Free Republic

A chunk of the Kennedy Center’s ceiling collapsed after a vicious storm plowed through Washington DC, leading a spokesperson to call it another “urgent” reason why the performing arts center needs to be overhauled. Debris was scattered on the building’s red carpet in its Grand Foyer, images of the damage online revealed. Kennedy Center spokesman Roma Daravai said it was “another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization, as our Chairman President Trump has championed.” She said the failure comes from “decades of neglect and deferred maintenance by the previous leadership” — and called the building...

Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal took heat from black lawmakers Friday after she referred to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as an “AIPAC monkey.” Jebreal used the racial epithet during an appearance on lefty commentator Wajahat Ali’s “The Left Hook” podcast, as she criticized the black Democrat’s support for Israel and accused him of doing the bidding of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). “His name is Hakeem. ‘Hakeem’ is an Arabic name which means ‘healer.’ He’s not a healer, he’s a divider,” Jebreal raged. “He is a bought and paid by AIPAC monkey,” she continued. “With all due...

Socialism is gaining ground, particularly among younger adults. It is sometimes modified with the word “democratic,” as in the name Democratic Socialists of America, but the modification is lipstick on a pig. Socialism and communism spring from the same desire to elevate government over family. That makes it important for students to understand where the militant ideology has led in practice. A new public school curriculum in Florida offers a model for doing that. Public school students in Florida will take a course this year that was approved in November 2025 by the state Board of Education: History of Communism...

On Thursday, 33 Democrats joined Republicans to pass a law that would take federal funding away from academic institutions involved in any kind of boycott of or divestment from Israel. The legislation passed 237–169. The Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act, headed by Republican Representative Virginia Foxx and Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer, strips federal funding from any school that carries out a “nonexpressive commercial boycott” of Israel—like “refusals to deal” with it on a business level. Notably, the bill also applies to boycotts of institutions based in Israeli settlements. “Thank you @RepJoshG and @virginiafoxx for leading this important bipartisan effort...

MIAMI — The Florida woman who shot and killed a drugged-up Army vet in a spat over a parking spot at a Walmart will not face charges after he threatened to ‘f— her s— up’, prosecutors revealed Thursday. Bart Diguglielmo, a 62-year-old retired staff sergeant, was fatally shot in front of the supercenter in North Lauderdale just before 12:30 p.m. on June 30. The shooter, identified as Melissa Payne, is immune from prosecution because she acted in self-defense due to the state’s “stand your ground” law, the Broward County state attorney’s office announced. One witness said she had heard Diguglielmo...

WASHINGTON — A federal judge pumped the brakes on President Trump’s latest effort to rein in birthright citizenship through executive order, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling against his first attempt. Maryland-based US District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday temporarily blocking Trump’s scaled-down executive orders last month to stop birth tourism. “The 2026 Executive Order is almost certainly unconstitutional … for the simple reason that the Supreme Court in Barbara already decided that the children in the class are citizens at birth,” Boardman, a Biden appointee, wrote in the opinion — referring to the Supreme Court case, Trump...

Caveat emptor! The number of colleges that cost more than $100,000 per year to attend has sky-rocketed this year — but few of these pricey schools offer a strong return on investment, according to rankings. Fifteen higher ed institutions cracked the six-figure pricetag this year, up from a just two the previous year, according to an analysis from the the Washington Post. That means students at those schools will be shelling out nearly a half-million dollars over four years of schooling. Another another nine colleges were also mere dollars away from breaking the six-figure mark, data from the Princeton Review...

Telling the internet world not to do something is the surest way that they will end up doing something.

When the US Treasury Department sanctioned the transnational organization Masar Badil last week, Washington took a much-needed step toward thwarting terrorist activity and recruitment here in the homeland. **SNIP** SUPER-UW’s rapid development from rhetoric to violence began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which killed UW alumnus Hayim Katsman along with 45 other American citizens. SUPER-UW immediately cheered the killing of civilians and venerated those responsible, later inviting UW students to a an event celebrating the slaughter “as not only a victory for the resistance, but a scientific necessity.” In September 2024, SUPER-UW encouraged followers to learn about “defending the...

