Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — From the moment Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people on the streets of Kenosha during protests over the police shooting of a Black man, he’s personified America’s polarization. The 17-year-old from Illinois who carried an AR-style rifle and idolized police was cheered by those who despised the Black Lives Matter movement and the sometimes destructive protests that followed George Floyd’s death. He was championed by pro-gun conservatives who said he was exercising his Second Amendment rights and defending cities from “antifa,” an umbrella term for leftist militants. Others saw him as the most worrisome example yet of...

A racial reckoning began years ago for the Guilford (Connecticut) school system, first with an episode in which a student wore blackface makeup to a home football game and then a fraught debate over the elimination of its mascot, the Indians. After the killing of George Floyd, district leaders announced they were doubling down on efforts to address social justice and racism in schools and teaching materials. But an organized pushback in the overwhelmingly white community began last year with a petition for the superintendent’s removal. This summer, conservative activists won the GOP’s endorsement for school board, knocking out three...

Massachusetts high school investigates reports of racial slurs during football game © Thinkstock A Boston Roman Catholic high school has suspended football activities amid an investigation into reports of one of its players using racial slurs toward an opposing player during a game last weekend, The Associated Press reported. In a statement posted on St. John Paul II website, Cathedral High School players told their coaches about St. John Paul II players’ using racial epithets toward them during the contest. Cathedral coaches reported the incident to St. John Paul administrators and have open an investigation into the allegations, according to...

RICHMOND, Va. — Republican Glenn Youngkin has not talked much lately about President Donald Trump’s lies about voter fraud, the insurrection on Jan. 6 or his party’s eroded trust in elections. But when he has, it has not gone smoothly. The GOP nominee for governor of Virginia argued this week that the state’s voting machines must be regularly audited, suggesting that would ensure “everybody can trust” the process. Left unsaid was that the machines already undergo annual audits. The comment followed a recent interview in which Youngkin did not directly say whether he would have voted to certify Democrat Joe...

The COVID-19 patient’s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor’s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn’t think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building. Dr. Matthew Trunsky didn’t hold back in his response: “You are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car,’” he said. Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19...

Stephanie Grisham, White House press secretary to first lady Melania Trump, is out with a book that paints a deeply unflattering picture of Donald Trump — a man with a “terrifying” temper who ogled a young aide and tried to impress dictators while president, she writes. Grisham describes Melania as a Marie Antoinette figure who refused to condemn the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as Trump's supporters stormed the building to halt certification of 2020 election results. Grisham writes she texted Melania Trump as the scene unfolded. “Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the...

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention data from the new K-12 school year bolster the agency’s recommendation for masks in schools and in-person classes. One study in two Arizona counties found coronavirus outbreaks were almost four times more common at public schools without mask mandates on the first day than at those that re-opened with a masking requirement. Another study found case rates in children and teens increased more in U.S. counties where public schools had no mask mandates than in those where schools had that requirement. These studies lacked data on other measures that could have influenced the...

PHOENIX (AP) — A draft report of the election review in Arizona’s largest county by supporters of former President Donald Trump found that President Joe Biden did indeed win the 2020 presidential contest there, an embarrassing end to a bizarre quest to find evidence supporting Trump’s false claim that he lost because of fraud. The final report was scheduled to be released Friday afternoon, the result of a months-long partisan review funded in part by taxpayers. The draft document began to circulate Thursday night showing the results of the review’s chaotic hand count of all 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa...

First, some blamed the deadly Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol on left-wing antifa antagonists, a theory quickly debunked. Then came comparisons of the rioters to peaceful protesters or even tourists. Now, allies of former President Donald Trump are calling those charged in the Capitol riot “political prisoners,” a stunning effort to revise the narrative of that deadly day. […] “Some people are calling it Jan. 6 trutherism — they’re rewriting the narrative to make it seem like Jan. 6 was no big deal, and it was a damn big deal, and an attack on our democracy,” said Heidi...

