Free Republic

In June 2023, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA) prevailed in complaints alleging racially discriminatory admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The 6-3 Supreme Court decision in these cases eliminated decades of ambiguity about what aspects of race were permissible in candidate evaluations at some of our nation’s most prestigious universities. Following the Court’s decision, a number of analysts and commentators noted that Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion contained a footnote exempting military service academies. That footnote reads: The United States as amicus curiae contends that race-based admissions programs further compelling interests at our Nation’s...

An Annapolis, Maryland, man accused in a shooting that killed three and injured three others in June was indicted on Friday on 42 counts including murder and hate crime charges. Charles Robert Smith, 43, is accused of shooting and killing 27-year-old Mario Antonio Mireles Ruiz, 55-year-old Nicholas Mireles and 25-year-old Christian Marlon Segovia after an argument broke out between Smith’s mother and Mario Antonio Mireles Ruiz over parking on June 11, 2023. FOX 5 in Washington, D.C. reported on Monday that Smith was indicted by an Ann Arundel County Grand Jury on Friday on 42 counts.

America, it would seem to some, is irredeemably racist, bigoted, and guided by hate. Those fighting against these pervasive evils have experienced a great “awokening” and are on a noble crusade to perfect American society by transforming its centers of power and influence. In doing so, many of our nation’s institutions are attempting to redefine what is acceptable thought, speech, and behavior by creating formal structures of control. Thus do they reprimand and publicly castigate the fallen. The U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), the nation’s premier institution through which future Navy and Marine Corps officers are educated and trained, has now...

Karine Jean-Pierre said she 'did not hear that part of the speech' when asked about claims President Joe Biden made during Friday's Naval Academy address 'I need to read it myself, and just go back and see what you're talking about exactly. I can't speak to it right now,' Jean-Pierre said At the top of Biden's commencement address to Naval Academy graduates Friday, he told a story about how Delaware Sen. J. Caleb Boggs 'I was appointed to the Academy in 1965 by a senator who I was running against in 1972,' Biden said The timeline doesn't make sense because...

President Biden revived his frequently ridiculed stage whisper Friday while addressing the US Naval Academy’s Class of 2022, stooping over his microphone to remind them that “I’m your commander-in-chief.” Biden addressed the graduates for approximately 25 minutes during the outdoor ceremony at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, during which he slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin over his three-month-old invasion of Ukraine. “The actions taken by Putin were an attempt to — to use my phrase — to Finlandize all of Europe, make it all neutral,” Biden said. “Instead, he NATO-ized all of Europe.” The phrase “Finlandize,” which the president...

Dear Marylanders, On the day that I found out I was cancer free, I pledged that as long as I was governor of this great state—and long after that—I would continue to stand with all those who are fighting this terrible disease.We have been working hard to increase access to treatment and raise awareness, and just last week, I announced my Maryland Cancer Moonshot Initiative, which dramatically expands all of our efforts to detect, prevent, treat, and find a cure for cancer so that we can save more lives. This week, we broke ground on the first part of our...

Dear Marylanders, Today I signed into law the largest tax cut package in state history—including the Retirement Tax Elimination Act—which will provide an additional $1.86 billion in long overdue tax relief for Maryland retirees, families, and small businesses. Combined with the gas tax suspension we enacted just a few weeks ago, we are delivering nearly $2 billion in tax relief during this legislative session alone. This historic, bipartisan agreement brings the total tax, toll, and fee relief that our administration has delivered to nearly $4.7 billion.When I was first running for governor eight years ago, I pledged that once we...

Maryland Democrats are considering a radical overhaul of congressional district lines that would give them a chance to win all eight of the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, putting the lone Republican representative at risk. Two of the four draft maps released by the General Assembly’s Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission spell trouble for Rep. Andy Harris (R), who represents a district that covers the Eastern Shore. Those proposals would add hundreds of thousands of voters from Anne Arundel County, home of Annapolis, in with voters from the less populous counties on the Eastern Shore. The two halves...

A Navy nuclear engineer and his wife from Maryland were busted for trying to sell confidential information about US nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign country, using memory cards hidden inside a peanut butter sandwich and a Band-Aid wrapper to transmit the secrets, according to court documents. Jonathan Toebbe, who worked at the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and had a top-secret security clearance, and his wife, Diana, were busted Saturday in Jefferson County, W.Va., accused by the FBI for violating the Atomic Energy Act, the Justice Department said on Sunday. Toebbe, 42, “has passed, and continues to pass, Restricted Data as...

