Free Republic

STOWE, Vt. — Looking back, gubernatorial candidate Dean Roy says his political ambitions started in the eighth grade. And by that he means, last year. After working as a legislative page at the Vermont State House, the 14-year-old freshman at Stowe High School now has his sights set on the corner office. In November, he’ll be the first candidate for governor under age 18 to appear on the state’s general election ballot.

All detainees had previously attempted illegal border crossings and are now awaiting deportation proceedings.. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman confirmed Tuesday that five Iranians were arrested while attempting to illegally cross the U.S. northern border with Canada. "On July 1, Border Patrol Agents from the Champlain, New York Station, responded to suspicious activity near Mooers Forks, NY," CBP's Swanton Sector said on Facebook. "Agents located a minivan occupied by five citizens of Iran and two citizens of Uzbekistan." The Champlain Station is part of the Swanton Sector. Swanton is a rural town in Vermont near Highway 89 just...

In a case stemming from a protest over a decade ago, the Supreme Court delivered a decision this week about qualified immunity. The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in Zorn v. Linton that a Vermont state police sergeant is entitled to qualified immunity in a case brought by a protester following a dispute at the Vermont Capitol in 2015. In an unsigned per curiam opinion, the majority reversed the decision of a lower court, which had sided against the police officer's use of force in the case: "The Second Circuit held that Zorn was not entitled to qualified immunity. "We...

Six progressive, anti-Israel candidates running for Congress in Illinois, all of whom AIPAC reportedly sees as potential members of the “Squad,” lost their primaries in the 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th Districts on Tuesday. Most drew endorsements from the Democratic Socialists of America, members of the “Squad” in Congress or a combination of the two. Marc Rod, of Jewish Insider, wrote on March 16, the day before the primaries, that “a source close to AIPAC says the group’s main goal in Chicago is stopping who it sees as six potential Squad members: Robert Peters, Kina Collins, Junaid Ahmed, Yasmeen Bankole,...

The husband of former Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin is under investigation over a campaign ad that heavily featured Secretary Kristi Noem. Days before President Donald Trump’s decision to relieve her of her duties, Noem testified before Congress to discuss her department’s funding. During this hearing, multiple members of Congress grilled Noem on the $220 million that went to subcontractors to fund an ad campaign. The ads, starring Noem, largely focused on the department’s deportation efforts. Her alleged ties to the recipients of the contracts led to questions about potential conflicts of interest. In a letter published Tuesday, Senators Peter...

The cranky Vermont senator who believes billionaires should be abolished wants to legislate them out of existence. It’s too bad that he doesn’t understand that one billionaire is more valuable than a thousand Bernie Sanders. “Billionaires should not exist,” Sanders, who identifies as a socialist, raged in 2019 during his previous attempt to hit the wealthy with an additional tax that punished them for their success. That effort, the New York Times reported, was “particularly aggressive in how it would erode the fortunes of billionaires” and “would cut in half the wealth of the typical billionaire after 15 years, according...

Vermont has agreed to a policy change that allows Christian foster parents to care for children without being forced to endorse gender ideology. The state’s decision comes after a lawsuit essentially forcing it to back down from revocation of foster-care licenses for families holding traditional religious beliefs on sex and gender. The decision made it difficult for Christian foster parents to adopt children while staying true to Christian and normal biological views that boys and girls are different. The settlement in Wuoti v. Winters and a related case finalized today comes after the Department for Children and Families (DCF) revised...

As Michigan Democrats enter the thick of a competitive Senate primary campaign, one candidate is trying to position himself as an outsider who wants to fix a broken system and take on the oligarchy. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is a Bernie Sanders-endorsed former public health director who has been compared to New York City’s recently elected democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He wants Medicare for all, believes big corporations are to blame for the problems in government and the economy, and insists that Immigration and Customs Enforcement must be abolished. But El-Sayed doesn’t want to be labeled a leftist or a...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., alleged at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that U.S. aid to the Jewish state enabled a genocide by Israel. AOC’s attack on the Jewish state in Munich unfolded in the birthplace of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement that carried out the worst genocide in human history. During the town hall event in Munich, the Squad member said, "To me, this isn't just about a presidential election. Personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws. And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional...

When will they learn? Making pointless Net Zero gestures is apparently more important than wasting hard-earned taxpayer money on ridiculous electric buses that DON'T WORK when it gets cold..

