Free Republic

Elon Musk’s Tesla is continuing to lay off employees as the company has slashed an additional 600 jobs across its California facilities, affecting a wide range of positions from factory workers to engineers. CNBC reports that Tesla has been grappling with a series of challenges that have led to multiple rounds of layoffs over the past month. The latest round of layoffs, reported in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing obtained by CNBC, impacted a wide range of positions, from entry-level roles to directors, spanning various departments such as factory workers, software developers, and robotics engineers. This...

Rep. Beth Van Duyne acknowledged Friday that she is “happily engaged in a relationship” with fellow Republican legislator Rich McCormick after the Georgia congressman filed for divorce earlier this month from his wife of 12 years. “I’m single. We’re both parents of adult children and empty nesters,” Van Duyne (R-Texas) told DailyMail.com in remarks her office later confirmed to The Post. “His marriage has been over for quite some time, as I understand it. He’s filed for divorce.” The romance between Van Duyne, 53, and McCormick, 55, was first reported by the Daily Mail Thursday evening, but a rep for...

Nearly 4 million Texans lost power during a historic ice storm last week, a storm that ravaged a broad swath of the country. As PJ Media’s Bryan Preston noted, two highly-touted forms of green energy, wind and solar, took big hits during the blackout. Natural gas energy production increased to compensate for it. Another energy source proved rather reliable during the blackout, however. This energy source does not involve fossil fuel emissions, but climate activists often ignore it. This more reliable energy source is none other than nuclear power. While nuclear power did take a hit during the Texas blackout,...

With seven people killed and close to a million losing power, the recent storms hit Texas hard. Restoring electricity may take days and may not be completed by Wednesday. The isolation of the Texas power grid has become a symbol of the state’s independent streak and resistance to federal oversight in recent years. The massive outages during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 were a wake-up call to the vulnerabilities of Texas’ system. But Texas hit the snooze button, resulting in repeated crises in Summer 2022 and Winter 2023. Now it seems Texas is sleepwalking into another avoidable crisis ... ERCOT...

An Oklahoma judge already facing a felony case in Texas in connection with an alleged drive-by shooting and road rage crash now faces an indictment for allegedly perpetrating a drive-by shooting at his brother in-law’s house in the Sooner State. Investigators said the victim was stopped at a traffic light and Lovell “nearly” pushed her car “into cross traffic.” After his arrest, the judge allegedly claimed not to remember anything about the shooting but acknowledged rear-ending the other driver who “cut him off.” Cops said he “did not admit the collisions were intentional,” though. Read the Oklahoma indictment here. The...

A Roman Catholic priest near the US’s border with Mexico is facing criminal charges on allegations that he sexually molested a child, according to authorities.Fernando Gonzalez Ortega’s arrest for sexually abusing a minor and of trafficking of persons demonstrates that US Catholic bishops have not yet rooted out all molesters under their command despite reform prompted by the worldwide church’s decades-old clergy molestation scandal, abuse victims and their advocates have argued.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a temporary restraining order from a federal judge that prevents an unlawful rule promulgated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) from taking effect while the case is litigated. On May 1, Attorney General Paxton led a coalition suing the ATF to prevent a new regulatory restriction that unlawfully attempted to abridge Americans’ constitutional right to privately buy and sell firearms. The Final Rule was arbitrary and capricious and flagrantly violated the Second Amendment. Despite Congress having recognized the legality of private firearms sales by non-dealers, the Biden Administration issued...

"So we are going to drop ‘A Crockett Clapback Collection,’" she wrote in the caption. "This collection will feature various swag that includes random things I’ve said. The money will go to ensuring that we have a Democratic House! Give me a little time to really get the swag online etc., but B6 will drop first."

A dying Marine veteran was finally handed his high school diploma while receiving hospice care after dropping out to fight in World War Two over eight decades ago. Richard Remp, a 98-year-old marine veteran in hospice care, left school at 17 years of age to serve in World War II, before later continuing his service in Korea and Vietnam. But on Friday he was finally handed the high school diploma he had longed for all these years but never received. Remp told local San Antonio NBC affiliate NEWS4SA: 'On behalf of myself and the Marine Corps, I thank you very...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accepted the endorsement of the National Rifle Association at the NRA Leadership Forum in Dallas on Saturday afternoon. "It's a true honor to be here today to receive the endorsement of the proud American patriots at the NRA," Trump told the forum in a speech that aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 streaming platform. "These are great patriots. These are great people, and we're going to do things like nobody can believe. "We're going to win this election at levels that nobody's ever seen before. Thank you very much...

