Free Republic

Internal Homeland Security documents describing specifications for border-crossing scanners, which emit gamma or X-ray radiation to probe vehicles and their occupants, are raising new health and privacy concerns, CNET has learned. Even though a public outcry has prompted Homeland Security to move away from adding X-ray machines to airports--it purchased 300 body scanners last year that used alternative technology instead--it appears to be embracing them at U.S.-Mexico land border crossings as an efficient way to detect drugs, currency, and explosives.

Jailed, in physical pain and feeling utterly defeated, Luis Diaz Inestroza — a Kansas City, Kansas, immigrant who illegally crossed over into the United States 13 years ago from Honduras — has chosen to self-deport. In 2019, during the first term of President Donald Trump, the life of Diaz Inestroza, his 3-year-old stepson, Noah, and his then-pregnant partner, Kenia Mayorga, was featured along with the stories of seven other families in the six-part Netlix docuseries “Living Undocumented,” produced by singer and actress Selena Gomez. Diaz Inestroza and his family would subsequently come to settle in Kansas City, Kansas, where he...

The family and friends of a Birmingham woman are pleading with the community to help them keep her in Alabama after she was detained this week during a traffic stop. “On the morning of Tuesday August 5th, Giovanna [Martinez] was driving to work when a Leeds officer pulled her over for going 1 mile over the speed limit,” reads a GoFundMe set up by her brother Dilan Hernandez to cover Martinez’s legal expenses. “What should have been a regular traffic stop, turned into something much worse as an ICE agent arrived closely thereafter. In less than an hour she was...

Planned Parenthood will close its two clinics in Louisiana on Sept. 30 as the organization faces funding challenges under President Trump’s tax and spending package. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast President Melaney Linton said in a statement the Louisiana closures are a “direct result of relentless political assaults.” “This is not a decision we wanted to make; it is one we were forced into by political warfare. Anti-reproductive health lawmakers obsessed with power and control have spent decades fighting the concept that people deserve to control their own bodies,” she wrote. She added that “extremists” lawmakers have done everything in their...

Stanford University is laying off more than 300 workers, according to a California Employment Development Department filing documents. In a Thursday update on the university’s financial issues, Stanford said the layoffs were in response to new Trump administration rules affecting Stanford's budget. Stanford University cited “ongoing economic uncertainty,” looming federal cuts and rising operational costs as the reasons for the staffing cuts. The university’s endowment tax was bumped up from 1.4% to 8% after President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law. In an email to the Stanford Daily, Luisa Rapport, a university spokesperson, said an increase...

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will be laying off its staff and shutting down. CPB is the organization that provides funding to PBS and NPR and now that funding is gone.For nearly 60 years, CPB has carried out its Congressional mission to build and sustain a trusted public media system that informs, educates, and serves communities across the country. Through partnerships with local stations and producers, CPB has supported educational content, locally relevant journalism, emergency communications, cultural programming, and essential services for Americans in every community.“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called,...

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, says it will close down after federal cuts.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said Friday it would begin winding down its operations after its funding was eliminated by the Trump administration and Congress. The CPB is a private nonprofit that serves as a steward of funding for public media. It provides funds to public radio and television stations, including PBS and NPR. It employs about 100 people. Both PBS and NPR, the most high-profile public media organizations, have long been the target of Republican criticism and have been preparing for the possibility of cuts since President Trump's reelection. The broadcasters receive roughly half-a-billion dollars in public funding through...

When Elon Musk sued Media Matters in 2023, the law firm of Democratic super-lawyer Marc Elias swooped in to represent the liberal media group. It made little headway against the lawsuit before submitting millions of dollars in legal bills, prompting Media Matters officials to lash out at the firm as they faced financial ruin, according to a new report. According to the New York Times, Elias Law Group originally represented Media Matters against Musk’s lawsuit, which accused the group of manipulating X posts to falsely link the social media platform to white nationalists and anti-Semites, part of what Musk alleged...

