Free Republic

"And so we are bringing that same notion [from Google] and approach to YouTube, so that we can rank higher quality stuff better and really prevent borderline content — content which doesn’t exactly violate policies, which need to be removed, but which can still cause harm."

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is attending a 2020 fundraiser hosted by Broadway executive Jordan Roth and his husband Richie Jackson, according to an invite first obtained by CNBC. The suggested contributions for the event range from $250 to $2,800. Roth is the son of real estate titan Steven Roth, who has a net-worth of $1.1 billion. Mayor and 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigieg is making inroads into the New York donor circuit as he prepares to attend a campaign fundraiser hosted by Broadway executive Jordan Roth. Roth, and his husband, Richie Jackson, who is a movie producer, will be...

On Monday, tech website Recode published an interview conducted by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki with Recode's co-founder Kara Swisher, who bemoaned that her 13-year-old son had started watching Ben Shapiro videos, claimed watching the videos was a "gateway drug" to eventually watching Neo-Nazi videos, and said she would remove Shapiro's video’s from YouTube if she could. That prompted Shapiro to fire back on Twitter, "It seems rather illiberal of you to ask YouTube to ban my videos."

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar ripped former President Barack Obama in an interview published Friday, belittling his "pretty face" and saying his agenda of hope and change was an illusion. She cited the "caging of kids" at the Mexican border and the "droning of countries around the world" on Obama's watch — and argued that he wasn’t much different from President Trump

Drugs and syringes have become such a problem in Starbucks bathrooms that the company is installing needle-disposal boxes in certain locations Starbucks is installing boxes for safe disposal of syringes in the bathrooms of certain locations, following workers' reports of discarded needles and sometimes concerning conditions. The coffee giant is exploring remedies after employees expressed fears about being pricked by uncapped needles and experiencing related health risks. Starbucks is testing solutions, including installing sharps-disposal boxes, using heavier-duty trash bags to prevent needle pokes, and removing trash cans from certain bathrooms.

This is a must read, from lawyer Jonathan Turley's blog: The passage of a polygraph by Christine Blasey Ford has been a key factor for many in believing her story — a fact cited by various members of Congress. However, my main interest is the polygraph itself, which does not sound like any legitimate polygraph that I have encountered. I have handled a number of polygraph cases in my career and the description of these questions are nothing short of bizarre as a reliable test. The most notable aspect of the story however is the only two "relevant" questions asked...

Two migrants from Afghanistan have been arrested over the three-hour gang rape of a woman that was broadcast on Facebook Live. The men, aged 18 and 20, have been remanded in custody following the attack in Sweden last week. A 24-year-old man from Sweden was arrested for failing to report rape. The three, who cannot be legally identified under Swedish law, have not been charged. In Sweden a person suspected of a serious crime can be detained without being charged with the approval of a court. But this is only if there is a risk they will flee the country....

VIDEO AT LINK Barack Obama told an audience of Argentinian youth that the differences between socialism and capitalism make interesting conversation but just pick whatever works. The ideological-left US president suddenly doesn't have an affinity for ideology. He said in the past there was a sharp division between communists, socialists and capitalists but that is merely an intellectual argument and it's not so today. The Marxist in the White House is erasing the lines between two dangerous ideologies and the one that made the US great, just as he erased our borders. This is a man who would be at...

Real estate mogul Donald Trump would not let states take control of federal lands, the Republican presidential candidate said in a recent interview. "I don't like the idea because I want to keep the lands great, and you don't know what the state is going to do," Trump said during a talk with Field & Stream magazine earlier this week. The trade publication, sitting down with Trump at Las Vegas' Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show, had asked about the issue of turning over federally controlled lands to individual states -- an idea previously floated by rival 2016 contender and...

Another move to ban child marriages in Pakistan has fallen at the first hurdle. The bill to prohibit underage marriages has been withdrawn after the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) declared it un-Islamic. The ruling party lawmaker, who moved the bill, withdrew her proposal on Thursday following staunch resistance from the council, which advises the legislature whether or not a certain law is Sharia-compliant. The CII has already ruled the minimum age stipulated for marriage in the Child Marriages Restriction Act of 1929 does not comply with Islamic laws. In May 2014, amid severe criticism from various quarters, the council...

