Free Republic

Some political “experts” insist “Bellwether” counties like Vigo, Indiana aren’t “bellwether” counties but just statistical coincidences. “After all, what can an unsophisticated bunch of Midwestern hay seeds know about politics that we don’t know?” they might smugly suggest. The ironic answer to that question is: Not much, except who will win the presidency every four years. What makes Vigo County so unique is that since 1888 the voters there have voted for the winner of each presidential election, except in 1908 and 1952. That means they have been right 14 elections in a row and 29 of the past 31...

SOUTH BEND — A convicted drunken driver will serve up to 27 months in prison for a January crash that left a veteran South Bend firefighter with a severe head injury, just three months short of his planned retirement. Oswaldo Mendez, 40, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a single count of driving while intoxicated, causing serious bodily injury, for a crash that left Mike Kowalski in a temporary coma before he was transferred to a nursing home. With the 27-month prison term, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hurley ordered a punishment just shy of the maximum 2 1/2-year...

This week Americans were reminded yet again of the growing jihadist problem in the U.S. The first case deals with two California men that tried to join ISIS and who were convicted Tuesday of “conspiracy to aid a foreign terrorist organization.” The Times of Israel shows the motivation behind the two men: The FBI affidavit said the men shared their support for the Islamic State in conversation and on social media, sharing photos of “unbelievers” being beheaded and expressing wishes to die as “martyrs.” Elhuzayel [one of the convicted men] had sworn allegiance to the leader of IS on a...

Santa Monica's police chief says she was incorrect when she said a heavily armed Indiana man told investigators he was headed to a gay pride parade in order to do harm. Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said in a tweet to The Associated Press that her earlier statement on James Howell was inaccurate. The chief said Howell had only told police that he was going to the event known as LA Pride, and he did not say what he intended to do there.... The [man's Facebook] page's most recent public post, from June 3, shows a photo comparing Adolf Hitler to Hillary...

Attack on LA Pride event foiled hours after Orlando club massacre: Man with arsenal of assault rifles and explosives stopped 'on way to event' Discovery came just hours after 50 were killed in worst mass shooting in US history at Orlando gay club Authorities received report of a suspected prowler in Santa Monica Three rifles and a substantial amount of ammunition was found in his car Police have identified the man as James Howell Tannerite, an ingredient used to make pipe bombs, was also discovered Also found gun magazines loaded, taped together and a security badge Mayor Eric Garcetti said...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Authorities in Santa Monica arrested an Indiana man Sunday morning ahead of the LA PRIDE parade in nearby West Hollywood after the discovery of possible explosives in a car, according to California law enforcement. Just before 3 p.m. ET, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told the Associated Press a heavily armed man was arrested, and that man told police during his arrest he was going to the PRIDE parade. Investigators removed items from the suspect's white Acura sedan and placed them on the sidewalk near the driver's side door, according to KNBC. Santa Monica Chief of...

Early Sunday, there was a call into Santa Monica police of a suspected prowler near Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street. Patrol officers responded and encountered an individual who told officers he was waiting for a friend. That led officers to inspect the car and found several weapons a lot of ammunition as well as tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb. The car had Indiana plates. He did make comments that he was in town for the pride event in WeHo this weekend. Source said they did not know of any connection between what happened...

If you believe the federal government is too large and powerful, you’re in what our current president calls “the cult of small government.” That’s what he said in a speech last week in Elkhart, Indiana, in which his aim was “to bust this myth of crazy, liberal government spending.” Say again? “I am not making this stuff up,” insisted Mr. Obama, who has increased America’s national debt by nearly $10 trillion – more than all his predecessors combined. A quick look at the National Debt Clock will scare the pants off anyone not put into a hypnotic trance by the...

VFW Commander to Obama: Don't Insult Vets' Intelligence By Jason Devaney | Friday, 03 Jun 2016 01:36 PM The Veterans of Foreign Wars organization is pushing back at President Barack Obama's assumption that the nation's veterans are easily swayed in their political opinions. "I don't know how many VFW Posts the president has ever visited, but our near 1.7 million members are a direct reflection of America," VFW National Commander John A. Biedrzycki Jr. said, reports Fox News. "We don't have confused politics, we don't need left- or right-wing media filters telling us how to think or vote, and we...

Selling a used, black-and-white printer through Craigslist seemed simple and straightforward to Doug Costello. It wasn't. What the 66-year-old Massachusetts man didn't know then is that he would spend the next 6 ½ years embroiled in a complicated and confusing legal dispute in Indiana over that printer, which, according to its buyer, was broken.

