Free Republic

Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and militias have launched a full-scale offensive backed by airstrikes to retake the major city of Tikrit from Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants, Al Arabiya’s correspondent in Iraq said. “Security forces are advancing on three main fronts towards Tikrit, Ad-Dawr (to the south) and Al-Alam (to the north),” an army lieutenant colonel on the ground told Agence France-Presse by telephone. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi had announced on Sunday the “zero hour” of an operation to liberate ISIS-held territories in the province of Saladin, with its capital Tikrit, according to Al Arabiya News...

Woo hoo!! Working on the last $5k!! Please keep those donations coming in, folks. Let's git 'er done!! FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who enjoy and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. No commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in the support of God, family, country, liberty!! But we cannot exist without you....

Live broadcast from AIPAC on youtube. Netanyahu's speech today will focus on the US-Israeli relationship. Tomorrow's speech to Congress at 10:45am EST will focus on Iran.

The Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an has cited a Kuwaiti newspaper report Saturday, that US President Barack Obama thwarted an Israeli military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2014 by threatening to shoot down Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran. According to Al-Jarida, the Netanyahu government took the decision to strike Iran some time in 2014 soon after Israel had discovered the United States and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran’s nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement in that regard behind Israel's back. The report claimed that an unnamed Israeli minister...

In spite of the Friday night passage of an eleventh hour, one-week stopgap spending bill to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the department posted a lapse-of-funding notice and shut-down procedures on its website apparently intended if the last minute efforts failed. While the notice is not listed on the home page, the blog, or the list of DHS publications, it was originally posted around nine o'clock Friday night and remained at this link as of the time of publication of this article:

The Talk Shows March 1st, 2015 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis.; Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Reps. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016.FACE THE NATION (CBS): House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.THIS WEEK (ABC): Secretary of State John Kerry.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Feinstein; former Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas; Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States.

A top political nemesis of President Vladimir Putin was shot and killed early Saturday in central Moscow, Russian police said, one day before an opposition rally was scheduled to take place. Boris Nemtsov, 55, a former deputy prime minister, was shot four times from a passing car as he was walking on a bridge just outside the Kremlin. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Alexeyeva told reporters on the scene that Nemtsov was walking with a female acquaintance, a Ukrainian citizen, when a vehicle drove up and unidentified assailants shot him dead. The woman wasn't hurt.

Congress has narrowly averted a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security for one week, setting up another funding showdown for next Friday. Hours before a midnight deadline, the House easily approved a one-week extension of the funding. It required two-thirds of members' support to pass. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reversed course later Friday night, instructing House Democrats to back the one-week measure.

Breaking: They voted it down

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House has cleared the way for passage of a short-term bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and avert a partial agency shutdown. The vote was 240-183, and it came just hours ahead of a midnight deadline to fund the agency.

Leonard Nimoy, who lived long and prospered, died Friday at his Los Angeles home. The creator of Mr. Spock, television’s most beloved pointy-eared half-Vulcan, was 83 and had suffered for several years from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), which makes it difficult to breathe. “I quit smoking 30 yrs ago,” he tweeted last week. “Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!! LLAP.” “LLAP” was Spock’s best-known catch phrase: Live long and prosper. To many of his fans, Leonard Nimoy was a one-hit wonder. One hit that lasted half a century. Nimoy created the beloved Mr. Spock in...

Senate PASSES 'clean' bill funding DHS through end of Sept w/o immig riders, 68-31. Bill now goes to the House where its fate is uncertain.

(CNN)Nine people are dead after shootings in south-central Missouri, the Houston Herald newspaper in Missouri reported Friday morning, citing a sheriff there. There are multiple crime scenes, including four in the Texas County community of Tyrone, county Sheriff James Sigman told the Herald. The Missouri State Highway Patrol is expected to hold a news conference about the deaths at about 9 a.m. CT (10 a.m. ET) Friday, CNN affiliate KYTV reported. Tyrone is about 135 miles (84 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis.

