Free Republic

The first clue that Gwyneth Paltrow didn’t know what she was talking about on Capitol Hill earlier this month came with the first words she spoke: “I’m here as a mother.” Apparently, the actress thinks that any mom can show up in Washington and hold a press conference that attracts lawmakers and the media. Memo to Ms. Paltrow: The rest of us moms don’t have that celebrity power. We haven’t won Oscar awards, assumed glamorous roles in the “Iron Man” movies, or married (let alone divorced) rock stars. But Ms. Paltrow has done all of these things so, of course,...

(CNSNews.com) – During a “voters first presidential forum” in New Hampshire on Monday, GOP presidential candidate Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized President Barack Obama’s deal with Iran, saying he “declared war on trans fats and a ceasefire with the largest state-sanctioned sponsor of terrorism.” “This is a bad deal. He’s declared war on trans fats and a ceasefire with the largest state-sanctioned sponsor of terrorism,” said Jindal regarding the nuclear deal with Iran. As CNSNews.com previously reported, the Food and Drug Administration ruled in June that trans fat is not “generally recognized as safe” for use in food and gave...

The sage grouse population has exploded in the last two years, growing by nearly two-thirds from more than 49,000 males in 2013 to more than 80,000 this year. ... This is encouraging news for the bird, and for the people whose lives would be turned upside down by the federal government if it still insists on listing the critter as an endangered species on the brink of extinction. The report considered the population across the bird’s 11-state habitat, with specific news on the growth in Colorado numbers ... The report falls on the heels of a gloom and doom forecast...

(CNSNews.com) - The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Friday it is investing up to $100 million in biofuels with the goal “to double the number of fuel pumps capable of supplying higher blends of renewable fuel to consumers, such as E15 and E85.”“A typical gas pump can deliver fuel that contains a maximum 10% ethanol (E10), which limits the amount of renewable energy most consumers can purchase at the pump, despite the fact that our farmers now produce record amounts of renewable biofuels,” the USDA press release says.“This new investment seeks to double the number of fuel pumps capable of supplying...

Californians are taking to drought shaming sites to tattle on each other for wasting water. Residents are using the sites to out each other for reasons including neighbors with leaky sprinklers to waiters who serve water without asking as the state's historic drought continues. The tattling has also reached social media where residents are using the hashtags 'droughtshaming' and 'watershaming' to reveal any water-wasting activities. An app called DroughtShame was even developed to 'capture geotagged photo proof of disregard for California's water restrictions'.

Healthy options are coming to Howard County, but some think the carrot is a stick.Four of five Howard County Council members, all Democrats, voted Friday to overturn County Executive Allan Kittleman's veto of a bill that creates nutritional guidelines for the food and drinks sold in government vending machines.Kittleman, the county's first Republican executive since 1998, framed the issue as one of choice for workers and visitors to county buildings, even if that means they choose fluorescent orange doodles chased by a bubbly soda."I trust Howard County residents and employees to make their own decisions about what to eat," Kittleman...

Professing to be “fed up” with the state legislature’s failure to enact a minimum wage he deems high enough, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) has decreed a $15 per hour minimum wage for the fast food industry in his state. “I gave the legislature the opportunity to do the right thing, but their refusal to pass the $15 per hour wage has forced me to seize the initiative,” Cuomo said. “The voters of this state elected me to get things done. One way or another, that’s what I’m going to do. If the legislature thinks I’m treading on their turf they...

A video of a Pinellas County man being told by an inspector that his barbecue smoke cannot leave his property has been viewed more than 4 million times on Facebook. Scotty Jordan, 38, posted the video (caution, it contains profanity) to his Facebook page on Wednesday and by Monday morning it had 4,091,474 views and 86,510 shares. “I didn’t expect it to go this far, but I always believe everything happens for a reason,” Jordan said about the video in a Facebook post early Monday. “God puts situations and life experiences in front of you. It’s up to you to...

on July 22, Joe Graham from Air Compliance is writing a complaint form for “objectionable odor” from Jordan’s property where he was barbecuing. A neighbor living across the street called to complain, as she has apparently done many times before. This time she found a willing co-conspirator. “I can smell it again right now, but I’m on your property,” Graham tells the group. “You’re allowed to have it smell on your property, so that doesn’t count, but when I’m on the street, that’s when it counts.” “So we’re supposed to control the smoke and the wind and where it’s blowing...

New York Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice announced recently she will drop legislation mandating American automakers to install ignition interlock technology in all new cars that detects a driver’s blood alcohol content (BAC) and block the engine from starting if the driver’s BAC is above the legal limit.“Advancing the progress we’ve made combating drunk driving demands bold action,” Rice said in a press release.“It demands that we take a stand and say we refuse to keep letting drunk drivers take 10,000 lives each year. We refuse to keep seeing families torn apart when we know we can do more to prevent...

