Free Republic

For months, concerns over what Gov. John Kitzhaber has called the "gray area" between his 47-year-old fiancee's private and professional lives haunted the longtime politician — through his 2010 election, his third term in office, his historic bid for a fourth term and the weeks since his January inauguration. Kitzhaber's problems came to a head Friday, when the former emergency room physician resigned from office, effective Feb. 18. His decision came after a week of political drama, which Secretary of State Kate Brown called "bizarre and unprecedented" and which has absorbed this normally quiet capital. Under the state constitution, Brown...

Not even two years after being rolled out by the New York baker Dominique Ansel, the cronut -- that’s a doughnut made with croissant dough, for those who might have been living under a rock -- has gone mainstream. Dunkin’ Donuts, the Canton-based breakfast food franchise, said Wednesday that it would make the “croissant donut” a permanent addition to its menu. (“Cronut” is a trademarked term.) Since introducing the item in November, Dunkin’ said it has sold 8.5 million of them, with about 3.9 million sold since mid-December, according to past news releases.

Middle school students in Monessen School District in Pennsylvania were given “Fifty Shades of Grey” puzzles to work on for an assignment. The puzzles included terms like spanking, bondage, submissive and leather cuffs. WKRG reported: Parents in a Pennsylvania school district are turning 50 shades of red over word search puzzles given to middle school students based on an erotic novel and movie. The students in Monessen were given puzzles based on “Fifty Shades of Grey” that contained terms including “spanking,” ”submissive,” ”leather cuffs” and “bondage.” Other words on the list were more explicit.

A Utah woman pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering her six newborn babies over a 10-year period and storing them in her garage. Megan Huntsman, 39, strangled and suffocated her children, wrapped the babies in towels and blankets and stuffed them into boxes that she put in the garage, the Los Angeles Times reports. Huntsman, who said she lost count of how many babies she killed, faces up to life in prison for each murder. She will be sentenced April 20.

Sun News Network, Canada’s only openly right-of-center news channel, will cease broadcasting early Friday morning, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation revealed. Launched in 2011 by media mogul Pierre-Karl Péladeau, it had trouble attracting audiences. About 200 people will be without a job. Supporters of the channel complain that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the Canadian FCC) did not put it on par with other similar channels. But CTV News reports that the CRTC said that Sun News did not meet the criteria to be a “compulsory” channel in 2013. It stated in its refusal that “Sun News did not clearly...

WIBW – Gov. Sam Brownback issued an executive order Tuesday removing gender identity and sexual orientation from the protected classes of state employees. His order rescinds a prior order from former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, which expanded the protections. Brownback also issued a separate order which includes language to encourage employment practices of veterans and people with disabilities. Executive Order 15-02 reaffirms the commitment of the State of Kansas to employment practices which do not discriminate based on race, color, gender, religion, national origin, ancestry or age. It further establishes that state entities will implement employment management practices for veterans and...

SLE OF PALMS, SC - Thousands of starfish washed up on the beach at Isle of Palms over the weekend. And it turns out, this happens a few times each winter on Lowcountry beaches. Usually, strong off-shore winds push them onto the shore at high tide and they're stuck until the tide comes back in. Over the weekend, wind gusts were coming in stronger than 20 miles an hour. Monday Night, we spoke with Mel Bell, the fisheries management director for the Department of Natural Resources who said this is pretty normal. Bell said the last time this happened was...

The Ukrainian city of Donetsk experienced a giant explosion last night that left many fearing that Russia was using “tactical nukes” against them. The explosion shattered windows and even caused a brief mushroom cloud to form in the sky. The night’s sky was glowing with orange as the explosion occurred. The entire ordeal was captured on video. In the video above, you can watch as the explosion occurs late last night. The pitch black sky suddenly is illuminated in an orange glow. The blast was so loud that windows in the area shattered. The Daily Mail notes that some in...

This is a thread I started to house links that answer and explain a variety of topics covered in this sites. Partly I wanted to make a reference guide that was easier to use to find resources quickly. But also I wanted to research various topics. Since it will have information on a wide range of things it does not work to mention specifics. What I will start with is a list of links explaining or at least highlighting what are the economic systems, political systems, political parties and ideologies then move on to explanations of the differences between the...

The upcoming six-part miniseries, Sons of Liberty, follows a defiant and radical group of young men – Sam Adams (Ben Barnes), John Adams (Henry Thomas), Paul Revere (Michael Raymond-James), John Hancock (Rafe Spall) and Joseph Warren (Ryan Eggold) – as they band together in secrecy to change the course of history and make America a nation.Calling themselves the Sons of Liberty, they light the spark that ignited a revolution. Though their names have become American legend, this group of young rebels didn’t start off as noble patriots in powdered wigs. They were a new American generation of young men from...

