Free Republic

MEDFORD, Mass. — Colleges are paying students to take a year off after high school to travel, volunteer or do internships so that students of all income brackets can benefit from “gap years.” A new program at Tufts University and existing ones at a handful of other schools aim to remove the financial barriers that can keep cash-strapped students from exploring different communities and challenge their comfort zones before jumping right into college. The gap year program starting this fall at Tufts will pay for housing, airfare and even visa fees, which can often add up to $30,000 or more....

via TCOT Report: "Grassroots Volunteers Challenge 180 ‘Missing’ Voters in North Carolina" Friday, representatives from the Voter Integrity Project and Asheville Tea Party announced they filed over 180 challenges to the registrations of so-called ‘inactive voters’ in Buncombe County, NC. The challenges trigger a compulsory investigation into the legitimacy of each voter. Law requires that at the conclusion of the investigation, the Board of Elections members vote to keep or clear that individual from the registered voter rolls. The two groups first teamed up when the Asheville Tea Party hosted a Voter Integrity Boot Camp in October 2013. Several volunteers...

It's not everyday that you shoot a 500-pound beast. Hunters in Bertie County, N.C., knew about the massive wild hog roaming around their woods when it was captured on trail cameras several years ago. But Jett Webb finally managed to capture the animal near land leased by the White Oak Ranch Hunting Club. "It was very surreal,” Webb recently told WNCN. “It was a shock. It was very humbling to say the least, when you walk up on a beast that big and you say, 'Oh my gosh. I had no idea that there could be something that big running...

Rep. Renee Ellmers had been on Laura Ingraham’s nationally-syndicated radio program to talk about Obamacare and North Carolina politics Thursday, but when the conversation turned to immigration about five minutes into the interview, things got ugly. Ellmers, under fire on amnesty from calm but insistent questioning from Ingraham, called her host “small minded,” “ignorant,” and claimed to be the author of a ubiquitious immigration talking point, adopting the third person to say “Renee Ellmers thinks for herself.” The epic bout began when Ingraham brought up Ellmers’ primary challenger Frank Roche and asked why she supports a pathway to citizenship for...

This was the flag of slave holding states in the United States that seceded in 1861, causing Civil War. Today the symbol is used by the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi groups, and other organizations who are hostile to African-Americans. For the last several decades, protests have continued, demanding that this flag not be displayed in public places. Many people were greatly disturbed to see that the Confederate Flag is now being displayed, not in the United States, but in Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine. Larry Holmes, a civil rights activist in New York City, explained why the flag is...

When the UAW failed miserably in Chattanooga and was not able to unionize the Volkswagen plant, even with a staked deck, it started a chain reaction and the next domino has fallen. The news that the AFL-CIO has decided to keep its money and not even try to save three Southern Democrat Senators comes as no real shock. The powerful union reviewed the polls and the political climate in North Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas and decided backing the Democrats in these states would be throwing good money after bad. The decision left Democrat Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu...

GRAHAM, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina 19-year-old faces jail time after pulling down his pants while walking away from a judge.

The familiar Washington narrative on the scrum for the U.S. Senate has been rinsed, recycled and delivered once again: Republicans are primed to pick up the six seats necessary to capture control of the upper chamber. The midterm atmosphere sure looks ripe, the polling appears favorable but, as it did in 2010 and 2012, the most competitive batch of races will likely come down to candidate quality. It’s the key component that stifled GOP chances before, and could very well again. .... .... A closer look at the most competitive contests demonstrates why a Senate majority in 2014 is again...

**SNIP** Senator Hagan released the following statement to ABC11: "When this law was written, we established a three-year transition period so that insurance companies had time to begin offering plans that met the requirements of the law for the 5 percent of people on the individual market. As I've made clear, I didn't know that some insurance companies would use that transition period to sell outdated plans without fully notifying consumers that they would no longer be available in 2014. But as soon as it came to my attention last fall when I heard from constituents who felt blindsided by...

DURHAM, N.C. — A 20-year-old sophomore communications major at North Carolina Central University, Lewis James Little sat in the Durham County jail for a month last year after he did what he says he thought was the right thing. He and several friends had been visiting the home of a childhood friend on Melbourne Street in east Durham on the night of June 21, 2013, when, he says, they discovered 25-year-old Michael Lee dead in the middle of the road. "I called the police – when none of the other guys were even thinking about it – trying to do...

