Free Republic

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced sweeping tariffs on various household products, including imported kitchen cabinets and certain kinds of furniture – potentially adding even more costs to a category that has surged in price in recent months. Trump also announced heavy truck tariffs and pharmaceutical tariffs.“We will be imposing a 50% Tariff on all Kitchen Cabinets, Bathroom Vanities, and associated products, starting October 1st, 2025. Additionally, we will be charging a 30% Tariff on Upholstered Furniture,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Thursday evening. Various tariffs that Trump has imposed have already boosted furniture prices considerably over the...

(08-29) 15:20 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said. Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said. Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Ohmeed Aziz Popal, who has an address in Ceres. Authorities said they believe Popal was the same driver who ran over a 55-year-old man walking in a bicycle lane in Fremont, at Fremont Boulevard near Ferry Lane, just after noon. That victim died. Popal was arrested at...

Was his request refused, or would that have been “Islamophobic”?In any case, despite Saipov’s note containing “Islamic religious references,” this is not about Islam. The NYPD assures us that is the case. And they wouldn’t lie to us, now, would they? “New York attack suspect Sayfullo Saipov charged with terrorism,” by Jamiles Lartey and Ed Pilkington, Guardian, November 1, 2017: The suspect in Tuesday’s deadly New York City truck attack appears to have been inspired by violent Isis videos depicting beheadings and shootings, according to prosecutors.Sayfullo Saipov was taken to the New York federal courthouse in a wheelchair, handcuffed and...

ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. - A petition urging Florida officials to show leniency toward Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant truck driver accused of causing a crash that killed three people, has garnered nearly 2.5 million signatures as of Sunday afternoon. The petition — posted on the website Change.org and addressed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — calls for both DeSantis and the Florida Board of Executive Clemency to re-examine the case against the 28-year-old. Singh faces three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of manslaughter in connection with the deadly Aug. 12 crash. Harjinder Singh, 28, an illegal immigrant,...

Once a symbol of rural grit, the presence of the best-selling pickup truck in a song may now mean something else.Country singer-songwriter Jenna Paulette drives a white Ford F-150 pickup truck, a gift from her cattle-rancher grandfather when he retired from driving. “He called me and said, ‘Hey, sug, I got a 2010 F-150 with sixty thousand miles on it, and I was wondering if you’d drive it for me,’ ” the native Texan, who grew up in Lewisville, recalls. “I still drive that truck to this day; I’ll never get rid of it. It keeps me connected to him...

Man in U.S. illegally charged after crash kills 3 on Florida Turnpike ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — An illegal immigrant has been arrested in connection with a deadly crash on Florida's Turnpike. The crash occurred around 3 PM on Tuesday near Fort Pierce. Troopers said a semi-truck tried making a U-turn in an 'official use only' area, causing a minivan to crash into the truck. Three of the minivan's passengers died. The driver, Harjinder Singh, has now been charged with three counts of vehicular homicide. Officials said he entered the US illegally by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018....

Wednesday morning, ICE conducted a raid in Los Angeles at a Home Depot where known MS-13 gang members hang out. It was pretty epic. (Yes, I got what I voted for again) It's something you see in law enforcement operations pretty regularly. Law enforcement hangs out in the back of an unmarked, nondescript vehicle, then pounces. But apparently, Penske wants you to know you can't put people in the back of the truck like that! And they're going to tell on the DHS for improper use of their trucks! Here's the statement in case they wise up and delete the...

Saudi news outlet Al Hadath reported on Tuesday, citing an anonymous Israeli security source, that Israel “knows exactly” where Iran is keeping its stockpiles of enriched uranium. The official who spoke to Al Hadath further claimed that “most of the enriched uranium is buried under the rubble in Iran." The status of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium remained a matter of speculation among officials since Israel launched preemptive strikes, including on various Iranian nuclear facilities, in the 12-day war that began June 13. Such speculation continued following American strikes on Iran’s three main nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. IDF...

"In fact, we actually believe they stored more of it in Fordo because they believe Fordo was impenetrable," the senator said. ... Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) revealed on Monday that U.S. intelligence contradicts claims that Iran moved nuclear materials before President Trump’s weekend airstrikes, which the senator believes “severely damaged, if not completely destroyed” Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities. Satellite imagery taken prior to the attack, circulating across social media over the weekend, revealed trucks surrounding Fordo allegedly poised to haul away all nuclear material, which the senator rejects. “[Israel and Iran] are claiming that they moved some material,” Mullin said....

