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Candidacy criticized by BLM chapter co-founder, who says movement should stand apart from political establishment. Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson has announced that he will run for mayor of Baltimore, his hometown, a decision that has angered critics who accuse him of being too cozy with the political establishment. One of those critics is Marissa Jenae Johnson, co-founder of the Seattle chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM), a civil rights movement that came to prominence during protests in the aftermath of the police killing of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in the summer of 2014. "McKesson's entry...

(CNN)--How much does Lindsey Graham dislike Ted Cruz? Count the ways. On the question of foreign policy, the Texas senator is "just as wrong as Obama, if not worse," Graham told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. "In Ted Cruz's world, dictators do very well," he continued, comparing his colleague's foreign policy to that of Ron Paul, the former congressman, Republican presidential candidate and long-time leading libertarian. Asked why his fellow senators are reputed to have such a distaste for Cruz, Graham accused the winner of the Iowa GOP caucuses of being an "opportunist" to his core -- one who "gets...

WASHINGTON -- Two House Republicans introduced a bill Thursday requiring eligible women in the United States to sign up for the military draft, just days after it was recommended by the Marine Corps and Army. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a Marine veteran, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Minn., a retired Navy SEAL, filed the Draft American's Daughters Act to stoke debate over the military's historic move to fully integrate female troops into all combat roles. If passed, women from 18-26 years old would for the first time have to join men in registering with the Selective Service program and potentially be...

Sometimes you wear the shirt. And sometimes the shirt wears you. The shirt has been wearing Donald Trump for probably his entire life. Why? Because Trump seems to always bet on the laundry. Trump came in second in the Iowa caucuses. He underperformed his lead in the polls by something like six points. Ted Cruz overachieved by a couple points with the swing big enough to turn Trump into the runner up. How did this happen? Trump has been dominating the polls and the national conversation since the beginning of summer 2015. Basically, it goes something like this: Trump bet...

Reuters Top News Marco Rubio emerges as champion of battered Republican party http://reut.rs/1SAq0xv Yes, Rubio's fans, and the permanent GOP establishment (but I repeat myself), are just sort of ignoring the winner, Ted Cruz, and the second place finisher, Trump, and declaring Rubio won. They'll keep on saying it. They always throw some caveat around Cruz's win, which was apparently tainted by the fact that he worked really hard at it, and out-organized everyone else. So they just sort of blow that off. Rubio didn't even try, and he got third. Marcomentum! Meanwhile, this happened during Hillary's speech: 😂 RT...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin flew out of Iowa on Tuesday after traveling there to campaign with presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Yahoo News spoke to Palin, who was the GOP's vice presidential candidate in 2008, as she passed through airport security. Trump came in second to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in the Iowa caucuses on Monday night, so we asked Palin whether she thinks Trump will catch up in the next primary state, New Hampshire. "I think so," Palin said of Trump's chances in the Granite State. "He's going to do well there." Palin also shared...

On Monday, Iowa voters did something that Republican "party elites" had failed to do for more than seven months: They rejected Donald Trump. Trump received 24 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses, placing him closer to the third-place candidate, Marco Rubio (23 percent), than to the winner, Ted Cruz (28 percent). Trump underperformed his polls, which had him winning Iowa with 29 percent of the vote, while Cruz and Rubio outperformed theirs. It's not uncommon for the polls to be off in Iowa and other early-voting states, but the manner in which Trump underachieved is revealing. It turns...

"Three tickets out of Iowa." It sounds like a movie starring, say, Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda (or Peter in the remake), and Van Heflin. Actually, it's the conventional wisdom regarding Iowa caucuses. When there's a large field, Iowa punches three candidates' tickets to New Hampshire and beyond, so they say. The conventional wisdom happens to hold up well this year. As John says, after Iowa it looks like a three-man race for the GOP nomination among Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Marco Rubio. I believe a fourth ticket will be punched in New Hampshire if Jeb Bush, John Kasich, or...

A new book by Columbia sociology professor Alondra Nelson says that using DNA technology to find their African roots is becoming increasingly popular among Black people. In an interview with NPR, Nelson estimates that about 1 million have taken the test so far. The tests have also been popularized through Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates' show Finding Your Roots, which traces the family history of famous Americans such as Oprah and Chris Rock. Nelson told NPR that discovering their genetic roots was a way for Black people to fill in a missing part of their history. "Part of what I...

Most polls are pointing to a second place finish for Ted Cruz in Iowa, but new fundraising data shows he has plenty of money to keep his campaign going in the weeks and months ahead. The Texas lawmaker, who has lost his lead over billionaire Donald Trump in the Hawkeye State, raised $20.5 million in the last quarter of 2015, coming in second in the money race to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who brought in $22.6 million. Meanwhile, the "Keep the Promise" super PACs supporting Cruz's candidacy now have $32.2 million in cash on hand, second only to the PACs...

