheetz gas station that his two granddaughters found hard objects in ice cream they’d purchased from Dairy Queen, the release stated. Medical personnel checked the two girls and determined they had not ingested any...

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina has denounced what it calls a dangerous expansion of federal power under the Trump administration, warning that recent policing actions by the government undermine constitutional rights and “erode the foundations” of a free society. In a statement published August 19, LPNC Chair Ryan Brown said that recent domestic-policing measures by the administration reflect a “blatant disregard for the rights of American citizens.” He pointed specifically to the deployment of military personnel in California and Washington, D.C., calling them violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law limiting the use of armed forces in...

A North Carolina woman is being celebrated after a video clip of her physically detaining a suspected pickpocket in Venice went viral on social media. In the video, Christina Cadieu Greene can be seen holding onto a teenager’s ponytail and refusing to let go for just under an hour until law enforcement arrived. Greene’s daughter Karis McElroy shared the video and later posted a longer explanation on TikTok. She said that Greene and her husband were walking in a crowded area when they noticed three girls getting close to them. When the couple arrived at their Airbnb, they realized Greene’s...

A 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who recently fled her war-torn home for a safer life in the US was knifed to death by a homeless career criminal at a North Carolina train station last week, according to family members and authorities.

A young Ukrainian woman who fled to the United States seeking a better life has been identified as the victim of a merciless stabbing on Friday night. Iryna Zarutska, 23, was found dead at 9.55pm on Friday at South End light rail station in Charlotte, North Carolina. The woman had only recently moved to the US from Ukraine in an effort to escape the ongoing war with Russia. PICTURED: Career criminal arrested for brutal murder of Ukrainian woman, 23, who fled war for new life in America By BRITTANY CHAIN, US SENIOR REPORTER Published: 21:38 EDT, 25 August 2025 |...

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami came to New York City on Nov. 8 to attend a U.N. summit as U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies explored new information tying his regime's intelligence services to Sept. 11 and to previous anti-American terrorist attacks, Insight has learned.The information is coming from a variety of sources and shows a clear pattern of operational contacts between the Iranian government and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization. These contacts include joint planning of terrorist operations, military training of bin Laden operatives inside Iran and by Iranian personnel in Syria and Lebanon, financial assistance to clandestine terrorist and surveillance ...

A 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who recently fled her war-torn home for a safer life in the US was knifed to death by a homeless career criminal at a North Carolina train station last week, according to family members and authorities. Iryna Zarutska suffered multiple stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the East/West Boulevard light rail station in South End, Charlotte just before 10 p.m. Friday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said Saturday. Zarutska had “recently arrived in the United States, seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning,” according to a GoFundMe page set up to fundraise...

Researchers believe they may have finally solved the mystery behind the disappearance of the infamous Lost Colony of the 16th century following a new discovery.The so-called Lost Colony refers to 118 English settlers who vanished from Roanoke Island in North Carolina sometime after they set up in 1587.>>>For centuries historians have speculated on whether the group evert made it to Croatoan as they seemed to suggest. Now, researchers believe they did actually migrate there and assimilated with the Native Americans after finding iron filings known as hammerscale in a trash heap on Hatteras Island, Fox News Digital reports.Hammerscale are flaky...

FAIRVIEW, N.C. — Jamie Ager has spent much of the past year rebuilding his farm in the foothills of western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene tore through the region, cutting power, destroying fences and scattering livestock. Then, earlier this year, Ager lost his beef contract with local schools, a casualty of billions of dollars in cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Trump administration. Now, the fifth-generation farmer is running for Congress — part of a new crop of Democratic candidates the party is turning to as it tries to compete in the tough, often rural districts it...

The mother of North Carolina teen Giovanni Pelletier has revealed who found his body after he went missing, and asked the internet to “stop spreading lies.” Who found Giovanni Pelletier's body? Teen's mom shares update (Charlotte County Sheriff's Office/Facebook) ============================================================== The mother of North Carolina teen Giovanni Pelletier, who was recently found dead after going missing, has stressed that his family found his body, not the police. On Saturday, August 9, a decomposing body was found near the area where Pelletier was last seen. His family later confirmed to ABC 11 and on social media that the body indeed belonged...

