Free Republic

The April pronouncements of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at Stanford University have sparked a crucial discourse about the ramifications of mass immigration on the American economy. Powell's observations emphasized the significant role of immigrants, particularly within lower-paying sectors of the labor market, prompting economists to hastily reconsider their projections. The forecasts presented by the Congressional Budget Office (C.B.O.) paint a stark panorama: an astounding 3.3 million individuals entered the United States in 2023 alone, with similar figures anticipated for 2024. While some champion these statistics as heralds of economic expansion, the underlying reality is bleak. The majority of this...

Arizona State Democrat lawmakers teamed up with pro-abortion Planned Parenthood to host “Drag Queen Story Hour” at the state Capitol, according to Arizona State Senate Republicans. Arizona State Senate Republicans shared a brief video of the event on social media, showing a man with hot pink eyebrows and a beard encouraging parents to allow their children to transition to the opposite gender. He was reportedly reading from Queer and Fearless: Poems Celebrating the Lives of LGBTQ+ Heroes. “When is it time to choose a new name? Why does someone become an activist? How does one begin?” he began.

Conservatives are haunted by House Republicans who make all manner of campaign promises but, once in office, forget their obligations to voters or justify why they reneged on their word to support or reject a particular piece of legislation. Our biggest disappointments to date are probably their epic failure regarding Obamacare and capitulations ad nauseam regarding anything budgetary. The Republican counter-response to these repeated failures has been less than exemplary. Basically, all we’ve done is eat our own. Recall Kevin McCarthy, who had a tough time getting elected Speaker in January 2023—a prolonged, painful, and very public process that did...

President Joe Biden said Thursday that protests at college campuses across the country have not caused him to reconsider his policies in the Middle East. After a press conference addressing the widespread anti-Israel protests at college campuses over Israel’s war with Hamas and its effect in Gaza, a reporter asked Biden if the “protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region.” “No,” Biden responded before walking away from the podium. Tune in as I deliver remarks. https://t.co/zN7LMKaBIf — President Biden (@POTUS) May 2, 2024 “Mr. President, do you think the National Guard should intervene?”...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) received a stunning rebuke Wednesday on what should have been a slam-dunk resolution to oppose antisemitism followed by a rare procedural defeat on legislation to clarify mining regulations. The events, hours after Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced they would force a vote to expel Johnson, do little to show Johnson has a firm hand on the wheel. The Antisemitism Awareness Act, introduced by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Jared Moskowitz (R-FL), would mandate that when the Department of Education enforces federal anti-discrimination laws it uses a definition of antisemitism put forward...

The US military has withdrawn troops from a French military base in Chad after the country demanded they leave last month, a Pentagon spokesperson and other sources familiar with the matter told CNN on Wednesday. More than half of the US troops stationed at the French military base in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, have now left the country and relocated to Germany. CNN previously reported that fewer than 100 US troops were stationed in Chad, most of them as part of the US’ Special Operations Task Force, an important hub for US Special Operations Forces in the region. The Special Operations...

Former President Trump declined to commit to accepting Wisconsin’s November election results in an interview Wednesday, the latest instance of Trump hedging over whether he will contest the results of the election. “If everything’s honest, I’d gladly accept the results,” Trump told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview Wednesday. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country. “But if everything’s honest, which we anticipate it will be — a lot of changes have been made over the last few years — but if everything’s honest, I will absolutely accept the results,” he added. Trump...

Former President Donald Trump will address “Libertarian Party concerns” later this month at the group’s national convention in Washington, DC, the party announced Wednesday. “Libertarians are some of the most independent and thoughtful thinkers in our Country, and I am honored to join them,” Trump, 77, said in a statement. The Libertarian Party’s unprecedented decision to give the presumptive Republican nominee for president a platform at the third-party group’s 2024 nominating convention will allow Trump to court voters beyond his GOP base. “We all have to remember that our goal is to defeat the Worst President in the History of...

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke admitted Wednesday that she was arrested and chose not to disclose the legal matter during her Senate confirmation process because it had been expunged from her record. During her 2021 confirmation process, Clarke, who now heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, was asked by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in a questionnaire if she’d “ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person.” To which Clarke responded, “No.” The Daily Signal reported on Tuesday that Clarke was arrested in Maryland in relation to a domestic violence complaint back in 2006....

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who has been under the microscope this week for an anecdote about killing her dog, defended her actions Wednesday, saying she shot the “dangerous” pup in order to protect her children. “It was a dog that was extremely dangerous,” Noem said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Hannity.” “It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive.” “We were her second chance. And she was — the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbors,” she continued. “She attacked me....

