Free Republic

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a victory to the city of Reno in its decision in May to lay off 32 firefighters after federal funding that supported their positions ran out. The court, in a unanimous decision written by Justice James Hardesty, found that a Reno District Court did not have the authority to grant a preliminary injunction in the labor dispute because the underlying grievance was not arbitrable under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. A District Court judge in Reno issued the preliminary injunction in June preventing Reno from completing scheduled layoffs. The order...

Chicago Obama library bids in trouble; foundation has 'major concerns' with U. of C. proposal Posted: 12/30/2014, 12:45pm | Lynn Sweet WASHINGTON — The Barack Obama Foundation has major problems with the University of Chicago bid for the Obama presidential library and museum and is uneasy about the bid from the University of Illinois at Chicago, leaving Columbia University in New York the front-runner for the project. A source close to the foundation told me that the University of Chicago bid is in jeopardy because it does not own — and has no definite path to acquiring at present —...

Regulation: Cures for cancer and Ebola having been found, the federal ubernannies have decreed that sprinkles should no longer adorn kids' ice cream because they contain the trans fat that liberal groups once pushed for. Come the New Year, the Food and Drug Administration, ignoring the principle that in most cases it's the dose that defines the poison, will issue new regulations designed to remove even trace amounts of hydrogenate oils, commonly known as trans fats, from our diets. Trans fats have been in our foods since the 1950s to increase shelf life and improve taste. A small amount appears...

In the end, making a political issue personal might have done in Assemblywoman Michele Fiore. The Las Vegas Republican was coming off a tumultuous week — she’d been deposed and then quickly restored as majority leader-designate and chairwoman of the Assembly Taxation Committee by Speaker-designate John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas — when she doubled down on allegations that certain Republican forces were targeting her and other conservatives. Speaking on the Alan Stock radio show on KDWN-AM 720 on Tuesday, Fiore not only repeated her rhetoric about a “war on women,” but blamed some of the alleged infantrymen in that conflict: Republican...

CARSON CITY — Las Vegas Assemblywoman Michele Fiore’s tax liens and problems with the IRS were cited in her second removal from Assembly leadership positions Thursday. Fiore’s removal could clear the way for moderate Republicans to control the Assembly in the 2015 session and eliminate any talk of a GOP-Democratic partnership challenge to the leadership. It could also smooth the way for Gov. Brian Sandoval to win more funding for public education. Assembly Speaker designate John Hambrick reversed course on Fiore for a second time in recent weeks and removed the controversial lawmaker as majority leader. She has also been...

Election 2016: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush embraces one-size-fits-all national education standards that would turn schools into re-education camps for the left. His decision could cause trouble with GOP primary voters. As is the tradition these days, Jeb Bush, brother of one former president and son of another, has announced via social media that he is preparing to run for president, setting the stage for another Bush-Clinton contest in 2016 should former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton get the Democratic nomination. To be the Republican nominee, Bush must run a gauntlet of primaries where he'll need to persuade Tea Party...

CARSON CITY — Las Vegas Republican lawmaker Michele Fiore, a lightning rod in an ongoing Assembly GOP power struggle, said Tuesday she is fully in compliance with the Internal Revenue Service over more than $1 million in tax liens against her home health care businesses. In her first comments on the controversy, Fiore appeared on the Alan Stock radio show on KDWN in Las Vegas, saying her actual active liens total less than $200,000. Liens dating back to 2003 had previously been resolved, she said. Fiore said her lien problems stemmed from a dishonest bookkeeper, who she said is facing...

Sarah Palin – RINO Season Opens Soon, Amnesty Juan Boehner Flipped America the Bird Rick Wells Sarah Palin, as is the case with most conservatives and others who value the Constitution and the rule of law in the United States, is not happy that the Speaker of the House and his comrades have lied and sold out the American people. John Boehner has effectively allowed Hussein Obama act as a dictator and to take actions which are illegal and which circumvent Congress through the implementation of his criminal amnesty. She had a few choice words in response to questions after...

Things are pretty volatile in the Chaos Caucus. Every since Republicans took over the Assembly, things have been anything but smooth. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise. After all, even the GOP itself didn’t expect to be in charge of the lower house, and the last time the party was in charge, Ronald Reagan was in the White House and the pinnacle of technology was the Apple IIe desktop computer. You already know about the disastrous election of Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, as speaker. He was undone by ugly sentiments penned in a Sparks newspaper over a long career as...

Attorney General-elect Adam Laxalt is joining the charge to condemn President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. In one of his first public moves since winning the attorney general race on Nov. 4, Laxalt signed onto a joint statement sponsored by the Republican Attorneys General Association objecting to Obama’s decision to prevent the deportation of an estimated 5 million people. The statement also questions the validity of Obama’s oath to “protect the Constitution.” Signed by 20 attorneys general and attorneys general-elects, the letter doesn’t outline any course of legal action from RAGA members. But it dovetails with Republican promises to...

