Free Republic

The family of a Newbury homicide victim is calling on Vermont officials to do more when it comes to protecting communities from those who suffer from mental illness and commit a crime. It comes after James Perry Jr. -- who admitted killing his own daughter in 2021 -- was found not guilty earlier this summer by reason of insanity. The Orange County Courthouse in Chelsea was packed Friday as loved ones of Karina Rheaume expressed their grief to the court over her tragic death at the hands of her own father. “The process never ends. Every hearing, every update re-traumatizes...

Restorative Justice is a state-funded program that helps people who commit crimes avoid jail time, fines and criminal records. Our Laura Ullman investigates how the program works and whether it’s successful. “I’ve lost a lot of trust, burned a lot of bridges and I can only pray over time that people can see change in me,” said Travis Merritt, a Restorative Justice client. Merritt went through the Restorative Justice program that gives people a second shot at freedom. Some 4,272 offenders were sent to Restorative Justice in 2023, the latest number on record. About 28,000 crimes are reported in Vermont...

Say hello to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Say hello to a blue wave in the 2026 midterms. Say hello in 2028 to President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If President Trump and congressional Republicans keep this up, it will only be the start of the progressive takeover. Left-wing populists are already winning over voters by raising hell about the rising price of clothes and groceries due to tariffs. The growing appetite for populist left voices damning the high cost of living made headlines earlier this year in the successful “Fighting Oligarchy,” tour featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ocasio-Cortez.

Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani have both said that billionaires should not exist. This information from Grok tells us which countries meet that criteria, and which ones do not.https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1942015133875601709#BernieSanders and #ZohranMamdani have both said that #BillionairesShouldNotExist.This information from Grok tells us which countries meet that criteria, and which ones do not.#Socialism #DemocraticSocialism #Communism #Marxism #Capitalism #AynRand #Economics #Billionaires pic.twitter.com/L3qMsZI6ju— Daniel Alman from Squirrel Hill (@DanielAlmanPGH) July 7, 2025I asked Grok:Please list the per capita number of billionaires in each the following countries: the United States, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan,...

Joe Rogan had a big chat with Senator Bernie Sanders about climate change, and it got pretty spicy! Bernie told Joe that climate change is real and switching to things like wind and solar power could make lots of jobs. But Joe wasn’t having it. He pointed out that the Earth’s temperature has always gone up and down. There have been ice ages and hot times before.Joe even mentioned an article from The Washington Post saying that we might be in a cooling period now, contradicting Bernie’s idea that the last ten years were the hottest ever.Joe backed it up...

Too many Democratic party leaders would rather be the captains on a sinking Titanic than change course The Democratic party is at a crossroads. It can continue to push policies that maintain a broken and rigged economic and political system and ignore the pain of the 60% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. It can turn its back on the dreams of a younger generation which, if we don’t change that system, will likely be worse off than their parents. It can continue to depend upon billionaire donors and out-of-touch campaign consultants and spend huge amounts of money on...

The Biden administration and the Saudis are reportedly cooking up a deal.Under the terms of the agreement, the Saudis will get nuclear capability, defense guarantees and a terrorist state inside Israel. And what will the United States get? Temporarily lower prices.The Saudis are not offering to boost oil production to bring down prices as a favor to America, but to Biden. And it’s an election quid-pro-quo that may cost millions of Americans their lives.After draining the strategic petroleum reserve ahead of the midterms, Biden has been unable to refill it because his environmentalist allies and the Saudis have kept prices...

Lefty New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warns that if former Gov. Andrew Cuomo wins the city’s mayoral race, he will use it as a stepping stone for a presidential bid. “This is not just about New York City, but this is about the United States,” the far-left Dem told an enthusiastic crowd she stumped for fellow socialist and mayoral wannabe Zohran Mamdani at Terminal 5 in Manhattan on Saturday. “I mean that literally, because Andrew Cuomo has made clear that if he wins this race, he wants to run for president of the United States of America,” AOC said. Ocasio-Cortez,...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley are co-sponsoring a bill that would ban discrimination against transgender military members.The Fit to Serve Act would prohibit the Department of Defense from banning transgender service members from the military and would ban the department from listing gender identity as a qualification for service.The Fit to Serve Act was led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and co-sponsored by other senators, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)

NEW YORK – Free speech and religious freedom advocates, groups speaking out on the harms of radical gender ideology, and 22 states have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of two Vermont families who had their foster-care licenses revoked by Vermont because of their religious beliefs. On May 30, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the families filed their opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Wuoti v. Winters. Despite a track record of success and high praise from social workers who knew Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt, Vermont’s Department for Children...

Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) has come under fire for suggesting President Trump’s immigration crackdown will leave Vermonters without “anyone around to wipe our a–es.” The congresswoman made the outrageous claim — which she herself called “crude” — during a town hall in Newport, Vt., last week, in response to a question about US immigration policy. “Our economy is completely bound up in immigration and migrant labor,” Balint told her constituents. “We have to come to a place in Congress where it is no longer a political issue, but we see it as an existential issue for the country.” “If we...

The state of Vermont has amended an anti-pregnancy center law that censored centers’ ability to advertise their services and counsel women against abortion. KEY TAKEAWAYS: In 2022, Vermont became the first state to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right. In 2023, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed SB 37 into law, which targeted pro-life pregnancy centers with the threat of fines of up to $10,000 if they did not advertise their services in a way approved by the state attorney general. Several pro-life organizations sued the state with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys. This week, Vermont amended the law,...

The judge said a customs officer had acted improperly in stripping Kseniia Petrova, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, of her visa after she failed to declare research samples she was carrying into the country.A federal judge on Wednesday said she would grant bail to Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist employed by Harvard University, in an immigration case stemming from Ms. Petrova’s failure to declare scientific samples she was carrying into the country.“There does not seem to be either a factual or legal basis for the immigration officer’s actions” in stripping Ms. Petrova of her visa on Feb. 16, Christina...

"A hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant."That's the definition Google assigns to the word "Podunk." For many it's a mythical place filled with country bumpkins and nothing to do.As it turns out, Podunk actually exists and it's right in Upstate New York.There are no official signs to let you know you've arrived, other than map coordinates and the nod of a street sign reading "Podunk Road," but one can actually visit the hamlet of Podunk, New York. The tiny no-stoplight-town, made up of a handful of houses, is inside the town [township] of Ulysses, nestled within the...

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) vowed Wednesday to veto a proposal to ban in guns in bars if it reaches his desk. VTDigger reported that the proposal is a charter change for Burlington contained in S.131 and it cleared the Vermont Senate in April. However, S.131 only passed the Senate by 17 votes, which is not enough to overcome the veto Gov. Scott promises to use against it. Gov. Scott believes the ban would be onerous on bar owners as it would put them in the position of enforcing it. He said, ““Like, who’s going to stand at the door...

America is at a crossroads: Will we cave to the radical left’s vision for our nation, where men win trophies in women’s sports and our border is wide open for illegal aliens, or do we stand with President Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again through America First policies? I know where I stand, and I’m running for Senate to fight for the future of our nation where taxpayers, not criminals and foreign governments, are put first. The stench of the Biden-Harris administration’s lawlessness and economic devastation still lingers in the air today. President Trump inherited a mess...

Vermont Governor Phil Scott paused the state’s electric vehicle sales requirements for passenger cars and medium and heavy-duty trucks on Tuesday, amid broader concerns about the feasibility of zero-emission vehicle rules pioneered by California. Vermont is one of 11 states including New York, Maryland and Massachusetts that have adopted California’s zero-emission vehicle rules, which seek to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035. California’s rules require 35% of light-duty vehicles in the 2026 model year to be zero-emission models. Scott, a Republican, cited warnings from automakers that they could limit supply of gas-powered vehicles to dealers in the state...

BURLINGTON, VT — In a heroic move that sacrificed his own resources, Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he had bought yet another house to make sure the rich people don't get all of them. The selfless act reportedly set the Vermont senator back a bit financially, but his new beachfront home in the Hamptons area of Long Island, New York, would now be prevented from being sold to any wealthy oligarchs from the private sector. "I am willing to take this hit for our cause," Sanders told reporters. "It's not easy to be a man in my position and take...

That’s rich! Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders refused to apologize for chartering private jets to ferry him across the country as part of his campaign to rip the wealthy — snapping, “You think I’m gonna be sitting on a waiting line at United … while 30,000 people are waiting?” Sanders (D-Vt.) defiantly defended his mode of transport after he was widely ridiculed for opting to fly private during his recent “Fighting Oligarchy” tour alongside far-left New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “No apologies for that,” Sanders, 83, told Fox News’ “Special Report” late Wednesday when asked about the backlash. “That’s what campaign...

Bernie Sanders offered a bizarre defense for using private jets while traveling the country to speak on his 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour, during which he slammed billionaires. The democratic socialist and environmental campaigner said he should not be expected to 'wait in line' for commercial flights. Sanders, 83, a longtime Vermont senator and two-time presidential candidate, said he made 'no apologies' for the trips. He told Fox News that 'you run a campaign, and you do three or four or five rallies in a week, the only way you can go around to talk to 30,000 people,' is by private jet....