Free Republic

CHICAGO, May 15, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-life legal firm is speaking out against what it perceives as blatant bias by the Internal Revenue Service. ... In one case, the IRS withheld approval of an application for tax exempt status for Coalition for Life of Iowa. In a phone call to Coalition for Life of Iowa leaders on June 6, 2009, the IRS agent “Ms. Richards” told the group to send a letter to the IRS with the entire board’s signatures stating that, under perjury of the law, they do not picket/protest or organize groups to picket or protest outside...

...Who will run for Iowa's Open US Senate Seat on the GOP-e "side"?

Democratic senator Max Baucus is retiring because he is “fed up” with the Affordable Care Act, according to his Republican colleague Chuck Grassley. Speaking at Friday night’s Lincoln Day dinner in Iowa, Grassley told the audience the Montana senator is leaving office ”because he’s so fed up with the possibility of the implementation of Obamacare being a train wreck.” Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, played a key role in writing the 2010 law. Grassley said that dissatisfaction with the health-care bill exists across party lines, describing a “bipartisan coalition in Washington” that considers the implementation of the...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) --- Recalling the devastating consequences suffered by workers and families affected by a 2008 immigration raid at a kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa

<p>The first Chin Burmese student arrived at Wilma Sime Roundy Elementary School three years ago, a smiling preschooler whose father often checked on his progress.</p>

Noah Crooks, 14, admitted to shooting his mother more than 20 times and trying to rape her while on the phone with the 911 dispatcher on March 24, 2012. His father, William Crooks, testified on Friday that he didn't take the text seriously. The father of an Iowa teen accused of murdering his mother thought the text was a joke. William Crooks, 41, testified on Friday about a text he received from his son on March 24, 2012 that said "Dad this is Noah. I killed Mom accidentally. I regret it. Come home now please." Fourteen-year-old Noah Crooks faces charges...

Iowa Congressman Steve King sent an email to supporters Friday night announcing he would not seek the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2014. The announcement is not unexpected. King said in February that he was leaning toward running. However, as he struggled with the decision for three months, it became less likely that he would enter the fray. King would have been an overwhelming favorite in a Republican primary. His decision not to run opens the field for other candidates to enter. Former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker has stated he would run for the seat if King opted not...

My congressman, Steve King, announced to supporters tonight via email that he will not be seeking the Iowa U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tom Harkin in 2014.

Iowa Supreme Court rules both lesbian spouses’ names should be on child’s birth certificate Case surfaced after state refused to list nonbirthing parent on birth certificate The Iowa Supreme Court Friday affirmed a district court ruling that both spouses in a lesbian marriage should be listed on a child’s birth certificate. The court ordered the Iowa Department of Public Health to reissue a birth certificate to Melissa and Heather Gartner, of Des Moines, for their daughter, Mackenzie Jean, who was born in September 2009. The department refused to list Melissa, the nonbirthing parent, on the birth certificate. “It is important...

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) accused U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack of knowing that women and minority farmers fraudulently claimed discrimination to receive taxpayer-funded settlements, and they knowingly initiated more programs to facilitate more of these payments. "It is my sense they know what they are doing," King said on "Breitbart News Sunday" on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125. "That's a heavy statement, but they knew what they were doing. They knew these were fraudulent claims." King said as he "watched the actions of the USDA" under Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and the Justice Department under Attorney...

The southern New Mexico plant that has been fighting for more than a year for permission to slaughter horses will open soon, unless Congress reinstates a ban on the practice, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Vilsack said his department was working to make sure the process was handled properly for the opening of what would be the first domestic horse slaughterhouse in six years. “We are going to do this, and I would imagine that it would be done relatively soon,” he said. The Valley Meat Company sued the Department of Agriculture...

Representative Steve King (R-Iowa), a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration & Border Security, said the immigration reform plan crafted by the “Gang of Eight” in the Senate and promoted strongly by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is nothing more than a “bold amnesty plan” that is “not very conservative” despite advertisements claiming otherwise. King, a conservative, was interviewed on CSPAN’s Washington Journal on Apr. 25 about immigration reform. During the interview, host Greta Wodele Brawner showed one of the television ads in support of the Gang of Eight plan that is being promoted by the Mark Zuckerberg-backed group...

