Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Okello Chatrie’s cellphone gave him away.Chatrie made off with $195,000 from the bank he robbed in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and eluded the police until they turned to a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them collect the location history of cellphone users near the crime scene.The geofence warrant police served on Google found that Chatrie’s cellphone was among a handful of devices in the vicinity of the bank around the time it was robbed.Now the Supreme Court will decide whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. It’s the latest...

A Virginia transgender substitute teacher was arrested for allegedly plotting a chilling “murder spree” at a local school — and bragging online about having a disturbing hit list. Hadyn Dollery, 19, was busted on school grounds Monday after posting threatening messages on Discord targeting John Champe High School in Stone Ridge, about 40 miles west of Washington, DC, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and multiple outlets. Police said a tip on the department’s Safe2Talk app exposed the suspect’s sinister online posts. The accused would-be attacker allegedly unleashed threats against family and friends on the messaging app, including disturbing...

For years, Democratic politicians and their allies in the legacy media have spread the damnable Charlottesville Hoax: the propaganda myth that President Trump praised bigots who rioted in 2017 in the Virginia town. Of course, the opposite is true, as Trump actually said: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”Now, we learn that the entire hoax of Trump and Charlottesville is, itself, built upon another grand lie. The media and people like Joe Biden have continually pushed the narrative that some big, organic gathering of hateful Americans descended upon Charlottesville and represented...

Democratic Virginia state Sen. Lamont Bagby claimed Thursday that watching “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Waltons” as a child taught him about rural America. (snip)“And listen, I almost took issue with the other side saying that we don’t understand [rural America],” Bagby said during the floor debate. “But I grew up watching ‘The Waltons,’ I grew up with Opie [the son of a sheriff played by Andy Griffith], I even watched the ‘Dukes of Hazzard.’ I think I know a little bit about rural America.”

Virginia’s redistricting referendum, which could net Democrats a 10-1 House seat advantage, is spurring Republican legislation that would expand the borders of Washington, D.C., and cost the state Democratic voters. Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick said Thursday he introduced the Make DC Square Again Act, a bill that would undo the 19th century return of the southwestern part of the district to the state of Virginia, known as retrocession. “The Make DC Square Again Act restores the original ten-mile-square District and ends the artificial advantage Virginia Democrats have recently gained from all the federal bureaucrats moving into Virginia,” McCormick said...

The Rich Men north of Richmond may have won for a day, but they cashed out every ounce of public goodwill they had to do it.If they truly wanted non-partisan redistricting, they would have pushed the Virginia Model to the other 49 states. So spare me — not interested. Lucy can keep her football this time.

The redistricting vote in Virginia was not only dishonest, it was unconscionable and shameless. I don't know how any democrat can look themselves in the mirror or sleep at night after the way that vote was worded.The vote should have been worded this way :DO YOU AGREE THAT THE REDISTRICTING PLAN PUT FORTH BY THE DEMOCRATS SHOULD BE APPROVED--GIVEN THE FACT THAT IT IS LIKELY THAT HALF THE POPULATION OF VIRGINIA WILL GET ONLY 9% REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS? THE OTHER HALF SPONSORING THIS VOTE WILL GET 91% REPRESENTATION.YES OR NO.I just cannot believe the wording that was actually used. It...

During a Virginia state Senate floor debate on gerrymandering, Democrat Lamont Bagby decided to flex his deep understanding of rural America ... by explaining that he picked it all up from watching the 1980s TV classic The Dukes of Hazzard. Because nothing says 'I get country folks' quite like a big-city pol citing a show about moonshiners and car chases to justify redrawing district lines that would dilute conservative voices in the Old Dominion. You just can’t make this level of tone-deaf arrogance up. Actually, considering what Democrats just did to half the state of Virginia, we don't have to...

A Georgia congressman is proposing a controversial new idea -- he’s calling the “Make D.C. Square Again Act." He said it would expand Washington, D.C. by adding Arlington and Alexandria into the nation's capital. In a post on X, Congressman Rick McCormick said Arlington and Alexandria were “always meant” to be part of D.C., arguing the change would simplify long-running debates over political maps and representation. "What we want to do is make D.C. square again. It's a simple concept. Square. We repeal that unconsituational law, gIve back Virginia exactly what it should have, give D.C. what it should have...

