Free Republic

More Americans sought unemployment benefits last week but the number of applications remained low, the latest sign that layoffs are scarce. […] The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for jobless aid rose 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 254,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, ticked down to 256,000, matching a 43-year low first reached in April. […] The economy is expanding, though at a sluggish pace, growing just 1.4 percent in the April-June quarter, according to a separate government report Thursday. …

Notice the differences between the two podiums. Why was Hillary's tablet full of notes? Was it a pre-planted crib sheet? What is the white light or screen by the base of the microphone? Hillary's is white. Trumps is wood grain?

In their biggest threat yet to conservative media, Democrats on the Federal Election Commission are laying the groundwork to bar companies with even the tiniest foreign ownership from American politics, a move that could ban Fox, the Wall Street Journal and even the New York Times from covering political races or giving endorsements. In a last-minute submission Wednesday, a top Democrat on the evenly split FEC proposed that the Thursday meeting of the commission begin the process to prohibit companies with foreign ownership as small as 5 percent "from funding expenditures, independent expenditures, or electioneering communications." Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub...

The teen accused of shooting two students and a teacher at a South Carolina elementary school on Wednesday reportedly was expelled from middle school last year for showing up with a hatchet. A family friend of the suspected shooter told WSPA the 14-year-old was being home-schooled after the hatchet incident. The alleged shooter had no known connection to Townville Elementary, where he was eventually taken into custody. He had been

With the stroke of a pen, California Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation that gave prison guards, park rangers, Cal State professors and other state employees the kind of retirement security normally reserved for the wealthy. More than 200,000 civil servants became eligible to retire at 55 — and in many cases collect more than half their highest salary for life. California Highway Patrol officers could retire at 50 and receive as much as 90% of their peak pay for as long as they lived.

BEIJING --- Photos about the progress of China's first home-made aircraft carrier were revealed online again lately. Britain's Jane's Defence Weekly claimed that the carrier island is already lifted in place, a milestone before China's second aircraft carrier enters water. Military expert Cao Weidong said in an interview that China's first home-made aircraft carrier is likely to have Active Phased Array Radar (APAR) and can carry 40-50 aircraft of various types at most. Laser weapon will probably find its way to future carriers and large vessels too. According to Cao, carrier island installation is the last step of building the...

The Cascade Mall shooting suspect, Arcan Cetin, may face an additional investigation related to his voting record and citizenship status. Federal sources confirm to KING 5 that Cetin was not a U.S. citizen, meaning legally he cannot vote. However, state records show Cetin registered to vote in 2014 and participated in three election cycles, including the May presidential primary. Cetin, who immigrated to the United States from Turkey as a child, is considered a permanent resident or green card holder. While a permanent resident can apply for U.S. citizenship after a certain period of time, sources tell KING his status...

Full title: FBI Director Comey: Clinton IT Contractor's Reddit Posts Are Not Evidence Of A "Cover-Up," Not A Violation Of Immunity Deal FBI director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday that newly discovered online posts made by an IT contractor for Hillary Clinton do not violate his immunity deal and are not evidence of a cover-up. (snip) Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte next asked Comey if the Reddit postings were "evidence of obstruction of justice" or "a violation of Mr. Combetta's immunity deal." "Not necessarily, no," Comey replied. "It would depend on what his intention was. Our team concluded...

Mika Brzezinski went on an epic feminist rant on today’s Morning Joe, condemning not just Donald Trump for his comments about a former Miss Universe, but raging against the entire beauty pageant culture in which women are judged on their . . beauty. Mika summed up her intellectual argument this way: “you stupid men.” Brzezinski considers it unfair that beauty pageant contestants are expected to be trim, whereas men like Trump and Newt Gingrich “can walk around as rotund as all get out.” But if those guys had entered the Mr. Universe contest, every inch of their oiled bodies would...

FBI director James Comey confirms that his investigation found classified information on the computer of top Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills. Mills was granted immunity in the Clinton email case. Why? Comey told the Senate that Mills’ immunity was a negotiation “tool to get the laptop.” Breitbart News reported that Mills, like Clinton, never signed mandatory security forms pertaining to the handling of classified information. Mills was granted immunity to protect her from prosecution while fellow Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who DID sign mandatory security forms, was not.

Train struck train station in Hoboken, NJ....mass casualties, reports of fatalities.

Syrian Christians hold up a sign begging for others to save Christians in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) Editor's Note: The following was adapted from an address delivered by the Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch to the 134th Convention of the Knights of Columbus. __________ On the night of August 6-7, 2014, one hundred fifty thousand people—some 40 percent of all Christians still living in Iraq—were driven from their ancestral communities. They had nowhere to flee except nearby Kurdistan. Two years have passed since that catastrophic eradication, and still there is no real solution. In Mosul...

How else would they have been able to get that amount of Dem support for the veto overide?

President Barack Obama’s drive to hand off control of Internet domains to a foreign multi-national operation will give some very unpleasant regimes equal say over the future of online speech and commerce. In fact, they are likely to have much more influence than America, because they will collectively push hard for a more tightly controlled Internet, and they are known for aggressively using political and economic pressure to get what they want. Here’s a look at some of the regimes that will begin shaping the future of the Internet in just a few days, if President Obama gets his way.

Chelsea Clinton said she didn’t know Hillary Clinton had pneumonia until she stumbled out of a 9/11 commemoration ceremony. During an interview with Cosmopolitan published Wednesday, the daughter of the Democratic nominee was asked why her mother didn’t disclose her illness to voters sooner when Chelsea admitted that not even she knew about it. “Well, I didn’t know that she had pneumonia,” Clinton told the magazine. “I didn’t know she had pneumonia until she came over to my apartment.”

Just recently, a new scam has started involving fake tax bills tied to the Affordable Care Act. In one sure sign the notices are fake, many are arriving by email—and the IRS doesn’t initiate taxpayer contact by email. Even so, some of the fakes are paper notices sent by regular mail and taxpayers should watch out.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it is sending another 600 troops to Iraq, raising the U.S. military presence in that war-torn country to some 5,000 American soldiers and special forces. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced the additional troops. He said, “The coalition to defeat ISIL continues to achieve results on the battlefield, and I congratulate Iraqi security forces on their recent progress, including the operation to free Sharqat. The coalition will continue to increase the pressure on ISIL in Mosul and wherever it seeks refuge in Iraq. “In anticipation of the Mosul fight, the United States...

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey revealed it wasn't the FBI that granted longtime Clinton aide and attorney Cheryl Mills immunity during the criminal investigation of Secretary Clinton's private email server. Instead, it was granted by prosecutors at the Department of Justice. "Who authorized granting Cheryl Mills immunity?" Rep. John Sensenbrenner asked. "It's a decision made by the Department of Justice, I don't know at what level inside," Comey responded. "In our investigations, any kind of immunity comes from the prosecutors, not the investigators."

During the Sunday broadcast of New York AM 970 radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” former New York City Democratic Mayoral Candidate Andrew Stein endorsed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, reasoning he was going to “shake things up in Washington.”

The White House will end U.S. oversight at month’s end, unless lawmakers step in. resident Obama wants this to be the last month of an open, uncensored internet guaranteed by the U.S. government. His plan to end American stewardship would hand new power to authoritarian governments offended by the internet as we know it. The good news is it appears congressional leaders have agreed to rescue the internet in time to prevent the Sept. 30 expiration of U.S. oversight. Sen. Ted Cruz, who has pushed hard against the plan since it was announced two years ago, told me last week...