Free Republic

ALERT: State medical examiner's office: 91 killed in Oklahoma tornado; death toll expected to rise. Spokeswoman Amy Elliott tells KOCO 5 that 51 of the deaths have been confirmed but that her office was awaiting the arrival of 40 more fatalities. *** Authorities say an elementary school in an Oklahoma City suburb took a direct hit from a mile-wide tornado. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department says there is no word of injuries from the elementary school. Knight says the school suffered "extensive damage" on Monday afternoon. He did not say which school was hit. Neighborhoods in Moore,...

Lizz Winstead heard about the tornado touching down in Oklahoma today and her liberal ideology quickly kicked in. Winstead, who created The Daily Show and uses social media to promote her far-left views, sent out this Twitter joke earlier today: "This tornado is in Oklahoma so clearly it has been ordered to only target conservatives." Social media brushback quickly followed, and Winstead served up a speedy apology for letting her progressive nature supercede a sense of decency toward the victims of the tornado. "Made a political joke, Twas before devastation revealed. In hindsight, had I understood, I would have refrained....

As NewsBusters has reported over the years, America's media love to hype every serious weather event. On Monday, shortly after an F4 tornado demolished the town of Moore, Oklahoma, MSNBC's Martin Bashir called it "perhaps the worst tornado in the history of the planet" (video follows with transcript and commentary,

Mr./Madam President, every week we’re here I try to remind this body of the damage that carbon pollution is doing to our atmosphere and oceans, try to awaken us to our duty.  I’ve done it thirty-three times now.  I’ve tried to kick out the underpinnings of any argument the deniers could stand on. I’ve kicked out the scientific denial argument, which properly belongs in the category of falsehood.  I’ve kicked out the economic denial argument, pointing out that in a proper market the costs of carbon must be in the price of carbon.  I tried to kick out the religious denial...

MOORE, Oklahoma - Several children have been pulled out of the rubble alive at a school in an Oklahoma City suburb. An Associated Press photographer saw several children being pulled out of what was left of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., on Monday after a massive tornado hit the region. Rescue workers lifted children from the rubble before they were passed down a human chain and taken to a triage center set up in the school's parking lot.

While many Americans were tuned into news coverage of the massive damage from tornadoes ravaging the state of Oklahoma, Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse took to the Senate floor to rail against his Republican colleagues for denying the theory of anthropogenic global warming. Whitehouse spent 15 minutes chastising GOP senators and justified his remarks by alluding to states that seek federal assistance in the wake of natural disasters. “So, you may have a question for me,” Whitehouse said. “Why do you care? Why do you, Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, care if we Republicans run off the climate...

NO LINK ON THEIR WEBSITE YET,

As families and schoolchildren hunkered down in storm shelters to avoid a massive tornado today near Oklahoma City, a liberal “comedian” found time to use the disaster to attack conservatives. The subtext of a tweet from “Daily Show” co-creator Lizz Winstead was clearly meant to insult the pro-life and family values people who live in the state of Oklahoma, one of the most Republican-oriented states in the nation. At a time when “PrayforOklahoma is the highest trending topic on Twitter, conservatives noted Winstead’s lack of class. This is the same Winstead who attacked Michele Bachmann on abortion and raises funds...

The devastation is incredible. The Weather Channel is carrying local news from a helicopter. i can only pray the kids had been released before then.

Tornado warnings up in Oklahoma. Watches in TX, OK, KS, MO, far NW Arkansas.

Live coverage: http://www.ksn.com/weather/live-radar-and-storm-coverage/ Large tornado confirmed on the ground. Weather service has issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation warning.

More than 100 people lined up to check out the handguns and rifles being auctioned off in Poteau on Saturday (May 18). The LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office auctioned off 264 weapons that had been confiscated and held in the department’s evidence vault. Sheriff Rob Seale said some of the guns were collected as far back as 1999. “A lot of them are weapons that have been seized in court cases that have been cleared,” said Seale. “A lot of them are just lost property that’s been found, property that’s been turned over by the owners.” The auction brought in potential...

