Free Republic

UNC-Chapel Hill's Board of Trustees on Monday approved the transfer of $2.3 million in diversity and inclusion spending to public safety priorities in the 2024-25 budget. The trustees held a special meeting Monday morning. The board is scheduled to hold its regular meeting Wednesday and Thursday. The UNC System Board of Governors is expected to vote next week to eliminate diversity goals and jobs at member institutions, including UNC-Chapel Hill. A Board of Governors committee last month approved a complete rewrite of the system's existing diversity, equity and inclusion policy. The move is likely to create job losses at the...

(Screenshot: Channel 12) US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew insisted Sunday evening that “fundamentally, nothing has changed in the basic relationship” between Israel and the US — despite the decision last week by US President Joe Biden’s administration to delay a shipment of high-payload bombs to Israel, and Biden’s declaration that he would not supply offensive weapons to Israel for a major IDF offensive affecting population centers in southern Gaza’s Rafah. Noting that military aid from Washington to Jerusalem has increased since war erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, Lew stressed in a Channel 12 interview that only...

Melinda French Gates announced on Monday that she is leaving the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation next month.Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda, his ex-wife, had tried to continue working together on projects at foundation, one of the largest private philanthropies in the world, following their 2021 divorce.“After careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. My last day of work at the foundation will be June 7,” French Gates wrote on X on Monday. “This is not a decision I came to lightly."Gates said that she...

So-called ‘abortion shield laws’ will prevent pro-life states and their citizens from holding abortionists accountable.Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, pro-abortion states have begun devising measures to shelter abortionists whose operations were hampered by states that chose to protect unborn life. These so-called “abortion shield laws” — many of which are likely unconstitutional — will defeat any ability for pro-life states and their citizens to hold abortionists accountable for violating their health and safety standards. Diligently enforced, shield laws invite a new war between the states over not just the lives of unborn children, but also our...

In a bid to outflank Biden for the women's vote, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. came out in favor of abortion at any time and for any reason up until birth, saying "every baby's death is a tragedy. Many of them leave permanent trauma on a woman. But I think, ultimately, I don't trust government to have jurisdiction over people's bodies." This announcement stunned RFK's running mate Nicole Shanahan who insisted "that is not Bobby's position, at least as far as I understand it. My understanding is that he absolutely believes in limits on abortion, and we've talked...

The Athens, AL Police Department is investigating a reported attack against Tara Johnson, a Trump volunteer, outside a local Republican Party headquarters in what is alleged to have been a “politically motivated attack.” Tara Johnson, described as a “dedicated Republican volunteer” in a press release from the Alabama Republican Party, was assaulted outside the Limestone County, AL GOP Trump Headquarters over the weekend. According to Alabama Republican Party communications director Jeannie Negrón Burniston, Johnson serves as the lead volunteer despite physical mobility challenges due to health issues.

Now more than ever, we need to make sure that our elections are fair, lawfully conducted, and free of foreign influence.Congressional Democrats insist that the SAVE Act — which requires proof of citizenship to establish eligibility to vote in federal elections — is unnecessary because federal law (18 USC § 611) already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Those making this argument ignore a glaring problem: the government officials who register voters and conduct federal elections aren’t allowed to require proof of citizenship. It’s therefore shockingly easy for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, leaving our elections dangerously vulnerable...

Up to now, there is a winner and a loser out of this Manhattan trial. The winner is President Trump, who keeps getting stronger. The loser is New York, or the perception that the Empire State is a banana republic. Using the legal system to target political opponents is Banana Republic 101. This is from Jonathan Turley:Cohen’s testimony will be the culmination of this travesty of a trial. But Bragg already jumped the shark with Daniels. After three weeks, legal experts are still debating what the crime was that Trump was seeking to conceal by recording payments for a standard...

U.S. News and World Report compiled a rankings list of the best states to live in, 2024. The magazine also compiled a list of the best cities to live in 2023-2024. There are some interesting incongruities between the two. Below I highlight apparent discrepancies between three of the top ten states, and the main cities therein.For example, U.S. News ranks Washington State as the 8th best state to live in. However, in a separate ranking of best places, they rank greater Seattle a very lowly 81st best place to live.That is curious because the timeframes are the same and their...

Howard University was forced to cancel a graduation ceremony after furious relatives began banging on doors and smashing windows after the auditorium hit capacity. The graduation ceremony for the historically black college's College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences was shut down before the keynote address after space ran out at the Cramton Auditorium in Washington DC. Relatives of some of the graduates were seen on video chanting 'Let us in' as they pounded on the doors as the ceremony began on Thursday. Images showed a shattered glass door as the angry relatives tried to push their way past security....

