Free Republic

Two grandparents were kicked out of the University Park Mall Tuesday after they took a picture of their visiting grandson in the Food Court. "We were going to take our grandson, he's five and visiting from California, to see Santa and we were just sitting around the table having something to drink, talking about what we were planning and that's when my husband took the picture," said Grandmother Debbie Cassella. Cassella said immediately a mall employee instructed them to stop taking pictures or they would be thrown out of the mall. "I believe she said you can't take pictures at...

In Wake of Indiana Petition Forgery Probe, New Rules Offered to Prevent FraudBy Eric Shawn Published December 14, 2011 | FoxNews.com Allegations that forged signatures may have put Barack Obama's name on the 2008 Democratic primary ballot in Indiana have prompted new proposals to prevent possible election fraud in the current race for the White House. St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak, in South Bend, is investigating allegations that numerous names and signatures that put Obama and Hillary Clinton on the state’s presidential primary ballot in 2008 were fakes. Those allegations have led to accusations that Obama may not have...

In mid June, the union appointees within Barack Obama’s National Labor Relations Board issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making on the procedures governing NLRB-conducted elections. Despite the fact that unions already win more than 60% of all secret-ballot elections and the median time frame between a union petition for and election and the election itself is 38 days, the proposed rule change would like shorten that time drastically, creating an “ambush” union campaign on targeted employers and employees. When the NLRB’s union appointees issued the notice, it was met with a tremendous outcry from America’s employers, as well as...

Reid defends Senate rules changeBy Daniel Strauss - 10/11/11 08:27 AM ET Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) defended his unilateral change to the Senate's rules in an op-ed published Tuesday. In the Washington Post op-ed, Reid says his decision last Thursday to change the Senate rules —informally referred to as the "nuclear option"— to stop Republicans from requiring votes on amendments once the Senate has voted to move the legislation to final passage has restored order to the chamber. "The Senate rule change we made last week has been inaccurately described, including by Marc A. Thiessen on this page,...

House passes bill forcing analysis, delay of pending EPA rulesBy Ben Geman and Pete Kasperowicz - 09/23/11 01:38 PM ET The House on Friday approved legislation that would set up an interagency committee charged with assessing the impact of Environmental Protection Agency rules on U.S. economic competitiveness, and also delay two EPA rules until several years that analysis is complete. Democrats railed against the bill throughout debate on Thursday and Friday, saying it represents the latest attempt by Republicans to advance an anti-environment agenda. But Republicans said the bill would not block any rule indefinitely, and that some economic assessment...

Due to new IRS rules, PayPal has started asking users to provide their tax ID number, which is either your Social Security number, Individual Tax Identification Number or your Employer Identification Number. PayPal says it will use your tax ID number to send tax Form 1099-K to you and the IRS when the payments you receive exceed both of these milestones in a calendar year: $20,000 in gross payment volume for goods and services 200 payments So for most occasional PayPal users, this change won’t be applicable, but you’ll still need to enter your tax ID just in case. Although,...

So far the U.S. government has bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the tune of at least $130 billion, and perhaps as much as $1 trillion. And yet, the Obama administration continues to stonewall the release of documents that could shed light on why Fannie and Freddie failed, thereby sending the economy into a tailspin from which we have yet to recover. (Those records are housed at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) now that Fannie and Freddie are owned and operated by the federal government.)

A suspected looter in this week’s riots and his mother are being thrown out of their council home. In the first case of its kind, Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, and his mother have been served with an eviction notice as council bosses seek to turf them out of their £225,000 taxpayer-subsidised flat. Sartain-Clarke is charged with violent disorder and attempting to steal electronic goods from the Currys store at Clapham Junction, South London, on Monday night.

31 Days: Over the past month, the American people have been focused on jobs (9.2% unemployment), the economy (1.3% GDP), and debt ($14.3 trillion). Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has quietly moved forward regulations that are making it harder for the private sector to create new jobs. In July alone: Proposed Rules: 229 Final Rules: 379 Economically Significant Rules: 10 Regulatory Costs: Over $9.5 billion The President’s regulatory agencies kept rolling out more job crushing red tape: EPA: Transport Rule: $2.4 $billion Obamacare: Exchanges Rule: $424 million Dodd-Frank: Consumer Financial Protection Board Full Powers

Boy meets girl. They like each other. They go out three times. He picks up the tab. Perfectly innocent — and in some cases it could soon be perfectly illegal, if the girl works for Palm Beach County or one of its cities. It's an accidental side-effect of a simple idea: Put a hard limit on the gifts businesses can give government workers and kill Palm Beach County's reputation for corruption. The county's proposed new gift law would extend the rules to thousands of government workers — down to the people who pick up your trash and answer the telephones....

