Free Republic

An investment firm led by the billionaire Stephen Deckoff has bought two private islands in the U.S Virgin Islands previously owned by the late notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, Deckoff confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday. Forbes first reported that Deckoff, the founder of the private equity firm Black Diamond Capital Management, purchased the two islands for $60 million, less than half of their initial asking price. One of the islands was used by Epstein to sexually abuse young women for years, according to court filings. “Mr. Deckoff plans to develop a state-of-the-art, five-star, world-class luxury 25-room resort that will help...

Los Angeles County has reinstated a mask mandate for all patients and staff at health care facilities heading into 2024, as a winter surge in coronavirus cases has reached key benchmarks. Local ABC affiliate KABC-7 reported Saturday: “Over the past week in Los Angeles County, there have been notable, yet not unexpected, increases in COVID-19 reported cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement. “While recent increases are significant, they remain considerably below last winter’s peak and common-sense protections are strongly recommended to help curb transmission and severe illness as the new...

Lisa Page, the Trump-bashing ex-FBI lawyer who had an affair with a senior official she worked with investigating Russiagate, has split from her husband of 15 years, DailyMail.com can reveal. Divorce papers filed in the District of Columbia Superior Court show the 44-year-old's divorce from non-profit executive Joseph Burrow, 46, was finalized on June 29. Page blamed 'unhappy and irreconcilable differences' when she asked a DC judge to grant her a divorce in May, just days before the anniversary of their 2008 wedding in Naples, Italy. The secret trysts between her and Peter Strzok, one of the Bureau's top counter-intelligence...

Dozens of protesters blocked lanes outside an entrance to LAX, and the Los Angeles Police Department has announced that more than 30 people have been arrested in connection with the demonstration, which was described as “not…peaceful.” The Los Angeles Airport Police Department first reported the protest at the Century Boulevard entrance near Sepulveda Boulevard at 9:25 a.m. Wednesday

Cities across the United States have seen huge increases in retail theft since 2019 with New York City and Los Angeles suffering the most. There have been 8,453 more shoplifting incidents across 24 cities in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2019, according to data from the Council on Criminal Justice. Crime-ridden New York City has seen the biggest impact with a 64 percent increase in retail theft, followed by Los Angeles with a 61 percent jump and Virginia Beach, Virginia, which has seen a 44 percent rise. Dallas and Raleigh, North Carolina, round off...

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has promoted a former public defender to his chief of staff who has called the Los Angeles Police Department "barbarians." Tiffiny Blacknell, who has served in the district attorney's office as a grade 4 prosecutor, special advisor, and chief of communications, was promoted to be Gascón's chief of staff on Friday, multiple sources tell Fox News. Her new role will begin Jan. 16. During the protests following George Floyd's death, Blacknell made a post on X referring to the Los Angeles Police Department as "barbarians," and "an occupying army," and used the "#DefundPolice" hashtag....

The 110 is one of Los Angeles's busiest and most roaringly hellish freeways. Some people consider it the worst, or pretty close. My choice for 'worst' is the 101, but the 110 is right up there. If you have ever been on the 110, you would know that it isn't all that wide, and it's loaded with big rigs roaring down in high-speed convoys, coming and going from the Port of Los Angeles. SNIP So which highway did a band of leftist goofs, this group called "If Not Now LA" who apparently were leftist Jews imagining that appeasing Hamas would...

A Los Angeles businessman whose warehouse was looted by a mob of young people who crashed their way through the gate in a stolen car is demanding Democratic leaders take crime more seriously. "I voted for Karen Bass. I voted for Biden. I voted for Gavin Newsom. I’m sick of it," Ryan Baggaley told FOX Los Angeles outside his boarded-up warehouse Wednesday. "It’s like, at some point you have to give me a reason to vote for you again." Baggaley, speaking with Fox News Digital, said he and his three brothers run the family construction business that their father founded...

A new report just released by the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has offered shocking new insights into the full extent of the FBI’s efforts to use government power and resources to target, intimidate, and harass Catholics, pro-life activists, and other members of the religious community. The December 4 report found, among other disturbing revelations, that the FBI “abused its counterterrorism tools to target Catholic Americans as potential domestic terrorists” when agency operatives in Richmond, Virginia, circulated a memo designating so-called “radical-traditionalist Catholic[s]” as potential “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.” “The Committee and Select Subcommittee...

The FBI reportedly arrested conservative actor Siaka Massaquoi after returning home from a Daily Wire movie premier for misdemeanor charges related to J6. “On Thursday, November 30th, Siaka Massaquoi and his pregnant wife, Charlotte, were headed home on a flight returning from the The Daily Wire’s Lady Ballers movie premier in Nashville, Tennessee,” a GiveSendGo page read. “Upon their arrival, Siaka was separated from his wife and abruptly arrested by the FBI. At the time, Charlotte was told the charges had to do with January 6th; however, she was not presented with any arrest warrant. Siaka was taken to Monterey...

