Free Republic

Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom released an ad on Sunday showing Alabama police forcing young women to undergo pregnancy tests. “Alabama’s abortion ban has no exceptions for rape or incest. Now, Republicans are trying to criminalize young women’s travel to receive abortion care. We cannot let them get away with this,” Newsom said on X as he shared the video. The video features two young, 20-something women driving an SUV toward the Alabama state line. We’re almost there. We’re gonna make it,” one woman says to the driver after looking back to see if they are being followed. Just then,...

First of all, did you even hear about the explosive device planted and detonated outside the Alabama Attorney General's office back in February? The 'news' media offered some perfunctory coverage at the time, but consider the circumstances and context: Just a few days prior, the state's Supreme Court had issued a highly controversial ruling involving frozen embryos, with possible implications for in vitro fertilization. The subsequent uproar garnered national attention, as many journalists were eager to jump all over a story they perceived as politically beneficial to both their preferred political party, and to their unlimited abortion agenda. The GOP-controlled...

First, we learned that President Joe Biden's spot on the Ohio ballot was in danger and analyzed how that might play out. We still don't even have a definitive answer to that question, but an almost identical situation has now cropped up in Alabama. The Alabama Secretary of State, a Republican, has informed the Alabama Democratic Party Chairman, letting him know that the deadline for certification of candidate names on the ballot for November falls four days before the DNC is set to begin in Chicago. The rules in Alabama appear to allow for some provisional options to avoid this...

PRICEVILLE, Ala (WHNT) — The Priceville Police Department (PPD) says it has arrested a Hartselle man and charged him with eight child porn charges. The department said Craig Anthony Knox was arrested Friday after an investigation began in February by Assistant Chief Jason Wilbanks. PPD said Knox was arrested Friday evening in the 4000, block of Highway 55 in Eva. Jail records show Knox is charged with eight counts of counts of possession of child pornography and dissemination/display of child pornography. Knox is being held at the Morgan County Jail on a $675,000 bond.

Democratic candidate Marilyn Lands on Tuesday won a special election for a state House seat in Alabama after she made in vitro fertilization and abortion rights central to her campaign. Lands, a licensed professional counselor, defeated Madison City Council member Teddy Powell, a Republican who once worked as a Defense Department budget analyst. A Republican had held the Huntsville-area seat in the state's 10th District. "Today, Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation. Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the...

(The Center Square) – Two dozen Republican U.S. senators are pushing back against the Biden administration's plan to increase taxes on the U.S. oil, natural gas and coal industries to the tune of over $110 billion. U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., led a coalition of 24 senators expressing “grave concern regarding the administration's continued hostility towards American energy production.” In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, they wrote, “America's working families and small businesses are facing immense challenges including high energy prices. At the same time, our allies and partners across the globe are asking for reliable American...

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said GOP leadership should have more carefully reviewed the claims in Sen. Katie Britt’s (R-Ala.) response to President Biden’s State of the Union address as she faces criticism for sharing a story of sexual violence from two decades ago as an attack on Biden. Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju about Britt’s decision to share the story in her response, Tuberville said, “Yeah, well, that obviously didn’t go over too well.” “I would think that our leadership would have vetted that a little bit more because I would imagine they helped her with that,” he said Sunday...

The man charged with murder after the Madison County Sheriff’s Office found a body in Harvest Thursday has apparent ties to the Alabama and Madison County GOP including working in Senator Tom Butler’s office. Kyle Lewter was charged with the murder of 54-year-old Derek Walls after the Madison County Sheriff’s Office found a body at a home on Capshaw Road. Campaign finance records and social media posts show Lewter has ties to the Alabama GOP and was in a paid position for Sen. Butler’s campaign office. A social media post by Sen. Butler in May 2022 identifies “Kyle Lewter” as...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has proposed a 10-knot speed limit for much of the Atlantic coast in a bid to protect the Whale population. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As the federal government nears final approval for a 10-knot maritime speed limit along the East Coast, the Southeastern legal Foundation is warning that such a move would adversely impact the economies of coastal communities. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has proposed a 10-knot speed limit for much of the Atlantic coast in a bid to protect the whale population. Violators could face up to $20,000 in fines and one...

