The Free Press
It’s Monday, February 17. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: Ukraine peace talks without Ukraine? Why women fall for wellness scams. Noncitizens might get to vote in New York. And more.
But first: “You’d agree that this is antisemitic imagery, correct?”
A dollar bill folded in the shape of a Star of David, a flattering depiction of a Palestinian terror group founder, a poster calling Joe Biden a serial killer—these were all included in teaching material about the Middle East provided to Massachusetts educators.
In their new report for The Free Press, Frannie Block and Will Sussman cover a tense showdown in the Massachusetts legislature between lawmakers and the teachers union they say is pushing antisemitism in Northeastern schools.
Read “Welcome to Hamassachusetts.”
“It Was So Nuts, I Figured There Was No Way Folks Would Support It”
In 2021, the New York City Council voted to let legal noncitizen residents vote in local elections. Last Tuesday, the state’s highest court heard arguments on a lawsuit challenging the bill—and a decision could take months.
Today in The Free Press, our intrepid reporter Olivia Reingold interviews supporters of noncitizen voting, such as the leader of a nonprofit defending the law who says the effort to overturn it stems from a “white supremacist angle.” She also spoke to critics of the law, including Inna Vernikov, a city council member and immigrant from the former Soviet Union who says the law devalues citizenship.
Read Olivia’s report: “A Law Could Give Noncitizens in NYC the Vote. Not All Immigrants Are Happy About It.”
Keeping Human Traffickers Away from Migrant Children
Last year, The Free Press published an exposé on how the Biden administration’s border policies were leading to an explosion in child sex trafficking. As Madeleine Rowley reported, gang members would smuggle unaccompanied children across the border, sign up as “sponsors” with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), then traffic the kids for sex or labor. Now, though, the Trump administration is about to make that much harder to do.
Today in The Free Press, Madeleine reports on new, commonsense guidance released by the ORR to combat trafficking of migrant children.
“We can’t continue to prioritize the anonymity of the sponsors over the safety of the children,” said one whistleblower.
Read “Trump’s Opening Move Against Migrant Sex Trafficking.”
For Whom Does Belle Gibson Toll?
Earlier this month, Netflix released Apple Cider Vinegar, a drama miniseries based on the true story of Belle Gibson, an Australian wellness guru who pretended to cure her stage IV brain cancer with fruits and vegetables, amassing millions of followers along the way. Just one problem: Belle didn’t have cancer.
In her latest column for The Free Press, Kat Rosenfield says that women fall prey to scams like Belle Gibson’s because they want to be seen.
“What wellness influencers understand is that it feels good to make a change, to take charge,” Kat writes, “especially if you’ve previously felt like you were at the mercy of a faceless, impersonal system that doesn’t listen, doesn’t care, doesn’t even know you.”
Read Kat’s new column, “Why Women Fall for Wellness Bullshit.”
The Moral Majority Is Dead, Long Live the Moral Majority
On Friday, Ashley St. Clair, a conservative internet celebrity and author of a children’s book about a singing elephant that she’s described as an “unapologetic rebuke” of “transgender acceptance,” announced she had Elon Musk’s thirteenth child five months ago. This would make St. Clair Musk’s fourth baby mama. (He has not confirmed or denied her claim.)
“But who’s counting? Interestingly, not conservative Republicans,” says Charles Fain Lehman. In his latest for The Free Press, Lehman writes that Americans no longer support legislating people’s private behavior. What concerns them is public behavior: “And they are still willing to vote for those who moralize, insofar as they’re doing it about what goes on in the public square.”
With new debates over everything from gender to the homelessness issue, Lehman says there is a new moral majority in America—and it’s politically up for grabs.
Read his new piece on “Elon Musk, Ashley St. Clair, and the New Moral Majority.”
A Ukrainian official told the BBC yesterday that Kyiv has not been invited to today’s peace talks between Russia and the United States aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. European leaders haven’t been invited either, and are instead convening in Paris—also today—for a separate meeting hastily arranged by the French president. Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out a peace deal negotiated without Ukraine, but he’s also repeatedly said, as recently as Saturday, that it will be “very, very, very difficult” for Ukraine to survive without continued U.S. support.
On Friday, journalist Yashar Ali reported that Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosts the CPAC convention, allegedly groped a man’s genitals at a bar in north-central Virginia, according to the alleged victim and numerous eyewitnesses. Ali says he used video and photographic evidence to confirm Schlapp was at the bar—and sources confirmed to Ali that Schlapp used a credit card in his name to set up a tab, which he did not close out. The alleged victim, at the bar with a female partner, reported the incident to a manager who reportedly escorted Schlapp out. It’s not the first time the conservative activist has been accused of getting handsy with unwilling men. Last year, Schlapp settled out of court a lawsuit filed by a fellow Republican operative who said Schlapp groped and fondled him without consent in 2022. Schlapp admitted no wrongdoing, and his wife Mercedes—who worked in the first Trump administration—was a natural Wynette. But one wonders how much longer she’ll stand by her man. Schlapp has not commented publicly on the new allegations, and refused Ali’s request for comment.
On Sunday, it was reported that letters went out to dozens of probationary employees in at least one section of the Department of Transportation, informing them they were being fired for poor performance. However, NBC reports that many of the employees had previously been rated “exceptional” by supervisors. The move comes soon after the Office of Personnel Management—the federal government’s HR department—notified agencies on Thursday to cut loose their probationary employees.
At least nine people lost their lives as a powerful storm swept through Kentucky, resulting in mass flooding, mudslides, and more than 300 road closures. Parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee were under flash flood warnings through Sunday morning and thousands remain without power.
In other news: On Sunday, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan pushed back on the idea that the Justice Department dropped corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams in exchange for the use of Rikers Island to house arrested illegal immigrants—seemingly contrary to NYC’s sanctuary city law. Over the weekend, Trump visited the Daytona 500 and said the spirit of NASCAR will “fuel America’s Golden Age.” The federal government is seeking to rehire recently fired nuclear workers (whoops). Amazon workers in North Carolina voted against a union effort. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s “bold vision” for Gaza at a joint press conference with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Realize this story is a few days old, but is anything really new, or newsworthy, about the odious (and handsy) hypocrite Matt Schlapp, and his equally odious and phony wife "Mercy." Every year or so, this guy gets hammered somewhere and then grabs some unsuspecting stranger's crotch, and then afterwards we are subjected to handsy Matt and defiant Mercy blaming everyone, mostly the meanies in the left leaning press who want to "destroy him." Please, shut up. This is a non story. Until Matt finally flies out of the closet. BTW, nothing wrong with that Matt! And certainly will be an improvement over the laughable denials coming from you and your oh so understanding wife. Past time to take the blinders off, Mercy.
"Kyiv has not been invited to today’s peace talks between Russia and the United States aimed at ending the war in Ukraine."
A brief history: James Baker, U.S. Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush, promised Russia that if they supported German Reunification, the US would pledge not to expand NATO "one more inch east", which included Ukraine.
That promise was short lived. The invasion of Ukraine was directly a result of that broken promise. IF we want to end the war in Ukraine, the US must promise, in writing and preferably via treaty, that NATO will not attempt again to add Ukraine, or any other country directly on Russia's border, to it's membership.