Free Republic

Kay Allen had just started work, and everything seemed quiet at the Cornerstone Care community health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. But things didn't stay quiet for long. "All the girls, they were yelling at me in the back, 'You gotta come out here quick. You gotta come out here quick,' " said Allen, 59, a nurse from Weirton, W.Va. Allen rushed out front and knew right away what all the yelling was about. The whole place reeked — like someone had spilled a giant bottle of nail polish remover. "I told everybody to get outside and get fresh air. So...

The Franciscan University of Steubenville has announced it will drop health insurance coverage for students because the cost of the plan is expected to double under Obamacare. [...]The plan currently costs approximately $600 per year. However, Hernon said their health care provider informed them that under Obamacare, the policy would double in price to $1,200 and the following year it would triple. “We couldn’t believe the price (increase),” he told Fox News. “We had them go back and reconfirm it. They said it was dictated by coverage limits that were released by the Obama administration.” “At the end of the...

The Obama administration “strongly objects” to provisions in a House defense authorization bill that would prohibit the use of military property for same-sex “marriage or marriage-like” ceremonies, and protect military chaplains from negative repercussions for refusing to perform ceremonies that conflict with their beliefs, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In a policy statement released Wednesday, the OMB outlined numerous objections to aspects of the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4310). The bill was reported out of the House Armed Services Committee last week and is set to be debated in the House, beginning...

*snip* There are five crucial reasons for this: 1. Twitter is an equalizer in an eco-system where MSM types are no longer insulated in their bubble. We can now use Twitter to reach out to the media in order to challenge their biases, facts, lies, spin, and hypocrisy. The media is now accountable to their customers and you can bet this has an effect. Even the corrupt media types (which is most of them) are aware that these challenges posed on Twitter are potentially being tweeted and re-tweeted to thousands of readers. That's hard to ignore. 2. More and more...

Complete Title: The Soros Summit - Free Beacon exclusive: Inside the secret Miami meeting of George Soros’s liberal conspiracy ### A secretive network of left-wing billionaires and their political operatives descended on the luxurious Biltmore Hotel in Miami over the weekend to discuss strategy for the coming elections. The location of the conference had been kept a closely guarded secret by the members and guests of Democracy Alliance (DA), a collection of ultra-wealthy liberal donors formed in 2005, and is reported here in a Washington Free Beacon exclusive. Attendees roamed the grounds at the 150-acre tropical resort on their way...

OMAHA, Neb. - The Associated Press has projected Deb Fischer as the winner of the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. Most of the evening, Jon Bruning maintained a lead over Fischer; however, during the 9 p.m. hour, the lead switched in favor of Fischer. Just under 6,000 votes separated the top two candidates when the Associated Press called the race.

@ABC exclusive: medical report from morning after Zimmerman shot #Trayvonmartin. Show he had broken nose, swollen face blck eyes. 2 cuts 5:18 PM - 15 May 12via Twitter for BlackBerry®· For more on our exclusive new information on Zimmerman's medical report post shooting tune into @ABCWorldNews 5:19 PM - 15 May 12 via Twitter for BlackBerry®·

ST. PAUL, May 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After 15 years of taxpayer-funded abortions, Minnesotans have funded more than 58,000 abortions at a cost of over $18 million, according to a just-released report from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). Nearly all of these abortions have been elective. Since its successful 1995 challenge to Minnesota’s law that prohibited funding of most abortions, the state’s abortion industry has steadily increased its procedure numbers and revenue by marketing taxpayer-funded abortions to low-income women. Taxpayers now pay for 32.7 percent of all abortions performed in the state — the highest percentage ever. ......

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, has called for a hearing on the $2-billion trading loss by JPMorgan Chase & Co., saying that "policies are going to be derived out of what’s happened." Corker, who was a key participant in the debate over the 2010 financial reform law, said it was important for policymakers to get the facts about the situation and whether pending regulations would have prevented it.

Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist spoke about the use of drones for domestic spying last night. He blasted the idea: "A drone is a high-tech version of an old army. It ought to be used in Somalia to hunt bad guys but not in America. Yes you can say we have satellites, we have Google Street, we have everything else, but that is no reason to accept a society where you are always watched by the government. "I would predict the first guy who uses a second amendment weapon to bring a drone down who is hovering over his house...

