Free Republic

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from moving forward with plans to overhaul the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by reorganizing several of its agencies and substantially cutting their workforce. U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in Providence, Rhode Island, issued an injunction at the behest of a group of Democratic-led states who challenged a plan HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr announced in March to consolidate agencies and fire 10,000 of the department’s employees. The layoffs, in addition to earlier buyout offers and firings of probationary employees, reduced the number of full-time HHS employees to...

Rhode Island’s Democratic-controlled state House on Friday approved legislation that would ban the sale and manufacturing of many semiautomatic rifles commonly referred to as assault weapons. The proposal now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Dan McKee, who said in a post on the social platform X on Friday evening that he plans to sign the bill into law. If that happens, Rhode Island will join 10 states that have some sort of prohibition on high-powered firearms that were once banned nationwide and are now largely the weapon of choice among those responsible for most of the country’s devastating...

The ship that carried Captain James Cook to Australia more than 250 years ago has been found off the coast of Rhode Island, according to a new report by the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). Known for being the first European vessel to reach eastern Australia between 1768 and 1771, HMS Endeavour was later sold, renamed Lord Sandwich, and repurposed during the American War of Independence. In 1778, the ship was deliberately scuttled by British forces in Newport Harbour, Rhode Island, along with a dozen other vessels, in an effort to block advancing American and French forces. It has remained...

Federal authorities said the Brown University assistant professor and doctor deported to Lebanon despite having an H-1B visa expressed support and attended the funeral of a slain Hezbollah leader responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old physician specializing in kidney transplants who was most recently living in Rhode Island, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday while coming back from a trip to Lebanon. Alawieh was questioned by CBP and allegedly told federal agents she had attended the funeral of Nasrallah, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady reportedly wrote in a new filing Monday....

BOSTON — Federal authorities say they deported a Lebanese doctor holding an American visa last week after finding “sympathetic photos and videos” of prominent Hezbollah figures in a deleted items folder on her cell phone.Rasha Alawieh, a physician specializing in kidney transplants and professor at Brown University, also told Customs and Border Protection agents that while visiting Lebanon last month she attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and followed his teachings “from a religious perspective” but not a political one, according to an official report on her interrogation by an immigration officer.“CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that...

A Brown University assistant professor and doctor was deported over the weekend from Boston to Lebanon after federal agents found photos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s supreme leader on her cell phone, a source familiar with the case told CNN. Following Dr. Rasha Alawieh’s return Thursday from a visit to Lebanon, federal agents at Boston Logan International Airport found the photos, the source familiar said. It was not immediately clear why officers were examining her phone. The existence of the photos was outlined in a court filing Monday obtained by CNN affiliate WCVB. “In explaining why these multiple...

Holy ship. Captain James Cook’s famous lost ship Endeavour has been rediscovered off Rhode Island, closing the book on a maritime mystery that has endured for 250 years. The iconic vessel’s alleged final resting spot was detailed in a recent report by the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), which had been searching for the lost ship since 1999. “This final report is the culmination of 25 years of detailed and meticulous archaeological study on this important vessel,” said museum director Daryl Karp of the document, which he described as the “definitive statement” on the project, Pen News reported. “It has...

The discovery of Adriana Suazo’s body in a wooded area in Milton, Massachusetts has intensified growing concerns across New England about the number of unexplained deaths in the region in recent months. Suazo, a 21-year-old Boston resident, was found by a passerby around 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, June 1, in Milton, Mass, which is approximately 8 miles south from the capitol city, according to a press release from the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office. The department said that there were no obvious signs of trauma, and the cause of death is under investigation by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner....

Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok The city council of Providence, Rhode Island, is hosting a flag raising ceremony at the City Hall.What flag, you ask? A Palestinian flag... Providence, RI has been conquered.

Eighteen states sued the Trump administration Monday over its halting of permits for wind-energy projects, arguing that its actions posed an existential threat to the burgeoning industry.“This administration is devastating one of our nation’s fastest-growing sources of clean, reliable and affordable energy,” said Attorney General Letitia James of New York, which is one of the plaintiffs. She said the halt threatened “the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in investments” and was “delaying our transition away from the fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet.”The halt on federal permits for wind energy was first laid out...

