Free Republic

The latest incident involved a Venezuelan migrant who was attempting to sell cocaine to other border crossers Sunday, according to El Paso Police Department. The alleged dealer, Yovani Jose Sanchez, was turned in by other migrants who are camped out and sleeping near the city’s Sacred Heart Church. The 22-year-old was booked into the county jail, while four other migrants accused of being associated with his business were turned over to US Border Patrol. Separately, a Venezuelan man and woman were arrested by officers Wednesday when they were driving the wrong way down a street in a stolen car, the...

"Many generous, fun, semi-stupid, legendary moments have happened during Astros Championship Parades," the man's lawyers said in his defense.Houston Astros fan Joseph Halm Arcidiacono has another victory to celebrate this week, as he was no-billed by a grand jury that decided not to indict him for throwing cans of alcohol at Sen. Ted Cruz during the team's World Series parade in early November. Arcidiacono, 33, was originally charged with "aggravated assault with a deadly weapon" and posted a bond set at $40,000 after he hurled two unopened cans of what appeared to be White Claw toward the senator as he...

Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw apologized on Sunday for referring to some of his GOP colleagues as “terrorists” during negotiations that led to the election of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as House speaker. Crenshaw shared the apology during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. “Look, things get heated and things get said. Obviously, to people who took offense by that, it’s pretty obvious that it’s meant as a turn of phrase,” Crenshaw said. “I’ve got pretty thick skin. I’m called awful, vile things by the very same wing of the party that I was fighting...

Almost two years ago, the Texas energy grid came within minutes of total system failure, leaving 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses without power at its peak. After the storm, it was painfully clear that the makeup of the Texas energy grid must be rebalanced, with an emphasis on electricity generated from cheap, plentiful and reliable natural gas and ensuring the natural gas energy supply chain was better weatherized to ensure operation during extreme weather conditions.

The brutal, unrelenting cold that lasted for several days over the Christmas holiday froze off a sizable portion of Appalachia’s ample gas production, cutting off supply to power plants when they needed it most. Gas transmission pipelines said the gas they were promised simply didn’t show up. On the electric grid that connects Pennsylvania to 12 other states, at one point almost 25% of the capacity on the system either didn’t start up or broke while operating, leaving coal and petroleum-fired units to pick up the slack. PJM, a Valley Forge-based grid operator, is still analyzing what happened during the...

ALLEN, Texas — Two Allen ISD students, including a star high school quarterback, have left the district after an incident involving racist vandalism at their home. Police confirmed the incident happened at the home of now-former Allen High School quarterback Mike Hawkins Jr. and that an investigation is underway. Further details on the vandalism were not released.

Houston police are asking a bystander who shot a man 9 times and killed him while he was in the act of robbing people inside a Houston restaurant to come forward for questioning. FOX 26's Gabby Hart spoke with local criminal defense attorney Price Brown about if the incident could be considered self-defense.

The Republican governor of Texas delivered a frosty welcome to President Joe Biden in El Paso on Sunday, accusing him of opening the southern border to illegal immigrants and handing him a letter demanding that he take more action to tackle the crisis. Gov. Greg Abbott blasted Biden's visit — his first to the border as president — saying that the city had been cleaned up for his trip. And he characterized the trip as '$20 billion too little and two years too late' in a scathing description of Biden's failure to control illegal migration. 'Even the city you visit...

More moving trucks left from California than any other state in 2022 for the third year in a row, while more Americans are flocking to Republican-led states like Texas and Florida, a new study published on Jan. 3 has found.The study was conducted by the moving truck rental company, U-Haul, and found that Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas were the preferred destinations for one-way moving trucks in 2022, with those states ranking as the top growth states on the annual U-Haul Growth Index.U-Haul’s Growth Index is compiled according to the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks arriving in a state...

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) started another altercation on social media platform Twitter this week, attacking Fox News’ Tucker Carlson after the latter dubbed him a “surrogate for Kevin McCarthy” and “the snarling face of the donor class.” “If people oppose you in in a election, you typically try and win them over,” Carlson said on Wednesday. “You assuage their concerns, you promise them things, you wheel, you deal, you trade some horses, you massage their egos. You don’t scream at them.” “And yet today, Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas – surrogate for Kevin McCarthy – did [scream at them],” Carlson...

Bud Brigham, the executive chairman of Brigham Minerals, testified Thursday before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs that a Wall Street bank allegedly threatened to deny him a loan unless he tweeted out specific political messages. Republican Texas state Sen. Bryan Hughes led the hearing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, an approach to investing that scores companies based on their commitment to certain environmental and social causes. Brigham testified that, during a capital raise with Credit Suisse, with whom he claims to have raised over $1 billion with over 15 years, the bank instructed him put out...

