Free Republic

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal issued new protections for businesses that refuse to serve same-sex marriages, embracing the "religious freedom" cause dear to conservative Christians even though it's stung other Republican politicians. Jindal, a prospect for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, issued an executive order on Tuesday after saying he was disappointed that a Statehouse committee had earlier in the day voted down a bill that would have accomplished the same goal. That panel's concern: that Louisiana would look much like Indiana, where concerns that a new "religious freedom" law would lead to discrimination against gays and lesbians triggered such a...

Just say no, Obama. Flaming water, poisoned air and destroyed lives — that’s what I found when I traveled to Dimock, Pa., in 2009 to see the impacts of fracking firsthand. Six years later, this tragic story is one shared by countless Americans, too many of them with no choice in the matter. Ten years after the Bush-Cheney administration exempted fracking from key parts of some of our nation’s most important environmental and public health laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, the science is finally catching up to the process — and...

...Cuomo speaks at the beginning of a Business Rountable with Cuban and American business leaders held at the Hotel Parque Central in Havana, Cuba....

Two months ago, Action News brought you the story about one local organization researching into a possible secession for 15 towns in Upstate New York to Pennsylvania. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) decision to ban hydraulic fracking in New York compelled the Upstate New York Towns Association to look into the idea. This month, the organization is releasing more information on the matter. Carolyn Price, president of the Upstate New York Towns Association, shared the group’s findings with Action News exclusively this week. Price said Upstate New York is currently in an “economic death spiral.” She attributes her statement to various...

Dr. Ben Carson is calling for more attention to be given to Christians and their rights, suggesting that they are being passed over in favor of other concerns, such as gender identity and sexual orientation.

Be careful what you wish for. So goes one of the older bits of human wisdom. Question. If the O’Connor family of Walkerton, Indiana has been forced to close their family pizza business “Memories”, as noted here at TMZ, because their young daughter said in response to an unsolicited media question that the business wouldn’t cater a gay wedding because of their religious beliefs? And the business has never, in fact, catered any wedding? Then why shouldn’t this standard of questioning religious beliefs be applied to rich and famous liberal television anchors? Witch hunts never end well. And the current...

Mayor Bill de Blasio also said he would also ban non-essential, city-funded travel to Indiana.Crain's New York Business contributed to this article.

Automatically deleting email after 90 days could lead to the accidental disposal of important records, the head of New York's Committee on Open Government told Capital, as the Cuomo administration presses ahead with its controversial new policy.Robert Freeman, who has worked for the committee since it was founded in 1974, said there shouldn't be a fixed time governing when records are saved or discarded.As Capital reported, the Cuomo administration last week fully implemented a policy of deleting any email not proactively saved for retention after 90 days. The result was a mass purge of messages in the inboxes of rank-and-file...

There is no Plan B for 2016. I’ll say it, happily: Democrats should be worried about Hillary Clinton, and moderately panicked about the immediate future of both their party and their cause. This is not, of course, because Hillary’s latest scandale du jour is in any practical way going to “disqualify” her; and nor is it because leftward-leaning voters are likely to recall anything more from this rather awkward period in time than that the Clintons are as perennially sleazy as they ever were. Rather, it is because the last few days have underscored just how tenuous the Left’s grip...

ALBANY — Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is joining Gov. Cuomo’s administration as a special adviser to the governor, the Daily News has learned. Quinn will be a part-time staffer until mid-April when she finishes her stint as a resident fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, a source said. After that, she will jump on board full-time. Quinn headed up the Cuomo-created Women’s Equality Party in 2014 during the governor’s reelection campaign.

Anthony Weiner can’t stop getting himself into trouble on social media. The disgraced ex-congressman ignited a juvenile Twitter war with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday when Weiner poked fun at the governor’s decision last month to shut down the transit system Jan. 26 in preparation for the “blizzard” that wasn’t. “Sunday’s gonna be cold. Governor Cuomo will soon be closing the subway,” tweeted Weiner, who in 2011 resigned in disgrace over a sext­ing scandal. The governor’s staffers weren’t going to let Weiner’s crack pass, and fired back. “Yes, it is going to be cold. A good reason to keep your...

Earlier on Thursday, CNN “New Day” co-host Chris Cuomo debated Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore on the issue of the Alabama courts’ ruling versus a federal court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.

During a heated discussion over gay marriage, CNN morning Anchor Chris Cuomo opined that the unalienable rights endowed to all Americans do not come from God. Cuomo was debating Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Near the end of the back-and-forth and after Moore argued that rights cannot be handed down by men, Cuomo blurted out:“Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from man... That’s your faith, that’s my faith, but that’s not our country. Our laws come from collective agreement and compromise.”

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced new regulations to include transgender health care services under New York State’s Medicaid program. The proposed regulations provide treatment for hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery.... New York will join California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington D.C., which cover transgender health care through their Medicaid programs. In May, the federal government also ended its decades-long exclusion of coverage for certain services related to gender transition under Medicare. The introduction of this Medicaid regulation follows last week’s announcement that New York State law requires private health insurance companies to cover transgender health care on the...

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who bent state government to his will for more than 20 years as one of New York's most powerful and canny politicians, was arrested Thursday on charges of taking nearly $4 million in payoffs and kickbacks. The 70-year-old Democrat was taken into custody by the FBI on federal conspiracy and bribery charges that carry up to 100 years in prison and could cost him his political seat. He was released on $200,000 bail.

I will apologize in advance to our readers if this looks like coverage of a “local story” but it actually may be a harbinger for the kind of state and local level change which is required for real progress in America. The New York Times is reporting that today an arrest will be made in Albany, the state’s capital. The suspect is question is none other than the Speaker of the state Assembly, Sheldon Silver. Federal authorities are expected to arrest Sheldon Silver, the powerful speaker of the New York State Assembly, on corruption charges on Thursday, people with...

Mass defiance of the new permit process is another monkey wrench tossed in the works.A New York lawman is winning plaudits from gun owners over his stance on firearm regulation—he wants less of it. Fulton County Sheriff Thomas J. Lorey is already known as a supporter of the Second Amendment and a member of the Oath Keepers, an organization of military personnel and police officers who vow to refuse unconstitutional orders. Despite the Empire State's fame as a jurisdiction unfriendly to private gun ownership—or, really, any activity beyind the reach of government officials—Lorey isn't alone in his views. The New...

Full Title - New York Sheriff On Handgun Renewal Permits, ‘Throw Them In The Garbage Because That Is Where They Belong.’ [VIDEO] Fulton County, N.Y. is home to a strong hunting and fishing tradition. Guns are everywhere, but life isn’t easy.Temperatures are often well below zero, and snow piles drift up so high against your home that you have to go to the second floor to be able to look outside a window. Jobs are scarce since the leather industry exited a few decades ago. Taxes are high, and it seems the government solution to the unemployment problem is to...

To fight poverty, you’ve got to attack the behaviors that cause it. The governor (Cuomo) should remember that. If all of a sudden he’s decided to be concerned about poverty, and is riding to the rescue, his only chance of success is to be honest about both poverty’s causes and cures. Thus far, it doesn’t look like he’s going to be. To progressives, poverty is a condition imposed upon victims by oppressors. One party is disadvantaged by the evil of another. There is a fixed amount of wealth and the fact someone else has it and you don’t is because...

Funeral Mass at St. Ignatius Church on Park Avenue, New York.