Free Republic

A staffer for the Democrat Governor of Massachusetts has been fired after he was arrested on drug and gun charges. Lamar Cook, who was a member of Gov. Maura Healey’s staff, was arrested after police executed a search warrant at his state office in Springfield. During the search, authorities seized eight grams inside of his government office. The now former Deputy Director of the governor’s western Massachusetts office has since been charged with cocaine trafficking and unlawful possession of a gun. Per CBS News: A member of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s staff has been fired after he was arrested on...

The deputy director of Governor Maura Healey’s western Massachusetts office, LaMar Cook, was arrested and terminated from his position after several kilograms of suspected cocaine were seized. The Hampden District Attorney’s Office told 22News that an ongoing investigation is being conducted after multiple parcels were seized that contained a combined total of approximately 21 kilograms of suspected cocaine. 22News obtained the court documents that state two packages sent from an address in Atlanta, Georgia, were intercepted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 8. The packages contained approximately 12 kilograms of cocaine (several imprinted with the word...

A bronze statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike, which was toppled by demonstrators in 2020 following George Floyd’s death, was reinstalled this past weekend in Washington, D.C. The statue, which stands 11 feet tall atop a 16-foot granite pedestal, was pulled down with ropes, spray-painted with graffiti and set on fire by demonstrators who viewed it as a symbol of systemic racism and the Confederacy. Pike was a Confederate general in the Civil War and also served as an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. He was one of the most influential figures in the history of American Freemasonry...

Indian national has been charged with allegedly stabbing two minor victims with a metal fork while on board a Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Germany. Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli, 28, is charged in U.S. District Court with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm while traveling on an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States. According to the charging documents, on Oct. 25, 2025, while on board Lufthansa flight 431 en route from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, Usiripalli allegedly stabbed a 17-year-old male passenger (Minor A) in the shoulder area with...

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) has spent millions of dollars in 2025 supporting an array of anti-Israel groups, several of which have ties to terrorism abroad and extremist activists in the United States, a Washington Free Beacon review of the organization’s grantees shows. The RBF in April of this year awarded a $135,000 grant to 7amleh, the "Arab Center for Social Media Advancement," under the umbrella of "Peacebuilding." The organization describes itself as an advocate "for Palestinian digital rights," creating a "safe, fair and free digital space for Palestinians." Its leadership, rather than a list of notable peace activists, consists...

A wacky ex-Democrat politician suffered a terrifying attack earlier this week in Massachusetts while at his place of employment.

A man dressed in a Donald Trump costume was allegedly assaulted by another man during a "No Kings" rally in Swampscott, Massachusetts. In cellphone video of the incident, the suspect, Michael Curll, kicks Jonathan Silveira from behind. He knocked him off balance and grabbed him by his neck. According to police, Curll then ran at Silveira from behind and grabbed him around his waist and used his leg to hook around his legs, causing him to fall over. Curll claimed that Silveira hit him with a flagpole and bruised his eye, but Silveira is denying that ever happened. “I guess...

Ken Timmerman RSS ARCHIVE Print Page | Forward Page | E-mail Us Obama’s Harvard Years: Questions Swirl Tuesday, September 23, 2008 6:11 PM By: Kenneth R. Timmerman Article Font Size How exactly did Barack Obama pay for his Harvard Law School education? The way the Obama campaign has answered the question was simply hard work and student loans. But new questions have been raised about Obama’s student loans and Obama’s ties to a radical Muslim activist who reportedly was raising money for Obama’s Harvard studies during the years 1988 to 1991. http://www.newsmax.com/timmerman/obama_harvard_/2008/09/23/133199.html

The Democrats have named their price to end the government shutdown — an additional $350 billion for health care over the next decade. Critics say a big chunk of that money may go to ghosts. At issue are the generous subsidies the Biden administration created for Affordable Care Act policies, sweeteners that are slated to expire in December. Making health care essentially free for millions of Americans, those policies have sent enrollment in Obamacare plans skyrocketing. But a recent study found they have also sparked a curious phenomenon: an estimated 12 million enrollees “without a single claim — no doctor...

A former Massachusetts shelter director-turned-whistleblower is calling the sentencing of yet another illegal alien for raping a child at a taxpayer-funded shelter further evidence of a "total government failure" in the sanctuary state. Haitian illegal alien Cory Alvarez, 27, was found guilty of aggravated rape of a child at a migrant shelter in Rockland, Massachusetts, and sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison, according to NBC 10 Boston. Alvarez was arrested by Rockland police in 2024 on suspicion of sexual assault on a 15-year-old female victim. Both Alvarez and the victim were living at a state-run shelter at a...

