Free Republic

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement on legislation announced by U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA): “Neither Senator Cornyn nor Senator Grassley has ever voted for the Dream Act. This proposal, as I have told them personally, cannot be considered a good faith effort to provide protection for the Dreamers, including those who were enrolled in DACA.The laundry list of unrelated immigration bills which they have offered is designed to delay and stop any serious bipartisan effort to solve this crisis created by the Trump Administration on September 5th. I will continue my efforts...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — More than a dozen states banded together Monday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block a California law requiring any eggs sold there to come from hens that have space to stretch out in their cages. In a lawsuit filed directly to the high court, the states allege that California's law has cost consumers nationwide up to $350 million annually because of higher egg prices since it took effect in 2015. The lawsuit argues that California's requirements violate the U.S. Constitution's interstate commerce clause and are pre-empted by federal law. A federal appeals court...

The GOP tax plan was passed through the Senate Friday night in a 51-49 vote. There are a number of things included in the last-minute text, including a provision by Sen. Gardner of Colorado that exempts Kombucha, a fermented tea drink, from alcoholic taxes and regulations. Why it matters: These are small examples of what got slipped in the bill last-minute as the Senate vote neared, and reveals some of the senators' pet projects back in their home states. Odd amendments included in the tax plan: Sen. Orrin Hatch Prohibit things like cash and gift cards to be given as...

President Donald Trump should give special thanks to two U.S. Senators this Thanksgiving weekend. One is still serving in the Senate, the other recently retired. One is a Republican. The other a Democrat. And what should President Trump be thanking them for? Quite simply they have handed him one of the biggest victories any president could claim in the past 45 years. Yes, this has happened even as one of the most widely covered stories of the past year has been President Trump's difficulties in working with Congress. The growing rift between him and Republican Senators John McCain, Jeff Flake,...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio may be testing the waters for a 2020 presidential bid. The recently reelected mayor is making a stop in Iowa on Dec. 19 for a fundraiser at the Temple of Performing Arts in Des Moines. According to the Des Moines Register, the fundraising event is for Progress Iowa's "holiday party." De Blasio's statement on the event sounds like a statement that a politician would give if they were laying the groundwork for a future campaign. De Blasio is quoted as saying:

There are many misconceptions surrounding gun ownership and hunting, Michael Gooder says on the occasion of his family’s annual “Pheasant Opener.” Hunting is all about fellowship and, in Gooder’s case, harvesting and serving the wild bird to the hunters and their guests. “It’s from the hunt to the table in one day,” the Cresco, Iowa, man explains. “It’s not just about going out into the field and killing. It’s more important to us to have a good ethical hunt, harvest a few birds, and then prepare it immediately so that people can really understand what hunting is about.” “Hunters are...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley is ready to move forward with President Donald Trump’s appellate judicial nominees, even when home-state senators have formal objections. Grassley is going to move ahead with confirmation hearings for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras to be a judge on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Politico reported ahead of a formal announcement by the chairman. “The Democrats seriously regret that they abolished the filibuster, as I warned them they would,” Grassley said on the Senate floor Thursday. “But they can’t expect to use the blue slip courtesy in its place.” Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.,...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is moving to nix the blue slip for two of President Trump’s judicial picks, sparking a showdown with Democrats over nominations. Grassley announced on Thursday that he has scheduled Nov. 29 hearings for David Stras, Trump’s nomination to be an appellate judge on the 8th Circuit, and for Kyle Duncan, nominated to serve the 5th Circuit. “Today I’m announcing that the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing for two circuit court nominees, each of whom has one home state senator who has not returned a blue slip containing a positive endorsement,” Grassley said from the Senate...

A couple of weeks ago we learned that opponents of ethanol mandates weren’t going to quietly slink off the stage just because President Trump and Scott Pruitt were backing up the Renewable Fuel Standard. While this subject isn’t sexy enough to be making headlines on cable news these days, the fight is continuing unabated. The previous incident arose from Senator Joni Ernst blocking the nomination of EPA air chief Bill Wehrum and threatening to work with her Iowa partner Chuck Grassley to block others unless the RFS was fully protected.Texas Senator Ted Cruz fired back with his own blockade...

Sen. Ted Cruz is pressuring Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to reach a deal between oil refiners and the ethanol industry over the Environmental Protection Agency's renewable fuel mandate. Cruz, speaking on behalf of a group of eight GOP senators, wrote in a Tuesday letter to Reynolds that they do not wish to up-end the market for corn ethanol produced in her state, which is the nation's top producer of the fuel. Instead, Cruz argued that the senators' real problem with the Renewable Fuel Standard is refiners being required to buy expensive renewable identification number credits, or RINs, to meet the...

