Free Republic

More whistleblowers are coming forward from the VA, but this woman from North Carolina gives a special insight into the way that wait-list fraud propagated within the system. Paulene DeWenter makes clear that the use of secret wait lists was no spontaneously-occurring method for front-line workers to deal with overstressed resources, but a deliberate strategy employed by VA management. DeWenter tells WITN that her boss told her to use the secret wait list method, or else she would buy DeWenter a bus pass — one way out of town ... DeWenter blew the whistle after one of the patients on...

The latest interstate voter cross check tallied 6,951,484 overlapping voter registrations, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. The cross-check program involves only 28 states and does not include the three largest: California, Texas and Florida. “Duplicate registration is an open invitation to voting fraud,” said Clara Belle Wheeler, a member of the Election Board in Albemarle County, Va. “This ability to vote more than once dilutes the legal votes and changes the results of elections.”

As North Carolina lawmakers debated a proposal to prevent charter schools from discriminating against applicants based on sexual orientation, one representative suggested Tuesday that adult sexual attraction to children is a sexual orientation like homosexuality. The amendment was tabled by Republicans, preventing a vote on it. But during the debate, Republican Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, said pedophilia, masochism and other illegal sexual practices are sexual orientations like homosexuality and he questioned the role adults who are sexually attracted to children might have in schools. Several lawmakers called those comments offensive. After the House session, Twitter lit up with criticism of...

Red state Democrats who are fighting to overcome their support of gun control and get re-elected are asking gun control proponents Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly to stay out of their states. This comes after Breibart News' June 4 report that Giffords and Kelly planned to help Senators Mark Udall (D-CO), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Kay Hagan (D-NC) get re-elected this November. Now Udall, Landrieu, and Hagan are pushing Giffords and Kelly to stay away from their races. According to The Washington Times, the three incumbents are trying to keep gun control from erupting as a major issue in their...

Janet Marino says she isn’t asking for much from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Just a chance to visit classes on occasion to see how her two disabled children are doing. Or to be a chaperone on a field trip. Or to volunteer during a classroom activity. It’s what any parent would want, she believes. But undocumented immigrants like Marino, 34, aren’t treated like other parents. They don’t have the Social Security numbers or photo IDs that are required by CMS for criminal background checks. That essentially bans undocumented immigrants – people not in the country legally – from participating in school activities....

A newly-declassified report reveals that two nuclear bombs accidentally dropped in North Carolina were much closer to detonation than previously reported. On January 21, 1961 a B-52 bomber went into a tailspin, breaking apart mid-flight over Goldsboro, N.C. The plane was carrying two nuclear bombs, both of which were pushed into free-fall. The parachute for one of the bombs was safely deployed, but the other continued to plummet. It had been previously believed that, though nerve-racking, the incident was not nearly as dangerous as it sounded as neither bomb was armed. But documents released Thursday by the National Security Archive...

Remember these sixteen names when they run for office again. The sixteen Republicans who voted to proceed were Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Susan Collins (Maine). Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Dean Heller (Nev.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.). List courtesy The Hill.com. As reported by RedState yesterday, this bill would allow doctors to add a person’s name to the national database currently used for background checks, and list them as...

Author's Note: The idea for this column isn't terribly original, as this YouTube video attests.Some readers have written questioning my series of columns lampooning the lavender graduation at UNC-Wilmington. That is the ceremony where UNCW graduates are given purple cords to show that they are gay and lavender cords to show they approve of homosexuality. Students then wear these cords when they get their degrees at the university-wide graduation ceremony. Some self-proclaimed conservatives have reasoned that since participation in the ceremony is optional, lavender graduation isn't a topic worthy of column space. That view is misguided as it fails to...

The Mount Vernon Assembly – Indianapolis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Skip Brown skip.brown@iga.in.gov 317-232-9521 The Mount Vernon Assembly to Meet at Indiana Statehouse June 12 and 13 INDIANAPOLIS (June 9, 2014) – More than 100 state legislators representing 33 states will meet at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on June 12 and 13 to continue establishing the rules and procedures needed for a future state-led convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as authorized by Article V of the Constitution. The meeting is a continuation of efforts that began in December 2013 at George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate...