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is issuing an apology for a comparison he made regarding the House of Representatives. On Thursday night, Americans were aghast after watching a drama filled hearing of the House Oversight Committee which featured several minutes of members lobbing personal insults at each other. In a post on X, Fetterman shared a CNN article about the moment and wrote, “In the past, I’ve described the U.S. House as The Jerry Springer Show.” “Today, I’m apologizing to The Jerry Springer Show,” he added. During the hearing on Thursday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) asked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)...

It’s part of a $51 million project to rebuild Washington-on-the-Brazos, “the birthplace of Texas,” where the declaration that created the Republic of Texas was signed.In 1843, Sam Houston toiled away at a desk in a sixteen-by-sixteen-foot log cabin not far from the muddy banks of the Brazos River. From that makeshift office in Washington-on-the-Brazos, about halfway between Austin and Houston, the then-president of the new Republic of Texas penned letters inviting the chiefs of several Native American tribes to join him for a council meeting. Many of the chiefs came, among them leaders from the Caddo, Delaware, and Shawnee tribes....

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday issued a full pardon for a former U.S. Army sergeant convicted of murder in the shooting death of an armed protester during a 2020 Black Lives Matter march. The move by Abbott came minutes after a unanimous recommendation by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles that Daniel Perry be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored. Under Texas law, the governor cannot issue a pardon without a recommendation from the board, which the governor appoints. "The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles conducted an exhaustive review of U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry’s personal...

There's damage all over the Greater Houston area after a thunderstorm brought powerful wind and heavy rain. At least four people were killed, Mayor John Whitmire said, and he urged everyone to stay off the roads and stay safe. In scenes reminiscent of Hurricane Alicia back in 1983, the storm blew out hundreds of windows of downtown skyscrapers leaving workers scrambling for cover and glass all over the streets and sidewalks. The damaged buildings include the Wells Fargo Plaza, Total Energies, Enterprise Plaza, Kinder Morgan and Chevron. Workers on higher floors say they felt the towers sway amid the whipping...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a full pardon and restoration of rights for Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant who was found guilty of murder for the fatal shooting of Garrett Foster during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest while Perry was an Uber driver. "The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles conducted an exhaustive review of U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry’s personal history and the facts surrounding the July 2020 incident and recommended a Full Pardon and Restoration of Full Civil Rights of Citizenship," said Abbott in a statement. "Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered...

A judge has ordered a redo of the November 2022 election between Tami Pierce and DaSean Jones for the 180th District Court in Harris County after finding far more illegal votes were cast in the race than the margin of victory. Pierce, a Republican, contested her 449-vote loss to Democrat incumbent Jones in January 2023, but the case was delayed for nearly a year by a motion to dismiss filed by Jones. Judge David Peeples, a visiting judge from San Antonio, ruled Wednesday that the true outcome of the election cannot be determined and ordered a new election. Following a...

The Madison Police and DNA Doe Project have identified skeletal remains found in a chimney in a music store in 1989. The remains were identified as Ronnie Joe Kirk from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kirk according to investigators, was born in 1942, was adopted and raised by family members and attended high school in Tulsa. He was married and divorced twice, and fathered children. He had ties to Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Alabama and Wisconsin. Kirk's remains were found on September 3, 1989. Speaking to Madison Magazine's Doug Moe in 2022, Good n' Loud Music owner Steve Liethen said he was working in...

A Biden-linked Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that has been active on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border is being investigated in Guatemala for child trafficking. Guatemalan authorities raided the offices of Save the Children on April 25, citing complaints of sexual abuse of Guatemalan children in Texas shelters. The raid was reportedly carried out by officers from the Special Public Prosecutor Against Impunity and the Civil Police. Rafael Curruchiche, the Guatemalan Prosecutor for Impunity, said the case is “transnational and of great transcendence,” involving several organizations. Save the Children Guatemala has denied all allegations of misconduct. Save the Children operates in...

Texas is on the cusp of a major victory for school choice. School choice has become a centerpiece of Republican policy, empowering parents to choose the best school that suits their children's needs. Education tax dollars should follow the child, not the schools and programs lobbied on behalf of progressive institutions like left-wing teachers' unions. However, many so-called “Republicans” are beholden to these institutions and have continued to vote against school choice policies. Even in the alleged conservative bastion of Texas, 21 Republicans in Texas’s House of Representatives voted against school choice last year. But conservatives across the state aren’t...