Free Republic

'It can fairly be said that the only difference between the FBI and Russian KGB is that the KGB never claimed to be a legitimate law enforcement agency...' Last month, the Justice Department asked a judge to pause a lawsuit seeking records about the FBI’s involvement with the Oklahoma City bombing. But in doing so, the DOJ and the FBI made statements so misleading they merit sanctions, according to the plaintiff in that case, Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue. The deception spotted by Trentadue stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit he filed against the FBI in February, seeking records...

Patriots in Oklahoma are engaged in an epic struggle for their independence, facing off against a modern empire and its mercenaries — a struggle with striking similarities to the American War of Independence. Today, the empire is BlackRock. This gargantuan corporation’s tentacles spread across the word, with 89 offices in 38 countries including the United States, Japan, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and South Africa. BlackRock is no ordinary corporation. It produces nothing useful. Instead, the firm gets rich by managing other people’s money — lots of it. BlackRock now has effective control of $10.5 trillion worth of other people’s...

Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is defending his decision to issue a directive that calls for the inclusion of the Bible in public school classrooms. Recently, Walters garnered national attention when he announced that he was changing public school social studies standards to make the Bible more of a focal point in the curriculum. In an interview with The Christian Post on Thursday, Walters defended his directive, explaining that “it is of the utmost importance that our kids get a full understanding of American history.” “Obviously, that includes the most read book in American history, the most purchased...

A World War I veteran is the first person identified from graves filled with more than a hundred victims of the 1921 Tulsa massacre of the city’s Black community, the mayor said Friday. Attorneys for the two, Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, are asking the court to reconsider the decision. Attorneys are also asking the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, which allows for the reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970.

The ruling requires the administration to keep processing new applications to export LNG as the Texas-led lawsuit proceeds. Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a temporary injunction in his lawsuit against the Biden administration over their decision to halt liquefied natural gas exports. Joined by 15 other state attorneys general, Paxton secured the win Monday after a federal district court judge in Western Louisiana ruled that the new administrative plan should be paused as the case proceeds. “This ruling means [President Joe] Biden’s illegal ban does not prevent Texas natural gas from reaching market while the lawsuit continues,” stated Paxton in...

Oklahoma schools will be required to teach the Bible and the Ten Commandments to all grade school children. Effective immediately, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters sent a memo to schools saying that grades five through 12 are required to refer to the Bible and the Ten Commandments for their “substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution.” Walters said the new curriculum is to ensure that “historical understanding is there for every student in the state of Oklahoma.” “It’s crystal clear to us that in the Oklahoma academic standards under Title 70 on multiple...

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, states have been allowed to pass their own abortion laws. As certain states began to pass stronger protections for preborn human beings, other states began to eliminate protections — and ‘abortion travel’ became a hot-button issue. Some companies began funding abortion travel as a “benefit” to employees, and abortion funds began to pay for airfare, hotels, and the like in order to assist women living in pro-life states to obtain abortions in states where abortion was more available. Since that time, the Guttmacher Institute...

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled against publicly funding the first-ever religious charter school in the United States, concluding that the measure would be unconstitutional.The state’s highest court ruled 7-1 Tuesday in the case of Drummond v. Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board that it was unlawful to publicly fund St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.“The framers' intent is clear: the state is prohibited from using public money for the ‘use, benefit or support of a sect or system of religion,’” stated the high court opinion. “The St. Isidore Contract violates the plain terms of Article 2, Section 5...

A woman has admitted that her husband was stealing from a truck in the middle of the night last week — but she's questioning why the owner fatally shot him. Police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are investigating what went down around 2:15 a.m. Wednesday in the area of the 9200 block of East 90th Street, the Broken Arrow Sentinel reported. A report from KOTV-DT indicates the fatal shooting happened near 91st and Mingo. [snip] Lawson added to the station that "Blane was trying to get into the car, and that's when I saw the shot go off, and I saw the...

It is fair to say Oklahoma pickleball referee Ron Ponder has changed his opinion of Rodney 'Rocket' Grubbs quite dramatically in recent years. When the pair first met at a tournament in Italy in 2018, Grubbs was a 'really nice guy' and 'very outgoing'. Now, Ponder describes his erstwhile friend as an 'a**hole' and a 'psychopath'. He is not the only one. Grubbs, of Brookville, Indiana, allegedly ensnared hundreds of people and many of his close friends in an $47.5million fraud in which he lured investors into pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into his pickleball business. The man once...