“A Democrat-founded government agency is hiring despite the shutdown forcing more than a million federal employees to go without pay or be laid off. Pen-pushers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sent an internal email on October 1, the first day of the shutdown, saying it had job openings for attorney-advisors in the legal division of the Office of Litigation. They are able to exploit a loophole that exists because the bureau is funded by the Federal Reserve Bank rather than directly by Congress.”

A former Massachusetts State Police commander has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for orchestrating a bizarre and brazen bribery scheme that traded commercial driver’s licenses for everything from snowblowers and driveways to candy and bottled water — a scandal prosecutors called one of the “oddest and greediest” cases of public corruption in state history. Gary Cederquist, 60, of Stoughton, who once led the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Unit, was convicted in May on 48 federal counts, including extortion, mail fraud, falsifying records, and honest services fraud. Prosecutors said the former trooper granted passing road test scores to...

Another round in the generational fight within the Democratic Party is coming to Massachusetts.Rep. Seth Moulton will challenge Sen. Ed Markey for his Senate seat in 2026, setting up one of the biggest tests of Democratic voters’ appetite for generational change following the 2024 presidential election.Moulton, who turns 47 this month, is putting age at the center of his announcement, saying in a campaign video to be released Wednesday that Markey is “a good man” but he should nevertheless move on after decades in Congress.“We’re in crisis, and with everything we learned last election, I just don’t believe Senator Markey...

For two excruciating years, I have called for the return of the hostages brutally kidnapped on October 7th and held in Gaza. Today is a good day. Surviving Israeli hostages are finally home and reuniting with loved ones. I'm thinking of them and their families on this joyful day and praying for their full recovery. I'm also grieving for all those who can't come home today. Today must also be an important step toward lasting peace in the region — peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. We must end the war in Gaza, surge humanitarian aid, and negotiate a two-state...

Take a close look at this photograph — it captures the exact moment when alleged hippie rioter Haley Macintyre finally learns, at age 24, that even a pampered Beautiful Person with a fashionable neck tattoo can still suffer adverse consequences for a violent, unprovoked assault on working people. Even in Massachusetts. As the picture was taken, in Boston Municipal Court, the judge had just slapped a $7,500 bail on Little Miss Muffet for her sinister role in fomenting that far-left riot that left four Boston cops hospitalized. Seventy-five hundred bucks? Do you know how many cool neck tattoos Haley could...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Harvard University can be sued by families who allege the school mishandled the bodies of their loved ones donated to its medical school, allowing body parts to be sold on the black market. In a unanimous decision, Justice Scott Kafker wrote that a lower court judge erred in dismissing the lawsuits, saying the plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged that Harvard failed to act in good faith in handling the remains. "It had a legal obligation to provide for the dignified treatment and disposal of the donated human remains, and failed miserably in this regard,...

Officials say the demonstration turned violent after protesters refused to clear the roadway and surrounded police cruisers.Thirteen people were arrested in downtown Boston Tuesday night after a pro-Palestinian demonstration turned violent — a chaotic scene that also left four Boston police officers injured, according to officials... “When officers attempted to move the group to the sidewalk to allow emergency vehicles to pass, protesters surrounded police cruisers, kicked vehicle doors, and resisted dispersal efforts,” the department said in a statement. “Several officers were assaulted during this period, including one struck in the face. Protesters also ignited smoke devices and flares, further...

Harvard University president Alan Garber blamed a Jewish student for his own assault during an anti-Israel protest, accusing him in a text message of filming in a way that "appears provocative," the House Education and Workforce Committee revealed Monday. The text was included in a letter that Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) and Tim Walberg (Mich.)—who chair House Republican Leadership, and the House Education and Workforce Committee, respectively—sent Garber demanding information surrounding incidents that "may contribute to a hostile antisemitic environment on campus." They pointed to his texts urging Harvard Business School dean Srikant Datar not to send a community...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had a meltdown Thursday morning when a CBS host challenged the Democratic Party's denials about the Democrats wanting to provide free healthcare to illegal immigrants. During the interview, Tony Dokoupil confronted Warren with claims that Republicans say Democrats are fighting for taxpayer dollars to fund healthcare for illegal aliens. Dokoupil stated, "I know that's not strictly true, but there is a provision—" Warren nearly blew a gasket and interrupted, practically shouting, "Not... Oh, excuse me. Not strictly true." When Dokoupil attempted to continue, she cut in again more forcefully, insisting, “It is a flat-out lie. It...

Edward Wright spent 41 years in prison for a 1984 murder in Springfield that he did not commit. Under Massachusetts law, the most he or anyone else wrongfully convicted could hope to receive from the state is $1 million. "It means that each day that he spent in a prison cell away from his loved ones is worth $66 to this Commonwealth," said Radha Natarajan, executive director of the New England Innocence Project. "And we should be appalled by that." Natarajan was at Wrongful Conviction Day at the State House, where she and others spoke in support of reforms that...