Free Republic

A new bombshell report from Politico found that House Speaker John Boehner had several days of secret negotiations with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the recently emboldened former Speaker, leading up to his decision to flip-flop and fund President Obama’s executive amnesty—including a pre-hashed out deal to use the hoopla around Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Tuesday address to Congress over Iran’s nuclear ambitions as political cover to sneak in the extraordinarily controversial vote. Even with the bombshell report, however, Boehner’s office continues to deny any deal took place. “It was Monday at 5:30 p.m. when Pelosi and Boehner agreed that...

The House Freedom Caucus doesn’t have a Web site. It’s not completely clear exactly who belongs to the group. But in the just-completed fight over Homeland Security funding, it was hard to miss the influence of the insurgent conservative bloc as it clashed with GOP leadership. The small group of far-right renegades has emerged as the latest embodiment of the internal GOP resistance to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio); as a general rule, they are unpredictable, opaque and completely unwilling to back down from any fight against President Obama and his agenda. As the unified Republican majority looks to...

A former substitute teacher in Ohio has been sentenced to 90 days in jail after she was found guilty of showing students a graphic horror movie during class. Sheila Kearns, 58, was convicted in January of four counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The judge reportedly placed her on probation for three years but made the jail time a condition of her probation. Ms. Kearns apologized in court, saying she was aware of “The ABCs of Death’s” content but hadn’t actually watched it prior to showing it during five separate Spanish classes at Columbus’ East...

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and 19 other Republicans are backing legislation to block the Federal Communications Commission’s new rules on net neutrality. Blackburn's two-page bill, introduced Tuesday, would make sure that the FCC's regulations approved last week would have "no force of effect." It would also restrict the commission from approving any new regulations that are substantially similar, unless Congress first authorized it. The bill's 19 co-sponsors include most of the Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, which has jurisdiction over the agency. That includes Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), vice chairman of the subcommittee. "My...

The National Socialist Movement has scheduled an April 18 return to Toledo, nearly a decade after a planned rally ignited rioting in the city. The neo-Nazi group’s Oct. 15, 2005, demonstration preceded a riot and the arrest of more than 100 people. Angry crowds attacked emergency workers, burned down a bar, and looted two convenience stores. Next month’s rally is planned for 3:30 p.m. outside One Government Center, said Dan Donaldson, 36, of the Toledo area. Mr. Donaldson is the movement’s regional director representing Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and West Virginia. “There is somebody out there for white people’s interests and...

Adam Hoover is facing a misdemeanor charge of making false alarms.

Daily Show host Jon Stewart took issue with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Monday after he failed to pass funding the Department of Homeland Security.“So to stop the President from being too lenient on illegal immigration, you want to defund the department that secures the border?” Stewart asked.“It’s as though the caucus that you, John Boehner, purport to control has told you to [kiss] their ass,” Stewart said, referring to Boehner recently making kissy face noises at a reporter.Republicans touted their leadership skills just before the midterm elections, but so far, that hasn’t worked out well.“This finally answers the question,...

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

House Speaker John Boehner plans to present Prime Minister Netanyahu with a gift when Netanyahu speaks to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. The gift is a bust of a politician whom Netanyahu greatly admires: Winston Churchill. House Speaker John Boehner plans to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a bust of Winston Churchill when he speaks to a joint meeting of Congress about the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran. The gift was chosen because Netanyahu and the former prime minister of Britain are the only foreign leaders who have addressed Congress three separate times. ... Boehner also...

Let’s try this again. Congress returns Monday staring at another deadline to finance the Department of Homeland Security. But instead of stalling again, lawmakers look more likely this time to steer the anti-terrorism agency away from the funding cliff through September. With the clock ticking until the new Friday deadline to avert a DHS funding lapse, the GOP-controlled Senate will take the first step with a vote Monday on whether to head into formal negotiations with the House on financing the security agency. Senate Democrats are expected to block that move. That will put the onus squarely back on Speaker...

As negotiations over a deal with Iran continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in the United States ahead of his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. A senior Israeli official told reporters on Netanyahu's flight that Congress could be "the last brake" for stopping a nuclear deal with Iran. Saying it was Israel's impression that members of Congress "do not necessarily know the details of the deal coming together, which we do not see as a good deal," the official said Netanyahu in his speech would give a detailed explanation of his objections to an...