Fiscal hawk Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is known primarily for attacking reckless and duplicate spending programs in an effort to get our nation's budgetary woes under control through spending cuts. However, in the NFL and other professional sports leagues, he may have found some serious revenue enhancements. The Republican senator is hoping to go after the tax exempt status of the NFL and other leagues currently classified as "non-profits." The NHL and PGA would also fall into this category. Coburn estimates that re-classifying the NFL would bring in as much as $91 million per year in additional revenue. This is...

Vicki Behenna told her son to believe what she believed — that the justice system is fair, that he should let it run its course. It is a belief born out of experience. She helped convict a bank president for misapplying funds, a pair of convenience store owners for food stamp fraud and even a former Oklahoma deputy treasurer for a kickback scheme involving state investment trades. She was part of the team that tried the crime of the century in Oklahoma. She helped prosecute Timothy McVeigh. She has seen the system work time and again. Then, it failed her...

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said that Hillary Clinton showed a “forceful attitude” not usually heard from women when she blew up in January’s Senate hearings on Benghazi, in response to repeated questions about the State Department’s initial claims that the attacks were the result of protests. “I think that she has gotten by with that type of a forceful attitude, something that’s not normally accustomed — that you don’t hear from women as much as you do men. And she came out so forcefully, and you could tell that it was orchestrated at the time that she said it,” Inhofe...

The top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said President Barack Obama could possibly be impeached over what happened in Benghazi. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in a radio interview Thursday that “of all the great cover-ups in history” — including the Pentagon papers, Iran-Contra and Watergate — Benghazi “is going to go down as most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history.” “We may be starting to use the I-word before too long,” Inhofe said on the Las Vegas-based “Rusty Humphries Show.” “The I-word meaning impeachment?” Humphries asked. “Yeah,” Inhofe confirmed. When Humphries questioned the likelihood of impeachment,...

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) suggested that President Obama could be impeached over what he alleged was a White House cover-up after last year’s attack in Benghazi, Libya. Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Thursday with “The Rusty Humphries Show” that impeachment would become an issue soon over the “greatest cover-up in American history.” “People may be starting to use the I-word before too long,” Inhofe said. “The I-word meaning impeachment?” Humphries asked. “Yeah,” Inhofe responded. “Of all the great cover-ups in history — the Pentagon papers, Iran-Contra, Watergate, all the rest of...

The group, Oklahomans for a Healthy Economy, has established a website and financed a radio ad that says Washington is about to spend $8.6 billion on health care in Oklahoma and that the money will be spent in other states if Oklahoma rejects it. “Oklahoma needs this money to improve our health care system, to cover more Oklahomans, to reduce the cost of coverage and create over 15,000 jobs,” the ad says. “We pay our taxes. This is our money. And we can spend it better than Washington politicians. So let's get together and make a plan for Oklahoma's health...

There's a popular saying in America that "whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over." The United States supreme court has been called upon to settle a battle that is raging over access to the Red River which serves Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Water-starved Texas feels that it is entitled under the Red River compact, which was signed by all four states, to billions of gallons of water from the Oklahoma side of the river basin. Oklahoma insists that Texas is not doing enough to conserve. Texas is also fighting a battle with New Mexico over access...

By the end of Tom Coburn's Morning Joe appearance today, a panel member could be heard, off-camera, whistling in astonishment. Not surprising, since the plain-talking Republican Senator from Oklahoma had just unloaded on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Coburn called Reid "dishonest" in his dealings with him, saying that Reid was "not truthful" and had "not kept his word." For good measure, Coburn added that Reid had been a "failure" as Majority Leader. View the video here.

Governor Mary Falin has signed a bill pro-life advocates supported that would protect patients from being denied lifesaving medical treatment. Falin signed HB 1403, the Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act, which protects a patient from being denied life-preserving treatment (when the patient wants the treatment and can pay for it, and the treatment could preserve the patient’s life) because of an arbitrary judgment of a medical provider that the patient’s life is not worth living. Tony Lauinger, the head of Oklahomans for Life, told LifeNews he is pleased she signed the measure. “Governor Mary Fallin has signed into law the Nondiscrimination...