The Democrat and RINO effort to blow up Trump’s global tariffs suffered an embarrassing failure in the Senate this evening after two senators failed to vote. As The Gateway Pundit reported, Senator Rand Paul (RINO-KY) had sponsored a resolution that would have terminated ALL of Trump’s tariffs, including those on America’s top adversary, China. The vote deadlocked 49-49, meaning it failed by one vote. But there were three Republicans who voted to stab Trump in the back and end the global tariffs: Rand Paul of Kentucky Susan Collins of Maine Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Senator...

A police officer in Johnston, Rhode Island, shot a man who drove a car at him at a gas station late Saturday night. According to WJAR, the shooting stemmed from an incident around 11:30 p.m,. Saturday, when Johnston police responded to a report of a disturbance at a Shell gas station on Hartford Avenue. A witness called 911 to say that there was an ongoing argument between a man and a woman. Johnston police said the driver stepped on the gas as the officer approached the car, hitting the officer. The officer then fired multiple rounds at the driver. The...

Is there a serial killer hunting in small towns across New England? A growing number of people believe this is happening. Human remains have been discovered in various places in the region and there is enough evidence to suggest that the crimes are connected. It’s creepy to think that there is some evil person out there stalking and killing people for no reason but studies have shown that there are serial killers operating in the country at any given time. Every once in a while, law enforcement connects the dots on certain cases and speculation grows. The Daily Mail reports:...

Taxpayer-funded abortion is increasing at the state level as pro-abortion lawmakers work to expand abortion since the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Federally, the Hyde Amendment prohibits most taxpayer funding of abortion, allowing funding only in cases of rape, incest, or when the physician determines the pregnant mother’s life is at risk. But while the Hyde Amendment prevents most abortions from being paid for by federal tax dollars, each state can determine its own taxpayer funding for abortion. According to the pro-abortion organization KFF.org (The Kaiser Family Foundation), “There is tremendous variability in how much states reimburse for abortion services...

"Attended by 3000 protesters and US Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, US Representative Gabe Amo, many union leaders, educators against banning books, victims of domestic violence, veterans, health care workers, teamsters, and more."

While Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has recently been exposed as having snuck millions of taxpayer dollars to his wife’s climate-focused non-profit, millions of which ended up in her, and thus his, pocket through salary payments, the allegations of such behavior had surrounded him for months beforehand. In fact, one particularly poignant post called out his behavior in late-September of 2024 in response to an ad of his in which he decried the very sort of behavior in which he has engaged. As background, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) called out Sen. Whitehouse for the alleged corruption involving...

All of Maine’s federal judges recuse themselves from Rep. Laurel Libby’s lawsuit against House speaker None of the judges gave any reasoning for the recusals and the Republican state lawmaker's case will now be considered by a judge in Rhode Island. All of Maine’s active federal judges have recused themselves from a Republican state lawmaker’s lawsuit against the Speaker of the House. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, and six of her constituents filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Bangor on Tuesday in response to Libby’s party-line censure by the Legislature last month. Democrats argued Libby crossed a line by...

Well, this is interesting. What a surprise. Dirty Judge Jack McConnell, who believes he was recently elected US president, halted President Trump’s current spending freeze. But Judge McConnell is not some innocent bystander. Judge McConnell’s organization has received $117.6 million in government funding in total (ending in 2023). Maybe that’s why he wanted the money to keep flowing. He’s expecting several more million this year! The Gateway Pundit previously reported on this radical far-left judge who called President Trump a “tyrant” and decries racism as a “white people problem.” ... America First Legal has uncovered damning evidence that federal Judge...

A former Rhode Island state lawmaker has agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges, becoming the third former House member in 11 days to be charged with criminal conduct and prompting the U.S. attorney to decry the state’s political culture. The charges filed against Democrat Ray Gallison in federal court Monday include mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and filing false tax returns. Gallison, an attorney, acknowledged taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a dead man’s estate and other misconduct. “This says something about our political culture here, which I think should get our attention,” U.S. Attorney Peter...

Judge McConnell is an activist who has no business sitting in judgement of the president or his administration.