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Florida is taking a strong stand against retail theft and “porch piracy.” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that would crack down on criminals participating in shoplifting rings and engaging in other types of property crime. While doing so, he took some shots at California and New York for going easy on those committing these offenses. Amid widespread retail theft occurring across the nation, state and local governments are grappling with putting a stop to these operations while others are simply responding with a shrug. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis announced...

Fox News has updated its network marketing campaign to "Standing Up For What's Right" following President Donald Trump's Twitter tirade against the cable news channel. The new verbage appears on primetime chyrons, and comes soon after Trump went on a retweet spree against the network, making sure his 89 million followers saw the statement "#foxnews is dead."

CNN reports counter offer by GOP in Kavanaugh hearing: Hearing Wednesday. Ford first. No subpoena for eyewitness Judge. GOP will get a woman lawyer to look better for them.

Dr. Ford has indicated to Republicans she doesn't want to fly, in part revealing why she doesn't want the hearing to be on Monday.

The woman accusing Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault during a high school party nearly 40 years ago, Christine Blasey Ford, has given the Senate Judiciary Committee a list of demands she says must be met before she's willing to testify about the incident under oath. According to Chairman Chuck Grassley's staff, these demands are non-starters.

Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford is getting advice by Democratic super-activist Ricki Seidman, Politico reports. Seidman, currently an executive at a public relations company, has worked for the Dukakis, Mondale and Clinton campaigns for president. She served as Joe Biden’s communications director when he was named Barack Obama’s running mate in the 2008 election, and managed the confirmation of Obama’s Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Recently, Seidman served at the the executive director of the liberal voter turnout group Rock the Vote. Seidman served in Bill Clinton’s campaign’s “war room” and served as deputy communications director in the...

So Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser has finally come forward: In a Washington Post piece, 51-year-old research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford says that she was sexually assaulted by the Supreme Court nominee in high school back sometime during the early 1980s. ...snip... This led to a predictable backlash on social media. It also led to a predictable phrase that appeared in a lot of tweets by prominent liberals. See if you can notice — and figure out why NeverTrumper conservative pundit Erick Erickson thinks this was the work of a PR firm.

According to an email sent by Ford's lawyers and obtained by The New York Times, she would appear as long as senators provide “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety." In the letter Thursday, Ford's attorneys wrote that it “is not possible" for Ford to testify on Monday. The lawyers added that "the Committee’s insistence that it occur then is arbitrary in any event.”

The woman who has accused Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of sexual assault has told the Senate Judiciary Committee, in an apparent bid to jump-start negotiations, that she “would be prepared to testify next week,” so long as senators offer “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety,” according to an email her lawyers sent to committee staff members. In the email, obtained by The New York Times, the lawyer for Christine Blasey Ford said that testifying Monday — the timetable Republicans have set for a hearing — “is not possible and the Committee’s insistence that it occur then is...

SNIP Of her dad’s feud with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, Ivanka called the war of words “sensationalized” and “very much for TV.” Shrugging it off further, she said in what sounded a bit like channeling the Donald, “Truthfully, it didn’t interest me that much.”

Now is the time to launch a PR add campaign across major TV and radio outlets highlighting the President and Harry Reid using their own intransigent, belligerent words and duplicitous intent regarding the Government shutdown (and Obamacare)! Where are the big time conservative groups coordinating this? It was a laser focused add campaign that derailed Hilliary care and turned the public support against it. The time is ripe for a concerted orchestrated PR response and air cover to breakthrough the MSM bias and distortion. Lay the truth at the feet of the President, Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats!

Ever since the Democrats passed ObamaCare "so we could find out what's in it," Americans have overwhelmingly said they didn't like the new law.  Now, the Obama Administration is spending $20 million of taxpayer money on a new public relations campaign to try to sell us, yet again, on this unprecedented intrusion into our lives by legislation that 72% of Americans believe violates the Constitution.The new public relations campaign "will inform the American people about the many preventative benefits" of ObamaCare according to the White House spin machine.   Porter-Novelli, one of the planet's glitziest consumer marketing firms, has been awarded the...

