Free Republic

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) used an executive order Tuesday morning to create a state-level violence prevention office, dedicated to fighting gun crime. KSTP reported that Evers did this in response to the December 16, 2024, shooting at Madison’s Abundant Life Christian School, which left two innocents dead. The suspect in the shooting was a 15-year-old student, and police have not revealed how the student acquired the guns. Evers used a X post to push for more gun control after signing the executive order. The post said: And with 60% of suicides and 78% of domestic violence homicides involving a...

Israel has expanded the evacuation orders in southern Gaza, forcing residents to leave their residences amid the ongoing displacement crisis caused by the war with Hamas. Israel’s military said on Sunday that it was widening the humanitarian zone in response to Hamas’s “exploitation” of the zone “for terrorist acts and the continuous firing of rockets towards the State of Israel,” according to a post on the social platform X. Israel released leaflets to areas of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, and made phone calls to residents warning them to flee, saying, “remaining in this block has become dangerous.” “We inform...

A former Minnesota bar owner who now commutes two hours a day to sling suds in neighboring Wisconsin said Gov. Tim Walz’s restrictive pandemic-era lockdowns in the state “decimated” local businesses — and caused financial ruin for those who stood up for their livelihoods. “I think he’s an evil man who overstepped his role as the governor. He took small businesses and ripped them up. He destroyed us,” Lisa Zarza. ... She said when shelter-in-place and business closures first went into effect in March, 2020, “I did everything I was supposed to do. I wore my mask, I social distanced....

President Biden on Tuesday blamed former President Trump and Republicans for leaving him with no choice but to act on curbing the influx of migrants at the U.S.-southern border. The president, in remarks from the White House, said he is “moving past Republican obstruction” to act on his own and announce the order, which will be in effect when the seven-day average of daily border crossings exceeds 2,500 between ports of entry. “Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that’s...

Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said Wednesday that the gag order recently imposed on former President Trump in his New York hush money trial is “so unusual.” “I think what the viewers have to understand is, this is so unusual,” Akerman told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield in an interview. “This never happens, in over 50 years of law practice, both as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer. Akerman emphasized the unprecedented nature of how Trump’s case has unfolded, and that his attacks on Judge Juan Merchan could get the former president in “harm’s way.” Not only is the gag order itself unusual,...

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said Wednesday on “Deadline” that if former President Donald Trump is elected president again, the United States would become a threat to the world order. Wallace said, “One of my favorite conversations you had last night we were talking about sort of the things that were still in the DNA of the two parties, that the Republicans fall in line and the Democrats sort of wait to fall I think they largely love Joe Biden and what he’s done, but they want to be more madly in love with someone or something. It was on display...

Former President Trump and his legal team won’t be barred from publicly discussing the case in which he was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. After much speculation about whether a gag order would be imposed on parties in the case, one was not requested during the Tuesday arraignment — and the judge presiding over the case said he wouldn’t have granted one if it had. Legal observers had wondered ahead of the high-profile trial whether Judge Juan Merchan would impose the uncommon order, which would have blocked Trump and his team from talking publicly about the...

The Department of Defense (DOD) is mulling moving forward with discharges for some servicemembers who did not seek exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to a Feb. 24 letter from the Office of the Secretary of Defense viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. As of Friday, the services have rescinded their vaccination orders as required by Congress. “It’s very important that our service members go and follow orders when they are lawful,” Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gilbert Cisneros told Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana Tuesday. The military is considering discharging servicemembers who did...

Two Sydneysiders challenged fines for Covid Public Health Order breaches. Case was run by Redfern Legal Centre in New South Wales Supreme Court. Hearing did not go ahead when the government conceded fines were invalid. Commissioner of Fines Administration then withdrew 33,121 penalty notices . Thousands more such fines across NSW could now be found to be invalid. ... More than 33,000 people who were fined for Covid breaches will get refunds after two Sydneysiders won a landmark test case and the NSW government admitted the fines were invalid. NSW Revenue's Commissioner of Fines Administration Scott Johnson said on Tuesday...

He found the beef. A Wendy’s customer who flew into a rage when his drive-thru order was wrong unleashed fury and bullets on the fast-food workers he believed messed up his meal, according to local reports. Christian Ellis, 19, went to a Wendy’s location in Frisco, Texas, on Aug. 17, according to the local FOX station. After picking up his food at the drive-thru window, he went inside the store and began arguing with employees about what was in his Biggie Bag.