Columbia University and other private colleges should cough up and help foot the bill for the NYPD having to swarm the Ivy League campus and crackdown on pro-terror protests, Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday. Hizzoner addressed the cost to Big Apple taxpayers after cops were finally called in to help oust a destructive mob that had illegally taken over Columbia’s Hamilton Hall academic building late Tuesday and to clear out an encampment on the school’s iconic lawn. “We believe that they, too, should contribute to the cost,” the mayor told FOX5 when asked whether the Ivy League school should have...

(The Center Square) – Twenty-six states sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Wednesday arguing a new federal rule it's implementing targets lawful gun owners and is unconstitutional and illegal. Texas and Kansas led two multi-state coalitions; Florida filed its own lawsuit. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced their multi-state coalitions at a joint press conference in Frisco, Texas, on Wednesday. The announcement was the first time Paxton has held a press conference about official state business since he was impeached last year. Paxton was the first Texas attorney general to...

Seven members of Northwestern University’s committee to fight antisemitism resigned in the wake of the capitulation of the university administration to many of the demands of anti-Israel, antisemitic activists earlier this week. As Breitbart News reported, Northwestern agreed to provide $2 million for Palestinian students and faculty; to provide a special house for Muslim students; and to allow activists to meet with the university’s investment advisors. In return, the activists dismantled their tents and returned to daily protests on university property. There were no other consequences for the activists who scared Jewish students, vandalized property, and disrupted campus life.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre short-circuited Wednesday when Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked who is funding the anti-Israel campus protests. Hundreds of protesters have been arrested across the U.S. as they have attempted to occupy college campuses and violently clashed with law enforcement forcing them to disperse. A mob of over 200 protesters at Columbia University barricaded Hamilton Hall in the early hours of Tuesday morning and held three janitors hostage, leading to about 100 arrests and potentially several expulsions. Jean-Pierre did not directly answer whether President Joe Biden’s administration will investigate how these protests are...

A coalition of pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) in the state of New York preemptively filed a lawsuit against the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, on April 30. The lawsuit comes just days after James sent a letter to the centers noting that she would be suing them for “misleading statements” regarding the so-called “abortion pill reversal” protocol. The Thomas More Society is representing the PRCs, including CompassCare and Heartbeat International, in the case Heartbeat, …CompassCare, et al v James. James sent a letter to 10 of the state’s PRCs on April 22, in which she indicated that she would be...

CV NEWS FEED // Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a pro-abortion campaign speech in downtown Jacksonville, FL Wednesday – the same day Florida’s pro-life law protecting most unborn children after six weeks gestation went into effect. During her remarks, she repeatedly referred to the “heartbeat” law – and other state’s pro-life laws – as a “Trump abortion ban.” Florida voters are set to decide the fate of Amendment 4 – a measure that seeks to add a so-called “right to abortion” into the state’s Constitution – on November 5, the same day as the presidential election. In her speech, Harris...

Democrats are seemingly divided on how to respond to the anti-Israel protests and encampments that have sprouted up throughout the nation, especially in the wake of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) raid of Columbia University Tuesday night. While some Democrat politicians, like Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), have expressed thankfulness that Columbia University “chose to have the police come in and take charge,” others, like Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), slammed the police response over students “simply exercising their first amendment rights.” “The protesters at Columbia demonstrated that there are two factions of the protesters — there’s the pro-Hamas, and then...

NEWARK, N.J. – Sixteen individuals were charged in connection with a sprawling “grandparent scam” to defraud hundreds of elderly Americans out of millions of dollars, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today. Eleven men from the Dominican Republic are charged in a 19-count indictment with mail and wire fraud conspiracy; wire fraud; mail fraud; conspiracy to commit money laundering; and money laundering: * Juan Rafael Parra Arias, aka “Yofre,” 40 Nefy Vladimir Parra Arias, aka “Keko,” 39 Nelson Rafael Gonzalez Acevedo, aka “Nelson Tech,” 35 * Rafael Ambiorix Rodriguez Guzman, aka “Max Morgan,” 59 Miguel Angel Fortuna Solano, aka “Botija,”...

The bill would have banned puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender surgeries for minors. The Kansas legislature failed to override the governor’s veto of a ban on transgender medical procedures for children after two Republican lawmakers flipped their votes on Monday. The failed bill would have banned puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender surgeries for minors. The state Senate successfully voted 27-13 to override the governor’s veto. However, the state House voted 82-43, just two votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to push the bill past the veto. Two Republicans broke ranks and voted with Democrats to tank the...

Louisiana Supreme Court voted to allow residents to secede from crime-ridden, Democrat-run Baton Rouge and create their own city. They plan to call the new city St. George. It will have 100,000 people, one of the largest populations of any city in the state. These people want a safe city. The Baton Rouge residents have fought for a decade to split from the city to form their own suburb following a state Supreme Court ruling.