Several Republicans in the Iowa House of Representatives are pushing to cut the pay of the Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in 2009 — though they contend that it’s not meant to punish the justices. Rep. Tom Shaw, a Republican, said that the bill was meant “to maintain the balance of power” between the different branches of government in the state. ”We’re just holding them responsible for their decision, for going beyond their bounds,” he said. ----- The justices “trashed the separation of powers” with their unanimous Varnum v. Brien decision and implementation...

2014 retirements: Dems heading for the hills By: Alexander Burns April 23, 2013 04:49 PM EDT Doesn’t anyone want to run for Senate in 2014? Midway through candidate recruitment season, the bad news for Democrats is this: They are watching a generation of talent leave the Senate and head for retirement. The less-bad news: So far, few marquee-name Republicans are interested in these seats either. When Montana Sen. Max Baucus called it quits on Tuesday, he became the latest in a long series of senior legislators to announce that they’ve had quite enough of life on the Hill. National Democrats...

Days after they were badly hurt in a car accident, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana lay unconscious in an Iowa hospital while the American health care system weighed what to do with the two immigrants from Mexico. The men had health insurance from jobs at one of the nation's largest pork producers. But neither had legal permission to live in the U.S., nor was it clear whether their insurance would pay for the long-term rehabilitation they needed. So Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines took matters into its own hands: After consulting with the patients' families, it quietly loaded...

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley says that the circumstances behind the Boston Marathon bombing should give lawmakers pause when considering comprehensive immigration reform. “It's important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,” the Iowa senator said Friday during an immigration reform hearing. “While we don't yet know the immigration status of people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system. How can individuals evade authority and plan such attacks on our soil?” Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, are suspected...

Probably the most bracing aspect of Ira Katznelson's new history of the New Deal, Fear Itself, is his portrait of the marriage of progressive domestic policy and white supremacy. I knew the outlines of this stuff, but for a flaming commie like me, the extent of the embrace is hard to take: Far more enduring was the New Deal's intimate partnership with those in the South who preached white supremacy. For this whole period -- the last in American history when public racism was legitimate in speech and action -- southern representatives acted not on the fringes but as an...

Ever since Rick Santorum ended his presidential campaign a year ago this week, he has acted as if that defeat was just a brief setback in his running quest for the Republican nomination. Almost three years out from the 2016 Iowa caucuses, the former Pennsylvania senator is set to return Monday to the nation’s first voting state, where he won a come-from-behind battle against Mitt Romney by 34 votes in January 2012. Having witnessed the perils of underestimating him, Santorum’s potential rivals next time around aren’t likely to discount another strong challenge on his part, particularly in the Hawkeye State.

Earlier this week I wrote letting you know that over 700 retired Special Forces signed an open letter to the United States House of Representatives demanding that there be a select committee be formed by Congress to investigate the attack that took place on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. Well, here’s something. Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) put forth a House Resolution to that effect back on January 18, 2013 and do you know where it’s gotten since that time? It’s languishing in committee. Rep. Wolf introduced H. Res 36, establishing a select committee to investigate and report on the...

Maryland's decision last month to raise its gasoline tax highlights a trend taking shape across the country: States are increasingly opting to raise gas taxes and other fees to fund road repairs and maintenance. Gasoline consumption is down nationwide, thanks to more fuel-efficient vehicles and the slow pace of the economic recovery. Gas taxes also have mostly stayed constant in nominal terms, even as the cost of road repairs and construction rises in line with inflation or faster. The combination means money for roads—usually drawn from gas taxes—is increasingly falling short of what is needed. The gas-tax increases come on...

<p>Don't know your pork butts from your rump roasts? It may be getting a little easier.</p> <p>The American meat industry is rolling out a refresh of the often confusing 40-year-old system used for naming the various cuts of beef, pork, lamb and veal. That's because the system -- the Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standards, or URMIS -- was designed more for the needs of retailers and butchers than for the convenience of harried shoppers more familiar with Shake 'n Bake than boneless shank cuts.</p>

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two more people face charges as Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz's crackdown on voter fraud continues. A Melbourne man is charged with election misconduct and fraudulent practice. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says 53-year-old Nickie Dean Perkins -snip- Authorities also have charged 64-year-old Jesus Castorena, of Hampton, with perjury for claiming on 2010 driver's license and voter registration applications he was U.S. citizen. He had been deported to Mexico in 2007.

