Free Republic

(RNS) — Diocesan hermits by nature don’t get much attention. A small subset of religious persons, hermits mostly spend their lives engaged in quiet prayer. Brother Christian Matson, a Catholic diocesan hermit in Kentucky, has spent years doing just that. His monk’s habit might catch his neighbor’s eye, but he is known in the town where he lives primarily through his work with the local theater. But recently Matson decided that his faith compels him to make a little more noise than usual. “This Sunday, Pentecost 2024, I’m planning to come out publicly as transgender,” Matson told Religion News Service...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter to the Department of Justice, urging them to open a formal investigation into Dr. David Morens for the alleged “improper concealment and intentional destruction of records.” Morens, a former top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci and current Senior Advisor to the Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is accused of engaging in corrupt behavior to skirt the rules on various issues, the least of which involved investigations from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. It is believed that Morens engaged in a cover-up and destroyed vital records and communications related...

Other contenders for the role include Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the former whip Sen. Rick Scott of Florida announced Wednesday that he is jumping into the race to succeed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell after he leaves the post later this year.

Three Republican incumbents in the Kentucky General Assembly were knocked off in the primary election Tuesday, including a Lexington moderate who was backed by nearly $300,000 of ads from political action committees. Lexington State Rep. Killian Timoney was defeated by a wide margin in his bid for a third term by Thomas Jefferson, who beat the incumbent by 44 percentage points. Timoney was one of the candidates backed by the Commonwealth Conservatives Coalition, a federal super PAC that bought roughly $1 million of ads to back nine candidates from the establishment wing of the party. The PAC spent more than...

A national group plans to spend big on television ads aimed at a Kentucky congressman because of his perceived anti-Israel views. The United Democracy Project will spend about $300,000 to buy ads on Fox affiliates criticizing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s voting record on measures supporting Israel, said project spokesperson Patrick Dorton. "We are not playing in the primary, but we are trying to shine a light on the radical anti-Israel record of Tom Massie," Dorton said. "We want every voter in the state of Kentucky to know about his anti-Israel actions." “Republicans are trying to help Israel, but one Republican...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city of Louisville agreed to pay four people a total of $650,000 for being wrongfully arrested by a former Louisville police detective to settle a lawsuit that has been pending since 2010. Former Louisville Metro Police Detective Crystal Marlowe arrested more than a dozen people over a two-year period who could not have committed the crimes either because they were already in jail at the time or because of other evidence that supported their innocence. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Vaughn Carter, Robert Mitchem, Dale Todd and Rodshaud White. Carter, for example, claimed he...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A 71-year-old man who was yanked out his home while wearing a bathrobe, thrown to the pavement face first and then handcuffed by police has received $250,000 to settle a lawsuit claiming Louisville and Jeffersontown officers used excessive force. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Frank Serapiglia in March 2020 was dismissed this March after being settled, with Louisville Metro Police liable for $245,000 and the Jeffersontown Police Department paying the other $5,000. “This settlement reflects the substantial pain and suffering inflicted on Mr. Serapiglia as a result of the excessive force of the LMPD officers...

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) blasted conservative commentator Tucker Carlson on Tuesday for playing a leading role in demonizing the idea of sending military aid to Ukraine, saying the former Fox News host wound up “where he should have been all along” when he gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a megaphone during a fawning interview earlier this year. “I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which was interviewing Vladimir Putin,” McConnell said, referring to Carlson’s two-hour interview with Putin in February, which drew...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul formed a noisy alliance with Rep. Thomas Massie this week that scrambled Congress’ plans to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without additional privacy protections for Americans and threatened the six-month tenure of the Republican speaker of the House. The libertarian duo scored a substantive victory in the House on Wednesday when the chamber passed legislation that would force federal agencies to obtain a court order to buy the online data of U.S. citizens from service providers. Massie, a Northern Kentucky Republican, was joined by Rep. James Comer in supporting the “Fourth Amendment is Not For...

