Free Republic

Move Could “Open the Floodgates” Against National Standards Indiana Governor Mike Pence burst into the headlines with his announcement that Indiana will be the first of 45 states to opt out of the national education standards known as Common Core. “I believe when we reach the end of this process there are going to be many other states around the country that will take a hard look at the way Indiana has taken a step back,” Pence said, “designed our own standards and done it in a way where we drew on educators, we drew on citizens, we drew on...

First Lady Michelle Obama will be accompanied by her children and her mother on her trip to China, which begins today. But she won't be accompanied by the press. "Michelle Obama’s trip to China starting on Wednesday will be nonpolitical, the White House says, a 'people-to-people exchange' emphasizing the importance that both nations place on education. As if to underscore the point, no reporters are traveling with the first lady, and she does not plan to give interviews while there," reports the New York Times. The White House is defending the first lady bringing her family along for the ride...

(THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Residents of Kuda Huvadhoo in Dhaal Atoll in the Maldives reportedly saw a "low-flying jumbo jet" flying over houses early in the morning of March 8, the same day Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing. In a report by Maldivian daily Haveeru, residents described the aircraft which flew over Kuda Huvadhoo at around 6:15am as being white, with red stripes across it. This colour scheme is very similar to the livery used by Malaysia Airlines on its aircraft - including the Boeing 777 used for MH370.

BEIJING (AP) — China's official Xinhua News Agency says a government website has images of suspected debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane. The report says the satellite images from the morning of March 9 appear to show "three suspected floating objects" of varying sizes. The report includes coordinates of a location in the sea off the southern tip of Vietnam and east of Malaysia.

After months of pressing the CBS News brass to get out of her contract, reporter Sharyl Attkisson was finally granted her request. While that is good for her, it ought to underline how CBS has abandoned hard-hitting reporting in the Obama era. Politico's Attkisson headline was "The right loses its hero at CBS," and liberal blogs tried to guess how long it would take for her to sign up with Fox News Channel. That might happen. Roger Ailes loves scooping up talent from other networks. That's meant as an insult, of course. Only those dreadful right-wing propagandists challenge Team...

<p>KERMIT, W.Va. (AP/KDKA) – Health officials have temporarily shut down a southern West Virginia pizza restaurant after a district manager was caught on surveillance video urinating into a sink.</p> <p>Local media reported that the Mingo County health department ordered the Pizza Hut in Kermit, about 85 miles southwest of Charleston, to shut down.</p>

The Filer Police Department claims it was a justifiable shooting, but an outraged Rick Clubb plans to sue, saying, 'Maybe I deserve a ticket, but I don't deserve a dead dog.'An Idaho police officer was caught on video fatally shooting a dog just yards away from the house where a birthday party was being held for the owner's 9-year-old son. Dashcam video shows Officer Tarek Hassani of the Filer Police Department approaching dogs on the street and shooting Rick Clubb's 7-year-old black Lab. “He didn’t have to pull out his .45 and shoot my dog,” Clubb told the Times-News, which...

Sid Caesar, a comedic force of nature who became one of television’s first stars in the early 1950s and influenced generations of comedians and comedy writers, died on Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 91. His death was announced by Eddy Friedfeld, a family spokesman. Mr. Caesar largely faded from the public eye in his middle years as he struggled with crippling self-doubt and addiction to alcohol and pills. But from 1950 to 1954, he and his co-stars on the live 90-minute comedy-variety extravaganza “Your Show of Shows” dominated the Saturday night viewing habits of millions...

Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana,” Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia, and co-author of the study told HealthDay News. The researchers found that drugs played an increasing role in fatal traffic accidents. Drugged driving accounted for more than 28 percent of traffic deaths in 2010, which is 16 percent more than it was in 1999. The researchers also found that marijuana was the main drug involved in the increase. It contributed to 12 percent of fatal crashes, compared to only 4 percent in...