James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas exposed how easy it was for someone to walk in to a polling place and get Attorney General Eric Holder’s ballot, and now it has released another video that shows how easily non-citizens--and even dead people--can vote in North Carolina, a crucial 2012 swing state. In the video, William Romero, an apparent non-citizen, is shown to be registered to vote in North Carolina. According to jury refusal records obtained by Project Veritas, Romero was recused for being a non-citizen. Yet when a researcher from Project Veritas went into the polling station, he found that not only...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama hold assets worth between nearly $2.6 million and nearly $8.3 million, according to financial disclosure reports released Tuesday by the White House. The documents show the couple's assets for last year. The first family's assets were valued between $1.8 million and nearly $12 million in 2010.

Illegal immigrant students and members of the House sued the Senate this week to try to overturn the upper chamber’s filibuster rule, arguing that the 60-vote supermajority requirement violates the Constitution and is blocking important legislation such as legalization for illegal immigrants. If successful, the lawsuit, filed Monday, would rewrite the way the Senate operates — though courts generally have been reluctant to meddle in internal congressional rules.

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas legislators restarted tax cut negotiations Tuesday, but senators quickly discovered they have less room than they'd hoped to bargain with House members as they try to modify aggressive income tax reductions that already have cleared the Legislature. Three senators and three House members discussed drafting an alternative proposal that would replace one approved last week. The previous cuts individual income tax rates and eliminates income taxes for 191,000 partnerships, sole proprietorships and other businesses. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, who's pushed the GOP-controlled Legislature to lower income taxes, has encouraged lawmakers to keep negotiating.

Ron Paul is not suspending his presidential campaign. That's the message his staff pushed Tuesday following the candidate's declaration that he won't spend any additional funds to campaign in new states. But campaign manager Jesse Benton clearly stated that the hopes of Paul winning the Republican presidential nomination are officially over. "We recognize that Gov. [Mitt] Romney has what is very likely to be an insurmountable delegate lead," Benton told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. "And we acknowledge that we're very, very unlikely to be able to block that nomination." The campaign followed a delegate strategy that would have...

François Hollande has been sworn in as president of France, becoming the first Socialist leader in 17 years to occupy the Elysee Palace. He named close aide Jean-Marc Ayrault as his PM. Mr Hollande is now to visit Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. Mr Hollande called for "a compromise" over the German-led focus on austerity as the way out of the eurozone crisis. Stock markets and the euro have fallen amid continuing political uncertainty in Greece. The handover of presidential power in France is a strange mixture of tradition and improvisation. There is tradition in the quasi-monarchical ceremonies, such as...

DENVER — A bill that would have allowed civil unions for same-sex couples in Colorado was defeated on Monday night during a special legislative session called by Gov. John W. Hickenlooper to debate the issue. The legislation was voted down by Republican lawmakers on a 5-to-4 vote along party lines after more than two hours of emotional testimony in the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, where it was assigned Monday by Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. “We saw this bill die even though a majority of members of the Senate and a majority of members of the...

It’s been one week since President Obama, prodded into action by Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks on a Sunday talk show, granted Robin Roberts of ABC News an interview in which he revealed his personal policy shift on gay marriage. Whether or not Obama’s decision, and the way it was handled politically, will make a difference on election day is still anyone’s guess — and may always be. Parsing reactions by millions of individual voters, particularly on an issue that ranks far below other concerns for most Americans, obviously involves a measure of guesswork. That said, the first wave of...

The Obama administration is poised to remove an Iranian opposition group from the United States' list of terrorist groups, officials briefed on the talk told the Wall Street Journal, in a move sure to upset Tehran as nuclear talks between the countries intensify. The exile organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or MeK, was named a terrorist group 15 years ago for allegedly being involved in assassinating U.S. citizens before the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, but the group had pursued an aggressive lobbying effort in Washington to clear up its status

Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has come out swinging against US President Barack Obama's personal endorsement of same-sex marriage. ONE OF THE GREATS Where do Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali rank among the best boxers of all time? In an interview with the National Conservative Examiner, the religious Pacquiao said Obama's view was nothing more than a direct attack on the morals of society and the will of God. "God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other," he said. "It should not be of the...

