Free Republic

Mexico’s president is threatening to “mobilize” the country against a Republican proposal to tax remittances, which advocates say would choke off cash flow to Mexican drug cartels. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum raged against the proposal in a speech against the law, which imposes a tax on money sent out of the United States by foreign nationals. “If necessary, we’ll mobilize,” Sheinbaum said. “We don’t want taxes on remittances from our fellow countrymen. From the U.S. to Mexico.” President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” includes a 3.5 percent tax on remittances, a policy that experts told The Daily Wire is...

The Tulsa Race Massacre might have happened 104 years ago, but innocent people must still pay, according to Tulsa’s Mayor Monroe Nichols IV, who was just elected in November. “For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city’s history,” Nichols said over the weekend. “The massacre was hidden from history books, only to be followed by the intentional acts of redlining, a highway built to choke off economic vitality, and the perpetual underinvestment of local, state, and federal governments.” “Now,” he says, “it’s time to take the next big steps to restore.” “The private charitable...

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1027 into law on Saturday, a measure that pro-life advocates say strengthens protections for the state’s pro-life abortion ban by reforming the initiative petition process. The bill, which caps the number of signatures that can be collected from each county for state ballot questions, aims to ensure broader representation across Oklahoma’s 77 counties, particularly amplifying rural voices. The legislation amends the requirements for state question petitions, setting a signature cap at 10% of voters in counties with populations over 400,000 and 4% in counties with fewer than 400,000 residents. Proponents argue this change...

A divided Supreme Court rejected a plan on Thursday to allow Oklahoma to use government money to run the nation’s first religious charter school, which would teach a curriculum infused by Catholic doctrine. The court split 4 to 4 over the Oklahoma plan, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, and the decision provided no reasoning. That deadlock means that an earlier ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court will be allowed to stand. The state court blocked a proposal for the Oklahoma school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which was to be operated by the...

Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case. The Supreme Court on Thursday voted 4-4 to block the creation of a taxpayer-funded charter school in Oklahoma. Catholic dioceses had sought to establish St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School as a school that would have been eligible for public funding. Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, according to Reuters. The state Supreme Court in 2023 ruled 6-2 against the school, after state AG Gentner Drummond sued to "prevent the type of state-funded religion that Oklahoma's constitutional framers and the founders of our country sought...

How dare school teachers introduce indisputable information and ask students to draw their own conclusions! How dare public school teachers introduce hard, indisputable facts, and ask students to draw their own conclusions? Don’t they know that public schools are institutions meant to be used for the proliferation of progressivism? The teachers’ unions and leftist activists have worked so hard to eliminate silly and outdated things like arithmetic, civics, and rhetoric, replacing them with curricula like critical race theory, gender studies, and socialism—and now, Oklahoma is undoing the entire structure they’ve spent decades assembling. Under state superintendent Ryan Walters, Oklahoma is...

Authorities released information about the man accused of stabbing an Edmond police officer Thursday during a traffic stop. At 4:30 p.m., an Edmond police officer was conducting a traffic stop near 15th Street and Broadway when a man approached and pepper-sprayed the officer. That led to an altercation, during which police said the officer was stabbed at least twice. Backup officers arrived, deployed their stun guns on the suspect and took him into custody. Edmond police also said a good Samaritan rendered aid to the officer before help could get there. "We saw a cop fall, and then we...

(OPINION) A self-proclaimed prophet, Brandon Dale Biggs, a pastor hailing from Oklahoma, has made headlines with his latest revelation following his prediction of an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. In a series of prophetic visions that he claims began in 2014, Biggs alleges that God unveiled to him a striking image of the next pope standing alongside the Antichrist, a figure often depicted in biblical texts as both charismatic and treacherous, signaling what he interprets as the onset of the apocalyptic end times. With the recent passing of Pope Francis on Easter Monday at the age of 88, Biggs feels...

It was a cold, solemn day on the Texas ranch. A biting, prairie wind was staved off with a thick, fur coat wrapped around an American music icon. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson had said before he died that at his burial he wanted the Rev. Billy Graham to pray and Anita Bryant to sing. Bryant, once Miss Oklahoma and a Miss America second runner-up, was known in 1973 as the vivacious spokeswoman for Florida orange juice and the Sunshine State. She nervously tried to get her voice ready to sing for a worldwide satellite television audience at the president’s...

The Trump administration has restored millions of dollars in federal family planning funds to Oklahoma and Tennessee that Joe Biden took from the two states because they’re pro-life. Trump’s move reverses a Biden-era decision to withhold the money over the states’ refusal to provide abortion referrals. The funds, part of the Title X family planning program, were denied to the two states by the Biden administration after they declined to comply with a 2021 rule requiring providers to offer counseling on abortion because it kills babies. Oklahoma lost $4.5 million, and Tennessee was stripped of $7 million, prompting lawsuits and...