Federal regulators voted Thursday to impose sweeping net neutrality rules that supporters say are critical to protecting the freedom of the Internet. In a party-line 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission moved to embrace an approach advocated by President Obama to treat the Web like a utility in order to prevent major companies such as Comcast or Verizon from slowing, blocking or creating “toll roads” for people’s access to the Internet. "We cannot have gatekeepers who tell us what we can and cannot do and where we can and cannot go online," said Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the FCC's three...

WASHINGTON—The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to move Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama ’s nominee for attorney general, to the Senate floor for a final confirmation vote. The committee approved the nomination of Ms. Lynch, currently Brooklyn’s U.S. Attorney, by a vote of 12 to 8. Republican Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Orrin Hatch of Utah joined all of the committee’s Democrats in voting yes. Ms. Lynch has so far generated little animosity from Republican senators, even those who ended up voting against her. Many praised her work as a prosecutor and some said...

A Texas jury has reached a verdict at the trial of a former Marine accused of murdering famed Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle and Kyle's friend Chad Littlefield. The verdict, which has not yet been revealed, will be read this evening. Eddie Ray Routh has been on trial for the February 2013 murders of Kyle and Littlefield at a Texas gun range.

Yesterday the U.S. government filed an Emergency motion to stay the U.S. District Court’s temporary injunction putting Obama’s immigration executive action on hold. In its Emergency Motion, the Feds threatened that if U.S. District Court Judge Andrew S. Hanen did not grant the stay by the close of business on Wednesday, February 25, the Feds would seek an emergency stay from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Nearly two weeks after Congress approved the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama has officially vetoed the bill calling for its construction. The decision follows a clear statement from the White House last month saying the president would not sign the bill into law if Congress, currently controlled by Republican lawmakers, passed it.

....ABC News has learned Martin’s family will soon be notified that the Justice Department will not be filing charges against George Zimmerman, who shot the 17-year-old after a confrontation in 2012. Thursday marks three years to the day since Martin was killed. Federal prosecutors concluded there is not sufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman in Sanford, Fla., intentionally violated Martin’s civil rights, sources told ABC News.

At least 30 people were injured, including two critically, Tuesday morning when a Metrolink commuter train collided with a tractor-trailer truck on the tracks in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles. Oxnard police Sgt. Denise Shadinger said the crash was reported at 5:44 a.m. Shadinger said the truck became fully engulfed in flames. Authorities are describing the scene as a multi-casualty incident. Details of the injuries were not immediately clear.

The U.S. government asked a federal judge Monday to lift a temporary hold on President Obama’s executive action to protect millions of immigrants from deportation, Fox News has confirmed. Justice Department lawyers requested a “stay” to delay a federal judge’s decision to block Obama’s immigration order, which legally allows 5 million immigrants to stay in the countRy. More at link. . .

GENEVA (AP) — The United States and Iran are working on a two-phase deal that clamps down on Tehran's nuclear program for at least a decade before providing it leeway over the remainder of the agreement to slowly ramp up activities that could be used to make weapons.

Video postings from the terror group show little boys firing weapons. Kids tell of being forced to watch decapitations and stonings, according to a report.

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top homeland security official urged shoppers on Sunday to be “particularly careful” in visiting the Mall of America, a sprawling shopping center outside Minneapolis, after it was targeted for a terrorist attack in a video posted by a radical Islamist group. “If anyone is planning to go to the Mall of America today, they’ve got to be particularly careful,” the official, Jeh C. Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said on CNN.

The Talk Shows February 22nd, 2015 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson; Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Johnson; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Johnson; Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas.THIS WEEK (ABC): Johnson; Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Johnson; Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio.

Hundreds of Turkish troops in armoured vehicles have entered into northern Syria and evacuated a historic Ottoman tomb and the soldiers guarding it. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the remains of Suleyman Shah would be moved elsewhere in Syria. He said troops had destroyed the tomb's complex, apparently to prevent it from being used by Islamic State (IS) militants. Turkey considers the shrine be to sovereign territory. Suleyman Shah was grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, Osman the first. SNIP-- The operation began on Saturday at about 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) and ended on Sunday morning. A...