Hagan is the mother of three. Otherwise missing from the preferred media narrative are a few facts about Hagan's background that suggest she is more scion of crony capitalists than citizen legislator. Kay Hagan's maiden name is Ruthven and Kay was largely raised in Lakeland, Florida. The Ruthvens are not ordinary citizens of Lakeland. Her father may have started out as a tire salesman but he ended up as one of the large developers of commercial real estate in Florida.. It is also questionable whether Hagan has ever had to deal much with obstreperous or officious bureaucrats. Her mother's maiden...

Or.. Democratrina. Far more destructive than any bomb or hurricane, Democrat locusts destroy lay waste to Detroit. This is the 'progress' they want for the rest of America.

"The US Army will be bring the Appalachian Care Medical Mission to Swain County by offering Free Medical Services June 2-12, 2014. Medical service is open to everyone." Found this on WORD 106.3 Radio Facebook page. This Email to Bob McClain, radio host. then I found it on the Swain Co Health Dept web page: Hey Bob- I was approached by a friend at work yesterday, asking if I had knowledge of an unusual activity taking place in Swain County, NC. He didn’t specifically say which town was in question, other than the average income level is similar to the...

A bushy-eyebrowed pizza deliverer from Durham, N.C., might keep Republicans from winning the Senate. Sean Haugh isn't a household name and probably never will be. But he's a libertarian candidate for Senate in North Carolina, and his name is on the ballot, and recent polls shows he's doing, well, not terrible. They also show that he siphons off votes from the Republican nominee. So Democrat Kay Hagan, one of the Senate's most vulnerable incumbents, potentially stands to benefit a lot from Haugh's candidacy. Haugh’s central goal is to get onstage for debates.

Thanks to the political obfuscation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state of New York is still stubbornly refusing to get on board with the shale oil-and-gas revolution despite its prime positioning on top of the Marcellus/Utica shale formations it shares with Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Too bad for New York, ’cause the state is missing out on a piece of the job- and wealth-creating action that has helped to keep our otherwise meandering economy afloat because of a few radically overblown but completely manageable environmental(ist) concerns. Other states, like North Carolina, are quickly getting over their erstwhile reluctance:...

WCNC: NC Small Business Will Be "Hit Especially Hard" By ObamaCare, May Drop Insurance For Workers (June 4, 2014)

Former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was expected to plead guilty Tuesday in a corruption case after an FBI sting recorded him accepting thousands of dollars in cash and airline tickets from undercover agents posing as businessmen, according to court documents. Cannon agreed to plead guilty to a single count of honest services wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to documents filed Monday at U.S. District Court. Cannon was set to appear Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Cayer. Cannon, 47, was arrested March 26 and the Democrat resigned...

Few universities are less well-suited to adjudicate sexual assault cases than Duke. The university’s president and judicial affairs staff remains the same as 2006-2007, when their egregious mishandling of events in the lacrosse case resulted in an approximately $6.7 million legal settlement with each of the three falsely accused players. The hostility to due process in the campus environment was best seen in the activities of the Group of 88, who proudly affirmed that something “happened” to false accuser Crystal Mangum based solely on the word of Mangum and rogue prosecutor Mike Nifong. Nor has Duke’s internal campus process inspired...

The chief of an Army medical center has been relieved of his command because of problems with patient care, and the Pentagon has ordered a review of its health care system, defense officials said. The commander was replaced Tuesday at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and three deputies were suspended, the Army said in a statement. The shake-up comes after two deaths this month of patients in their 20s and problems with infection control at the facility that were pointed out in March by a hospital accreditation group, according to two defense officials. They spoke on...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Award-winning author, renowned poet and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou has died. She was 86. Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines confirmed Angelou was found by her caretaker on Wednesday morning.

BLADEN COUNTY, NC - Not every school district in southeastern North Carolina is out for the Memorial Day holiday. Bladen County is open for students and staff today. ... [Separate report from WBTV ... Students and staff at Cleveland County School reported for school Monday morning . School leaders also told WBTV that Memorial Day that the calendar committee decided to preserve spring break and designate Memorial Day as a snow make-up day. Students and staff in the Clover School District, in South Carolina, were also in class on Memorial Day. ]