Free Republic

James Sanders was the first investigative reporter to take a serious look at what happened to TWA Flight 800. For his efforts, he, his wife Elizabeth, a TWA trainer, and one of his sources, TWA Capt. Terry Stacey were arrested. The Sanderses were tried and convicted in federal court of conspiracy to steal airplane parts. Learn more in TWA 800: The Crash, The Cover-Up, The Conspiracy (Regnery: July 5).July 12, 1996, Westhampton, Long Island, a repairman using his video camera to film the dawn, instead captured a large missile solid-fuel exhaust plume climbing into the sky. Then something large fell...

In the aftermath of the Democratic National Convention, the party's nominee, Michael S. Dukakis, has expanded his lead among registered voters over Vice President Bush, the probable Republican nominee, according to a Gallup Poll... Fifty-five percent of the 948 registered voters interviewed in the poll said they preferred to see Mr. Dukakis win the 1988 Presidential election, while 38 percent said they preferred to see Mr. Bush win. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points... This represented a shift in Mr. Dukakis's lead from the 47 percent to 41 percent advantage he...

TRENTON, New Jersey — Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday touted an anti-tax crusader's endorsement of a proposed 23-cent- per-gallon gasoline tax hike along with a sales tax cut, sweeping aside objections raised by Democratic leaders in the state Senate and voicing confidence that the measure would be passed in that chamber. Christie all but dared lawmakers not to act on his plan during a statehouse news conference, a day after the Assembly passed the plan to pay for a $2 billion a year transportation trust fund for eight years. The fund runs out of borrowing authority Friday, and Christie's...

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Daily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000 watt...

This report refers to Shannon Watts as one in a group of “regular people” who began advocating for stricter gun control measures in recent years. After the December 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., she created the “One Million Moms for Gun Control” Facebook page. It later became “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.” We should have noted that Watts has a background in corporate communications. From 1998 to mid-2012, she was a corporate communications executive or consultant at such companies as Monsanto and FleishmanHillard. Before that, Watts had what she says was a...

Full title: Illegal Alien Who Butchered Conn. Woman Not Deported After Serving 15 Yrs. for Murder Because Haiti Refused to Repatriate An illegal immigrant who stabbed a young Connecticut woman to death after completing a 15-year sentence for murder couldn’t be deported by the U.S. government because his homeland, which receives billions in aid from Uncle Sam, wouldn’t take him back—three times! So federal authorities released the violent criminal, a Haitian national, and didn’t even bother tracking his whereabouts allowing him to commit yet another heinous crime. Now, a year after an innocent woman was viciously butchered to death in...

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a Second Amendment challenge to a Connecticut law banning many semiautomatic rifles. The law, enacted in 2013 following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., made it a crime to sell or possess the firearms, which critics call assault weapons. The decision not to hear the case, not long after the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., does not set a Supreme Court precedent. But it is part of a trend in which the justices have given at least tacit approval to broad gun-control laws in states and localities...

DEVELOPING: The first two votes in a series of four dueling gun control measures in the Senate were defeated Monday evening in the first proposed legislation in the wake of the Orlando terror attack.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA – The United States Supreme Court declined on Monday to review a lower court’s ruling refusing to strike down on Second Amendment grounds Connecticut’s ban on certain semi-automatic firearms including the most popular rifles in the Nation. The Connecticut Citizens’ Defense League (CCDL) and other plaintiffs challenged Connecticut’s ban in 2013, arguing that the ban openly flouts the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which held that law-abiding citizens have an individual right to keep commonly owned firearms in their homes for self-defense.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has rejected challenges to assault weapons bans in Connecticut and New York, in the aftermath of the shooting attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 50 people dead. ADVERTISEMENT The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that upheld laws that were passed in response to another mass shooting involving a semi-automatic weapon, the elementary school attack in Newtown, Connecticut. The Supreme Court has repeatedly turned away challenges to gun restrictions since two landmark decisions that spelled out the right to a handgun to defend one's own home.

In the ongoing battle over women’s reproductive health, high-profile GOP politicians haven’t exactly praised Planned Parenthood. However, George W. Bush’s daughter, Barbara, spoke in favor of the organization. In a conversation with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards for the New York Times, Bush said that part of the mission of her organization, Global Health Corps, is counting on millennials looking to effect change in the health industry. “So many young people want to work on social change. They want to do good,” she said. “Global Health started because this great talent pipeline was not moving into health care. It’s hard...