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group have posted an online warning that the "countdown has begun" for the group to kill a pair of Japanese hostages. The posting which appeared Friday shows a clock counting down to zero along with gruesome images of other hostages who have been beheaded by the Islamic State group. The militant group gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a 72-hour deadline — which expired Friday — to pay a $200 million ransom for the two hostages.

Potential GOP 2016 presidential candidates in Iowa this weekend beware. DREAMers are planning to confront Republicans at Saturday’s inaugural Iowa Freedom Summit, which Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Citizens United will host. According to an NBC report, DREAMers are planning “activities around the event, including confronting potential candidates to ask them where they stand on immigration reform and the president’s executive action.” --snip-- After accosting King at an event with Sen. Rand Paul in which King told the DREAMers not to import more lawlessness, DREAMers vowed to have more of such confrontations.

The GOP establishment can’t make Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel go away. On Friday, McDaniel will be announcing—he told Breitbart News exclusively—a new Political Action Committee (PAC) designed to help conservatives across Mississippi, and the nation, get elected to political office, replacing GOP establishment politicians. The PAC, titled the United Conservatives Fund will focus on “electing conservatives and holding Republicans accountable while messaging conservatism in a way that secures conservatives get a chance to be elected even over some of those in the establishment,” McDaniel tells Breitbart.

Paris officials say Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four hostages at a kosher market and policewoman earlier this month, has been buried in a suburban cemetery. The burial Friday came after a debate over how to handle the bodies of Coulibaly and two other gunmen behind France's worst terrorist attack in decades. All three were killed by police.

Yemen faced a dangerous power vacuum Friday after its president announced his resignation over a deadly standoff with Shiite militia controlling the capital and lawmakers called an emergency weekend session. President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, a key US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda, said late Thursday that he could no longer stay in office as the country was in "total deadlock". Prime Minister Khalid Bahah also tendered his resignation, saying he did want to be part of the collapse of the country. The fall of Hadi's Western-backed government would raise fears of complete chaos engulfing Yemen, strategically located next to...

The longtime king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, passed away on Friday. But the death of the 90-year-old monarch didn’t seem to come as much of a shock to the Saudi establishment. When royal officials acknowledged Abdullah’s death, it was also revealed that Crown Prince Salman would succeed his brother. For the time being, the succession process seemed to have preserved stability in the Saudi Kingdom. Within hours, traders who speculated that the new king may take a critical look at Saudi policies, which have allowed crude prices to collapse in recent months, created a rally in the oil...

A suspected terrorist stabbed at least nine people on the 40 bus line in Tel Aviv near the Maariv junction on Wednesday morning. Two of the victims were seriously injured and several others suffered moderate injuries, Magen David Adom said. Others at the scene were treated for shock. The injured were evacuated to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and Ichilov Hospital at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv. The attacker fled on foot but was shot and neutralized by police and is being questioned. The assailant is a 23-year-old man from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, illegally...

CNN’s Max Foster interviewed Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal over the weekend. He grilled Jindal on so-called “no-go zones.” Pay attention to what Jindal actually said, as documented by CNN. Jindal was also unable to offer examples during an earlier interview with CNN’s Max Foster, saying that he’s “heard from folks here that there are neighborhoods where women don’t feel comfortable going in without veils … We all know that there are neighborhoods where police are less likely to go into.” “I think that the radical Left absolutely wants to pretend like this problem is not here. Pretending it’s not here...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California high school basketball coach has been suspended and faces accusations of mercilessly running up the score after his team won a game 161-2, one of the most lopsided scores in state history. Arroyo Valley High girls' coach Michael Anderson was suspended for two games after the victory last week against Bloomington High. Anderson said that he wasn't trying to run up the score or embarrass the opposition. His team had won four previous games by at least 70 points, and Bloomington had already lost a game by 91.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former substitute teacher who showed a movie featuring graphic sex and violence to a high school class has been convicted of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. Sheila Kearns showed the film, "The ABCs of Death," during five periods of a Spanish class at East High School in Columbus in April 2013, prosecutors said. The movie consists of 26 chapters, each depicting some form of grisly death and representing a letter of the alphabet, such as "E is for Exterminate," ''O is for Orgasm" and "T is for Toilet." A jury convicted Kearns of four felony...