Iowa's biggest newspaper is under fire after publishing a map that showed which public school districts have police or security -- and which ones don't. Critics said the Des Moines Register, which quickly pulled the interactive map off of its website, was making it easy for a deranged killer to know where to launch a Sandy Hook-style attack. "What they did yesterday was provide a shopping list for every nut job in Iowa," WHO radio host Simon Conway, who said his phone lines "blew up" as soon as he began discussing the map with his audience, told Fox News Channel....

On Wednesday afternoon, the Des Moines Register published a map that shows which public schools in Iowa have no security. (See Link for Map) The graphic is also interactive. When you click on a specific dot, you are given very detailed information about the location of the school and if it has a security office on campus.

A study by the Society of Actuaries estimates that the new federal health care law will raise medical claims costs in South Dakota by 29 percent. Medical claims costs are the main driver of health insurance premiums. The study estimates that President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will raise claims costs nationally by an average of 32 percent per person in the individual health insurance market by 2017. That's partly due to sicker people joining the pool.

When you’ve got loons the likes of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin fluttering about, I suppose it’s easy not to seem like such a wacko bird yourself. Is that why Rand Paul is flying high right now? Or is it because he followed his 13-hour_filibuster — that knee-defeating, bladder-defying moment in the Senate sun — by showing a few of his less florid feathers? Either way, he has managed, with remarkable speed, to migrate to the foreground of Republican politics. You could almost lose sight of what an albatross he really is. Today he’s singing the moderate song of immigration...

Dr. Jennifer Morse recently gave a perfectly civil and thoroughly Christian talk to a group of Catholic college students in Iowa. In a speech deeply rooted in compassion, she urged students to reach out to same-sex attracted classmates and offer them friendship. She thought they could benefit from chaste friendships, and that they would not necessarily get much of that type of support from others on campus. The response to Jennifer's speech was predictable. The Gaystapo took to the internet with a series of egregious mischaracterizations of the speech - all of which were intended to intimidate those who would...

Recently, Republican Governors Rick Perry of Texas and Terry Branstad of Iowa appealed to those wanting to flee liberal California. “Move your business to our state,” they implore. “We’ll welcome you with open arms here.” They should be careful what they wish for. When my wife and I used to vacation in Colorado in the 1970s, I started noticing bumper stickers that read “Don’t Californicate Colorado.” The initial movement that spawned that sentiment was a way for Colorado residents to express their disapproval of how Southern California had exploded with seemingly unlimited development. However, since that time, “Californicate” has taken...

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 states will receive funding to turn around their persistently lowest-achieving schools through the Department's School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. Four of the states will receive awards to run a new competition for previously unfunded schools, and six states will receive continuation funds for the third year of implementing a SIG model. The states receiving new awards are: Indiana—$9.2 million; Nebraska—$2.6 million; Colorado—$5.2 million; and Louisiana—$9.6 million. The states receiving continuation awards are: Alaska—$1.5 million; Iowa—$3.0 million; North Dakota—$1.2 million; Oklahoma—$5.5 million; Texas—$49.7 million; and Wyoming—$1.1 million. "When schools fail, our...

St. Paul’s 6th graders made it to Washington DC. Speaker John Boehner gave the kids a special tour of the US Capitol while they were in town. But, the kids didn’t make it inside the White House. Access Denied–

They didn’t get the White House tour they had hoped for, but the group of Iowa students who are pushing the White House to reopen tours to the public made it to the White House gates Saturday morning. The 6th graders from St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Waverly, Iowa posed for photos outside the White House while holding individual paper signs spelling out the phrase, “The White House is our house! Please let us visit!” Onlookers cheered the kids in the efforts, with one may saying, “Way to go kids!” “It’s kind of disappointing, but it’s still kind of fun...