The last two years have been tough for just about everyone. President Joe Biden sees a silver lining to that, especially for recent college graduates. Speaking at the Naval Academy’s commencement ceremony in Annapolis on Friday, Biden said that the class of 2022 is particularly well-equipped to change the world due to the graduates’ proven ability to navigate uncertainty. “You faced added challenges to maintain a sense of mission and community and purpose when a global pandemic forced ... literally everything to change,” Biden said. That adaptability has prepared graduates to make sound, informed decisions in an “uncertain world,” Biden...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Gov. Kathy Hochul Wednesday unveiled a package of several new gun control executive orders and bills that she says is a direct response to the mass shooting that happened in a Buffalo Tops on Saturday. One of her executive orders signed Wednesday will require State Police to file for an Extreme Risk Protection Order under New York State's Red Flag Law whenever they have probable cause to believe that an individual is a threat to themselves or others. Hochul is also pushing for the Legislature to pass a bill that would require semiautomatic pistols manufactured or...

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on Sunday suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not be allowed back into the "world order" and that the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine should be a moment in which the globe rethinks its dependence on Russian energy.

The White House on Monday said businesses should move forward with President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses, despite a federal appeals court ordering a temporary halt to the rules. “People should not wait,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing. “They should continue to move forward and make sure they’re getting their workplace vaccinated.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, considered one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country, halted the requirements Saturday pending review, writing that “the petitions give cause to believe there are grave...

As Virginians headed to vote on Election Day, reports began to surface Tuesday morning that some were being told a mask must be worn in order to enter a polling location and cast a ballot.. Townhall independently verified that a handful of Virginians who cast ballots in-person this morning were told masks were required to vote as well. As claims of similar incidents continued to surface, the Republican Party of Virginia tweeted that "if someone is not wearing a face covering they may NOT be turned away or refused their right to vote." In addition, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund...

The pastor spent 45 hours in prison for alleged violations of a provincial health order.. ... Pastor Tobias Tissen of Steinbach, Manitoba, was imprisoned for .. a provincial public health order banning outdoor gatherings of more than five people. ... "They had these conditions that I wasn't allowed to attend any gatherings that were in contravention of COVID-19," Tissen said. "And that would automatically prohibit me from going to church and preaching. And I could not agree with that." Tissen had been in hiding for months before his arrest Monday, for some time only making public appearances at his Church...

To the “woke” crowd, teaching civility and manners favors artificial concepts that reinforce power structures and control behavior. This Marxist perspective reduces everything to the class struggle terms of oppressor and oppressed. For this reason, manners must be eradicated and never taught to vulnerable children. So many things today reflect this anti-manners mentality. This trend can be seen in brutal and obscene speech or texting. It is found in ugly, dirty and torn clothing. Coddled children absorb this lack of manners from uncouth adults, who fail to impose rules lest they hurt feelings. Indeed, in the Marxist worldview, Western civilization...

The settlement with Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, which also includes another $400,000 from the state — avoids further litigation over the matter at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority has signaled that rights to religious practice indoors outweigh the interests of the state to compel places of worship to adhere to public health orders.. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Aug. 31, approved a $400,000 settlement with a San Fernando Valley church that had defied the county’s health order through the thick of the pandemic. The settlement with Grace Community Church in...

Small businesses shut down during the pandemic while "essential" big-box stores remained open... It’s been over a year since “two weeks to slow the spread,” and the pandemic is finally dragging to a finish. Cases are down, herd immunity has more or less arrived, and even in deep-blue Boston, Stop & Shop has announced it will end mask requirements before the month’s out. The pandemic saw a huge amount of power and money transferred to what Michael Lind calls the “overclass” of politicians, corporate managers and bureaucrats. Small businesses shut down while big-box stores deemed “essential” remained open. The laptop...

Stocks were rising Tuesday amid positive stimulus and vaccine news, while the GameStop trade appeared to run out of steam. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 238 points, or 0.8%. The S&P 500 futures rose 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite was indicated to open up 0.75%. On Monday, President Joe Biden met with Republican lawmakers to discuss their $618 billion stimulus plan, one that would include $1,000 direct payments to households. Democrats, meanwhile, are cooking up a $1.9 trillion proposal. More stimulus means more money for consumers to spend and more cash for small businesses to rehire workers for when...