Free Republic

The number of Americans who see illegal immigration as the nation's most pressing problem has spiked from 3 per cent to 17 per cent since May, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday. That percentage now tops government corruption, the U.S. economy, jobs, health care and every other hot-button issue, driven by a flood of tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border. 'We are all connected. We can't just build a wall or a fence and say no more,' Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis tweeted on Tuesday. 'This is America. Our doors are open.' The...

Weeks after an apparent case of politically motivated Internet censorship at a Connecticut high school, officials are still blaming the incident on technical malfunctions — even though evidence suggests human culpability. On May 27, shortly before his graduation, Andrew Lampart, an 18-year-old senior at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, Conn., set out to research gun control on a school computer in order to fulfill an assignment for a basic law course. He found that the website for the National Rifle Association was blocked, while websites supporting gun control remained accessible. Over the next five days, Lampart spent more time on...

America’s oldest family owned and operated gun manufacturing company O.F. Mossberg & Sons, has its eye on Texas. The company was founded in Connecticut in 1919; however, after Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) passed one of the strictest gun-control legislations in the nation last April, Mossberg & Sons is looking to expand in a more gun-friendly state. CEO Iver Mossberg told Forbes: “Investing in Texas was an easy decision. It’s a state that is not only committed to economic growth but also honors and respects the Second Amendment and the firearm freedoms it guarantees for our customers.” The gun company will...

FULL TITLE: 'This should never happen again': Teen held against her will by hospital for 16 months describes her ordeal after finally being released Justina Pelletier, the Connecticut teenager 'kidnapped' by hospital staff 16 months ago, has described her traumatic ordeal in her first interview since her release. The 16-year-old was admitted to Boston Children's Hospital in February 2013 with the flu but was locked away in a psychiatric unit until this month after two hospitals clashed over her diagnosis. 'This should never happen again to anybody. To any kid or any person. They should never be put through what...

Bill Donohue comments on the response by Jody Ian Goeler, Superintendent of Schools for Regional School District 14 in Connecticut, to accusations that the Vatican website has been blocked in district schools because it promotes “hate speech”:Yesterday afternoon, I asked Superintendent Goeler to “please identify examples of ‘hate speech’ found on the Vatican’s website.” He responded last night saying that he never “stated or implied anywhere that the Vatican website promotes or has examples of hate speech.” This resolves nothing. In a public letter released today, Goeler admits that access is provided to liberal websites, but not conservative ones. Nowhere...

WOODBURY, Conn. – A high school student claims that a firewall is blocking conservative websites at his school. Andrew Lampart, a senior at Nonnewaug High School, discovered that he couldn’t get on the National Rifle Association’s website while on campus as he was doing research for a classroom debate on gun control in May. “So, I went over to the other side,” Lampart told WTIC. “And I went over on sites such as Moms Demand Action or Newtown Action Alliance and I could get on these websites but not the others.” The 18-year-old decided to investigate further by broadening his...

A high school student in Connecticut is accusing administrators of political censorship after the school restricted access to conservative news outlets and websites while allowing students to visit liberal sites. Andrew Lampart, a student at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, Connecticut, was assigned an in-class debate on gun-control during his "Law & You" course. While preparing for the debate during study hall Lampart logged onto the school provided Internet and found out that students were forbidden from visiting The National Association for Gun Rights website or the news outlet TheBlaze.com. "I used my study hall to research gun control facts...

On Good Friday, the Pelletier family delivered over 700 “Get Well” cards for Justina Pelletier, the sick teenager who state officials wrongfully took custody of away from her parents. The Pelletier family was not allowed to visit their daughter on Easter Sunday. The news comes after attorneys working with her family released a letter Justina reportedly wrote saying she is not being treated well. Today, pro-life attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel told LifeNews that Justina’s health continues to deteriorate. justinapelletier3“On Good Friday, Justina Pelletier received cards adorned with encouraging scripture and powerful messages of hope from concerned Americans across...

The Connecticut teen who has been in state custody for more than a year after her parents were accused of medical child abuse after disputing a diagnosis has apparently penned a note, giving a look into how she says she’s being treated. “They hurt me all the time push me all the time and more,” the purported note from Justina Pelletier says. It also says “[they] do not let me sleep vary [sic] much. “Hury [sic]!” Keith Mason, president of Personhood USA, a group helping lead the Free Justina Coalition, told TheBlaze that Justina gave the note to her parents...

Alan Dershowitz told Huckabee tonight that if everything we know about the #FreeJustina case is true, then this is a horrible abuse of human rights and of civil liberties. He said that Massachusetts law is clearly on the side of the parents, pointing out that if there is a conflict in medical opinion over a child under Massachusetts law, the dispute is settled by the parents, not the hospitals or the state. He even offered to help the parents get custody back of their daughter. Watch:

For the past several months, the Pelletiers have met face-to-face with Justina once weekly in supervised visits of no more than one hour. Now, Massachusetts DCF is denying the Pelletiers visitation with Justina in another blatant act of vindictive punishment. This new act demonstrates DCF's unwillingness to reunite the family and exposes the agency's lack of interest in the welfare of Justina or the Pelletier family. Instead, DCF is concerned with getting back at a family that spoke out against their heavy-handed custody grab. By prohibiting Justina from seeing her family, DCF is treating her differently than all other minors...

