Free Republic

Republicans “still can’t bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working,” President Obama told a news conference on Thursday. He also took aim at states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs:“This does frustrate me—states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid for no other reason than political spite. You got 5 million people who could be having health insurance right now at no cost to these states—zero cost to these states—other than ideological reasons they have chosen not to provide health insurance for their citizens.”But some governors, pointing to President Obama’s own broken promises, simply don't...

MISHAWAKA, Ind. - Northern Indiana police say a 19-year-old man has been arrested on murder and attempted murder charges in a shooting that killed a young child. Lt. David Wells of St. Joseph County police says Robert L. Griffin was arrested without incident Friday at a Mishawaka apartment complex.

"No, I am not and I haven't a man that is!" Thus on 19 April 1775 did Capt. Isaac Davis respond to the query if he was afraid to lead his Acton minute company and the colonial column "into the middle of the town (Concord) for its defense or die in the attempt". Details of the moments just preceding the eventful Bridge fight are limited or shrouded in the silence of time and report. It is certain that upon sighting smoke rising from Concord, Col. Barrett ordered Maj. Buttrick to march the assembled force into the town. How and why...

Dear Crabby, A recent column of yours attempted to answer some questions posed by an individual identified as “Full of Questions.” One of the questions was “Who is in charge of putting the toilet seat down?” Your rather glib answer was “Whoever put the seat up.” I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and I think you overlooked a more fundamental question that must be considered, namely: Why is it necessary to put the seat down in the first place? After all, if one leaves the seat up, the next user can easily enough put the seat down if...

A 24-year-old Homosassa man was charged Thursday with suffocating his 1-year-old son because he wanted to have time to play video games, the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office said. Cody Wygant was charged with third-degree murder and willful child neglect, the sheriff’s office said. Wygant was being held in the Citrus County Jail. A judge on Friday set bail for Wygant at $100,000 with his next court date scheduled for May 23. Citrus County Fire Rescue responded to Wygant’s home after receiving an emergency call at 8:21 a.m. Thursday that the child, Daymeon Wygant, wasn’t breathing. Daymeon was transported to Seven...

Her parents may have been denied a chance to visit Justina Pelletier on Easter Sunday, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of supporters from sending the teenager “Get Well” cards. Justina is the sick teenager who state officials wrongfully took custody of away from her parents. The family will not be allowed to visit their daughter on Easter Sunday. The news comes after attorneys working with her family released a letter Justina reportedly wrote saying she is not being treated well. justinapelletier11Today, her sister Jennifer will join her parents for their scheduled weekly visit with Justina. Jennifer will attempt to hand...

Yesterday was a significant day in the IRS abuse scandal. The scandal evolved from being about pesky delays in IRS exemption applications to a government conniving with outside interests to put political opponents in prison. Emails obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act reveal Lois Lerner cooking up plans with Justice Department officials to talk about ways to criminally charge conservative groups that are insufficiently quiet. Larry Noble, a law professor now with the Soros-funded Campaign Legal Center, was cited in the emails as someone agitating to jail conservatives who “falsely” report on IRS forms that they...

Faced with growing public anger about a poisonous environment, China’s government released a yearslong study that shows nearly one-fifth of the country’s farmland is contaminated with toxic metals, a stunning indictment of unfettered industrialization under the Communist Party’s authoritarian rule. The report, previously deemed so sensitive it was classified as a state secret, names the heavy metals cadmium, nickel and arsenic as the top contaminants. It adds to widespread doubts about the safety of China’s farm produce and confirms suspicions about the dire state of its soil following more than two decades of explosive industrial growth, the overuse of farm...

Demand is going through the roof for gymnastics-strength shower rods -- all thanks to "Love & Hip Hop" star Mimi Faust's sex tape acrobatics -- and Home Depot, Lowe's, Target, and Walmart are struggling to keep up. We called employees at each of the major retailers (from Georgia to Cali) and we're getting the same story -- ever since the trailer for Mimi's sex tape came out, people have been racing to purchase their own super-strong shower rods to recreate the Mimi experience. And supplies are running out -- a customer at one Home Depot in Georgia tells us, they...

Republicans are famously divided on immigration reform, but Democrats pretty much unanimously support it. There's a reason for that. In stark, partisan political terms, continuing the high level of immigration of recent decades, and certainly increasing immigration as envisioned by many reformers, will result in more Democrats winning more elections in coming years. "The enormous flow of legal immigrants into the country — 29.5 million from 1980 to 2012 — has remade and continues to remake the nation's electorate in favor of the Democratic Party," concludes a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies, which opposes comprehensive reform proposals...