In 1846, a third of the District of Columbia was stolen by Virginia to appease slaveholders. It is time to right that wrong and return to the borders laid down by George Washington himself. The One-Way Ratchet The Constitution gave Congress a one-way ratchet: the power to create a permanent seat of government by accepting cessions from states. Once that ratchet clicked forward in 1790, it was locked. The Constitution provides no mechanism to pull it back. Article I, Section 8 grants Congress the power to "exercise exclusive Legislation" over a district "not exceeding ten Miles square" that becomes "the...

Republicans are cheering a circuit court victory in Virginia that showed Democrats' redistricting efforts in Virginia are not quite ...

Democrats cheered a redistricting measure that reportedly passed in Virginia on Tuesday. The passage gives the Democrat-controlled state legislature the ability to redraw the commonwealth's congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Except there are already questions about whether this will stand, as we reported. On Wednesday afternoon, Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that Tuesday's referendum is unconstitutional and issued an injunction preventing the certification of the election maps. Judge Hurley has also denied any motion to stay his ruling pending appeal. That decision will likely be appealed. Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) were...

Voters are in the Virginia polls, choosing yes or no on a constitutional amendment that could sway four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives come November. New congressional redistricting maps were ignited by second-term Republican Donald Trump’s pressure onto Texas in 2025. Thus far, redraws have given hope for Republicans to gain three seats; Virginia could change that to a one seat deficit.The state has six Democrats and five Republicans in the House, and if the amendment passes would be forecast to reach a 10-1 edge. In the last statewide presidential vote of 2024, Democrat Kamala Harris edged Trump...

A Virginia circuit court judge on Wednesday struck down the state's voter-approved redistricting amendment in its entirety, ruling that the measure was unconstitutional from its inception and that every vote cast in Tuesday's special election — for or against — is legally void. Judge Jack Hurley, a Republican appointee, entered the sweeping final judgment on April 22, granting relief to the plaintiffs on all counts. He declared the proposed constitutional amendment "void ab initio" — Latin for void from the start — and permanently enjoined state officials from certifying the election results or taking any steps to implement new congressional...

After the Virginia redistricting power grab election on Tuesday was won by the Democrats, RedState reported that the battle was far from over. Now the battle moves into the court system, and that will decide the final fate of the constitutionality of this referendum. It didn't take long. On Wednesday afternoon, Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that Tuesday's referendum is unconstitutional and issued an injunction preventing the certification of the election maps. Judge Hurley has also denied any motion to stay his ruling pending appeal. This battle began back in February. Hurley was the same judge who...

Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital · Apr 21 This is insane… The Virginia redistricting amendment on the ballot today is framed as a vote to "restore fairness in the upcoming elections." In reality, it turns a state that Kamala barely won by 5 pts from 6D-5R to 10D-1R.

In 2020 Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Virginia twice since William Howard Taft. Then in 2024 Trump lost once more, this time to Kamala Harris. Now he has in effect lost it a fourth time as Virginia voters approved on Tuesday a fiercely contested referendum redrawing congressional districts to favor Democratic congressional candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. “This is really a country election. The whole country is watching,” Trump said. If so, it watched Trump suffer a major blow – one that will prompt renewed questions about his political acuity and judgment. It was...

@Geiger_Capital This is insane… The Virginia redistricting amendment on the ballot today is framed as a vote to "restore fairness in the upcoming elections." In reality, it turns a state that Kamala barely won by 5 pts from 6D-5R to 10D-1R

Virginia used to be a model of fair redistricting. That reputation is now gone. On Tuesday, Virginia Democrats passed a redistricting plan that transforms one of the most fairly apportioned states in the country into one of the most blatantly gerrymandered. Keep in mind that Virginia only narrowly backed Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in 2024 by roughly five points. Virginia is, in every way, a battleground state. Yet under the new map, nearly half the state’s voters effectively lose their voice. The new lines snake from densely packed, heavily Democratic suburbs deep into rural territory. There is nothing democratic...

Virginia prop losing in initial reports