Secretary of State John Kerry is awfully frustrated with House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress this Tuesday. Here’s what Kerry had to say about Boehner’s daring invitation Sunday morning on ABC’s "This Week: “It was odd, if not unique, that we learned of it from the speaker of the House and that an administration was not included in this process," he said. "But the administration is not seeking to politicize this.” While insisting the White House has no political desires in regards to the foreign leaders' appearance (Kerry said they don't want it to...

House Speaker John Boehner’s annoyance with President Barack Obama is turning into a grudge match against the Constitution. His decision to invite a foreign head of government to address Congress without first consulting the sitting president has no precedent in American history. And for a simple reason. It’s unconstitutional. Boehner (R-Ohio) fully admits that his failure to communicate with the White House was not an oversight. Like a schoolboy passing notes when the teacher turns to the blackboard, he sneaked behind Obama’s back to set the date for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech with his country’s ambassador to the...

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the White House has "attacked" him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Netanyahu's planned address to Congress Tuesday in which he is expected to criticize international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. "The demand for seats in the House, the demand for tickets, I've never seen anything like it. Everybody wants to be there," Boehner said. "What I do wonder is why the White House feels threatened because the Congress wants to support Israel and wants to hear what a trusted ally has to say. It has been, frankly, remarkable to me, the...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - More than 14,600 blighted properties around Ohio have been demolished in the past two years under a program aimed at benefiting areas affected by foreclosures, the state’s attorney general said Friday. Ohio used $75 million from a national settlement with major mortgage servicers to create a grant program in 2012 to revitalize neighborhoods and eliminate abandoned structures. A portion of the settlement money also was designated for consumer relief in the form of cash payments, loan modifications and refinancing. Attorney General Mike DeWine released a report on the results of the demolition program at a news...

Funding for the department expires at midnight on Friday. ... Boehner doesn't appear to be going along with his Republican counterparts in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is looking to avert a shutdown by offering Democrats a clean funding bill for DHS. The speaker would not say whether he would back a Senate funding bill without provisions that would defund President Obama's executive actions on immigration. At one point, Boehner blew kisses at reporters after they asked whether he would. ... McConnell had attempted to push through a House-passed funding bill four times, but Senate Democrats blocked it...

Roughly 61,000 Ohioans in Medicaid are expected to lose their coverage this weekend after failing to take steps to renew their health benefits as required, the state’s Medicaid director said Thursday. Those recipients who did not update their household income or other eligibility information as requested are poised to be terminated from the program Saturday. Federal law requires states to “redetermine” annually whether recipients remain eligible for Medicaid. The federal-state program for the poor and disabled provides coverage to nearly one out of every four Ohioans. The process was on hold in Ohio for a year as the federal health...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative Republicans urged House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner not to capitulate in a fight with Democrats over President Barack Obama's immigration policy that threatens a partial Homeland Security shutdown later this week. The conservative lawmakers, led by Representative Jeff Duncan, circulated a letter to Boehner and other House leaders telling them to hold the line in opposing Obama's executive actions shielding millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, a Duncan aide said on Tuesday. "Now is the time to stand firm against these unlawful executive actions," said the letter, signed by about 20 conservative Republicans so far.

By Alexander Bolton - 02/24/15 02:34 PM EST Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said the Senate may vote “very quickly” on a clean Department of Homeland Security funding bill.Days before a shutdown of the critical agency, McConnell said he would “be happy" to pass a clean DHS funding bill before the Senate considers a narrow measure overturning President Obama’s most recent executive actions on immigration. ADVERTISEMENT His plan, if accepted by Senate Democrats and House Republicans, would prevent Homeland Security from shutting down on Saturday.McConnell noted the Senate is scheduled to vote Friday on legislation he introduced this...

In what is becoming an increasingly nasty grudge match, the White House is mulling ways to undercut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming trip to Washington and blunt his message that a potential nuclear deal with Iran is bad for Israel and the world. There are limits. Administration officials have discarded the idea of President Barack Obama himself giving an Iran-related address to rebut the two speeches Netanyahu is to deliver during his early March visit. But other options remain on the table. Among them: a presidential interview with a prominent journalist known for coverage of the rift between Obama...