Free Republic

GOP members have released their draft amendment to defund President Barack Obama’s national amnesty. “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available, including any funds or fees collected or otherwise made available for expenditure, by this division or any other Act, or otherwise available to the Secretary of Homeland Security, for any fiscal year may be used to implement, administer, carry out, or enforce the [amnesty] policies,” says the short amendment. The new anti-amnesty language is being pushed by Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon, South Carolina’s Rep. Mick Mulvaney and Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, who unseated the GOP’s pro-amnesty majority...

A judge has sided with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the first clash in what is expected to be a major court fight over the legality – or not – of Barack Obama’s looming amnesty program, ordering a fast track for case arguments and hearings. The announcement came on Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell ..granted a motion ... snip Two Justice Department lawyers representing Obama in the fight had wanted their initial response delayed for weeks – for one thing because of the coming Christmas season. But Howell ordered Obama to respond to Arpaio’s motion for...

There's no official Sen. Ted Cruz presidential team — yet. But the Texas Republican is already surrounding himself with key strategists and advisers that could make his transparent White House ambitions a reality. The tea party firebrand relies on a small circle of advisers to inform his views and amplify his ultraconservative message. The inner circle breaks down into two groups: his chief advisers in the Senate office, and the chiefs of his nationally-focused political operation, which he beefed up in the summer of 2014 by hiring a crop of seasoned Republican campaign operatives. These are the key players that...

The Pima County Board of Supervisors will vote this month on whether to refuse to hire smokers and put a major pinch on the pocketbooks of those who already work there. The two-part policy would take effect in July 2015. It prevents the county from hiring smokers and slaps a 30 percent health insurance surcharge on employees who do smoke or use other tobacco products. -snip- “It’s not an attempt to punish anybody,” said Human Resources Director Allyn Bulzomi. “It’s an attempt to encourage people to be healthy.”

(CNN) -- Just about six years after his career seemed to come to a crashing halt, when Barack Obama defeated him in the presidential election of 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain is poised to re-emerge as a major player in the next two years. As the new chairman of the influential Armed Services Committee, McCain will be able to use this perch of power to loudly challenge the President's foreign policy agenda. Call it McCain's revenge. For several years, it seemed as if McCain was finished. The 2008 election delivered a huge blow to his political standing. Once considered the...

An unarmed Arizona man was shot dead by a Phoenix police officer who mistook a pill bottle for a handgun, police said. Police have yet to name the 30-year-old white officer, who fired off two shots that killed Rumain Brisbon, a 34-year-old black man, during an altercation Tuesday night during an investigation into a drug deal, police said. But witness accounts varied on what actually happened, sparking protests in Phoenix Thursday night as the fever pitch from the police killings of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island, boiled over...

EAST RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON, Ariz. — Renae Yellowhorse stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon, 26 bumpy miles across the Painted Desert from the nearest paved road, not a glint of civilization in sight. Ms. Yellowhorse, 52, who has lived her whole life on this Navajo land, cast an arm over the gulf sweeping out to the horizon, pointing to where the Colorado River and the Little Colorado meet in a dazzling burst of deep blue 3,000 feet below. “This is where the tram would go,” she said. “This is the heart of our Mother Earth. This...

A Phoenix police officer shot to death an unarmed black man during a struggle and authorities said the officer believed the individual had a gun, in the latest fatal incident amid national turmoil over the policing of black communities. The Phoenix Police Department said Rumain Brisbon, 34, was sitting in a black Cadillac SUV outside a convenience store on Tuesday evening, and that two witnesses told the officer the occupants of the vehicle were selling drugs. With police forces across the country under increased scrutiny over killings of unarmed black men, Phoenix police said in a statement that its officer...

PHOENIX - The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting a 4.7-magnitude earthquake near Sedona, Arizona. According to the USGS website, the quake struck just before 11 p.m. Sunday seven miles north of Sedona.

While the primary politics of 2016 may not afford movement conservatives a great many opportunities to take on establishment Republicans in primaries, there si one notable exception. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will be 80 years old, if or when he stands for re-election. On top of that, he's the establishment Republican many conservatives love to hate most and there are reasons to think he's vulnerable. Issues-wise, he's weak on immigration, the Bush tax cuts and cap and trade. There also appear to be viable challengers, should McCain opt to not retire, as many either wish, or believe he should. Reps....

