Free Republic

Former Vice President Al Gore has filed a lawsuit against the Middle Eastern media group Al Jazeera, accusing it of fraud and breach of contract in its $500 million purchase of Mr. Gore’s Current TV cable channel. The dispute centers on Al Jazeera’s refusal to turn over “tens of millions of dollars” remaining in an escrow account and still owed to the selling shareholders of Current TV, according to a statement from David Boies, the lawyer representing Mr. Gore and a Current TV co-owner, Joel Hyatt, who are suing on behalf of all the selling shareholders. “Al Jazeera America wants...

Politicians often are very shrewd investors — with their own money. If Al Gore wanted to move his money around in cash, he’d need a fleet of forklifts. But they’re rotten investors with your money. President Barack Obama had his Solyndra, and New Jersey governor Chris Christie has his casino, Revel, the multibillion-dollar Atlantic City boondoggle that, having declared bankruptcy — twice — just announced that it will be closing its doors and putting its 3,100 employees out of work. Thanks to Governor Christie and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the taxpayers of New Jersey are quasi-partners in this...

Politically active liberal Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is now blocking Republican candidates from his social media website Facebook in the GOP’s bid to retake control of the U.S. Senate in November. Facebook deleted late Monday night an “Event” this author created to ask for donations to Kevin Wade, running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in Delaware from his 4,937 Facebook friends. Freshman Democrat U.S. Senator Chris Coons is up for re-election this fall. His approval rating was only at 49% a year ago in September 2013 according to a University of Delaware poll. The year since that 49% approval last...

The cremated remains of nine people who died in the 1978 American cult mass suicide and murder in a South American town have turned up in a defunct Delaware funeral home. The Delaware Division of Forensic Science visited the former Minus Funeral Home along the 200 block of Queen Street in Dover last week after receiving a request to check out the site, officials said Thursday. Once inside, officials say they found 38 containers filled with cremated remains from 1970 through the 1990s. Nine of those remains were identified as victims of the Jonestown, Guyana, massacre.

GEORGETOWN, Del. - In a Monday school board meeting, the Indian River School District voiced concern over the 117 immigrant children who are now being housed in Delaware as they wait for their deportation hearings. Indian River has the largest hispanic population in Sussex County, and it's board members said the newcomers could mean problems for the school district. School board member Donald Hattier is the one who recommended this discussion be put on the meeting's agenda. He said there are still a lot of unknowns about the placement of these children, which he considers troubling. "We don't know," he...

NOTHING WAS GOING to stop Richard Plotts from carrying a gun. Not the law, not his felony record, not his questionable mental health and certainly not a sign. "There's evidence that he took offense to the issue that there were signs posted at Mercy Fitzgerald Health System indicating that it was a gun-free zone," Whelan said. "That's the only motive we have been able to determine at this point in time . . . he was upset about that policy." And, if not for an armed doctor and two other brave staffers who subdued him, Plotts may have claimed many...

Via Bob Owens, who notes that the medical center where this all went down is a “gun-free zone.” Unfortunately, the shooter didn’t care about that. Fortunately, his psychiatrist didn’t either. The cops pulled no punches afterwards: If the doctor hadn’t returned fire, the people inside the building were facing a rampage. On Thursday, Whelan described how the meeting among [Richard] Plotts, [Dr. Lee] Silverman, and [caseworker Theresa] Hunt abruptly took a violent turn.Plotts and Hunt went to Silverman’s third-floor office shortly before 2:30 p.m., Whelan said. Plotts was apparently armed, Whelan said, and people near the room soon heard shouting.Concerned,...

Democrats were crossing their fingers that Chris McDaniel would be the Republican nominee in Mississippi. But since Sen. Thad Cochran has prevailed, they are trying to do the unthinkable — unseat a six-term GOP senator. McDaniel supporters are irate that Cochran won a GOP primary by reaching across the aisle. Now some of his backers are ambivalent about whether they’ll come out at all in November — and if they don’t, that could create a rare opening for a Democrat here.

SNIP As you may know, last year I was told by a TIGTA (IRS’ in-house watchdog) investigator that, on the very same day I announced my 2010 U.S. Senate candidacy, a government official inappropriately accessed my private tax records. Then just hours later, an erroneous tax lien was placed on a house I no longer owned. The dubious lien then was widely circulated in the media throughout my entire campaign. After spending countless hours on hold with the IRS and being pawned off to numerous IRS operators, I was finally told that the lien was caused by a “computer error.”...

