Free Republic

U.S. military officials are concerned that Iran's support for Houthi rebels in Yemen could spark a confrontation with Saudi Arabia and plunge the region into sectarian war. Iran is sending an armada of seven to nine ships — some with weapons — toward Yemen in a potential attempt to resupply the Shia Houthi rebels, according to two U.S. defense officials. Officials fear the move could lead to a showdown with the U.S. or other members of a Saudi-led coalition, which is enforcing a naval blockade of Yemen and is conducting its fourth week of airstrikes against the Houthis. Iran sent...

Illegals being processed at the McAllen Border Patrol Station in Texas last year. President Obama’s White House Task Force on Creating Welcoming Communities unveiled its recommendations Friday for a national strategy to “integrate” millions of immigrants and refugees into cities and towns across the U.S. The chair of the task force, Obama’s domestic policy adviser Cecilia Muñoz, said her focus is on making sure Obama’s historic immigration policies get “institutionalized” so they will live on long after she and her boss are gone from the White House. Obama created the task force Nov. 21 when he announced his plan...

The Z-Ro Retinal Obfuscation weapon mounted to a handgun. Last summer’s riots in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted much talk by President Obama and certain members of Congress about the need to demilitarize local police forces. Nearly a year later, the opposite is happening. New and more powerful weapons are flowing into local police departments daily, and still others are new to the marketplace. One weapon about to make its debut is the “Z-Ro Retinal Obfuscation” gun. When fired, the gun allows an officer to temporarily blind his targeted subject for up to 15 minutes. The new “compliance weapon” made a...

A Bloomberg report on Friday cast new doubts on Comcast's long-gestating bid to buy Time Warner Cable. The news wire, citing anonymous sources, reported that "staff attorneys at the Justice Department's antitrust division are nearing a recommendation to block" the bid. The attorneys "could submit their review as soon as next week," Bloomberg said. Then the department's leadership will decide whether to act on the recommendation. The Justice Department declined to comment, and so did the other government agency that is reviewing the proposed merger, the Federal Communications Commission.

On Thursday’s broadcast of Fox Business Network’s “Making Money,” host Charles Payne made a bold prediction when he suggested that President Barack Obama would make a push for slavery reparations. “The news is a glimpse of much bigger news that is going to come from the White House, next year, I’m leaning towards,” Payne said during his “Payne’s Passion” segment. “I think that there’s going to be an official apology from the White House to slavery in America and then a major push to get cash, and I’m talking lots of cash.” “Many including those closest to President Obama will...

In perhaps the oddest nonprofit synergy since the not-especially-health-conscious 7-Eleven baked pink ribbon-shaped donuts for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is buddying up with 82-year-old Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to get the entire US prison system to serve meat-less meals to inmates. Yes, that would be the same Joe Arpaio who only yesterday lost a racial profiling case that determined that his office disproportionately targets Latinos for traffic stops, the same Joe Arpaio who’s staunch support for the anti-immigrant SB1070 led San Francisco’s city government to boycott of the entire state...

Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing deep concerns over Veterans Affairs evaluations classifying veterans as "mentally defective" and banning them in the federal background check system from purchasing or owning a firearm. According to Grassley's office, the VA "reports individuals to the gun ban list if an individual merely needs financial assistance managing VA benefits," keeping them from exercising their Second Amendment rights. (Bolding is mine) "The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is effectively a national gun ban list and placement on the list precludes...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — State Rep. Jim Lucas is known for his defense of gun ownership and gun rights. Nevertheless, the Seymour Republican raised some eyebrows with comments made on the House floor Thursday. Every week this session, someone in the House presents a domestic violence fact in the effort to increase awareness regarding domestic abuse. Thursday, Lucas felt the need to react. Watch his statement in the video player above by clicking the play button. “There are options out there for women,” he said. “Applications for a license to carry a handgun are up significantly in the state of Indiana...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Two conservative U.S. appeals court judges expressed skepticism on Friday over arguments to lift an injunction blocking President Barack Obama's efforts to overhaul immigration law without congressional action. Administration lawyers were in court to ask a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel to lift the injunction, issued in February by a federal judge in Texas, halting the president's executive action intended to shield 4.7 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

The woman charged with shooting and killing her Miami Police officer boyfriend lost her bid to have her case dismissed under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. A judge ruled Friday that Tiniko Thompson will head to trial in the shooting death of Officer Carl Patrick. Thompson, who has claimed self-defense, will remain behind bars without bond. "What she did, she did wrong," Patrick's mother, Lucille Patrick, said after Friday's hearing. "He was a good man, I'm proud of him in his grave today." Thompson, 46, was arrested on a murder charge in the May 2014 death. At the "Stand Your...