Protests erupted on the Claremont McKenna College campus Thursday after photos of controversial costumes from a Halloween party showed up on social media. Thousands of students from the five Claremont campuses marched through the area after a photo of two girls dressed in sombreros and ponchos with mustaches was posted on Tumblr and was circulated on social media. "It's not about the picture. It's about the systematic oppression that students are facing here," student Edgar Morelos said. Dean Mary Spellman resigned in the wake of ongoing student complaints about the campus' race issues. One of the students in the photo...

Brenda Smith-Lezama, vice president of the Missouri Students Association, appeared on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon to express her disdain at people using their First Amendment rights to create a "hostile" and "unsafe" learning environment. Smith-Lezama advocated for a safe space for "healing" rather than "experiencing a lot of hate." "I personally am tired of hearing that first amendment rights protect students when they are creating a hostile and unsafe learning environment for myself and for other students here," Smith-Lezama said on MSNBC. "I think that it's important for us to create that distinction and create a space where we can all...

Jonathan Butler, a central figure in the protests at the University of Missouri, is an Omaha native and the son of a railroad vice president, the Omaha World-Herald reports. Butler refused food last week in a move to force the university system's president, Timothy M. Wolfe, from office. Wolfe resigned Monday and Butler ended his hunger strike. He is a member of a prominent Omaha family. The newspaper says that Butler's father is Eric L. Butler, executive vice president for sales and marketing for the Union Pacific Railroad. His 2014 compensation was $8.4 million, according to regulatory filings with the...

The International Olympic Committee just got an eyeful of the City of Angels. Los Angeles is amazing and diverse. That is the message in a new promotional video released Monday by Los Angeles' 2024 Olympic bid organizers. In the video, which is a little longer than a minute, L.A. is called the "western capital of the U.S., the northern capital of Latin America and the eastern capital of the Pacific Rim." All that is accompanied with amazing visuals of some of the city's most iconic sites. "Hosting the Games in Los Angeles would give our city the chance to show...

"I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves." Those of us concerned about liberty have had good reason of late to be interested in Ronald Reagan. Increasingly, California's former governor has been turning up in first place among Republican figures in political opinion polls, among Independents as well as Republicans. In addition, in recent months Reagan has taken to using the term "libertarian" (or "libertarian-conservative") to describe his political philosophy. All of which naturally made us interested in taking a closer look at the man and his ideas. Thanks to the efforts of the late Ned Hutchinson...

Led by conservative activist and talk show host Glenn Beck, more than 20,000 people chanting "All Lives Matter" marched the historic civil rights route from Kelly Ingram Park to Birmingham City Hall this morning. "It's about taking our church out in the streets," Beck said. He said marchers came from as far away as China, Dubai and the Netherlands. Actor Chuck Norris, a conservative activist known for his martial arts, action movies and TV show "Walker, Texas Ranger," marched about two rows behind Beck. Alveda King, a niece of civil rights activist the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., marched in...

An administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested at a recent roundtable conversation that, in order to combat "overpolicing" in the community, police should no longer respond to shoplifting claims at large stores such as Wal-Mart, and shouldn't agree to prosecute people caught stealing. "I just don't think that they should be prosecuting cases ... for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I just don't think that, right?" said UW-Madison director of community relations Everett Mitchell. "I don't think [with] Target or all them other places, them big box stores that have insurance, they should be using justification, the fact that...

Louisiana governor and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal will counter pro-Planned Parenthood protests today with a protest of his own -- in the form of a continuous video loop of the seven undercover videos showing illegal abortions and fetal harvesting by Planned Parenthood clinics. The videos, some of which include graphic footage of abortion workers sorting through the dismembered arms, legs and other body parts of aborted babies as old as 20-weeks gestation, will show on an outdoor movie theater outside the Louisiana governor's mansion. The pro-Planned Parenthood protest is set to take place at 4:30 CT. The screening of...

On Monday's "The Five" on the Fox News Channel, panelist Geraldo Rivera suggested in a segment reacting to former Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R-FL) formal announcement of his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination that Bush may be more Latino than one of his competitors, Sen. Marco Rubio.

The FCC is readying a proposal to extend the controversial subsidy program to broadband.Conservatives have reserved their worst epithet for the Lifeline program, which provides discounted phone service to low-income families: "Obamaphone." Liberals call it a vital source of empowerment for the poor. Now the Federal Communications Commission is readying a proposal to extend the subsidies to the Internet, setting up a new battle with Republicans who already want to shut down the effort.