TEXARKANA, Texas — The biggest construction project ever attempted in Texas comes under public debate beginning Tuesday in the first of a series of town hall meetings about a proposed 4,000-mile network of superhighway toll roads. The Trans-Texas Corridor, or TTC, as it's become known, was initiated six years ago by Gov. Rick Perry. It's rankled opponents who characterize it as the largest government grab of private property in the state's history and an unneeded and improper expansion of toll roads. Texas Department of Transportation officials, and Perry, have defended the project as necessary to address future traffic concerns in...

It’s looking like a tough year for toll roads in Texas, and no one could be happier about that than Terri Hall, the San Antonio woman whose group is leading the grassroots fight against the controversial pay-to-drive roads that Gov. Rick Perry and others want to see crisscrossing the state. In September, Hall and her group, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), filed suit in the state district court in Austin against the Texas Department of Transportation, alleging that TxDOT has broken the law by using public funds to lobby legislators for laws favoring toll roads. TURF and Hall...

AUSTIN -- House Speaker Tom Craddick has asked lawmakers to review the Texas Department of Transportation's multimillion-dollar ad campaign promoting toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor. Craddick, R-Midland, included a review of the Keep Texas Moving campaign on a list of topics that the House State Affairs Committee will study leading up to the 2009 legislative session. Craddick also asked the Appropriations Committee to review transportation spending over the past five years and study alternatives for funding future transportation needs. The transportation matters were among the "interim charges" that Craddick assigned last week. Other matters to be reviewed in advance...

AUSTIN — Two state lawmakers are requesting formal inquiries into whether the Texas Department of Transportation is improperly spending money on advertising. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, question whether an estimated $7 million to $9 million TxDOT is spending on its "Keep Texas Moving" campaign is a proper use of resources. The lawmakers have asked Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick look into the matter. Paxton said he is concerned that the transportation department is spending the money to argue its case before the public in response to lawmakers' questions about projects such...

Some readers have asked me to re-visit a few of my concerns regarding the Trans-Texas Corridor or TTC, because I have mentioned the project in my last two columns. Recently, I introduced what I like to call Nosygate. I think that is an appropriate name for the advertising campaign and subsequent information gathering effort, by a private company, on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation or TxDOT. A brief re-cap is probably in order. Unsuspecting motorists had their license tag numbers photographed while traveling and minding their own business. Their tag numbers were then traced to their home address.Their...

TexDOT: No Money to Build New Hghways Agency blames diversion of state gas tax money, curbs on privately funded toll roads By Jim Forsyth Friday, September 28, 2007 At a time the Texas Department of Transportation is defending spending thousands of dollars on a public relations campaign designed to convince you to support toll roads, the department says it has no money to pay for highway construction, 1200 WOAI's Robert Wood reports. "The bottom line is, we're running out of money very quickly," TexDOT's Chris Lippincott says. Lippincott blames decisions by state lawmakers to spend more than $1.5 billion in...

Monitoring the court fight between activist Terri Hall and the Texas Department of Transportation is a lot like staring at a buffet line full of warmed over hospital cafeteria food. On the one hand, you're hungry and interested in eating. But on the other, you really can't get excited about the choices before you. It's tempting but unpalatable to root for Hall, who has adopted the noble cause of trying to stop TxDOT from spending millions of dollars on a PR blitz to build support for toll roads. Despite Hall's impressive gifts of organizing, public speaking and rabble-rousing, she is...

AUSTIN — A judge has refused a toll road opponent's request to block the Texas Department of Transportation from spending money on a campaign that promotes toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor. Terri Hall of the San Antonio Toll Party and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom argued the "Keep Texas Moving" campaign violates a prohibition on state officials using their authority for political purposes. On Monday, State District Judge Orlinda Naranjo denied Hall's request for a temporary restraining order. The judge noted another law cited by state lawyers that allows the department to promote the development and use of...