Down in South Texas, there is a Democrat who votes a lot like a Republican. I'm talking about Henry Cuellar, who was just re-elected in District 28. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for future speaker McCarthy to woo the guy from #28. This is from a story in the Wall Street Journal:Allies of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) made multiple calls to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas over the weekend and asked him if he would switch parties to expand the GOP majority, according to five people familiar with the calls.The pitch to Mr. Cuellar...

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said the hard-line opponents to House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) becoming the next Speaker “are enemies now.” Crenshaw told CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday ahead of the Speakership vote that those dug in against McCarthy will “obviously” not get the committee assignments they want over their defiance, but “it’s going to be so much worse than that.” “They are enemies now,” he said. “They have made it clear that they prefer a Democrat agenda than a Republican one.” Crenshaw earlier on Tuesday dismissed the idea that opponents to McCarthy had a viable alternative who could...

How do we determine which kids are most at risk of severe abuse or neglect, and what can we do to protect them? Answering these questions should be the primary concern of child protective services. In recent years, more advocates have become interested—reasonably enough—in the question of how to stop abuse and neglect before they happen. In academia and government, it’s about getting “upstream” of the problem. Several years ago, in Texas, researchers started identifying communities by zip code with high rates of child maltreatment. They included in this measure kids exposed to maltreatment—often siblings who had been in families...

Ten guards and four inmates were killed in a stunning jailbreak triggered by gunmen in armored vehicles opening fire on a Mexican state prison across the border from El Paso, Texas. At least 24 inmates escaped in the chaos. The prison in Ciudad Juarez, was under attack early Sunday and left 13 people wounded in addition to the 14 deaths, according to the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office. Gunmen in the bulletproof vehicles arrived around 7 a.m. at Cereso No. 3 state prison and started shooting, officials said, according to the El Paso Times. Later Sunday, Mexican soldiers and state police...

Jeffrey Younger has lost his court case to prevent his ex-wife from taking their son to California, where he could be medically transitioned. Younger has been trying to stop this from happening for years, and has now reached the end of the line. He is prevented by the courts of Texas from protecting his boys from medical mutilation at the hands of their mother, who is a pediatrician. Younger has accused her of using the children to help advertise her "inclusive," "gender affirming" practice. "The Supreme Court of Texas denied my Mandamus, effectively terminating my parental rights. My children are...

Twitter is closing down its Seattle offices and telling employees to work from home as the social media giant continues to cut costs under the leadership of new CEO Elon Musk, according to reports. The move comes as Twitter is facing eviction from Seattle’s Century Square Tower since the company has stopped paying rent, sources familiar with the matter told The New York Times. ...Twitter will likely now only have offices in New York City and San Francisco, according to the report. However, the company has also reportedly been skipping rent at its Bay Area headquarters. According to the Times...

Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon railed against Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday, calling the Texas Republican "gutless" for busing migrants to Washington, D.C., in below-freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve. Abbott has come under fire in recent months over the Lone Star State's practice of redirecting asylum-seekers and undocumented immigrants to cities run by Democrats. Liberals have long blasted the move as a "cruel" act of political theater, but the governor is now receiving criticism from some within his own party. Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, slammed Abbott on Thursday in a post on...

Rep. Mondaire Jones criticized GOP-appointed judges' abilities to issue nationwide injunctions. He referred to a Trump-appointed judge blocking student-debt relief for millions of Americans. His new bill would channel that authority to D.C. courts and the Supreme Court only. A Democratic lawmaker doesn't think conservative judges should have the power to halt Democratic policies for millions of Americans. Last week, New York Rep. Mondaire Jones penned an opinion piece criticizing Republican-appointed judges' "unrestrained use of nationwide injunctions" to block Democratic policies. For example, federal Texas Judge Mark Pittman — appointed by former President Donald Trump — ruled President Joe Biden's...

A huge ‘tent city’ for migrants entering the US from Mexico is under construction on the fringes of El Paso as officials scramble to prepare for a surge in crossings when Title 42 ends. The massive processing facility, which covers an area the size of several football fields, is being built in a patch of desert about 20 miles northeast of downtown El Paso.... ....Wheel loaders and other heavy machinery have been preparing the land, which is just off a section of the US-54 highway near the neighborhood of Mesquite Hills. A huge perimeter fence was also being built around...