NEW YORK, A homeless man in New York City was evicted from a spot he had made for himself inside the Manhattan Bridge by NYPD cops on Thursday. When he was given the boot, “Joe” was forced to leave behind Chinese cookies, a gas heater, hot sauce and beer. The raid on Joe’s lair was conducted when a city worker used bolt cutters to remove a red bicycle lock from the wooden shelter while 12 officers looked on. When cops yelled “Police department, Police department,” they got no response, so Emergency Service Unit officers began using a saw on the...

MAURICE RIVER TWP. — A Cumberland County woman argues that the state Motor Vehicle Commission’s alleged denial of issuing an “8theist” license plate violated her First Amendment rights, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday.

A prestigious research institute in France said it had lost thousands of tubes of samples of the deadly Sars coronavirus. A routine inventory check at Paris' Pasteur Institute revealed that 2,349 tubes containing fragments of the virus responsible for the deaths of 774 people in 2002 were missing, the centre named after French chemist Louis Pasteur said. The institute was quick to reassure the public and said that the contents of the missing vials had no infectious potential. They contained only part of the virus and had no ability to spread. "Independent experts referred by health authorities have qualified such...

"The police did not follow the obvious leads that would have quickly identified the suspect as well as witnesses, one of whom videotaped part of the sexual encounter. After the accuser identified Mr. Winston as her assailant, the police did not even attempt to interview him for nearly two weeks and never obtained his DNA. The detective handling the case waited two months to write his first report and then prematurely suspended his inquiry without informing the accuser. By the time the prosecutor got the case, important evidence had disappeared, including the video of the sexual act."

DENVER (AP) - A Wyoming college student who jumped to his death at a Denver hotel had eaten more of a marijuana cookie than was recommended by a seller, police records show - a finding that comes amid increased concern about the strength of popular pot edibles after Colorado became the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. Levy Thamba Pongi, 19, consumed more than one cookie purchased by a friend - even though a store clerk told the friend to cut each cookie into six pieces and to eat just one piece at a time, said the reports obtained Thursday....

NEW YORK, April 17, 2014, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York City councilman has effectively told traditional marriage supporters they are “not welcome” in the Big Apple. In response to Chick-fil-A’s proposed plans to expand their business and set up restaurants in several locations, including New York City, Councilman Daniel Dromm told the Huffington Post that the fast-food chain would not be welcome in the most populous city in the country. Councilman Daniel Dromm “We don’t need bigots coming to New York City,” Dromm told HuffPost. “They are not welcome here unless they can embrace all of New York’s diverse community,...

ESSEX, UK, April 16, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A UK hospital has apologized to a woman four years after doctors and staff let her 22-week premature son die in her arms within an hour of being born, despite the mother’s urgent pleas for help. Tracy Godwin, who in 2010 held her newborn son Tom for 46 minutes before he ceased breathing, said she was never told about the hospital’s policy stating that babies born before 23 weeks would be left to die. But the hospital has not indicated that it has changed its policy, only that it now has new guidelines...

Famous Hollywood director Bryan Singer has been accused in a new federal lawsuit of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy. The suit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Hawaii, accused the 48-year-old “X-Men” filmmaker of first preying on the 15-year-old aspiring actor at a party at a California mansion where underage boys were plied with drugs and alcohol and taken advantage of. “The stories that I’ve heard of what went on at the estate are truly despicable,” the accuser’s lawyer, Miami attorney Jeff Herman, told the Daily News Wednesday night. Herman identified the accuser as Michael Egan III. Egan, who is...

Gay marriage has its second hearing at the federal appellate level Thursday as lawyers for two Oklahoma women and the county clerk who would not give them a marriage license square off in a Denver courtroom. The appeal of a lower court’s January ruling that struck down Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban is the second time the issue has reached appellate courts since the U.S. Supreme Court shook up the legal landscape last year by finding the federal Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. The same three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard a similar Utah case...

Here’s a guy you want to bet on– Li Ka-Shing. Li is reportedly the richest person in Asia with a net worth well in excess of $30 billion, much of which he made being a shrewd property investor. Li Ka-Shing was investing in mainland China back in the early 90s, way back before it became the trendy thing to do. Now, Li wants out of China. All of it. Since August of last year, he’s dumped billions of dollars worth of his Chinese holdings. The latest is the $928 million sale of the Pacific Place shopping center in Beijing– this...