Federal authorities have charged four defendants with operating one of the largest human smuggling rings in the United States. The indictment alleges that the transnational criminal organization smuggled around 20,000 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala to the U.S. via Mexico. The group is accused of holding individuals hostage, threatening violence, and being responsible for a fatal car crash in Oklahoma in 2023, which resulted in seven deaths, including three minors. The ringleader, Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, and his associate, Marsha Char, have been arrested and pleaded not guilty. A trial date is being set. Another defendant, Helmer Obispo-Hernandez, remains a fugitive and...

OKLAHOMA CITY (KSWO) - An Oklahoma bill is being proposed which will allow medications such as Ivermectin to be purchased over the counter in the Sooner State. The Bill is SB426 and is authored by Oklahoma Freedom Caucus Chairman Shane Jett (R-Shawnee). The bill requires pharmacies in the state to make chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin over the counter drugs. Ivermectin became world-wide known seemingly overnight during the COVID pandemic. If a pharmacy or pharmacist does not make those drugs over the counter medicine, then the State Board of Pharmacy is to revoke their license immediately. The bill has yet to...

One of the largest private homes built by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright is on the market in Tulsa, Oklahoma — and it just got a major price cut. Dubbed “Westhope,” the residence is one of just five homes Wright built with unique, geometric blocks stacked in vertical columns. No fewer than 5,200 panes of glass cover almost half of the exterior, and large skylights let in even more Sooner sunshine. It can be yours for $3.5 million — a 56% drop from its initial asking price in 2023, Mansion Global reported. At 10,400 square feet, Westhope is one...

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. — Oklahoma leaders are preparing to help hundreds of people who could lose their jobs at Tinker Air Force Base. Words of major cuts spread last week, and while nobody has been fired as of Tuesday, there are efforts being made in case those layoffs do happen. Tinker Air Force Base employs federal workers, but those at the state level are now chiming into play their part on how to help those who could be impacted. That includes brainstorming ways to help potentially hundreds of employees who could be without a job. "It's really kind of in...

This crash happened today on the Will Rogers Turnpike. Fortunately, there were only minor injuries. But the semi was hauling eggs! Expensive cargo right now. pic.twitter.com/oAvutOI5ZL— OK Highway Patrol/DPS (@OHPDPS) February 18, 2025

There is a private property rights battle brewing in rural parts of southeastern Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma and portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska and five Tribal Nations. The U.S. Department of Energy has plans to establish the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors or NIETCs, in these areas and the corridors span five to 15 miles in width. If approved, in New Mexico about 2 million acres of mostly private property would be transferred to the control of the federal government potentially via eminent domain. In Colorado, farmers, ranchers and rural residents stand to lose control of 325,000 acres in...

The FBI has approved changes to the Quality Assurance Standards (QAS) for Forensic Laboratories to allow DNA evidence profiles generated by Rapid DNA analysis to be searched against the national DNA database (CODIS). On January 27, the QAS documents were posted on the website of the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM), announcing that the new standards will have an effective date of July 1, 2025. At least seven states (Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania) have already taken proactive steps to support criminal investigations by creating non-CODIS statewide programs to allow crime scene evidence...

OKLAHOMA CITY — In his annual State of the State address, Governor Kevin Stitt announced the creation of the Division of Government Efficiency (DOGE-OK). The new division follows President Donald Trump's move to create a federal Department of Government Efficiency and was created by Stitt's Executive Order. The division's goal is to eliminate wasteful government spending, improve efficiency and ensure taxpayer dollars are being used effectively, Stitt said. The division will be within the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES). “Today, I’m launching DOGE-OK to keep the focus on flat budgets and limiting government,” Governor Stitt said. “Our top...

Wagoner County residents will be voting February 11th on a sales tax that would pay off a $13.5 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit involving the jail. That, according to a growing number of concerned residents and business owners, is only one of the more visible symptoms of systemic mismanagement and possible corruption in county government. [Hear the KRMG In Depth Report on a possible conflict of interest in Wagoner County HERE] Recently, business owner Rebecca Olson announced plans to build a new business complex in downtown Wagoner (related story here). As part of that process, she asked the...

On the edge of a thriving downtown dotted with luxury hotels and trendy restaurants is a more than 100-year-old relic of Oklahoma City’s western heritage: One of the world’s largest cattle stockyards. But maybe not for much longer. The Oklahoma National Stockyards — the last big-city stockyard in the U.S. — is for sale. The $27 million price tag includes 100 acres (40 hectares) of prime property along the Oklahoma River in a growing city of roughly 700,000 residents, where a state-of-the-art NBA arena is set to break ground and a developer is pushing plans for the country’s tallest skyscraper....