President Obama’s deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said a poll released Monday that showed most Americans believe Obama’s gay-marriage endorsement was done for political reasons can’t be trusted because it’s biased. We can't put the methodology of that poll aside, because the methodology was significantly biased. It is a biased sample,” Cutter said Tuesday on MSNBC’s "Political Rundown." “They sampled a biased sample, so they re-biased the same sample.” According to a CBS News-New York Times poll released on Monday, 67 percent said Obama’s recent endorsement of gay marriage was given for political purposes, while only 23 percent said it...

President Obama’s claim that the GOP is mounting a war on women has proven to be a failure. A month into his assault on the Republicans and Mitt Romney, the new CBS-New York Times poll shows that the GOP presidential candidate now leads among women--and men. Since April, women have gone from strongly backing Obama to endorsing Romney. In April, Obama held a 49 percent to 43 percent lead among women. That has now flipped to 46 percent backing Romney with 44 percent for Obama, an 8-point switch. Ironically, Romney’s support among men has dropped, but he still edges Obama...

Tampa, Florida -- Police want your help finding four men who teamed up to beat a young U.S. Army soldier in a South Tampa street. It was an awful welcome to Tampa Bay for a young soldier. Police say the victim of a violent beating caught on camera is 24 years old and has lived in Tampa for less than a month.

The District grabbed the guns belonging to 1st Lt. Augustine Kim and won’t give them back. Two years ago, the South Carolina Army national guardsman had been injured on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. Now he’s fighting to restore his constitutional rights. Before deploying overseas, the soldier drove his collection - which included an AR-15, a Beretta 9mm and several .45 caliber pistols - to his parents’ house in New Jersey for safe storage. Upon his return to the states and recovery, Lt. Kim wanted to bring his weapons back to his home in Charleston. On the way,...

Energy: The Government Accountability Office tells Congress the Green River Formation out West contains an "amount about equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves." So why are we keeping it locked up on federal lands? Exploding the Big Lie pushed by President Obama that we can't drill our way out of high gas prices because we have but 2% of the world's proven oil reserves, Anu Mittal, GAO director of natural resources and environment, testified before Congress last week that just one small part of the U.S. is capable of outproducing the rest of the planet. That small part...

Kris Barrett, a teacher and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's wife, violated a Milwaukee Public School system policy last year by sending three emails from a school system account that involved county or state politics, MPS officials said Monday. The emails were first revealed Monday by Media Trackers, a suburban Milwaukee conservative group that regularly researches and releases unflattering claims about Democrats. The mayor's wife was laid off by MPS along with more than 300 other teachers in June 2011. She now works in the Wauwatosa schools. MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said the school system disciplines employees who send political...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMOX) - It’s official and it’s a done deal: Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is now officially inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians. People might have wondered why he wasn’t doing his radio show today — it’s because he was in Jefferson City. Just before 1:00 p.m. the mad scramble in the halls of the state capitol began, barriers started going up and additional Capitol police and the Highway Patrol started drifting in. The word leaked out that today was the day for Limbaugh to take his place in Missouri history. Apparently the only people aware...

The weighted sample of registered voters: 36D/30R/34I, which is right in line with most national polls.Maybe Karl was right about that “turning point.�The bombshell number, obviously, is Romney leading O by two among women. If that happens on election day, rest assured that the overall margin will be a lot wider than three points. So what's driving the sudden Mittmania? It's probably not the economy: Most Americans (67 percent) believe the economy is in bad shape, but respondents expressed the most optimism on that issue since January 2008 – months before the economic crisis was in full swing. Thirty-two percent...

To Key West Housing Authority officials it was seen as a necessary task, the chopping down of banana trees Richard "Diver" Overman nurtured daily with his fingerless hands, outside the windows of his public housing apartment on Amelia Street. To Overman it was a massacre. "They were just nubs when I planted them," the 67-year-old retired lobster diver said. "Now I am so disappointed. That was my pastime -- the only pastime I've got. Now they took them away and I feel like nothin'." Housing Authority Director Manuel Castillo said he and his staff tried to work with Overman, but...

