Free Republic

Talk about the perfect coda: Tower Records founder Russ Solomon died with a drink in his hand and a smart-aleck remark on his lips. The swashbuckling, visionary entrepreneur who built a global retailing empire and the most famous company in Sacramento history died Sunday night of an apparent heart attack. He was 92. Solomon was watching the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday night at his Sacramento-area home when he was stricken, said his son, Michael Solomon, the former chief executive of Tower. "Ironically, he was giving his opinion of what someone was wearing that he thought was ugly, then asked (his...

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) on Monday said he will resign from the Senate next month, saying his "health has become an ongoing challenge." "I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the U.S. Senate," Cochran said in a statement. He is set to resign from his seat on April 1, according to his office. Cochran is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. His announcement comes as Congress aims to pass a mammoth government funding bill by...

Apparently assisted suicide is not enough for the death peddlers in this Pacific Northwest State. Now they are pushing legislation in the Oregon State Legislature that would allow starving mentally ill patients to death. A similar bill was defeated last year but the euthanasia promoters are back with a new one, Oregon Right to Life tells LifeNews. House Bill 4135 is scheduled for a hearing and possible work session in the House Health Care Committee at 3:00 pm on February 7th. It is believed this bill will move quickly because there are only 35 days in the 2018 regular session....

She did it again! Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi called President Trump “President Bush” at least five times in 2017. She did it again today. Minority Leader Pelosi got confused and mixed up on Thursday when speaking to reporters on the pending release of the House Intelligence FISA memo. Pelosi stuttered and once again called President Trump “Bush” to a gaggle of reporters. She’ll get it one of these days.

A Montana-based Mongolian BBQ restaurant is getting some attention with a new video promoting its new ‘menu item.’ HuHot Mongolian Grill posted the tongue-in-cheek video Friday afternoon featuring the latest item on the food line, Tide Pods. The video shows a customer placing the laundry detergent packs in a bowl of noodles and drizzling them with orange sauce. The video ends suddenly just as the customer is about to put the pod in his mouth. It then cuts to text saying “Just kidding, please don’t eat Tide Pods, it’s gross.” “Funniest thing I’ve seen on the internet this week 🤣🤣🤣...

The mythical Fountain of Youth isn’t made of water, after all, but vodka — at least, according to Betty White. The famously spry comic actress, who turns 96 today, gave good news to those struggling to make it through January by offering some sage insight into her longevity. She told Parade magazine that she loves vodka and hot dogs, “probably in that order.” She may be on to something — a recent study found that adults who were moderate drinkers were more than 20 percent less likely to die early of any cause. White added that she’s also made it...

FULL TITLE: Elderly couple stopped last month with 60 pounds of pot arrested again on suspicion of possessing drug money A California couple arrested last month with 60 pounds of marijuana that they described as Christmas gifts were arrested again Tuesday on suspicion of possessing drug money. Patrick and Barbara Jiron of Clearlake Oaks, California, were arrested on Interstate 80 in western Lancaster County. Sheriff’s deputies stopped the couple’s westbound pickup truck, saying it was following another vehicle too closely, Sgt. Jason Mayo said. “A deputy made the stop, and their daughter was driving,” Mayo said. “A K-9 (service dog)...

The longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history announced this week that he will finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally retire. That's seven "finallys" -- one for each of the consecutive six-year terms Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, served. He begin his occupancy in 1976, when all phones were dumb, the 5.25-inch floppy disk was cutting-edge, the very first Apple computer went on sale for $666.66, the Concorde was flying high, O.J. Simpson was a hero, Blake Shelton was a newborn, the first MRI was still a blueprint, and I was a gap-toothed first-grader wearing corduroy bell-bottoms crushing on Davy Jones....

After Hatch leaves office, and should the republicans retain the Senate majority, Thad Cochran will be senior-most republican senator, and will likely be made President Pro-Tempore, third in line for the Presidency. This is likely why there's been talk of his retirement as well. After Cochran, next in seniority is Charles Grassley of Iowa, elected in the Reagan landslide.

About 500 elderly immigrants live in the Diplomat Hotel in southeast Jerusalem, where the US Embassy is expected to move. MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union), who initiated a discussion on the matter at the Knesset Absorption Committee, said that the American administration recently bought the hotel building. According to her, there are about 500 elderly immigrants living at the hotel and every four years, they are asked to sign a new lease. "Now they have been informed that the place is being sold to the US government and that in the next two years the site will be evacuated from...

