Free Republic

California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell, known for using his campaign war chest as a "personal piggy bank," according to watchdog group American Accountability Foundation, spent campaign funds at the Super Bowl and paid $50,000 to NFL teams for "event tickets," records show. Swalwell, a San Francisco 49ers superfan, attended the big game in Las Vegas with his wife on Feb. 11, where his beloved team lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. "Not the outcome we wanted," Swalwell said in a social media post from the game. Swalwell’s attendance raises questions about how a congressman known for facing financial struggles was...

Pharmacies across the United States are reporting that they are having difficulty getting prescriptions to patients because of a cyberattack on a unit of UnitedHealth. The company said in a regulatory filing Thursday its Change Healthcare business, which processes prescriptions to insurance for tens of thousands of pharmacies nationwide, was compromised by hackers who gained access to some of its systems. The company became aware of the cyberattack Wednesday, and, in a separate statement, said it expected the attack to last at least throughout the day Thursday. The cyberattack prevented some pharmacies from processing prescriptions to insurance companies to receive...

Capital One Financial is set to acquire Discover Financial Services , according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The deal could be announced Tuesday, the outlet said, citing sources. The merger of the two companies, who are among the largest credit card issuers in the U.S., would expand Capital One’s credit-card offerings. The news comes on the back of a Bloomberg News report on Monday that Capital One was considering an acquisition. Shares of Discover are down 1.7% lower for the year, putting the company at a $27.63 billion market cap. Capital One has a market cap of...

State’s licensing process has created too much product and not enough places to sell it, a consultant and retail-store applicant sayNew York state has only opened about 50 legal stores, yet state-legal cannabis farmers grew enough product this past summer and fall to supply up to 1,500 stores, a consultant who works in the industry said. [Snip] Meanwhile, the illicit market continues to thrive, with thousands of unlicensed shops. While the state has issued 460 retail licenses to nonprofits and people displaced by the war on drugs under its CAURD program, it’s been difficult for most licensees to find real...

United Parcel Service said Tuesday that it plans to cut about 12,000 jobs this year, a move that the package-delivery giant said would result in $1 billion in savings. Most of the cuts will be to full-time and part-time management positions and contract workers, and executives said they don’t expect these jobs to return when parcel volumes return. UPS has around 85,000 workers in management. [Snip] The job cuts were unveiled after the company said its revenue declined in the last quarter of 2023 as volumes in both its domestic and international businesses dropped.

Conservative talk show hosts, FEMA are fighting carmakers, tech industries in lobbying battle over drive-time radioA motley crew of AM radio advocates, including conservative talk show hosts like Hugh Hewitt and federal emergency officials, are lobbying Congress to stop carmakers from dropping the old medium from new vehicles. Tesla, Volvo, and BMW are among the companies that have already stopped providing AM tuners in some models. Last year Ford said it would join them—until CEO Jim Farley reversed course “after speaking with policy leaders.” [Snip] Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Ed Markey (D., Mass.) are leading the Senate effort,...

Longtime Apple board member Al Gore is retiring from the board, the company announced Thursday. The former U.S. vice president had been a board member since 2003, a witness of the company’s rise and transformation a few years after the return of co-founder Steve Jobs as chief executive. “For more than 20 years, Al has contributed an incredible amount to our work—from his unconditional support for protecting our users’ privacy, to his incomparable knowledge of environment and climate issues,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a statement. Retired Boeing company executive James Bell, who joined Apple’s board in 2015,...

John Kerry is stepping down as the president’s special envoy for climate this spring, according to two people familiar with the decision. The change comes weeks after Kerry, 80, played a key role during a climate conference in Dubai helping to forge a compromise among nearly 200 countries aimed at reducing fossil fuels. The White House didn’t immediately comment on Kerry’s decision. Kerry, whose departure will come as President Biden is intensifying his re-election campaign, is one of the few top officials to depart an administration that has had historically low turnover. Kerry has held the post for three years...