The phrase "jumping the shark" describes that gimmicky moment when something once considered significant is exposed as ludicrous. This is the week the White House jumped the sequester. The precise moment came Tuesday, when the administration announced that it was canceling public tours of the White House, blaming budget cuts. The Sequesterer in Chief has insisted that cutting even $44 billion from this fiscal year will cause agonizing pain—airport security snarls, uninspected meat, uneducated children. Since none of those things has come to pass, the White House decided it needed an immediate and high-profile way of making its point. Ergo,...

A feminist abortion clinic that hosted a “Women for Obama” event where Obama volunteers helped with groundskeeping in a show of support for reproductive rights is profiled in the current issue of The Socialist, the official publication of the Socialist Party USA, in which a clinic official urges feminist socialists to “influence policy” and quotes a famous socialist writer. The Emma Goldman Clinic in Iowa City, Iowa was the site of a Women for Obama event called “Iowa City Women for Obama Service Project at Emma Goldman Clinic,” which was promoted on the events page of Obama’s official 2012 campaign...

A group of sixth graders from St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Waverly, Iowa has turned to the internet to save their school trip to the White House. The children were scheduled to tour the White House on March 16, but their visit was cancelled yesterday along with all other tours of the presidential residence due to “staffing reductions” caused by the so-called “sequester” budget cuts that took effect last Friday after lawmakers failed to make a deficit reduction deal. In an effort to muster support and salvage their trip, the school posted a brief video on Facebook featuring a plea...

<p>Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is urging key senators to support expanded background checks for gun purchases in new television ads airing in Iowa and her home state of Arizona.</p> <p>The ads specifically target Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), two lawmakers who have made statements supporting background checks in the past. The ads include black and white images after high-profile mass shootings at a Colorado movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school.</p>

WASHINGTON — Don't take Steve King lightly. That's the warning from Sen. Tom Harkin for his fellow Iowa Democrats itching for King to jump into a statewide race. “I've never underestimated Steve King,” Harkin told The World-Herald. “He is a smart guy. He is a tough campaigner.” Harkin is retiring after five terms in the U.S. Senate, and the race to succeed him in 2014 could help determine the body's balance of power. The race is viewed as a toss-up at this very early stage, before the candidates have been determined.

Seven Republicans in the Iowa House are pushing a bill to prohibit parents of minor children from getting a “no fault” divorce and the proposal could be debated in a House committee this week. A three-member subcommittee debated the bill today. Representative Tedd Gassman, a Republican from Scarville, said he’s concerned about the negative impact divorce has on children. “In my opinion, it’s time to look out for the children instead of constantly worrying about the adults,” Gassman said. Daren Clark of Forest City — one of Gassman’s constituents — spoke about his recent divorce and the ongoing conflict with...

Ok, I know there are some people who still get a bit offended when I talk about “government schools,” or “tax-funded indoctrination centers.” You can be honest. You think my outrage at the dramatic downward spiral of student standards, the censorship of even the barest symbols of God and country, the usurpation of parental roles by government officials, the peddling of self-esteem as the only commodity to our tiny epicureans….well, you think I’m overstating it. Our schools wouldn’t really be that blatantly schilling for government, would they? They aren’t really just cheerleaders for Obama, right? Those are just the big-city...

Time Warner Inc. TWX +0.67% is in talks to divest most of its Time Inc. magazine group in a deal with Meredith Corp., MDP -0.13% said people familiar with the situation, potentially ending its long reign as the biggest U.S. magazine publisher. Under the proposal being discussed, Time Warner would retain its flagship newsweekly Time, along with Sports Illustrated and Fortune. But the rest of its magazines, including People, InStyle and Real Simple, would end up combined with Meredith's titles, which include Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle, whose readers are mainly women. The proposal calls for both companies...

Iowa Republicans are channeling Ronald Reagan in their response to Karl Rove's Conservative Victory Project, set up to derail "unelectable" candidates like GOP Rep. Steve King before they can win primaries and spoil the party's general election chances. Rove, they say, is not the solution to the problem; Rove is the problem. “We’re concerned about Steve King’s Todd Akin problem," Steven Law, the group's president, told the New York Times earlier this week. Law softened his stance on King in a subsequent interview with National Review, but Iowa Republicans are still crying foul. The problem, according to Iowa GOP Chair...

