Free Republic

Twenty-five Republicans rebelled against John Boehner (R-Ohio), who won a third term as Speaker on Tuesday. The 25 Republicans, including three freshmen, didn't coalesce around a single alternative candidate. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), whose nomination for Speaker became public just minutes before the vote, attracted the most votes at 12. Meanwhile, the other two long-shot candidates, Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) only received three and two votes each. Additionally, freshman Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) voted "present" rather than voting for anyone. And two Republican lawmakers voted for people who aren't even members of the House: Rep. Gary...

House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) 35% still won’t be able to win reelection without Democratic votes, Breitbart News has learned, and he has abandoned yet another plan to try to embarrass conservatives seeking his ouster, which he was going to move forward with on Friday. The day after Pope Francis addressed the Congress for the first time—in front of a teary-eyed Boehner—the Speaker had planned to move forward by bringing forth a resolution to vacate the chair, then holding a vote for his reelection intended to prove he had widespread support in the GOP conference. But just as when...

s the pope stalkers of the world watched his flight path on the Alitalia website, suddenly… the plane started making donuts. Several loops over North Carolina later, the pope is back on his way to D.C.: A source on the ground at Joint Base Andrews said several government officials told him the reason the plane started circling was that Obama and Biden are running late to the greeting ceremony. Ooops. Seems like even the bishop of Rome has to adjust his schedule around Beltway traffic.

The Pentagon has responded to a globally-released ‘Kill List’, asking law enforcement to give extra protection for military personnel whose personal information was released,News Channel 10 reports. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports the Pentagon spent the weekend notifying the soldiers who appeared on the list, and urged city police departments and military police to increase patrol in the neighborhoods where the targeted live. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) published the list days ago, a report that contained names, photos, and home addresses of U.S. Armed Forces personnel, causing alarm in cities potentially at high-risk....

Dr. Daniel Fine, associate director of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy, explains how an oil price war led by Saudi Arabia impacts the prospects for drilling off the N.C. coast

A mayoral candidate in a small Charlotte suburb wants to “eradicate” homosexuality and throw LGBT people in jail, the Kings Mountain Herald reports. Eugene Holmes, who is running for mayor of Kings Mountain, says he doesn’t want to be mayor, but he’s running because of his anti-gay views. He views Kentucky clerk Kim Davis as something of a role model. http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/kim-davis-inspires-nc-mayoral-candidate-to-jail-gays-whats-wrong-with-eradicating-homosexuals/#.Vfs7R4dOFwM.twitter

SURF CITY, N.C.(WECT) – Surf City Police Chief Mike Halstead has retired effective immediately following a Tuesday emergency meeting called about a Facebook post he made. Major Ron Shanahan will take over as interim chief. Town leaders and Halstead have agreed on severance pay following his decision to retire. According to Town Manager Larry Bergman, Surf City Mayor Zander Guy called the emergency meeting in reference to Halstead’s post he made to his personal page on Sept. 3. Bergman said he spoke with Halstead about the post after it was brought to his attention. He said he reminded him “that...

It's believed to be the largest battle between Europeans and Native Americans north of the Rio Grande, but the city of Mabila remains lost... A team of historians, archeologists and geologists have come to the University of Alabama for three days to study the battle.. Their aim, though, isn't to find the city, but to compile everything known, for possible future excavations, said Jim Knight, a UA anthropology professor who helped organize the conference... Finding Mabila means addressing a host of problems ranging from suspect accounts of De Soto's expedition to the possibility that modern dams may have flooded the...

Henry McCollum and Leon Brown served more than three decades behind bars for the 1983 murder of an 11-year-old Red Springs girl that DNA has proven they didn't commit. McCollum spent most of those nearly 31 years on death row. Just over a year ago, on Sept. 3, 2014, the mentally impaired half-brothers emerged from prison as free men. Earlier this month, the state of North Carolina awarded them $750,000 each for the time they spent wrongly incarcerated - the maximum payout allowed under state law. That payout, awarded Sept. 2 at a hearing in Raleigh, averages out to roughly...

More than 30 North Carolina magistrates so far have refused to perform weddings since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages in all 50 states. But they’re not likely to suffer the fate of Kim Davis, the Tennessee county clerk who was recently jailed for her refusal. It turns out that taking this position is legal in North Carolina, according to CBN.com. Shortly after the Supreme Court’s June decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which held that same-sex marriage is a constitutionally guaranteed right, the North Carolina legislature passed a law enabling officials to opt out of performing marriages altogether. The...

