Free Republic

• The Senate voted 81-18 to break the filibuster and reopen the government. • Here is the bipartisan group that reached the deal.. • Democrats had debated whether to trust Senator Mitch McConnell’s word. • The House will have to vote on any measure the Senate passes before the government officially reopens.

“I’m telling you he did not use that word, George. And I’m telling you it’s a gross misrepresentation. How many times do you want me to say that?” Sen. David Perdue told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “The gross misrepresentation was that language was used in there that was not used and also that the tone of that meeting was not contributory and not constructive,” he said. Perdue, a Georgia Republican, attended the meeting last Thursday with other GOP and Democratic lawmakers seeking to hammer out a deal on immigration when Trump reportedly wondered out loud why...

Appearing on this evening’s Hardball, Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat and leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, twice accused Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue of “flat-out lying” by saying that they didn’t hear President Trump refer to various countries as “s—holes.” Bass then took things an ugly step further, insinuating that President Trump might have bribed the two senators in some way. Said Bass: “I think that they’re flat-out lying. And maybe they’re getting something from the President for it.” Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

On day one of the 2018 government shutdown, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) came out and claimed that he offered President Trump funding for his border wall in exchange for protection for so-called Dreamers via the Differed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and he turned it down. Since then, the liberal media have been running around claiming that Trump was the reason an agreement couldn’t be reached. But during Sunday’s Meet the Press, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) chastised the media for buying the claim “hook, line, and sinker.” The dust-up with NBC host Chuck Todd began after Cotton was explaining that...

A day after promising to give its store workers raises and bonuses, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is preparing to hand out pink slips at its headquarters. The giant retailer, which is based in Bentonville, Ark., and employs more than 1.5 million people in the U.S., plans to cut more than 1,000 corporate jobs ..... < snip > ..... The job cuts are expected to be broad based, focused on workers primarily at the company's headquarters ..... < snip >

Two Republican senators who hastily joined an immigration meeting at the White House this week said Friday they do not recall President Trump using vulgar language to describe countries in Africa and elsewhere. ut Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Sen. Davild Perdue (R-Ga.) issued a joint statement Friday suggesting otherwise. “We do not recall the president saying these comments specifically,” Cotton and Perdue said. “But what he did call out was the imbalance in our current immigration system, which does not protect American workers and our national interest.”

Those who want a disarmed population make much of the few hundred homicides officially designated as such by the FBI.In the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), about 300 homicides are reported as justified by private (non-police) actors in the United States each year. There has been considerable research to show the FBI number only catches about 20 percent of actual justified homicides.A report out of Little Rock Arkansas illustrates part of the problem. The Little Rock Police Department has not been reporting justifiable homicides separately. They have included them with murders and non-negligent homicides.  They recently made the decision to...

Sam’s Club, a unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, closed a series of stores following a review, the membership-only store chain said in a tweet on Thursday. The tweet came after a series of reports from local news outlets said some Sam's Club stores were closed abruptly on Thursday, with employees learning of the move as they arrived for work.

. From Walmart Corporate Blog: We’ve got some really good news to share today. As you know, the President and Congress have approved a lower business tax rate. Given these changes, we have an opportunity to accelerate a few pieces of our investment plan. We plan to continue investing in you, in our customers through lower prices, and in our future--especially in technology to help improve your jobs and the experience for our customers. So, we’re pleased to tell you that we’re raising our starting wage to $11 an hour for Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club, Supply Chain, eCommerce and Home...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday claimed the Justice Department is investigating the Clinton Foundation for politically motivated reasons rather than based on new evidence. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee accused the White House of placing unrelenting pressure on the law enforcement agency to open a probe into the organization tied to Hillary Clinton, President Trump's 2016 Democratic opponent. "If they are investigating Hillary Clinton, it doesn't take a genius, let alone a stable genius, to see why," Schiff told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s "State of the Union," referencing President Trump's self-description of his mental fitness....

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen Tom Cotton (R-AR) said any deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy would have to include funding the border wall, ending chain migration, and ending the diversity lottery.

A new Department of Justice probe of the email and charity fraud scandals won't end well for Bill or Hillary Until recently, the Clinton Foundation has been monitored by the IRS, the Department of Justice, and the FBI, and multiple state government authorities that are seeded with persons loyal to either the Clintons or the Obamas. Every time, the Clinton Foundation got a free pass. But now it appears key authorities may finally be turning strict attention toward answering tough questions about public filings of Clinton “charities” inside and outside the United States. When these powerful organizations engage motivated minds,...

Whether it is merely the FBI trying to restore its shattered credibility or justice finally being done, the news that the pay-to-play activities of the Clinton Foundation are going to get renewed and serious attention is welcome. The Clintons have made a career of ignoring, skirting, and breaking the law. Up to this point, crime has paid off handsomely for the Clintons, but now they may find themselves caught between Little Rock and a hard place: The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary...

he Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill. FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the Foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in coming weeks. The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed...

A future Interstate 49 and whether it will become Arkansas’ first toll road are being considered, with public meetings likely coming in early 2018, reports KFSM news station.The interstate section being considered would stretch from Barling to Alma over the Arkansas River. The Arkansas Department of Transportation has commissioned a study on charging tolls on the future highway section.The study is scheduled to be completed next fall, and public meetings are expected at the first of 2018 to get public input on the project, the station reports.Interstate 49 would eventually stretch from New Orleans to Canada. Portions of the highway...

Jan Morgan, owner of the Gun Cave Indoor Firing Range in Hot Springs, made the announcement in a video posted to YouTube on Dec. 30. In the Republican primary, she’ll challenge incumbent Asa Hutchinson, who was elected in 2014. ... Morgan calls herself “genetically conservative” and has said, “I ride my own Harley.” On Monday, Morgan announced she would hold a meet-and-greet event later this month at the Perry County Fairgrounds. “Are Muslims invited?” asked a commenter on Facebook. Morgan’s official page responded: “This is a public event not a private business that has to adhere to federal law. Therefore...

Cotton Statement on Iranian Protests December 28, 2017 Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today released the following statement on the protests against the Iranian regime in the city of Mashhad: "Even after the billions in sanctions relief they secured through the nuclear deal, the ayatollahs still can't provide for the basic needs of their own people-perhaps because they've funneled so much of that money into their campaign of regional aggression in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen. The protests in Mashhad show that a regime driven by such a hateful ideology cannot maintain broad popular support forever, and we...

Attorney General Jeff Landry is urging a federal appeals court to reverse an order that is preventing the implementation of President Donald Trump's executive order regulating so-called "sanctuary cities," arguing that such immigrant-friendly jurisdictions "undermine the rule of law and deprive law enforcement of the tools necessary to enforce the law effectively." "We have seen too many crimes occur against our own State’s citizens due to sanctuary city policies; which is why I have been actively fighting back against these policies since taking office," Landry, a Republican, said in a news release announcing that he had joined 10 other attorneys...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — More than a dozen states banded together Monday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block a California law requiring any eggs sold there to come from hens that have space to stretch out in their cages. In a lawsuit filed directly to the high court, the states allege that California's law has cost consumers nationwide up to $350 million annually because of higher egg prices since it took effect in 2015. The lawsuit argues that California's requirements violate the U.S. Constitution's interstate commerce clause and are pre-empted by federal law. A federal appeals court...

Arkansas political observers were surprised to read Thursday that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton may become CIA director in a Trump administration shakeup, but names already are circulating for potential appointees to replace him in the Senate. Among those under discussion is White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. “I would support Sarah in a New York minute!” former U.S. Rep. Tommy Robinson, an Arkansas Democrat turned Republican, told the Washington Examiner.