An audacious Ukrainian drone attack against multiple airbases across Russia is a humiliating security breach for Vladimir Putin that will doubtless trigger a furious response. Pro-Kremlin bloggers have described the drone assault - which Ukrainian security sources said hit more than 40 Russian warplanes - as "Russia's Pearl Harbor" in reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War. The Ukrainian operation - which used small drones smuggled into Russia, hidden in mobile sheds and launched off the back of trucks - also demonstrated how technology and imagination have transformed...

The left is furious that the Trump administration is officially enforcing (effective date: June 25) the longstanding law that truck drivers must be proficient in English.The left claims that you don’t need to speak English to drive; this must be bigotry against immigrants, or against Spanish speakers, or against the uneducated, or against certain ethnicities.It’s not.Whether one is an immigrant or a native American, whether one has a college degree or just a high school diploma, whether one’s skin color is black or white or plaid or polka-dotted — none of this matters to the question of whether a person...

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department is expected to declare that fuel economy rules issued under then President Joe Biden exceeded the government's legal authority by including electric vehicles in setting the rules, automakers said on Monday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday submitted its interpretive rule, "Resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program" to the White House for review. He said in a statement the prior administration had "illegally used CAFE standards as a backdoor electric vehicle mandate – driving the price of cars up."

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. America’s truck drivers are essential to the strength of our economy, the security of our Nation, and the livelihoods of the American people. Every day, truckers perform the demanding and dangerous work of transporting the Nation’s goods to businesses, customers, and communities safely, reliably, and efficiently. Proficiency in English, which I designated as our official national language in Executive Order 14224 of March 1, 2025 (Designating English as the Official Language of the...

“The public is vastly unaware that our highways are completely over run right now with truck drivers operating on Foreign Commercial Drivers Licenses and what are now called Non-Domicile CDL’s."

State Democratic lawmakers are trying to pump the brakes on the Hochul administration’s “nearly impossible” green-energy rule requiring more new large trucks to be emissions-free. The proposal, pushed by state Sen. Jeremy Coney Cooney (D-Rochester) and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo (D-Binghamton), would postpone the start of the Democratic governor’s edict until at least Jan. 1, 2027. Hochul’s recent “Advanced Clean Trucks” rule requires manufacturers of vehicles greater than 8,500 pounds to sell an increasing number of zero-emission vehicles in New York, starting with a 7% zero emissions sales percentage in 2025 and ramping up every model year through 2035, to 40%...

Scandal-scarred electric semi-truck maker Nikola — a pandemic darling once valued at $30 billion — filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday. The company said it is seeking an auction and sale process of its assets, becoming the latest electric-vehicle maker to stumble after grappling with tepid demand, rapid cash burn and funding challenges. “Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate,” chief executive Steve Girsky said in a statement. **SNIP** Nikola shares plummeted 40% Wednesday morning. Electric car sales have been faltering in the US due...

In the early hours of the New Year, an American-born citizen with a black ISIS flag drove a truck down Bourbon St. in New Orleans, killing fifteen revelers and injuring about three dozen others. His name was Shamsud-Din Jabbar. The New Orleans attack followed hard upon another vehicular incident at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, which led to the deaths of at least five people while injuring 200 more. Vehicular terror events are becoming more common throughout the world. In 2021, a driver rammed into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing at least five people and injuring 48...

California regulators withdrew a proposal to mandate the sale of zero-emissions trucks over the next 20 years on Tuesday evening. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) pulled back its request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a waiver that would have allowed the state to require massive increases in sales of electric or zero-emissions truck models over the coming decades. As of 2023, only 0.3% of all registered heavy-duty vehicles in the U.S. were zero-emissions models, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation. CARB’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule would have mandated California’s truck fleet to move to zero-emission...

...The withdrawal comes after the Biden administration recently approved the California Air Resources Board’s mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars by 2035, but had not yet approved waivers for four other standards for diesel vehicles that the state adopted....

Ahmad Jamal Khamees Alhendi facing multiple charges after forcing major highway closure near GreenvilleICE has issued detainer for suspect, whose origin and immigration status remain unclear Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a detainer for a truck driver who was arrested after allegedly making a bomb threat while pulled over on I-85 in South Carolina this week, indicating he may be in the country illegally.The busy interstate was shut down for hours on Thursday afternoon after South Carolina State Transport Police pulled over an 18-wheeler with a missing license plate in Greenville County.During the stop, the driver reportedly claimed...