Not only is jailed Kentucky clerk Kim Davis citing her religious beliefs for denying marriage licenses to gay couples... In other states, according to USA Today:  In Alabama, as many as 10 counties have stopped issuing licenses altogether as of Wednesday. State law says that probate judges "may" issue the licenses rather than "shall."And in North Carolina, more than 30 county magistrates have refused to perform gay marriages under a law that says officials can refrain from conducting marriage-related activities.

Speaker ’s worst nightmare is on the rise here in rural North Carolina. Senator Mark Meadows is gaining steam as a clearly coordinated, highly orchestrated effort to remove Boehner as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives—and fix a broken Congress that no longer represents the wishes of the American people—comes into much clearer focus.

MORGANTON, North Carolina — Speaker Rep. John Boehner’s worst nightmare is on the rise here in rural North Carolina. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) is gaining steam as a clearly coordinated, highly orchestrated effort to remove Boehner as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives—and fix a broken Congress that no longer represents the wishes of the American people—comes into much clearer focus. Meadows invited Breitbart News to accompany him on a district visit, and the concerns he discussed with his constituents offer a microcosm of the issues America wants Congress to address. Everyone here agrees: John Boehner needs to...

A Texas police organization is demanding an apology from a former NFL player who reportedly claimed on social media that a cop put a gun to his face during a recent traffic stop — but the Pearland Police Officer’s Association said that dashcam footage shows the officer acting properly. The group claims that Lamar Lathon, 47, a linebacker who played for the Houston Oilers and the Carolina Panthers, lied about what unfolded in a Facebook post in which the former NFL player said that he was terrified and that he feared for his life, KHOU-TV reported. Footage from the September 1 incident,...

Thirty North Carolina magistrates in North Carolina are all refusing to conduct homosexual “marriages.” According to the report: More than 30 magistrates in North Carolina have refused to perform weddings. But thanks to a new state law, they were able to do so legally.Right after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in June, the state passed a law allowing officials to opt out of performing all marriages.The law exempts court officials with a “sincerely held religious objection” and is designed for those opposing gay marriage.The law’s original sponsor, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, said it’s probably preventing situations like...

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina legislators enacted a law in June giving magistrates and staffers in county register of deeds offices a way to avoid participating in same-sex weddings if they have religious objections to gay marriage. But officials said Thursday that the law is different from what's on the books in Kentucky, where a clerk who defied court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples has been jailed, and they don't foresee a similar standoff occurring in North Carolina. U.S. District Judge David Bunning said he had no choice but to jail Rowan County (Ky.) Clerk Kim Davis...

In 2013, more than 200,000 people on net fled states with Democrat governors for ones run by Republicans, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by Americans for Tax Reform. "People move away from high tax states to low tax states. Every tax refugee is sending a powerful message to politicians," said ATR President Grover Norquist. "They are voting with their feet. Leaders in Texas and Florida are listening. New York and California are not." That year, Democrat-run states lost a net 226,763 taxpayers, bringing with them nearly $15.7 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI). That same year,...

A day before the August recess, when Rep. Mark Meadows announced a legislative move to strip Speaker John A. Boehner of his gavel, few would have predicted that Donald Trump would be the summer’s biggest political story. But with the billionaire developer consistently topping the polls, and with most theories on his ascendance citing a general disgust with business as usual in Washington, Meadows sees Trump as a harbinger for his colleagues in the House. “The Trump phenomenon is not just with Donald Trump; it’s with re-election with members as well,” Meadows told CQ Roll Call Wednesday, “and there’s a...

Donald Trump announced Thursday he has signed a GOP pledge not to run as an independent in 2016, after a personal appeal from the Republican Party chairman. "I have signed the pledge," Trump said, holding it up. The decision by the Republican presidential front-runner helps ease concerns among party leadership that an outside Trump bid -- should he not win the nomination -- could threaten the party's chances in the general election by peeling off votes. The party began circulating the pledge to virtually all the Republican campaigns earlier this week. But Trump was the obvious concern. He had been...

At a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, Donald Trump reveals that he has signed a pledge to support whoever the Republican nominee for President may be- and that he will not run on a third party ticket.