Free Republic

H-1B visa filings at major tech companies fell sharply late last year, according to federal data, as layoffs mount and new visa restrictions take hold. The decline comes as changes to the work visa program since September have made the process costlier and placed applicants under tighter scrutiny, and as tech goliaths like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have undergone successive rounds of job cuts. Department of Labor data shows that some employers filed markedly fewer H-1B visa applications in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 than they did a year earlier. On the federal calendar, Q1 runs from October...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested the head of Wisconsin's largest mosque, who was previously linked to Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib and groups allegedly connected to Hamas. Salah Salem Sarsour, 53, was apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] on Monday, in a 'targeted operation' in Milwaukee, according to federal authorities. DHS said Jordanian national Sarsour is a 'convicted terrorist' who allegedly lied on his green card application when he arrived in the United States over 30 years ago. Sarsour serves as the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and is a high-profile community member and businessman. The...

NFL execs debated whether wide receiver Mike Evans will be a good fit for 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and his throwing style.The San Francisco 49ers got a big boost in the offseason after they signed wide receiver Mike Evans to a three-year contract. But now executives are starting to debate whether 49ers' quarterback Brock Purdy is capable of taking advantage of the new weapon, according to Mike Sando of The Athletic. “They are going for it, man. The red zone production is going to go up even more. Now, you have the backside X that can win one-on-one,” one executive...

President Donald Trump is asking for an eye-popping $1.5 trillion to fund the Pentagon in the budget proposal the White House released Friday. With the war with Iran ongoing, Trump has pushed that more money is needing to fund the US military and less on social programs. 'We're fighting wars, we can't take care of daycare,' he muttered at Wednesday's Easter lunch, which was closed to press, but video was accidentally posted online.

video: Carlson with Fr. Ripperger

I just heard Retired Brigadier General Blaine Holt on the 5 PM Cats & Cosby show in New York ( 770 WABC ). He tells the hosts that his source in the military who he says has never failed him yet, told him that the Weapons Officer of the downed F-15 Strike Eagle in Iran has been found alive! There is no official confirmation yet so stay tuned and pray for safety!

Lawyers for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have been contacted about a last-minute settlement attempt before their trial, which is set for May 18. Attorneys were reportedly told to contact US Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave on Monday, following a decision that saw most of Lively’s 13 claims against the “It Ends With Us” director dismissed on Thursday, according to the Daily Mail. Per the outlet, the attorneys — who will speak to the judge via phone in separate sessions — will address “their client’s updated settlement position” ahead of the scheduled trial. The public won’t have access to the phone...

An alleged fraudster within the Los Angeles Unified School District appeared in a downtown court on Friday charged with taking part in a huge money laundering scam. Hong “Grace” Peng, 53 — who worked as a technical project manager for LAUSD — pled not guilty to facilitating an alleged eye-popping $22 million kickback scheme. The case comes as the scandal-plagued school district reels from fraud claims against Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

An Alabama news anchor drew fierce backlash after she quoted the founder of a designated terrorist organization during her on-air sign-off. During a Thursday evening broadcast on Birmingham's ABC 33/40, WBMA-LD, Ashonti Ford, 38, told viewers, "Before we go, a quote from the founder of the Islamic Brotherhood: 'The quieter you become, the more you're able to hear.'" Ford was quoting the late Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) reacted to the on-air moment, writing in a post on X, "Pure insanity. The Radical Muslim Brotherhood is a TERRORIST ORGANIZATION." One X user responded, "Who made the...

HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban government said Thursday it would release 2,010 prisoners in a move that comes while the Trump administration puts extreme pressure on the island’s government with a suffocating oil blockade. The announcement said the pardons were a “humanitarian gesture” in connection with Holy Week and didn’t mention mounting pressures with the U.S. The government said the prisoners affected are foreigners and Cubans, including women, the elderly and young people. It didn’t say when they were being released or under what conditions, nor did it mention the crimes they were accused of committing. Authorities also provided no...

When three villagers from China’s Sichuan province wrote to local officials in 2022 asking why the government was confiscating their land and evicting them from their homes, they received a terse reply: It was a “state secret.” That secret, a CNN investigation has found, centered on China’s covert plans to massively expand its nuclear ambitions. More than three years after the evictions, satellite images show, their village has been flattened and, in its place, new buildings erected to support some of China’s most important nuclear weapons production facilities. The expansion of the sites in Sichuan province, observed in satellite imagery...