Prince Andrew, whose involvement with Jeffrey Epstein's underaged girls has disgraced the U.K. royal family, is now causing other problems for them. According to Fox News:Prince Andrew is reportedly facing eviction from his brother, King Charles III, after neglecting to pay the annual $503,000 upkeep of his $37 million Royal Lodge mansion.The claim was made by Us Weekly, which alleged that the Duke of York is unable to keep up with the expenses to maintain the sprawling 19th-century property, which the monarch’s estate owns. A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace didn’t immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.British royal...

CLEVELAND (WJW) – The FOX 8 I-Team has found a woman captured in a wild chase through a local store has now been convicted of murder. Shanaja Jones faces decades in prison for taking part in a murder — driving the car used in the crime. But last year, we saw how desperate she was to get away from police. Cleveland police body camera video showed a wild scene inside the Walmart in the Steelyard Commons complex. Postal worker drives 100+ mph, allegedly racing Mustang At that time, police said Jones had taken part in a deadly shooting leaving one...

In an innovative thesis project that melds technology with historical preservation, Jackelyn Cordova Romano, a graduating public history student at UA Little Rock, has brought President Bill Clinton’s legacy to life through the creation of immersive virtual 3D artifacts. Through meticulous research and cutting-edge technology, Cordova Romano has meticulously recreated iconic items from President Clinton’s tenure, offering audiences an unprecedented glimpse into his presidential legacy. “My thesis is about digitizing really cool objects for the Clinton Presidential Museum,” Cordova Romano said. “The museum houses one-third of the ashes of Socks the Cat, the presidential cat who belonged to the Clintons....

Crowded enough for you at O.B., as the surfer dude haven of Ocean Beach is known in San Diego?Here come the illegals, making it even more crowded. Ocean Beach, California. Saturday, May 11, 2024 These are not Asylum seekers folks. Wake the Hell up. pic.twitter.com/6aZY9NuRo0 — Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) May 13, 2024 Yes, we've seen this phenomena already starting to happen now that San Diego has become the border crossing of choice for cartel-financed illegals into the U.S.Nobody knows who they are, where they're going, or what they're doing.But they are getting in, and what's more, nobody's doing anything about...

As I walked around taking photographs of the Anti-Israel encampment at Cornell University, one of the participants kept calling after me -- “Julie! Julie, right? Haven’t we met before?” It was one of the appointed mediators for the student activists. She wore a yellow vest, carried a walkie-talkie, and used any pretense she could think of to strike up a conversation with non-students to quickly discern their intentions. A week before I visited, twenty-two students and two staff members had been arrested for staging a sit-in in Day Hall, the administrative center for Cornell. Shortly before that, multiple suspensions had...

Lawfare against a top presidential candidate has its consequences. Do any of the Democrats engaged in lawfare against President Trump read the news about leftists south of the border who do the same things they are doing? Maybe Panama's election a week ago would be useful for them to know. According to Foreign Policy, which has a good, if somewhat left-slanted overview of what went on there: The winner, José Raúl Mulino, was a stand-in candidate for former President Ricardo Martinelli, who was disqualified due to a money laundering conviction. (Outgoing center-left President Laurentino Cortizo was barred from running due...

Defiant Columbia University graduates wore zip-tie handcuffs, brandished pro-Palestinian signs and even went as far as tearing up a diploma on stage during the Ivy League’s first commencement ceremonies last week. The protesting students were caught on camera storming across the platform on Friday to accept their degrees during ceremonies that were significantly pared after weeks of violent anti-Israel demonstrations on campus. In one of the most belligerent displays, Tarsis Salome, a Columbia social work graduate, charged forward with her zip-tied hands above her head as those in the audience cheered her on.

John Dean, former President Nixon’s White House counsel, said in an interview Saturday that the New York hush money criminal trial against former President Trump is “very powerful” ahead of highly anticipated testimony this week from Trump’s ex-fixer Michael Cohen. Dean said in a CNN interview that he has read the transcripts from the trial and thinks the prosecution has laid out a compelling case that can stand alone, independent from Cohen’s testimony. “It’s a very powerful case the government has put on in New York,” he said. “They have really filled in so many of the blanks, and they...

A postal carrier who federal prosecutors said was caught on camera stealing cash, lottery tickets, gift cards and other items from the mail in western New York has avoided a prison sentence. After community members in Rochester complained to the U.S. Postal Service that “their mail had been tampered with,” surveillance cameras were installed in the employee’s delivery vehicles and recorded her from January 2022 to November 2023, according to court documents. On 38 separate occasions, the mail carrier was seen rifling through nearly 90 pieces of mail she was meant to deliver along her route, court documents said. After...

The pattern that politicians and media outlets escape any consequences for their actions must change if America is to survive. America as we know it is facing its ultimate existential threat, all focused on whatever the left thinks it will take to ensure Donald Trump is not our next President. Our dear, constitutional America has crossed the political Rubicon (perhaps the River Styx). In addition to foreign policy, border, and economic problems, it now faces a breakdown in our justice system. Those who use governmental powers to cheat or commit politically based crimes have no concerns about punishment. Heavily abetted...