Keith Olbermann is not known for his candor. In a sense, it‘s what’s made him a popular figure on the left. And sure, he makes off-the-wall comments sometimes in order to evoke a response. But he may have gone too far today when he suggested that conservative commentator S.E. Cupp is a prime example of why the world needs Planned Parenthood (PP). Translation, she should have never been born. Immediately, the comment drew fire from those who said Olbermann, the former MSNBC host turned Current TV commentator, insinuated Cupp should have been aborted. And just as quickly, Olbermann started treading...

<p>WASHINGTON – In a city that loves to argue over what next to add to the government's already fat rulebook, there's a big push to rethink what's already there.</p> <p>All across town, agencies are holding hearings, scouring specs, setting up websites and assembling plans to carry out President Barack Obama's order for a "retrospective review" of decade upon decade of government regulations.</p>

Untouchable. That’s the treatment being given to the $23.6 billion being spent right now to implement Obamacare. This $23.6 billion is part of the $105.5 billion appropriated by the last Congress to fund Obamacare. The remainder (Think of it as post-dated checks for the other $81.9 billion.) automatically becomes available between now and FY2019. None of this is to be confused with an additional $115 billion authorized for additional appropriation to Obamacare—but which the current Congress is unlikely to provide. The most pressing question, however, is whether any of the current $23.6 billion will be rescinded as part of the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Environmental regulators proposed rules on Wednesday that would force aging coal-fired power plants to choose between installing costly anti-pollution technology or shutting, which could ensure reliance nuclear power and natural gas. The Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed rules, once fully implemented, will prevent 91 percent of mercury in coal from being released into the air. Power plants would have four years to meet the standards. The EPA will take public comment for 60 days on the rules, which would require many coal-fired power plants to install scrubbers and other technologies to reduce emissions of arsenic, chromium,...

GOP sees looming 2012 elections as key to blocking climate rulesBy Andrew Restuccia - 01/30/11 07:41 PM ET Republicans are banking on the looming 2012 election to provide a political boost for their efforts to undercut the Environmental Protection Agency's pending climate change rules this year. While a bill blocking EPA’s climate authority is likely to pass the House, the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Democrat-controlled Senate, as well as a potential veto from President Obama. Still, Republicans are planning to push forward with the legislation, hoping that the threat of the 2012 elections will yield support from...

FORT HUACHUCA — It’s not just a matter of raising the American flag in the morning and lowering it in the late afternoon, or using it to drape the casket of a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman or veteran. There are rules based on traditions incorporated into law when it comes to “Old Glory,” the Fort Huachuca Select Honor Guard noncommissioned officer leader said. Saturday afternoon, about an hour before the daily retreat ceremony, Sgt. 1st Class James Weathers talked to a number of scouts —girls and boys — about the ceremonies involving the American flag. “There is a...

Before glazing over of the eyes sets in, read what our new speaker is doing, something so sensible that one wonders where this procedure went anyway. Speaker John Boehner is vowing to put bill writing power back in the hands of committees and will institute new policies that post bills and their committee rules online for 3 days. Also, the text of any legislation to be marked-up must be circulated “no less than 24 hours before the markup.”Now “truth in testimony” information electronically posted will reveal any conflicts of interest of witnesses at the Congressional hearings along with posting member...

Martinez Halts Environmental RulesPOSTED: 1:51 pm MST January 5, 2011 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Gov. Susana Martinez's administration is making good on campaign promises to drop new regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions by canceling their planned publication in the state register. Officials at the state Environment Department made the request to keep the rules from being published. A state records official confirmed Wednesday that he has received the request and the rules will not be published. The move is being criticized by environmental groups and lawyers who spent the past two years debating the merits of the rules before...

Make no mistake about it: Procedure is power. The reason we are not stuck with bans on semi-autos, gun shows and ammunition is because the U.S. Senate is structured so that whatever party is in the minority still retains procedural power to protect the rights of the citizenry against the "tyranny of the majority." But on January 5, 2011, at the beginning of the new Congress, Senate Democrats are hatching a plan to decimate long-standing Senate rules in order to remove those protections. The linchpin of the plan would be a ruling by Senate President Joe Biden that the Senate...

President Obama’s legal advisers, confronting the prospect of new restrictions on the transfer of Guantánamo detainees, are debating whether to recommend that he issue a signing statement asserting that his executive powers would allow him to bypass the restrictions, according to several officials. If Mr. Obama were to issue such a statement, it could represent a more aggressive use of unilateral executive powers than what he exerted in his first two years in office. The issue has arisen as the Republican Party takes control of the House.