Assemblyman Ira Hansen has concerns about the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service overreaching their policing powers. Spurred in part by the BLM’s April roundup of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle that brought an armed confrontation between federal agents and Bundy supporters, the Sparks Republican is pushing for a bill that would prohibit BLM and Forest Service law officers from enforcing state laws. He is trying to get Nevada’s 17 counties, including Clark County, to take an interest in the issue that would be considered by the 2015 Legislature. Hansen’s concerns are tied in part to a variety...

The liberals at Associated Press have a special reason to freak out over Black Friday: it’s a huge day for gun sales, and the background-checks system is severely tested. AP writer Nick Stroud even found space for the noting it’s a “perfect storm,” like the disastrous ship-sinking movie. The volume of sales means some purchasers “beat the system,” meaning there are only three business days for a background check:

Ann Coulter: Would It Kill You To Hire More Black Cops? (Yes) Ann Coulter August 27, 2014 As the story of Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson’s shooting of Michael Brown begins to look less clear-cut than we were led to believe by Brown’s friend, Dorian Johnson, the “voices of oppression” on MSNBC now say the real issue is that there aren’t enough blacks on the Ferguson police force. As Brown may or may not have said seconds before his death: I give up. If the Ferguson police are forced to hire more minorities and women for the sake of...

Amnesty: Pundits warn that a funding fight over the president's move to grant de facto amnesty to illegal aliens threatens a politically risky government shutdown. But there's something much more important at stake here. The Founders had good reason to give Congress the power of the purse: Short of impeachment, it's the most effective way to stop a lawless president from disobeying the will of Congress and usurping powers not granted by the Constitution. The question is: Will Congress use this power to thwart President Obama's shredding of the Constitution with his executive amnesty plan? Incoming Senate Budget Committee Chairman...

Putin Is Circumspect on Re-Election but Says ‘Nyet’ to Presidency for Life By Alexander Kolyandr Nov. 23, 2014 MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t aim to hold his post for life but doesn’t rule out seeking another term in 2018, a move that could make him the country’s longest-serving leader since Joseph Stalin. In an interview with state-controlled TASS news agency, the 62-year-old Mr. Putin said that for him to remain “in the president’s chair forever” is “not good, and (is) detrimental for the country, and I do not need it as well.” But when asked whether he would...

A rookie New York City police officer shot and killed an unarmed 28-year-old man in a darkened stairwell in Brooklyn late Thursday night, according to the police. Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said that the victim, Akai Gurley, was “a total innocent” and called the shooting “an unfortunate accident.” He was not engaged in any activity other than trying to walk down the stairs, Mr. Bratton said. Mayor Bill de Blasio was also quick to offer his condolences to Mr. Gurley’s family. “This is a tragedy,” he said. The officer who shot Mr. Gurley, Peter Liang, has been on the...

President Barack Obama, who’s coming to Las Vegas today, picked the right state to sell his new executive order that will protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from being deported. More than 10 percent of Nevada’s workforce is living here illegally, the highest rate in the country and double the national average. Also, about one in five schoolchildren in the Silver State have at least one parent who’s an undocumented immigrant — far more than any other state, according to the Pew Research Center. These adopted Nevadans are among the 11 million illegal immigrants who have been “living in...

Legion: No amnesty for illegal immigrants November 20, 2014 Featured in National Security, Citizenship Legion: No amnesty for illegal immigrants American Legion National Commander Michael D. Helm today questioned the wisdom of the White House putting politics above national security if it carries through with its plan to give amnesty to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants through an executive order. “At a time when ISIS, al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are killing innocent Americans, it makes no sense to let our guard down and send a message that the United States is an open, soft target,” Helm...

Under Obama, U.S. personal freedom ranking slips below France Americans' assessments of their personal freedom have significantly declined under President Obama, according to a new study from the Legatum Institute in London, and the United States now ranks below 20 other countries on this measure. The research shows that citizens of countries including France, Uruguay, and Costa Rica now feel that they enjoy more personal freedom than Americans. As the Washington Examiner reported this morning, representatives of the Legatum Institute are in the U.S. this week to promote the sixth edition of their Prosperity Index. The index aims to measure...

Holder Takes Death Penalty off Table for Gang Members Charged with Killing Cop by AWR Hawkins 15 Nov 2014 753 post a comment On November 14, federal prosecutors made it clear that Attorney General Eric Holder has "taken the death penalty off the table" for four men charged in the gang-related murder of Waynesboro, Virginia, police officer, Captain Kevin Quick. The Daily Progress reports that 45-year-old Quick was reported missing on February 1. His body was found days later. Siblings Daniel Mathis, Shantai Shelton, and Mersadies Shelton have been charged in the death. A fourth person, Kweli Uhuru, has also...