Free Republic

Nikola founder Trevor Milton was sentenced Monday to four years in prison in connection to defrauding investors of the embattled electric- and hydrogen-powered truck maker. Milton also was fined $1 million and could later be forced to forfeit property as part of his sentence. The punishment was far lower than the 11 years prosecutors had requested at Milton’s sentencing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. But it was substantially more than the non-jail sentence of probation sought by Milton’s attorneys. “I did not intend to harm anyone and I did not commit those crimes levied against me,” Milton told Judge...

The former home of the late Michael Nesmith, a member of the iconic made-for-TV band, The Monkees, is up for grabs. Nesmith, who died in 2021, lived in this three-bedroom, 3.5-bath home in Carmel Valley, CA, about 20 minutes from the coast. The house is listed for $3.5 million. The ranch-style pad is spread over 3,365 square feet, all tucked into a gated community called Sleepy Hollow. The dwelling sits on more than 6 acres, surrounded by majestic oaks and stunning vistas. The living room features a vaulted, beamed ceiling with large windows and a brick fireplace. This main room...

Forget the national polls that show the country has soured on President Joe Biden, and consider the Electoral College with less than 11 months until Election Day 2024. Former President Donald Trump would need to flip three states Biden won in 2020 to complete his political resurrection and retake the White House – and a new set of CNN battleground state polls out Monday suggests that if the election were held today, Trump is most of the way there. Biden, like Hillary Clinton, got millions more votes nationwide than Trump, but Biden secured the White House in 2020 thanks to...

What to know about the UNLV shooting The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is responding to reports of an active shooter on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The shooting occurred near Beam Hall. There appears to be multiple victims, police said in a post on X. Police urged everyone to avoid the area.

In late 2020, Colorado voters did something relatively unprecedented in the nation’s history by voting to reintroduce wolves to the state. That process, several years in the works now, will involve transplanting wolves from Oregon — and even though the measure was given the goahead three years ago, some opponents of the measure remain skeptical. That in and of itself isn’t too surprising; you’d think that if people changed their mind on how they’d voted, it would likely happen after wolves returned to Colorado, and that hasn’t happened yet. A recent article at NPR by Kurt Siegler offers a good...

Imperial County, a sprawling desert region three hours southeast of Los Angeles that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, may not be what you would typically associate with Southern California. Home to ramshackle landmarks like Salvation Mountain, the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach, it’s the least populated county in the region with just 180,000 residents. But U.S. politicians are suddenly interested in this rural area for other reasons — namely, the wealth of lithium deep beneath its surface. The rare mineral used in batteries, now in particularly high demand with the rise of electric vehicles, could be enough to produce 375 million...

* President Biden shows significant vulnerability in five critical demographic groups based on the TIPP Presidential Leadership Index * Our analysis categorizes 21 vulnerable demographic groups into three levels of negative momentum: significant, considerable, and moderate One year before the 2024 election, President Biden faces challenges among several demographic groups. Using our TIPP Presidential Leadership Index, we identify 21 demographic segments where Biden is vulnerable. Our analysis reveals that his greatest vulnerability lies in the Midwest, among individuals aged 18-24, moderates, households with incomes under $30K, and households in the $50K-$75K bracket. Presidential Leadership Index Two decades ago, TIPP developed...

Daryl Hall has filed a lawsuit against his Hall & Oates bandmate John Oates. The Grammy-nominated duo have broken up and reunited several times throughout their career with Hall, 77 and his trust, The Daryl Hall Revocable Trust, now suing Oates, 75, as well as his individual trust, The John W. Oates TISA Trust and its co-trustees, in the Nashville Chancery Court on Nov. 16, per The Philadelphia Inquirer. With the documents being sealed and classified as a 'contract/debt' matter and neither party yet to make a statement on the situation, details of the lawsuit are slim. However, TMZ claims...

Venture capitalist Kenneth Ballenegger has been suspended from the US investment firm he cofounded, Oyster Ventures, after making offensive remarks on X on the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to screenshots shared with Business Insider, Ballenegger wrote on Sunday: "After the war, Israel should handle Gaza like China handles Xinjiang. Full surveillance state. Re education camps. Sterilizations. It's warranted and the only way to pacify the jihadi population." Responding to criticism from a former colleague, Ballenegger continued: "They reproduce like rabbits and raise them to be terrorists, creating more poverty misery and terrorism. Why should we allow that. The world would be...

The Sphere in Las Vegas reported an operating loss of $98.4 million for the fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, Sphere Entertainment Co. said this morning on an earnings call. Additionally, the company lost its chief financial officer, as Gautam Ranji has resigned, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Ranji’s exit was “not a result of any disagreement with the company’s independent auditors or any member of management on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or internal controls,” the company said in the filing. The New York Post reported Tuesday that Ranji suddenly quit after...

