Free Republic

A federal judge in Kentucky ordered a county clerk on Wednesday to resume issuing marriage licenses despite her religious objections to same-sex marriage, a ruling that was quickly appealed. U.S. District Judge David Bunning granted a preliminary injunction against Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis that had been requested by eight people, including two same-sex couples, who sued Davis last month for violating their rights. Bunning said Davis had to live up to her responsibilities as county clerk.

Betsy Layne High School in rural Kentucky this year had a two-page yearbook spread that featured all of the seniors on the boys basketball team. Except, one senior was left out of the tribute: Dalton Maldonado, the team's starting point guard who came out publicly as gay a couple months ago.

The Obama administration doesn't plan to invite Cuban dissidents to Secretary of State John Kerry's historic flag-raising at the U.S. Embassy in Havana on Friday, vividly illustrating how U.S. policy is shifting focus from the island's opposition to its single-party government. Instead, Kerry intends to meet more quietly with prominent activists later in the day, officials said. The Cuban opposition has occupied the center of U.S. policy toward the island since the nations cut diplomatic relations in 1961. The Cuban government labels its domestic opponents as traitorous U.S. mercenaries. As the two countries have moved to restore relations, Cuba has...

Rand Paul is running for president, and wants to run for reelection to the Senate in 2016 as well. Kentucky law doesn’t allow a candidate’s name to appear on the ballot twice. Because caucuses involve party members expressing their support at local meetings, instead of casting ballots, Paul would not technically appear on the ballot twice if the state switched from a presidential primary to a presidential caucus. Paul asked the Kentucky GOP to make the switch, and the state GOP seemed largely amenable… But now, less than two weeks away from the decision deadline, state party leaders are publicly...

Kentucky Senator and Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that he was concerned fellow candidate Donald Trump would ” treat the country as sort of his little bully fiefdom” and criticized him for changing his mind on issues on Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor.”

Paul has been furiously lobbying Kentucky Republican leaders ahead of an Aug. 22 decision to rewrite party rules so he can run for president and reelection to his Senate seat simultaneously, a hedge to hold onto power should his Oval Office aspirations falter. Running for the two offices at once creates tricky legal hurdles that are only surmountable with the assent of the Kentucky Republican Party’s leadership and central committee. Though that approval once seemed assured, several members of the party executive committee told POLITICO they’re seeing increasing trepidation, in part because of Paul’s perceived fade from contention but also...

Following Thursday's Republican debates, an overnight poll shows Donald Trump maintaining his edge over the crowded field of Republican candidates. ... The NBC News online poll conducted by SurveyMonkey over Friday night and Saturday showed possible movement among the candidates following the debates, as well as Republican primary voters declaring Carly Fiorina the overall debate winner. Donald Trump has the support of 23% of Republican primary voters following the debate ... Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina were the candidates with the most gains in support, 7 points and 6 points respectively ... Among Republican and Republican-leaning voters who watched either...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is trying to intensify a fight with current Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. Paul's campaign on Monday announced a conference call with reporters specifically dedicated to Trump. During that call, Paul slammed the real-estate magnate for conducting a substance-less presidential campaign and making derogatory comments about women. "The truth telling is bluster, the truth-telling is non-sequitur, self-aggrandizement, but is there really anything substantive coming out of saying that people are fat, people are stupid?" Paul said of Trump. Calling Trump a "fake conservative," Paul listed off the issues where Trump has agreed with Democrats in the...

In the liberal universe, there's no correlation between hard work or ingenuity and financial success. As President Obama recently put it, the rich are simply "society's lottery winners." Sounding a similar theme, Al Sharpton today declared it "astounding" that Rand Paul believes that income inequality is due to "some people working harder." Astounding, indeed! What's wrong with Rand? How could he possibly believe that someone someone who works, say, 60 hours per week might earn more than someone else who works 20? View the video here.

Raleigh, N.C. – PPP's newest Iowa poll finds Donald Trump leading the Republican field in the state even after a weekend of controversy. He's at 19% to 12% for Ben Carson and Scott Walker, 11% for Jeb Bush, 10% for Carly Fiorina, 9% for Ted Cruz, and 6% for Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio. The other 9 candidates are all clustered between 3% and having no support at all (George Pataki)- John Kasich and Rand Paul are at 3%, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum at 2%, Chris Christie at 1%, and Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, and Pataki all...