Maryland transportation officials announced Thursday that they have selected Australian toll road operator Transurban to develop high-occupancy toll lanes for the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270, potentially cementing the company’s dominance in the Washington region. If Transurban and its partner, Australian investment bank Macquarie Capital, ultimately reach a 50-year deal with the state to build and operate the lanes, Transurban eventually would control 102 miles of express toll lanes around the nation’s capital — 37 in Maryland and 65 in Northern Virginia. Connecting high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes in the two states would mark the beginnings of a regional network of...

Maryland is ramping up enforcement of coronavirus restrictions ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday as the pandemic surges just as people usually gather with family and socialize in bars, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Monday. In addition to family gatherings on the holiday itself, the night before Thanksgiving has become one of the biggest bar-hopping nights of the year as people return to their hometowns and catch up with old friends over drinks. “I cannot emphasize how reckless that behavior would be this year,” the Republican governor said during a news conference in the State House rotunda in Annapolis. Health officials already...

A Maryland man who has helped organize 'reopen' protests against measures intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus says he has been sickened with COVID-19. Tim Walters, a co-founder of the ReOpen Maryland movement, announced this week on social media that he has tested positive. 'I was diagnosed yesterday at the ER with COVID-19 and here I am months after not wearing a mask at rallies, churches and so on and so it's funny how capricious this thing is,' he said in a Facebook video. Walters, a two-time Republican candidate for the state legislature, helped organize ReOpen Maryland protests...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — A group of Marylanders plan to protest in Annapolis Saturday to reopen the state after Gov. Larry Hogan put the state under “stay at home” order on March 30 due to the coronavirus. The group, known as Reopen Maryland, plans to protest downtown around noon. They want the governor to reopen Maryland by May 1. “We are the strongest country on the planet and have put a man on the moon, there is no compelling reason why we can’t protect the sick and vulnerable and get our economy back to work,” a Facebook event says. The...

Five sanctuary bills are currently under consideration by the Maryland state legislature. HB 677 and its Senate companion, SB 850, would prohibit state and local detention facilities from entering into agreements to house ICE detainees. These bills will force ICE to send many immigration detainees far away from their families and lawyers, potentially to remote areas where ICE is able to secure detention space. SB 649 would prevent any of the state's MVA custodians of records from providing ICE access to any such "public record that contains personal information unless the custodian is provided with a valid warrant or valid...

Former New York City Mayor—and potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate—Michael Bloomberg called efforts to legalize marijuana "perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done." Speaking at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday, Bloomberg said on the subject, according to WBNG-TV: "We have a different kind of problem in America, for example. Last year, in 2017, 72,000 Americans [overdosed] on drugs. In 2018, more people than that are OD-ing on drugs, have OD'd on drugs. And today, incidentally, we are trying to legalize another addictive narcotic, which is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done. We've got...

Maryland’s Board of Public Works approved the state’s use of private companies to widen highways in the Washington suburbs, but agreed to delay work on the Capital Beltway after running into opposition. The vote came during a lengthy and tense meeting Wednesday on Gov. Larry Hogan’s plan to enlist the private sector to widen the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270. The private contractors would recoup their investment through tolls charged on drivers who use the new lanes. The Hogan administration has sold the plan — known as a “public-private partnership” or P3 — as a way to alleviate traffic congestion...

A member of the Legislative Black Caucus from Baltimore City has resigned from the group over remarks purportedly made by the caucus’ leader. Her decision comes just days before the House of Delegates votes on a new speaker, amid signs that a leading candidate — a member of the caucus from Prince George’s County — may be preparing to align himself with Republican legislators in order to win the position. That decision has frayed relations within the 98-member Democratic caucus – which includes 45 members of the black caucus. The LBC is scheduled to meet Monday afternoon in Annapolis –...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The head of the Maryland Transportation Authority has abruptly resigned. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that no reason for his departure was publicly released. Kevin C. Reigrut oversaw the state’s eight toll facilities. He led the 1,700-employee agency since January 2017.

A powerful General Assembly committee voted Friday to revise Gov. Larry Hogan’s more than $46 billion budget proposal to provide millions more in funding for Maryland’s public schools, while cutting some of the Republican governor’s prized initiatives. Led by Baltimore Democrat Maggie McIntosh, the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending plan that provides about $320 million more for operating Maryland’s public schools. That would be the first step toward implementing recommendations from the so-called Kirwan Commission, which has proposed ambitious new programs to boost student performance. The committee’s spending plan also includes $500 million for public school construction and $46...

John McCain is being laid to rest at the U.S. Naval Academy after a five-day procession that served as a final call to arms for a nation he warned could lose its civility and sense of shared purpose. The private ceremony in Annapolis, Maryland, was as carefully planned as the rest of McCain's farewell tour, which began in Arizona after he died Aug. 25 from brain cancer and stretched to Washington.