A Boeing 737 aircraft suddenly plummeted to less than 500 feet of the ground over Oklahoma, terrifying residents who feared the jet was going to crash. Southwest Airlines Flight 4069 was still nine miles away from Will Rogers World Airport just after midnight on Wednesday, when records show it dived to between 400 and 500 feet as it flew over a high school in the City of Yukon. Doorbell camera footage showed the Boeing 737 MAX-8 then hovering above houses, before it flies out of frame. A resident was startled awake by the plane's engine and wondered if the aircraft...

Uniparty Republicans and teachers’ unions in Oklahoma recently concocted a new plan to sabotage the fight for educational freedom — silencing the state’s Department of Education. But their efforts failed. Make no mistake, their efforts weren’t about silencing me — they were about silencing parents in the fight for school choice in the Sooner State. I wish I were exaggerating, but I’m not. RINO Republicans in the Oklahoma legislature recently cut a deal with the union to silence my department. The language in the budget bill said the "Department of Education shall not be encumbered or expanded for the purpose...

OHP officials said investigators believe he jumped into the water to retrieve a hat without a life jacket. NORMAN, Okla. — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol dive team recovered a body on Monday after receiving a report that a man possibly drowned over the weekend at Lake Thunderbird. OHP officials told KOCO 5 that they were advised around 6 p.m. on Sunday that a 28-year-old man had jumped off a boat to retrieve a hat near Hog Creek Marina. Witnesses reported seeing the man struggle and that he never resurfaced.

The Libertarian Party of Florida’s Executive Committee approved a motion over the weekend calling for the Libertarian National Committee to investigate allegations concerning the validity of votes cast for the presidential ticket during the party’s recent national convention. The resolution, first shared via X on Sunday, urges the LNC to investigate claims that the presidential and vice-presidential nominations at the party’s recent national convention may have been compromised by ineligible votes. While the party states that it remains committed to supporting its 2024 presidential ticket and will place it on the ballot, the resolution highlights concerns about potential legal and...

Former President Donald Trump is putting American workers first— unlike the incumbent leader in the White House now. Trump discussed the proposal of eliminating taxes on servers' tips in his pitch for a new policy position that could inch him closer to victory in November. The former president introduced the idea during a rally in Nevada over the weekend where many Americans work at hotels, restaurants, and in the entertainment business and rely on tips to make ends meet. “This is the first time I've said this and for those hotel workers and people that get tips, you're going to...

A newly approved law will enable Oklahoma public school students to receive off-campus religious instruction during the school day if they choose to. Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 1425 into law Wednesday. The bill was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature last month, with the Senate voting 38-7 and the House of Representatives voting 51-40.The law authorizes school districts’ boards of education to “adopt a policy that excuses a student from school to attend a released time course for no more than three class periods per week or a maximum of one hundred twenty-five class periods per year.”The...

When accepting the Heritage Foundation’s 2024 Salvatori Prize on May 22, Chris Rufo remarked that state legislatures in red states such as Oklahoma need to start exercising oversight of their public universities. He’s right. “There is an endemic rot of indoctrination, politicization, and intellectual intimidation,” Joel Gardner observed on this website in 2020, “that is eviscerating the historical purpose and nature of our institutions of higher learning.” This remains true today and not just in elite institutions. The rot is widespread even in public universities in Oklahoma, one of the reddest states in the nation. Fortunately, with Republicans in possession...

You could be forgiven for remaining skeptical about whether it will ever be built, but the audacious bid to build the USA's new tallest skyscraper in Oklahoma City reached a major milestone this week. Local officials have now finally met and given it their approval. Legends Tower was originally conceived as a proposal for the USA's second-tallest skyscraper. Following a positive reception, its designers and developers updated their plans to make it the overall tallest skyscraper in the country. Assuming all goes to plan, the development will be located onthe site of a parking lot near a railroad track and...

Well, this is what happens when, as a Republican, you protect one of Congress' most notorious Democratic liars while voting against conservative interests in important spots: You get primaried -- and by someone with money to spend. Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, is facing several primary challengers -- but one sticks out, according to the Oklahoma Voice: Paul L. Bondar, which the outlet called "a newcomer with deep pockets who recently moved into the state."

he U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday sued the state of Oklahoma to stop implementation of a new law targeting undocumented residents. The suit in the Western District of Oklahoma follows a DOJ warning last week that it considered the law unconstitutional and a violation of federal law. Tuesday's filing restates that claim and asks for injunctive relief and for House Bill 4156, the legislation creating the law, to be overturned. “Oklahoma cannot disregard the U.S. Constitution and settled Supreme Court precedent,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, in a...