At the center of the seemingly incomprehensible case of Justina Pelletier lies one very simple, and unanswered, question: What did her mom and dad do to lose custody of their daughter in the first place? Gallons of ink have been poured on this story since last November, when a Connecticut TV station first reported the story of a sick teenager ripped from her family over a medical dispute between two hospitals. But having read every report on the case, including Judge Joseph Johnston’s ruling Tuesday, I can’t find a single claim — substantiated or otherwise — of bad behavior by...

Massachusetts Judge Joseph Johnston delayed his promised Justina Pelletier ruling for the sixth time on Friday, stating that he will now issue the ruling on Tuesday March 25, 2014 in a facsimile message. The critically ill teenager’s family has been fighting a custody battle against the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) for more than a year. Meanwhile her older sister Jennifer is pleading with friends and campaigners to do all they can to support Justina. Devastated by the delays in getting medication for her sister, she tweeted Friday that armed guards sit in on visits while she is...

We’ve now reached the “Watergate” stage of the Justina Pelletier debacle: What does Gov. Deval Patrick know and when did he know it? Justina is the former Tufts Medical Center mitochondrial patient seized by Boston Children’s Hospital and the state Department of Children and Families, who turned her into a somatoform subject. After reports in these pages Friday that she was being denied the opportunity to attend Easter Mass with her devoutly Catholic family, Patrick rushed out a letter to state Rep. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) about accommodations DCF was making. “I see in your letter that you continue to misunderstand...

“Why can’t Justina just come home?” Of course that’s the question Lou and Linda Pelletier are asking about the daughter taken from them more than a year ago. As a parent, isn’t it the question you’d ask? That’s not the question the Patrick administration wants people asking in the Justina Pelletier case. They want you asking why Justina’s parents won’t just accept Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz’s family reunification plan. The Patrick administration doesn’t want you asking parenting or medical questions. They’re handling Justina like a political issue. How do I know? Because I saw Justina’s “reunion” plan...

Today a significant motion is being filed in the Juvenile Court requesting that Justina Pelletier return to her home to be with her mom and dad, Linda and Lou Pelletier. The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) has indicated that it will not object to the Motion for Relief from Judgment filed today to return Justina home. The case is drawing national attention, as Boston Children’s Hospital filed a “medical child abuse” complaint against Justina’s parents last year, leading the state to take custody of her and hospitalize her for almost a year. justinapelletier19The motion comes a week after...

Video Shows Conn. Teen Begging Mass. Judge To Let Her Go Home BOSTON (CBS) – The family of a Connecticut teenager at the center of a custody dispute with the state of Massachusetts has posted a video showing the teen pleading for the judge to let her go home. The video shows Justina Pelletier asking Governor Patrick and Judge Joseph Johnston to let her move back with her family. “All I really want to be with is my family and my friends and that’s all I want is to be with my family and friends back home,” she says. “You...

Justina Pelletier is going home. A Massachusetts judge ordered the 16-year-old Connecticut girl, who was taken from her family by child welfare advocates more than a year ago, to be returned to her mother and father effective Wednesday. The ruling caps a long-running medical custody dispute that began when two highly-respected Boston hospitals clashed over the girl's diagnosis. The case sparked national outrage, and led Lou and Linda Pelletier, of West Hartford, Conn., to wage a bitter legal battle. “To hear the news is overwhelming," Lou Pelletier told FoxNews.com moments after learning of the ruling. "Now we can certainly begin...

juvenile court judge has ordered the Massachusetts Department of Children and Family to return Justina Pelletier to her parents, according to the Boston Globe. The Globe reports: “I find that the parties have shown by credible evidence that circumstances have changed since the adjudication on Dec. 20, 2013, that Justina is a child in need of care and protection pursuant to G.L. c. 199, 24-26.,” Judge Joseph Johnston wrote in the ruling. “Effective Wednesday, June 18, 2014, this care and protection petition is dismissed and custody of Justina is returned to her parents, Lou and Linda Pelletier.” Pelletier was placed...

Justina Pelletier is coming home. A Massachusetts judge ordered the 16-year-old Connecticut girl, who was taken from her family by child welfare advocates more than a year ago, to be returned to her mother and father effective Wednesday. The ruling caps a long-running medical custody dispute that began when two highly-respected Boston hospitals clashed over the girl's diagnosis. The case sparked national outrage, and led Lou and Linda Pelletier, of West Hartford, Conn., to wage a bitter legal battle.