The most pivotal moment of his career is about to unfold on prime time TV, and Kris Kobach has no way to watch. “There’s really no TV in here?” he says, and a waitress at a downtown diner in tiny Tonganoxie shakes her head. “How about a phone? Anyone have enough cell service to stream live radio?” Kobach asks, and a few of the Republicans assembled here for a county meeting rush up to help. (SNIP) Governors have been texting his cellphone and Senate staffers have been sending e-mails, and everyone is asking Kobach a version of the same question:...

Washington (CNN) -- South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is getting encouragement from a close colleague and friend, Sen. John McCain, to run for President. "I think he is looking at it, and I am strongly encouraging him to take a look at it," McCain, an Arizona Republican, told ABC News in a story published Monday. "I know of no one who is better versed and more important on national security policy and defense than Lindsey Graham, and I don't think these challenges to our security are going away." Graham floated the possibility of a run in an interview with the...

In a shocking case out of Arizona, a student has filed a lawsuit against a teacher who she alleges raped her until she became pregnant and then attempted to cause an abortion when he learned she was pregnant by repeatedly inserting a metal ruler into her vagina. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Jane Doe and her parents was filed November 20 in Maricopa County Court against Horizon Community Learning Center, a charter school, and teach former teacher, David Depuydt. In the suit, Doe claims that, when she was 16, Depuydt was named her supervisor for a community service project...

The head of the troubled Phoenix veterans’ hospital was fired Monday as the Veterans Affairs Department continued its crackdown on wrongdoing in the wake of a nationwide scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care and falsified records covering up the delays. Sharon Helman, director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, was ousted nearly seven months after she and two high-ranking officials were placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations that 40 veterans died while awaiting treatment at the hospital. Helman had led the giant Phoenix facility, which treats more than 80,000 veterans a year,...

Federal officials within weeks plan to start construction on a new "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border. Plans are expected to be formally announced tomorrow. Supporters say the system could almost completely cover the nearly 2,000-mile frontier within five years. The first permanent towers with sensors, cameras and communications gear to detect drug smugglers and illegal immigrants will be built along 53 miles of Arizona. Customs official Mark Borkowski says more towers will follow on the remaining 320 miles of Arizona's southern border. Borkowski says virtual fencing then will go up in New Mexico, followed by California and most of...

Phoenix, AZ (KPHO) — Thomas Beatie, the transgender man who gave birth after beginning to change from a woman to a man, is accused of stalking his estranged wife. Beatie, 40, who lives in Anthem, was arrested Thursday and booked into the Maricopa County Jail on one count of stalking. He was released on his own recognizance Thursday night. Beatie is accused of putting a GPS tracking device on his wife’s car in October of 2012, about six months after he served his wife with an order of protection that required her to leave the couple’s home.

On immigration, the GOP primary will have little room for nuance. President Obama on Thursday announced his much-anticipated executive action on immigration, and in doing so he lobbed a grenade squarely into the 2016 Republican primary race. Obama's order will reshape how the feds prioritize deportations of undocumented workers, shielding an estimated five million of them from being kicked out of the country. "We shall not oppress a stranger for we know the heart of a stranger — we were strangers once, too," Obama said, quoting scripture. By moving ahead solo before the new Congress is sworn in, Obama ensured...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced Thursday evening that he is filing a lawsuit against President Barack Obama for the executive action he is taking on immigration. [snip] “He speaks a good game and I understand where he’s coming from in a way. On the other hand, let’s not con the American public. How are we going to keep track of these 5 million people?” Arpaio said.[snip]rpaio stated that his lawyer was filing the lawsuit following Obama’s speech and that no taxpayer funds will be used in the lawsuit. “We have to understand whether this is constitutional or not, whether...

N THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Mr. JOE ARPAIO, Elected SHERIFF of Maricopa County, State of Arizona 550 West Jackson Street Phoenix, AZ 85003 Plaintiff, v. The Honorable BARACK OBAMA, individually and in his professional capacity as President of the United States of America 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20500 and The Honorable JEH JOHNSON, individually and in his professional capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security 12th & C Street SW Washington, D.C. 20024 and The Honorable LEON RODRIQUEZ, individually and in his professional capacity as Director of U.S. Citizenship and...

The attorney general of Arizona said on Wednesday that the state had filed suit against General Motors, claiming that the automaker had defrauded the state’s consumers of an estimated $3 billion. The suit is the first major legal action against G.M. over its record number of recalls this year, most notable among them one for a defective ignition switch in 2.6 million small cars that was delayed for a decade. The complaint was harsh and unsparing in its criticism of G.M., suggesting that the automaker intentionally misled consumers through its advertising, website and public statements, and that some of its...