Free Republic

Details show Google employees fretting its ad tech auctions were ‘untruthful’ and based in ‘insider information’.. Google misled publishers and advertisers for years about the pricing and processes of its ad auctions, creating secret programs that deflated sales for some companies while increasing prices for buyers, according to newly unredacted allegations and details in a lawsuit by state attorneys general... Google pocketed the difference between what it told publishers and advertisers that an ad cost and used the pool of money to manipulate future auctions to expand its digital monopoly, the newly unredacted complaint alleges. The documents cite internal correspondence...

The December 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry exposed the bungled “Fast and Furious” investigation, in which agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking the weapons. But the agency lost most of the guns, including two that were found at the scene of Terry’s death in southern Arizona. The U.S. government has heavily pursued prosecution of the men involved in the killing. Mexico says Mexican drug gangs and former officials also participated in or failed to stop the weapons trafficking. Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office...

Last Thursday was the second anniversary of the killing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani; while the date passed virtually unnoticed in the United States, it was a major event in the Islamic Republic of Iran, featuring numerous threats of revenge from enraged Iranian leaders. One of these stood out from the others: Soleimani’s successor as Quds Force commander declared that the revenge would come from inside the United States. Iran’s state-controlled Tasnim News Agency reported that Brigadier General Esmaeil Qaani was “delivering a speech to a ceremony in Mashhad” for the anniversary...

"Texas Governor Greg Abbott is facing a potential defeat in the Republican gubernatorial primary, according to a new poll carried out for one his GOP opponents. A Paradigm Partners poll published on Tuesday shows Abbott with just 32.52 percent support among likely Republican primary voters in the state, behind former Texas GOP chair Allen West on 38.36 percent. The poll was conducted for West's campaign and differs starkly from other polls published late last year that appeared to show the Republican primary race was uncompetitive."

Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos will take control of the Deer Park refinery in Houston, Texas on Jan. 20, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) in May agreed to sell its majority stake in the Deer Park refinery, which can process up to 340,000 barrels per day (bpd), to Pemex (PEMX.UL), its long-time partner in the plant, for about $596 million.

Most of the past forty-eight hours have been spent either in, or en route to and from, the Midland-Odessa region. Far out in west Texas’s Permian Basin, the two cities — towns, really — have a relationship that I still can’t quite unpack. On my last visit, which turned out to be the first time I ever actually set foot in Odessa, a woman told me: “Midland is where you raise families. Odessa is where you raise hell.” She was from Odessa. Midland-Odessa sits in the vast expanse of the old Llano Estacado, the “staked plain” discovered by the Spanish...

A woman in Texas was arrested after police say she hogtied a 1-year-old girl and imprisoned a 2-year-old boy in a playpen that was covered “like a cage,” then left both toddlers in a locked in a bedroom. Priscilla Ann Salais, 37, was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with two counts of endangering a child, San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT reported.

First Elon Musk, now Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg’s company, Meta (formerly Facebook), announced it would lease offices in a massive new building in Austin, Texas. Big tech companies, who cut their teeth and built empires in California, are fleeing the state and relocating to Texas. It's almost as if high taxes, stifling corporate regulations, and out-of-control housing costs are unattractive to businesses and long-term sustainability. Who knew? The Austin Business Journal was among the first to report on Meta’s move. “Months of speculation have come to an end as California-based Meta Platforms Inc. — the parent company of Facebook — recently...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, grilled a senior FBI official on whether or not FBI agents or confidential informants played a role in the Capitol protest on Jan. 6, 2001, but she would not confirm nor deny anything. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled, "The Domestic Terrorism Threat One Year After January 6," Cruz asked Jill Sanborn, executive assistant director for the FBI's national security branch, about suspicions held by some that government officials encouraged lawless behavior during the protest. "How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?" Cruz asked. Sanborn said in...

Texas scientists rolled out a new COVID-19 vaccine, saying it’s patent-free and can be produced by any manufacturer in any country. The vaccine, called Corbevax, was developed by the Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. It has successfully passed human trials as safe and effective. The new treatment is based off protein-based technology that has been used in other vaccines for decades and it does not use MRNA. India has already authorized production of 100 million doses per month of the new vaccine. Meanwhile, Texas scientists say not-for-profit vaccines will help defeat COVID-19 quicker.

