Free Republic

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved...

A private investigator working on what’s become a botched murder case sought evidence North Las Vegas police didn’t: video from the suspect’s alibi. That suspect was Patrick Wayne Harper, the 16-year-old cleared in the killing of Andrea Lafon. Police said she died during a marijuana deal gone bad. Investigator Toby Tobiasson, working for lawyer Kristina Wildeveld, got a court order for surveillance video from the convenience store Harper said he was at when Lafon was shot about 7:15 p.m. Sept. 5. The video shows Harper leaving the AMPM at 5th Street and Washburn Road — more than two miles from...

The totalitarian impulse is all too familiar: since I represent Progress (and, of course, everyone who acts in the political realm fervently believes that he represents Progress) those who stand in my way are retrograde–evil, really–forces, that belong in the dustbin of history. Therefore, I might have to lock them up or kill them to ensure that Progress prevails. Until recently, the totalitarian impulse has been blessedly absent from American politics. Now, however, the American left has caught the totalitarian bug that infected Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Castro, and so many others. A case in point:...

CENTENNIAL, Colo., Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A man is suing the Arapahoe County jail and its contracted health care company after most of his right foot was amputated due to infected blisters.

The White House has responded to a popular petition that demands the release of U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi from a Mexican prison, explaining that the Obama administration respects the rule of law and will continue to monitor the situation to make sure the soldier is treated fairly. More than 134,000 people signed a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website asking the president to demand the release of Sgt. Tahmooressi, who was imprisoned nearly five months ago for illegally crossing from California into Mexico with three firearms in his truck. The Marine maintains that he crossed the...

BEFORE he was named as a key suspect in the brutal beheading of two western journalists, the man who has become known as Jihad John was an aspiring rapper with a dark message. Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who released music videos under the name L Jinny and even had a few songs played on BBC radio, has gained notoriety for darker reasons other than his music. The British man has gained worldwide attention after he was named as the chief suspect in the gruesome beheading of American journalist James Foley. Police and intelligence officials told Britain’s Sunday Times that “MI5 and...

A California state assemblyman plans to stage a protest outside the governor’s mansion next week to demand that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is to be honored at luncheon there Aug. 26, ensure the release of a U.S. Marine held captive in Mexico. Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who recently lost in a bid to become the Republican nominee in the gubernatorial election in November, declined an invitation to the luncheon and assailed Gov. Jerry Brown for hosting the luncheon in honor of the Mexican president. "I am writing to decline your luncheon invitation,” read the letter Donnelly sent Brown, which...

Police: Inmate hid in laundry basket to escape ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Authorities say a New Mexico inmate has been captured after he escaped from jail by hiding in a laundry basket. Officials say 28-year-old Kevin Matthew Perkins packed himself in the basket on Monday to get away from the Metropolitan Detention Center. Authorities say the laundry basket was headed to another facility. When an officer opened a truck door, officials say Perkins jumped out of the basket and ran. Albuquerque police later received a breaking and entering call at an assisted living complex. That's where they found broken glass from...

Sarah Palin on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of Republicans calling for the impeachment of President Obama, writing in a Breitbart op-ed that the influx of young illegal immigrants over the southern border "is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, 'no mas.' " Mixed/careless metaphors aside, this is nothing but bad news for Republicans — especially four months until the 2014 election. Palin is hardly the first GOP politician to raise the issue of impeachment over the past couple years. Others include Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.),...

There’s something about this time of year. Perhaps it’s because MPs and school children are gearing up for their holidays, or incessant televised sporting events give a sort of generalised carnival-type feel, or simply the fact that it’s so uncharacteristically hot – but current affairs always goes a little bit bonks in summer. Some of the news items they manage to dig up during this season defy belief. And winner of "most fist-munchingly ridiculous story" must this year be awarded to the ongoing saga of Jeremy Meeks. For those unfamiliar, Meeks is an American man recently arrested in relation to...

It appears that our government is working hard for the citizens. Unfortunately, they’re not the citizens of the United States. Fox News’ Todd Starnes reports shocking allegations that a government-contracted security force is threatening to arrest medical personnel at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, if they reveal information about the rampant disease among the illegal migrants at the facility. Nonetheless, several of these workers have decided to come forward, fearing the contagion risk posed to Americans. Starnes has kept their identities secret, as they could be subject to persecution.

