Free Republic

On a background call with reporters Monday, a senior administration officials declined to say what if any meetings Biden has had with senators involved in the gun control push. “This is something that continues to be at the top of the agenda for the president and the vice president,” one senior administration official said. “We’re not in a position to confirm that those individual conversations, but we’re definitely in a position to confirm that those conversations are ongoing because that is a legislative priority of ours.” And asked why the administration didn’t complete all 23 executive actions, officials said it...

Vice President Joe Biden insisted to a subdued audience Tuesday that he and President Barack Obama “haven’t given up” on gun control. But his remarks came at the first White House event since the Senate’s failed April 17 background checks vote. And all that he had to show gun control supporters by way of progress was a list of completed or mostly completed executive actions — and a set of new guidebooks for churches and schools on how to deal with a mass shooting situation. Over the past two months, the White House has dramatically dialed back its gun push....

Fisker Automotive hasn't built a car in nearly a year. It fired most of its workforce, hired bankruptcy advisers and is seeking a buyer. Co-founder Henrik Fisker resigned in mid-March in a dispute with some of the directors. And despite raising $1.4 billion in private and public funds since its founding in 2007, the company is out of cash. For months, key investors have been footing the car maker's day-to-day expenses to keep it alive in diminished form. The Energy Department has repeatedly defended its handling of the Fisker loan. Nicholas Whitcombe, who previously led the DOE loan program, told...

Watch then-Senator Joe Biden from 2006 as he directly refutes each point made by his boss, President Obama, about the NSA surveillance program at his news conference last week.

After he stands with the White House on guns and immigration, McCain gets the big Biden shoutout. Sen. John McCain can be one of the White House’s toughest critics. But after backing President Obama on gun control and comprehensive immigration reform, McCain got a big shoutout from the White House Friday. In the latest installment of “Being Biden” — the White House audio series featuring the Vice President describing moments in his week — Biden describes his recent trip to the McCain Institute in Sedona, Arizona where he appeared with the Republican Senator at a policy summit. Biden heaps praise...

Last year Vice President Joe Biden saw the wedding of his daughter Ashley to Philadelphia doctor Howard Krein. He also saw the bill.

DELAWARE: Markell Signs Gun Bill (Link only--no excerpt allowed)

Stop the presses! Another one of President Obama’s brilliant clean-energy ventures has collapsed after taking tens of millions of dollars from American taxpayers, in this case to develop a special wheelchair-accessible “green” van. The news comes just weeks after a separate company that got nearly $200 million from the government to develop hybrid vehicles folded. That fly-by-night company, Fisker Automotive, had been heavily touted by the administration as an innovator that would develop two lines of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that could run up to 300 miles on a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. Before doling out the cash, Obama’s Energy Secretary...

The bill requires mental health providers, including licensed school counselors, to call police if they believe a person poses a danger to himself or others. Police would investigate and would refer the case to the attorney general’s office if they believe the person shouldn’t have access to a gun. The attorney general’s office could then ask a judge to prohibit the person from owning or possessing a gun. The judge also could order the seizure of any guns that the person owns. In the case of a troubled child, authorities could seize any guns owned by a parent or guardian...

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, proposed Tuesday using text messages to remind people who are inside the U.S. on visas when their visas are scheduled to run out. “You’ve got a month to go on your visa. You got two weeks to go. You got a week to go. You got a day to go, and the idea that people know that we know that they’re here, we know that their time is running out, and we’re watching them,” Carper said, describing ways the possible text messages that can be used to remind people...

A divided state Senate voted Tuesday to make Delaware the 11th state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after hearing hours of passionate testimony from supporters and opponents. Less than an hour after the Senate's 12-9 vote, Democratic Gov. Jack Markell signed the measure into law. "I do not intend to make any of you wait one moment longer," a smiling Markell told about 200 jubilant supporters who erupted in cheers and applause following the Senate vote. "I am elated," said Scott Forrest, 50, of Newark, who entered into a same-sex civil union last year with his partner of...