President Barack Obama is giving up on some of the American manufacturing jobs that went to Mexico, telling an Indiana resident that many of those jobs are not coming back. During a town hall in Elkhart, Indiana, Obama was asked a question about manufacturing by a man who was once employed by Carrier Corporation in Indiana before the plant announced plans to move to Mexico. “What we have to do is to make sure that folks are trained for the jobs that are coming in now because some of those jobs of the past are just not going to come...

The White House and lawmakers on Tuesday refrained from condemning a deadly Israeli attack on Gaza-bound ships carrying humanitarian aid. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would not go much further than a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned the loss of life without criticizing Israel’s actions. Gibbs echoed the resolution calling for the U.N. investigation of the incident to be “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent.” At least 10 civilians were killed in the attack, and many were wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to visit President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday, but he...

The nation’s largest veterans group hit back at President Obama on Thursday and urged him not to “denigrate” their intelligence after the president suggested their members were easily swayed by cable news and “right-wing radio.” The Veterans of Foreign Wars called out the president after Obama referenced the political opinions at “VFW halls” in an Indiana speech Wednesday that toggled between campaign politics and the economy.

Four refugees sent to Indiana by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement in 2015 were diagnosed with active tuberculosis once they arrived in the Hoosier State, according to the Indiana Department of Health. Active tuberculosis (TB) is infectious, while so-called “latent TB” is not infectious. But 10 percent of those infected with latent TB develop active infectious TB. In 2015, almost 400 migrants with latent TB settled in Indiana, according to state records. The state’s TB rate had declined for the 54 years up to 2010, but is now increasing as more migrants settle in the state. ... More significantly,...

Four refugees sent to Indiana by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement in 2015 were diagnosed with active tuberculosis once they arrived in the Hoosier State, according to the Indiana Department of Health. Active tuberculosis (TB) is infectious, while so-called “latent TB” is not infectious. But 10 percent of those infected with latent TB develop active infectious TB. In 2015, almost 400 migrants with latent TB settled in Indiana, according to state records. The state’s TB rate had declined for the 54 years up to 2010, but is now increasing as more migrants settle in the state. “Tuberculosis is one...

Around 8 p.m. on July 23, 2013, 23-year-old Sydney Leathers logged into Facebook while sitting in her apartment in Princeton, Indiana. Her in-box was filled with an unusually large number of messages. She opened one, sent by a stranger: “youre about to be famoussssssss,” it read. Other messages mentioned BuzzFeed. She went to that site and found an article, posted about an hour before, that made her heart sink: “Here Is the Woman Linked to Anthony Weiner in Sex Chats.” This was the last thing she wanted to have happen. Two days prior, Leathers had nervously sent a batch of...

According to police, a Kokomo, Indiana, robbery suspect fled the scene after his would-be victim drew her gun in self-defense. The incident occurred around 5:45 a.m. on May 12. According to Fox 59, a woman was walking to her residence and was confronted by a suspect standing at the door. “She said the man displayed a gun, and he threatened her and demanded her money.” She responded by pulling her own gun, and “the suspect ran away.”

A 45-year-old U.S. man who has been living in Costa Rica since 2009 has filed for asylum in the country because he says he fears for his life should he be sent back to the United States. Bill Perry’s case, which is currently under appeal through the Immigration Administration Court, began when he was detained at his apartment in downtown San José on April 6 and put into an immigration detention center in Hatillo, where he remains. According to the initial, April 29 resolution from Immigration denying a refugee visa for Perry, the man’s request was based on his assertion...

The masked man who threatened to kill Donald Trump, his wife, and daughter, has been arrested. Richard Deville Jr. just served three years in prison for burglary and was out on probation, and just days before his arrest for the death threats he was involved with a domestic violence incident with his baby mamma. Media analyst Mark Dice has the story.

FLOYD COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) — The southern Indiana man accused of threatening Donald Trump in a YouTube video is due in court Friday morning. Twenty-six-year-old Richard Deville Junior is in the Floyd County jail awaiting that court appearance. Prosecutors are charging him with two felonies for making the threatening YouTube video. In the video, Deville Jr. points guns at the camera and tells Donald Trump he’s going to kill him, his daughter and his wife. “I’m serious. You are dead,” said Deville Jr. in the video. The Secret Service contacted Floyd County authorities after someone in Atlanta reported the posting....