Rep. Barry Moore has defeated Rep. Jerry Carl in a rare incumbent-vs.-incumbent Republican primary spurred by a Supreme Court decision forcing Alabama to adopt redrawn congressional districts, NBC News projects. Moore’s Super Tuesday victory is a win for the House Freedom Caucus — the band of far-right, anti-establishment rabble rousers that frequently clashes with GOP leadership and whose super PAC backed Moore. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a former Freedom Caucus member, campaigned alongside Moore over the weekend in Alabama.Never Carl, a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and the Republican Study Committee, is more closely aligned with the business...

An Alabama mother was kidnapped and tortured for hours before being gang-raped and murdered by a gang of eight, police say. Mahogany Jackson, 20, was stripped, handcuffed, beaten, spit on and forced to perform sex acts at gunpoint in a Birmingham apartment before being shot in the back of the head on Sunday February 25. Her torturers were four men and four women, according to prosecutors. Around 8am on February 25 Jackson messaged family members to say she was being held hostage in apartment 3 at Serenity Apartments in southwest Birmingham. The mother's body was found in the early-morning hours...

Violent crime is going down in Venezuela just as the United States has been hit with a rash of high-profile violent crimes by illegal immigrants. It’s not hard to figure out why. The killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student in Athens, Georgia, has become the latest and most prominent case of an American being killed as a consequence of President Joe Biden’s open-border policies. The man being held in connection with the killing of Riley is Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan illegal immigrant who reportedly entered the United States in 2022. Since his arrival in the U.S., he...

An explosive device was detonated outside of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office early Saturday morning, he said in a statement on Monday. Marshall said that “no staff or personnel were injured by the explosion.” “In the early hours of Saturday, February 24, an explosive device was detonated outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office building in Montgomery,” Marshall said. “Thankfully, no staff or personnel were injured by the explosion. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency will be leading the investigation, and we are urging anyone with information to contact them immediately.”

A prominent Alabama state judge was seriously wounded Saturday when a domestic dispute escalated into a shooting, and authorities took his adult son into custody. Montgomery County Judge Johnny Hardwick, a jurist for more than two decades and the current president of the Alabama Association of Circuit Court Judges, was listed in serious condition Saturday evening after undergoing surgery. Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said Hardwick’s 36-year-old son, Khalfani Hardwick, was arrested shortly after the shooting occurred. [snip] Khalfani Hardwick pled guilty in June 2017 to shooting and wounding a man in the head in Montgomery in 2014, according to...

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state.

Feb. 1 (UPI) — The United Auto Workers union said Thursday that Hyundai workers have signed up more than 30% of the auto workers at a plant in Alabama for an organizing campaign to join the union.

Former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones (D) said that the new film “War Game” shows “how close” the U.S. came to losing democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. During his appearance on CNN Saturday, the former lawmaker was asked by anchor Jim Acosta to share his thoughts about the new movie which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week. Jones, who was acting as the attorney general in the movie, said that the film is a reminder for the public about the possible outcomes of the attack on the Capitol. “I think that these kinds of films are very, very important...

The White House said Friday it was “deeply troubled” after Alabama executed a man using nitrogen gas in a first-of-its-kind capital punishment. “The reports of Kenneth Smith and his death last night obviously is very troubling. It is very troubling to us as an administration, it is very troubling to us here at the White House,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “The president has long said and has had deep deep concerns with how the death penalty is implemented and whether it is consistent … with our values,” she added. Smith was put to death Thursday in Alabama night...

A witness to the first ever US prisoner to be executed by ‘painless’ nitrogen gas says Kenneth Eugene Smith writhed in agony as he suffered a ‘horrific’ death. The killer-for-hire, 58, was fitted with a gas mask which was pumped full of 100% nitrogen gas at the execution chamber at the William C. Holman prison in Atmore, Alabama. State authorities had predicted unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes. But instead Smith took 22 minutes to die, convulsing in his chair and tugging against his restraints for several minutes before losing consciousness. At one point as the killer thrashed against...

Alabama has executed convicted murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas, the first time the method of capital punishment has been used in the US. Smith, 58, lost two final appeals to the Supreme Court and one to a federal appeals court, arguing the execution was a cruel and unusual punishment. In 2022, Alabama tried and failed to execute Smith by lethal injection. He was convicted in 1989 of murdering a preacher's wife, Elizabeth Sennett, in a killing-for-hire. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Smith is the first person to be put to death using pure nitrogen gas anywhere...