If there is only one grassroots conservative in the country who is happy about the rollout of Karl Rove’s Conservative Victory Project, it’s Representative Steve King of Iowa. Allies of the conservative potential Senate candidate are practically chortling about how the swings taken at King by Steven Law, president of the Conservative Victory Project, are boosting King’s prospective candidacy. “Steve King hadn’t done anything to Karl Rove, so they fired the first shot, but I guarantee it won’t be the last,” vows Chuck Laudner, a former King adviser. The Conservative Victory Project has done “nothing but encourage Steve King, and...

A group of Republican legislators has introduced legislation that would make all abortions illegal in Iowa and any doctor who performs an abortion in Iowa would face murder charges. “What the bill does is it defines what a person is,” says Representative Tom Shaw, a Republican from Laurens who is the bill’s lead sponsor. “We put it right underneath our murder statute. This is in keeping with Roe v Wade where Justice Blackman said that if the state ever defined the fetus to be a person, then, of course, it would have all the protections of the 14th amendment. ...”...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is assembling a mental list of the many pros and cons that come with a 2014 Senate bid. It's a tempting opportunity. Just consider: Sen. Tom Harkin's decision not to run for re-election means Iowa will have its first open Senate race in 40 years. King first must consider whether he can compete in a statewide race. His hard-line, take-no-prisoners conservative style on hot-button issues such as immigration made him a favorite of cable television programs and raised his national profile.

Young Republicans in Iowa are still split on the institution of marriage being extended to gay people. But there is a growing consensus among college-aged GOPers that in order to win elections, the party's focus should be elsewhere. Gay and lesbian campus groups and College Republicans haven't exactly been friendly to one another over the years, in Iowa or the rest of the country. But there are signs that with this coming generation the trend could be changing, and for the Republican Party that could be critical. "As a young Republican, I see where the party’s coming from with the...

As we look forward to a debate this year about immigration reform, I want to share my thoughts and my past experiences on this issue. I particularly want to share my personal experience from the 1980s amnesty law and how we can learn from that debate. But, before I dive into this history, I want to commend the many senators that are working together to forge a consensus and produce a product on this terribly difficult issue. I commend them for sitting down and agreeing to a set of principles. As Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, I expect to...

The biggest donors in the Republican Party are financing a new group to recruit seasoned candidates and protect Senate incumbents from challenges by far-right conservatives and Tea Party enthusiasts who Republican leaders worry could complicate the party’s efforts to win control of the Senate. The group, the Conservative Victory Project, is intended to counter other organizations that have helped defeat establishment Republican candidates over the last two election cycles. It is the most robust attempt yet by Republicans to impose a new sense of discipline on the party, particularly in primary races. “There is a broad concern about having blown...

Very few prominent Iowa Republicans have endorsed same-sex marriage rights since the Iowa Supreme Court's 2009 decision striking down the state's Defense of Marriage Act. Every Republican now serving in the Iowa House and Senate is on record supporting a constitutional amendment to reverse that court ruling. When former State Senator Jeff Angelo created the Iowans for Freedom movement in 2011 to support marriage equality as consistent with conservative values, only a handful of Republicans signed on. One of them, Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, was later warned against seeking the GOP nomination for the special election in Senate...

Credible sources are reporting this morning that Democrat U.S. Senator Tom Harkin will not seek reelection next year.

<p>CUMMING (AP) - Iowa Senator Tom Harkin said he will not seek re-election in 2014.</p> <p>The 73-year-old told The Associated Press in an interview, "It's just time to step aside."</p> <p>By the time Harkin would finish a sixth term, he would be 81 years old.</p>

DES MOINES — A state senator will push for public hearings on the death penalty in the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives as he files legislation to bring capital punishment back to Iowa. Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, has championed the idea of reintroducing the death penalty in Iowa since the abduction and killing of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, this summer in Evansdale. Elizabeth’s parents joined Sorenson and parents of other missing and murdered children at a Capitol news conference, where the senator outlined five pieces of legislation he plans to introduce this session. Iowa abolished the...