Amanda Carpenter, a former aide for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), shares what concerned her most about her former boss's interview with Fox's Tucker Carlson when Cruz backtracked on calling January 6 rioters "terrorists."

COVID is here to stay. We better get used to seeing it around because like the tides, it will come and go. If you’re vaccinated, the chances of you dying or suffering from severe illness is virtually erased. You can still get it. That’s the big lie that was peddled by the Biden administration. Remember in July, get the shot and take the mask off. Well, wrong—Omicron is raging like the Great Chicago Fire. Is it less lethal? Yes, but it’s more contagious. I’ll take that mutation. Everyone is going to get COVID. It’s only a matter of time. It’s...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed on Wednesday Border Patrol agents working in the Big Bend Sector rescued 25 illegal immigrants who were abandoned in a locked trailer in low temperatures. ... ...While the Big Bend Sector in Texas is one of the most remote sectors along the U.S.-Mexico border, it had experienced an increase in illegal activity in 2021 during the still ongoing border crisis. Compared to fiscal year 2020, fiscal year 2021 saw a 233 percent increase in unaccompanied children encounters, a 62 percent increase in family encounters, and a 365 increase in single adult encounters. ...

Texas is the top destination for one-way U-Haul rental trips in 2021, while California topped the list for outward migration and even ran out of U-Haul trucks for people wanting to leave the state, a new report from U-Haul shows.The moving and storage rental company has a “U-Haul Growth Index,” which calculates the net gain or loss of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a calendar year.The southern states took the lead in the U-Haul Growth Index report, with Texas narrowly beating Florida as the top growth state of 2021. The Lone Star state notably...

The Supreme Court heard two emergency challenges Friday to President Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandates for large businesses and healthcare workers, testing the limits of executive power amid a relentless pandemic. The challengers are various religious organizations, private businesses and Republican-led states, which argued Biden has no authority to mandate a vaccine for them. After hearing the first challenge, which was a private business arguing against Biden’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration vaccine-or-test mandate, the Supreme Court ultimately seemed a bit wary of the mandates. The justices appeared particularly skeptical about whether Biden, along with OSHA, had the authority to impose...

Cruz's bill comes after Biden admin's decision to control distribution of monoclonal antibody therapeutics Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas has introduced legislation to remove federal barriers to states purchasing coronavirus treatments amid concerns that his state and others are approaching government-induced shortages.

A vaccine authorized in December for use in India may help solve one of the most vexing problems in global public health: How to supply lower-income countries with a COVID-19 vaccine that is safe, effective and affordable.The vaccine is called CORBEVAX. It uses old but proven vaccine technology and can be manufactured far more easily than most, if not all, of the COVID-19 vaccines in use today."CORBEVAX is a game changer," says Dr. Keith Martin, executive director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Washington, D.C. "It's going to enable countries around the world, particularly low-income countries, to...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed Wednesday the January 6 protest of the 2020 election on Capitol Hill last year was a “violent terrorist attack.” “We are approaching a solemn anniversary this week. And it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage, incredible bravery, risk their lives for the Capitol,” Cruz said. The Texas senator discussed the protests in an exchange with Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger during a Senate Rules Committee oversight hearing. Cruz has defined the violent protests on Capitol Hill as...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday sued Joe Biden and the Pentagon over its military vaccine mandate. Over 40% of the Texas National Guard are refusing to get the Covid On Tuesday Governor Abbott asked a federal judge to overturn Biden’s vax mandate citing his own authority as commander-in-chief as governor. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sued President Biden over the administration’s military vaccine mandate, citing the governor’s authority ‘as commander-in-chief and on Texas’s sovereignty.’ Abbott filed suit Tuesday in Texas, asking a federal judge to overturn Biden’s vaccine requirement, in a filing that repeatedly invokes Abbott’s own authority as...

To say I’m disappointed would be an understatement. As someone who has viewed Senator Ted Cruz as one of the “good guys” on Capitol Hill, hearing him say the January 6 mostly peaceful protest was a “violent terrorist attack on the Capitol” feels like the worst type of betrayal. I know why he said it and I’ll explain below, but here’s the report of what he said according to American Greatness: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) shocked many conservatives on Wednesday when he echoed the left’s overwrought January 6 messaging during a Senate Rules Committee hearing, referring to the riot as...