SANFORD – As the world eagerly awaits the release of never-before-seen evidence in the case against George Zimmerman, employees for Special Prosecutor Angela Corey late this afternoon provided a preview in the form of an eight-page document. The paperwork, filed with the Seminole County clerk as closing time approached, listed several witnesses the state plans to call and identified several pieces of the evidence prosecutors expect to use in their scond-degree murder case against Zimmerman. Most names were redacted from the document, but six civilian witnesses were listed: Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin — parents of the alleged victim, Trayvon...

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians on Monday during a secretive ceremony in the state Capitol as police stood guard to keep out any uninvited political opponents of the sometimes divisive radio show host. Limbaugh, a native of Cape Girardeau in southeast Missouri, addressed a crowd of more than 100 Republicans during a closed-door event in the Missouri House chamber. Speaking from the chamber's dais, he thanked his family for their support throughout his career, denounced liberals and Democrats as "deranged," then helped lift a black curtain off a bronze bust of himself, which...

Obama administration proposes loosening rules against 'programmatic' killing of bald eagles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service is proposing to loosen regulations prohibiting the killing of bald eagles for the benefit of renewable energy companies.The Heritage Foundation’s blog “The Foundry” reports on the latest instance of the Obama administration’s war on wildlife: A draft regulation first filed in April would allow businesses to apply for 30-year permits allowing them to kill bald eagles in the course of other legal activities. The length of those permits would be a six-fold increase over the five-year window allowed under current law.The USFWS explains...

Ron Paul announced Monday that his campaign will no longer spend money on presidential nominating contests due to lack of funds, effectively ending his campaign for the Republican nomination.

The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced it had awarded a $5.9 million grant to a University of Chicago Medical Center program tied to Michelle Obama and run by Eric Whitaker, one of President Obama’s closest friends. The Urban Health Initiative, which received the award, was originally based on a smaller program launched during the last decade by Michelle Obama, who was an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center before she departed to become first lady. The UHI is headed up by Obama basketball and golf buddy Whitaker, who has known the president since Obama’s...

U.S. lawmakers have been unusually silent about federal regulators' decision to allow a Chinese bank to take over 13 bank branches in New York and California, suggesting that they think American banks have much to gain. Members of both parties usually relish the chance to bash China on everything from government subsidies to the yuan's exchange rate. Yet Wednesday's decision by the Federal Reserve to certify a Chinese bank acquisition for the first time was met by near-universal silence.

Barney Frank told the panel on ABC’s This Week that “I don’t think anyone’s vote was changed� when Barack Obama endorsed the legalization of same-sex marriage — but that might be too optimistic an analysis. The New York Times reports that the White House went on a charm offensive with leaders of faith organizations, including and perhaps especially African-American churches where opposition to gay marriage runs high. So far, the charm offensive has had mixed results: About two hours after declaring his support for same-sex marriage last week, President Obama gathered eight or so African-American ministers on a conference call...

LAS VEGAS — The company behind the recently opened Silver State North solar plant is eligible to receive up to $50 million in federal tax credits under the Obama administration’s “stimulus” legislation, even though the plant created only two full-time jobs. According to a Department of Interior memo, Enbridge Energy Partners, a Canadian-based company with extensive energy holdings in the U.S. that purchased the Southern Nevada plant from Arizona-based First Solar, “can apply for payments of up to 30 percent of the eligible costs of the project — approximately $50 million.” The payments are available through the 1603 Program, a...

Unable to reach a deal with its lenders, upstart wireless carrier LightSquared will file for bankruptcy Monday, according to two sources with knowledge of the company's plans. The move has been widely expected, since the company's options for appeasing its creditors were running out. LightSquare's lenders claim that it has been in default on its debt since its $9 billion partnership with Sprint Nextel

Now that Democrats have ended their divisive recall primary in Wisconsin, one would expect the polling to show their nominee to be gaining some traction against sitting Governor Scott Walker. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was considered the stronger of the Democrats challenging Walker in the unusual recall election, and polls just after the recall showed him nearly within the margin of error of the incumbent. This week, however, a new poll from We Ask America of over 1200 likely voters puts Walker on top by nine, 52/43: While other polls also show Walker in the lead, no one is suggesting...

