Free Republic

The Department of Justice has agreed to a $138.7 million settlement with victims of sports physician Larry Nassar who accused the FBI of failing to adequately investigate the convicted sex abuser. Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer announced the settlement on Tuesday, saying: “For decades, Lawrence Nassar abused his position, betraying the trust of those under his care and medical supervision while skirting accountability.” “These allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset,” he said.

Columbia students are sustaining themselves with pricey $12 croissants, organic grain granola and a variety of vegan and gluten-free homemade goods at the pro-Palestine protest encampment on the university's iconic Upper West Side campus. DailyMail.com gained access to the 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment,' which occupied the South Lawn where approximately 100 tents have been pitched by students who are calling for the university to cease any Israel-linked investments. Within the bustling 'encampment,' DailyMail.com reporters spotted packs of organic snacks, bakery take-outs and condiment stands scattered across tables, forming a makeshift canteen and buffet amidst the tents.

Judge Merchan on Tuesday held a hearing on Bragg’s request to hold Trump in contempt of court and fined for violating his gag order. The judge said he is going to wait to rule on whether Trump violated the gag order. It is unclear when he will actually issue the ruling. According to AP, President Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche told the court that Trump “is being very careful to comply” with the gag order. Judge Merchan, whose daughter is making tens of millions of dollars off of his case against Trump, blasted Todd Blanche: “You’re losing all credibility.” Trump slammed...

A deranged, woman-hating maniac wanted for more than a half-dozen random attacks on women in the Big Apple is finally in custody, police and sources said Tuesday. Daquan Armstead, 31, was picked up by cops shortly after midnight and charged with third-degree assault and harassment in eight unprovoked attacks on women over the past month, the sources said. That includes an April 17 attack on a 27-year-old administrator at New York University, who was slugged in the face while walking through Washington Square Park around 10:30 a.m., according to police. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating, although details...

Joe Biden is considering an executive order that would grant amnesty to the more than 1 million illegal immigrants who married U.S. citizens but were barred from receiving green cards. The President is looking at taking further actions to address both the southern border crisis and illegal immigrants living in the U.S. ahead of the 2024 election as a large chunk of Americans rank the issue as their top priority. Although immigrants, even those living in the U.S. illegally, are typically able to gain citizenship when they marry American citizens there are a number of reasons why they may have...

There's been a case in New York that I should have been following more closely. Dexter Taylor was a hobby gunsmith. He liked the nature of putting together guns from lawfully purchased parts. However, the state of New York disapproved of this pastime. They arrested Taylor and, on Monday, he was convicted. My friend Jeff Charles over at our sister site RedState has been covering this case pretty much from the jump, and in his story from Monday about the sentencing, there was something we had to talk about. You see, the judge in the case has decided that a...

Attorney generals for 17 Republican-led states have sued the Biden administration over its latest student loan debt forgiveness plan, arguing it does not have the authority to wipe out student loan debt for an estimated 30 million Americans. Under Biden’s new effort, called the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, “borrowers who originally took out $12,000 or less in loans and have been in repayment for 10 years are eligible to get their remaining debt canceled,” an April 8 news release states. The SAVE plan would also forgive debt for “borrowers in public service for 10 years who have made...

A Democratic state senator Minnesota who who once served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, has been arrested on suspicion of burglary. Police were called to a home in the 700 block of Granger Road of Detroit Lakes, early on Monday morning and arrested Nicole Mitchell, 49, who is from Woodbury, Minnesota. When authorities responded and searched the home, they found Mitchell inside and took her into custody. The home was that of her late father and where her stepmother still lives. The Becker County Attorney's Office is now reviewing the report before determining whether Mitchell, who...

Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker will return the witness stand today for the second day of Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial over covering up “hush money” payments to a porn star. Pecker will resume testimony where he is expected to detail the inner workings of a scheme he, Trump and his “fixer” lawyer Michael Cohen devised to buy up and bury bad news during the 2016 presidential election. Trump is on trial for allegedly fudging business records to conceal a $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels made before the 2016 presidential election. The 72-year-old ex-CEO of the Enquirer’s parent company,...

Arizona Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial for Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, 75, who faced charges of second-degree murder in the death of an illegal alien on his property. The jury voted 7-1 not guilty. Only one person voted “guilty of 2nd degree murder (or lesser charges to include negligent homicide and manslaughter).” The incident happened in January 2023: The jury began deliberating April 18. After days of being unable to reach a verdict, the judge overseeing the trial declared a mistrial on Monday. The case centered around the death of Mexican national Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who was...