Back in November, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, the 83-year-old Republican from Utah, was at the helm when the Senate's massive tax bill came through the Finance Committee. But Hatch also deputized four younger Republicans on the panel to serve as de facto co-chairmen over various parts of the legislation. This week, with a compromise bill marching toward final passage in both chambers, the House will take the unusual step of voting first - because a pair of senators, Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are recuperating from, respectively, non-melanoma skin surgery and the side effects of cancer treatments. Hatch's...

Too many of America’s elderly are aging on the streets. They need our help. WASHINGTON, DC – Here’s a startling statistic from the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD]: “the homeless population is aging faster than the general population in the United States.” Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC], calls it “a shameless embarrassment in a country with a tradition of helping the needy. Growing old is a condition we all have to live with. But too many of America’s elderly are aging on the streets. They need our help.” Weber points out that...

Jim Nabors, who gave popular culture its most enduring image of a wide-eyed, good-natured if none too bright hayseed in a character whose very name – Gomer Pyle – would become synonymous with lovable rube, died Thursday in Hawaii. He was 87. Nabors’ husband, Stan Cadwallader... With catchphrases “Shazam!” and “Gollllly!” (the latter drawn out to four or five lilting syllables), Nabors debuted his downhome, gas station attendant character in 1962 on The Andy Griffith Show, where the slow-going, dim-witted Gomer was a constant irritation to Don Knotts’ officious, high-strung Deputy Barney Fife. The Gomer character, and Nabors’ odd-couple chemistry...

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who is embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal, is hospitalized in his home state due to stress, according to two local reports on Thursday. "I just spoke with Monica Conyers on the phone and we want you to know that the congressman is resting comfortably in an area hospital. He's doing OK, as well as he can be expected for a gentleman that's approaching 90 years of age," Sam Riddle, a Conyers consultant, told WDIV TV. "The congressman's health is not what it should be and lot of that is directly attributable to this media assault."

In the end this may have been the only compromise available to Pelosi. She couldn’t force him to resign and his allies in the House may have resented any attempt to make him do so, knowing that it would have appeared as though he was stepping down in disgrace. Which, ah, he would have been.So Conyers gets to finish out his two years, leaving on “his own terms” replete with plenty of pomp and circumstance in the House about his glorious legacy, and then he’s gone. And in the meantime Democrats get to cross their fingers and hope that there...

President Donald Trump expects to nominate a total of four Supreme Court justices, claiming that three seats will likely become vacant during his first term, anonymous sources told Mike Allen of Axios. Trump expects to fill the seats of Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor in addition to nominating Neil Gorsuch, who Trump nominated to fill former Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat earlier this year. Scalia died in 2016, well before Trump took office.

The Mississippi senator has been recovering the past several weeks from a urological procedure. And concern is growing on and off Capitol Hill over whether the 79-year-old lawmaker will return to work on Monday when the Senate comes back from recess — not to mention how long he'll be able to continue leading a high-profile committee or even remain in the Senate. Multiple sources close to the senator said his staff and allies have received limited information from his family about his health status, further fueling questions about his future. Cochran's office maintains that the Mississippi Republican will return next...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) officially declared her intention to run for reelection Monday, ending months of speculation about her future and probably avoiding what would have been an intense scramble of Golden State politics to succeed her. “I am running for reelection to the Senate. Lots more to do: ending gun violence, combating climate change, access to healthcare. I’m all in!” Feinstein tweeted. On Sunday, Feinstein hinted in a national television interview that she was likely to run again, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that she was close to a formal decision. Feinstein, 84, is California’s senior senator and the...

Approximately one in five Americans are over the age of 65, and that number is quickly growing. As baby boomers reach retirement, many decide to make the move from a primary care physician to a geriatrician – primary care doctors who have special training in offering health care to seniors. The health care needs of people change as they age, and many begin to experience new medical conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, renal failure, or heart disease. Some inevitable signs of aging take place over time, such as a slower metabolism, and lead to a decline in physical activity. Some...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Sen. John McCain says doctors have given him a "very poor prognosis" as he battles brain cancer. McCain underwent surgery in July for a brain tumor that was later found to be a form of glioblastoma, the same type of cancer that took the life of his former Senate colleague Edward M. Kennedy in 2009. McCain tells CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview that aired Sunday night that he thinks about Kennedy a lot. He says Kennedy continued to work despite the diagnosis and "never gave up because he loved the engagement."