The lack of consensus among Republican party leaders has dramatically shaped the presidential primary. This can be seen most clearly among Republican governors, senator, and members of the House. Few have endorsed a presidential candidate, and among those who have endorsed, there is no clear front-runner. But there is a larger universe of party leaders outside Congress and governors' mansions. A key part of that universe is state legislators. And they tell us something different about the race, particularly in Iowa. One key story is the under-appreciated strength of Ted Cruz. Iowa has only six members of Congress and a...

As the first 2016 nominating votes near, Donald Trump's strength as GOP frontrunner seems only to grow - nationally and in Iowa, where he's led in five of the last six state polls. But before the Trump freight train gets too far down the tracks, here's a word to the wise: Don't count out Ted Cruz, especially in the Hawkeye State. The Texas senator has one big advantage over Trump, he occupies the social conservative lane in the GOP primary field, and that lane tends to over perform in Iowa. (VIDEO-AT-LINKConsider the 2008 and 2012 Iowa Republican caucuses. In both...

An interesting potential signal from the sought-after donors. DES MOINES, Iowa -- Republican casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam donated the maximum amount permitted to Ted Cruz's campaign last quarter, Federal Election Commission records released on Sunday show. The Adelsons donated $2,700 each to the Cruz campaign on Nov. 18. The news arrives on the eve of the Iowa caucuses -- a seemingly make-or-break moment for Cruz, who hopes to defeat Donald Trump. After publication of this story, Sheldon Adelson's political adviser Andy Abboud told BuzzFeed News in an email, "The Adelsons gave to several candidates. Nobody has...

Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday showed that wealthy donors who according to The New York Times have built a powerful shadow Republican Party of outside groups, are splitting into two mutually hostile and deep-pocketed factions in support of Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. The report shows that many of the Wall Street financiers who have been the backbones of Republican super PACs in the last six years believe that Sen. Marco Rubio is the best GOP candidate to win a general election battle against front-runner Hillary Clinton and in the last six months has raised...

Evangelical power brokers are losing their influence. Donald Trump is the proof.Last Wednesday evening, a few hundred Christian conservatives gathered at Noah's Event Venue in suburban Des Moines for a rally with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry. It featured leading figures from both the local and national religious right, there to make the case that the movement must unite behind Cruz. "Ted Cruz is one of us," said Bob Vander Plaats, head of the FAMiLY Leader, Iowa's most influential evangelical organization. "He's trustworthy. He hates dishonest gain." Vander Plaats was both referencing Exodus 18:21 ("But...

If you had to vote in your state primary/caucus today, knowing what you know now about the various declared and probable candidates, who would you vote for? Why? Who would you like to see as the running mate for your preferred candidate? If you could help staff your candidates cabinet and other top appointments, who would you choose? If you could recommend different congressional leaders than we have now, who would they be? And who would you like to see on the Supreme Court and why? And finally, feel free to donate to Free Republic.

Rare Earth Salts is one step closer to launching a pilot plant in Beatrice following an announcement this week that it has successfully tested a commercial-size "separation cell." The startup plans to use new techniques to harvest rare earth elements from would-be mining waste from around the world. A pilot program, a smaller-scale plant to demonstrate the feasibility of the process, has been in the works to harvest these rare earth elements. This plant would consist of several "cells" separating the elements. Company officials have been working with a single full-sized cell, and CEO Joseph Brewer said this cell produced...

If you've been keeping up with 3D printing news at all, you're probably pretty familiar with metal 3D printing by now. It's one of the fastest-growing sectors in the industry; just about every major 3D printer manufacturer is scrambling to keep up with the rapidly developing metal technology. Not only is it becoming less expensive and more accessible, but material capabilities keep expanding, with new metals and alloys being introduced on what seems like a weekly basis by certain companies. Even if you have only a basic knowledge of metal 3D printing, you probably know that it's done with powder...

During a recent visit to the United States, a United Nations (UN) working group has said that the US should consider giving long overdue reparations to descendants of slaves. The group also suggests the US government establish a national human rights commission, and publicly acknowledge that the Transatlantic Slave Trade was a crime against humanity. The UN working group, called "Experts on People of African Descent," went on a fact-finding mission, which included meetings with African-Americans from multiple cities, including Baltimore, New York, and Chicago. Although they won't release their full report until September, each member read a statement to...

"Sad and telling," says Sanders campaign. There's an app for that. Hillary Clinton's campaign for president is instructing its Iowa caucus leaders to -- in certain cases -- throw support to former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, with the goal blocking her main opponent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, from securing additional delegates. The tactical move is rooted in the complex math of the Iowa caucuses Monday night, where the campaign is looking to defeat Sanders in a state whose caucus-goers have historically backed progressive challengers. A precinct captain, Jerome Lehtola, confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the campaign has trained precinct captains...