A blind veteran was forced to defend himself after being attacked in broad daylight. Fifty-one-year-old Gordon Besaw has glaucoma. He and his seeing eye dog, Derby, were headed to the VA Medical Center for treatment Tuesday when police say he was attacked by 27-year-old Christopher Andrew. "He asked me, 'Are you blind?' I said yes," said Besaw. "He said, 'I can make you see before you see God'." Police say Andrew punched the retired U.S. Army Special Forces soldier in the head. "He said, 'I can make you see again' and he punched me in the head again," Besaw said....

MCALESTER, Okla. (AP) - A Krebs man who was in the country illegally has pleaded guilty to raping and impregnating an 11-year-old girl. The man entered his plea Monday and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. On Wednesday, Pittsburg County District Attorney Farley Ward told the McAlester News-Capital that DNA test results show the defendant had gotten the child pregnant. The Associated Press isn't naming the man because doing so could identify the victim. The man was first arrested in 2011 for assault and transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. He was deported later that year, but Oklahoma...

Democratic leaders are wooing staunchly pro-gun candidates to run in pivotal Senate races at the same time they are discussing a strategy for bringing gun control legislation back up for debate. The two-pronged effort has prompted Republicans to accuse the Senate Democratic leadership of hypocrisy, but Democrats say it is simply smart politics. The question is whether two of the Democrats’ most promising potential candidates in Montana and South Dakota will pay a price for the leadership’s political maneuverings in Washington. Or will recruiting candidates who do not support President Obama’s gun control agenda have any effect on Democratic fundraising...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After 14 years on the run from the FBI and tips from witnesses in two countries, David Lee Kemp turned himself over to authorities in southwest Oklahoma early Friday morning, local authorities said. Kemp, of Lawton, Okla., was the only inmate to elude capture after escaping with eight other inmates on March 11, 1999, while awaiting trial on two first-degree murder counts in the killings of his ex-wife and her boyfriend. Comanche County Sheriff Kenny Stradley said Kemp told police he was done running. "He said that he was just tired basically of running and it...

A Muskogee business owner told police he shot a man breaking into his business. Muskogee police are investigating a case where the owner of Fast Wrecker shot a suspected burglar he says he caught breaking into his business early Thursday morning. Oklahoma’s Stand Your Ground law expanded to businesses in 2011, that allows a business owner to shoot an intruder if they feel they fear death or great bodily harm. The intruder doesn’t have to be armed. In the three-and-a-half minute 911 call, business owner, Dale Ford, didn’t know at first if he shot the suspected burglar. Ford: "I fired...

As the White House moves ever so slowly toward a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, some environmental groups used Monday — Earth Day — to remind the president that approval of the massive project would carry real consequences. “You’ll see … the biggest spread of peaceful civil disobedience in modern American history,” said Becky Bond, political director of the liberal activist group Credo. The organization has been among the loudest opponents of the proposed pipeline, which would carry oil sands from Alberta, Canada, south through the U.S. heartland to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Credo helped organize a San...

The U.S. Geological Survey says several earthquakes have shaken central Oklahoma. USGS geophysicist Jana Pursley says the temblors began around 1:45 a.m. Tuesday and all were centered northeast of Oklahoma City. She said three earthquakes have been confirmed and that she was working on a confirming a possible fourth. She says the strongest was a magnitude 4.3 quake centered near the town of Luther.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released the following statement today regarding a proposal by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) to expand background checks for gun purchases: “The Manchin-Toomey proposal is a good faith but unworkable plan. The proposal will impose new taxes and unreasonable burdens on law-abiding citizens. The agreement also prioritizes collecting records over protecting citizens. As gun control special interest groups admit, the proposal expands the government’s powers to record sales of firearms at the expense of expanding the scope of background checks. This is the wrong approach. Preventing sales to...

GUTHRIE, Okla. – One person was shot and killed Thursday on Guthrie’s east side. Police said a homeowner opened fire on a naked intruder who stunned the family after breaking through a back door. That homeowner told police his family was asleep when they first heard banging at the door. He loaded his weapon and shot the man when he walked into the kitchen and lunged at him. The victim’s name hasn’t been released but they said he’s a white male in his 40s who lives in the area. Officials said the suspected intruder may have been suffering from mental...