Any visitor to North Carolina and California will know that the two states have their differences. The former is a typically “red state”; California is staunchly “blue.” Each has certain geographic, ethnic and cultural peculiarities, different demographic makeup, family income levels, and more. Yet perhaps the most surprising divide, one many wouldn’t expect, is that North Carolina appears to be a hotbed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD—especially when compared to California. A child who lived in North Carolina instead of California in 2007, according to U.S. academics Stephen Hinshaw and Richard Scheffler, was 2½ times more likely to...

The United States Postal Service has announced that former NRA President Charlton Heston will be honored with his own stamp. The stamp is part of their “Legends of Hollywood” series, and while the specific issue date has not yet been determined, it will be issued sometime in 2014. Heston was a five term president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003. He was a tireless advocate for Second Amendment rights and will always be remembered by the NRA faithful for his “cold, dead hands” speech delivered at the 2000 NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

**SNIP** Midterm elections are often a reflection of the approval rating of the incumbent president and now President Obama stands at 42.8%. And elections in the 6th year of a PresidentÂ’s term are usually not good for the incumbentÂ’s party. To make things even worse for Democrats, the issues of a weak economy and Obamacare make November look bleak for Harry Reid and his Senate Democratic cohorts. â—¾Alaska, Mark Begich â—¾Arkansas, Mark Pryor â—¾Louisiana, Mary Landrieu â—¾Michigan, Open Seat (liberal Democrat Carl Levin retiring) â—¾Montana, John Walsh â—¾North Carolina, Kay Hagan â—¾South Dakota, being vacated by retiring Democrat Tim Johnson...

The United States Postal Service has announced that former NRA President Charlton Heston will be honored with his own stamp. The stamp is part of their “Legends of Hollywood” series, and while the specific issue date has not yet determined, it will be issued sometime in 2014. Heston was a five term president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003. He was a tireless advocate for Second Amendment rights and will always be remembered by the NRA faithful for his “cold, dead hands” speech delivered at the 2000 NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. The speech was...

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A Wilmington apartment complex will soon be running DNA tests on dog poop to identify owners who don't clean up after their pooches do their business. The StarNews of Wilmington reports The Reserve at Forest Hills will ask the complex's 100 dog owners to have their pets swabbed for a DNA sample. Then, if poop found in the complex matches a pet, the owner will be fined and also will have to pay for the DNA testing which can cost up to $50.

Rules for voting, firearms, and government services should all be heavy — or light.Insofar as it is a case at all, and not merely a political cudgel, the brief against voter ID is simple. Minorities and the poor, advocates charge, disproportionately lack government-issued identification documents, and, as a result of the allegedly arduous process that is required to obtain them, they may struggle in perpetuity to remedy this. In consequence, laws that make presentation of ID the price of exercising a fundamental right are unacceptable — disenfranchising the marginalized, removing their voices from the public square, and imposing obstacles to...

Author's Note: The fight for student’s rights continues. The series is stretching out longer than anticipated but you will want to keep reading. There's some good news at the end of the road. Dear Chancellor Miller (chancellor@uncw.edu); After laying the groundwork in my previous correspondence, I finally have an opportunity to respond to the sweeping claim that UNCW's student affairs division treats student groups equally, regardless of their political viewpoint. I will also respond to the Dean's claim that there are hundreds of student groups on campus that have been approved without any difficulties whatsoever. That claim suggests that those...

A teen satanist in a Pennsylvania prison claims she has killed nearly two dozen people in different parts of the country, according to a report in a local newspaper. "When I hit 22, I stopped counting," Miranda Barbour said in an jailhouse interview with local newspaper the Daily Item in Sudbury. She added in the interview that ran on Saturday that she just wanted to be honest. Barbour, 19, has been charged with the murder of a man allegedly lured to a rendezvous through Craigslist. She said she participated in killings in Alaska, Texas, North Carolina and California, the newspaper...

The White House said Thursday that President Obama still believes American Olympians shouldn’t have to pay income taxes on the medals they win. But a bill by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) never moved in the Senate. Three Republican lawmakers — Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Walter Jones (R-N.C.) and Pete Sessions (R-Texas) — proposed a bill similar to Rubio's before this year's games, but it has also failed to gain traction.

Last night on Fox News' Hannity, Republican Senator Tim Scott responded to North Carolina NAACP Leader William Barber after he doubled down on comments he made calling Scott a "dummy." Fox News Contributor, radio host and tea party leader David Webb traveled to North Carolina over the weekend to confront Barber, who refused to apologize. In addition, supporters of Barber laughed out loud at the idea Barber's comments were inappropriate. National leaders at the NAACP have refused to comment, despite Scott being the first African-American Senator since Reconstruction.