Original title: Obama calls pastors to explain gay marriage support; black churches ‘conflicted’ by president’s decision --------------------------------------------- After making his historic remarks on same-sex unions last week, President Barack Obama led a conference call with black church pastors to explain his support for gay marriage, the New York Times reports. The call, which was held with "eight or so African-American ministers," occurred about two hours after the president's interview with ABC's Robin Roberts. Obama explained to them that he struggled with the decision, pastors on the call told the paper, but several voiced their disapproval. "They were wrestling with their...

If California starts building a 130-mile segment of high-speed rail late this year as planned, it will enter into a risky race against a deadline set up under federal law. The bullet train track through the Central Valley would cost $6 billion and have to be completed by September 2017, or else potentially lose some of its federal funding. It would mean spending as much as $3.5 million every calendar day, holidays and weekends included — the fastest rate of transportation construction known in U.S. history, according to industry and academic experts.

<p>Ally Financial Inc.'s troubled mortgage subsidiary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early Monday, potentially paving the way for Ally to sever itself from substantial litigation that has been a drag on its other operations and prevented it from repaying the remainder of its government bailout.</p>

Yahoo Inc. ended the brief tenure of its latest chief executive after a flap over a flawed biography of him in a regulatory filing spiraled into a major embarrassment for the ailing Internet company and a big victory for an activist investor.

In case you missed it – and you very well might have, since the media was too busy talking about gay marriage to be bothered – a rather remarkable thing happened in Washington this week. An auditor from the GAO testified before the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on the subject of energy. But instead of hearing about how horrible things are, she calmly delivered something of a bombshell. “The Green River Formation–an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming–contains the world’s largest deposits of oil shale,”Anu K....

VANCOUVER—For almost a century, Canada's economy has been firmly tethered to its much larger southern neighbor. Now, Canadian officials and executives also are betting their future on China. Canada's economic reliance on the U.S. has ebbed for decades amid sporadic efforts to diversify. But weak demand from a prolonged economic downturn south of the border has accelerated the move, sending Canadian companies looking for new markets. Climbing oil production in the U.S. is upending American demand for Canadian hydrocarbons. That has spooked Ottawa, suddenly worried about finding buyers for its own growing crude exports, almost all of which now flows...

"Gays are the next Jews of fundraising," declared Rahm Emanuel, who is now an Obama confidant, while hustling for donors for Bill Clinton back in 1992. In that light, Obama's endorsement of gay marriage was at least the equivalent of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel -- a symbolic and controversial action that excites a donor base. Jon Cooper, a gay Long Island legislator and an Obama fundraiser, told the Capital, a New York news site, that Obama's "expressing his personal support for same-sex marriage is going to make my life immeasurably easier raising money from LGBT donors and...

Health-insurance companies must tell customers who get a premium rebate this summer that the check is the result of the Obama administration's health-care law, according to federal guidelines released Friday.

Supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul booed one of Mitt Romney’s adult sons off the stage Saturday at the Arizona Republican Party convention as he tried to consolidate support for his father. Josh Romney’s speech to state GOP members was cut short by jeers from Paul backers at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported. The state’s convention was to elect delegates for the national convention in August, where the former Massachusetts governor is expected to wrap up the nomination to take on President Barack Obama. “We cannot afford four more years of President Obama,” said Josh Romney,...

One day last summer, Anne and her husband, Miguel, took their 9-year-old son, Michael, to a Florida elementary school for the first day of what the family chose to call “summer camp.” For years, Anne and Miguel have struggled to understand their eldest son, an elegant boy with high-planed cheeks, wide eyes and curly light brown hair, whose periodic rages alternate with moments of chilly detachment. Michael’s eight-week program was, in reality, a highly structured psychological study — less summer camp than camp of last resort.

Bill Clinton was the first black president. And now, according to Newsweek, we have the first gay president. Yes, all the speculation over what cover Tina Brown would choose for Newsweek is over. Despite several suggestions from The New Republic on this crucial subject, Brown refrained from taking their kindly advice and chose a picture of President Obama with a rainbow halo over his head.