Free Republic

A Minnesota surgeon believes he was fired from his job after telling school officials that parents should have the choice of whether or not their children wear masks to school. Dr. Jeffrey Horak spoke before the school board at a public meeting in the town of Fergus Falls on October 11. He gave a speech against the school's temporary mask mandate, which had gone into effect the day prior. 'You mandate this across the road - that's a tough place to go,' Horak told the board. He then suggested there was a higher power in charge of the students' behavior...

An award-winning German journalist who was recently found to have fabricated parts of stories may be facing more trouble. Claas Relotius, 33, is facing new accusations that he solicited donations for orphans of the war in Syria, donations that he ultimately pocketed, reported CBS. As part of the scandal over the former CNN International's Journalist of the Year, residents of Fergus Falls, Minn., dispelled a variety of falsehoods in his piece “ In a small town” that took aim at "the people who pray for Trump on Sundays." Relotius is accused of making up quotes, interview subjects, and facts in...

Knowing that Relotius' purpose was likely to focus on a few of our many conservative voters, I still had an ounce of faith in journalism. Maybe, just maybe, since he was a professional, award winning, international journalist and was spending not one day here but several weeks, he would craft an interesting, nuanced story about how we all somehow manage to coexist with each other in Trump's America without burning each other's houses down. But I also had a distinct gut feeling that his portrayal of this town could go very, very wrong. What happened is beyond what I could...