Delaware lawmakers will take up a gay marriage bill on Tuesday in a bid to make the state the 11th to allow same-sex couples to wed. The scheduled vote in the state's Democrat-controlled Senate follows the General Assembly's passage of the bill several weeks ago. Governor Jack Markell, an outspoken supporter of gay marriage, has vowed to sign the bill into law if it clears the Senate. The vote follows a string of victories for advocates of same sex marriage. Last Friday, lawmakers in Rhode Island gave final approval to a marriage bill, which Gov. Lincoln Chafee quickly signed into...

Here's the link.

Planned Parenthood of Delaware has temporarily halted surgical abortion services. This action makes Delaware the first state to be free from surgical abortions for any significant period of time since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision decriminalized abortion. The Planned Parenthood clinic in Dover has temporarily suspended surgical abortions while the Wilmington affiliate has closed completely for cleaning and re-staffing, according to Planned Parenthood statements to the media and on their website. At least three employees, one thought to be troubled abortionist Eric Schaff, have quit or been fired since dangerous conditions at the facilities were exposed. In recent weeks...

The second lady exemplifies a bloated class of people with irrelevant, unimpressive titles. Doctor Biden has joined Twitter as @DrBiden. The account is “run by Dr. Jill Biden’s Office,” and it tells us absorbing things about Dr. Biden — things such as “Yesterday, Dr. Biden hosted an education roundtable” and “Yesterday, Dr. Biden honored the nation’s top teachers.” It retweets praise, too: “Thank you Dr. Biden for your work as an educator and as a voice for all educators in our nation,” reads one tribute. If a tweet is signed “Jill,” the doctoral bio informs us, this indicates that it...

Stop me if you've heard this before. An administration walks into Congress and insists on billions of dollars to "invest" in green-tech startups, then loses its shirt on bad bets — even while knowing the bets were bad. If that sounds like Solyndra, well, you're right — but it's also part of a pattern in which Barack Obama and the White House have treated taxpayer funds like Monopoly money. CBS and the AP unveil the latest example of this pattern, Fisker Automotive, which continued to get millions in taxpayer funds even while failing to meet the conditions of its loan:...

On one of Virginia's small barrier islands, a NASA facility that operates in relative obscurity outside scientific circles is preparing to be thrust into the spotlight. On Wednesday, Orbital Sciences Corp. plans to conduct the first test launch of its Antares rocket under a NASA program in which private companies deliver supplies to the International Space Station. If all goes as planned, the unmanned rocket's practice payload will be vaulted into orbit from Wallops Island before burning up in the atmosphere on its return to Earth several months later.... A successful launch would pave the way for Dulles-based Orbital to...

Now it’s time for journalists to report on the “meat-market style” abortions at a Delaware clinic. If there were an award for Most Constructive Shaming of the News Media, the clear winner would be Kirsten Powers, the brave Fox News pundit and Daily Beast columnist. Last Thursday, she called out the mainstream media for failing to adequately report on the ongoing trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who is charged with murdering seven newborn infants and a patient seeking an abortion. Powers’s USA Today piece provoked an instant response from many sheepish journalists.Megan McArdle of the Daily Beast...

As the media enters day 257,685 openly pushing for gun control, the almost total national-media blackout on the murder trial of Dr. Gosnell, an abortion doctor accused of murdering seven babies, marches on. Wednesday, in the state of Delaware, a very similar story surfaced in local media, naturally: A series of emergency calls made from the Planned Parenthood of Delaware this year are raising concerns about what's happening behind the closed doors. … Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, former employee said, "It was just unsafe. I couldn't tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was." SNIP Werbrich said "It's not washed down, it's not...

Vice President Joe Biden blasted the NRA for engaging in a "disinformation" campaign meant to "scare people" from supporting background checks. “Kinda scary man, the black helicopter crowd is really upset,” Biden said about the NRA´s concern with the creation of a federal government gun registry. Biden was speaking at the White House with Attorney General Eric Holder on reducing gun violence and was joined by law enforcement officials