Sen. Bernie Sanders has served on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board for 18 years, but hasn’t attended a single meeting — inspiring a bipartisan push to oust him, The Post has learned. Sanders (I-Vt.) was appointed in 2007 to the Holocaust Memorial Council, which meets twice a year to oversee the landmark DC museum located about 2 miles from the Capitol. Records supplied to The Post by museum staff show that Sanders, who mainstreamed democratic socialism with grassroots campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has missed every meeting of the board since his appointment. “There...

The biggest story of 2025, to judge from the number of people who sent it to me, was this raccoon: In case you somehow missed this story: In late November, this raccoon got into a state liquor store in Ashland, Va., by falling though the ceiling. Once inside, the raccoon ransacked the store, leaving a trail of broken bottles... ...and apparently consuming a large quantity of booze before passing out in the bathroom next to the toilet. That’s where the raccoon was found by a store employee, who called an animal-control officer, who took it to an animal shelter. When...

Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are advocating for a bill that would stop President Trump from replacing immigration judges with what the senators call “inexperienced attorneys.”The bill is led by Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and co-sponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) alongside Senators Wyden and Merkley.

On Friday's episode of HBO's "Real Time," host Bill Maher called out Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders, pointing to "collapsed" Democratic Socialist policies as evidence that socialism doesn't work. "Democrats should recognize the party moved too far left on social issues after Obama left office. Gosh, if only someone had been saying that all along. But, you know, welcome home," Maher said in his monologue at the end of the program. "Radical economic policy is always ineluctably married to radical social policy," Maher said. "Their platform, for example, calls for completely open borders. They're for what Biden was doing,...

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment on Tuesday that adds noncitizens to the list of individuals prohibited from voting in state elections, reinforcing that only US citizens are eligible to cast ballots. Proposition 16 passed with over 71 percent support as of Wednesday afternoon. The measure amends the Texas Constitution to explicitly include “persons who are not citizens of the United States” among those barred from voting. The list already includes convicted felons who have not met certain conditions for reinstatement and individuals deemed mentally incompetent by a court. By placing the citizenship requirement directly into the state constitution, the...

The Democrats have named their price to end the government shutdown — an additional $350 billion for health care over the next decade. Critics say a big chunk of that money may go to ghosts. At issue are the generous subsidies the Biden administration created for Affordable Care Act policies, sweeteners that are slated to expire in December. Making health care essentially free for millions of Americans, those policies have sent enrollment in Obamacare plans skyrocketing. But a recent study found they have also sparked a curious phenomenon: an estimated 12 million enrollees “without a single claim — no doctor...

The Vermont senator, who has called for a ceasefire for the past two years, also used the moment to call for an end to the US-Israel allianceSen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) welcomed Israel's release of some 2,000 Palestinian murderers, rapists, and terrorists, adding that Monday's exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners presents an opportunity for the United States to end its military alliance with the Jewish state. Sanders, who spent the past two years pressuring Israel to accept a ceasefire deal, said he is encouraged by "the long-overdue release" of Israel's 20 living hostages alongside "the freeing of almost...

Progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is eyeing a run for president in 2028, according to a report Friday. The socialist “Squad” member is gearing up to seek higher office as she’s attempted to grow her presence across the country and the Empire State, people familiar with her operation told Axios in a Friday report.

Progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is eyeing a run for president in 2028, according to a report Friday. The socialist “Squad” member is positioning herself to seek higher office as she’s attempted to grow her presence across the country and Empire State, people familiar with her operation told Axios in a Friday report. Ocasio-Cortez and her team are deciding on whether to run for the White House or the Senate, sources told the outlet. The New York lefty has joined Sen. Bernie Sanders – a former presidential candidate – on his national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour while she’s also held...

Almost 200 local businesses in an idyllic college town have turned on its Democrat-run leadership as the city's 'crime crisis' threatens to destroy its once thriving tourism industry. Downtown Burlington, Vermont, where the University of Vermont is located, is now a crime-infested cesspool blighted by substance abuse, mental health and homelessness, according to fed-up locals of the artsy enclave. More than 170 businesses signed an open letter in May demanding the city intervene and do something to stop the violence, open drug trafficking and substance abuse directly impacting their revenue. 'We have reached a critical point where we must voice...