King County filed charges against 6 people for the blockade which trapped motorists and emergency vehicles for over 5 hours. Two Seattle public school teachers and an Antifa militant with ties to the MS-13 gang were among those charged for shutting down the Interstate 5 freeway in January as part of an anti-Israel demonstration. On Friday, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) filed misdemeanor charges against six people in connection with the January 6 blockade, during which hundreds of anti-Israel activists flooded the northbound lanes of the freeway and trapped thousands of motorists and emergency vehicles for over 5...

It started off like countless other Uber rides in downtown Boston. A group of friends piled into a car after hanging out at a bar. Then, they started arguing. Most of the friends got out at their hotel, and the man offered to drive the remaining rider around to "collect herself." But when the woman asked the driver to drop her back off at the hotel, he refused. Instead, he took her to his apartment in Dorchester that Saturday in July 2016 and sexually assaulted her, police alleged in court records. A DNA test identified the suspect as Alvin Campbell...

Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove of California blasted her Democratic colleagues for weakening a bill that would make buying a child for sex a felony offense. The bill, which Grove introduced in February, would have made soliciting a minor for sex a felony charge with the potential for up to four years of prison time, a fine of up to $25,000 and required those convicted to register as sex offenders. Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Public Safety Committee passed amendments to the bill Wednesday, without Grove’s approval, that dropped chances of prison time to a max of one year in...

The Biden administration’s National Science Foundation (NSF) is dumping more than $2 million in taxpayer funds to back efforts aimed at diversifying marine biology and climate science, deriding the fields as “some of the least diverse STEM disciplines.” The NSF, which controls $9.9 billion of federal money and exists to “promote the progress of science,” “advance the national health,” and “secure the national defense,” is backing four different universities engaged in the study aimed at diversifying the two scientific disciplines. “The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science,...

Former President Donald Trump offered words of praise for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., saying he is "trying very hard" and is "a very good person." His comments came Monday evening during an interview with Real America's Voice radio host John Fredericks. "Look, we have a majority of one [in the House]," Trump said. "It's not like he can go and do whatever he wants. I think he's a very good person. I think he's a very good man. I think he's trying very hard. And, again, we have to have a very big election" to increase the Republican majority...

The Biden administration Friday rolled out three decisions aimed at greatly restricting oil and gas drilling, as well as mining activities needed for renewable energy, on public land. The decisions include shutting down the Ambler Access Road project, which would have opened up part of Alaska to mining needed for renewable energy, and blocking oil and gas drilling on up to 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Conservation Leases The third action the Interior Department took Friday was the finalizing of the Public Lands Rule. According to a statement from the Department of the Interior, the rule is...

A 50-year-old British woman is on trial for killing her cheating husband in 2021. Prosecutors said that Fiona Beal stabbed Nick Billingham in the neck during sex because he was having an affair. Beal then told her friends and family that she tested positive for COVID-19 and had to self-isolate for ten days. During that time, prosecutors allege that Beal buried Billingham in the garden in the backyard of their home. They detailed her purchases of cleaning products, gardening tools, and materials used to wrap the body before she buried it. She then spent the next few months using Billingham's...

Three million children in Haiti are in need of humanitarian assistance as continuing gang violence hampers aid delivery, the head of the UN children's agency, Unicef, has said. Catherine Russell said the situation in gang-wracked Haiti was "catastrophic" and growing worse "by the day". She told a meeting of the UN Security Council that in many areas essential services had collapsed. Meanwhile, a transitional presidential council has still not been sworn in. While Haiti has been blighted by gangs for years, the armed groups stepped up their attacks at the end of February when Prime Minister Ariel Henry travelled to...

There was a macabre familiarity to the sight last week of a dead man in Brazil being wheeled into a bank by a greedy relative to sign a loan document. The woman is seen on social media video talking to the corpse in the wheelchair while trying to hold up his floppy head with one hand. In her other hand, she clutches a pen lodged between the dead man’s fingers as she attempts to sign documents to secure a loan of $3,250. “Uncle Paulo, are you listening?” the woman, named by CNN Brazil as Érika de Souza Vieira Nunes, tells...

Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance launched a Complaint against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) challenging the agency’s unconstitutional “Consolidated Audit Trail.” The CAT is the largest government-mandated mass collection of personal financial data in American history. Without any statutory authority, SEC is forcing brokers, exchanges, clearing agencies and alternative trading systems to capture and send detailed information on every investor’s trades in U.S. markets to a centralized database, which SEC and private regulators can access forever. NCLA is asking the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to stop this unlawful, unprecedented seizure and mass surveillance...