Stocks were battered on Monday, with investors fleeing equities after factory data cast a negative light on the economy. Article Link: Stocks unravel after factory report

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. was recently censored by Arizona Republicans for being too much of a RINO and a generally irascible fellow. Sarah Palin has taken to her Facebook page to rally to the venerable war hero's defense.

A national newspaper chain with nearly 100 publications and 1.6 million readers is considering building “state-by-state databases” on concealed weapons permit holders, according to an internal e-mail. The plan, laid out in an email from a top editor at North Carolina-based Civitas Media, could be similar to a controversial project a New York state newspaper carried out in 2012 which included an online map that identified gun owners in two counties by name and address. Civitas' database project was detailed the plan in a Jan. 19 e-mail to newsrooms in 11 states, including Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania. The newest project...

after his alleged affair with actress but promises to let her know before U.S. trip ... 'This is not the time nor the place'Faced the world's media for the first time since the affair news broke Acknowledged he was going through a difficult period in his private life Said he is outraged by the violation of his privacy, but says he will not sue Refused to answer question about if Valerie Trierweiler is still First Lady Valerie Trierweiler is set to remain in hospital suffering from 'shock' Pair are scheduled to attend a formal state dinner hosted by President It...

It could only be described as 20 minutes of mayhem when a crowd of kids ransacked a Bryan convenience store last Saturday night. The store clerk at the Chevron Food Mart at William J. Bryan and Highway 21 says the kids swarmed the place, vandalizing and stealing a number of things. Store Clerk Terry Polsgrove says it was just your average Saturday night... "It was pretty slow, I was about to close the store and I had like two customers, said Terry Polsgrove. But around 11:15... “It got to the point where I started seeing more and more kids coming...

<p>A 6-year-old boy has been suspended from a Colorado school for kissing a girl on the cheek.</p> <p>School officials in Canon City are accusing Hunter Yelton of sexual harassment and they want it on his school record.</p> <p>The boy’s mother tells KRDO-TV her son was suspended once before for kissing the girl and had disciplinary problems, but the girl did not object to being kissed. She told the station that the two children like each other.</p>

Mandela's final act of peace: Obama shakes hands with Fidel Castro's brother (before selfies with David Cameron and Danish PM) President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro today, an unprecedented gesture of friendship which occurred, fittingly, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. The handshake between leaders of the two Cold War enemies took place during a ceremony which honored the former South African President's powerful legacy of reconciliation... He was later spotted in the VIP stands posing for a 'selfie' camera phone picture with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish PM Helle Thorning Schmidt...

He was just in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but United States Secretary of State John Kerry will be making yet another visit to the region this week. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that Kerry would be leaving Washington on Wednesday to return to the region for more talks with both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. "This is an important time in the negotiations, and he felt it was important to return to the region," she told reporters, according to the AFP news agency, adding Kerry would spend two days...

A television news report sheds doubt on a gay New Jersey restaurant server’s claim that a customer denied her a tip because of her ‘lifestyle’ by producing a receipt that indicates otherwise. NBC 4 out of New York reports that it has an original receipt and credit card statement produced by family members who ate at the restaurant that night and insist they did leave a tip and did not scrawl on their receipt: “I’m sorry but I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle.” The story gained national attention after Dayna Morales, a former Marine and...

A 48-year-old self-employed court reporter referenced by President Barack Obama as a beneficiary of his Affordable Care Act during a recent address has learned that she’s one of the latest Americans to be duped by another Obamacare false promise. From the White House rose garden late last month, Pres. Obama read a letter he received from Jessica Sanford, a Washington state single mom who had recently found out that the president’s hallmark health care plan would cost her a fraction of what she previously paid to cover herself and her son. “I am a single mom. No child support, self-employed...

I received this via e-mail "From March 21st 2010 to October 1 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days. From December 7, 1941 to May 8, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day. What this means is that in the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor to the day Germany surrendered is not enough time for this federal government to build a working webpage. Mobilization of millions, building tens of thousands of tanks, planes, jeeps, subs, cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, millions upon millions of guns, bombs, ammo, etc. Turning the tide in North Africa, Invading Italy, D-Day, Battle...