Ogden • A Plain City man accused of beating a fellow churchgoer last year at a Mormon baby blessing and mission farewell was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail. Wayne Dodge, 52, pleaded guilty last month in Ogden’s 2nd District Court to one count of class B misdemeanor assault. One charge of felony aggravated assault was dismissed, according to court records. Judge W. Brent West ordered Dodge to complete an anger management class as part of a 12-month probation. The judge also ordered Dodge to pay a $550 fine and have no contact with the victim. Dodge, who faced...

In one case, a mentally ill New York City inmate hanged himself from a shower pipe on his third try in three days. During that stretch, orders to put him on 24-hour watch were apparently ignored, along with a screening form that said he was “thinking about killing himself.” Another inmate hanged himself with a bedsheet from an air vent in a solitary-confinement cell after repeatedly telling guards he was suicidal.

A veterans organization has called on Americans to boycott Mexican products and vacations until jailed U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi is freed, The Washington Times reported. Tahmooressi, 25, of Weston, Florida, has been held in a Mexican jail for nearly three months after he crossed the border carrying three firearms not registered in the country. Now the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation’s oldest and largest veterans group, is demanding his safe return while urging a boycott until his release. "This combat Marine has been languishing away since he was arrested March 31 for allegedly crossing the border accidentally with...

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the chairman of the panel’s Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere traveled across the border to Tecate, Mexico, over the weekend to visit with Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi.The reservist who served two combat tours in Afghanistan was arrested at the San Ysidro border crossing the night of March 31 and is currently being held in the El Hongo II prison in Tecate, Mexico, for bringing guns into the country. Tahmooressi reportedly had a rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, a .45-caliber pistol and more than 400 rounds of ammunition in his truck.“The Committee has...

When it comes to food, convicts are ingenious. Dried pasta and canned goods are prepared with nothing more than a pair of nail clippers.In prison, food takes on a significance that’s nearly unimaginable in the outside world. Sometimes it’s a scarce resource that confers power; everywhere it’s a status symbol and a form of currency. Cooking behind bars, was one of the few kinds of freedom us convicts could enjoy. On the flip side, food symbolizes a rigid social order. It doesn’t matter what kinds of friends you had on the outside, in lockup you don’t eat with other races....

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," June 9, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. (BEGIN AUDIO FEED) SGT. ANDREW TAHMOORESSI, US MARINE JAILED IN MEXICO (VIA PHONE): Please, get me out of here.(END AUDIO FEED)KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, 'ON THE RECORD' GUEST HOST: Well, that's a plea from a U.S. Marine jailed in Mexico. Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi now behind bars for more than two months since making a wrong turn at the border. He spoke exclusively with Greta.(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: What brought you out to California, at...

I consider Ken Starr’s finest achievement was getting so many Democrats on board to abolish the independent counsel, an unaccountable and therefore unconstitutional office that the Supreme Court mistakenly upheld way back in the 1980s in Morrison v. Olson. Starr’s genius was in revealing to Democrats that independent counsel investigations could target and harass Democratic presidents just as much as Republicans. And that was no fun. Likewise I’m enjoying the Democrats sputtering now against Darrell Issa’s determination to hold Lois Lerner accountable for her clearly political targeting of conservative groups while she was at the IRS, because as with the...

A Louisiana inmate who sought to smuggle a cell phone into a new jail was thwarted last week when a full-body scanner revealed that the device was nestled in the man’s rectum, police report. While being processed into the Shreveport jail last Wednesday, Anthony Alvey, 22, was required to twice pass through a scanner (which has been used by jailers for the past year). The scans showed a “dark unidentified object” inside Alvey, according to a Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office report. Alvey, who was also subjected to a pair of strip searches, subsequently “admitted that he had a cell phone...

Catherine Herridge on FOX News broke this story Monday morning… New Benghazi Documents Reveal Obama White House Hid Truth From Congress The materials provided to Congress were more heavily blocked out than the documents provided to Judicial Watch by a federal court