Academia’s self-image is crumbling. Beneath the slogans lies a fragile empire that can’t survive the sunlight of basic public scrutiny. It’s good to be back in the Advocate — the self-described “world’s leading source of LGBTQ+ news and information.” The last time it covered me, it involved a spat with a group of criminal, gay furry hackers. It never published the follow-up when one of those hackers was arrested, just as I promised. This time, I’ve committed an even greater sin in the Advocate's eyes: I asked a woke, gay professor at a public university to share his syllabus. That...

Democrats have promoted Roy Cooper as a model of controversy-free leadership, but scrutiny of his past is raising new questions about his moral judgment. ... The former North Carolina governor running for Senate had a 'secret' divorce and began dating his second wife while she was still married.. Roy Cooper, 68, is at the top of Democrat politics, and was even tipped to replace Joe Biden as a presidential candidate last year and was on the shortlist to be Kamala Harris's 2024 running mate. But despite his decades-long prominent standing in the party, Cooper has kept his divorce, and the...

The first Emerson College Polling survey of the 2026 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina finds former Governor Roy Cooper starting the race with a six-point edge on Republican National Committee Chair, Michael Whatley, 47% to 41%, with 12% undecided.

Roy Cooper broke fundraising records in his first 24 hours as a Senate candidate — a massive cash boost the former North Carolina governor will need for what’s expected to become one of the most expensive statewide campaigns in U.S. history. National and North Carolina strategists from both parties said the race — likely between Cooper and Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley, who has President Donald Trump’s endorsement — could be one of the costliest Senate races in the 2026 midterms, topping out at $650 to $800 million, according to private estimates described by both parties. That would crack...

Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is planning to launch a run for Senate, according to two sources familiar with his plans, handing Democrats a top candidate in a state that will be central to the fight for the majority. Axios, which broke the news of Cooper's expected bid, reported that he is expected to enter the race next week, according to multiple sources. Morgan Jackson, Cooper’s top political advisor, would not confirm Cooper's plans but said that the former governor would share more about his plans in the coming days. Cooper is also listed as a speaker at the...

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina House voted 72–48 on Tuesday to override Governor Josh Stein’s veto of House Bill 318, officially enacting the Criminal Illegal Alien Enforcement Act. The controversial legislation mandates that sheriffs notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within two hours when releasing an inmate subject to an immigration detainer and requires a 48-hour hold for federal pickup. They also considered several other bills. Republicans enacted a total of eight bills that Stein had vetoed. With each of those bills passed, support was secured from at least one Democrat in the House to meet the required...

Republican senators were appalled by President Trump’s rough treatment of 91-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the Senate’s most senior Republican, on social media and are pushing back on Trump’s attempts to squeeze the senator into abolishing an arcane procedure known as the Senate blue slip. GOP senators were not pleased that Trump piled so much pressure on Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to get rid of a long-established Senate tradition. Trump piled on by reposting on Truth Social posts accusing Grassley of being a “RINO” and “sneaky” and standing in the way of Trump’s agenda. Sen. Thom...

The North Carolina state legislature overrode the Democrat governor’s veto of HB805, which seeks to “prevent the sexual exploitation of women and minors,” on Tuesday, passing it into law. Both the state House and the state Senate voted to override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of the a Republican sponsored legislation that would officially “recognize two sexes in all administrative rules, regulations, or public policies adopted” by the state, prohibit state funding from going toward trans procedures, and require schools to “adopt policies” enabling parents and students to opt out of curriculum on religious grounds. According to the North Carolina Family...

Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) Senate campaign announced it raised more than $3.4 million in the 24 hours since launching Monday. Cooper’s campaign said it raised $2.6 million for his Senate campaign plus an additional $900,000 for the Democratic Party. Ninety-five percent of the individual donations that came into the campaign in the first 24 hours were $100 or less, according to the campaign. The former governor’s campaign called the haul “a testament” to Cooper’s “strong and deep support across North Carolina.” “I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I want to...

Former two-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is running for the Senate in battleground North Carolina. Cooper announced his candidacy on Monday morning in the open-seat race to succeed Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced late last month that he wouldn’t run for re-election in the 2026 midterm elections. "I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina," Cooper said in a social media post. Cooper's campaign launch is seen as a major coup for the Democratic Party, as he was the party's top recruit...