I’d never seen anyone talk so excitedly about a mayor. I drove up to the California mountain town of Idyllwild in March 2022 for a day trip and was finishing a purchase at a local vintage store when the cashier informed me, “The mayor is in town.” Before I could say anything, another shopper swung around with a big smile and asked, “Is he really?” I listened to them talk ecstatically about the mayor for a few minutes, until finally the cashier clued me in: The mayor was a dog. Everything suddenly made sense, and of course I had to...

Like presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy and Hung Cao, running against Tim Kaine for the Senate in Virginia, Qiu marks the rise of a new kind of Republican—one who speaks the language of MAGA (railing against our “endless migrant crisis” and “open border”) but is younger, less angry, more ecumenical, and from a minority group that has historically voted with the Democratic Party. “We’re expanding the boundaries of the MAGA agenda,” Kenny Xu, who is running in the Republican primary in North Carolina’s Thirteenth Congressional District, said in a phone interview. Xu, the 26-year-old author of School of Woke: How Critical...

Kentucky governor: ANDY BESHEAR (D) vs. Daniel Cameron (R) Mississippi governor: TATE REEVES (R) vs. Brandon Presley (D) Ohio Issue 1: Whether to establish a right to abortion in state constitution Pennsylvania state Supreme Court: Daniel McCaffery (D) vs. Carolyn Carluccio (R) Virginia state Senate: 31st District: Russet Perry (D) vs. Juan Pablo Segura (R) Virginia state Senate: 16th District: SIOBHAN DUNNAVANT (R) vs. Schuyler VanValkenburg (D) Virginia state House: 57th District: Susanna Gibson (D) vs. David Owen (R) New Jersey state Senate: 3rd District: ED DURR (R) vs. John Burzichelli (D) Rhode Island congressional special election: 1st District: Gabe...

A U.S. jury on Tuesday said the National Association of Realtors and several real estate companies, including units of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), must pay $1.78 billion in damages for conspiring to artificially inflate commissions that home sellers pay to buyers' brokers. The verdict followed a two-week trial in the Kansas City, Missouri, federal court, where the case had drawn widespread attention for challenging widely used real estate industry practices. The jury award will be automatically tripled under U.S. antitrust law to more than $5.3 billion, said Michael Ketchmark, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. "Today was a day...

The release of American hostages Judith and Natalie Raanan by Hamas has sparked a dispute between their family and controversial activist Shaun King, who claimed on social media that he “worked frantically behind the scenes to help make this possible.” Relatives of the Raanans, who were visiting Israel from Illinois when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, disavowed King in a statement. “First and foremost, we make it clear that he is lying! Our family does not and did not have anything to do with him, neither directly nor indirectly. Not to him and not to anything he claims to represent,”...

An attorney serving in the Illinois state Comptroller’s Office has been fired for an antisemitic tirade in which she told a Jewish person that she wanted them to face the gas chamber and said, “Hitler should have eradicated all of you.” Sarah Chowdhury referred to Jews as “vermin” and said “all Zionists should pay” in private messages with an Instagram account called Big Law Boiz. Other messages, which the Instagram user screenshotted and were later posted to X, included, “Hopefully someone sends you anthrax or poison and you die a slow terrible death.” In the messages, she also said, “I’d...

Three members of a California family pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy for their role in a ring that shipped $600 million worth of stolen catalytic converters from California to New Jersey, federal prosecutors said. Brothers Tou Sue Vang, 32, and Andrew Vang, 28, along with their mother, Monica Moua, 58, were part of “a national network of thieves, dealers, and processors” who provided the stolen auto anti-smog devices to a metal refinery for more than $600 million, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office. Twenty-one people from California and New Jersey have been charged in the case, prosecutors...

A Cornell University professor was caught on camera telling students Hamas’ terror attack on Israel — which has left more than 1,400 dead — was “exhilarating” and “energizing.” The remarks were made at a pro-Palestine protest by Russell Rickford, an associate professor of history at the top-tier Ithaca, New York, school and posted online Sunday by a student who called them “shameful.” The footage of Rickford’s impassioned speech was also shared with The Post by two other tipsters. They declined to say when and where exactly the rally took place, but both said they were shocked by the brazen remarks....

New York University's Law School Bar Association president stated that Hamas' slaughter of children in Israel was 'necessary,' in an email send to members of the university community. Ryna Workman, 24, a non-binary student at NYU's School of Law sent a weekly newsletter saying the murder of innocent Israeli children, women, and citizens this past week was is Israel's 'full responsibility.' Workman, from Simpsonville, South Carolina, also refused to condemn Hamas - an internationally-recognized terrorist group who have triggered the all-out war. New York University told DailyMail.com that Workman's statement 'does not in any way reflect the point of view...

2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce he will run as an independent on October 9 in Pennsylvania, Mediaite has learned. Kennedy’s campaign machine is now planning “attack ads” against the Democratic National Committee in order to “pave the way” for his announcement in Philadelphia about running as an independent, according to a text reviewed by Mediaite. “Bobby feels that the DNC is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy so an independent run is the only way to go,” a Kennedy campaign insider told Mediaite. Kennedy, a notorious anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist challenging incumbent President Joe Biden...