Senate lawmakers on Wednesday approved a $10 million financial bailout for Delaware’s three gambling casinos. The Senate voted 14-5 to pass legislation to help the casinos, which say they are struggling with increased competition from neighboring states and have to share too much of their gambling revenue with the state. [...] The change would take effect in July 2015, at an estimated cost to the state of about $10 million annually. To help the casinos until then, lawmakers cobbled together a similar amount of taxpayer money, mostly from unspent funds that are supposed to be used for economic development projects....

The Delaware Republican Party has set up a plan for every registered Republican to donate a minimum of $10 each -- or as an alternative, at your option, preferably $10 per month, repeating each month until November 30, 2014 If you go to -- http://www.delawaregop.com/index.cfm?ref=13100 The DEGOP donation page is set up automatically to accept $10 donations automatically repeating at $10 per month from today until November 30, 2014. Of course you can change the "Recurrence" field to (a) One Time Only, or (b) Quarterly or (c) Monthly. You can change the ending date. You can change the dollar amount....

With the July 8 deadline looming, Delaware Republicans still have no declared candidate for United States Senate in 2014 to run against Democrat Chris Coons. However, a distinct possibility emerging is successful businessman Kevin Wade, who was the 2012 nominee of the Delaware Republican Party (DEGOP). As the country's circumstances worsen and it becomes clear to Republicans that really there is no one else actively considering the task, Kevin Wade is taking a new look at the race. Christine O'Donnell has ruled out a rematch, citing -- genuine and serious -- family reasons. Her father passed away last year from...

Admits to lack of savings, desire to subsist on six-figure government pension Vice President Joe Biden plans on relying solely on taxpayers to fund his retirement. Biden declared that he had neither a savings account, nor any stocks to pay off his golden years on Monday. “I have no savings account, but I have a great pension and a great salary,” Biden told the crowd at the White House Summit on Working Families. Biden proudly admitted that he was “the poorest member of Congress” over his four-decade career in Washington. The line garnered laughs and applause at the plush Omni...

During a media picnic at his official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., Vice President Joe Biden had this to say to gathered journalists: “Anybody who writes a bad story about me is dead,” he announced, bearing that familiar grin.

Ted SieferJune 16, 2014 Deer ticks, also known as blacklegged ticks, are the prime carriers of Lyme disease, which is particularly common in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Large numbers of ticks, the parasites that carry Lyme disease, are expected to emerge in New England in the coming weeks, experts said on Friday. Abundant snow over the winter and a wet spring have created ideal conditions for ticks to come out in the warm weather and try to latch onto hosts, they said. "The next three to four weeks is the peak season of risk," said Sam Telford, an infectious disease...

The Mount Vernon Assembly – Indianapolis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Skip Brown skip.brown@iga.in.gov 317-232-9521 The Mount Vernon Assembly to Meet at Indiana Statehouse June 12 and 13 INDIANAPOLIS (June 9, 2014) – More than 100 state legislators representing 33 states will meet at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on June 12 and 13 to continue establishing the rules and procedures needed for a future state-led convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as authorized by Article V of the Constitution. The meeting is a continuation of efforts that began in December 2013 at George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate...

WILMINGTON, Del. - (AP) -- Highway engineers say a crucial bridge on the Eastern Seaboard's interstate highway system could imperil drivers if traffic is allowed back on it. The bridge, near Wilmington, Delaware, was closed Monday when its support pillars were found to be tilting. The Interstate 495 bridge won't reopen anytime soon, highway officials said Tuesday, and the 90,000 vehicles that cross it every day are being diverted onto the main north highway, I-95, further overloading one of the most crowded arteries in America.

The budget committee of Delaware's Democratic-controlled General Assembly "voted Thursday to withhold $3 million from the University of Delaware in an attempt to force the university's hand on a controversial plan to build a power plant and data center on the former Chrysler site in Newark," reports the Wilmington News Journal here. "The money, earmarked for UD operations, was suddenly removed and parked in a contingency fund at the end of budget hearings on Thursday. Lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee voted unanimously in favor of the move.

"I only had a couple of seconds to take a picture of it with my cell phone."A new bill being circulated for co-sponsors in Delaware would make any person in possession of a firearm that is undetectable by a metal detector a felon. The bill, which has not been posted online, was leaked by State Rep. Jeffery Spiegelman (R) via a phone picture. Posted from thetruthaboutguns.com, Spiegelman writes, “First, let me apologize for the poor quality. This bill (137) was circulated today for cosponsors and I only had a couple of seconds to take a picture of it with my...

DOVER, Del. - The Dover Air Force Base is on lockdown because of a suspicious person on base. Dover Air Force Base Public Affairs said the base went on lockdown around 11:00 a.m.