A government study says housing vouchers may be the best way to reduce homelessness in the United States. A Department of Housing and Urban Development study released Tuesday examined homeless families in emergency shelters in 12 U.S. cities. After 18 months, the families that were offered a housing voucher were less likely to re-enter homelessness or experience housing instability. …

It’s the NANNY-ST8 for your license plate. In addition to outright vulgarity and racism, some states prohibit messages on vanity license plates that can be viewed as “anti-government.” In Pennsylvania, for example, where five state employees in Harrisburg get to decide what’s allowed on vanity plates, banned words include “PUTSCH,” a German word roughly equivalent to the more-well-known France term “coup d’état” but with an uncomfortable connection to Hitler and the Nazis. But “ENDFED,” a reference to libertarian-led efforts to shut down the Federal Reserve Bank, is also on the do-not-license list, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Melissa Daniels explains...

It’s a progressive paradise.Public employees get 30 vacation days a year. Anyone who works over eight hours in a day gets paid time-and-a-half. Employees have strong rights.The minimum wage is high: 77 percent of the median wage.Environmental regulations are settled beyond the pressure of local economic interests. The forests and mountains are pristine destinations for ecotourism.Energy costs are kept high, pushing consumption down to a level deemed “socially beneficial”. Utilities have strong public backing and provide jobs to thousands.Union jobs in shipping are protected from outsourcing to cut-rate foreign competitors.The social safety net is buoyant and provides a solid working-class standard...

On Friday, even the hosts of NBC’s Today had enough of Michelle Obama’s effort to micro-manage people’s food choices as they mocked the First Lady’s attempt to create a healthy version of s’mores. At the top of the 9 a.m. ET hour, co-host Willie Geist explained: “So the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, and the USDA have teamed up for this program called ChooseMyPlate.gov. It's an initiative proposing a makeover, for among other things, this classic campfire treat. So instead of graham crackers with chocolate and marshmallow, they propose graham crackers with, want-wa, strawberries and low-fat yogurt.”...

(CNSNews.com) - First lady Michelle Obama traveled to Milan last week as part of the ‘Let’s Move!’ Program to promote a “global dialogue about the future of our food system,” according to the LetsMove.gov blog. Mrs. Obama led the Presidential Delegation to the Milan Expo 2015 with the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” where she shared the “successes of Let’s Move! and the efforts happening in the United States to support healthier lifestyles” and “learned from other countries’ leaders about how they are addressing the issue of childhood obesity and raising healthier families.” “That’s why it’s so important...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – School children who qualify for free and reduced lunches can receive free summer meals at thousands of locations throughout New York. Last year, almost 360,000 children participated in the summer meals program statewide, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office. Persons with disabilities, also can receive free nutritious meals and snacks at the summer meals sites. To find a free meal site near you, use this website. You can search the entire nation by clicking on "find sites."

DENVER — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not agree with Colorado’s decision to legalize recreational marijuana, but he said Saturday he will defend the state’s right to make a hash of things. Speaking at the Western Conservative Summit, Mr. Perry made a vigorous defense for the states’ role as “laboratories of democracy,” in the words of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, even if it means sticking up for Colorado’s retail pot market. “Let this country compete again. I am so optimistic about the future of America if we would free up these states from this one-size-fits-all,”...

(CNSNews.com)-- The School Nutrition Association (SNA), which represents 55,000 school nutritionists nationwide, is pointing to data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to draw awareness to the fact that “after 30 years of steady growth in the National School Lunch Program, student participation is abruptly down in 49 states."The nutritionists attribute the drop to new nutrition standards that were instituted by USDA in 2012.Total national participation in the School Lunch Program peaked in 2010 and 2011 at 31.8 million, according to USDA. In 2012, it was 31.7 million. But in 2013, it dropped by 1 million participants, to 30.7...

Congressional Republicans are pushing back against proposed dietary guidelines that urge Americans to consider the environment when deciding what foods to eat. House and Senate spending bills say the guidelines must focus only on nutrition and diet. That’s a clear effort to thwart a recommendation by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee that eating a diet higher in vegetables and other plant-based foods is better for the environment than eating a diet based more on foods from animals. The advice from a government advisory panel of independent doctors and nutrition experts has raised the ire of the meat industry. The dietary...

The EPA is concerned that the average shower, which lasts just eight minutes, uses 18 gallons of water, and has asked Americans to reduce their shower length by at lest one minute The EPA wants hotels to monitor how much time its guests spend in the shower. The goal of the project is to change the behavior of Americans when they stay at hotels. (1) The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to ‘modify their behavior.’ The EPA is concerned that the average shower,...