The Republican plan to block debate on Senate Bill 649, which requires background checks on almost all gun purchases and transfers, failed spectacularly Thursday morning when sixteen Republican Senators joined almost all of the Democrats to vote in favor opening debate on the bill. Among those voting to defeat the filibuster were 9 Democrats with “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association, and 12 A-rated Republicans (out of 16 Republican “ayes”). Two Democrats, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK), joined the majority of Republican Senators who tried to prevent debate, much less a vote, on the bill....

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., responded Wednesday to criticism of remarks he made Tuesday about the Senate's background check bill. "I think it's so unfair of the administration to hurt these families, to make them think this has something to do with them when, in fact, it doesn't," Inhofe told the Huffington Post on Tuesday in regard to families of those killed in the Connecticut school massacre. Later, on his Facebook page, Inhofe said his remarks were misrepresented. "My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones during the tragedy in Newtown," he wrote. "I am even...

(CNN) – A key player in negotiations over potential gun control legislation said on Tuesday a planned GOP filibuster of the bill won’t occur if Democrats allow Republicans to bring amendments up for a vote. Sen. Tom Coburn, speaking on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront,” said a filibuster that’s been promised by more than a dozen fellow Republicans would prevent Americans from seeing where their elected officials stand on the issue. “It’s not going to be filibustered,” Coburn said, adding that the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid needs to offer "an open amendment process" in order for Republicans to agree to...

Senate votes on climate change and the Keystone XL oil pipeline laid bare divisions among Democrats — and underscored why the White House, not Congress, will be where the critical climate decisions reside in President Obama’s second term.Several votes during the freewheeling debate over a nonbinding budget plan provided a political barometer of where the chamber, including vulnerable Democrats, stand on the topics. Advocates of the proposed pipeline scored a symbolic victory Friday when 62 lawmakers voted for an amendment backing the project to bring oil from Canadian tar sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries. Seventeen Democrats supported Sen....

Senator Don Barrington (R-Lawton), Chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee, is the consummate politician. He's very good at keeping you at bay when you want to know his intentions with the bills assigned to his committee. He smiles and is quite personable as he tells you he'll "take a look at it." We've heard "I'll take a look at it" quite a bit. It is becoming clear, though, that the Senator is not interested in furthering the rights of gun owners. Oh, sure, he does just enough so he can tell his constituents he is pro-gun, but is he...

A state senator is calling for a legal ban to city membership in groups tied to the United Nation's controversial Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is the U.N.'s comprehensive plan of global, national and local action to help preserve the environment in the 21st Century. Originally drafted in 1992 with input from the George H.W. Bush administration, the agenda has become a rallying point for tea party Republicans and others concerned about the threat of one-world government. Typically, the "agenda" plays out in programs to encourage noncontroversial ideas like bike trails, mass transit, sustainable farming and energy conservation, but to its...

If David Kempf wins the mayoral race on April 2, a bronze statue of Free Cheese based on the People's Cube design is going to be built in Oklahoma's third largest city, Norman. There's no reason why he shouldn't, since he just received our official endorsement, which he also announced on his website. Our relationship started after we noticed incoming web traffic from David's campaign website. We traced the link to a section dedicated to Free Cheese. In a humorous way, the candidate for Mayor of Norman described his attitude towards free government cheese, which he defined as "the extraction...

WASHINGTON — An unusual and widely felt 5.6-magnitude quake in Oklahoma in 2011 was probably caused when oil drilling waste was pushed deep underground, a team of university and federal scientists concluded.

A study by the Society of Actuaries estimates that the new federal health care law will raise medical claims costs in South Dakota by 29 percent. Medical claims costs are the main driver of health insurance premiums. The study estimates that President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act will raise claims costs nationally by an average of 32 percent per person in the individual health insurance market by 2017. That's partly due to sicker people joining the pool.

At least four states won’t enforce new sweeping insurance market reforms rolling out next year with the health law — leaving federal health officials in Washington to pick up the slack, yet another wrinkle in Obamacare implementation. Insurance regulation is a huge responsibility that’s been closely guarded by the states. That’s why the Obama administration and those closely watching the rollout of Obamacare believe that even states that have sworn off the law’s coverage expansions will still enforce its new measures — including new benefit mandates, cost-sharing guidelines and rules on how insurers rate customers — to retain control over...