More than 100 concerned residents peppered state and local officials Monday for information about the new Interstate 74 Bridge. Moline Mayor Stephanie Acri hosted the event, part of a series of casual meetings to share ideas and air concerns about the city. Experts on site included Ryan Hippen, construction field engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation, and Danielle Mulholland, I-74 project engineer with the Iowa Department of Transportation. "I don't get tired of talking about this improvement," Hippen said. The basket handle true arch twin bridge is to cost an estimated $1.2 billion, and open late in 2020 after...

I’m a political junkie. Every day I read The Washington Post and The New York Times, among other media giants, with great interest and appreciation. Here in conservative rural America, Trump is ascendant. I was loafing in a booth at the coffee shop Saturday morning, and my friend Mark said something like, “Hey Bob, if you want to understand why rural conservatives like Trump, watch the speech he gave at the Values Voters Summit.” Doing my best to understand how my conservative friends might read Trump’s speech, I read. I contrasted Trump’s messaging with how rural conservatives often view Democratic...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called Tuesday for the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel to investigate the Uranium One scandal after reports that suggest the FBI knew of Russian bribery and money laundering leading up to the 2010 deal. Grassley, writing on Twitter, said, “Whoever in DOJ is capable [with] authority to appoint a special counsel [should] do so to investigate” the Uranium One scandal. *snip* Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself in March from any investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election after a controversy arose about his meetings with Russian Ambassador...

The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) chapter at Iowa State University has repeatedly posted threatening tweets about conservatives, but the school maintains that the comments are a form of free speech.In one tweet, the group said that "the only dope worth shooting" is Donald Trump, and more recently it posted a message calling for the hanging and extermination of "capitalists." A socialist student group at Iowa State University has repeatedly made threatening comments about conservatives on social media, but the school says the comments are protected speech.In one recent tweet, the school’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA)...

A Democratic Socialist student group at an Iowa college appeared to make death threats on Twitter against capitalists and President Trump -- the latter message drawing the attention of the Secret Service. “COMRADES: stay away from needle drugs! They only dope worth shooting is in the oval office [right now],” Iowa State University's Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter tweeted in September. The Secret Service told Fox News it was “aware” of the comment. This month, YDSA tweeted to encourage the hanging and extermination of all “capitalists." After the message drew complaints, Iowa State defended the group on Twitter, saying...

You don't have to be an Iowa fan to appreciate this. Have your kleenex handy. Watch video at link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7UqYD_owgY&feature=share

As night follows day, mass shootings in America are followed by a succession of Democratic politicians and liberal activists pushing for tighter gun restrictions. Almost as reliably, those efforts fail. But in the wake of the massacre in Las Vegas, in which Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more at an outdoor concert, there is reason to believe this time might be different. Paddock used “bump stock” devices that effectively turn semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic weapons, causing a higher death toll. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have shown some support for a ban of bump stocks. House...

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has dispatched an experienced federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with murdering a transgender high school student last year, a highly unusual move that officials said was personally initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In taking the step, Mr. Sessions, a staunch conservative, is sending a signal that he has made a priority of fighting violence against transgender people individually, even as he has rolled back legal protections for them collectively. The Justice Department rarely assigns its lawyers to serve as local prosecutors, and only in cases in which...

So said our own Steve Hayward to a college Republican group in Minnesota last week. For your daily dose of schadenfreude, check out the New York Times’s lament over Iowa’s swing to the right: There is little to suggest a future for the [Democratic] party here in this once reliable Democratic stronghold, at least in races on the national level. President Trump easily carried this county in the 2016 election, and Iowa as a whole; the only counties Hillary Clinton won were in metropolitan areas or university towns.Iowa’s dramatic change has been both abrupt and a long time in coming....

When Matt Walker played baseball for the Fayetteville SwampDogs, a collegiate summer team in the Coastal Plain League, his manager offered him and his teammates a lot of advice on how to conduct themselves on the field. Walker and his young teammates, who were trying to land a spot on a major league roster, typically played before crowds of 2,000 to 3,000 people, often in military towns. Fayetteville, in the North Carolina Sandhills, is located only 20 minutes from Fort Bragg, the largest military installation in the world. A majority of the fans, Walker said, were either in the military...