The New York state attorney general’s office has notified Capital Tonight it has filed a notice of appeal in the state Supreme Court’s ruling in March that a state law requiring landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers is unconstitutional. In its decision, the court ruled it’s a violation of a landlord’s Fourth Amendment rights because it forces landlords to consent to governmental searches of their rental properties and records. The housing voucher program helps those who are low-income, older New Yorkers, veterans and disabled families rent or buy affordable housing. “I don’t agree with the basis of the claim,” said...

In an interview with "We The Fifth" hosts Matt Welch and Michael Moynihan, Democratic insider and 2028 hopeful Rahm Emanuel said Democrats "lost the plot" because the party became unanchored from middle-class values. "Why would you undercut the premise of Title IX with the ability of trans men playing in women's sports?" Emanuel asked. "To me, it's insane. You're undermining one of the great accomplishments we as a country, but also spearheaded by the Democratic Party, Title IX. And we're undercutting it." RAHM EMANUEL: We lost the plot. We as Democrats nationally, from Latinx, to defunding the police, to police...

A New York Times headline that laughably mischaracterized NATO as “A North American Treaty Organization” drew widespread scorn on Friday. The glaring mangling of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s name quickly spread across X. Within minutes, a post pointing out the egregious error drew a wave of ridicule, disbelief and anger — much of it aimed not just at the mistake itself, but at what users framed as broader failures in mainstream media.

US citizens traveling to Hong Kong are being warned that refusal to hand over passwords or access to their personal devices is now a criminal offense. The US Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macao issued a warning that the Hong Kong government has changed the rules relating to the National Security Law on March 23. The change applies to everyone in Hong Kong, including residents, visitors and travelers transiting through the airport. “It is now a criminal offense to refuse to give the Hong Kong police the passwords or decryption assistance to access all personal electronic devices, including cellphones...

War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday that he was ending the policy that turned U.S. military installations into “gun-free zones,” declaring in a brief video statement, “That ends today.” Hegseth signed a memorandum stating that base commanders should allow service members to request permission to carry their privately-owned firearms while off duty — regardless of any firearm regulations imposed by the states in which the bases were located — and shared video explaining the move. WATCH: “Our great republic is founded on a simple, yet bold idea,” Hegseth began, saying that the nation was built the idea that rights...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s “paranoia” about Army Secretary Dan Driscoll taking his job fueled the firing of the Army’s top general, current and former administration officials tell The Post — as a top contender emerges to replace Driscoll if he’s canned next. Hegseth on Thursday demanded the resignation of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s — Driscoll’s top aide — in the middle of the Iran war for reasons that were not publicly stated, following months of mounting tensions with Driscoll. “This is all driven by the insecurity and paranoia that Pete has developed since Signalgate. Unfortunately, it...

A US district judge on Friday denied the Trump administration’s request to reconsider the legality of two subpoenas targeting the Federal Reserve, after he blocked them last month. In a biting six-page opinion, US District Judge James Boasberg wrote that the government had failed to provide any new evidence or identify any error in his March ruling. The chief judge of Washington’s federal trial court wrote that the government’s “cursory brief” does “not come close to convincing the Court that a different outcome is warranted.” *** Last month, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro appealed the initial ruling, which blocked two subpoenas...

The city of Springfield, Ohio, gained unwanted notoriety recently, but Springfield and other Ohio cities have genuine problems that have nothing to do with dubious claims of barbecued pets. In these cities, the majority of children under age 18 are being raised by single mothers (either never married or divorced/separated) who do not live with their children’s fathers or stepfathers. In Springfield, for example, only 44% of mothers were married and living with their husbands and children during the five-year period from 2018-2022. In Cleveland, only 33% were. In Youngstown, 32%; while in Cincinnati, 46%. By contrast, in the suburban...

Here's the thing, though. When the Telegraph asked Glover about being the first black astronaut to make this journey, his response didn’t exactly follow the usual script. He said: "It is a big question, and I wanna highlight, I guess maybe one facet of this is the tension, I call it. I live in this, and you know, this dichotomy between happiness that a young woman can look at Christina and just physicalize her, her passion or her interests, or even if it's not something she wants to do, she can just be like, 'Girl power,' and that's awesome.”