On Thursday, during the predawn hours of the morning, an Oklahoma gun owner defended his home while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher, proving once again that when seconds count the police are minutes away. The homeowner, whose name has not been released, is heard on the call pleading with the dispatcher to send help immediately as the intruder was kicking down his front door. Though, he made it pretty clear that if police didn’t arrive in the very near future, he’d take matters into his own hands. “You better get these *expletive* here or they will die,” the...

The United States is in the midst of one of the biggest droughts in recent memory. At last count, over half of the lower 48 states had abnormally dry conditions and are suffering from at least moderate drought.... ...U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist and Drought Monitor team member, Brad Rippey, explained that when the drought began in 2012, the worst of the conditions were much farther east, in states like Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan — the corn belt states. Based on pre-drought estimates, corn used for grain lost slightly more than a quarter of its potential. By the Summer of...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The federal government has informed Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak that it intends to take over swaths of insurance regulation in the state to ensure compliance with the Affordable Care Act – commonly known as “Obamacare.” The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is notifying insurers in Oklahoma that it will handle enforcement of the ACA. In a March 15 letter to Doak, the agency notified the Insurance Department of its responsibility to enforce the ACA in Oklahoma because the state has declined to do so. Should Oklahoma enact“market reform requirements,” according to the letter, the...

Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 states will receive funding to turn around their persistently lowest-achieving schools through the Department's School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. Four of the states will receive awards to run a new competition for previously unfunded schools, and six states will receive continuation funds for the third year of implementing a SIG model. The states receiving new awards are: Indiana—$9.2 million; Nebraska—$2.6 million; Colorado—$5.2 million; and Louisiana—$9.6 million. The states receiving continuation awards are: Alaska—$1.5 million; Iowa—$3.0 million; North Dakota—$1.2 million; Oklahoma—$5.5 million; Texas—$49.7 million; and Wyoming—$1.1 million. "When schools fail, our...

Senators are pushing to reinstate tuition assistance for members of the U.S. military, decrying a move by the administration to suspend the program citing the sequester. "The president wants Americans to feel the pain of the arbitrary across-the-board budget cuts from sequestration, but to cut off promised education assistance for our service members when there are other lower priority spending programs to draw from is an injustice," Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. He and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina introduced an amendment Wednesday to a stopgap...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Prater alleges the part-time board operated a secret parole docket and granted early parole to some state prison inmates who were not eligible for it.

On Tuesday, NBC News alleged that the NRA would not fight a federal universal background check bill provided that the UBC bill omits language that calls for a national gun registry. Kaise Hunt, a political reporter for NBC News wrote: Senators negotiating a bill mandating background checks for all gun buyers are privately expecting the National Rifle Association not to fight the measure — provided the legislation does not require private gun sellers to maintain records of the checks, NBC News has learned. If that requirement is met and key Republican negotiator Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma signs on, the...

Abound made national headlines last year when the solar firm collapsed after receiving a $400 million taxpayer loan guarantee. But that failure could potentially stick taxpayers with an estimated $2.2 million more in cleanup costs ... ... Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had informally ordered Abound Solar to clean up hazardous waste at four Front Range locations, where concerns were raised about contamination. The CDPHE found 2,500 pallets of “unsellable” solar panels and over 6,000 gallons of hazardous liquids. The panels and liquids contain cadmium, considered a toxic substance by federal health agencies

New Jersey’s governor has branded them “political thugs.” A former federal education official has likened them to terrorists. Less vilified in Kansas than some other parts of the country, those teachers unions still find their clout under attack in the Legislature. The battle over teachers unions has marched its way across the country. Ohio. Michigan. Wisconsin. Idaho. And now it’s in Kansas, greeted by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his conservative allies in the Legislature. Lawmakers are moving to undercut the tenuous power of teachers unions by barring them from using voluntary paycheck deductions for politics. And they’re going after...

The State Department released preliminary findings of a new environmental impact study surrounding the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, but made no clear recommendation as to whether the the pipeline should be held up for environmental or economic reasons. Reporters trying to make sense of the nearly 2,000 pages of findings were flummoxed by one senior State Department official who stressed that the document “does not come out one way or the other and make a decision” about whether the U.S. should or should not go forward with the project. Years of heated debate have surrounded the proposed 1,700...