Wells, like many U.S. tourist spots that rely on foreign labor, is fearful of immigration raids. The local police department’s agreement to collaborate with federal agents only adds to the anxiety.“No ICE in our community,” read a cardboard sign held by a resident, Daria Cullen. “Fight ignorance, not immigrants,” read another. Many drivers honked and waved approvingly. A smaller number of drivers seemed to feel otherwise, flipping the finger at the protesters.

Fear induced by ongoing ICE raids has led some California workers to not show up, forcing those who do to work harder under worsening heat conditions. Meanwhile, many families have been driven into hiding indoors, forgoing simple activities that would have allowed them to stay cool. Summer is only just beginning, and organizers believe the situation will only worsen as temperatures continue to rise. For the last 16 years, Isabel has worked harvesting carrots, lemons and grapes in the Coachella Valley. The undocumented mother of three — who, like others The Times spoke with, declined to give her last name...

Former DNI James Clapper Says He Has Concerns That He'll Be Prosecuted for His Role in the Russia Collusion Hoax

The National Park Service has taken down an exhibit at Muir Woods National Monument that aimed to tell a more complete history of the site, SFGATE has learned from a former park ranger who helped to develop the exhibit. It’s the first confirmed removal of what the Donald Trump administration has referred to as “improper ideology” under a directive from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued earlier this year.

NPR's top editor has tendered her resignation days after the radio station lost $500million in federal funding for an alleged bias against conservatives. Edith Chapin, who serves as editor-in-chief and acting chief content officer at National Public Radio, announced her departure on Tuesday. Chapin told an NPR reporter she quit rather than being fired and that she was not leaving due to the funding cuts. She also said she handed in her notice two weeks ago ahead of the cuts, which Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail. NPR has long been blasted by conservatives, former listeners, and even former...

Comedian Jon Stewart tore into CBS on Monday for canceling “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert, which the network described as a “financial” decision. Stewart, during the latest episode of “The Daily Show,” defended his friend and raised the possibility that the move could be an effort to appease President Trump, who has railed against Colbert at times on social media. “Watching Stephen exceed all expectations in the role and become the number one late-night show on television has been an undeniable great pleasure for me as a viewer and as his friend, and now Stephen has been canceled for...

former President Barack Obama judge has reportedly been assigned to President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in the Southern District of Florida was nominated by Obama in February 2014, and became the first openly gay Black federal judge. Gayles was also assigned a Trump $500 million lawsuit against embattled former attorney Michael Cohen in 2023, but Trump was forced to temporarily pause that case due to court-date conflicts in the Democrat prosecutor-led cases he faced before the 2024 presidential election. Gayles has filed dissent against voter...

Ken Burns has made more than 30 documentaries and won multiple Emmys.But without funding from public television, his educational programming such as "The Civil War" and "Baseball" might never have existed, he told "PBS News Hour" in an interview Thursday.Even today, the acclaimed filmmaker whose works — including his upcoming project "The American Revolution" — are broadcast on PBS, said his films get around 20% of their budgets from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the body Congress recently voted to defund.

The news of “The Late Show’s” cancellation by CBS doesn’t just end a franchise that had, to this point, lasted more than 30 years. It looks like the beginning of the end of an entire category of television. With one network now opting out of late-night talk entirely, how long will it be before the genre just goes away? CBS announced the cancellation nearly a full year before it is to take effect, making current host Stephen Colbert a lame duck of sorts; he will continue hosting the show through May 2026, at which point it will simply disappear. Observers...

---snip--- A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the Internal Revenue Service, along with Enforcement and Removal Operations Officers, “conducted a federal court-authorized search” of the store. The spokesperson said agents took 14 people without legal status into ICE custody pending removal proceedings. Denisse Agurto, executive director of Unides Para Servir Norristown, said 17 people were detained in the raid, and as many as 23 were taken into custody.

Nashville Police said a noose was found at the construction site of the Tennessee Titans' new stadium, according to ESPN. The stadium is scheduled to open for the 2027 season, but work has reportedly been halted for an investigation. "This week, a racist and hateful symbol was discovered on our site. There is no place for hate or racism in our workplace," the Tennessee Builders Alliance, which is leading the construction, said in a statement. "We reported the incident to law enforcement, suspended work and launched an investigation."