Two conservative U.S. appeals court judges expressed skepticism on Friday over arguments to lift an injunction blocking President Barack Obama's efforts to overhaul immigration law without congressional action. Administration lawyers were in court to ask a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel to lift the injunction, issued in February by a federal judge in Texas, halting the president's executive action intended to shield 4.7 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. The programs angered many Republicans who accused the president of executive overreach and granting amnesty to lawbreakers, but drew praise from immigrant rights advocates, more than 100 of whom rallied...

Vandalism at a Jamestown, North Carolina church totals up to $10,000 in damage. Guilford County Sheriff's investigators said that sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning vandals spray painted several messages on Bales Memorial Wesleyan Church, broke the front sign and some windows, and damaged the church bus. The church leadership said the congregation isn't hateful toward gay people and they doesn't understand why someone would lash out at them. "I can't tell you a reason that someone would target this church, particularly because this is a loving church. This is not a judgmental place or a place where someone...

CaliforniaÂ’s report said $440 million. New JerseyÂ’s said $600 million. In Pennsylvania, the tally is $700 million. Those figures are public worker pension fees being paid annually by taxpayers to Wall Street firms, and they have kicked off an intensifying debate over whether such expenses are necessary. Now, a report from an industry-friendly source says those huge levies represent only a fraction of the true amounts being raked in by Wall Street firms from state and local governments. In all, CEM Benchmarking concludes that AmericaÂ’s public pension funds are paying billions of dollars in undisclosed fees to private equity firms....

After weeks of waiting for Loretta Lynch's confirmation vote, Harry Reid is tired of waiting. With five Republicans already supporting her, the Democratic leader is planning to bypass Mitch McConnell next week and use a series of procedural measures to force their hands. But already two of the Republicans supporting Lynch say they're not having it. Although Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham plan to vote for Lynch to be the next attorney general, they say they have no interested in delivering a slap-in-the-face to their majority leader, McConnell, who has said he plans to bring up the nomination later...

Editor's note: WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT They thought the Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth was about anti-bullying. Instead, about 1,000 teenagers from more than 100 Iowa communities were treated to a profanity-laced performance by a drag queen along with graphic conversations on oral sex and a transgender tutorial on how to make fake testicles. The April 3rd conference was sponsored by Iowa Safe Schools, a non-profit group that creates “safe and supportive schools” for LGBTQ young people. Some parents were furious about some of the sexually explicit comments from paid speakers – including a comedian who told the high school...

On March 24, cannabis oil activist Shona Banda‘s life was flipped upside-down after her son was taken from her by the State of Kansas. The ordeal started when police and counselors at her 11-year-old son’s school conducted a drug education class. Her son, who had previously lived in Colorado for a period of time, disagreed with some of the anti-pot points that were being made by school officials. “My son says different things like my ‘Mom calls it cannabis and not marijuana.’ He let them know how educated he was on the facts,” said Banda in an exclusive interview with...

Dr. Salomon Melgen is being held in a Florida jail without bond on a second set of charges. The Florida ophthalmologist is one of three men involved in an August 2012 meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. That gathering is at the center of criminal charges of corruption brought by a New Jersey federal grand jury against Melgen and one of the other two key players, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). The third key player, the man who actually organized that August 2012 meeting, is Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). He’s being protected by a selective Department...

Cameras placed along Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico have captured the stream of illegal immigrants sneaking into the country on a daily basis. The network of more than 1,000 motion detectors, similar to those used to film wildlife, have been placed strategically in areas that have not been secured - where Mexican citizens can cross and evade capture with ease. They helped border guards apprehend nearly 30,000 suspects and led to 88,400 pounds of drugs being seized in 2014 as part of Operation Drawbridge. The system has also had a significant impact on Mexican cartels and their ability to smuggle...

President Obama’s executive actions on immigration will be tested on Friday when a federal appeals court considers whether to lift an order blocking the actions to allow millions of immigrants without legal status to remain in the United States. Lawyers from the federal government and 26 states opposed to Obama’s immigration policies will make oral arguments in front of a three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the most conservative circuit in the country. ADVERTISEMENT The administration is seeking an emergency stay lifting a Texas judge’s order freezing Obama’s November executive actions, which could...

GRANTS PASS -- A man who owns a gold-mining claim on federal land in southwestern Oregon asked for help defending it after U.S. authorities ordered him to stop work, but he is now telling his armed supporters to back off. Rick Barclay said Thursday that he hoped to prevent his fight with federal regulators from turning into the kind of high-profile standoff at a Nevada ranch last year. He initially called in a local chapter of constitutional activists known as the Oath Keepers because he thought the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would seize the equipment on his mining claim...