Free Republic

Florida is taking a strong stand against retail theft and “porch piracy.” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that would crack down on criminals participating in shoplifting rings and engaging in other types of property crime. While doing so, he took some shots at California and New York for going easy on those committing these offenses. Amid widespread retail theft occurring across the nation, state and local governments are grappling with putting a stop to these operations while others are simply responding with a shrug. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis announced...

A massive fire near Moscow has destroyed a plant that supplies body armour for Vladimir Putin’s troops. Video footage shows flames engulfing the plant on Entuziastov Avenue, Obukhovo, in the Moscow region this morning, and no casualties have been reported. Law enforcement in Russia is investigating whether the inferno was caused by an act of sabotage or arson. The fire has destroyed 86,000 feet of a warehouse and a workshop. Workers were evacuated from the plant just as it took hold and more than 100 firefighters tried to save the key production line. It has been sanctioned by Ukraine for...

Former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in a hypothetical two-way race for the presidency, as well as in a deeper field, while he approaches 70 percent support among GOP primary voters, per a Harvard-Harris poll. In the poll published Monday, 53 percent of the 2,581 registered voters surveyed nationally back Trump in a head-to-head race with Biden when undecided voters were pushed to choose a candidate they leaned toward. Biden garners 47 percent of the response, marking a one percent loss of support compared to October’s Harvard-Harris poll. Trump gained one percent month-over-month.

Former President Donald Trump outlined his southern border and immigration policy platforms in great detail Saturday night, including laying out a vision to end “automatic citizenship for the children of illegal aliens,” resurrecting all “incredibly successful border policies” from his first term, and moving “massive portions” of federal law enforcement into immigration enforcement. Speaking at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to a Majority Conference in Washington, DC, Trump went into his border and immigration plans in great detail. He first blasted automatic citizenship as “so unfair for our country” and vowed to end it on his first day in...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging her troops to get behind a massive bill to fund the government through most of next year, touting new funding for Democratic priorities and citing an urgency to get the package to President Biden’s desk before a potential shutdown at week’s end. In a letter to fellow Democrats, the outgoing Speaker cited a number of Democratic victories in the package, including provisions to hike nutrition funding for low-income children, provide a huge increase in money for veterans health care, and lend assistance to the victims of natural disasters around the country.

The nation's largest annual conference for Millennial and Gen-Z conservatives, AmericaFest, drew tens of thousands of attendees who seem divided on who should win the 2024 nomination—a troubling sign for the former president. As Trump acolytes, like his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, sang praises for Trump's 2024 campaign, many event speakers avoided endorsing the former president and interviews with attendees revealed that many aren't prepared to commit to another Trump term just yet. The four-day event in Phoenix, Arizona, is a glaring red flag for Trump's campaign. It signals there may not be...

President Biden on Monday approved an emergency declaration for New York and ordered federal assistance to help respond to the severe winter storm in the western part of the state. His action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to supplement state and local response efforts in place since the snowstorm hit over the weekend. The federal government can now coordinate disaster relief in 11 New York counties, including Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara.

Facing reverses on the frontline, Russian forces are intensifying strategic strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, with a renewed bombardment of Kyiv (Kiev) cutting off power and water in the capital. Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion who serves as the capital city’s mayor, said an energy facility powering “about 350,000 apartments in Kyiv” had been rocked by five explosions in the early hours of Monday morning.

MADRID (Reuters) - NATO will increase the number of its forces at high readiness massively to over 300,000, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

Former President Trump announced his endorsement of Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) on Tuesday, after previously calling for him to be kicked out of the Republican Party. “Congressman Thomas Massie is a Conservative Warrior for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District!” Trump wrote in his statement. “An MIT graduate and a first-rate Defender of the Constitution, Thomas fights hard to Protect your Liberties, especially the First and Second Amendments, which are under siege by the Radical Left.”

In early March, Tucker Carlson invited Iowa Corn and soybean farmer Ben Riensche on his top-rated program to discuss the massive inflation we are about to see in food prices here at home. According to Rienshe, grocery prices may increase up to $1,000 per month due to Russia’s sanctions on fertilizer. ... “It’s embarrassing how little most people know about fertilizer, what it means, tell us the implications of this sanction?” Carlson asked. .... Soaring fertilizer prices are likely to spike food prices,” Riensche said. “If you’re upset that gas is up a dollar or two a gallon, wait until...

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Wintry weather made travel difficult in parts of the Northeast on Saturday, including in central Pennsylvania, where more than 70 vehicles were involved in a crash along State Route 581. The crash forced troopers in Cumberland County to shut down the roadway for hours to allow crews to clean up the wreck. Buses were also brought in to transport people involved in crashes to the local fire department.

The U.S. Senate passed a $1.5 trillion, 2,741-page omnibus spending bill on Thursday evening that will fund the federal government through Sept. 30 and send $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine. The bill passed 68-31 and now goes to President Biden's desk. Nearly $14 billion in U.S. aid will go to Ukraine and European allies in the fight against Russia, including funds to provide humanitarian aid to the millions of Ukrainians who have fled, as well as funds for weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to lawmakers in a Zoom call on Saturday for more help in his country's fight...

Massive protest convoy by truckers in Canada against mandates by Canada and US. MSM refusing to report. Same planned by US truckers.

Blue states, some of which had the most restrictive requirements in the country throughout the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, are experiencing massive surges of the virus as the holiday season arrives, prompting some to reimplement mitigation strategies and keep others in place. Michigan is reporting one of the biggest surges in the nation, experiencing a daily average of 8,457 cases, or 85 per 100,000, according to the New York Times‘ tracker. That reflects an 88 percent increase in cases in the last 14 days alone. This week, the federal government agreed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) request to send “two medical...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) shows a massive lead in a hypothetical matchup against candidate and former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-IA) in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, according to a poll. Grassley, the long-time incumbent, showed an 18-point lead over Finkenauer, among likely Iowa voters, 55 percent to 37 percent, in the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Seven percent also said they were unsure and going head-to-head matchup between the long-time incumbent and Finkenauer; one percent said they would not vote.

TThe Biden administration plans on “massive movements” of Haitian migrants in a small Texas border city on flights to Haiti starting Sunday, an official said Friday, representing a swift and dramatic response to thousands who suddenly assembled under and around a bridge. Details are yet to be finalized but will likely involve five to eight flights a day, according to the official with direct knowledge of the plans who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. San Antonio, the nearest major city, may be among the departure cities. U.S....

A satellite experiment has revealed that the heaviest known neutron star is unexpectedly large, which suggests that the matter in the star’s inner core is less “squeezable” than some models predict. NICER measures the size of a neutron star by tracking the x-ray emission from “hot spots” on the surface as the star rotates. These spots occur at the magnetic poles of the star, where the field slams particles onto the star surface. Neutron stars are “cosmic zombies”­—corpses of massive stars that collapsed in violent explosions after running out of fuel. By studying these ultradense objects, researchers hope to understand...

Just wow. 3.35B shares have traded on the NASDAQ with some pretty volatile swings on some shares. Pretty wild.

The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, is set to become the first “super” COVID-19 vaccination site in Orange County, which along with bordering Los Angeles County has quickly become one of America’s worst-hit areas by the pandemic. The site will be up and operational later this week, according to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.