A teachers' union has been given a harsh reality check by Seattle's new superintendent after threatening to delay the start of the academic year with a strike. Ben Shuldiner castigated the Seattle Education Association (SEA)'s threat to walk out unless a 12 percent pay increase was authorized by revealing the huge salaries that public school teachers in the city already earn. The majority take home $142,584 per year, according to a letter Shuldiner sent to parents on Sunday. Seattle Public Schools (SPS) teachers are paid a base salary of $118,000 for 180 days' work, plus an additional $3,298 for five...

Portland Public Schools welcomed students back to the 2026-27 academic year with a social media video featuring a drag queen.The school district shared a video on social media featuring drag queen Poison Waters, whose real name is Kevin Cook, describing the performer as an advocate, educator, and host. Waters has been an entertainer since the 1980s and has been involved in LGBTQ-related events for decades.“I’m here to wish you all a successful 2026-2027 school year and to thank all the amazing principals, teachers, and staff for your dedication to your students and their learning,” Waters said. “While we can often...

Detroit public schools have an absolutely hideous rate of chronic absenteeism. But their solution is even worse — paying kids to show up. A newly expanded program could see middle and high school kids making as much as $500 or $1,000-a-year, respectively, in gift cards for simply attending class. The district claims it creates an incentive for kids to show up — it’s called the “Perfect Attendance Pays” program — but it’s a desperate, last-ditch attempt to fix a much deeper cultural crisis. The program is actually teaching toxic life lessons: that simply showing up is some sort of accomplishment,...

"I also began collecting 218 signatures for the discharge petition to force a vote on Epstein Files Transparency Act II." ...

Homeschooled students scored substantially above national norms in reading, language, mathematics, social studies, and science, according to the first peer-reviewed nationwide homeschool achievement study of its kind in approximately 15 years.

A student at MIT claimed he synthesized one of the world’s deadliest chemicals last week — sparking a massive hazmat response and the closure of the lab where he worked. The unidentified grad student arrived at a local emergency room, saying he had synthesized dimethyl mercury, a highly toxic compound that can be fatal if exposed to humans in even the smallest amounts, NBC Boston reported. The student was not authorized to be working with the compound and it was not part of his research, according to school officials. MIT closed off Building 18 where the experiment took place on...

Sweden is putting books, handwriting, and human attention back at the center of education—and reminding the rest of us that technology should serve children, not master them. For years, parents were told the future of education was digital. Out went textbooks. In came tablets. Out went handwriting. In came keyboards. Children barely old enough to tie their shoes were handed screens and told this was progress. Sweden embraced that revolution more enthusiastically than most countries. Now Sweden is hitting the brakes.Not, as some viral posts claim, by “banning digital classrooms.” The truth is actually more interesting. Sweden is deliberately...

Michigan Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel skipped her party’s convention Saturday after saying she feared being booed, harassed and chased over her support for Israel — amid warnings of tense clashes over the Middle East. “I don’t feel safe going,” Nessel, who is Jewish, warned late last month. “I feel like my presence is not going to be welcomed. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if...

I'm sure there's a simple explanation, but I don't know it.

At a House hearing. Marco Rubio makes Representative Kamlager-Dove look like a fool. https://x.com/SowersJen/status/2062295779998306616

A California school bus ride home turned into a scene out of a third-world country Monday when furious parents smashed their way onto a Calaveras Unified bus and children started climbing out the windows because the driver refused to let the kids off. The wild scene unfolded along Highway 49 near Russell Road in Calaveras County after students were held on the stopped bus for about an hour. According to KCRA 3, the trouble began when a student reportedly tried to climb out a window before the bus had come to a stop. The driver then pulled over, contacted law...