FDA’s decision could change the way Americans obtain prescription medicinesThe Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow the first state to import drugs from Canada, a milestone in efforts to reduce the cost of medicines that could change the way Americans fill prescriptions. The agency said Friday it would allow Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada. Several other states have filed similar requests with the agency. The approval opens the door to a new, lower-cost source of prescription drugs, beyond the retail and mail-order pharmacies—and the U.S. supply chain they are part of—that Americans have relied on for...

A French law has forced the fast-food giant to serve fries and sodas in washable containers; now it is fighting a wider rollout PARIS—A McDonald’s MCD -0.44%decrease; red down pointing triangle on a buzzy boulevard here offers a glimpse of what the future of serving fast food could look like. The burger giant doesn’t like what it sees. For those dining in, french fries are served in durable red containers, soda is dispensed into clear washable glasses and chicken nuggets come in hard plastic white bowls. When customers are finished eating, they are asked to drop the containers into a...

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, has died. O’Connor was 93 years old. This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities on Thursday were trying to determine who sent letters filled with fentanyl or other substances to local election offices, an attack that appears to have targeted multiple states in the latest instance of threats faced by election workers around the country.</p>

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cut through the red tape to rescue Floridians stranded in Israel. What we didn’t know is that he’s also planning to pick up non-Floridian Americans, as well as those Joe Biden dumped in Greece. “We knew there’d be people that wanted to get back, many hundreds, maybe even more than 1,000. And they were not getting any luck with the State Department or with the embassy. So I did an executive order last week, activating Florida emergency response to be able to bring planes in there and take people back home.” “I had mothers that were...

Within two days of announcing Florida would arrange transportation for Americans stranded in Israel and bring them to Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis welcomed home nearly 300 Sunday night. We’re happy to be able to deliver and ready to welcome them back to the United States of America.” Florida partnered with Project Dynamo to bring nearly 300 Americans home from Israel, including more than 270 to Tampa and seven to Orlando on Sunday. “I am proud of how quickly we have been able to activate resources and do what the federal government could not – get Floridians and other Americans back...

NORFOLK — “I see him!” exclaimed 8-year-old Penelope Holbert, vigorously waving. Her father, Petty Officer 1st Class Drew Holbert waved back from a platform at the stern of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Holbert, an aviation structural mechanic, was one of 5,000 sailors who deployed Saturday aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower — the flagship of the Ike carrier strike group. It has long been scheduled to deploy this week to the Mediterranean. [Snip] The Eisenhower is expected to be deployed for about six months. [Snip] The Virginia Beach strike fighter squadrons known as Gunslingers, Fighting Swordsmen, Rampagers and Wildcats...

TEL AVIV—Hamas militants who flooded into southern Israel from Gaza last weekend carried detailed maps of the towns and military bases that they targeted. Some also carried tactical guides identifying weak spots on Israeli army armored vehicles. The documents, written in Arabic, were recovered from the sites of attacks or bodies of dead Hamas fighters by Israeli civilians, soldiers and emergency personnel. Taken together, the documents indicate that Hamas set out from the start to target not just military installations, but to attack civilian population centers and to take hostages, and they offer evidence of the scale of Hamas’s intelligence-gathering...

President Biden was interviewed by special counsel Robert Hur as part of the ongoing investigation into the president's handling of classified documents, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel Office said. "The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday," the spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement. "We would refer other questions to the Justice Department at this time." The interview occurred during two days where the White House — and Biden — were focused on the ongoing crisis in Israel. The special counsel investigation began after Biden's lawyers found...

DUBAI—Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group. Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions—the most significant breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War—those people said. Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power...

The news out of Israel since Hamas launched unprecedented vicious attacks early Saturday morning has been horrific. Latest reports place the Israeli death toll at more than 600, with thousands injured and dozens of people held hostage. Now, there are reports that Americans are among those killed and held hostage. Israel's UN Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, told Will Cain on Fox & Friends Sunday that there are dozens of American citizens among those being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. @Will Cain via X, formerly known as Twitter: Was just told by Israel’s Ambassador to the UN that there are dozens...

DiFi has died.