Free Republic

A Somali refugee turned St. Cloud businessman whose childcare center has racked up years of state licensing violations is now one step closer to the Minnesota Legislature. Abdi Daisane won last week’s Democratic primary with 62.5% of the vote, advancing to the November general election against Republican Mike Conway in House District 14A. Daisane, who was born in Somalia and spent time in a Kenyan refugee camp before entering the United States, has owned Blooming Kids Child Care Center in St. Cloud since 2017. Alpha News first reported on the center’s history of violations in July 2024, when Daisane was...

A San Francisco high school where students get top grades simply for showing up now has the highest acceptance rate in the state to the prestigious University of California, Berkeley — as critics blame rampant grade inflation and rock-bottom standards for a surge in ill-prepared college students who end up dropping out. Mission High School had a 45% acceptance rate into the elite university, with 34 out of its 76 applicants gaining admission last fall, far ahead of the state average of 15%, according to data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle. But it’s not because of superior academics, critics...

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Tuesday said President Trump will have to resume a full war with Iran days after the initial failed ceasefire deal expired. Asked if the president should follow through on his threat last month to “bomb and destroy” at least “ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT” near Tehran if the Iranian regime fired at U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Scott answered in the affirmative. “I think he’s going to have to,” the Florida Republican told NewsNation’s Blake Burman in an appearance on “The Hill.” “I mean, here’s a president that doesn’t like war. None of...

Jon Ponder, a three-time bank robber who was pardoned by President Donald Trump, was arrested Tuesday by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police on nine felony counts and 11 gross misdemeanors. The charges include sexual assault and sexual abuse of a prisoner by an employee, contractor, or volunteer.Other charges against Ponder include multiple counts of unauthorized contact with prisoners, attempted coercion that is sexually related, and open and gross lewdness. The Current was first to report in April that Ponder had been banned from Nevada prisons, where Hope for Prisoners, a non-profit organization Ponder founded, provides reentry services. Ponder has long been...

A hurdle to adding the final country to the list of temporary protected status terminations has been eliminated as the Trump administration continues to crack down on immigration, with refugee numbers at a record low.A Boston judge, Brian Murphy, lifted a final administrative stay, ending TPS for over 5,000 Ethiopians in the U.S. under the program, marking the 13th country with TPS status to be terminated in President Donald Trump’s second term.Those countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security argued in a social media...

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Crews in Rhode Island had quite a mess to clean up after a tractor-trailer carrying 20 tons of squid was involved in a crash, spilling its load. The crash happened in Narragansett, Rhode Island, WFXT reported. Narragansett Police said the tractor-trailer had been “negotiating” a turn when the trailer dislodged from the cab and flipped on its side, ABC News reported. The squid covered parts of the road as crews had to clean up the slippery, and possibly worse, smelly mess on Aug. 16. “At the time of the incident, the fully loaded trailer was transporting squid...

The Montgomery City and County-funded Community Violence Intervention (CVI) program appears to have taken down its website and cleansed its social media page of photos after a second person connected to the program was arrested and charged with a drug-related crime. Patrick O'Neal Perry, 32, of Montgomery, was recently arrested by the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) with 19 pounds of marijuana and $30,000 in cash. 1819 News revealed that Perry has apparent ties to a City-funded Community Violence Intervention (CVI) Program, appearing frequently on the program's social media wearing shirts associated with the group Save our Streets -MGM Records...

The Strait of Hormuz "will not be opened," Iranian warned on Tuesday, "Until the U.S. commitments in the memorandum—including lifting the blockade, releasing frozen assets, lifting oil sanctions, ending threats and military operations on all fronts, and the other conditions to which the U.S. committed—are implemented." I guess that settles it — the Strait is firmly in the Islamic Republic's grip. Not so fast. On the flip side, President Donald Trump said earlier this week that the U.S. naval blockade against Iran "remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating. All water mines have been...

I haven't seen such a recklessly steered case since the McMartin family was sent to prison based on emotion and politics instead of logic, reason, and evidence. And now, finally, a Minnesota judge will mete out a little justice in the case of Derek Chauvin, the cop who is alleged to have purposely killed George Floyd. Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin says that the charges against him were "illegal" and that his trial was a "fraud." The now-imprisoned cop and his lawyer are calling for the verdict to be thrown out because of civil rights violations so severe that...

District Court Judge Nasser Abu Taha has requested to relocate from his home in southern Israel to northern Israel and serve as a judge there due to threats and a hostile atmosphere created by criminal elements in Arab society, i24NEWS reported Wednesday evening. According to the report, some of the suspects and defendants whom Abu Taha has judged over the years hold him responsible for the punishments imposed on them and the "damage" they suffered as a result of his rulings. Against this background, they are demanding that his family compensate them. The request to relocate to northern Israel was...