Listen Live: Sound Off Connecticut with Jim Vicevich 9 a.m. to noon ET (Daily Thread)Sound Off Connecticut is a popular conservative/libertarian call in talk show hosted by Jim Vicevich weekday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon ET. Although based in Connecticut, the show welcomes callers from all over the United States! This is your chance to sound off America! Call into the show toll free (800) 966-9842! Listen to the LIVE AUDIO STREAM at http://wtic.com - it's free and NO registration is required! If you're in southern New England listen over the air to WTIC 1080 AM, the 50,000 watt...

In a shocking development in the push for gun-control, Senator Chris Murphy, who filibustered for 15 hours regarding the issue, admitted Sunday on ABC’s This Week that his proposal would not have stopped any recent mass shooting. “Your proposal would have done nothing in the case of Orlando, it would have done nothing to stop the killing in San Bernardino,” stated ABC’s Jon Karl calling out Murphy, “And in fact, it was unrelated to the killing in Newtown.” The proposal Murphy has been pushing is one that is meant to close the mythical “gun show loophole.” “Would that have done anything...

Calling for more gun control in the wake of mass shootings has become the norm for the president, politicians, and pundits alike—and Orlando has been no different. This time, however, a more surprising face has joined the bandwagon: Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson. “Yes, the Orlando massacre was terror,” she said, “But there’s no doubt that Omar Mateen was able to kill so many people because he was firing an AR-15, a military style assault weapon, a weapon easier to buy in the state of Florida than buying a handgun.” Let’s break for a moment here to point out that right...

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — Governor Dannel Malloy is asking gun sellers, both in-state and out of state, to voluntarily stop selling semi-automatic weapons on Father’s Day, June 19th. Malloy asks sellers to do this as a sign of respect to the fathers and parents who lost children in the Orlando nightclub shooting. “We are calling on Connecticut gun sellers to avoid all semi-automatic weapons sales on Father’s Day for one reason. We should show respect, through a symbolic gesture, to those who’ve lost loved ones in Orlando,” Gov. Malloy said. Since 2013, Connecticut has prohibited the AR-15 and the Sig...

Rainbow flag signs with "#ShootBack" written on them were found plastered across West Hollywood on Thursday morning, causing a stir among residents and condemnation from city leaders, less than a week after the shooting rampage at a gay nightclub in Orlando. The flags, blending a snake symbol used by the Tea Party with the symbol for gay pride, were found all over the Southern California city Thursday morning, including in front of City Hall and one of the city's most popular gay bars, the Abbey. Crews worked all afternoon to remove the signs. City leaders say even though they're still...

In a private meeting of Democrats on Wednesday, Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) begged his colleagues to push a measure that might have actually prevented Sunday morning’s carnage in Orlando: an assault weapons ban. Cicilline was answering the call of President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, to keep “weapons of war” off the streets. But Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi nixed it. Better, she said, to focus on barring terror suspects from buying guns. That measure’s a no-brainer for Democrats, she reasoned, and easier to explain to the public. "It’s not that we’re not strong enough to make the...

During a private meeting on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi rejected the “assault weapons” ban being pushed my Democrat colleagues and Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson. Pelosi said Democrats should focus on fights that are actually winnable, and she does not see an AR-15 ban as one of those fights. According to Politico, Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) put forward the “assault weapons” ban, and Pelosi shut it down. She said, “It’s not that we’re not strong enough to make the fight. It’s just that we want to win the fight.” Breitbart News reported that Gretchen Carlson took time on air...

The Connecticut man who lost his wife and daughters in a brutal home invasion in 2007 said Wednesday it was 'sad' one of the killers had his death sentence revoked to comply with new state laws. Dr. William Petit was tied up in the basement of his New Haven home during the July 23, 2007 attack and almost beaten to death. He could only listen as his wife was raped and murdered by Steven Hayes. Petit managed to flee to a neighbor's home as his daughters perished in the fire Hayes lit. 'It is a very sad day when a...

Yale University has found itself embroiled in controversy once again this year after English students complained that courses in the department were 'hostile' to students of color. Under the most fire is the Major English Poets course, a prerequisite for undergraduates in the major to study the works of at least seven major poets, all of whom are white men. An anonymous petition has demanded the department not only change the English 125/126 course, which has existed since 1920, but abolish it entirely. It also asks that the major's pre-1800/1900 requirements be changed to include literature relating to 'gender, race...