(CNN)Armed groups raided a South Sudanese school and seized 89 children who were taking their exams, the United Nations said Saturday. It pointed out that boys were among those taken. The abduction occurred near Malakal, where thousands of people have taken refuge following months of violence in the nation. Kidnappers gathered around a community and conducted house-to-house searches, according to the U.N. children's agency. It said boys over age 12 were taken away by force. U.N. officials warned the abductors that they're violating international law. "The recruitment and use of children by armed forces destroys families and communities," said Jonathan...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday night that a federal judge has “granted” his request to “halt” President Barack Obama’s “Executive Amnesty Order” across the country. Abbott didn’t immediately offer any other details, but promised for information later. BREAKING: Federal Judge just granted my request to halt Obama's Executive Amnesty Order Nationwide. More later. #txlege #tcot @TexasGOP — Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 17, 2015

BREAKING: Preliminary M7.0 earthquake off the east coast of Japan at 6:06pm US EST. Monitoring for any tsunami concerns.

In the midst of controversy over the Israeli prime minister's plans to address Congress next month, a researcher has won the release of a decades-old Defense Department report detailing the U.S. government's extensive help to Israel in that nation's development of a nuclear bomb. "I am struck by the degree of cooperation on specialized war making devices between Israel and the US," said Roger Mattson, a former memer of the Atomic Energy Commission technical staff. The 1987 report, "Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations," compares the key Israeli facilities developing nuclear weapons to Los Alamos and Oak Ridge...

Egypt says it has bombed Islamic State targets in Libya, hours after the group published video showing the apparent beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians. State TV said the dawn strikes had targeted camps, training sites and weapons storage areas. Earlier, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt had the "right to respond" against IS. A video emerged on Sunday showing a group wearing orange overalls being forced to the ground and decapitated. IS militants claim to have carried out several attacks in Libya, which is in effect without a government. "Egypt reserves the right to respond at the proper time and...

- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged European Jews to move to Israel after a Jewish man was killed in an attack outside Copenhagen's main synagogue. R

CNN) - In a new propaganda video released Sunday by ISIS, the group claims to have beheaded over a dozen members of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority on a Libyan beach. The video shows an apparent mass execution with jihadists in black standing behind each of the victims, who are all are dressed in orange jumpsuits with their hands cuffed behind them. The five-minute video, released by the terror group's propaganda wing al-Hayat Media, includes a masked English-speaking jihadi who says, "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with...

Anbar, Asharq Al-Awsat—Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters have now taken control of large parts of the strategic Anbar town of Al-Baghdadi—55 miles west of the provincial capital Ramadi—amid fears that the jihadist group is seeking to overrun the nearby Ain Al-Assad airbase where US troops are training local forces. Fierce fighting between local tribal forces and ISIS broke out in the western Iraqi town over the past 48 hours, with ISIS quickly overrunning a number of Al-Baghdadi districts. ISIS simultaneously attacked the nearby Ain Al-Assad airbase. Around 25 ISIS militants carried out the attack, led by several...

The Talk Shows February 15th, 2015 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.; Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): FACE THE NATION (CBS): White House chief of staff Denis McDonough; Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

According to accounts from a McLean, Virginia resident, the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia are on lockdown for an unknown reason. Photos provided to Breitbart News show the entrance from the road barred and police tape around the perimeter. Patrol cars were reportedly on hand as well. The local resident also stated that the rear entrance to the facility was also blocked.

Fox reporting now.... 3 people shot

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Just hours after Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber announced his decision to resign, a subpoena arrived in a state office building confirming that federal agents are looking into the influence-peddling scandal that led to the abrupt end of a four-decade political career. The Democratic governor gave in to mounting pressure Friday, abandoning his office amid suspicions that his live-in fiancée used her relationship with him to land contracts for her green-energy consulting business. His resignation, which takes effect Wednesday, cleared the way for Secretary of State Kate Brown to assume Oregon's highest office and become the nation's...