Researchers found that ordinary WiFi routers could quietly identify people with nearly 100% accuracy, potentially turning everyday wireless networks into invisible surveillance systems. Credit: AI/ScienceDaily.com WiFi signals could potentially be used to identify people and map their surroundings without relying on cameras or requiring the person being observed to carry a connected device. "By observing the propagation of radio waves, we can create an image of the surroundings and of persons who are present," says Professor Thorsten Strufe from KASTEL, KIT's Institute of Information Security and Dependability. "This works similar to a normal camera, the difference being that in our...

Two Milwaukee rappers were found dead of gunshot wounds in a Milwaukee recording studio on Monday afternoon (Aug. 17). According to WISN in Milwaukee, the County Medical Examiner's Office reported that Dequaiseon D. Evans, 21 — a city resident known by his rap name Lil Sheisty — and Quentene E. Williams, 33 — a veteran of the city's hip-hop scene known as Funny $Money — were both shot at the scene by an as-yet-unidentified assailant.

Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed is leading Republican nominee Mike Rogers in Michigan’s closely watched open Senate race, according to a new poll, showing signs that the progressive candidate is consolidating support from Democrats after a bitter primary. El-Sayed leads with 46 percent support to Rogers’s 39 percent among likely voters, according to a Susquehanna Polling & Research survey released Tuesday. Nine percent of voters were undecided while 4 percent favored another candidate in the battleground state, which President Trump flipped in 2024 by 1 percentage point. The poll is an encouraging sign for El-Sayed, who emerged as his party’s nominee...

Explanation: Whatdunit? What disappeared while crossing a partially eclipsed Sun? Let’s present the evidence. The 24 frames-per-second video was taken in Spain (40°34'30.3"N 1°12'28.8"W) at 20:28 local time on August 12, 2026. The Perseids meteor shower was at its peak during this time. Is this a meteor? Meteor showers trace back to a region of the sky called a radiant point that corresponds to where the Earth is crossing a comet’s path. The object’s path might trace back to the Perseids’ radiant point in the Perseus constellation. The object trails a smaller angle on the sky than the 0.5 degree...

A key Telemundo executive was one of seven helicopter passengers killed in a fiery crash near the foothills of a mountain in northern Kenya on Wednesday. Florida-native José Alberto Suárez, 55, was traveling in the chopper around 9:13 a.m. when the aircraft crashed near Mount Ololokwe, in Samburu County, Kenya’s Civil Aviation Authority said. NBCUniversal News Chairman Cesar Conde, NBCU Local Chairman Valari Staab and Telemundo station group president Jose Cancela announced the news in a memo to employees, obtained by Variety. “We are heartbroken to share the tragic news that José Suárez, the president and general manager of the...

A Haines City, Florida, police officer has been charged with official misconduct after allegedly misusing Flock Safety surveillance cameras 717 times to track his estranged wife’s vehicle. According to Tampa TV station WTSP, officer Christopher Goodson, 31, was charged Tuesday with multiple offenses. According to an affidavit obtained by the television station, Goodson used the surveillance system between Sept. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2026, entering his estranged wife’s license plate into the system to track her vehicle. Goodson allegedly used the system 280 times in September 2025 and 104 times in November 2025. When asked for the reason behind...

Dashcam footage captured a harrowing multi-vehicle collision Tuesday morning in the southbound lanes of the 170 Freeway that launched one vehicle over the center divider. The incident, according to officials with the California Highway Patrol, occurred around 5:30 a.m. just south of the Oxnard Street exit. Details remain limited, and it is unclear exactly how the crash unfolded. However, dashcam footage appears to show a dark-colored pickup truck with its right turn signal activated suddenly swerving left into the carpool lane and striking a smaller sedan. The impact sent the sedan rolling over the freeway’s center divider, where it landed...

Another ugly example of America’s collapsing standards of public behavior reportedly unfolded aboard a cruise ship in Florida, where authorities say an allegedly intoxicated couple responded to a simple request for quiet by forcing their way into a family’s cabin and attacking everyone inside, including a 9-year-old child. Gannon Jacox, 29, and his girlfriend Brooklyn Hicks, 28, were arrested Saturday evening at Port Canaveral after the ship docked. Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey laid out the outrageous details in a Facebook post that left little to the imagination. According to Ivey, Jacox and Hicks “were apparently arguing loudly after taking...

President Trump loves flexing his political muscle, especially in Republican primaries. When businessman and TV personality Mike Lindell secured Trump’s endorsement in the Minnesota governor’s race, he thought the nomination was his. Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth had other plans, winning a crushing victory over Lindell. If Demuth plays her cards right, she may just have a chance of becoming governor. Going into primary day, there were reasons to believe Mike Lindell had the advantage over Lisa Demuth. For starters, many polls showed Lindell ahead. The more glaring advantage was that Lindell received the critical endorsement from President Trump. With...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s son, Conor Kennedy, has been named on Russia’s international wanted list for fighting alongside the enemy in the Ukraine war, according to reports. The Basmanny District Court of Moscow authorized the younger Kennedy’s “arrest in absentia,” accusing him of acting as a mercenary for the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian state outlet TASS reported last week. He faces seven to 10 years in prison if captured, according to the outlet.