Earth sizzled in July and became the hottest month in 142 years of recordkeeping, U.S. weather officials announced. As extreme heat waves struck parts of the United States and Europe, the globe averaged 62.07°F (16.73°C) last month, beating out the previous record set in July 2016 and tied again in 2019 and 2020. the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday. The margin was just .02°F (.01°C). The last seven Julys, from 2015 to 2021, have been the hottest seven Julys on record, said NOAA climatologist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo. Last month was 1.67°F (0.93°C) warmer than the 20th century average for...

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Durham, the federal prosecutor tapped to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation, has been presenting evidence before a grand jury as part of his probe, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. The development is a potential sign that Durham may be mulling additional criminal charges beyond the one he brought last year against a former FBI lawyer who admitted altering a document related to a Trump campaign aide who’d been under FBI surveillance. Durham is also expected to complete a report at some point. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment, citing an...

GENEVA — The World Health Organization says the number of coronavirus deaths globally jumped by 21 percent in the last week. Most of the 69,000 deaths were reported in the Americas and Southeast Asia. The UN health agency also noted that COVID-19 cases rose by 8 percent worldwide and that there are now nearly 194 million infections.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate mounted an aggressive case Tuesday against Democrats’ sweeping election and voter-access legislation, pushing to roll back proposals for automatic registration, 24-hour ballot drop boxes and other changes in an increasingly charged national debate. The legislation, a top priority of Democrats in the aftermath of the divisive 2020 election, would bring about the largest overhaul of U.S. voting in a generation, touching nearly every aspect of the electoral process. It would remove hurdles to voting erected in the name of election security and curtail the influence of big money in politics. At the end of a...

Across America, people of color are exposed to more air pollution than whites from industry, vehicles, construction and many other sources, a new study has found. Using government air pollution and census data, researchers found that disproportionate numbers of non-white people were exposed to potentially hazardous fine particle pollution from nearly all major U.S. emission sources, regardless of where they live or how much money they make. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, also found that Blacks were the only group disproportionately exposed to each of the pollution sources examined. Researchers found that on average Black, Hispanic...

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short on Wednesday accused President Trump of revoking his White House access as tensions between Pence and Trump continued to deteriorate. The president publicly and privately lobbied Pence in recent weeks to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win ahead of Wednesday’s confirmation vote in Congress, which Pence is overseeing as the president of the Senate. “Mike Pence, I hope you get to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country, and if you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you,”...

CLAIM: There were 205,000 more votes than voters in the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. This analysis is based on incomplete data, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State. THE FACTS: A misleading claim about election results from a group of Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania is circulating widely on social media a week before Congress meets to reaffirm Joe Biden’s decisive presidential win. The claim emerged in a release from the Republican state Rep. Frank Ryan and several others on Monday. “A comparison of official county election results to the total number of voters who voted on...

The U.S. presidential election was not tainted by widespread voter fraud or irregularities in how ballots were counted, despite a huge effort by President Donald Trump to prove otherwise. In refusing to concede the election, Trump claims that he would have won were it not for “illegal” votes counted in several states that he lost or where he is currently trailing. But Trump and his allies haven’t offered any proof and their legal challenges have largely been rejected by the courts. WHAT IS TRUMP CHALLENGING? The Trump campaign has filed more than a dozen lawsuits in at least five states....

DETROIT (AP) — Power. Respect. Finally. When Eric Sheffield first saw Joe Biden take the lead in the vote count in Georgia, the 52-year-old Black man immediately thought about all the years he spent urging his Black friends and family to vote and all the times he saw his preferred candidate lose.

WASHINGTON - On a day meant for unity and celebration, President Donald Trump vowed to “safeguard our values” from enemies within - leftists, looters, agitators, he said - in a Fourth of July speech packed with all the grievances and combativeness of his political rallies. “We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing,” he said. “We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children. Even as officials...

The Department of Homeland Security and FBI warned states earlier this year that Russia could look to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections by covertly advising political candidates and campaigns, according to a law enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press. The Feb. 3 document details tactics U.S. officials believe Russia could use to interfere in this year's elections, including secretly advising candidates and campaigns. It says that though officials “have not previously observed Russia attempt this action against the United States,” political strategists working for a business mogul close to President Vladimir Putin have been involved in political campaigning...