ACTION: Contact your Senators and urge them to cosponsor S. 477, the Firearms Manufacturers and Dealers Protection Act of 2015. Operation Choke Point a Threat to the Second Amendment About a year ago, the Second Amendment community was rocked by news that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) had teamed up with Attorney General Eric Holder to utterly destroy firearms manufacturers and dealers by cutting off all credit and banking relationships with them.For its part, the FDIC categorized gun and ammunition sales as a "high-risk business," lumping it in with drug dealers, pornographers, and Ponzi scheme operators -- all of...

Gays and lesbians could get licenses to marry in more than half of Alabama's counties Friday after a federal judge affirmed her ruling striking down the state's same-sex marriage ban. More than a dozen counties reversed course Friday and began issuing the licenses to same-sex couples in the wake Thursday's strongly worded order from U.S. District Judge Callie Granade. By mid-day Friday, at least 35 of the state's 67 counties were complying.

<p>Gov. John Kitzhaber announced his resignation Friday, ending weeks of speculation about whether he could lead Oregon with the cloud of at least two investigations into possible ethical breaches hanging over his head.</p> <p>The embattled governor faces allegations that his fiancee used their relationship to win contracts for her consulting business and failed to report income on her taxes. The state’s two top legislative leaders and the state treasurer -- all Democrats, as is the 67-year-old governor -- had called on Kitzhaber on Thursday to resign. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, fiancee provide new green energy scandal Caption Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, fiancee provide new green energy scandal Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, fiancee provide new green energy scandal Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, fiancee provide new green energy scandal After rumors swirl. Gov. Kitzhaber says he's not resigning After rumors swirl. Gov. Kitzhaber says he's not resigning Oregon governor insists he won't resign Oregon governor insists he won't resign Oregon sec. of state 'headed to the capitol to do some work' Oregon sec. of state 'headed to the capitol to do some work'</p>

An Alabama federal judge on Thursday ordered the state’s second-largest county to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, paving the way for other holdout parts of the state to fall in line. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade was directed at Don Davis, probate judge of Mobile County, the most populous of several dozen Alabama counties that had not complied with a same-sex marriage ruling that took effect on Monday. Granade’s decision may convince other probate judges to no longer heed an order from Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore to continue refusing to issue same-sex...

5 Senators who voted against confirmation of Ashton Carter as new Defense Secretary: Sen. Roy Blunt, R- Mo.; Sen. John Boozman, R- Ark.; Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho; Sen. Mark Kirk, R- Ill.; Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho

NEW YORK -- Bob Simon, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent and legendary CBS News foreign reporter died suddenly tonight in a car accident in New York City. The award-winning newsman was 73. Simon's career spanned five decades, from covering the war in Vietnam to a piece on "60 Minutes" this past weekend on the Academy Award-nominated film "Selma." This is a developing story.

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama asked Congress on Wednesday to authorize military force against Islamic State that would bar any large-scale invasion by U.S. ground troops and limit operations to three years. Republicans, who control Congress, put up swift resistance to the proposal. They say Obama's foreign policy is too passive and want stronger measures against the militants, also known as ISIL. With Obama's fellow Democrats wary of another Middle East war, it could be difficult for the White House to win enough support to pass the bill, even though six months have passed since the military campaign began....

Jeb Bush, a rumored 2016 Republican presidential candidate, just decided to publish hundreds of thousands of emails sent to him during his time as governor of Florida. On its face it seems like a great idea in the name of transparency, but there's one huge problem: neither Bush nor those who facilitated the publication of the records, including the state government, decided to redact potentially sensitive personal information from them. "In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here," a note on Bush's website says. "Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in...

DEVELOPING: The parents of Kayla Mueller, the Arizona woman who was taken hostage by ISIS in August 2013, confirmed Tuesday their daughter died while in the hands of the terror group. "We are heartbroken to share that we've received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller has lost her life," Carl and Marsha Mueller, of Prescott, Ariz., said in a statement. "Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice, and peace." The family received information from their daughter's ISIS captors over the weekend that was authenticated, according...

Ajit Pai, the sole Republican Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), inferred in a Tweet that President Barack Obama’s secret, 332-page “Net Neutrality” document is a scheme for federal micro-managing of the Internet to extract billions in new taxes from consumers and again enforce progressives’ idea of honest, equitable, and balanced content fairness.

Link only, due to AP source.