Two juveniles were arrested for allegedly vandalizing a Catholic church in Kentucky on April 9. The juveniles are accused of causing damages to St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church “well over” $10,000, WDRB reported. “Sheriff Phillip Wimpee said his deputies responded to St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church [on April 9] about a vandalism complaint,” according to the report. “When officers arrived, they saw extensive damage inside and outside the church and the Parish Hall on Rhodelia Road in Payneville, Kentucky.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is stepping up his pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to put the Senate-passed foreign aid bill up for a vote in the House, warning Wednesday that “starving” Ukraine of military support is “strategic and moral malpractice.” McConnell told a radio host in Louisville recently that despite plans to retire from Senate leadership, he intends to stay in the Senate through the end of his term in 2027 in order to fight back “against the isolationist movement in my own party.” On Wednesday, he did that by taking shots at President Biden for not...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), 82, intends to remain in the U.S. Senate to oppose conservatives who support a truce between Russia and Ukraine, he said Monday. McConnell announced in February he would step down as Senate minority leader at the end of the cycle following health issues and incidents of freezing up during press conferences. He is the longest-serving party leader in Senate history. In an interview on WHAS, Terry Meiner asked McConnell what his “mindset” is “when your feet hit the floor in the morning?" "I’m not leaving the Senate,” McConnell said. “I’m particularly involved in actually fighting back...

The Kentucky Senate sent a bill to Gov. Andy Beshear (D) Thursday that would strip him of his power to appoint people to the U.S. Senate. The bill seeks to hold special elections for Senate vacancies in Kentucky, according to The Associated Press. The legislation’s passage through the state Senate follows the late February announcement that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 82, would step down from his position as Senate Minority Leader at the end of the year. Republican state House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, the bill’s main sponsor, has said the legislation doesn’t have to do with McConnell, but...

The Kentucky Senate sent a bill to Gov. Andy Beshear (D) Thursday that would strip him of his power to appoint people to the U.S. Senate. The bill seeks to hold special elections for Senate vacancies in Kentucky, according to The Associated Press. The legislation’s passage through the state Senate follows the late February announcement that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 82, would step down from his position as Senate Minority Leader at the end of the year.

(The Center Square) – Two dozen Republican U.S. senators are pushing back against the Biden administration's plan to increase taxes on the U.S. oil, natural gas and coal industries to the tune of over $110 billion. U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., led a coalition of 24 senators expressing “grave concern regarding the administration's continued hostility towards American energy production.” In a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, they wrote, “America's working families and small businesses are facing immense challenges including high energy prices. At the same time, our allies and partners across the globe are asking for reliable American...

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Four years after the death of Breonna Taylor, lawmakers are renewing their efforts to ban no-knock warrants. The push comes as Congress has struggled to enact policing reforms. Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul says it is time to ban no-knock warrants. “It’s just not a good idea to go in without announcing yourself,” Sen. Rand Paul, (R-Ky.) said. No-knock warrants are when law enforcement go into a home without announcing their authority or purpose. Paul named his bill after Breonna Taylor, who was killed in March 2020 when police entered her apartment through a no-knock raid and...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he will hold up a $1 trillion “minibus” spending package that needs to pass by the end of the day Friday to avoid triggering a partial government shutdown. “I will hold it up primarily because we’re bankrupt and it’s a terrible idea to keep spending money at this rate,” Paul told The Hill Wednesday.“The spending bills before us will lead to a $1.5 trillion deficit for the year. We’re borrowing about $1 trillion every three months. It’s an alarming pace of accumulation of debt,” he said. “My opposition to this will be based on how...

“Nobody” should go to jail for “smoking weed,” Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday, despite having prosecuted nearly 2,000 cases of marijuana possession, cultivation, or sale as California’s attorney general. Harris’s public flip-flop is likely due to the politics of a difficult reelection campaign in which the Biden-Harris ticket is losing to former President Donald Trump in 75 percent of 2024 swing states, polling shows. Harris condemned prosecuting those who smoke flowers while speaking at a roundtable event about cannabis reform with musician Fat Joe and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D).

@elonmusk I would support Rand Paul and suspect that other candidates will not actually run polls out of concern for the results, but let’s see if they will

Republicans in the Kentucky House are proposing a resolution that would create “a sanctuary state” for fossil fuel-powered generators. The resolution, which was assigned to a committee Wednesday, appears to be modeled after the concept of “sanctuary cities,” which are local jurisdictions that have agreed not to comply with federal immigration regulations. The resolution aims to exempt Kentucky from EPA regulations regarding coal- and natural gas-fired power plants. Permitting for such facilities would be done by the state, and Kentucky agencies would be prohibited from collecting fines or penalties for violations of federal regulations related to fossil fuel-fired power plants.