Free Republic

Two suburban Washington, D.C., parents are under scrutiny again for letting their 6- and 10-year-old children play in a park and walk home alone in a case that has stirred debate about "free-range" parenting and government powers. For the second time in four months, police picked up the children of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv on Sunday as they were walking home alone from a park that's nearly a mile from their house. This time, instead of bringing the children home, police took them directly to Child Protective Services. "It's beyond ridiculous," Danielle Meitiv said Monday. "The world is safer today,...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Framing himself as a politician who's unafraid to share "hard truths" with the American people, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is proposing an income cap on Social Security benefits as part of major restructuring plan announced ahead of a likely presidential bid. The Republican is set to deliver a speech Tuesday in New Hampshire outlining his ideas on reforming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — so-called entitlement programs. As part of the plan, he'll propose phasing out Social Security payments for those making more than $80,000 in other income and eliminating them for those making $200,000...

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector. The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same...

Goldberg: What is Obama seeking here, in your mind? Cotton: Well, I think he clearly wants to have a kind of grand rapprochement with Iran. This goes back to his actions in his earliest days, when he was silent in the face of [Iran's] Green Revolution, and even some of his statements in the campaign. Goldberg: What's wrong with wanting a grand rapprochement with Iran? Cotton: I would love to see that happen. As Secretary Schultz and Secretary Kissinger wrote, they've been in government when Iran was an ally, not just of the United States but of Israel. The Iranian...

In our federal system, states should be able to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Friday joined an amicus brief on behalf of 57 members of Congress in support of the right of states to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The brief was filed in four cases that the Supreme Court will jointly hear on April 28, 2015, in which same-sex couples challenge the marriage laws of Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan, and Kentucky, all of which were upheld by the U.S....

Federal district court judge Andrew Hanen slammed the Obama administration with a solid one-two punch late last night. In one order, he refused to lift the preliminary injunction barring implementation of the president’s immigration amnesty plan. In a second order, Hanen said that the “attorneys for the Government misrepresented the facts” about the implementation to the court. On February 23, the Justice Department filed a “Motion to Stay” the injunction pending an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Hanen denied that motion, saying not only that his original ruling was correct, but that subsequent events had “reinforced”...

The countdown is on! This could be a very historic mission with the return of the booster to a landing pad in the ocean.

Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks at the dedication ceremony for the national police academy in Beit Shemesh: "There is no convincing explanation to the effect that the nuclear deal being offered to Iran is a good deal for one simple reason: It is a bad deal, a very bad deal. It is a deal that leaves Iran in possession of the capability to arm itself with nuclear weapons, that fills its coffers with a lot of money and that not only enables it to continue its terrorism and aggression in the Middle East and around...

‘Mom! Dad! Jihadi John is going to slaughter me!’ president says before he is killed in animated video. Affiliates of the Islamic State group have released an animated video depicting a jihadist beheading US President Barack Obama. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign up! The clip, which was uploaded and translated on Saturday by MEMRI, a US-based Middle Eastern media watchdog group, begins with the words “Message to America,” followed by a scene portraying the American president on his knees and crying profusely. The president’s head is seen held...

A cadre of wealthy liberal donors aims to pour tens of millions of dollars into rebuilding the left’s political might in the states, racing to catch up with a decades-old conservative effort that has reshaped statehouses across the country. The plan embraced by the Democracy Alliance, an organization that advises some of the Democrats’ top contributors, puts an urgent new focus on financing groups that can help the party regain influence in time for the next congressional redistricting process, after the 2020 elections. The blueprint approved by the alliance board calls on donors to help expand state-level organizing and lobbying...

Russia announced Monday that it will sell Iran advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles. The sale, which ends an embargo dating back to 2010, shows that President Barack Obama is rapidly losing control of the international consensus on Iran. It also sets Israel a deadline to attack Iran–since Israel has treated the S-300 system as a “red line,” and has attacked Syria several times recently to prevent advanced Russian air defense and anti-ship missile systems from becoming operational. Some Israeli analysts have recently suggested that Israel will only attack Iran if the regime’s nuclear program poses a direct and imminent threat–if the...

Recently our author Irakli Komaxidze published a note in Russian titled Abkhazia will help DNR to restore Donetsk airport and almost as a response to that Russian Air Force and Air Defense radio-engineering units arrived to Ukraine. According to the information from social networks (personal information, photos, contacts and geotags) of Mr. Yegorov, one of the Russian armed forces servicemen from the 338th Radio-Engineering Regiment, as of April 4th 2015 his military unit was located in Kuibyshev Rayon of Rostov Oblast less than 20 kilometers from Ukraine’s border in a small campground. As of April 7th, 2015 Mr. Egorov, was...

Is the world safer because Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State? No. HOUSTON, Texas — Today U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, issued the following statement in reaction to the announcement that Hillary Clinton is running for President: “Hillary Clinton just announced what we’ve known for a long time — she’s running for president, again. But the good news is that we’re ready for Hillary — we know exactly what to expect. “Hillary Clinton represents the failed policies of the past and there’s going to be a very clear choice to make in 2016. Does America want a third Obama term...

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday morning defended the preliminary nuclear deal struck with Iran by the Obama administration earlier this month, saying during an interview with ABC’s "This Week" that, so far, “Iran has lived up to and lived by every requirement in that agreement.” The administration announced the framework of a historic nuclear deal with Iran on April 2, but in the days since, American and Iranian negotiators have provided different interpretations of what, exactly, was agreed upon. Kerry pushed back on criticism leveled by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who said last week that Kerry was “delusional”...

Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Teenagers who work enjoy numerous benefits. As Ron Lieber argues in his new book, “The Opposite of Spoiled,” they learn how to appropriately handle bosses, co-workers, and money, and they might learn something about what they’re good at. Lieber’s message is timely, because working teenagers are rapidly disappearing. Data from the Current Population Survey show that the share of 16- to 19-year-olds who were neither working nor looking for work each March has risen around 15 percent since the late 1990s. Part of that is due to lower demand for their labor, but the trend was strong even before the...

Iran would be able to possess nuclear weapons under the terms of the framework agreement reached with the six world powers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday night, adding that he hoped the deal would not come to fruition. "I truly believe that we are also talking about the security of the world.," he said, during a Mimouna celebration in Or Akiva, a coastal town in northern Israel. "The most dangerous terrorist in the world shouldn't receive the world's most dangerous weapons." "Therefore, we are committed to try to avoid a bad agreement and replace it in good agreement,"...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Police say the U.S. Capitol is on lockdown as a precaution after shots were fired in what appears to be an attempted suicide.</p> <p>Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider says the suspected shooter was "neutralized" after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It's unclear whether the man is dead. No one else is believed to be hurt.</p>

A Russia Su-27 jet fighter flew dangerously close and nearly collided with a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft this week in the latest aerial provocation by Moscow, defense officials revealed to the Washington Free Beacon. The Su-27 conducted the close-in intercept of an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, said officials. The incident prompted a diplomatic protest. “On the morning of April 7th, a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez. “The United States is...

Attorney General Eric Holder sent a memo to employees of the Department of Justice Friday, reminding them that soliciting prostitutes is against agency rules and that violation of those rules could lead to suspension or termination. “The solicitation of prostitution threatens the core mission of the Department, not simply because it invites extortion, blackmail, and leaks of sensitive or classified information, but also because it undermines the Department's efforts to eradicate the scourge of human trafficking,” the memo said. The memo was sent weeks after a Justice Department watchdog report alleged several Drug Enforcement Administration agents attended "sex parties" with...