The coal industry is facing its toughest challenge since The Great Depression of 1929. The collapse in coal prices and a growing weight from new regulations has claimed dozens of firms. In just recent months, three major coal producers have filed for bankruptcy. Alpha Natural Resources operates more than fifty underground and surface mines in five states. It is the nation’s largest producer of the type of coal used in steel production. In 2011, Alpha Natural Resources was worth $11 billion in stock value. The firm is now worth less than $7 million. Peabody Energy Corporation, is the largest private-sector...

In Kentucky, gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin has announced that he intends to defund Planned Parenthood if he wins the election. Bevin is the GOP’s nominee for governor and will be facing pro-abortion Jack Conway in the general election. Currently, Conway is the attorney general for Kentucky and the Democratic nominee. In a press release, Bevin said, “As Governor, I will direct my Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services not to distribute federal taxpayer dollars from that department to Planned Parenthood clinics. Federal taxpayer dollars appropriated to Planned Parenthood flow through the Governor’s administration. As Governor, I will...

Why the next seven weeks? Because fiscal year 2015 ends on September 30th and the settlers in the US State Department and in their contracting agencies want to hit the Obama target of 70,000 for the year and they have (as of July 31), 18,470 more to go! Actually that 70,000 figure that Obama announced in his Presidential Determination Letter to Congress last September is meant to be a ceiling, not a goal that they necessarily have to hit. However, since the contractors are paid by the head and they have salaries and office overhead to pay, they always try...

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News exclusively that he’s “keyed up” and ready to roll in Thursday night’s debate hosted by the Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier, and Chris Wallace. In an interview in the lobby of the Radisson hotel in downtown Cleveland about 12 hours before the first GOP presidential primary debate—which will happen across the street at the Quicken Loans Arena—Paul said he plans on “mixing it up” on Thursday night with his fellow top 10 GOP contenders and plans on “standing my ground” on issues that matter to him.

... Ahead of the annual [Ky.] Marshall County Democratic Bean Dinner in Gilbertsville on Friday Pure Politics asked [Jean-Marie] Lawson Spann about the Trans Pacific Partnership and if fears of a tobacco carve out we’re warranted. “Just as they’re talking about that, and they’re talking about the EPA — they put out different scare tactics — we’re focused on positive things that won’t scare our Kentucky farm families,” Lawson Spann said. “There’s a pattern there, when they talk about the EPA to try to scare our Kentucky farm families, and then try to raise money out of that…that’s not the...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's signature wellness initiative may be just a 90-pound weakling, Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson is suggesting. In a report issued today,E the city's watchdog said there are "serious questions" about whether the much-promoted program, which aims to get city workers to shape up or pay more, actually has accomplished much except to spend money. ... despite a 19 percent decrease in its workforce between 2004 and 2013 (41,550 to 33,554 full-time equivalents), the city incurred a 43 percent increase in health care costs." The city's current $24 million contract with American Healthways Services,E a Tennessee firm that...

OWENSBORO, KY (WFIE) - After the U.S. Senate voted against a plan to stop Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds, many lawmakers in Kentucky are now asking Governor Steve Beshear to terminate funding for Kentucky's chapter. 7th House District Representative Suzanne Miles, who serves Union and parts of Daviess and Henderson counties, is one of 44 state representatives wanting the governor to discontinue funding for Planned Parenthood, locally. Miles says the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services provided at least $331,000 to Planned Parenthood. She tells 14NEWS she and many other lawmakers are upset because she says the organization...

CANTON, Ga. – A Georgia elementary school launched a new program for upcoming school year that will rely on older students who just learned English to help teach younger students the language. Approximately 42 percent of our students are served in our program for English as a second language,” Canton Elementary School Principal Beth Long told WSBTV. That means about 336 of the school’s 800 students must learn how to speak, write and read English fluently, a process school officials contend takes five to seven years. ... The news story provided omitted all details on the school’s new program, including...

Kentucky Senator and Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) argued that if there is a shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding “it would be the Democrats shutting down government” on Tuesday’s “America’s Newsroom” on the Fox News Channel.

The ACLU is getting involved after a sheriff's deputy in Kentucky was caught on camera handcuffing a child. Deputy: "You can do what we've asked you to, or you can suffer the consequences." Child: "Ow, that hurts." Deputy: "Now sit down in the chair like I've asked you to." The adult is School Resource Officer Kevin Sumner. You can see him placing handcuffs on the biceps of an eight-year-old boy.