A former FBI informant stabbed Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer who was convicted for murdering George Floyd, according to court documents filed on Dec. 1. John Turscak, 52, stabbed Mr. Chauvin 22 times with an "improvised knife" in federal prison in Arizona, according to the documents. Mr. Turscak was subdued by responding corrections officers. Mr. Turscak later told officers he would have killed Mr. Chauvin if the officers had not responded so quickly, federal prosecutors said in the documents. The stabbing took place on Nov. 24 at about 12:30 p.m. Mr. Turscak waived his Miranda rights and told FBI agents...

The man fatally shot by a California Highway Patrol officer on a Los Angeles freeway was a troubled struggling actor — whose family always “backed the blue” before seeing video of him killed by “absolute police brutality,” his stepmom said. Jesse Dominguez, an aspiring actor working as a waiter and living in a sober living facility due to drug addiction, was shot dead by police during what his family claims was likely a mental health crisis while he was living sober living facility

Commuters in Los Angeles are bracing for an all-day traffic nightmare after one of the nation's busiest freeways was shut down indefinitely by a massive fire that erupted over the weekend in a storage yard underneath the normally congested artery. The 10 Freeway, traversed by more than 300,000 drivers daily, remained closed in both directions as authorities suggested a series of detours and announced there is no timeline on when the thoroughfare through downtown Los Angeles will reopen. "As we made clear yesterday, this was a huge fire and the damage will not be fixed in an instant," Los Angeles...

Louisiana is likely to pass a Constituional Carry bill and enact it into law in 2024. The particulars of the bill are unknown. The 56th Governor of Louisiana is John Bel Edwards. Edwards vetoed a constitutional carry bill in June of 2021. The next governor of Louisiana was elected on October 14, 2023. Louisiana has an unusual primary election, where all candidates are on the ballot. If one candidate obtains more than 50% of the vote in the primary, they are elected governor. On October 14, Jeff Landry (R) won the primary with 51.6% of the vote. Landry is expected...

A network of "sophisticated" high-end brothels in greater Boston and eastern Virginia provided sex for pay to "elected officials, high tech and pharmaceutical executives, doctors, military officers, government contractors that possess security clearances, professors," and others, federal prosecutors said Wednesday...Charged in the case were Han "Hana" Lee, 41, Junmyung Lee, 30, and 68-year-old James Lee.

City’s new landmarks are struggling office buildings and a shopping mall losing tenants.. As it rolls toward downtown San Francisco, the California Street cable car passes the gothic Grace Cathedral and an 8-foot tall statue of Tony Bennett. Then riders start to see the city’s newest landmarks. Among them is 650 California Street, a 34-story office building that has defaulted on its mortgage. Further on is 101 California, whose second-biggest tenant left last year and whose biggest is slashing staff and office space. Go around the corner, and Embarcadero Square is for sale for $90 million. Its owner bought it...

The Los Angeles city council voted unanimously to pursue a lawsuit and criminal probe against Texas over its migrant busing program this week. The Wednesday vote came just hours after the eleventh migrant bus since June arrived in the city's jurisdiction carrying 42 migrants. The council requested that the city attorney's office investigate whether Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had committed any crimes through the program, and whether there is justification for a lawsuit. Abbott's program has delivered a total of 435 migrants to Los Angeles since buses started arriving on June 14. In all, the program has sent more than...

A Los Angeles city official wants to ban cashless businesses in the area, arguing they exclude low-income people and others who don't carry credit cards. "Cashless businesses create an economy in our City that is not inclusive and accessible for all people," Councilwoman Heather Hutt said in a press release introducing a motion on the topic. "There are many unbanked groups, including BIPOC and low-income communities, that rely on cash to pay for goods and services." It comes as more businesses in the area are opting for cashless payments like credit cards or digital payments through apps. Those options, businesses...

California has been hit by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake as Hurricane Hilary hits LA and San Diego with 80mph winds. The quake centered in Ventura County was felt across parts of Southern California on Sunday afternoon. The center is reported to have been four miles southeast of Ojai, about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Shaking was reported in Malibu, Porter Ranch, parts of Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach and other locations. A tornado warning has also been issued for San Diego and the surrounding Alpine and Descanso areas. The National Weather Service released the warning at t 3:39 p.m. on...

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Sunday he thinks former President Trump should drop out of the 2024 presidential race. “I think so,” Cassidy said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked whether Trump should drop out. “But obviously, that’s up to him. I mean, you’re just asking me my opinion, but he will lose to Joe Biden if you look at the current polls.” “I’m a Republican. I think any Republican on that stage in Milwaukee will do a better job than Joe Biden. And so I want one of them to win,” Cassidy continued. “If former President Trump...